Well I am back to finish off this years report on our activities. It is after Christmas and almost New Years as I peck away at this while it is snowing outdoors and near zero to boot. Tomorrow Jan and I will be traveling to Wadena to the funeral of our brother-in-law Steve Johnson, assuming the roads are not too bad. Jan plans on staying with her sister Paula for a few days while I return home for a check up in Rochester next week. Winter in this part of the country is always filled with uncertainties when plans are made in advance. Actually this is more of an audit of our lives during the year as opposed to an actual Christmas letter.
I believe that I left off before in June so July would be next. We were still in Lanesboro with the trailer. I had brought along our new Bonneville and managed to get some riding in over in Wisconsin and the local area. Did I mention the goats before? Jan is out at Eli and Lindsey's farm looking after them most days, her younger goats as opposed to the older one at home. We did get to a soccer game, a check up at Mayo, and me to a PGR mission. Jan was called over to the home to sit with her Mom who was now on hospice care. Jan spent the day and night with her as she made the transition from this life of joy and pain to the next one that promises to be much better. Bernice Emma Thielhorn joins her husband Fred Leroy who passed away in 2000. She was 92 years old and had been in failing health for the last few years. She left behind her daughters, my wife Jan and Paula Johnson. A man could not have asked for better in laws than Fritz and Bernice. I don't think that I will ever forget church in Alpha and "dinner" at her place afterwards with fried chicken, sweet corn, milk gravy and boiled potatoes, you get the picture? Anyhow, pretty much a life well lived for a farm girl from rural Minnesota that married her sweetheart when he returned from The War, raised two daughters, accepted two sons-in-law welcomed five grandchildren and four great grandchildren. Our daughter Rachel flew home for her funeral and later in the month we picked up her daughter Annika, who came for a week long stay. On a subject that everybody our age starts to get accustomed to are doctor visits for our selves and our parents assuming they are still with us. Thank goodness that does it for July. The first part of August found us driving to the Cities to meet the rest of Annika's family, home from Washington, D.C.. I did spend some time putzing with assorted bikes during this time too. My brother Phil and I took our Mom to the doctor one morning for a check up, she has been falling a lot lately, and by noon she was a resident at the rest home here in town. She is there to this day. In the interim I sold her car, and Jan and I cleaned out her house and got it on the market. It would be nice if it sold soon so that problem would be out of our hair, so to speak. On the 21st Jan and I drove down to the former Fairmont Army Air Field outside Fairmont, Nebraska along with half the drivers in the upper Midwest I think. From Omaha west it was bumper to bumper creeping down I-80. I was afraid that we would not get to the site I wanted to set up in and have to get off and head south trying to get into the path of totality. We did make it to the Air Field in time and parked next to some serious watchers with lots of gear. This is an experience that never fails to awe anyone that sees it. The two that I have seen before, we were the only people visible in any direction but not this time! Anything else that month was anti-climactic. So on to September. After Labor Day I rode west again with the GS out across Wyoming into northern Utah with idea of going as far as eastern Nevada, but the smoke from forest fires was so bad the visibility was under a mile in places and it was getting warm. From Logan south to Salt Lake City you couldn't even see the lake, so I detoured into northern Colorado and made my way home. The grandkids are keeping us running to soccer and volleyball games, and Jan and I are cleaning up Mom's house and taking care of her goats too. Football has started so we hosted a game at our place on a warm and sunny Sunday. Jan and I drove up to Wadena to spend a night with Paula and Steve and stopped at Leah's soccer game in Gibbon on the way home. My two brothers Phil and Paul and I took our Mom out for lunch for her birthday on the 29th, she's 97. October started with a lot of rain and cooling temperatures. I was helping Eli with some power trouble for the shop and he scored a 351 and transmission for the 64 Falcon he got from a friend, it's a work in progress. About that time Jan and I headed east for the DeFors house in Burke, Virginia. It's always about a two and a half day trip going out due to the fact I don't want to end a long day on the road in that kind of traffic on a two day trip, coming home showing up here tired is not such a big deal. Rachel, Jan and I did get down to the Vietnam Wall one day. I have been there several times but it never fails to impress, as I know a couple of names on the Wall. We stayed about a week and went home to more cleaning at Mom's house and a birthday party for Sam at his house in Rochester. We had some of our cedar siding replaced on the east and west ends of the house as it was looking tough in a few spots. I guess that is not bad life for the product which is 5/8 inch rough sawn cedar plywood that was first put up in 1975. I did get my Mom's car sold about as soon as I put it out in the driveway with a for sale sign, one less thing to think about. Jan and I were back and forth to the farm, Jan with goat trouble and me helping out with things. We are into November now and the weather cooled off naturally. We are still following our grandkiddos around to assorted activities, luckily gas is staying down somewhat. I did have a couple bikes out when there was a small window of nice weather. Jan has been seeing doctors at New Ulm for assorted pains, and we were to Rochester for Thanksgiving at the Theobalds. It did stay nice enough to be able to vacuum up leaves yet. December saw us moving Mom's stuff into a storage unit that I lined up the end of November. The house is essentially empty now and ready to put on the market. which I did a week later. I did make it to a couple of PGR missions after that. One in Fairmont for a USAF pilot who had flown B-52s, B-57s in VN among several types during his career. Jan and I were back to Rochester for Sam and Gus' Christmas program and I caught a PGR mission in Byron the next day. I spent some time in Eli's shop trying to get that old Falcon apart, with some success. On the 22nd we received word that our brother in law Steve Johnson had passed away. Christmas eve found us at St. Pauls' for Leah and Aaron's program. We had Christmas on Christmas day at the farm with both of my brothers and their wives, two of our children and their families. Just missing the DeFors this year as they stayed in the D.C. area. I don't blame them the weather has really turned brutally cold and some snow now too. Jan and I drove up to Wadena for Steve's funeral on Saturday in below zero temperatures. The entire funeral was indoors at their church and he was cremated so no burial is planned. They are going to spread his ashes at his golf course from an "urn" that looks like a red and white fishing bobber. We all got together at their house with the bobber in the middle of the table and it is very cool how not uncomfortable it was to have him right there. Anyhow, the next morning I did manage to get the truck started at -27, dropped Jan off at her sister's house and headed home. So that pretty much ties things up on this end. I know that I have probably skipped over a lot of details in this edition but there is a limit on how much detail I want on the web. I know that you all will just be dying to see the next chapter sometime in the new year. Have a happy New Year.
Pete 1-1-18
