Tour of Torch

This morning we met with the Estate Sale people, Antiques Appraisers. They toured Mother's house from top to bottom, and agreed to run the sale for us. Because Mother's possessions are modest, they'll be bringing in consignment items to kind of punch it up a bit. The Appraisers do everything - cleaning, washing, rearranging, displaying, selling, wrapping, and the clean-up afterwards. We don't even have to be there during the sale. In fact they encourage you to stay away. It's an absolutely painless way to handle the closing of Mom's estate. I'm so glad that she is agreeable to doing this.

Everybody seems to agree that the time to sell the house is around the time of the Cherry Festival because of the volume of people through the neighborhood that week, so we're moving things up a bit. The Festival is early this year - July 2-9, so we'll want to have the sale towards the end of June. The house will be empty and clean after everything is over and done with, and it will be ready to be shown.

In the afternoon, we went caching around Torch Lake. It was an absolutely gorgeous day - we had a great time. We found a great new natural area with nice paths, and boardwalk and overlook. We want to bring Dylan back there this summer. It's off M-88 down Traverse Bay Road. There was a multi-cache at Barnes Park, which turned out to be a really nice campground. We walked in the woods at Hayo-Went-Hah - I just went in a short way, but Dick went the whole distance, and up a huge hill to find the cache. Meanwhile, I was back at the car meeting the man who put out the cache! He was returning home, which is just across the road from the trail head. He was very interesting - quite new to caching but enthusiastic. He is TeamMotivated. We both enjoyed meeting him.

On the way home we checked out our Rocky and Porky cache and everything was in order.

Evaluation of House and Body

We met with John, the real estate salesman, at Mom's house so that he could begin the process of establishing a reasonable price for the house. Everybody agrees that the location of the house is going to make it a fast sale. Whoever buys it will have to spend lots of $$$ to bring it into the 21st century as far as wiring and plumbing are concerned. It was a productive meeting and John helped us decide that we had picked the right outfit to run the estate sale. He has worked with them before.

We ate a late breakfast at the Hard Luck Cafe (get the patties, not the links), and took a drive around town to kill time until Mother's doctor appointment.

It takes two of us now to get her to the Doctor. Thank God for Dick, who is in charge of the wheelchair at both ends of the expedition. She had a good visit with the Doctor, and had a blood test. We picked up a new med at Thompson's, and deposited her safely back at Concord Place none the worse for wear, although tired.

Perm Day

Finally got a perm and a trim today - long overdue. Not overly happy with the result - I think Colleen wound everything too tightly this time! I like a more natural look - oh well - this too shall pass.

Dick got a haircut - power of suggestion!

Visited Mother.

The Leelanau

Took a nice ride today to do cache maintenance and to have lunch at the Friendly Tavern in Empire.

The caches were all in good shape - we just replaced the log books so they're ready for the new season.

It was a nice day for a drive - warm temps - around 70 - but there's still snow in the woods, although not as much as last week. Lake Michigan was pretty. At the Empire Beach they were cleaning up the sand that had blown into the parking lot over the winter. They were using a front-loader and a dump truck! The amount of sand was amazing.

Drove to the Dune Climb - there were actually 6 or 7 people up on top In April! In Glen Arbor there were shoppers that looked a lot like tourists - but the season can't be starting already!

We have an appointment to take Mother to the doctor on Friday - it takes both of us and a small boy to get her wheeled out of her building and into the Doctor's.

We have an appointment on Saturday with some Estate Sale people to look through Mom's house and give us an estimate.

Tomorrow I'm finally having a perm, about 14,000 weeks overdue. Can't wait!

Miss Congeniality 2

Mary and I went out to lunch at Applebee's and then to the Mall to see a movie. The reason we go on Tuesdays is because it's cheap popcorn day if you bring your own container. I forgot my container. What's the reason we go on Tuesdays again?

We saw Sandra Bullock in the above mentioned film. It is not Academy Award material, but there was really only one part that I didn't like, even though it did get off to a slow start. I thought it was funny and entertaining - it had a nice turn at the end. Nothing special, really, but a nice way to spend a couple of hours.

Errands

A Day of errands - pick up shirts, go to Library for Mother, visit Mother, etc., etc. Not much exciting - except the weather was beautiful.

North Carolina won the NCAA mens' basketball tournament. Darn it - we really wanted Illinois to win - the Big Ten and all ya know. Oh well

Aloha !

Aloha!
There was a big luau today at Concord Place for all the residents and their families and friends. The community room was decorated with all kind of Hawaiian paraphernalia - they really went to a lot of work getting ready.

Mother agreed to participate - we took her on the elevator in a wheelchair, so moving her was relatively easy. She seemed happy to be there - made an effort to socialize with others at the table, and ate everything in sight. And here I thought that she didn't like a party! (jk)

Mother was anxious about when she was going to be served some food. She asked the Director's husband what was on the menu, he told her, and she said, "How do we get it?"

The food was really quite good - she kept remarking "It's not always like this."
The Director's brother was there to entertain with his singing and guitar. He was actually very good. But Dick and I almost fell off our chairs when he started singing "Detroit City" because the chorus is "I want to go home, I want to go home, Lord how I want to go home." !! A good choice for Assisted Living? Maybe not. But it certainly entertained Dick and me, and Mother couldn't hear it anyway, so no harm done.

We were glad that she agreed to go, and she really tried to enter into the spirit of the thing. She recognized most of the other residents, and remembers their names. Except that she keeps calling Mrs. Lather "Mrs. Luther". No big deal. Mrs Lather probably can't hear anyway!

She stayed at the party for 2 hours, and then we wheeled her back to her room for a rest. Then she was worried about maybe not getting any supper because of all the food at the party! For a woman who is very slight she really does like to est!

It was an experience. I think they have parties like this 3 or 4 times a year, so now we have something to look forward to!

Aloha!

Dismal

This has been a dismal week in the world. Pope John Paul II died, Johnnie Cochran died, Howell Heflin died, and so did Michigan State.

Like Terry Schiavo, State needed life support to stay alive, and didn't get it. They lost decisively to North Carolina, 87-71.

They have proved themselves to be the 3rd or 4th best team in the entire NCAA. I hope they realize that and hold their heads high.

Monday night Illinois will play North Carolina for the Championship. It should be quite a game.

Living Will

Haven't been in the mood for the past couple of weeks - don't know exactly why, but here we go again .

The big news as we speak is that Pope John Paul II is reportedly dying serenely, Terry Schiavo has died from lack of life support, and tonight the Spartans play North Carolina in the Final Four semi-finals.

The Pope has been so ill for so long that it's really not a shock that he appears to be on his deathbed. The Terry Schiavo case is something that was never any of our business, but evidently became the business of the federal government somehow. If you didn't have a living will before, it's definitely time to do it! Otherwise, it seems that it's possible that the media will show you in your most vulnerable situation to everyone on the planet. Everybody should read the extremely satirical column linked to the above title. It really reflects the way I feel about the whole scenario.

Las Vegas says that North Carolina is favored to win the NCAA basketball championship. I'm of course rooting for Michigan State. Originally I picked Illinois to win it all - I think a State vs Illinois final would be the most fun - an all Big Ten championship game.

We had a very pleasant Easter. We went out to brunch at Freshwater Lodge and it was delightful. We spent the afternoon with Mother and had a great visit. She has decided that she wants to sell the house and the contents. We're thinking that in late July or early August we'll have an estate sale and sell the house. The next door neighbor has asked long ago to be informed if we're planning to sell, so we'll offer it to him first. Our friend Kathee said her husband would be glad to check it out and come up with a price. Jim's family and our family are busily trying to decide what we want to keep from the house. We already know that Kris and Dan get "Laugh, Laugh Phonograph"!

Birthday Road Trip

Today is another beautiful day with blue sky and sunshine. There is still way too much snow for springtime. Lots of cache sites are not winter friendly, and we ran into 3 or 4 this morning that couldn't be done. We had a fantastic drive, though. On Green Road west of Alpena, we found a farm sawmill, where a man and a boy were making boards and posts. We watched them for quite a while. That cache was totally buried and frozen in the ground.

We went to look at the famous sinkholes, but it was just sight seeing - cache was under drifts and drifts of snow.

We found 3 caches in Rogers City - one quite by accident. Dick just happened to check his GPS to see if there were any in the area, and found one 44 feet away! That was at Quarry View.

Mother Nature was at her best and worst - the day continued full of sunshine. And then in Aloha Township, an eagle flew right across the road in front of us. That was closely followed by your dead skunk in the middle of the road. Do eagles eat skunks?

On the way home we found 2 caches in Indian River (the one on the bridge was my favorite), one in Wolverine, where Dick lost his cache bag, and a virtual cache in Onaway. We were home at 6 p.m., tired but happy.

Country Folks found Dick's cache bag on the road, and sent us an email. They're going to leave it with eb_ii in Gaylord and we can pick it up there. It's just a fanny pack, but it has our stamper in it.

Happy Birthday to Me!

Road Trip East

We left around 9 or 9:30 on a beautiful "Spring" day with blue skies and sunshine. Drove across the State - our first caching stop was in Mio at the Shrine of Our Lady of the Woods. This shrine is the most elaborate and strange I've ever seen (although I must admit I don't spend much time at shrines). See link above.

We had lunch at Harrisville at a place called "The Flour Garden". The food was really good, and the waitress was a character out of a bad novel.

Lake Huron was blue, blue, blue - absolutely beautiful. When we got to Alpena, Thunder Bay was blue, blue, blue as well. We were surprised at how much snow they had. It was especially deep in the woodsy areas - on one trail, Dick waded through snow over his boot tops. The cached was buried, but luckily he found it by poking around with his walking stick.

We stayed at the Best Western in Alpena, and ate dinner at Mr. D's Steakhouse which was right across the parking lot. I learned from a lady on a cell phone at the next table that we were eating at Best Western. Poor Mr. D.

