Posts Tagged ‘friends’
Newest Year
This is the newest year ever! 2016 is brand spankin’ new. I hope your greeting from the 1st day of January this year was a friendly one.
Our drive north yesterday, with Delilah along for her first long car trip, went better than we imagined it might. She did great. She settled in amazingly well at the cabin of our good friends, Barb & Mike Wilkus. It helps that Mike is especially good with dogs, greeting her with a treat, right from the start.
After a fantastic steak dinner, he offered Delilah a bone to chew. I think I noticed her swooning over him. She has a new best friend.
At Delilah’s usual bed time, Cyndie put her in her crate and dropped the cover over it, and we moved to the kitchen to play cards. After a short while, Delilah began to whine in her bed. Cyndie decided to give Delilah a little more time with us while we were still up. The dog was as happy as could be over her good fortune.
Later, to top off an otherwise stellar day of good behavior, Delilah ended up putting herself back to bed in her crate when she got tired. Cute and very helpful! We are confident she is feeling very, very comfortable here.
Goodbye to the year 2015. Bring on the new year, the newest year, 2016!
Look out, new year. Here we come.
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Spaghetti Demo
I found the perfect gift to give Cyndie for Christmas: a kitchen pasta making machine. Last night, our friend and neighbor, George Walker invited us over for dinner and demonstrated how to make spaghetti noodles from scratch. By the time we arrived, he had already created the dough, so the bulk of what we got to see was the process of rolling it out and cutting it into strips.
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With Cyndie’s experience in baking from scratch, making spaghetti seems like a natural variation she could expand into. Now that I’ve seen the process in person, I’m convinced it is something she can do. After tasting the results of George’s effort, I believe making fresh spaghetti will be well worth her time.
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After dinner I got a chance to play George’s resonator guitar that lays flat in the lap and is played using a steel slide bar. It seems to me that an instrument like that would be good for me to have for entertaining Cyndie while she is making pasta noodles with her new machine.
How come I get all these brilliant ideas after Santa has already come and gone for the season?
It was a good thing that we only had a short drive home at the end of the evening, because it was snowing so much that it looked like the light-speed view from Star Wars hyperdrive with all the flakes blowing toward our windshield.
This morning, my day begins with some driveway plowing before I will be able to try braving the challenge of commuting on the freeways during a snow storm. That is, if I actually try getting to the day-job today…
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Christmas Sentiment
I am giving myself a present for Christmas, and it comes from everyone who loves me.
I am going to choose to consciously allow myself to absorb, feel, and appreciate the love that others shower over me in myriad ways.
It’s simple, but oh so powerful.
Thank you to all who love me. May you feel and receive an abundance of amplified love in return!
Merry Christmas!
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Sneaking Treats
I’m feeling a bit of a sugar overdose this morning after a day of too many treats. I told Cyndie that I kept sneaking cookies and caramels as if I was trying to hide them from myself. I don’t think I successfully fooled me.
We had a bit of a weather event move through the region yesterday. It wasn’t as bad as the tornadoes that proved lethal in the south, but it added a little drama to my double-commute. After navigating the snow to get home from work, we drove back into the cities through the heaviest snow for dinner and a visit with friends and family.
Yesterday’s precipitation started as rain. Cyndie had smartly moved the horses into the barn overnight, while they were calm and dry Tuesday evening. She described the horses as wanting to go outside Wednesday morning, even though the obvious reverberation of raindrops on the metal roof meant they would get a soaking once out.
By the time I got home in the afternoon, it was falling as all snow. It was a sloppy, sticky mess. Rolling slowly along the driveway, I inspected the herd. The two young chestnuts were in the back pasture, grazing normally. Dezirea was near Legacy, close to the paddock, but out in the hay-field area. She had her butt to the wind and her head down, in the classic pose of enduring the wetness.
It was Legacy who drew my attention. I felt a moment of alarm, wondering if he may have a serious problem, so I stopped to observe him for about three minutes. I couldn’t quite figure out his issue, because his uncharacteristic behavior included as many normal gestures as odd ones.
I decided he just looked uncomfortable and reported it to Cyndie immediately. She headed out to check and let them back in the barn for the night. Turned out to be accumulations of sticky snow balled up under his hooves that were irritating him.
After picking up my car that had been in for service— oh, that’s another story… The recent flat tire revealed that all my tires were pretty worn out. I authorized a full set of new tires and asked them to change the oil while they had it. I wasn’t surprised when the shop called to report the rotors of the front brakes were in bad shape. It was time. Nor was I surprised when they called again and said the calipers not working is probably what wore out the rotors. New calipers, too.
