Letter to a Friend

I have been wanting to post something new for a few days and the other day Jan found a letter that I had written to her instead of a card for Mothers Day. To tell the truth I probably forgot or was too cheap to spring for a card for her. God knows she deserves more cards and flowers, and gifts than I get around to giving her. Anyhow, I thought that I would put the text of the note that I gave her instead of a card in a new blog. This is from Mother's Day in 1981. At the time we had a 1 year old boy, a 3 year old girl, and a 6 year old girl, so Jan was pretty busy I am thinking. It starts.
              Dear Jan
  When I put the girls to bed tonight and kissed them, I thought how sweet they are- most of the time- and how empty life would be without them. I guess that's what Mother's Day is all about, giving a return gift to someone who has given you so much, three beautiful, intelligent, healthy children, and a warm comforting home. As I have said before, I can't wait to get home to find out what the tribe has been up to, or to see the line up at the back door. This really makes my day. This year I got you a rose bush. I hope that it grows as well as the last one, but I was too cheap to spring for a card, so I wrote this, I hope it will do.
                                         Love Pete
I've written lots of love notes to Jan over the years and I don't plan on stopping any time soon. The early morning of the 23rd she woke me up and we talked about how things went 33 years previously when Eli, our youngest was born. Both of the girls were sick and had thrown up in bed and Jan was getting them cleaned up, when she told me that some thing else was happening as well. My Mom rushed over to watch the girls while we ran to the hospital. Eli arrived a few hours later. This was in the days before ultra sound, so it always came as a surprise when the child made their appearance to this world. I had the privilege of first holding both Eli and Gen when they were born and walking around the delivery room and talking to them, something that I will never forget. Rachel's birth was a little different so I didn't get to hold her until later. So now Jan and I just bustle around the house  and keep in touch by phone and on line too with the kids that are no longer kids, but the same age as we were when we had a family like them.
     Anyhow, on another subject. Jan, Aaron, Eli, and I were up to Comfrey Sunday morning to a benefit lunch fund raiser. They are raising funds to put up a monument for the four Air Force personnel that perished when their B-47 bomber crashed just north of Comfrey in February, 1963. I had come home on leave from tech school and my Dad had met the bus in Albert Lea, when he told me about the crash. I can remember that it was at least 20 below zero that day. The two that got out of the plane as it went down froze to death before they hit the ground and two more rode the plane into the ground. Until recently I had believed that the aircraft was out of Little Rock AFB, but research recently told me they were from Lincoln AFB, Nebraska. Stay in touch and leave a comment if you wish, and even if you don't wish.
p.s.  I was going to add some pictures, but now it won't let me down load pictures from our files, so I guess this will be without illustrations

He's Alive !!

  I know, I know it has been quite a while since I last updated anybody with a new blog. I should really try to bring a few readers up to date on what we have been up to here in the semi-frozen North land. Today the sun is shining and it is actually above freezing again. Let's see where do I begin- Back in December Jan and I traded off our Honda VFR 800 for a new Triumph 800 Tiger, I'll give you 3 guesses what his name is. It's kind of lame but all of our vehicles have names. Our red Fusion is Ruby, the BMW GS is Fritz-BMW is a German brand-etc, etc.. Anyhow, The Tiger is the first Triumph that we have had in the garage, over the years I have slowly moved from an all Honda remuda to a primarily European gang. Two of my three Honda's are in pieces so they hardly count anymore. The Europeans are from Italy, Germany and Great Britain. After picking that bike up in Lakeville Jan and I swung by Cabelas and got a new generator for the home and maybe the Toy hauler if I can't get that generator running smooth again. I think that I covered Christmas, which we celebrated early this year, in my Christmas letter. Over New Years we spent several days at a hotel in the Cities with Hans, Rachel, Josiah, Annika, and William. Steve, Gen, Sam, and Gus made it for a couple of nights, as did Phil, and Laura, and for New Years Eve, Eli, Lindsey, Leah, and Aaron got there too. We really had a good time New Years Eve with the whole gang in one room for several hours. In the last few years, having everybody in the same place at the same time has been way too rare for our tastes. I'll throw in some pictures at some place in this blog to maybe illustrate what I mean. I just had an idea, after this when I have a batch of pictures to send to the people most interested, I'll just do a blog instead, then they will have to read this, this, epistle. Through the month of January and into February things have quieted down somewhat, although, the corner shower in our bathroom is in the process of getting a major overhaul. I think that back a couple of years, if you go through my blog there was an ongoing thread on the process of redoing the old corner shower, hmm, what goes around comes around. The whole old one went into the trash and a brand new one is waiting in the wings. We will have to replace a portion of the floor that got wet over the years, along with the floor covering and all of the shower controls, luckily my brother Phil is a plumber, we have utilized his skills over the years a lot.  Jan also is pushing another project in the basement for our tread mill room. This room has been semi finished for a long time and I think that we will be doing some planking on the walls down there to finish it up for once. Today is the 12th of February and we are sliding up to the 14th which will be Jan and our 42nd anniversary. Holy cow, how did this happen? What can you say about the woman that quite literally saved my life and also made it worth living? Thanks just doesn't seem to cut it anymore. We just love to hang out together. Just sitting at the kitchen table reading the Sunday paper together is one of the most satisfying things in the world for me. Yet when I get the urge to hit the road she pushes me out the door, with a ,"have a good time". Anyhow, this blogs for you St. Jan. Happy 42nd and I would like several more if you don't mind. Love Pete.
p.s. You may notice that some of the pictures are not the best. We were having camera trouble for a while.