We have Relocated

In our nomadic lifestyle, a work project is 3 weeks long.  Between projects we tend to do a variety of sightseeing and that involves moving around.  We were in Elk River for almost 4 weeks due to the late spring up at the cabin.  That’s a pretty long time for us to be in one place.  We enjoyed being able to spend time with the granddaughters and to help out with the busy schedule at their place with Brett being out of town and Jen teaching and coaching.  And we also were able to see Dave and Valentina – not long enough but we hope to see them more this summer.

We need to get the new truck ready for towing by the motorhome.  The shop we are working with wasn’t able to get the new baseplate on our truck this week, so we drove to the cabin separately, Bob in the motorhome and Paige in the pickup.

This past week has also been busy:
-Sunday was Mothers Day with Paige’s mother in Duluth.
-Monday was lunch with our investment advisor
-Tuesday night was a picnic dinner with the grand-daughters where Jen’s team had a track meet (beastly hot weather!)
-Wednesday we went to lunch at the girls’ elementary school (we appreciate quiet, now)
-Thursday we took the girls to dinner and met David and Valentina (also coincidentally ran into Pam and Ron with Ron’s grandson, who were seated right by us in the restaurant!)
-Friday was lunch with Paige’s sister, Pam, to celebrate her upcoming birthday

Yep, it’s time to get out of town, where we can catch up on our naptime.  We are at the family cabin again, and the ice is finally off of the lake.  Next week many neighbors will be coming to open their summer cabins and get their docks and boats into the water.  We are experiencing lots of wind, with rain threatening, are still able to get lots of spring cleaning done.

Busy Retirees

Happy Mothers Day to all Moms reading this.

We spent much of this weekend with Paige’s Mom in Duluth; she is doing well.  She is busy with all her activities and is walking much better than the last time we saw her at Christmas. 

 

During the past week or so we have been quite busy.  Every weekday we have helped to see the grand-daughters off to school and to greet them upon their return in the afternoon.

                                                        What a day we've had!

In addition to these every-day activities we have also been involved with a funeral, a birthday party, our anniversary, a couple of medical appointments, buying a new (to us) vehicle, selling our Saturn, and meeting friends for lunch.  We get tired just listing all the things we’ve done. 

 

We went to the Screwtape Letters production at the renovated Pantages Theater in Minneapolis for our 43rd anniversary celebration on Friday night.  While just getting seated, we saw Bob's brother and sister-in-law, Denny and Diane, at the play.  It was so surprising and fun to see them!!  They were celebrating their May anniversary as well.  It was a very interesting performance of this C.S. Lewis book and a beautiful old theatre.

 

The bigger news is the lack of springtime, even yet.  The 2^nd weekend of May is Minnesota’s Opening Day for fishing.  Many of the lakes in the northern part of the state are still ice-covered.  As we drove to Duluth yesterday morning we noticed the lack of leaves (they are still budding, but not yet out).  We took Paige’s mother, Joyce, north to the family cabin to see how it survived the winter.  There is still some snow on the ground in sheltered areas and way too much in the air during our drive.  We thought of fellow Nomad, Janet in Florida, who has never seen snow in the process of falling.  We have seen way too much, and May is way too late in the year for this.

 

 

Both Island Lake and Whiteface Reservoir are still iced over, but it shouldn’t last for long (we hope).  As soon as we get the baseplate and braking package added to our truck we will be relocating from Brett's place in Elk River to the lake.  We'll trade this nice view out their family room window for the view of the Whiteface.

 

Still Waiting for Spring

We were warmly welcomed when we pulled into Brett’s place last week:

But that’s about all that’s been warm.  As we mentioned previously, we had expected spring to arrive in Minnesota shortly after we came.  Well, we are still waiting!!  The lakes in the metro-area of the Twin Cities just melted a couple of days ago along with a little more snow.  Heavier snow hit southeastern MN and western Wisconsin.  We found some shrubs with new growth about to open, but spring is not yet here.

We have been busy with seeing the grand-daughters off to school each day, and being around when they return each day.  We have also had a couple of opportunities to drive through “rush hour” commuter traffic: last Wednesday through morning traffic to attend a funeral, and Friday afternoon returning from near the airport.  Both trips were nearly enough to bring us to tears.  We are not used to such STOP-and-go traffic, and certainly don’t miss it.

Friday night we had visitors for “Movie Night” along with popcorn. 

 

This makes it easier to deal with weather and traffic