winter deepens

I think that being cooped up by this weather is hard on a person's frame of mind. We have been having near record cold, yesterday morning it was a -23 and that is Fahrenheit not Celsius. Today it is almost 10 above and now they are talking about freezing rain ! I am just starting to get rid of the ice from our last go round with freezing rain. I wonder how people deal with the cold in the arctic and the lack of sunshine, but then I would imagine that citizens of Venezuela wonder how we get along with the cold that we have. Lately also we have been getting snow about every other day so it is starting to really pile up. I have been out scooping or blowing snow off the walk and driveway every day this week. I'm such a whiner. Last weekend Jan and I spent the weekend with the Theobalds in Rochester, mainly so that Jan and Gen could go shopping together childless. Just about all of them were nursing colds in various stages and luckily Jan and I escaped picking that one up. Oh the joys of small children, you get to catch everything that is going around at day care and later at school. Anyhow, I made the rounds of the bike shops just browsing, although I did pick up an off road helmet for dirt biking if this weather ever breaks. Jan had to take a picture of me watching tv with it on. It is a good thing to get them broken in before the season rolls around. I remember when I first got my Aerostich riding suit I watched tv in that one too. So I will include a picture of the newest addition to my collections. I thought that it would be a good idea to get away from an open face helmet with my rebuilt jaw hanging out in the breeze. This one will give me some protection the next time I kiss a tree in the woods or rocks in the mountains. In regards to my surgery recovery, the leg in finally healed up to where I don't bother putting any kind of dressing on it, although I wonder how it would be with french, maybe not. Now if it would just quit itching and my jaw would quit hurting when I take the first few bites, things would be even greater. I walked up town today and over to Mom's but she was still uptown. She hadn't been out since Sunday so I am sure cabin fever was setting in over there too. Well, take care and stay in touch.

piano man

Today we had the piano tuned up, hoping that it would fix a kind of rattling sound when the keys are released. Although he did find an old plastic paper clip in behind the keyboard the problem is still there. He says that the keys can be removed as a unit but he was unwilling to do it for fear of causing more trouble. On Sunday we had Eli, Lindsey, Leah, and Aaron over to watch the Vikings lose to the Eagles. Leah had on the Viking cheerleader outfit that Jan gave her for Christmas, so I will show a couple pictures of her.

Of course I had to show one of her little brother too just to even things out. You may or may not be aware that we had freezing rain on Saturday and as of today it really hasn't melted much even though it has been in the high twenties and clear the last two days. I waited until around 2pm to let some of the ice disappear and went for a good walk. I suppose for a couple miles anyhow. We do have a treadmill but I don't like it much, my legs feel like lead after I get off the thing, so I much prefer walking outdoors if at all possible. I see the thermometer at the bank said 29, so it is pretty nice, clear and quiet to boot. It feels very good to get out and walk for a half hour or more without the limp that has all but disappeared. The recovery marches on. I just finished " Eisenhower, a soldiers life", and it was a good long read, with incredible details of his life. This one ended at the end of the Second World War, so actually there was a lot of life after that. I just wish that I could remember 10% of the facts brought out. Saint Jan and I plan on heading to Rochester over the weekend to watch the boys while the girls go shopping somewhere. Bill Peck, another EAFB comrade also called over the weekend so I heard from him too. I plan on trying to get to see him sometime this Spring as we have not seen each other since 1966 when I was discharged. It should be interesting. We also have an appointment at Mayo the end of March to see about putting some teeth back into my new jaw. We shall have to see how involved that is, like will it interfere with next Summer's riding etc.. I am getting along pretty well with the teeth that are left so it can wait if need be. Well, time will tell won't it?

almost a new year

I hate to admit it but if this recount continues in Minnesota we may not know who our other senator is until summer. Right now that famous comedian is ahead by 50 votes or so. I can see why they are fighting over ballots, originally Coleman was ahead by 250 and now he is behind. I wonder why ballots can't be checked at the polling place and corrected before the voter walks away. I suppose that this would negate the secret ballot process, but wouldn't it be easier than this! It is later now, I was interrupted by trouble with my retirement check that I won't get into the subject here. Also dealing with the Veteran's administration, which I might say goes much, much smoother than dealing with the company that I worked for for 40 damn years. We had a late Christmas at our house last weekend with all the family except for the DeFors who just happen to be spending the season in Rome. For updates on that trip and I do mean trip see Rachel's blog, minnesotaisheaven.blogspot.com. I have links at the top of my blog to all of my kiddos. We had a good time and everyone stayed healthy, PTL. Other than the weather which is, as usual not that nice cold and windy. I think that December has been the snowiest on record and the temp has been below normal almost everyday also. Just more proof of global warming. I had a phone call from John Wilson tonight, it was really good to hear his voice again. We hadn't spoken for quite some time. We are old, and I use that term lightly, Air Force comrades from Ellsworth AFB. He was in the Bomb-Nav shop and I was Electronic Warfare and we spent a lot of time hunting in the Hills or out on the prairies. On another subject. It's New Years Eve and I'm at the keyboard and Jan is watching TV, pretty exciting huh? I never was one to go out on this night, too many drunks trying to have a good time. Just the two of us hanging out together. I hope that you younger couples out there live long enough to get to this stage of life where you can communicate without talking to each other, very warm and fuzzy. Anyhow I'll throw on some Christmas pictures to give you an idea of the festivities at our house.

