Fall in the Northwoods

Today is a picture perfect day - blue skies, no clouds, sun is shining, 60 degrees, not much wind.  It is certainly not the usual early November around here.  We are all literally basking in it.  I led my walking group on a hike this week - weather was just as nice.  The owner/cook of the restaurant that we were going to eat at - tomato basil soup, grilled cheese for 45 women at $6.99 each (sweet!) drove and found us where we were walking - electric power was out in Clam Lake, WI where his place was.  However, he secured a new lunch place for us at another restaurant.  Wow!  Life in the northwoods is always surprising. 

Six Months of News

I definitely got out of the habit of writing a blog entry.  Life in the Northwoods has settled into a nice flow.  Perhaps too relaxed, too enjoyable to sit back, too busy to reflect and write a blog.

We have a grandson - Alek who has a big sister - Kata.  He is healthy and happy.  May 2016

I bought a new car and drove 2,200 miles in two weeks solo.  June 2016

Case's mother died of Alzheimer's in July.  Age 92

August 2016 - Assist in cleaning out his mom's house of nearly 50 years.

September 2016 -Helped Lucyna's fiance pull off a surprise 30th birthday party.

October 2016 - Trip to Niagara Falls to celebrate our 40th wedding anniversary. 

And here is November...let's see how I do...

This is good enough to break silence

In January 2017 I will be 62 years old and can begin to receive social security.  I am not waiting until full retirement age - another 4-5 years - because the money may be all gone by then!  Of course, I needed to create my own account with SS.  User name cannot be your name so I like to be imaginative.  For my gasoline card my user name is gassy1.  You get the idea.  Hmmm.....what should be my user name for social security?  It didn't take long for the inspiration to arise.......givememymoney.  SS immediately came back to me - THAT USER NAME IS ALREADY TAKEN.  When I wiped away the tears of laughter, I typed in...thisisfunny. 
That one was taken as well.  So, then, I typed a non-amusing user name and that was accepted.   So on the last Wednesday of March, I will receive my first social security check.  Hallelujah!

Ice Out Photo

When we bought the house 9 years ago, this steel, heavier-than-Hades dock, came with it.    It needed two wheels.  Case took measurements of what the configuration was to attach to the dock.  He went to the junk yard to look for the exact match.  You are looking at two wheels from a Crown Victoria!  What a hoot!  He fills them with air before "the boys" roll it in. 

There is our bay - Steamboat Bay on Lost Land Lake - free of ice.  Spring is here!

Big Day on Lost Land Lake

I bet you remember the Surfaris song "Wipe out"    Every carnival ride at the Champaign County Fair played this song in the mid 60's when I spent much time there.  What, you say, does that have to do with Lost land Lake?  Every spring there is a day when all the ice is gone.  Locals call it "ice out."  Last week when ice out occurred, Case and I were running around the house in excitement.  Somehow Wipe Out came to mind.  So I was saying ICE OUT like WIPE OUT with the crazy laugh like in the song.  Good times!

I going to get on the phone and call the "dock boys" to come out and git 'er done!

Words

Here is a "parlor" game or conversation at the dinner table.

A few words do not have rhymes...unless you can find one.  (There are no rhyming words for these.)

angel
bulb
orange - I already knew this one.
silver
month

I enjoy this kind of stuff.

The Party's Over

Case and I have been suffering from the let down - now that Tuesday's party is over.  I am referring to the Wisconsin Presidential Primary.  For more than a week we were the center of the political universe.  Boy, was that exciting!  Candidates showing up at large and small venues.  We watched all of this from the comfort of our living room, but, nevertheless, the excitement was felt.  Both of us are election inspectors as they are called in WI.  Getting ready Tuesday morning was as exciting as the big ski race day.  We were giddy.  There are 303 registered voters in our "Town of Spider Lake."  186 voted which is about 61% voter turnout.  There was no down time.  The time went quickly.  I left at 2:30 when the next inspector came on duty.  Case and another inspector were there from 6:30 am to 10 pm.  I don't work the whole time because President Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863 freeing the slaves.  15.5 hours of work with NO breaks is slavery in my opinion and I won't do it. Thank you, Abe.

Another reason we were giddy was because we felt we were facilitating the Stop Trump campaign which was running strong.  The state did just that - stop Trump.  However, here are the results of our polling place.  And our county followed suit. We were disappointed. So Trump received 3 delegates from the northern part of the state and 3 delegates from the western part of WI.  The rest went to Cruz. 

Trump 69
Cruz 35
Kasich 23

Sanders 34
Clinton 20

There were only two candidates running for two positions on the local town board.  They received 139 and 126 votes and 1 vote for "Dave" - one of the election inspectors!  I guess that brought a little levity to the late night counting situation.