Posts Tagged ‘family’
Dryer Still
And somehow we have arrived at the 25th day of August in 2026. I don’t feel like I’ve been waiting a lifetime to reach this day, but it has taken my entire life to get here. Yet, it’s just another day. A Tuesday. Whatever.
We paid a lot of money to fill Cyndie’s car with gas in Hayward and made our way home without incident yesterday, despite needing to navigate our way through three construction projects. We found the land at home even drier than it was when we left, Asher in good spirits, and the horses looking healthy and content.
We had a fabulous time over the weekend with Cyndie’s brother, Steve, and her mom. Steve was able to take Marie home, which allowed us to drive directly to our place. As much as we appreciate settling into our usual environs and routines, we were already feeling a little sorry last night about the absence of the extra atmosphere of fun that permeated the last four days.
Maybe Marie was noticing the same thing, as she phoned just after we finished dinner to report she wasn’t feeling 100%. Out of an abundance of caution, Cyndie opted to grab her favorite pillows and head to Bloomington to offer support and extend the pleasure of being together for one more day.
Asher and I will be running things at home this morning.
It’s tough to see everything so dry around here, but it does reduce the amount of mowing that I need to do.
Somehow, the plum trees have found enough moisture to produce a fair amount of good-looking fruit. More power to ‘em. I suspect we will be collecting fruit soon for Cyndie to can or use in some baked goodies. We’ll need to collect them before thirsty birds or critters go after the fruit simply for hydration.
I’m counting down the days until we receive the next measurable precipitation. May it arrive sooner than anyone is expecting.
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Lunch Cruise
Saturday at the lake was so incredibly pleasant that we opted for a pontoon ride across the hardly-round Round Lake to visit The Dock Bar and Grill. It’s a place folks up here have been talking about a lot this year, but none of us had been yet. Great burgers and pizza, they said. Marie had a burger, but Cyndie chose the broasted chicken, Steve went for brats, and I ordered the fish sandwich. We’ll have to go back another time to judge the pizza.
As Steve navigated away from our boat lift, the water was calm.
Out on the open water, conditions were a lot choppier.
Cyndie wanted to take a picture of Steve and me with the massive mounted moose head in the background.
“Let me get one without your silly expression,” she said.
I removed my glasses and told Steve to sit up straight and suck in his gut!
Somehow, this made his bicep muscle incredibly well-developed. Look at the guns on this guy!
Is there any question why I have so much fun hanging out with this family? Laughter is the foundation of pretty much every situation occurring at any given time.
It can make it difficult for me to focus on writing a blog post from beginning to end. That, and the fact that some scrumptious breakfast is usually being served and I’m called to the table.
Right now, I need to go have Cyndie’s French toast, bacon, and fruit to fuel myself for our next adventure.
Maybe the next activity will be something worth writing about. Our Sunday is wide open.
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Classic Wildwood
We are up at the lake again. Imagine that. Cyndie rode up with our friend, Melissa, last Tuesday for a quiet two-day respite in the magnificent surroundings of northern Wisconsin. On Thursday, I drove to the Cities to pick up Cyndie’s mom, Marie, and brought her up for the weekend.
Adding to the classic Wildwood Lodge Club vibe, Cyndie’s brother, Steve, showed up for the weekend as well, on his way back from Chicago, where he had been visiting his kids.
The clouds of hummingbirds have been consuming quarts of sugar water at an unbelievable rate.
Another classic Wildwood flying creature visited us in the sunroom in broad daylight while Steve and I were talking. Out of nowhere, a bat was suddenly flying circles around the room. I jumped up and closed the double doors to the house, and Steve moved to open the sliding door to the deck.
The silly flying mouse didn’t figure it out on its own, so Cyndie showed up with a broom and helped shoo it out the door. Just like the good old days.
While I was working on the website for my high school class reunion next summer, I could hear the speedboat, driven by Steve, pulling tubers and skiers for repeated laps. That’s a Wildwood tradition if there ever was one.
Topping off the day in the most precious of Wildwood style, while the four of us were sitting on the deck, Cyndie and Marie in the middle of a game of CrossCrib, members of the Whitlocks next door (plus one guest) came up to join us. Soon, our group expanded to include one of the Wrights, and an impromptu cocktail party was born. That eventually led to a full-on dinner party.