We did a total of 7 caches - 3 in Alpena, 2 in Harrisville, and 2 in Mio. Our favorite was in downtown Alpena near a city park. The cache was hidden in an old pipe which had been sawed off at ground level. The container fit right down into the pipe and was really hard to see. We had to use the hint because it was so well concealed. The funny thing about it was that there were muggles taking continuous cigarette breaks behind the pizza shop across the alley. We had to be very stealthy and covert - at one time actually parking our car in front of the pipe so we could not be seen. Lord only knows what they thought we were doing. While we were twiddling our thumbs waiting for them to go inside, a delivery man delivered pizzas on three different trips. It took us a while. I think geo-cachers could work for the CIA. Maybe.

Tax Time

Today we sat down with all of the 2004 records and attempted to do the income taxes. God Bless the IRS. Not. We got a good start on it, and after we clear up a couple of things tomorrow, we should be finished.

I'm starting to do some research for the Kanitz Family Tree - it hasn't been updated for 25 years. I'm hoping to get everybody's information updated by next September. I've had 4 responses to my family email, and I'm optimistic.

State advanced in the tournament - they will play Duke next. Go Green. NC State beat Connecticut - the defending champions. That was a surprise!

We're taking a Birthday road trip - leaving tomorrow, spending the night in Alpena, and coming back on Tuesday.

Cache Spying

Leftover pancakes for breakfast - a rare treat. Unless Dylan is here, that is!

We went to visit Mother early today because a big snow storm was predicted, and we didn't want to get caught in it. She directed me in writing checks for her bills, and she wanted to sign the MESSA bill herself. She thinks that someone will notice that she's still able to sign checks. She's still OK, and still alert and on top of things.

We had so much fun today. We drove around to the new cache sites and watched for cachers. We saw lots of footprints in the snow! We saw various people at the F&M Park - nobody has found that one yet. I don't think anyone will until Dick decides to give a hint. It's so unique and complicated and different and hard to spot!

The NCAA tournament has had a lot of surprises. Nobody ever thought that Bucknell would beat Kansas, or that Vermont would beat Syracuse. My selections were way off, and I think I'm dead last in the bracket competition. The games have been really exciting. I had predicted that State would lose to Syracuse, but now I think they can beat Vermont. Good for State!

Corned beef and cabbage in the crockpot - a late Irish dinner.

Up and Running

The T.C. cache series is up and running. Cylops drove up from Warren, arriving at 1 a.m., to try to be first finder. He found 9 of the 12 and promises to come back. We ran into him at the Visitors Center. We went out to a late breakfast at Harbor Watch. I didn't order pancakes, because Dick promised to make pancakes for supper.

Basketball is getting crazier and crazier!

March Madness

It's time for college basketball again. U of M never had a chance to be in the tournament, so we're cheering for MSU and Illinois and the other Big Ten teams. It's really fun and entertaining, and there are always lots of upsets and "Cinderella" teams.

Kevin and Sharon have us all signed up in a tournament competition again this year. No money is involved - it's just for bragging rights. I think there are 15 of us competing - mostly Lue's family, plus John and Sue, Dick and me, and a couple of extra friends and relatives. It's always a hoot, and it adds a lot of fun to the tournament.

Dick's T.C. cache series was approved this evening by Rusty at MiGo. It will be very interesting to see whether anyone can find them all!

Happy St. Patrick's Day.

Tweaking

We spent a good part of today checking out Dick's new series of caches in Traverse City parks. He only had to tweak one or two things - we were glad we double-checked everything. I think he'll release the series before the end of the week - what a lot of work it has been. The caches are all hidden, the pages are all created, and the coordinates are all accurate - so here we go! It's been fun getting it ready, now we'll see if anybody can find them all!

We visited Mother, and she actually agreed to walk with us down the hall (using her walker). She had never been in the dining room, and she thought it was quite nice. She now knows where the elevator is, and which room belongs to Mrs. Lather. (Mrs. Lather is the mother of Dave and Pauline, who are also TCHS class of '53). We had a good visit.

Dick cooked steaks on the grill in the middle of a snow storm. I'm not sure how much snow we had today, but it was quite a bit - now everything looks fresh and white again - it covered up the old dirty piles of snow, at least temporarily!

Save Your Money

It was Tuesday, cheap popcorn day, so Mary and I headed for the mall for lunch. We met at Jonathan B.'s - I hadn't been there before. I liked it - the food was good. I have to take responsibility for picking this movie - more's the pity. We saw "Because of Winn-Dixie". The preview looked cute, the trailer on the internet (see above) seemed interesting, but no. It's a waste of time, actually. The story was very disjointed and slow (I fell asleep in the middle of it), the characters and the setting were very weird. Jeff Daniels likes to do the weird things, like "Escanaba in Da Moonlight" and "Purple Rose of Cairo" - but this one missed the mark. Even the very attractive young girl and the talented dog couldn't save it. Save your money. Next time, Mary has to pick!

After the movie I went to see Mother. She's holding up very well. Then to the library.

It's Not That Easy Being Green

Party Animals at the NMG M&G for March 

Over the Rainbow

We had a super fun day. First, a phone call from Dylan telling us all about the Renaissance Festival he went to with Kyle, Lainie, and their families. He was most excited about his new "legendary sword". He was very impressed with the sword shopkeeper.

Then we were off to Grayling for the Over the Rainbow Northern Michigan Geocachers Meet and Greet at the Grayling Holiday Inn. On the way over, near Kalkaska, we saw a big fluffy healthy looking coyote run across the highway. We've seen scruffy coyotes before, but this one was buff!

Before the party, we found 3 easy caches in the Grayling area - it's always a good way to get to know an area better.

The Meet and Greet was fun as always - even better because this time there was a fantastic Sunday Brunch available - we were really impressed with the selection and variety. We sat at a table with Tim and Susie, Dick and Donna - and had a great time. Good company. Dick won the prize for best male "wearing o' the green", and I won a great looking game for Dylan in the raffle. It was our lucky day! (Even though we're not even close to being Irish!)

Afterwards, we went to Tim and Susie's cabin on the Manistee River, and had very enjoyable time with tea and conversation. It was such a pleasant way to end the afternoon, and the cabin is so welcoming.

On the way home we stopped in Kalkaska (noted for its cuisine) for a bite to eat, and got home around 7:30. We were feeling very mellow - it was a great day.

Green House

Today we very happily met M'Lynn at the Green House Cafe for lunch. Our ex-mayor Margaret was seated at the next table. She looks amazing - she's lost weight, and she had on a pink hat, long pink gloves, and pink boots. Quite an ensemble! We had a fun lunch - Margaret came over to our table because M'Lynn knows everybody. We made plans to work up some practice geo-caches for the folks at the Senior Center to do later in the Spring.

After lunch we went to visit Mom, balance the bank statement, write some checks, and visit. She finally has had her floor vacuumed. She seems fine.

Dump

Hey! It snowed this morning. For a change. It was quite a heavy snow, and Dick plowed out the entire south side of Grand Traverse County.
After it stopped, we went to the dump. Excuse me - we went to the East Bay Township Transfer Station.
On to Mother's house to change the furnace filter and pick up a couple of things.
Dropped in on Mother to deliver some items.
On to Sam's Club - always an adventure in good eating. As we were leaving, they were giving away free food - your choice of a roasted chicken or barbecued ribs. We took home some ribs. They're not nearly as good as Dick's ribs.
Dick made chili for supper.
It looks like the high point of the day was going to the dump.

Hitch

Today the weather was actually pretty decent, though cold. We do have another storm coming, but not until tonight. It's supposed to be lake effect snow.

This morning I went to Mother's house and picked up some blouses for her because Spring will eventually get here! Went to visit her and picked up her check to take to the bank, and paid some of her bills. We had a good visit.

Met neighbor Mary at Applebee's for lunch - very much fun - I haven't seen her since December. We went to see Will Smith in Hitch, and it was a really cute movie. It's one of those great two-star chick flicks that I like so much. Funny, clever, amusing, silly, relaxing, enjoyable - it was all those good things. I imagine that the film critics hate it.

I'm really proud of myself today because I figured out how to put my picture on my blogspot profile info. I already knew how to put pictures on the blog, but up until now, not in my profile. Dick told me what to do, and voila! It actually worked. Not a very big achievement in the scheme of things, but I'm proud anyway. OK so it's not the best picture of me, and I'll probably replace it with a better one sometime...but the point is, I figured out how to do it! Yaaay!

Snooooooooooooooow

I had a great agenda for today - lots of errands and tasks at Mother's house, and with Mother, and at the store, and shopping for cards and ribbons. But then Dick called from the Agency and said don't go because the roads had turned to ice and it was snowing and blowing. Phooey and double phooey. It put me into a blue funk of the most unusual kind for me. I was ready to walk out the door when he called. I was most seriously disappointed.

Tomorrow I have a date with my neighbor Mary to go to the movies. I hope the snow lets up by then.

Mother has finally received some forwarded mail (namely her Social Security check) so at least we know the system is working.

M'Lynn called with some very exciting ideas for caches in the city. She doesn't know how to think small. We're meeting her for lunch on Thursday.

Say No to Snow.

Lovely Drive

We took a great drive today - up to Elk Rapids and back. We ducked in to lots of side roads to see the houses by the water. It was really fun. We got some new ideas for caches in the Elk Rapids area, also. We found the Elk Rapids Public Schools - hadn't known where those were before. Looks like they have great facilities. It was a 2 iced teas and 2 large decafs drive.

This morning I did some proof reading for Dick, but he has done such a great job that there wasn't much for me to do.

Beef stew for supper. I tried the delayed time feature on the stove for the first time - worked like a champ.

Sunshine

Lovely day today. Temp is 40F, sky is blue, life is good.

Went grocery shopping in the morning - corned beef and cabbage in the slow cooker now.

