This is an information blog about our previous year, 2025. I had pretty much given up on the idea of a yearly blog and wondered if the site was still in operation. This attitude continued until recently when my social advisor suggested that I needed to inform at least our children that I was still capable of semi-operating a keyboard with coherent information output. The traditional configuration is by the month so I guess that is the way I will put this on the page, so to speak.
January 2025 This being January, it started out cold and on the 8th Jan had her right hip joint replaced at New Ulm, another joint getting replaced. So far I haven't had the pleasure, just most of my jaw and the loss of my teeth to even the score. After that we made several trips back to New Ulm for follow up appointments with her surgeon. A big day was the 20th, when Donald Trump was sworn in for his second term which has turned out to be quite a turnaround from the previous group that held the office for the last four years. We saw some temperatures below zero a few times and rebounding enough to be able to get my newest Ducati out for a run on a 53 degree day.
February 2025 Like a lot of the time in the winter I spent time on bike maintenance etc.. I see that this was a really cold spell for a large part of the month, with temps as low as -20 and nearly that cold for almost the first three weeks of February. At the very last week of the month it rebounded to 40s and 50s and I got another bike out of the barn for some exercise. Another theme this winter has been the lack of snow, not that I am complaining. Also had one other big event this month, our 54th wedding anniversary! How the time flies through the good times and bad not that we have had a lot of bad times.
March 2025 I see that we had the power off virtually all night on the 4th after me out on the Duck the day before. The 5th brought us a blizzard with 50-60 mph winds and snow with the 6th moving snow. I actually got out for some PGR missions and Jan and I were running on various errands. Typically March has every type of weather with nearly 80 on the 14th after a total lunar eclipse the night before, the rest of the month was mostly nice with me getting most of the collection out of the garage. Both Jan and I had some medical appointments that we took care of in assorted locations.
April 2025 This is the transition month as usual with rain and snow one day and 70 plus days 10 days later. Naturally I had a couple bikes out to assorted locations including a PGR mission to Willmar later in the month for another members wife passing away. Oh ya, the yearly trip to Mankato to do the taxes, luckily we have been able to have them done by volunteers, so it isn't too painful. Jan and I ran up to Lakeville to Hans and Rachels in more rain, and on the 28th we had heavy weather with a little hail mixed in just for fun.
May 2025 This month started with a flurry on medical visits, Jan an eye exam, me to Fairmont for lab and a doctor visit, then to Mayo for one of my other doctors' visits which all checked the okay boxes. Jan and I were to Minnesota Valley Lutherans' choir concert, and I know that we were there to accompany Aaron to some of his classes earlier in the spring. On the 21st we had our eldest grandson turn 21 along with my brother Phils' birthday, only he is a little older. The 23rd saw one other grandson graduating from high school at Lourdes in Rochester, man it seems like we were just sitting through some classes with him in first grade, where does the time go! Took Fritz our BMW to Baks' BMW in Sioux City, Iowa for his yearly checkup. Other than some heavy rain things were pretty busy this month.
June 2025 I had the newest Ducati on a ride to Bemidji to check out a company that is involved with restoring WWll aircraft, primarily P-51s. The morning, I went to their facility they were closed. Oh well, it was a nice ride on some great roads. I took the permit to carry class again to extend my permit. I see that the task of mowing the lawn continues along with rain on and off. Rachel and Will spent the night and the whole gang dropped by later on. The usual mix of medical appointments and grocery runs to New Ulm and Fairmont and Windom too continue on. We did start the task of getting the trailer ready for the yearly trip to Lanesboro for the fourth, getting everything on board and a bike too.
July 2025 Our only trip of the year with our trailer for the fourth at Lanesboro in south-east Minnesota on the Root river and incredible fireworks display at the campground. Eli, Lindsey. Leah, Aaron, Rachel, Annie, Will and Gen joined us for a cookout and the fireworks. We had a little rain and I did get some riding done in the area which included a trip to Rushford for the Sunday paper. The rest of the month had hot and cool weather with rain etc., with medical appointments, PGR missions and a plus 100 degree day. Temperatures that high are really not that common in the upper Midwest.