another hurdle crossed

I used to run 110 yard high hurdles in high school and I think that I can use that event as a kind of analogy of life's' journey if you don't mind. Think of life's' major events such as births of children, marriage to your partner, deaths of loved ones and friends, etc, etc. Well I just passed over a pretty good sized one today let me tell you. I had my three month visit with the surgeons that worked on me three months ago and had a good check up, in fact they really don't think I would need anymore physical therapy if I don't want it. My leg is healing nicely and my mouth must look good too. Anyhow, to back up here Jan and I drove down to Rochester Monday afternoon to board with the Theobalds for the night. It was good to see them again after the fiasco on the week before Thanksgiving. Gen and Steve had things going on after work so Jan and I got to watch Sam and Gus for awhile while they were gone. We had a fairly late appointment today but were afraid of the weather, which this winter is turning into a real threat. I think that we have been getting off lightly so far but we still have at least 2 feet on the lawn and the banks are getting higher along the streets here in town. We have gotten into a rut lately of snow of some amount every other day and high winds from one direction or another. Today coming home from Rochester we saw two cars in the ditch before we got to Kasson. It has also been cold with a capital C, with many days not getting above zero. With everything white around here including our vehicles I think that I will dig up some more summer photos, so we can dream of warmer times. Take care and stay in touch.

another garage

Yesterday I ventured off to Jay Leno's garage. Believe me it is a whole lot more interesting than mine by far!! If you are interested in performance vehicles of any kind take a look. For instance, he has a 427 Cobra replica that he says the 427 side-oiler was giving him trouble so he slips a 427 SOHC in. After going over the car it's " lets take it out for a drive", did I mention that these are videos? Anyhow it's cars, bikes, airplanes, you name it he's got one or is going for rides in. Anyhow I marked that site in my favorites list for return visits. This time of year has me dreaming about all the riding that I want to do next year, and you thought that I would be dreaming of Christmas, speaking of which, I also need to start on my Christmas letter too. I head out to the garage, turn on the heat, fire up the amp and the cd player or the tv and putz around with the bikes. I am entertaining the idea of thinning out the herd some to generate some traveling funds, but it's just a thought for now. After following the book by Neil Peart I got a cd by "Rush" and have it in the player in the garage, I like it a lot. Sitting at breakfast this morning I had this whole train of thought about how I was going to do this blog but by the time I got sat down and the computer fired up it was gone, rats. To quote a close relative,"whatever". PT has been going well I guess. I am hard pressed to see any progress, but trying to stretch the jaw further open is the major project now. At least progress there is measurable. Also the work area on my calf is getting better with only one point left that needs covering, so I guess that that is moving forward. Friday Jan and I will head up to hear Donna's concert at Woodale church in the Cities, it's quite a production and spend the night at Phil and Laura's. There have been a few PGR missions this last week but I just don't feel like freezing my feet off lately even though the cost of driving to these mission locations has come down considerably. If I can find some pictures of summer biking on the hard drive I will throw them on too. Take care and leave a comment?

December 3rd

Several things have crossed my mind lately. Last night I was thinking about how many roads there are that I haven't traveled yet and I thought about my aunt Arlyne who was wearing a shirt when I saw her awhile back that said " so many books so little time" on the front. That would go for me too I guess, reading and riding have been a big part of my life since I learned how to read and ride. Ask Saint Jan how many atlases I have by the bed sometime, along with topo maps of most of the surrounding states. I see by the news that Al Franken will probably lose the election regardless of how many times the ballots are counted and re-counted. I will throw a picture in here that we took last Fall when Hans was home to see his Grandma. This was also the day that I got my cancer diagnosis, boy, does that feel like a long time ago. For lunch today Mom, a neighbor of hers and I drove down to Ormsby for the annual customer appreciation lunch. I wonder how many banks still do this anymore? It is a small part of mid-western Americana, with ham sandwiches, potato salad, bars, cookies and all the coffee you can stand. We sat across from a former neighbor of ours from Galena township, Ervin Wassman, who is a WWll vet. I asked him what his service had been and he talked for quite a while about his service in the south Pacific with an artillery unit. He feels incredibly lucky to have missed several initial invasions of islands in that campaign. They ended up in the Philippines training when Okinawa started off so slow and then figured on being sent into Japan as a decoy unit to the primary invasion force. This turned into an occupation after the a-bombs were used. I don't know how many readers out there are American Legion members but the latest Legionnaire paper has a terrific poem along the lines of"Twas the night before Christmas" but it is about the men and women guarding this country in places around the world. If you should get a chance try to read it. As far as my recovery goes things seem to be progressing if I think back to what I was doing a few weeks ago. I am chewing carefully and walking more all of the time with virtually no limp. I figure I should be ready to ride by spring.

Winter Returns

Joe and Annie on the stairs and with his LeapFrog . Below is Rachel with her new shirt and Aaron sitting on his great-gramma's lap.

Just a short one here. The ground is white from a weekend dusting and the wind is out of the northwest and its about 20 degrees. Rachel, Joe and Annie are already back in Germany with Hans. We followed the flight back for them and they were an hour late out of the Cities because of de-icing the plane. I think that I was up after mid-night and they were over Ireland at the time and a little over an hour from Stuttgart. I just talked with her and they are headed over to Garmich tomorrow, whew, off the plane and into the car. Saturday I ran down to Sioux Falls for a PGR mission for a veteran and an ex cop. the internment was attended by both the military and the Sioux Falls police force and us. Luckily again, it wasn't too cold and I was dressed warmly except for my feet. I will attach some photos from the past week to keep you informed.