midnight musings

It has been a busy week here at our humble abode what with the get together on Saturday when almost every attendant came down with the double barrel flu-if you know what I mean. Rachel, Josiah and Annika are here from Stuttgart until Saturday when they start the trek back to Germany via the Cities etc. Everyone keep you fingers crossed that they are all feeling at the tops of their game when the plane is boarded. Today we had Thanksgiving or should I say that Jan had Thanksgiving here. My Mom is still not feeling well and now Eli is upchucking as well so rather than 11 people we were short a couple of guests. Now we have the curse of lots of leftovers to eat through, but no pumpkin pie, we killed that off the other day. My recovery seems to be moving along finally. All of the sudden the trach site healed up and everyone keeps saying that the swelling is getting less in my jaw area although I would be hard pressed to see the difference from day to day. The bone harvest area on my calf seems to be getting some better but is progressing veeerrryy sslloowwllyy. I have had a couple of stitches come to the surface lately so I guess that is a good sign.

Yesterday I had an early get up to drive to Spicer Minnesota for a Patriot Guard mission. It was for a Viet-Nam vet and close friend of one our group. The day was quite nice with low winds and sunshine.. They had a large turn-out for the funeral at a church in Spicer and the internment was at a cemetery on a lake in New London, I think. Afterwards we had a get together at the Legion in Spicer for a little ceremony for one of the guys honoring his Purple Heart. Rumor has it that he may have a Silver Star in his future for actions in an ambush in Viet-Nam 40 years ago. It is fun to hear these guys who actually spent time with people that were actively trying to kill them in any manner possible laugh about some of the goofy things that happen in war. Although at the time they weren't so funny. People that lived through that share an extremely special bond, that I envy some times. Back in about 1968 I thought about enlisting in the Army but with my electronic training in the Air Force I would probably ended up in a technical job but maybe I would have been there instead of just flying over it. I have had a few troops tell me that the B-52s saved their bacon in Viet-Nam on occasion so that is gratifying.

Back to the title of this blog, while lying awake at midnight I have more thoughts about things, things that are important to me, like my wife and family among other things. I should keep a note pad handy or get out my recorder to record my thoughts. This being Thanksgiving a list of what I am thankful for would include my wife Jan, daughters Rachel and Genevieve, son Eli. My sons in law Hans and Steve and daughter in law Lindsey. Then comes grandchildren Josiah and Annika, Samuel and August, Leah and Aaron. I am thankful for the country that we live in, men and women that are willing to sacrifice all in defense of this country. I could go on and on but you know what I mean and who I mean. I will throw in a couple pictures also to give you the reader an idea of the festivities here. Sleep tight, I know I won't, tomorrow is Black Friday.

As`a post script here while looking at pictures to upload I remembered that Saturday night we had Aaron's baptism at Long Lake Church. It is a small church in the country near Ormsby and this all happened before the scourge hit us, so it went very well. Now I'm done for now.

Visitors from Germany

Jan has been after me to do another post, so I will do one today. I guess that a lot of things have been going on here lately so I need to bring the one reader up to date although she does live in the same house as me. About a week ago Eli gave me a ride up to Lake Crystal on his way to work in Mankato. It had rained all morning but broke around noon so I grabbed my gear and got the GS out of the shop in the afternoon. I had a nice ride home on a round about route through Hanska and Godahl. So I have all the bikes back under the same roof.

Sunday afternoon Rachel, Joe and Annie dropped in for a stay after spending a few days with Gen, Steve and the boys ( see tatertot hotdish). Later on Sunday evening Eli, Lindsey and kiddos came over to see Rachel and family. As you may imagine with three youngsters things got a little crazy for awhile, luckily Aaron isn't mobile yet or it could have been nuttier. Jan was holding races down the steps with the three eldest. They were sliding on their tummy's on the carpet. I was figuring on carpet burns but everyone survived, maybe laughter insulates you?

Yesterday I went on the first Patriot Guard mission that I have been on in a couple of months at least. It was for a local man that had served his country in the 50s. We met in Butterfield for the briefing and social time prior to the funeral. I am not sure what the temperature was but I was glad that I was all leathered up cause it got pretty nippy before the funeral got started, at least we got to hang out in the basement during the actual service and get a cup of coffee in. Then out to the cemetery for the internment, what with the wind etc. people did not hang around for long. The honor guard policed up the brass and headed back to their van asap and the family was gone 15 minutes later. It sure felt good to see the guys again after missing most of the Fall missions.

I have been going to PT a couple times a week lately and the PT guy says I am doing just great. I am always a little suspicious of his encouragement, being a natural pessimist at heart, although the site of the tracheotomy is finally shrinking to a small point and not drooling down my chest. Now if the swelling in my neck would just go down and the right calf would heal up I would feel better. I admit that I seem to walk without much of a limp anymore and I have more energy than before but now the problem is trying to sleep nights, man if it isn't one thing it's another. Anyhow I will throw some pictures in but I am not sure what order they will show up as.

On the Road Again

The top two are from a couple of reunions that I participated in over the weekend. Upper left is at Mom's house with the five of us. Next is at my cousin Kay's home in Fairmont with the majority of my first cousins on the deck. It was tough to get all of us in one shot unless you have a wide angle lens. To the left now is me after a short run on the GS (Fritz) on Sunday I think. With the weather as nice as it has been it was pretty difficult to sit and look out the window and listen to the bikes running up and down the streets. I had to borrow a line from Willie Nelson for the title today that about sums up how I feel. My recovery, even though the therapist says it is going great, is not moving fast enough for me let me tell you. It doesn't help, I guess that I am reading a book by Neil Peart about his ride around North America after his families death. The things he writes about out on the road are the things that keep most riders ready to turn right around and go again, the smell of fresh hay, onions or garlic around Gilmore, even a slight wiff of cow manure isn't so bad. Anyhow where was I? Oh ya, the reunion was a lot of fun again. It seems as if this bunch always enjoys the company and the potluck dinner would attract strangers off the street if we would let them in. It is fun catching up with what has been going on in other people's lives even though they are much more complicated than they were 50 years ago. We have been a pretty lucky bunch come to think of it, as we have only lost one of the original cousins, correct me if I am wrong. We, the immediate family got together on Sunday for lunch out in honor of Mom's 88th birthday. I'll admit it was over a month late but Kathy was here now to sit in. Yesterday (Tuesday ) I ran the GS up to the dealer in Lake Crystal to have a couple of recalls worked on and except for the high winds the riding was great. I just hope that when they get done it isn't snowing, which it could do real easy in this part of the world. I appreciate the replys to my last blog, the witty repartee is more fun than the blog itself. Take care and please stay in touch.