August 2025 Jan's former co-worker Belinda spent the weekend with us for the first few days of the month. I had my original Ducati, Francesca out for a run just to clear the cobwebs out her heart. After that I had more bikes out and we had more medical appointments and Leah had her wisdom teeth removed, ouch. I had one removed years ago for some reason that I don't recall but went along with them up until my surgeries removed them all. I did manage to run out to the Hills and back with my newest Ducati Vincenzo or Vinnie for short. Jan and I started getting to Gus's soccer games about here with trips to Byron and Rochester and I was doing some work on the 63 Falcon that we had re-purchased believe it or not. Oh ya we also had some rain occasionally too.
September 2025 Hans' birthday on the 5th and Steve and Gens' anniversary on the 6th and Eli and Lindsey's anniversary too. I headed out on what is actually my longest bike trip of the year with the first stop in Hot Springs, South Dakota. I believe that i had intended to head south into Colorado but the weather ahead forced a change to Casper, Wyoming for the second night. From Casper I did my usual Big Horn loop from Buffalo to Ten Sleep to Buffalo again and spending the night in Spearfish, South Dakota and home the next day. Jan and Rachel spent a couple of days with Paula in the Wadena area visiting thrift stores etc.. Jan and I did make one oof Gus' soccer games in Kasson and we watched a lot of the Viking games at home. Late in the month we drove up to Monticello to the bike shop with my BMWG310GS and came home with a Honda NT1100DCT. I thought that at my age maybe a bike with an automatic transmission might be a good idea. I was wrong, it was a great bike on the road but maneuvering around a low speed it was a handful, sloppy drive line lash especially. That is what you get by believing the You Tube videos that praise its' handling. I did manage to put on over 1000 miles trying to get used to it to no avail. Anyhow that is about all that I have to say about this month. I did make a run up to Door County in Wisconsin on the last day of the month. That is the first time that I had made the trip. At that time of the year the crowds were not too bad, but the scenery was a little less impressive than I expected, to many trees and the traffic around Green Bay was bad. Better luck next time, I guess.
October 2025 Returned from Wisconsin on the first. Continued with a lot of the work that needs to be accomplished this time of year, such as covering the air conditioner and one last lawn mowing, hopefully. Running to soccer games to watch Sam and Gus dominate the field and up to Lakeville to visit the DeFors for William's birthday on the 14th. I took a two-day run down to the SAC Museum in Nebraska later in the month. Speaking of birthdays, we had a special one on the 22nd, it was Jan's and on the 23 it was Sam's, so October is a big birthday month for us. I'm pretty sure that we hosted a football game or two on Sundays to watch the Vikings with our family members that could show up. I did manage to get a Patriot Guard mission in later in this month, although I am getting more selective on getting to all of the ones that I used to make an effort to attend. So, that about does it for October 2025.
November 2025 This month started out with a return trip to the Hills, evidently without a bike. I'm thinking the Mustang may have made the run. I visited MVL for their annual veteran's day get together, that I imagine I may not be attending in the future as both Lea and Aaron have now graduated from that institution. I guess that doesn't mean that I could not go back again but I doubt it happening. I had a visit to Mayo at Fairmont to see Dr. Chan and we had snow on the 8th, followed by several trips to Shakopee for Jan's upcoming surgery. Warren Rhomsdahl started on the deck railing and stair replacement project that is a long overdue project. The week of the 16th was busy with a trip to Rochester to see Dr. Eli, Jan to Shakopee for surgery and an overnight stay and to home by the 20th. Gen and Sam came to visit Jan on the 22nd and the Kuehl's "ELLA" cleared some snow off the driveway etc. after a substantial snowfall on the 29th. That about does it for November 2025, so on to the last month of 2025.
December 2025 That month was rather quiet with the hot water heater going on its butt again, an unfortunate occurrence that seems to happen with disappointing frequency here. We had snow one day with light rain the next and shortly thereafter a high temperature of -8. Jan and I returned to Shakopee for a follow up check with her surgeon and to Lakeville for Christmas with the DeFors and most of our family on the 27th. The 28th brought a near blizzard to our door and Jan to New Ulm the next day for her medical appointment. Believe it or not that about completes the month of December 2025. I guess that the end of the year found us in an upright condition and able to consume mostly solid foods, solid proof that The Good Lord has been looking out for us yet again regardless of our best efforts to not deserve his love and kindness to us all. I hope that 2026 can be a repeat of all of the blessings that we have received and none of the bad things.
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