Say What?

We drove up to Babbitt early Tuesday morning to bring Tammy's mom back with us to live. Her dementia seems to come and go but for the most part, she's enjoying her stay. Rather than try and explain to her at the outset that she was coming to live with us, we're easing her into the idea. There's been some resistance but it soon passes and she's once again content to sit in front of her makeup mirror and primp herself. It calms her. She'll work on her makeup for the longest time, to the point where she overdoes it, but it's not something we would want to deny her, not if it brings her peace. We had a funny moment a couple days ago. We were all in the laundry room on the way out to the car when Tammy asked me to hold on to Elaine while she gathered some things. While we were standing there Elaine noticed the large mirror attached to the bench seat. She shuffled closer to have a look and asked me for some lipstick. I looked at Tammy and she rolled her eyes bef...

My plan has been to buy a kayak when I retire and use it on some nearby lakes to get an upper-body workout. I'd have done it already but there's not enough time in my schedule between my riding, walking, yard work and what remains of my career. I'm glad I waited. My want for a kayak has been replaced by something more appealing:  SUP (Stand Up Paddle). In the land of 10,000 lakes, I think this could be something I can enjoy for many years. I hear it's a very good core workout and that's what I need. I also like how easy it is to lift one of these boards as they're considerably lighter than a kayak. SUP is not new but I would guess it's new to most of those out there doing it. I found a link to this video on Wiki. Too fun! Now, where do I go to find waves like that around here? I've also got my eye on one other toy; a newer, lighter fat-bike. There's a small shop in Rosemount called Wheelie Awesome Bike Service that offers a carbon fiber bike ...

Lots has been happening this past week for our family. My mom is in the Temporary Care Unit of Three Links Care Center in Northfield where she'll hopefully be for several more days or better yet, weeks. I say hopefully because there's a strong possibility that she'll be going home sooner than she should. She's still not strong enough to get around without help but she's determined to go back home and resume her life as she left it last Saturday. I had been trying to get a hold of her Saturday morning but her phone was off the hook. I texted Tim (he lives with her) and he told me she wasn't feeling well; he suspected food poisoning. It concerned me because her health is frail to begin with and who knows how much her heart can take? I was able to get in touch with Tracee and she offered to go over and check on her. It's a good thing she did. She rushed her to the emergency room at Ridges Hospital in Burnsville. Her heart was beating much too hard at 145 bp...

Tammy is rocking the gardening thing this year! We always take one day each spring to go shopping for flowers. It's a big undertaking considering all of the flower gardens we have so it's best done as a team, plus we always love doing it together. Our schedules weren't lining up so well so Tammy offered to go out last Friday and get most of what we needed before the hordes of weekend shoppers scarfed them up. I came home from work Friday night and she was excited to take me out and show me what she'd picked out. I had the biggest smile on my face. She did really well! Not only that but when I came home from work Saturday afternoon she was well on her way to having them all in the ground . Wow! We went out Monday morning to find some hanging baskets for our deck and front step. The finishing touch to our outdoor work was an herb garden I made for her as a Mother's Day gift. Let the growing begin! We've had some cool weather here and I've been taking ...

My routine in the morning is to get up and let the dogs out first thing before feeding them. Toby and Allie are pretty quick to jump out of bed but not nearly as fast as Charlie. He's on the floor spinning circles in excitement waiting for them. They race down the stairs and out into the front yard where they quickly do their business before hurrying in to be fed. The other morning, Charlie was as excited as ever to eat. He ran inside and when Toby and Allie were too slow making their way back into the house he ran out onto the front porch while I waited there with the door open. He let out a big "woof" in their direction as if to say "c'mon...hurry it up!" before running back inside. It was so funny. He's such a character. We picked up Mom on Monday afternoon and took her out for a late lunch at Olive Garden. I should clarify; we only drove. She insisted on paying the bill with a combination of a gift card from Bryan and Sue and her own money. She d...

We were back in the studio on Monday afternoon for a few hours. I haven't been happy with the color application of my last couple of votives so I switched to the Swedish overlay method and got much better results. We've only been at Foci again for a few weeks but I'm feeling like I'm nearly back to where I was before we took those nine months off. I really enjoy making the candle votives I've been playing around with but I do need to do some other shapes, too. I have a request from a friend for a larger mouth vase so maybe I'll put some thought into that as well but I don't think I'll stop doing the votives anytime soon. I'm sitting at 246 days remaining in my career as an air traffic controller. Using this nifty calendar I can count back that same number of days and get a better feel for just how long 246 days is. This was us that many days ago. It's happening quickly now but I'm feeling ready. Speaking of retiring: Rick Melhorn has ...