I've been paying my bills online - it goes very fast once you've typed in all the info. I've only done 10 so far, but I'm already sold on it. Tom and Jana both recommended doing it.

We visited Mother this afternoon - she's really fine. She is being so well taken care of! She does have some complaints about the food, but that is totally normal. We brought her some library books and some pictures of the big Colorado ski trip.

Ethan Eric

Ethan Eric Snider was born at 12:05 p.m. Friday, March 4. He weighed 8lbs 2oz., and he is 21 inches long. Eric has been putting in long hours at the hospital. Tammy is doing well - her Mom and Dad are with her for a week, and then Jan and Bill will take over (the pros). So now Jan and Bill have four grandsons!

Went to the dentist this noon for prophylaxis (I love that word!) I missed my regular appointment last Tuesday because of the storm - so I had a different hygienist. I have to go back in April to have a minor chip repaired. It's always something.

Gas was $2.16 in town, but I got filled up for $2.03 on S. Airport Rd. I felt so proud of myself. They say that the price will be going up $.25 a gallon next week. Eek! They also say another storm system is coming next week. Double eek.

Welcome baby Ethan!

Greetings from the Frozen North

Yesterday I had an early appointment with the world's best doctor, and I got a really good report. I had every blood test known to modern man, and they all came out the best ever. So I'm feeling happy and peppy - now all I have to do is more diet and exercise. That's the story of my life. I'm certainly glad not to be sick.
Dick and I went to the Omelette Shoppe afterwards - it was lovely. We checked Mom's house for mail, and turned off the water heater. Dick came home and made soup, and then plowed us out. Again.

Today I spent most of my time running errands, paying bills, sending out change-of-address notices for Mother, shopping at Target and Thompson's, visiting with Mother and tying up loose ends. If you have any loose ends that need tying, I'm your girl.

We actually have loads of sunshine - it's beautiful! Two kayaks just went by on the river. I guess the foot of snow on the ground won't affect their trip until they try to get out! It's warmer today - it has zoomed all the way up to 25F. Not really my idea of kayaking weather.

Dick has been working for hours on his new series of caches in TC city parks. It's not easy, and he's really putting a lot of effort into it. It should all be ready soon. I keep teasing him that no one will ever be able to find any of these - I think they're quite hard!

I had a phone call this evening from Pauline Brigham Lather. It turns out that her mother-in-law is also at Concord Place. She saw Mom's name in the Concord Place newsletter and assumed it must be my Mom. It's quite interesting to me since Betty Pratt VanRiper's Mom lived here too before she passed away. I guess that Pauline, Betty and I are in the right age group for this sort of thing. We were all in the class of '53 at TCHS.

Here's a problem for you from Dylan's first grade homework: What shape has four straight lines and three vertices. Go ahead. Figure it out.

Need a hint?

It's not a geometric shape - it's a letter. Go for it. Welcome to First Grade.

Here's the snow on the railing of the upper deck, and a picture of our very cold river. 

Think It'll Snow?

We had snow on top of snow and then we had snow. Today the schools were closed, and I cancelled my dental appointment until Friday. The neighbor got out his big snow blower and cleared out the access road. We did run a couple of errands, but mostly we just stayed home. We have a foot of snow on the ground at the moment.

Back to Normal

Did some errands in town - checked Mom's house, went grocery shopping, visited Mom. She seems content. Laurie sent her flowers, her neighbor came to visit - things are good.
Dick worked at the Agency and plowed out the whole driveway. We're under a winter storm warning - could see quite a bit of snow. Our neighbors are all home from their vacations, just in time for the biggest snow of the winter! Quite a switch from Florida to this.

MiGO Winter Social 2005

We just got home from the winter event in Alma. I'm practically almost totally wiped out...it was a long weekend.

The main event on Saturday was lots of fun - I've never done a poker run before, and it was really enjoyable. We didn't come close to winning but we had a good time. We met some new people - renewed friendships with others, and one new person - Steve - really freaked us out because of his resemblance to Tom. We were both doing double takes all day long. He looks like Tom, he moves like Tom, he dresses like Tom, he has mannerisms like Tom - it was very distracting. He sat next to me during dinner, and I found out that at least he's not a physicist! He manages an engineering firm and owns real estate.

Silent auctions are always fun - I tried, but bailed out on a couple of items. Everybody else liked the same items that I liked, so the bids went up fast.

We had a total of 8 finds for the weekend, and 3 dnfs (Did Not Find). For me the best part of the weekend was the Main Event minus the members meeting (I wasn't in the mood for a meeting). Another best part was the weather - it was really cold (10F), but the sky was a brilliant blue and there was lots of sunshine and not a cloud in sight...so beautiful. The worst part was that the Comfort Inn did not have cable internet access, and the AOL that we signed up for kept freezing up.

Talked to Mother just now. She had a very nice day - Fritz and Ruth came to visit, Jim called from Florida, and Mr. Petertyl from across the hall (age 101) came in to talk about the history of Milliken's. She sounded very pleased and she had a good night last night. We are shouting hallelujah!

Mother is Moved

We did it! Mother is quite tired out from the whole move, but she seems completely content with her accommodations. She loves her new chair, she thinks the people are all wonderful, and we are so relieved that she approves. I can't tell you how pleased I am at her reaction to the whole thing. She is being so brave and cooperative - and we are so lucky!
We're using Sharon's gift certificates to go out to dinner tonight - our own special treat! Thank you Sharon.

Sparkling Snow

At 6 a.m., we turned on the outside lights and looked out the window at the snow. It was sparkling like diamonds among the animal tracks. Bambis, Bunnies, and Bobcats, oh my.

Pre-GenFest 2005

Jana has come up with an absolutely spectacular idea for GenFest. We're going to have the Basswood Bend Film Festival, complete with popcorn machine and Oscars. Teams and topics will be chosen, video cameras will be used, and then we'll all get together to watch each others' creations! I'm getting excited, but since GenFest isn't until July 16th, I suppose it's too early to send out the invitations! Thanks Jana - it's a great idea. What would the genres be? Mystery, romance, adventure, superhero, comedy, cartoon, horror, suspense, what else?

Tomorrow is the big day for moving Mother. We have lists of our lists. We're going to make the big move in the afternoon. Shannon was a big help this morning - she helped mother pack her suitcase and personal items, made a list of things to do tomorrow, and offered her husband's help if Dick needs it for carrying the TV. Thanks, Shannon. Mother is remaining very stalwart. She needs lots of reassurance and repetition of what will happen, but she's brave and not causing any problems. I'm proud of her.

I, on the other hand, am a nervous wreck. Well, not really. But sort of.

Odette came through her surgery just fine. Roger was able to be with Doug during the procedure, which was great for both of them. Odie is on the morphine pump thingy and is trying very hard to follow all the directions. We're looking forward to another report soon.

Laurie, Chip and Dylan are stranded in the Denver airport. They are numbers 33, 34, and 35 on the standby list - not good at all. It's a combination of the All-Star game and Presidents Day weekend - things are really backed up in Denver. Tom flew home yesterday, plus he was ticketed - he has given up on standby. Chip had a hotel room reserved for tonight just in case - I can't wait to hear what happened.

George's Best Friend 

Moving Day = Wednesday

Mother can move into Concord Place on Wednesday. I'm so relieved, because Dick and I want to go away this weekend for two nights, and Mother will be all established in her new digs before we leave. Sometimes things do work out!

I spent the day with Mom going over all of her financial papers and accounts, and getting a grip on her net worth. She is sitting pretty and will be able to afford Concord Place for the next 14,000 years. Well, maybe not.

I called and cancelled the phone (SBC & AT&T), cancelled the cable TV, and had the address changed on the newspaper delivery. I called Integrity and told them we would no longer need home care.

Tomorrow Shannon will be there in the morning to help Mom get her things ready to pack - do the laundry, get down the suitcase, etc., etc. I will go in the afternoon to see what else needs to be done.

I went to the PO to get change of address forms, totally forgetting that it is President's Day. Happy President's Day!!

I went to Golden Fowler and bought Mom a new recliner/rocker for her new room. Whew. I've crossed quite a few things off my lists, but I'm sitting here thinking of new lists already.

Dick plowed out the entire driveway - no small feat - and he got a flat tire on his tractor, so he spent his afternoon getting the tire fixed. It's always something.

I can't imagine how Mother must feel with this big move almost upon her. I know I'm feeling quite adrenalized and edgy. I need to just chill.

This is the day of Odette's surgery. Our thoughts are with her.

Flickr

Happy Sunday. It snowed relentlessly all day - just a fine sifting so it didn't pile up very much, but it was continuously snowing the whole day. Overcast and gloomy too.
We went shopping for slippers for Mother - luckily we picked out the right kind! We picked up a supper for her at Applebee's Carside ToGo - very convenient and fast.
We did our usual trash and recycling, and had lots of conversation about the big move that's coming up. She keeps asking the same questions over and over again.

Jeff Gordon won the Daytona 500. We're really not Nascar fans, but if we were, Jeff Gordon would be our man because of that little race car that Dylan used to have.

I found a site for sharing pictures called Flickr (link above). I posted a couple of pictures just to see how it works. It's a very versatile and useful site as far as I can see. What do you think?

On our mantel - on the right is the Point Betsie Light, center is Old Mission Point Light, and the picture is also the Old Mission Point Lighthouse. See? It fits right in with the new blog theme :) 

New Lighthouse Format

I'm sure you have noticed the new lighthouse template I'm using. Friends and family already know that we love lighthouses, judging by our mantel decorations! I'm so happy with this, and I hope you like it too. Click on the above title to see pictures of many of Michigan's 120 lighthouses, more than any other State.

Breakfast this morning with Whitard and family. We had a really nice visit - they are great people, and the children are well-behaved and delightful. Dick and Bill are really kindred spirits when it comes to geo-caching. They both love to put out puzzle caches which require the finder to solve impossible puzzles just to get the coordinates!

