Our Little Girl is Gone
My vacation days are done for the year with the exception of a few days in the fall that I have set aside to work in our gardens and rake leaves and such. It's not too often that I return to work feeling reasonably rested and ready to go back but that's how I felt Sunday afternoon.
It's been a busy few days for Tammy and me. We made our annual trip to the Minnesota State Fair and had so much fun.
It was one of those days that I look back on and wish we could do it all over again. We got a mid-morning start and drove to the transit station in Burnsville where we caught a bus to the fair. It's the best way to go especially considering we had zero waiting between the time we got to the bus station and when we loaded up and took off.
We both agreed that the best deal at the fair was at a small vendor where they were selling $1 snowcones. With the temp approaching 90ยบ, they were such a deal! If I'm not mistaken we each had 3 of them.
My only regret the entire day was in not going back to purchase this dragonfly that I'd considered buying earlier in the day. We were pretty tired by the time we left and rather than go a little out of our way through the Coliseum where I'd seen it, we shuffled our way back to the bus empty-handed. Tammy is talking about going back to the fair with a friend on Wednesday so maybe all hope is not lost. I've got the perfect spot for it in our garage!
Foci (where we blow glass) was invited to set up a studio on the fairgrounds this year. It's a great opportunity for them, and with a great location right next to Sweet Martha's Cookies which pretty much every fair-goer is familiar with. It's a prime spot with so many people milling about the area. But even having a prime location didn't stop vandals from causing some real problems for them. In the late-night hours after the first day of the fair when nobody was around, someone took a fire extinguisher and threw it into the crucible where molten glass is kept, contaminating the glass. It wasn't noticed until several hours later. All of the glass had to be scooped out of the crucible and more had to be batched (cooked) which is at least a 24-hour process. Demonstrations had to be canceled for all of Friday which was too bad. Still, they're getting lots of people through and making some sales which is great!
I brought my Garmin along to see how many miles we walked throughout the day. Ten! And that doesn't include the ski-lift ride across the fairgrounds. But I'm pretty certain we didn't burn as many calories as we consumed! We were gone 12 hours from the time we left in the morning until returning home. A very full day!
Rachel turned 21 on Friday and I celebrated my 55th on Saturday. We drove down to see her on Saturday afternoon to catch up on how her birthday celebration went and to take her to dinner. She survived the night with the only causality being a lost cellphone which she was happy to learn was being safely held by the people who manage Kathy's Pub where they were partying. I didn't need to say anything—she knew she'd dodged a bullet.
Tammy had some nice gifts for us both. Me? I got 3 new cycling videos to go along with my CompuTrainer plus a map of the Twin Cities and Bloomington where I grew up dating back to around the time we moved there.
We were there nearly two hours getting lost in conversation that at times proved to be maybe a little more revealing than any of us had anticipated it becoming. I'll leave it at that.
We dropped her off at the house, said our goodbyes then drove away as she waved to us standing on the top rail of her front porch. I commented to Tammy: "Our little girl is gone". She agreed. We were both quiet for a few moments afterward lost in thought. I broke the silence by saying "but she'll always be our little girl."
Thirty minutes down the road we got a text from her: "Thanks for coming! I love you guys, your opinions are really important to me cuz i know you two see my potential. I appreciate our relationship so much!
Tammy responded: "We were just talking about how proud of you we are. We trust you and love you! Of course, we will always worry a bit as that is the nature of parents. We love your views and adventures. You are always in our prayers!"
Amen!
It's been a busy few days for Tammy and me. We made our annual trip to the Minnesota State Fair and had so much fun.
It was one of those days that I look back on and wish we could do it all over again. We got a mid-morning start and drove to the transit station in Burnsville where we caught a bus to the fair. It's the best way to go especially considering we had zero waiting between the time we got to the bus station and when we loaded up and took off.We both agreed that the best deal at the fair was at a small vendor where they were selling $1 snowcones. With the temp approaching 90ยบ, they were such a deal! If I'm not mistaken we each had 3 of them.
My only regret the entire day was in not going back to purchase this dragonfly that I'd considered buying earlier in the day. We were pretty tired by the time we left and rather than go a little out of our way through the Coliseum where I'd seen it, we shuffled our way back to the bus empty-handed. Tammy is talking about going back to the fair with a friend on Wednesday so maybe all hope is not lost. I've got the perfect spot for it in our garage!
Foci (where we blow glass) was invited to set up a studio on the fairgrounds this year. It's a great opportunity for them, and with a great location right next to Sweet Martha's Cookies which pretty much every fair-goer is familiar with. It's a prime spot with so many people milling about the area. But even having a prime location didn't stop vandals from causing some real problems for them. In the late-night hours after the first day of the fair when nobody was around, someone took a fire extinguisher and threw it into the crucible where molten glass is kept, contaminating the glass. It wasn't noticed until several hours later. All of the glass had to be scooped out of the crucible and more had to be batched (cooked) which is at least a 24-hour process. Demonstrations had to be canceled for all of Friday which was too bad. Still, they're getting lots of people through and making some sales which is great!I brought my Garmin along to see how many miles we walked throughout the day. Ten! And that doesn't include the ski-lift ride across the fairgrounds. But I'm pretty certain we didn't burn as many calories as we consumed! We were gone 12 hours from the time we left in the morning until returning home. A very full day!
Rachel turned 21 on Friday and I celebrated my 55th on Saturday. We drove down to see her on Saturday afternoon to catch up on how her birthday celebration went and to take her to dinner. She survived the night with the only causality being a lost cellphone which she was happy to learn was being safely held by the people who manage Kathy's Pub where they were partying. I didn't need to say anything—she knew she'd dodged a bullet.Tammy had some nice gifts for us both. Me? I got 3 new cycling videos to go along with my CompuTrainer plus a map of the Twin Cities and Bloomington where I grew up dating back to around the time we moved there.
We were there nearly two hours getting lost in conversation that at times proved to be maybe a little more revealing than any of us had anticipated it becoming. I'll leave it at that.
We dropped her off at the house, said our goodbyes then drove away as she waved to us standing on the top rail of her front porch. I commented to Tammy: "Our little girl is gone". She agreed. We were both quiet for a few moments afterward lost in thought. I broke the silence by saying "but she'll always be our little girl."
Thirty minutes down the road we got a text from her: "Thanks for coming! I love you guys, your opinions are really important to me cuz i know you two see my potential. I appreciate our relationship so much!
Tammy responded: "We were just talking about how proud of you we are. We trust you and love you! Of course, we will always worry a bit as that is the nature of parents. We love your views and adventures. You are always in our prayers!"
Amen!
Comments