How does that work?
Well, one of the secrets is that Cyndie had prepared dinner for the four of us by cooking all of the chicken on hand. There were more than enough mini potatoes, and we broke corn cobs in half. An already prepared elote corn salad was contributed by the Whitlocks, and we had a perfect summer feast on the deck over the lake.
Stories flowed from both deep in the past and the retelling of the events of the day. This amazing Wildwood community celebrated its 60th anniversary in July. Yesterday was a great demonstration of how vibrant and rewarding it still is.
It’s a priceless version of what the term “going to the lake” means to people in our part of the world. There are differing versions, but anyone who has experienced Wildwood Lodge Club tends to agree that what we’ve got here stands out as worth any effort to maintain.
It truly is a classic.
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Happiness Is
Happiness is: getting multiple piles of compost tossed, watered down, and reshaped for further processing and able to be ignored for days.
Happiness is: getting the tall green grass mowed while minimizing driving over the brittle, roasted portions everywhere else.
Happiness is: finding a new use for a teapot that the house sitter accidentally let boil dry, leaving it damaged beyond repair. (!)
Happiness is: seeing our dog meandering near me as I mowed while Cyndie is on dog watch and witnessing him suddenly sprint off in her direction when he heard the beeping tone on his e-collar indicating Cyndie was calling for him. Good dog!
Happiness is: sending an interesting article to Julian via text and receiving an even more interesting article from him in response.
Happiness is: hearing Elysa checking in with Cyndie over the phone and knowing she will be getting herself up to the lake place over the weekend.
Happiness is: group texting where one message reaches everyone successfully, regardless of where they may be.
Happiness is: having an air-conditioned home for relief after laboring for hours in high heat.
Happiness is: the sound of laughter from Cyndie on a phone call with her brothers.
Happiness is: being able to accept an overnight invitation to visit friends out of town.
Happiness is: receiving a positive rsvp to an invitation sent to old friends for them to come for a visit to Wintervale.
Happiness is: hearing a rare cut I don’t recognize from one of my long-time favorite singer-songwriters.
Happiness is: succeeding in manipulating pre-formatted website software into something that aligns with our sensibilities.
Happiness is: something that can be cultivated with intentional effort if a person puts their mind to it.
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Fun Moments
A few highlights from this weekend at the lake with Cyndie and her mom:
- Cyndie surprised us with some letters she recently uncovered in our archives at home while she was looking for something else. There were almost a dozen, still in their stamped envelopes, written to her by her family while Cyndie was going to school in Spain back in 1977. The amount of detail that Marie (unsurprisingly) wrote gave us a fascinating window into that time of our past. Cyndie had grand plans to have a friend join her after the school session ended to travel around Europe, but had to scrap that adventure when she became dangerously ill and had to return home. Apparently it was wicked cold in the Twin Cities that winter, and the high school hockey team Steve played with was having a winning season. Those subjects were among several that received repeated mentions.
- I spent a chunk of time working on a website for my high school class that we will use in promoting our 50th reunion next summer. Using text messaging to communicate ideas and get feedback from my sub-committee back in the Twin Cities, I was able to make good progress on customizing a pre-formatted site from a service into something more aligned with our sensibilities. You know, changing corny into cool. My classmates deserve something that better reflects who we were back in the 1970s, when “All in the Family” and “M*A*S*H” were on television. That was back when our generation figured we were going to change the… Never mind.
- Yesterday afternoon, when I found myself getting nowhere in a struggle to outsmart the site’s formatting, I phoned my software-savvy son, Julian, for advice. We linked up so he could see my screen, allowing him to guide my explorations as we unraveled how the available features could be coped with to achieve my goals. It seemed promising when he discovered I could open a view of the source code. Using his code-writing skills, he would text me a block of code to insert into my draft. It is such a thrill when progress is made. I laughed out loud over the fact that we were pulling off our successes with him at home in the Cities, and me on a laptop in the sunroom at the lake. Alas, in the end, I had to settle for a compromise from my ideal when it became obvious that the host software was overriding our customizations at a certain point.