We had our first phone call from the skiiers in Breckenridge this evening. Dylan said he was standing by a restaurant buried in snow. It turns out that the restaurant was buried in snow, not Dylan! Today they went for a two hour hike and learned all about snow and avalanches. Then they all went tubing, which I guess is great fun. Laurie and Dylan decided to go have hot chocolate after tubing, while Chip and Tom went skiing. They are having such a good time. Dylan can't decide which is more fun - he's loving everything.

Soooooop

Mother and I are both a little perquackey this week - we're just a little pre-occupied with her moving to assisted living. She has lived in the same house and slept in the same bed since 1952 - that's 53 years! Her new room should be ready by the end of next week. I've notified Integrity and the Commission on Aging, and I have a call in to Shannon to make sure that everything gets cancelled as far as home services are concerned. Mother is mostly worried about her checking accounts and her mail, and making sure that everything gets taken care of. It will be a big big big change for her - but she's very brave, and she's really kind of looking forward to the move - I hope she's satisfied with the accommodations. I wish she could see it before she moves into it!

Odette has her surgery on Monday - she will be in the hospital for 3 days and then in a nursing home for a long period of recuperation and rehab. We wish her well - it doesn't sound the least bit pleasant.

Tomorrow we're meeting Whitard (Dr. Bill Muth) and his family for breakfast at the Omelette Shoppe. It will be fun to see the little girls.

Dick plowed out the whole neighborhood today - more snow predicted for Sunday. He also made his famous veggie soup today. Hooray. No bobcats today. Boo.

Jim and Emilie are leaving today for Florida. They'll be gone for two weeks. They're driving and making a couple of stops along the way.

This is a pair of bobcats we spotted by Dylan's playground on Wed., Feb. 16 at 10:30 a.m. We showed them live to Tom in California by way of the iSight camera on my laptop! 

Breckenridge

Laurie, Chip, and Dylan are headed for Colorado to go skiing. They're on an American 777, and Dylan said that it was very high tech - he has a TV by his seat. We had a teleconference with Tom on my new LAPTOP and while we were talking, we saw two bobcats outside the front window. They walked around the river side of the house, and over by Dylan's playground. Dick got a couple of good pictures from the computer room window.
Tom is heading for Colorado on Frontier Airlines to meet the Gillespies at Denver Stapleton Airport. They'll drive to Breckenridge together for a week of skiing. Sounds like a blast.
Dick is off to Petoskey to do some geocaching with Tim and Susie - it's a beautiful day for it.

Before the End of the Month

The Director of Concord Place says that Mother will have a room before the end of the month, perhaps sooner. Thirlby Clinic has faxed her medical records to the Director.

Happy Valentine's Day

I was taking it easy this morning - recuperating from the weekend. We were having an ice storm and schools were closed (Belleville would have had school today - they use salt on the roads). Dick decided to brave the ice and go in to work at the Agency.

I was just getting started on my "getting up" routine when I got a call from the Commission on Aging, asking me if I was the emergency contact for mother. It seems that the Commission cleaning lady was alarmed by Mother's condition and was worried about her. I rushed right in to check things out. Mother seemed about the same as she has been for the past couple of weeks. I think the cleaning lady hadn't seen Mother since her pneumonia and reaction to the anti-biotic.

I came prepared to call 911 and take her to the hospital, but what I did was prepare lunch and a cup of tea, and she seemed fine. We discussed assisted living again, and she wants to go there. She has no zest for living, no energy, and no desire to do anything. She does enjoy watching TV. We called Concord Place and the Director is going to call me tomorrow with an update concerning when a room will be available. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it will be soon.

The ice storm has ended, we had some melting - the roads were fine. But now it has frozen again and it's snowing quite hard. Snow is predicted for every day this week.

On a lighter note, I loved this paragraph sent to Dick by Dick Dokas:

A Succinct Summary of the Election

The Democrats' mistake was in thinking that a disastrous war, national
bankruptcy, erosion of liberties, corporate takeover of government,
environmental destruction, squandering our economic and moral leadership in the world, and systematic Administration lying would be of concern to the electorate.

The Republicans correctly saw that the chief concern of the electorate was to keep gay couples from having an abortion.

Northern Michigan Geocachers Meet and Greet

Wow. Up at 6 a.m. To the lobby for the excellent continental breakfast. Out geocaching until 1 p.m. when the event began. We found 10 caches before noon. The event was well attended - I'd say close to 40 people were there. We thought we came from far away, but there were several from Ann Arbor, Ypsi, Westland, etc. Left Oscoda around 4 o'clock and we were home before 7 p.m. I'm boo-zausted.

Oscoda Get-Away

This has been such a fun day - I guess I should begin at the beginning. Cleaned house until a little after ten, then we packed up the car for our trip to Oscoda for the Northern Michigan Geocachers Cache Lovers February Meet and Greet.

First we went shopping for a baby gift for a surprise baby shower at the Meet and Greet. Then out to Big Boy for lunch, and to order two take-out meals for Mother - one for today and one for tomorrow. At Mom's we did all of the usual things - took out the trash, balanced the check book, and sat with her while she ate her seafood platter - and she ate the whole thing! Took her one of our small saucepans to replace the one she burned, and a cheat sheet with phone numbers of every one she could call if she needed anything while we're out of town.

Beautiful day for a drive - I missed part of it during my great nap! We did 4 caches in the afternoon as we neared Oscoda. We haven't ever spent much time on this side of the State, so there are lots of caches to discover.

Oscoda seems like a very lucky town - not only is it on the AuSable River, but it also sits right on the shore of Lake Huron. Totally beautiful. It's a really small town, though, and it doesn't have a nice downtown area such as T.C. has. The AmericInn is very nice, and it was fun because when we checked in there was a child's birthday party going on in the pool - sounded like a great time!

The desk clerk recommended Tait's Bill of Fare as a good place to go for dinner - and we loved it! They had a great menu, and although the restaurant was very busy on this Saturday night, we had our own little private three-sided room- no kidding - just like on the set of Hello Dolly.

The motel has high speed internet access, so I am writing this on my new LAPTOP in the motel room. We are so cool we can't stand ourselves!

Swiffer Plus

Things I love in the category of house cleaning supplies:

1. Roomba the robot vacuum

2. Anything Swiffer, especially the Swiffer duster

3. Windex wipes for mirrors and kitchen appliances as well as windows

4. Bounce, the world's best dryer sheet

5. Barkeeper's Friend, the world's best scouring powder - depps the stainless steel
sink shiny and beautiful

6. Cottenelle wipes for the original purpose but also great for wiping down the
Roomba when it's dusty from vacuuming, and for wiping the salty snow marks
from my winter boots

Where were these things back when I had a family of five, three kids, a dog, 2 cats and a full-time job?!?

Caching in CattleTrack 

Caching in CattleTrack

Two out of the three times we've had breakfast at Frosty Cup in Cadillac during the last 2 weeks, it's been with DinoDuo. We met them at 10 a.m. and after fortifying ourselves with the famous #5, we were once again off to do some serious caching. It was a gorgeous day - bright blue sky, tons of sun, beautiful fluffy snow on the evergreens - it couldn't have been nicer. We found 3 caches with the Duo - I sat out the longest hike, but the other two were Nan-accessible.

Click on the title to see the geocache page that goes with the picture. Scroll down to see the Basswood Bend entry.

After finding 3 caches, DinoDuo went cross-country skiing, and we went looking for more. We found one at the Caberfae Overlook, and a really interesting virtual cache over by Bear Lake. It was the childhood home of Harriet Quimby, the first woman in the U.S. to get a pilot's license. Never heard of her before, but it was an interesting story on a historical marker.

It was 5 o'clock and we were hungry, so on the way home we stopped at the Roadhouse Mexican Bar and Grill on top of the hill in Benzonia. It's a very nice place and the food was good - I would go there again. I have to say that they do overcharge for beverages. I paid $3.00 for two cups of tea. Most places give you a free refill. But I would still go back.

We got home around 6:30 - what a great day! Life is good.

Brunch with Billy

Bill and Jan spent the night last night, and we had a great time. After everybody was up, Dick made breakfast (Chef Ricardo) and we had more great story swapping this morning. They left around 12:30 - it had snowed about 3 inches during the morning and Jan had to drive because of Bill's knee surgery.

Talked to Laurie about a date for GenFest - yes I guess it's time to start thinking about it. It will be in July sometime after the Cherry Festival.

Dick plowed out the entire driveway and access road - the snow was light and fluffy, but he got his tractor stuck anyway. You can do it if you really try!

Dick proposes meeting DinoDuo for breakfast in the morning and doing some more new caches put out by Frank&Peggy. Sounds like a good idea to me!

Pleasant Surprise

This morning Dick announced in a very disappointed tone that we have absolutely nothing on our calendar this week!

I said that I thought going to the movies would be a fun idea - especially since it's cheap popcorn day. Dick does not like movies, and never voluntarily goes unless it's Michael Moore or anything with Dylan. He asked me if I would feel "homeless" if he didn't go with me. I said Yeah, but I would go anyway. He said I'll go with you. You sit in the woods while I'm geocaching, so I can go to the movies with you...it's called teamwork! What a sweet thing to say! So we planned to go to the movies at 1:30.

Soon after we got a call from Bill and Jan who wondered if we would be home this afternoon. Dick was saved from his horrible fate of movie attendance by Sniders! And he still gets credit for being willing, and for being so sweet. He really made out!

They arrived around 1:15, we sat around spitting and chewing...(old family joke from a John Denver song - Grandma's Feather Bed - "After supper we'd sit around the fire, the old folks would spit and chew." You really had to grow up in our family to get it !)

To view the lyrics to Grandma's Feather Bed, use the link above. (Click on the title.)

