End of Summer Ponderings

by | Sep 3, 2017 | Family, Uncategorized

I write this on Labor Day weekend:  a bittersweet time of year as parents, teachers and students bid a wistful farewell to summer vacation and gear up for another school year.

Dan and I have had a busy summer with home projects and a big birthday bash that I threw myself as I mark another decade of living.  After much labor and check writing our log home is newly scrubbed and stained, and our new deck was in place just in time to celebrate my entry to the old geezer club!

We had a nice turn-out of friends and family for my birthday bash; providing a needed and well-time reminder to me of how fortunate I am to have these people in my life.  A few of us lurched around the badmitton court as a sherrif’s car pulled up,looking for the owner of a car that had emitted some sort of electronic alarm .  Turns out, they were at the wrong house: but still–our our party was bad-ass enough for the cops to make an appearance!

The end of summer brings the US Open, which this year is missing many of its marquee men (including my petulant fav – Andy Murray) to injuries; leaving the field free for Roger and Rafa to renew their rivalry.  And, OMG – the American women are ROCKING the open!   Even with Serena out (having just given birth to her daughter);  there is a bumper crop of young American women keeping pace with big sis Venus into the second week.

My own tennis season has been frustrating — I have the third set tie-break blues, having lost too many close matches by the narrowest of margins. However, I am thankful to be healthy ‘enough’ to be out on the court swinging away… at my advanced age.

Today Dan and I are going on a sight-seeing airplane ride as my birthday gift:  the next logical follow-up to last year’s hot air balloon ride.  Today I am pondering whether my predilection for motion sickness is something that I have somehow ‘outgrown’ or if it has stuck with me into this new decade of life.  We shall soon find out.

For next year’s birthday, I’m going to ask for jewelry.

Christmas in August

Christmas in August

by | Aug 2, 2015 | Family, Uncategorized

Wisconsin is gorgeous in late summer and I love every hot sticky moment.  Others may gripe about the heat and humidity but I do all my weather-related complaining in the winter.  The landscape is overwhelmingly lush and green, and the cicada’s song permeates the evenings–a sound I have long associated with the good tired feeling that I remember experiencing as a youngster after spending the day riding my bike or swimming or playing ball in the streets.

This morning I got my bike out for the FIRST time this summer for a short ride to have coffee (and a hug) with a friend.  We sat outside and gabbed for two solid hours before somewhat reluctantly bidding each other adieu.

This afternoon,  Dan and I took the scenic route to visit Devil’s Lake near his home town of Baraboo. This involved a lunch stop, a spontaneous pier inspection,  a ferry ride, and a drive down nostalgia lane.  The lake was (as always) gorgeous, but extremely windy;  beach balls and other flotation devices scampered across the picnic area at regular intervals, usually with a youngster chasing after it.

We finally got to see Dan’s Christmas gift from me–which was a brick.   To explain: on 9/10/11 Dan and I were married at the shore of Devil’s Lake.  My brother officiated a brief ceremony with only immediate family in attendance.  We held hands, said nice things to each other, and made our union official.   For Christmas this year, I purchased a personalized brick to be  installed (with many other brick siblings) near the spot where we were married.   We had talked about doing that every time we saw the memorial bricks at the lake… so it seemed like a fitting gift.  We are now memorialized… in stone!

Love ya baby!

Pin It on Pinterest