Now that I think on it, this isn’t much different than the battles I wage against the regular “upgrades” to my WordPress platform that are intended to make it easier to use but often end up preventing me from executing the preferred formatting I’ve been using for years. It’s tough being a dinosaur in today’s world.
[insert Tyrannosaurus rex roar here]
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Leaving Early
I am departing at dawn this morning to dash home early from the “Golf Weekend” in order to then drive more than an hour west for Cyndie’s 50th high school reunion. They are starting with a boat cruise on Lake Minnetonka, then coming back to Eden Prairie for an “after party.”
The plan seems a little dizzying to me after my last two whirlwind days of activity and conversation with the regular crew of the annual weekend that Cyndie’s brothers host at the lake place.
Yesterday started a little rainy, but that didn’t stop the golfers.
I waited until late afternoon to head out on the bike with two other riders. We got dripped on a little bit, but returned to the house before it rained hard enough to get things wet. Nobody crashed, so that was a win.
Dinner was grilled meats, corn on the cob, and a few sides. Since they realized I would be leaving and would miss the big fish dinner tonight, they thawed a little fresh-caught Alaskan Salmon for me that Ben’s son, Beck, brought from his recent fishing trip.
More delicious food, keeping up a trend of good eats I’ve been feasting on lately. I’m not confident that I’ve done enough pedaling to justify my higher-than-normal calorie consumption of late.
I made a few more adjustments to my gear in a search to quiet my noisy bike. Putting the battery back on appears to have ended the annoying click I was experiencing in the vicinity of the bottom bracket, but that just made what seem like new squeaks extra irritating. I rode yesterday without my seat bag of road repair gear to see if that was adding to the squeakiness. It may have been better, but it wasn’t silent yet. My right shoe was doing some squeaking, so I’ve got a little tweaking to do there.
I think the problems might be a moving target that I’ll just have to learn to live with.
We ended the evening with a card game that involved dealing only one card to each individual. You just have to beat one other person, with the lowest card being the loser. Each guy started with three chips. The first person to lose three times and run out of chips gets to return to the game with one chip when play drops down to just three people left.
Last night, the person who earned that dubious honor came back to win the whole thing. It was highly entertaining.
The camaraderie is something I will miss, but I’m heading to a big night of visiting at Cyndie’s 50th reunion this afternoon and evening that I expect will fill the void nicely.
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Goodbye Cousins
We miss them already. Yesterday afternoon was a series of hugs, salutations, well wishes, and goodbyes as most of the folks departed for their homes or next destinations.
Pick a color. Any color. Cyndie’s twin cousins, Mike and Tom, appear in all their brilliance. A rare moment when they aren’t displaying their usual smiles or infectious laughter.
The morning brought opportunities for some heartfelt sharing, adding depth to connections bolstered by this rare occasion of spending multiple days together free from any official events demanding attention. Well, that is, beyond the fabulous meals that kept happening.
I began the day with an immediate question for Cyndie when she woke up. Had she heard the dramatic clap of thunder from a lightning bolt that must have struck very close during the night? The flash was so bright that the pink glow that filled the window was apparent through my closed eyelids.
It became suspicious when she reported not hearing a thing, and I saw that surfaces out the window showed no evidence of it having rained. I checked with a few other people as the morning went on, but nobody had heard such a thing. Could it have been something I dreamed? It was so real to me.
When I mentioned it to Heather’s husband, John, a meteorologist, he pointed me to lightningmaps.org, where I could look at strikes in the last 24 hours.
There was no lightning strike for miles. What an amazing dream experience I’d had.
Cyndie and I finished off the last night of our long weekend with a couple of rounds of Hollywood Rummy with Sara and Althea. I enjoyed no luck.
This morning, we will pack up and head for home. I will only have a couple of days to ensure everything is ready for visitors on Thursday. Cyndie has invited folks from one of her drawing classes to come explore the views for inspiration toward their next works of art.
I plan to depart that day for a return to the lake, this time with my bike. It’s the annual golf (and biking) weekend hosted by Cyndie’s brothers, Steve and Ben. I will be accompanying any of the guys who want to mix in a ride after swinging the clubs.
It’s a tough job, but it’s what friends do.