Anyway, as it turned out, Jan and I went to the movies at 3:30. We saw "Wedding Date", which was a bit on the fluff side, but very enjoyable, cute, and funny. We really liked the 2 main characters - Debra Messing was really quite good, and Dermot Mulroney was dishy. It won't win any awards, but it was a fun afternoon. We met Bill and Dick at the Outback Steakhouse for dinner, and it was scrumptious. We watched Gilmore Girls and the Amazing Race before bedtime.

An unexpected, fun, pleasant day!

Today is Laurie's birthday - Happy Birthday Laurie!

Babies Galore!

Wow! We have 3 babies on the way - well not us exactly, but it's still exciting. Dan and Pam are expecting a son in May, they want to name him either Rylan or Luke. Eric and Tammy are expecting a son next month - could be named Ethan Eric. Reiko and Bob are expecting a baby in October, sex to be determined. She wants to name the baby Hunter, male or female.

Put in some time at the Library today - it was a pleasant day to be reading in our beautiful library. On Sunday afternoons, they have live piano music from the baby grand. It's most relaxing.

Visited Jim and Mother - all is well on that front today. I kind of feel like it's my day off!

Super Bowl is tonight - go Patriots! Go Tom!

Scott's Harbor Grill

We did some scouting around the city parks again to do some more figuring on Dick's new caches - these things don't just happen, you know...it takes a lot of planning, experimenting, figuring, and computer time. He's hoping to have it all finished by March 1. Or maybe even April 1...whichever. Along the way we had lunch at Scott's -they just happen to have the world's best grilled raspberry chicken and cashew salad. That's what I order every time. Dick had quesadilla, and that looked spectacular too.

At Mother's, we turned on the heat upstairs for Jim's visit, took out the trash, installed an armrest thingy on the john, watered the plants, did the dishes, and did various other small things for her in preparation for Jim's visit tomorrow. She is definitely accepting more help these days, which I interpret as that she's feeling more helpless herself.

Dylan's Activities

Dylan calls us every morning on his way to school, so we keep fairly current with what's up with him. Today we talked about his tennis lesson last night. He liked it, and he said it was fun. He has the same coach that he had last year, and that's a good thing. His weekly activities are: Monday, tae kwan do; Tuesday, Kids' Crew (church) and tennis; Friday, tae kwan do again. It's so much fun to talk with him - he is quite the story-teller - I have to keep telling him he's full of baloney. That's my job. When Laurie dropped him off, she said he was skipping into the school - he's a happy boy. Chip is away at training, so Laurie and Dylan are keeping busy.

Today was an ordinary day - laundry and Roomba. Dick was busy working on the new city park caches he's planning. He has a ton of coordinates to record and double check.

Outside, it was not ordinary. Our temperature got up to 50F! Most unusual for February. Dick and I went into town - went to the new Lowe's - I liked it much better than Home Depot. I thought that things were easier to find, well labeled and good signage throughout the store. I checked out their closet organizing section.

We cruised through town - the bay was beautiful - and had a nice ride. When we got home, Dick measured my closet so that when I go to Lowe's again, I'll know what size of closet organizer I need. Hooray!

Odette is scheduled for back surgery at Beaumont Hospital on Monday, Feb. 21. We're hoping that this surgery will make her feel like new again.

Concord Place (?)

Today I spent most of my time and energy with Mother issues. She has been getting weaker and more unstable daily. Shannon was with her in the morning, and fixed dinner in the crockpot and made her a sandwich for lunch. I got there right after Shannon left, and we sat and talked for a long time.

Mother's not feeling at all steady, and uses the walker everywhere in the house. She had eaten lunch in her chair, and asked me to take care of her dishes - this doesn't sound like much unless you know Mother. She doesn't want me to do anything for her ordinarily - so it's unusual that she asks a favor. We discussed that maybe soon she will no longer be able to stay in her own home - she may need assisted living. She mentioned Bortz - and I know they have an assisted living facility connected to their nursing home.

I was heading for the grocery store anyway, so she told me a few things she would like me to pick up for her. While I was out and about, I went over to Bortz, and asked for a tour of the assisted living section. I think it's really well-suited for Mother. The room is small, but furnished. It reminds me of a hotel room. It has a private bathroom, cable TV, phone, etc. I could picture Mother being comfortable there. It's called Concord Place. I put our names on the list so we will be notified when a vacancy occurs.

Off to the new Oleson's - for variety in shopping. Back to Mother's to deliver groceries and discuss Concord Place. It surprised me how receptive she was to the idea of moving there. I think that's an indicator of how lousy she feels. We talked about it for quite a while, and she got most of the facts straight - we discussed the price, and she actually said, "Well, that's not too bad." I was really stunned. It was SSA day, so I took her check to the bank and brought her back some cash - she is very frugal.

We decided to wait and see how she feels for the next week, now that she's off her anti-biotics and should be shaking the side-effects soon. (Dizziness) So right now I have to say that she is not doing well - she is becoming weaker and less mobile right before our eyes. It's really noticeable. I can't predict the future, but if she is this incapacitated permanently, I can't see leaving town, even though we have plans for 2 outings coming up this month - one for a weekend and one for an entire day. Sometimes it's hard to know what is the best thing to do. I get really conflicted. I think I'm secretly hoping that a vacancy will open up at Concord Place, and that she will be willing to move in. It would be a tremendous relief to us to have her in a place with 24 hour care. It's hard to admit that.

Jim called this evening and said he's coming up Sunday, staying Sunday night, and leaving on Monday. He'll do Mom's taxes. Hooray for Jim.

Sounds Good to Me

Well, wouldn't you just know it. We spent the day geocaching in Cadillac yesterday, and this morning we noticed there's a new cache right where we were yesterday! So, naturally, we had to go check it out, and we were the first finders! We ate breakfast at Frosty Cup again - 2 days in a row.

We used to like Frosty Cup better than anyplace, but the waitresses have changed, and the atmosphere has changed, and now we're thinking it's not really our favorite anymore. Stay tuned to find out the new favorite!

Back to T.C., we went to Sam's Club so Dick could stock up on olives. We also got water, and I got 2 new pillows and a paperback. We mailed Laurie's birthday card.

DinoDuo 

DinoDuo

We wanted to return the lost GPS to DinoDuo (Tim and Susie), so we arranged to meet them at our favorite breakfast spot, Frosty Cup in Cadillac. We had a long, leisurely breakfast. We have so much to talk about - geocaches we have found and experiences teaching - a never ending supply of great stories! As soon as someone tells a story it reminds someone else of another one. We could have sat there for a long time - well, OK, we did sit there for a long time!

After breakfast we all went out looking for the four new caches in the Cadillac area, all of them put out by Frank&Peggy. We found some new sig items, and got a good idea for how to store them (baseball card holders). It was a successful day - we found them all - 2 by Lake Mitchell, one by Lake Cadillac, and one by the cross country skiing paths. I got a great idea for a winter cache - a fake ice fishing shanty! Well, maybe not. We finished our mission around 2:30, and parted ways, with a promise to get together again in a couple of weeks.

Dick and I went into Traverse City to run a couple of errands. We went to the Camera Shop and Dick asked them what they do with the empty film containers after they develop film. It turns out that they save them for beggars like us! We know what we want them for, but we're not sure what other people want them for!

We wound up going out for an early dinner at La Senorita! Perfect end to a perfect day.

Basswood Bend 

China Cabinet

Dick worked at the Agency this morning and had 5 contacts. Then he went to various city parks and to Meijer, from which he brought home steaks for dinner!

So today I cleaned out and rearranged the china cabinet to accommodate the dishes I brought from Mother's. I put my four favorite plates up above, and the rest are stored below in the cabinet. I found some things that I had forgotten I had! There are some beautiful glass dessert plates with an etched butterfly in the center - I'm sure they came from Mother Gen. Some of the items previously stored in the cabinet have been demoted to the guest room closet. Now I'll probably forget those things too!

The lady from Integrity convinced me to let the 18 year old girl try being a caretaker for Mother. The lady seemed to think that Ashley is more than qualified to handle any situation, and that we will come to really rely on her. So we haven't cut the cord yet. I also arranged for Lisa Zimmerman from the COA to go to Mom's tomorrow to give her a haircut.

Sharon and John have a teen-ager living with them again, after 10 years alone. John's niece Joyce is being deployed to Iraq with her National Guard Unit from Grayling. Joyce has 2 daughters, one of whom is in college, and the other is a senior in high school and needs a place to stay. I really admire Sharon and John for taking her into their home, and I'm hoping that all goes smoothly for everyone. I'm thinking that Patty will need a lot of emotional support.

U of M Historic Dinner Plates

Today when we visited Mother, I took along the new dish protector set and my jug of Drano Gel. The kitchen sink on Union St. has always been annoyingly slow to drain, and I really wanted to try my new favorite clog treatment. I did, and it worked great. When I washed her dishes, I think the sink drained much faster.

For years and years Mother has been telling me that she wants me to have the U of M dishes, service for 12. So when we got there, Dick did the trash and loaded up the recycling, and then he got all of the blue dishes out of the china cabinet and we packed them up. The U of M plates are really quite interesting. They were made in 1928, and each plate has a picture of a different campus building. Some of the buildings are still there, and still look much the same. But some have been torn down and replaced. The buildings which still exist are the President's House, the Michigan League, the Union, Angell Hall, the Engineering Arch, Alumni Hall (which is now the Art Museum), U of M Hospital, and the old gates to Ferry Field. My grandmother Geib supplemented the plates with serving pieces and other place setting items of similar color but different pattern. It really makes quite a nice service. The only things missing are soup bowls.

We had just sat down to visit when Uncle Fritz and Aunt Ruth dropped in. It was good to see them. They are looking well. Uncle Fritz was full of stories as usual.

