All my Friends are Clowns

I am beginning some new friendships in the Northwoods.  Unfortunately, they are all clowns.  Well, not all of them.  Someone (and I would like to know who) held a Clown Camp in the area.  A number of my new friends went.  They are learning the moves, sewing a costume, buying props and practicing how to apply makeup.  The most important piece of it is choosing a name.  Now my friends are Muddy, Happy and Goofy. Since the summer round of festivals has not yet started, I haven't seen any of them in action yet.  It is all in good fun.  I'll let you know how this first season of circus comes out. 

We have been on our knees all week.

Yes, we have been on our knees all week...for two reasons.  It is Holy Week and we have been attending church alot.  It is Tree Week.  We have been planting trees - 80 of them.  In this area trees are sold in the early spring by pulling them out of the ground to bare root status.  They are between 6 inches and 24 inches tall depending on the age, cost and kind of tree.  Then the nurseries and the county sells them in damp plastic bags.  so planting them as soon as possible is very important.  We planted many pine trees (red, white, jack), birch trees and cranberry bushes. Most years Easter is much earlier so the two weeks don't usually coincide.  Thankfully.

Yes, we have been on our knees all week.  Both are very good reasons.

Palm Sunday Prayer

I pray that it stops snowing by Easter.  I pray that the ice is off the lake before fishing season.

Oblivion

Case and I went to Superior (1 hour, 45 minutes) for a special church service at the Cathedral, so we did some errands as well.  Social Security has not been withholding the correct amount for taxes.  (Yep, that's right all you youngins, you get taxed on Social Security.)  Case has emailed and called, but it is still wrong.  Superior has the closest office so in we go.  When Case explained that he had contacted SS several times to no positive results, she replied that his requests are in "oblivion."  And the only way to change something was to come in person. 

Definition of oblivion:  noun - the state of being completely forgotten or unknown.

No other comments needed.

Banking Wars

In this small town there are many banks.  They offer the same rates, same services - all about the same.  What can each bank offer to set themselves apart from all the others.  In Hayward...it is food.  One bank lays out a tray of freshly-baked break apart chocolate chip cookies at about 9:10.  Gee, how would I know that?  Another bank cooks brats for lunch on certain Fridays.  The brats are from a special meat shop in Cumberland.  Very tasty.  A bank on Main Street has a popcorn cart going for most of the day.  Popcorn is nice to eat as you are strolling around town.  There are still two or three other banks that I need to visit.  For now I am staying with the chocolate chip cookie bank 

A Retirement Activity

This is definitely a retirement activity - watching the neighbors.  However, we do have a problem because there are no neighbors.  That isn't totally true.  There are two elderly brothers who live here year round like us.  They don't get out much - so we can't actually watch them.  We can only see a couple of other places, and they are here only one or sometimes two weekends a month.  Then, there are the trees and hills in the line of sight, so neighbor watching is basically non-existent for us.  Though this last weekend...there was so much activity, steam, and equipment that we had to have a look see.  First, I thought it was a still, and they were making moonshine!  After awhile we decided that they were boiling maple syrup.  We had seen some trees in the area that were tapped.  That's good Northwoods activity, too! 

We Saw Our First One!

A few miles from here we saw our first one.  Heard people talk about them.  One of the bars in town has a stuffed one.  We saw one with our own eyes - an albino deer!  It was a yearling about the size of a large goat.  Absolutely pure white.  It is not a myth but a real occurrence in nature.  Amazing to see!

So Much to Learn

Well, I found out the noise was not the turkeys that I saw.  Sandhill cranes who just arrived at the local marsh were the ones making those calls.  (No wonder that it didn't sound like a gobble!)  When I was walking with a friend yesterday, we heard the call, and she said that they were cranes.  We have a large picture book of birds with audio from the Cornell Lab (leading bird people in the US).  So I looked up the cranes.  Yes, it was the Sandhill Cranes.  Their calls can be heard up to 2 miles away.  There is so much for the newly retired to learn in the Northwoods. 

For our wedding anniversary in May, we have signed up for 3 days of birdwatching from canoes, kayaks, and hiking.  That should help us get up to speed in bird identification, especially their calls.  Because you can hear them much more than you can see them. 

Noisy in the Northwoods

For the last few days we have been hearing the turkeys' mating call.  In my opinion it doesn't sound like gobble gobble.  However, it is loud, and it seems to echo.  Today I saw who was making all the ruckus.  It was a male turkey with all of his feathers spread out just like you see on any Thanksgiving picture.  This lucky guy had two hens walking toward him.  That is the noise in the Northwoods for early April. 

Retirement: Day 187

We put up the shelves in the laundry room. 

I guess they weren't really urgent, but we will appreciate them anyway.  Don't want to rush anything when we're retired!

Retirement Reminiscences

When you are retired, you have time to reminiscence.  The local games that were postponed reminded me of going to Lucyna and Tad's games at St. Viator High School.  Tad was on the tennis team. (MVP his sophomore year.) Lucyna had a spot on the water polo team.  On the day she came home and said that she was on the team, I asked her how they got the ponies in and out of the pool.  I had never heard of water polo.  There are no ponies involved I found out. There are six players and 1 goalie on one team played in a swimming pool.  It is a cross between soccer and ice hockey.  Yes, it is rough.  There are four quarters of  7 minutes each.  Doesn't sound like much except that the players are in water over their heads and tread water THE ENTIRE TIME while passing the ball to one another to get it in the net.  Then when one team scores or the other team gets the ball,  all 12 players swim as fast as they can to get to the other end of the pool and the other net.  Since the referee is on the sidelines and not in the water, there are many fouls not called - like when 1 player wraps her legs around an opposing player and pulls her under.

On Tuesdays they both had games.  So I would watch Tad play tennis - a polite sport - where everyone claps when anyone makes a good play and says in a normal voice  "good shot."  If a player makes a very poor shot, that player uses body language to the opposing player apologizing for the poor shot.  Then I would jump in the car and drive to the pool.  It is now time to re-read my description of water polo.  Parents including myself would stand on the bleachers and yell for our team and against the other team.  It was raucous. 

Thank goodness I never mixed up where I was.  Watching my children play on sports in high school is a very fond memory.

This is also a sign

This is also a sign.  However, it is a sign that winter is not yet over.  The high school boys' baseball game was postponed because there was too much snow on the diamond.  Ouch!  However, I do remember in Illinois that the first few matches of the season for Tad's tennis team in high school were postponed due to cold weather/rain - all four years.  So it happens all over. 

This is definitely a sign...

I went for a long walk today that took me around an edge of a bog.  There was a huge patch of pussy willows in all their fuzzy glory!  This is definitely a sign of spring!