Delicious Dining
One of the treats I am enjoying this weekend is the contributions of meals that have been outside of my norm. While the dinners have been from local institutions (Coop’s Pizza and “Famous Dave” Anderson’s version of barbecue from Tamarak Farms), the Brolin cousins have served up special versions of breakfast and lunch offerings.
Our weather yesterday hovered on the edge of being less than spectacular, with periods of misting precipitation and a lingering gray sky most of the day. That didn’t completely interfere with the pickleball games or the pontoon cruise, but what little swimming did occur was delayed until close to dinnertime when actual sunshine eventually appeared.
While in Norway, Cyndie and Elysa were introduced to a version of the “Hollywood Rummy” card game that I finally got a chance to play. It works really well with a large number of players and supports a fair amount of verbal action, both about the game and not.
While waiting for Steve and Ben to succeed in locating and porting a photo slideshow to the main room TV, I offered up the YouTube video I made of my family’s Intervale Ranch to give everyone a glimpse of my past. It’s been fun for me to be immersed in the pictures and stories from Cyndie’s and her cousins’ families, so I thought they might appreciate a little morsel of mine.
I can tell already that this joyous weekend will produce the residual longing for more after everyone returns to their real lives.
As always, it is the bonding with people that is such a treasure. The delicious eats are merely an added bonus.
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Little Late
Why am I posting a little later than usual today? Thrilling, touching, hilarious conversations are never-ending, and I couldn’t break away after watching the 20th stage of the Tour de France and then eating breakfast, where I became immersed in story after story.
Even Steve and Jessica’s dog, Vern, couldn’t keep pace with all the tales of life experiences being shared.
We are having a fabulous and very precious time. Truly priceless moments in life made manifest, experiencing the interactions of the Friswold siblings and their maternal cousins.
That’s why I’m a little late. I snuck in a moment to post while on my way to a pee break.
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Cousin Weekend
Not my cousins. We are back at the lake again, this time for a special weekend that will include Cyndie’s cousins on her mom’s side. Marie had one sister, Joan (pronounced JoAnne), who had four kids. The kids are each married and will be joining all of the four Friswold siblings and their spouses without any of our kids for a distraction-free weekend of laughter, memories, and bolstering of the family bonds.
Cyndie and I arrived mid-afternoon yesterday, picking up groceries in Hayward for the weekend that Cyndie purchased online from home on Wednesday night. She was so excited to discover it was possible. There was a childlike glee that had her mentioning several times on the drive up how pleased it made her feel. It’s hard to deny the ease and convenience of avoiding the crunch of other shoppers up and down aisles and getting through the checkout lanes, and instead, pulling up to the front of the store to have all our groceries placed in our car.
Some people wouldn’t want to settle for someone else choosing their produce, but for the convenience, Cyndie is willing to flex her standards. The corn I was tasked with shucking all looked more than adequate to me. When asked by someone about how they did with selections, Cyndie rated it a solid medium.
Faint praise, maybe, but certainly acceptable.
Being the first ones up, we immediately set about opening shades and windows, turning on ceiling fans, putting away groceries, and refilling hummingbird feeders. The landscape pond needed water added. The new mattress for the hide-a-bed needed to be unboxed and allowed to expand.
Most of the preparations were in place by the time Barry, Carlos, and Marie arrived. They made it just in time to accept an invitation to join folks from three other Wildwood Lodge Club member families for a happy hour pontoon cruise.
I don’t know why we bothered with a dinner plan for later in the evening. I ate more than a meal’s worth of scrumptious appetizers throughout the practically 2-hour float around the majority of the lake.
Never ones to stop a meal plan already in motion, the Friswold hosts whipped up a feast of grilled burgers, corn-on-the-cob, salad, and potatoes after we got back to shore. It was about three hours past my preferred dinner time and only about an hour away from my bedtime, but I nibbled half-servings of two options. It is difficult for me to lie down to sleep when I’ve still got a meal in my stomach; however, they serve up some irresistibly delicious cuisine.
I made a worthy exception to my usual routine.
This afternoon, all the other parties will gradually arrive, and the games, excited banter, precious memories, raucous laughter, and likely too much food will unfold naturally. It is reasonable to assume it will be sustained for the ensuing 48 hours.
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Relative Something 