By the way, my grandmother, Mary Blanche Rice Geib, always went by the name Blanche, but she signed personal letters and notes with her initials, MBRG, which is why I use NJKS for the signature on the blog. Her intials rhymed better than mine though.

While I'm typing this, Dick is reading to me out of his book, Deadly Dance, by M.C. Beaton. It's an Agatha Raisin mystery. Try typing and listening to a story at the same time. It's a challenge. But it's a very funny book, despite the title.

Veggie Soup

One of the joys of winter is having Dick make veggie-beef soup. Wow, is it good. This is not your mother's veggie soup. We put in lots of good beef, carrots, onions, lima beans, cabbage, tomatoes, tomato soup, red wine, beef broth, tomato juice, chili powder, seasonings, celery, and garlic. Yum yum yum.

With a big pot of soup bubbling on the stove, he went cross country skiing combined with some geocaching research for future caches.

Things were very quiet here at home - I did laundry, ran the Roomba (I love that thing), stirred the soup, read my book (Memorial Hall by Jane Langton), and played pogo.com. Life is good.

I took some soup in for Mother - she loves our soup, or at least she tells us that she does!

Paging Dr. Auer

This morning Dick worked at the Visitor Center, and had a long conversation with Kathee. The two of them get along so well - it's great. She tells her kids about his geocaching experiences, and so now they want Dick to take them out geocaching sometime. That would be a lot of fun.

Mother paged Dr. Auer this morning - he asked her about humidity in the house, and mentioned that maybe she should spend a couple of days in the hospital. She definitely doesn't want to do that, but I pointed out to her that after all, he is the doctor.

Integrity sent a Feb. calendar indicating that Stacy will only be coming for one more week, and then another person will be coming. Mother asked Stacy about it and she said that the new girl is 18 years old! We agree that this is not good - Mother needs somebody who has housekeeping and cooking skills. If they can't give us someone with more experience, we'll change homecare companies.

Blue Skies

This morning the weather report cracked me up. It was 24 below in Gaylord, and they said that Traverse City had some cloud cover, and so we were "considerably warmer". Our temperature was 1. (!!!) We lost our cloud cover, because by the time we took Mother to the doctor, the skies were a beautiful blue, and cloudless. Or as Willie Nelson would say, "unclouded".

(If you want to hear Willie sing The Unclouded Day in person, go to the following link, and he's the background music. If you scroll down past the memorial, you get all of the lyrics. Willie sings the *whole* thing!)

http://www.minibite.com/serious/nicky.htm

This was the first time going to the Clinic that we used a wheelchair for Mother. She always says "I'm not that desparate." But this time I told her that the doctor said it had to be that way because he didn't want her to get dizzy and pass out. Using the wheelchair was so much easier than having her struggle along hanging on to my arm and going so-o-o-o slowly. We both enjoyed it. Dick was in charge of the chair, and I really appreciated it!

We had a good doctor visit. First came a chest x-ray, which revealed that Mom has a "touch" of pneumonia. The doctor prescribed a 7-day course of antibiotics. He said to apply ointment to her side to relieve the pain she has left over from the shingles. They did an O2 test, which turned out OK, and a blood test which we'll find out about later.

I feel much better about her condition than I did yesterday. I think that Shannon may be a bit of an alarmist.

Mother is supposed to call Dr. Auer at the hospital on Friday and Monday between 8-9 a.m. and have him paged. He wants to talk to her to see how she's doing, if she's eating properly, and to give her the test results.

Right now I'm watching the Michigan basketball team be slaughtered by MSU. It's quite painful. Right now it's 61 - 47. Is that enough of a drubbing? Yes it is. Oh well.

The Lost is Found!!!

Dick is now an official hero, especially to Tim and Susie. He couldn't stand not knowing what happened to that GPS, so this morning he rented a metal detector, and went back over to the Vasa Trail. He located the GPS right in the middle of the path (snow-covered) and fairly close to the parking lot. Dick spoke to Tim and Susie (they're in Jackson), and they were surprised and pleased. They had already purchased a new one, but they'll be very glad to have this one back, with five years' worth of data! Congratulations Dick!

Jet Katana

Bill and Jan got here around 10 a.m. We had a bit of brunch, and then we went to the airport to pick up Bob, Reiko, and Jet. He is such a sweet baby, you just wouldn't believe it. He's 11 months old, has 8 teeth, and weighs 14,000 pounds. Well, maybe not. But he's a big boy. They're off to Manistee to visit until Friday.

Mother is having a health crisis - she's still really sick with a bad cold, and Shannon is afraid that the cold will develop into pneumonia, or that it's a contagious virus of some kind. Shannon doesn't want to pass on any viral conditions to her other clients. Mother refuses to see a doctor.

I called Thirlby Clinic and talked to Dr. Auer's nurse, who said that she would set up a home visit tomorrow so a nurse will come and evaluate Mom's health, listen to her chest, etc. I really wish she would come here and stay with us until she feels better, but right now she won't hear of it. Shannon says that if Mother's not better by Thursday, she's not coming to the house.

Dr. Auer was nice enough to call Mom, but according to Mother, nothing came of the phone call. We'll wait and see what the visiting nurse says tomorrow. Right now I'm feeling that if Mom's not better by Thursday, she'll have to come out here whether she wants to or not. I'm certainly not going to spend days and nights at her house. Maybe if we made her come out here, it would give her incentive to get better so she could go back home! I have a problem though trying to figure out how to make her do anything that she doesn't want to do. I don't know the fireman's carry!

Meanwhile, Stacy from Integrity is scheduled to be at Mother's in the morning. I haven't heard from the visiting nurse yet.

I lost the desire to go to the movies. Maybe next week.

Dr. Auer called me and insisted that Mother come in for an appointment. I told him that she didn't want to, and he said that there comes a time when we don't give people choices. I mentioned that she has trouble getting around, and he said they have wheelchairs for that. I made an appointment for Thursday. I told mother, and she really didn't object that much, which surprised me. She said, "I guess I don't have any choice."

The doctor visit takes the place of the visiting nurse. Dr. Auer said that listening to the lungs is about 20% as effective as having an x-ray. He said that she really needs a health assessment at this point in case we want to have hospice care or special medications. He can determine how bad (or good) it is and what we need to do next.

Ho Hum

Somebody in England at the Royal College of General Practitioners has come forth with the statement that today, Monday January 24, is the worst day of the year. People are bored with winter, have given up on their New Year's resolutions, are in debt from Christmas, etc., etc., etc. You can read the whole article here:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/4187183.stm

This morning when I heard about this, I wasn't worried, because Jan was scheduled to come and visit, and that would brighten any day. But as it turned out, Reiko and Bob can't fly here today because of the storm-disrupted airline situation. So Jan isn't coming until tomorrow.

So while it actually wasn't the worst day I ever heard of, it was disappointing and lack-luster. I made bean soup. Whoop whoop.

Dick worked at the Agency, and went shopping at Meijer, so he had that sort of excitement. (?)

Since I didn't do anything interesting today, I am planning to go to the movies tomorrow. (Free popcorn day) I'm in the mood for something scary, so I'm thinking of seeing White Noise.

Jan is planning on coming early in the morning to pick up the California branch of their family at the airport. We'll have a chance to visit, and we're planning to go to the airport to see baby Jet. Yes, that's right, Jet. And then they will all go to Kim's house in Manistee.

By next November, Jan and Bill will have 5 grandchildren. Five! FIVE! How much fun would that be?!?

Br-r-r-r-r

This morning it was 9 degrees below zero! That's too cold for me!
I sat by the fire and folded clothes and ran the Roomba. (I love that thing.)
We went grocery shopping for play-off snacks and for lunch things in case Jan Snider comes tomorrow. (More later.)
Visiting Mother was a little discouraging because she is feeling so listless. She has no energy to do much of anything. I can sympathize with that feeling, but I'm sure that her lack of stamina far exceeds anything I experienced. Dick took out the trash and shoveled the walks and the driveway. Mom said she was hungry for a "hamburg" with a big slice of onion. So Dick went to J&S and got her a burger. She ate it right in her chair - she didn't feel like walking to the dining room. She still has a bad cold and the post-shingles type pain in her side.
We watched the Eagles win their play-off game, and now we're watching Tom Brady beat the Steelers. Sorry, Chip!
Depending on the weather, Reiko may be flying into T.C. tomorrow. If she does, Jan will drive over to pick her up, and will stop here to wait and to get directions to the new terminal. I hope everything works out - it would be fun. Unfortunately, the recent storms have disrupted the airline schedules, so we'll just have to wait until the morning to see if she can come.
Johnny Carson died today. He was always a big favorite of ours when we were young and able to stay up late! If he were on now, we would TiVo him! He was a very funny and popular man - "The King of Late Night".

The Search

We were back over at the Vasa Trail at 9:45 a.m. armed with broom rakes to search for Tim's GPS. Tim and Susie came around 10:30. We all raked the snow along the path, but we came up empty. We stopped looking at noon and came home to get warm and have some lunch. I still don't understand how a bright yellow object can totally disappear in the snow.

Michigan lost their basketball game today to Wisconsin. Next week we play Michigan State, and they will eat us alive. They are ranked in the top 20. Michigan is not ranked. I wonder how a coach prepares a team to go to East Lansing and take a beating. The Big Ten season is getting interesting. It's so enjoyable to watch basketball by a warm fire on a snowy January day.

Dick plowed out the whole road and driveway - it took a long time.

The Lost GPS

Today we took both cars into town - I visited Mother, Dick went to the dentist. We met Tim and Susie for lunch at the Green House Cafe, and had a great geo-lunch!

Then all four of us went to find a cache that we had been unable to locate before, and this time Dick found it! We were all very excited, because it was so cold outside, it was a relief to get back into the car! It had been 12 below zero F in the early morning, but by the time we were geo-caching, it had zoomed up to 10.

Then the 3 intrepid cachers (DinoDuo and Basswood Bend) went off into the woods for more geocaching.

