and the adventure is over

alas, the weekend came to an end -- we came home to laundry, cat chores and homework.  I always have homework .. and then prepped for Monday's

I got the biggest kick out of watching this dude fish -- I should have walked down and visited .. it was the perfect evening for a little casting and dreaming

    In my previous gardening life, September 30th was traditionally the end of garden -- by now the squash and pumpkins were picked and life moved on ... I've kind miss that life .. then I remember the hard work .. not that hard work is bad, but as I age time is fleeting.

    The crazyness of the office isn't helping any -- another weird Monday .. we have about 16 tax returns to finish by the 15th and I've only got info for 2 of them -- no guarantees if I don't have it by Friday ... I can't solve procrastination - I have enough of my own.  

    I need to get back on track with my better living plan -- giving something up every month .. I think the October item should be wastebook.  It really is a waste of time.  

 

the adventures continue

 

I snapped this Saturday night - I walked out to add stuff to the truck and retrieve the keys .. another beautiful sunset last night -- 60 pix on my "real" camera ... 

Mom had forgot to bring the charger paddle for her pain pump gizmo so we dashed home early/mid morning and retrieved it .. I grabbed a handful of zinnias -- every table needs zinnias ..

Sunday sunrise is happening as I type this morning -- not sure what we're going to have today -- yesterday was actually warm -- I worked part of the day -- the calendar is favorable to zap out a bunch of quarterly payroll reports early .. so I did -- the internet behaved too.

Had time to finish a book too ... today's projects .. water the grass, rake some leaves - maybe burn the brush pile (although, I don't like burning without help), the neighbors are having a family get together and it's a bit busy next door -- and I have more homework :)

adventures

I loaded up Mom, food, clothes, toys and work and we headed out to the cabin -- tonight for sure, and if tonight goes well, we'll head home to feed the cats and get more projects tomorrow afternoon and spend another night ... 

It is absolutely gorgeous out here this evening .. quiet, restful, the competing aroma of pig shit and campfires .. ( can't have everything eh!) ... life is good.

 

edit :  we're two hours in and she can't find her jammies .. argh.  found.  the cpap machine is up and running, the hearing aids are charging ... I might need something stronger than coffee before the end of the night.

 

09/26/24

 a day that lives in memories forever at the Dranttel house --- the day the MUSTANG died .. the 1969 Mustang .. just imagine how cool that thing would be now :)  I've blogged about it before ... 

she was pretty -- for a while .. a little while

It is also my Grandparents Wedding Anniversary .. 1931 --93 years ago .. shit.  I.feel.old.  

Mom had a doctors appointment this afternoon -- so dashed to Mankato .. and then post appointment we went to Sam's Club -- they've got motorized carts -- so she drove I loaded the goofy thing.  The good news, she didn't back into anything.  

raspberries, strawberries, cauliflower, broccoli, muskmelon, salad mixes, frozen chix, frozen pot pies, frozen cheesecakes, huge bags of kettlecorn, rice krispie bars, almonds, craisons, pita chips, artichoke dip, fresh green beans .. $200 later the jeep was loaded .. 

raspberries were tasty .. I've been dying drooling/patiently waiting for a good berry lately, now I need to find some tasty squash .. I have an idea ... 

I put the truck in the shop and hopped on the SxS for a ride .. prairie and mail pickup .. another beautiful night .. we have been blessed with wonderful weather

hump day

pics from the rings .. above last night at the office .. a little cloud love -- and last nights projects .. more closet/shelf purging another night another bag -- the clothes obsession is real .. kitchen floor, laundry and of course dishes ... 

the best part of Tuesday -- the scissor wizard cut my hair .. event the hat fits better!

and the sunday night shot at the cabin .. need my sunset fix -- even from afar 

 

crap it is Sunday night

I should not complain - I had a great weekend .. back to the beach today .. family, pontoon ride, kwik trip pizza and a beautiful day -- restful weekend in it's own way 

off to a Monday -- it's going to be a great week ! 

 

09/21/24 weekends in paradise

these zinnias are the toughest thing on the planet.  I planted them, ignored them and they've been blooming steadily since mid July (didn't plant until late June) .. I had pre ordered the "giant" zinnia's from Valley Veggies -- Thelma and Louise fetched them for me and they sat around in blue solo cups for a six weeks before I got them planted.  

