Please excuse me for my absence last week, but Grace and I hopped town the week before to go and visit my mom in southern WI and my Aunts in northern IL. Covid kept us from seeing them last summer and it had been a long time since we had been down south. Unfortunately, the morning after we arrived at my mom’s, she had a heart episode and had to be taken to the hospital. She is recovering very well, but is 86, so the recovery is slow and she is still in the hospital. She looks to be moved to a nursing home type facility early this week to further rehab and then will be going home.
That incident really through our trip for a bit of a loop. My brother had been staying with my mom since around late April or early May and the hospital was not letting anyone under the age of 12 in to visit patients, so Grace and I were not able to go and visit her, so we ended up leaving for home a day early. I had promised Grace that I would take her to a nice restaurant and even let her pick out a new dress for the occasion, so we did that on Thursday and then got up bright and early Friday to beat the weekend traffic heading north.
The dinner was very nice. Grace and I have a really good time on our daddy-daughter dates and it was also fun to go shopping with her and watch her go through the racks of dresses and then find one. We even picked up a few pieces of jewelry for the occasion. Here is a shot of the beautiful girl and her pregnant dad! Of course I was not pregnant, it was all fluid. With my heart not pumping as well as a normal one does, I really have to avoid consuming too much sodium. When I am at home, that is not too hard, as we have all the foods for that and I have lots of choices. When not at home and especially when having to eat out a lot, it is nearly impossible to eat low sodium meals. So I was bloated! Poor Grace had been paddle boarding earlier in the day and a wave caught her and the board by surprise and caused her to lose her balance and fall. When she did, the handle end of the paddle hit her in the eye and produced quite the shiner! It is still in the process of going away, even though it happened 10 days ago.
Grace and I got home Friday evening and then rested Saturday. Sunday was spent with Nora and Grace packing for their own trip. This one was down to Eagle River WI to attend a week long skating camp. They bring in professional skaters, some even from Europe, to give lessons. It’s pretty intense, but all of the coaches are super nice and I know Grace learns a lot! This was her first year at the camp, but will be going there as long as she wants to. The girls kinda roughed it while there by staying with another skater, her sister and mom in their camper. I stayed back and tended to the house and dogs and cut lots of grass! We are still cutting our friends yards, which total about 3-4 acres. Our yards make up another 2-3 acres, so I literally was on the mower every day last week. The good new is that Nora’s brother is bringing up the mower that he used to use and has since gotten a new one. The old one is a zero turn mower. So that should nearly half the time it takes to mow the lawns.
In addition to Nora’s brother and sister in-law arriving this Thursday, her Aunt and Uncle that live in California and her Aunt that currently lives in the south central UP, but will be moving just down the block from us will be arriving in a few hours and will be spending at least several days with us. So we have been busy getting the house ship-shape for their arrival and even did enough to the bedroom and bathroom in the apartment above the shop so that her one Aunt and Uncle will be able to stay there. It sure will be nice to have that apartment completely done! Not sure when that will happen, but it will be nice for visiting friends and family.
In other news, the wildlife has been pretty abundant around here this summer. We do not know if it is the same bear that caused us some problems, but there has been a bear causing some issues at other residents in the neighborhood. One incident was a break-in onto a porch. There was also a sighting of a black bear trying to steal a riding mower!
While cutting our front lawn, I had to avoid a young porcupine who was strolling through. Nora also had to wait for this big old snapper to get out of the way so she could back her car out of the garage. There are lots of turtles in the neighborhood. In fact, it is a rare day that I do not see one crossing the road. I heard that one of them had laid a bunch of eggs, but some other creature found them and made a meal out of them.
The weather has been very nice for the most part. Perhaps a bit on the dry side, but not as bad as it had been in lots of other places in the Midwest up until the past few days. No hot temps, but nothing too cold either. The bugs are for the most part tolerable, so that is allowing us to spend time relaxing outdoors. It also created a bit of a situation, that being what do you do when you have 3 hammocks and only two places to hang them? You do two of them Gilligan’s Island style!
The final little diddy I have to share with you is that Nora and Grace got tour the Jacobsville Lighthouse. This is not to be confused with the light at the end of the pier at White City. that is the lower entry light. The Jacobsville Lighthouse is privately owned and sits atop a bluff just above the big lake. It is for sale for anyone that would like to own a lighthouse. I believe the asking price is $750.000. The tour even included a climb to the top of the light via the cast iron spiral staircase.
Have a great week and great Independence Day and I will write on the 5th!
Good Night from the Keweenaw..
–JD