I stayed in town to do all the mundane things - grocery shopping, library, post office, gas station. And I went back to Mother's to deliver this humungous muffin that I got at the Cafe. I think it's enough for a whole meal!

When Dick got home, he told me the bad news... while they were tromping around in the snow, somehow Tim dropped his GPS. They searched everywhere they could think of - pockets, snow drifts, etc., but they couldn't come up with it. After searching for more than an hour, they gave up. DinoDuo returned to the area and searched some more, but it's nowhere to be seen. We just can't imagine what happened to it - and it's bright yellow, so you would think that it would be easy to spot in the snow. It's a big loss for any geocacher, and I'm almost positive that we will go back over there tomorrow for another look.

The only good news to come out of that expedition was that they did actually find the cache!

Inauguration Day

I really enjoyed watching the pomp and circumstance of the whole Inauguration proceeding. Dick refused to look at any of it - he busied himself outside bringing wood to the house and moving snow. Or else he sat in a different room reading a book. I'm just hooked on seeing all of the bigwigs and seeing how the women are dressed.

It was fun to see the first families and ex-Presidents and first ladies entering the podium for the oath of office. It's unusual to see a gathering of so many people and recognize all of the faces. The people accompanying and escorting the bigwigs were interesting too. For instance, the announcer actually said, "Ladies and gentlemen, accompanying Mrs. Lynn Cheney are Mrs. Tom DeLay and Mr. Paul Pelosi." Now there's an odd couple!

It was heroic of Chief Justice Rehnquist to make it to the podium for the swearing in. He's so ill - I know it was a real struggle for him to do that. And he was escorted out immediately after "So help me God." He must have had a strong desire to be there.

During the speech, I just listened on the computer while I cleaned out our files in the computer room. I tossed out a bunch of old financial statements and filed away all of the new stuff. Made a new folder for our Subaru and just generally organized papers all afternoon. Finally have all of the year-end tax documents in one place - so that's a good job done.

Made some chili for supper, and it smells so good it's making me hungry! The coverage of the Inaugural Balls begins at 8 p.m. I would really like to watch some of it - it's fun to see how the other half lives. Dick will not be at all interested.

We do have this problem of such an extravagant Inaugural celebration at a time of such widespread human suffering in Iraq and also in South East Asia. It would have been such an excellent plan to tone things down a bit, and send some of that money to the other side of the world. But it didn't happen that way - it's the biggest, splashiest celebration ever. I had the thought when I saw all the flags around the Capitol building that those flags should have been at half mast in honor of dead soldiers. We have felt ever since George was sort of elected the first time that the country has been totally out of our hands. The feeling continues.

Roomba

Dick bought me a Roomba yesterday, and I mentioned it in my journal. Well, my friend Mitch in England didn't understand what it is, so she posted a comment. I think it's possible that other people may not know what it is either, because we are so cutting edge (!). And also some people may not read the comments, so this is what I posted for Mitch:

A Roomba is (what else) a robot vacuum cleaner! It does your floors whether carpet or wood or linoleum. I used it this morning for the first time, and it was great! I followed it all around the house just giggling. It's round and red and flat, and when it bumps into things, it very wisely turns itself around and goes in a different direction. It runs for 2 hours on one charge, and then it needs to be plugged in again. I'm telling you what - it's the most fun you can have cleaning house!! I am a happy camper!

We gave Jana a Roomba for Christmas, because it's supposed to be very good at picking up cat hair. I waited for a report from her before I asked for one. She really liked it and recommended it - so hooray! Her cats didn't mind it either. Dick thought that maybe the cats would take turns riding it like a skateboard.

Today was very snowy and blowy - more than 30 school districts cancelled school today. I haven't left the fireside all day. I'm reading the latest Kinsey Milhone, R is for Ricochet. McLenithan came along with his snow blower, and Dick shoveled off the porch, but I was a couch potato.

I watched quite a bit of Condoleezza's confirmation hearing. I love Senator Barbara Boxer. Dr. Rice is a piece of work.

Chianti's and BoTangles

Originally, we were going to meet DinoDuo for lunch, and Dick was going geocaching with them afterwards, while I went to get a perm and a haircut. The weather changed our plans. We all decided that it wouldn't be a good day for them to drive over from Kalkaska, so they didn't come. Dick and I went to Chianti's anyway, since their buffet special was 2/$10. Nobody told us about the $2 for parking, however.

So I went to BoTangles, and Dick ran some errands. It was fun talking to Colleen - her life is better than my soap opera! Dick bought me a Roomba! I can hardly wait to try it. It has to charge up overnight and so we'll see how it works tomorrow.

NMG January Meet and Greet

This morning the intrepid geo-cachers met for breakfast at Mabel's. What a good time!

People came from all over. We saw, met, and talked to all sorts of cachers: The Light People from Farmington Hills, CoyChev from Reed City, Team Sandrich from Onekama, Smokey Bear from Manistee, Trashcan and Cachehound from T.C., Jethro and Peaches from Alpena, eb_ii from Gaylord, ABX Guy and Wife from T.C., Clay People from Suttons Bay, Victory Mike from Ann Arbor, 5vons from Oscoda, dajayhawk from Saginaw, M'Lynn from T.C., and Craig333 from Sault Ste. Marie among others.

After breakfast we drove around to various city parks and Dick scouted out good places to hide caches. It was 11 degrees F, snowy and blowy. Occasionally the sun would peek through the clouds and the lighting was really eerie - a mist of snow, a sunlit stone wall, a menacing black cloud, and a patch of blue sky.

We went to visit Mother - took out the trash, balanced the checkbook, removed the last vestiges of Christmas greenery, and had a nice visit. She's much more like herself - her cold is better and she's not as achy. It was a very positive visit. It's amazing how much my mood improves when I'm not worried about her.

Now we're watching the Patriots play the Colts. We just naturally have to cheer for Tom Brady, but it's a little harder today because Josh Williams and Cato June play for the Colts. I love Cato June especially. But I'm cheering for Tom anyway.

Winter Convergence

Believe it or not, with temps in single digits, the Northern Michigan Geocachers had a picnic today at Muncie Lakes.

Last year, Laurie and Dylan were here and we all went to the picnic. This year, I stayed home by the fire and Dick went to the picnic and crystallized his toenails. Actually, in spite of the cold weather, there were 79 people who attended. As I said, believe it or not! There was chili, hot dogs, french fries, and cake to eat - I guess it was hard to keep the hot food hot! Afterwards, Tim and Susie (DinoDuo) came over for hot chocolate, and we talked geocaching for an hour and a half.

It was Mancino's pizza for dinner. You just have to love Mancino's!

Laurie and Chip were having a Steelers party with some new friends who are also from Pittsburgh. The Steelers had a hard time winning, but the Jets' kicker gave them the game wrapped up in gold ribbon. Steelers won in overtime.

At the time of the failed field goal, we were on iSight with Tom. Very much fun. We're so high tech we can't stand ourselves!

Who Belongs in the Hospital??

Today was the momentous day when Dick replaced the faucet in the kitchen sink. It wasn't easy, and Dick isn't a plumber, but he did it and it works great! There was one little glitch - the water filter wouldn't fit on the new faucet. More later.
Hooray for Dick!

After the faucet was installed we went big grocery shopping at Glen's and bought tons and tons of healthy food. Honest.

Mother called with some news - she was quite amused by this.... Integrity called and said that Stacy wouldn't be coming today because she's in the hospital with a kidney infection. Last week it was Shannon who was in the hospital. Mother gets a kick out of having both of these young whipper-snappers hospitalized while she goes blithely on through life in relatively good health. Shannon is in her forties, and Stacy is 23. Mom is 96. Who do you think probably really belongs in the hospital??

After Guiding Light we went for a ride to the hardware store to get an adapter so Dick could attach the water filter to the new faucet. We drove through town and looked at the gray, grim bay. It's a very cold day - temps in single digits - totally overcast, snowy and blowy.

Phantom of the Opera

Mother still seems fine - Shannon was there this morning. All is well.

The weather was lousy this morning, so it seemed to me like a good day to go to the movies. I picked Phantom because I do love musicals! It was beautiful and exciting and most of the music was spectacular.

Dick took me and picked me up, and despite a bit of a screw up on the timing, it was a great afternoon.

Things Seem Better

Today Mother seems fine. She still has a bad cold, and she's a little sore, but she seems in good spirits. Stacy was there this morning, and that gives me a lot of peace of mind. Mother still doesn't want to see a doctor.
Today we did our errands left over from yesterday - Apple store (we bought a mouse for my new LAPTOP), shirts, visitor Center, Record Eagle, and Gill-Roys to pick up the new faucet we ordered.
We came home to pot roast in the crockpot. I think that the new crockpot has a tendency to overcook things. It has a keep warm feature, but it seems to be too warm or something.

It's Not Funny

Spoke to Shannon this morning, and she reported that there was water on the floor in Mom's basement, and that the washer wasn't working properly. She also reported that Mom seemed to have a bad cold with lots of congestion, and Shannon was worried about pneumonia setting in if we didn't do anything. Mother said "I'm not making any appointment with any doctor." She thinks it will go away soon. I called Max's and they said that a service man would call soon to come and examine the washer.

Dick and I had our day so organized, you would have been proud. We had a list of things to accomplish in town before our 4 p.m. meeting with M'Lynn at Cuppa Joe at the old State Hospital. We had everything all set to go, and then the phone rang.