I planted them in the ground up tree stumps from last fall 

tough buggers !   about every 10 days I deadhead and cut a bouquet for the dining room table

lots of monarchs visiting them today 

sail boat at the happy place this afternoon

a rare sight 

cool

 

Memories

I've been flooded with memories lately .. wastebook is good to remind us of the good, bad and heartfelt moments ...

above was our first night at the cabin -- a couple hours after closing

we were so lucky to get it -- every moment out there is special 

even the leave raking, grass planting, painting, mowing, weed pulling 

this one showed up on wastebook too ...

hands free driving with the new to the Kienlen's tractor

it was a good day on the farm 

I remember taking these shots and getting to ride along for a couple of rounds -- all good things and life skills 

our new to us dock .. 

and sunset on that first night 

those spectacular sunsets never cease to amaze me

it's been a crazy busy week again .. a zillion walk in clients with oodles of questions that simply cannot be answered immediately .. my favorite this week has been -- what is that direct deposit in my bank from the Minnesota Revenue -- -- your property tax refund .... argh.  so glad we send out copies and reminders of everything.  double argh.

I had breakfast in New Ulm at Turner Hall with a German Trade delegation from Aaschen .. interesting morning.  really interesting ...

 

clouds ... sun ... warmth

how about those clouds ....

we got out there pretty early for us ... one of us isn't a fast mover in the morning - her Tuesday doctor appointment at 7:45 is going to be rough .. 

anyway -- early ... after lunch I sat in the swing, read my book, pulled weeds from the beach and watched clouds .. 

it doesn't get any better than that does it?

my schedule for the week is planned out ...

laundry is caught up

some cleaning is done (insert grin)

time for bed 

 

fall

fall is in the air -- the are heaps of messages about the lessons of fall .. letting go, shedding of the tired .. I on the other hand, dread fall.  Since the Covid Shit Show (css) .. I haven't had summer -- or enough summer .. all of a sudden it is the middle of September and I'm still playing winter, spring and summer catch up at work .. at home and well, at life.

it is so peaceful at the happy place today -- it is so quiet I could here the herd of bumble bees in the hosta blooms .. I got up and looked -- for real, there were 4 of them .. buzzing away collecting the goodness  ..  I got up early this morning and instead of surfing the internet -- I was an adult and started laundry and sat down at my desk and finished up a couple of income tax returns -- we wait for K1's for some returns and they are dripping in this week ..  I have two other projects for the weekend and they will be this evening and tomorrow .. 

Need to sandwich in some cleaning too -- home and the office .. I should probably schedule a hair cut too .. the lists are endless ... I did bring work out here .. but surfing and staring at the water is more fun 

the internet is a little wonky -- if the tv is running nothing else seems to be working .. I don't get it and at this point don't care .. 

busy week -- and another warm week ahead so I need to get my shit together  ....

someday  ----  someday .....

 

self care

 

the Hazard County Assessor wanted to view the interior of the cabin -- so it was today ...  I grabbed food from the Coop and had my lunch at the lake ... watered the new grass seed and met the assessor.  The assessor gig was less than 10 minutes .. lunch wasn't much longer.  

small moments of attitude adjustment are good for the soul

I returned to the rat race of Third Street ... dashed home for shorts and a t shirt at 4:30 and came back to work ... I'm so swamped .. I needed to work 

too much work is better than not enough work 

or so I keep telling myself 

a client passed away this week -- this quote/verse/message was part of her obituary

Trust the God of every blessing

Who is good in every way,

To rest his hand upon you

And bring you joy today ....

09/11/24

23 years ago I bought this old house ... 3 years ago I blogged about it ... I always blog about stuff.

Last week, I met with a building contractor for exterior work on this old house .. the take aways from our walkabout --- 1) "this was an expensive house to build" and "it's really well built" .. which translates in Marie speak to 2) expensive to repair.  I am so lucky to have this building it has suited my needs really well over the last 23 years .. my desk is now situated so that I look north towards my first office -- where I spent the first 15 years of my working career ... 

The contractor was impressed that Chaska brick was used to build this house evidently that is rare ... okay ... I googled Chaska Brick it is kind of a big deal ... see #2 above "expensive to repair" .. they will also be fixing soffits/facia/molding and a complete exterior repaint.  Ka Ching!  

38 years of this stuff.  I'm feeling old today -- I volunteered at produced distribution and actually lived to tell about it ... by the end of 3 hours my feet/knees were burning.  my cheeks were pink and I needed a beverage/bathroom.   I left and went home for a shower and prepped for my next meeting.  

I'm not sure I'm a Bernie fan but it's a nice pix of the building 

I need to wander with a real camera and take some new pix .. maybe tomorrow -- my feet and knees won't be burning as much 

PSA to self

             So, on the homebound tonight (7:30).   This character was in the lane next to me.  I need to learn to express myself as well as this cyclist.   Ripped leopard leggings, moto jacket, cranberry dreadlocks, hat.  Harley.  Chuck Taylor knockoffs   

              GO GIRL !!!!