The repair of my one flat tire had escalated into a 3-day project that was in danger of costing a quarter of the car’s worth. When I called to see if it was ready for us to pick up, the tech answered and reported that, yes, the battery had come, and it was ready now.
Battery?
Oh, yeah. That, too. That one flat tire led to a very expensive visit to the shop. Merry Christmas, John. You just spent your holiday bonus and then some. I will say, I am very satisfied to have this much car, with its known history, for that amount of money.
I’m off work until next Monday and we now enter full Christmas eventing for the next 4 days. If I find time, I’ll write about it.
It’s going to involve a lot of driving in my “new” car, and I’m hoping a somewhat controlled amount of sugary treats.
Merry Christmas to you!
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Social Success
Our cookie social was a success, despite not drawing as many new faces as I hoped we might meet. The new people we did discover were a wonderful pleasure and we quickly learned, once again, how small the world can seem. We have a good variety of kindred spirits in the vicinity, revealing a number of common connections, many of them being our friend, George Walker.
The rural setting, with many of the homes tucked far from the road, makes it too easy to see less of neighbors, unless proactively putting effort in seeking to connect. It motivates me to be quicker to ask neighbors for advice or assistance in the future.
What’s the worst that could happen? If they weren’t able to help, I am learning they would most likely know someone who could, and they’d be happy to provide these referrals.
The downside about the small number of folks showing up is, there is a dangerous amount of cookies and holiday treats left over that I want to avoid consuming in my quest to eat a low sugar diet, even with Cyndie loading up mountains on take-home plates for folks.
Before guests arrived, I took Delilah out for a walk to burn off some energy and we made our way down to check on the horses. We found them at nap time, with Hunter laying down on the raised circle of hay in the paddock. Dezirea and Legacy were up by the barn where he was eating hay out of the box and she was falling asleep in the sun.
Legacy turned to interact with me, and while he was facing me, I could see Dezirea behind him. She kept buckling as she eased into too deep of a sleep, and would startle to catch herself and stay upright. Each time she startled, it made Legacy jump. He would turn to give her a look, and she would be standing just fine. It happened over and over again, creating a hilarious spectacle.
It was as if Legacy was peeved over her spooking him, and every time he turned to throw his grumpy gaze at her, she was standing perfectly calm, like a little angel.
I tried to take a picture of her to catch that moment, missing several times before I realized I should be recording a video. By the time I did, she must have figured out what was happening and remedied things.
I have a couple of minutes of video showing her standing rock solid.
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Fun Friday
In the morning on Friday, Pequenita was stretched out at the end of the bed while Cyndie and I were studiously working on our laptops. I know I was working because I can see by the screen that I was in my work email account.
I had stepped away for some reason, and when I returned, I got this view of our cat, stretched long at the spot just beyond where my feet had been, with her front paws tucked beneath her.
How cat-like endearingly appealing that looks.
We had plans for the day that involved creating some fun food to bring to a gathering of a group of futsallers with whom I had played for many years, before my degenerating disks forced my retirement from the game.
I suppose that may have helped to inspire the coincidence of our spontaneously deciding to pull out the giant soccer ball for the horses to play with in the relative warm sunshine of the afternoon.
I recorded a short video so I could provide proof to my old friends that there is soccer still in my life on the ranch. Well, sort of.
The hours after the horse-play were filled with experimenting in the kitchen, where I helped with some taste testing and cutting & wrapping home-made caramels that Cyndie cooked up late Thursday night.
Then it was off through Friday afternoon rush-hour traffic to get to the party where we enjoyed hours of wonderful food and fellowship. I relished the opportunity to catch up with friends and hear stories about the ongoing morning games and the growing participation.
It was nice to meet a couple of the newer players and particularly precious to reconnect with my old favorites. The food was exceptional, to the point we packed a doggy bag of leftover foods that captured our fancy, when retrieving our dishes as our target departure hour arrived… and passed.
Brief moments after I had made the rounds, saying goodbye, a group photo was requested. While we were posing for that, Cyndie’s brother and his wife arrived, prolonging our visit for, I think, two more rotations of saying, “Good night. We have to leave!”
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Family Feast
Our Thanksgiving holiday was blessed with family graciously agreeing to travel the distance to our home, despite the onset of our first measurable snowfall of the season. We feasted and visited with full Thanksgiving spirit.