Remember the commercial - "I've fallen and I can't get up!" ? Everybody made jokes about it - Leno and Letterman did it in their monologues. Even school children imitated the old lady and laughed. It's not funny. I got that phone call today around 1:30 p.m. Mother had fallen under the dining room table and couldn't get up.
We rushed in as we were - Dick had to hop off his tractor to join me. When we got there, it was a really pitiful sight. Mom was on the floor - the phone was still off the hook - she had knocked over the lamp and the radio, and her pill bottles had spilled. She had multiple bruises on her face - but nothing was broken. She's sore on the left side, and her neck hurts on the right side. We don't know what happened, and neither does she. Dick and I think that she probably passed out or blacked out or whatever you want to call it. We lifted her up and she walked leaning on Dick very gingerly back to her chair in the living room. We made sure that she had water to drink - and I made her a cup of tea to have with her donut hole left over from lunch. We sat with her for quite a while. The man from Max's called and came right over - so it was a good coincidence that we were there. There's no way that Mother should be attempting the basement stairs. She seemed shaken, which is certainly understandable. She also seemed weak and feeble, but still very mentally sharp. After the repairman left we sat with her for a while longer. I tried to talk her into coming home with us, but she wasn't having any. She's fiercely independent still, and insists on staying in her home no matter what.

We left around 3:30, promising to bring back dinner for her so she wouldn't have to do any kitchen preparation. We met M'Lynn at Cuppa Joe and it was a very interesting introduction to a very unique individual. She knows everyone, and has been everywhere and done everything. Totally amazing. The time went fast, and at 5:30 we went to South City Limits to pick up Mom's supper. She was thrilled with it (whitefish and mashed potatoes, salad and rolls). I tried to assure myself that she really would be all right at home by herself after this bad experience, but I'm still very nervous about leaving her there alone.

On the way home we picked up Chinese take-away at Ming's. After dinner I called Jim to give him the update, so he's aware of what's been going on. I asked him if he could do me a favor and come to Mom's the weekend of Feb. 26 so we could go to a geocaching event in Alma for a couple of nights. Ordinarily, we would just go and call Mother every day. But after this fall, I'm leery of being out of touch for that long. But he and Emilie will be in Florida that weekend, and the reservations have been made for a year. He feels badly that he can't help us out, but I told him not to give it a second thought. I take the responsibility for Mom because I just happen to be here. If he were here, he would do the same. You play the cards you're dealt.

Now I'm typing this all up as a kind of therapy. It's making me feel better. It's "Blog as Stress-Reducer".

It's been an eventful day, and we're both a little uptight, and I'm very sure that Mother will be sore in the morning. Stacy is scheduled to be at Mom's at 10 a.m. and I'm planning to call and talk to her to explain what happened and what to do if it happens again. And on the bright side, we have our errands that we had planned to do today all organized and listed and set out for tomorrow.

Coffee Klatch

Dick worked at the Agency this morning and then had a meeting scheduled for 2 p.m., so he wasn't coming home for lunch. Perfect time for coffee with the neighbors. Shirley McLenithan came over at about 10:30 and we had coffee and banana nut bread and talked for about an hour and a half. It was very enjoyable, and we are getting to know each other a little bit better. She lived in Ann Arbor for many years, so we have quite a bit in common besides living on River Road.
After she left I went grocery shopping - and that was about as exciting as the day got.
I love my new laptop.

Football Playoffs

Don't you find that you root for the strangest teams when the playoffs start? We admittedly root for the team that has the most ex-Michigan players on it. Today we were rooting for Cato June and Steve Hutchison. (doesn't even matter what team they're on!)
We went to town to find 2 new caches put out by M'lynn. We hit .500 for the day. The one we found was down by the Senior Center. The one we did not find was in the choo choo train behind Oryana. Several people have logged that they could not find that one. We'll give it another try later.
We stopped by the U&I on the off chance that the Greek Pirate travel bug was left there inadvertantly, and it was! We recovered the travel bug! Even more exciting than that is that one of the waitresses is going to Greece in 2 weeks and wants to take it there for us! So Dick will try to find a cacher in Greece who can pick it up from her and take it to the cache on top of the mountain where it's supposed to go. What are the odds that someone in TC would be going to Greece, and that the travel bug would find her??
We went to see Mother to do the trash and recycling. We took her some delicious pea soup. We didn't have a lot of news to share - but at least we touched base. She's trying hard to understand the iSight gizmo and being able to see Tom live on our computer - but for Mother it just doesn't compute. I can undertand that, because I'm boggled by it myself!

The Lost Greek Pirate

We made pea soup with ham in our new crock pot. Cross your fingers.
We searched and searched, but we couldn't find the travel bug that wants to go to Greece. Dick was sure he had it after we left the U&I yesterday, but it wasn't in any pockets, in the car, or anywhere in the house. I guess in the total scheme of things, this is not a tragedy of any importance, but it's a little embarrassing to lose someone else's travel bug. (blush)
We did find two new caches - one at Clinch Park and one along the river behind the Post Office.
We came home to pea soup, which turned out to be the best pea soup we ever made. Hooray! The new crock pot is really nice.

Shopping Spree

We had quite a long list of things that need to be replaced, so we set out for Meijer - thinking that we could do one-stop shopping. I knew what kind of a crock pot I wanted, so we went there first - and they didn't have it. They had lots of crock pots, but not that particular one (5 qt. Rival Smart Pot). They didn't have the electric can opener we wanted either. We did get a steam iron and a clock radio and some groceries, and then we headed for the Post Office to mail bills.

Dick had picked up a Greek Pirate travel bug Tuesday in Gaylord at the Rainbow Trophy store. He wanted to take a picture of the travel bug with something Greek - so we went to the U&I for lunch, and Dick ordered a gyro. He propped the travel bug up next to the gyro and took its picture (geocachers are a little screwy).

After lunch we went to the Kitchen Collection at the Horizon Outlet Mall and were able to get the right crockpot and the right can opener. So now we are fully outfitted. Well...except for the new phone we want...but I think we're going to order that on the internet.

Mother seems comfortable with her new caretaker. She says Stacy is a good shopper, and that's very important to Mom.

iSight

For Christmas, Tom gave us an iSight camera so we can communicate on the computer free. This is an amazing gizmo - I plugged it into the NEW LAPTOP and pushed a couple of keys, and there was Tom, sitting in his home in San Diego! It's like watching him on TV - you can see him clearly, hear him perfectly, and he can see and hear us. I don't know how often we will have a "tele-conference" like this, but the technology is great, and it was very exciting.

Integrity Individual Care

It turns out that Mother's new caregiver is only 23 years old, and yesterday was her first day on the job. I have mixed feelings about that...in a way I wish she were more experienced, but then she's young and flexible and not set in her ways, so Mom should be able to get her to do almost anything around the house. She made a couple of minor mistakes today (leaving lights on in the basement) but nothing that isn't correctable. She says she doesn't know how to do Mother's hair in rollers - so maybe we can keep Shannon on just to do the hair once a week!

After going to Mother's, I went shopping, put beef and carrot stew in the crock pot, and noticed that the lid was broken. So now I need a new crock pot. And a new iron. I see more shopping in my future.

Dick took down the outside lights except for the multi-colored ones on the tree we can see from the living room. Because they're too pretty to put away right now.

We've both logged a lot of computer time today - me at pogo.com, and Dick at geocaching.com. It's a good life.

Return of the GeoCaching King (RBS)

First of all, today we decided to update Mother's home care so that she would have reliable coverage. The way it is now, if the caregiver can't come, nobody comes and Mother is left alone and abandoned. (That may be a tad dramatic.) So tomorrow, we're going to try a new caregiver from a new company (Integrity Individual Care) and see how Mom likes it. Cross your fingers. This organization employs 22 caregivers, so that if one caregiver can't come, another will substitute. That would give us all a lot more peace of mind.

With that all arranged, we decided to go to Gaylord to find the caches that we had to forego when we were there on Dec. 2 because of the big storm. We hadn't been geocaching since our Florida weekend. We ate a late lunch (1:30) at the Sugar Bowl in downtown Gaylord, and then proceeded to find 5 caches right in Gaylord.

It was a memorable caching day because we were equipped with our new Basswood Bend pins for trading that Dick got for Christmas, our new Basswood Bend pencils, and our new Basswood Bend signature cards that Tom whipped up for us and put on a CD so we can have a never-ending supply.

The parking lot by the football field was a skating rink, but the main roads were clear and dry. My favorite find was at the Call of the Wild. What a clever cache! We almost gave up before finding it.

At Rainbow Trophy, Dick arranged for eb_ii to make us some metal signature items. He'll bring them to the Winter Convergence. Their parking lot was a sheet of ice, and Dick took a tumble. He only had a couple of minor abrasions on his hands, but I think he'll be feeling the after effects tomorrow!

Came home and made chili to eat while watching the National Championship Game between USC (ugh) and Oklahoma (ugher). While making the chili, I realized that it had been a long day, starting with a stressful morning making arrangements for Mother, some physical activity during the geo-caching, and a lot of hours logged in the car - but I didn't feel sick and I didn't feel tired. I'll tell you a secret. It really feels good to feel good. Hooray!

Oopsie

Dick worked at the Agency this morning, and before he left he asked me to fill out the forms for the $100 rebate for the Epson. In doing so, I discovered that we needed to include the proof of purchase from the boxes of both the Epson and the iBook - which we recycled yesterday. I spoke to Dick, and he stopped at the recycling center to check for the boxes, but the receptacle had been emptied. (Heavy sigh) We were just too darned efficient this time. The Computer Haus said they would try to help us get the rebate anyway - another item on our to-do list.

Sad news from Margo Reynolds Janke that Sherm passed away on December 22. ALS is such a horrible affliction - at the end he just couldn't breathe. We had such a great visit overnight visit from him when he was taking his "last road trip" about 18 months ago. He was a real kindred spirit regarding politics, education, the environment, and life in general. Sherm was the 3rd SLG husband to pass away - Mary's first husband Digger and Sandy N's husband Gene were the other two.

Today I packed up Christmas - ornaments (in the new ornament holder) and wrappings - and Dick took down the new faux tree. So everything is put away for next year. The outside lights are still glowing - I like them - they really brighten up our dark nights.