      Tomorrow, I clean off  Ruby’s dash and get her washed.  I’ll be the commissioner in the orange Hawaiian dress, denim jacket and sneakers.   Plain adidas - chucks hurt my feet. 

 

Weekend Warrior Part 1

I become a weekend project warrior ... just my new normal weekend activities on steroids ...

1.  laundry 

2.  work at the office

3.  lawn mowing 

4.  lake time

 ( and all the normal stuff out there)

home for more laundry 

it was beautiful at the lake -- the crazy jet ski, wake boat, water skiing tribes were gone ... quiet, peaceful, and a nice cool afternoon ...

the lake is finally dropping and the beach is reappearing

the plan was to eat the frozen pizza for supper

evidently we'd already eaten it ... 

options were kind of sketchy -- so it was frozen waffles 

floatilla of pontoons .. it was just a nice spot of r & r

I have a goofy rest of September -- a lot of running around like a madwoman and getting nothing done ... so I'm going to take advance of r & r whenever I can .... 

 

TGIF (?) maybe

Mom had a test for Parkinson's today and .. it's weird -- take a pill, wait an hour, get an IV injection of dye and 3 hours later have a brain scan ... so we had some time to burn in Mankato ....

so....after the injection

1.  went to the bagel shop and got bagel sandwiches and tea

2.  headed out to the park and drove the bison drive ... 

          the bison were near the road and the park was almost empty

3.  went to Sibley park and looked at the flowers and ate the bagels 

          nice day for lunch in the park

4.  went to the Hubbard House and toured the flower beds 

5.  went to tractor supply for cat food and new live traps 

6.  went to TDS so I could sign checks

7.  back to the clinic for the brain scan

8.  back to the office by 2:30 ish ...

I did manage to get some quality reading time in while sitting in the waiting rooms for almost 2 hours ... we've had a ton of appointments this year -- this was rather mild compared to some of them ...

TGIF ...

 

and the days after adventurers

I'm not leaving again -- chaos upon the return .. utter chaos

random pix from adventure 

 I took less than 10 pictures

traffic jam in Kimball  -- the meat market was smoking things downtown smelled pretty darn good 

firepit .. we never used it ... too windy, raining or buggy .. screen porch was handy

downtown International Falls --- Rachael needed coffee and there was an interesting coffee shop ...took forever -- they must have dashed to South American to get the coffee beans first ..

riding out the storm near the bridge with my new friends ... it was wicked for a while 

and the cc hanging out with one of it's furry friends.  seriously the damn critters have no fear of the cc when it is parked or running .. I can't begin to imagine how many hours I've spent on this thing this year ... I mowed everything Wednesday night before we left .. 

 

Adventure Day 3 - the reason

    Dad was very explicit/reflective/intuitive in his last weeks.  We (I) didn't realize how close the end was but those last weeks were filled with a lot of life lessons, wisdom and wishes.

    Today - we fulfilled one of the wishes -- we left a part of his ashes at one of his favorite places.  The resort they spent most of their time --- some next to a rock and Lee/Nick & Rachael are leaving some near a favorite fishing spot.

     As much as I looked forward to this family trip -- the ultimate reason was to leave a piece of our hearts here.  Grief is such a funny emotion -- today, a little over 18 months and damn, the loss feels more real than many other days.  Generally, those moments hit when I'm in hour 5 of mowing the damn lawn.  

    Mom did pretty well with our moment today -- or at least I think so -- the whole journey has been loaded with memories and since she rode with me all the way ... it's been a constant stream.  I'm sure tomorrow on the voyage home she is going to crash.  Her health is fragile and this has been a lot .. a lot of memories, a lot of physical -- (not her bed, not her chair, not her bathroom) change.  Leaving tomorrow will be rough -- I think she know in her heart this is her last trip up here too ....

   

    

       We're kind of rookies with this closure thing -- but I'm learning/adapting every day with emotions -- not only mine, but everyone elses -- our world kind of flipped and the growing into the new one is taking time.  I just didn't realize how much time .. and how much change --   Yes, the big changes were expected -- but the little changes. They are the ones that zap when least expected.  I think those zaps are okay -- 

    I just don't do change well -- I'm learning, I think, I hope, I know ... I will always work on it ...

Adventure Day 2

Friday afternoon, this guy wandered down to the dock and casted out for an hour, it was calm, sunny -- fun to watch (while sitting, napping in a lawn chair).

I didn't sleep well, moved to futon in the dining room -- mom's snoring is a bit distracting at times ... but I got up to go to the bathroom (1 bathroom - 6 people) and saw daylight was cracking -- grabbed iPad and blanket and watched the early sunrise

Not sure where these guys were -- but the came in at 5:45 --