In the morning, our favorite neighbor, George Walker, brought some of his family by, enriching our holiday more than ever. The wet morning drizzle transitioned to snow and the day became a blur of kids, boots, sleds, food, and food, and more food.
I have no idea how many calories I consumed, but due to the fact that I found myself snacking non-stop from early on, up to the main event dinner, and beyond, I expect it was well past normal. That’s part of what makes a holiday feast event special. It is definitely not normal.
I captured a shot of 7 precious people working on preparations in the kitchen, with Delilah lingering close to keep the floor clean in case of spills.
We had all 5 leaves extending the table to full-size and then added a card table at the end, which serves to really make it seem like a holiday feast.
Food was superb, family supreme, and a grand time was had by all.
It was a fine day of thanks. We have much for which to be thankful.
Above it all, family and friends.
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Really Me
I watched a movie last night about a person who went undercover, and the discomfort it created for me led me to realize how much I prefer being authentic. You can ask me a question about my life and I won’t have to make up an answer, I can tell you what really happened. Or at least, the version of what happened that my mind conjured up for storage in my memories. I fully admit to the fallibility of my perceptions.
If you were to ask me what happened in my life 34 years ago today however, I would have no problem recalling the beautiful blue sky and warm sunshine that broke a chain of much less lovely weather during the week prior. 
I remember feeling a bit disoriented by all that was going on around me, because much of it was all about me. It was also all about Cyndie, as that is the day we were married in the Noerenberg Garden park on the shore of Lake Minnetonka, in Wayzata, MN.
For too many of the ensuing years, I have been the target of much grief and good-natured ridicule from my wife for the time I sought clearance from her to go away for a weekend of mountain biking with friends, having not put two and two together to determine it would mean I would be gone over our anniversary. It was an innocent oversight, but not one a husband should ever make if he doesn’t want to hear about it over and over, for many years after.
If there is any matrimonial justice in the world, a wife who chose to schedule a week away with her friends on the far side of the country during her wedding anniversary weekend would be setting herself up for an equal number of years of grief from her husband, but I don’t think it works that way.
If you happen to read this today, my dear, Happy Anniversary!
Now, if someone asked me what happened 27 years ago today, I would also know exactly what happened in my life that day. Cyndie and I received the best anniversary present we could possibly imagine. Our son, Julian was born on our 7th anniversary. I like the fact that one of my favorite memories of that day, beyond seeing his face for the first time, involves our daughter, Elysa.
I had ventured from the hospital to pick her up and bring her to meet her brother. I bet Cyndie recalls who was taking care of her and what she was wearing, but those details, I didn’t retain. I remember that little 2-year-old girl in her car seat behind me, as I pulled up to a fast food drive-through menu to fill Cyndie’s one request. She needed a specific chicken sandwich from Arby’s that she couldn’t get from the hospital’s kitchen.
I had barely completed the sentence proclaiming my order for the sandwich to the faceless wall, when, without missing a beat, a tiny voice came from behind me… “And a coke!” Elysa knew what her mother would want.
Happy Birthday, Julian!
I’m so glad I don’t have to make any of this stuff up.
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Dinner Outside
I was stuck at the day-job yesterday on a rare Friday and this morning I find myself there again, on an even rarer Saturday. My heavy work schedule hasn’t stopped us from having a rich life at home, however. On the laborious commute home yesterday through heavy traffic that was probably a function of it being the start of our Labor Day holiday weekend, I received a call from Cyndie’s brother, Ben. He was driving a van with 4 kids, headed for the lake and already interested in a break from the stop-and-go routine on the highway.
He selected a re-route that took him close enough to our place for a brief visit. By now, those of you reading probably know that having visitors is one of our favorite things. This was a wonderful unexpected delight. Especially as it fit perfectly prior to an outing we had planned with our friends, Barb and Mike.
About an hour after Ben succeeded in herding his kids back into the van for the remainder of their trek to the lake, Barb and Mike arrived in their Prowler convertible for a picturesque drive to the Rush River valley for dinner at the open air pavilion of Vino in the Valley restaurant.
It was Cyndie’s and my third visit for a meal at Vino in the Valley, and this time we enjoyed the full experience of dining later into the evening. While seated at the 4-sided bar gazebo, we got to chat with owner Larry Brenner, who later, led a couple of sing-alongs and provided shout-outs to birthday and anniversary celebrants.
Custom concrete starlit bar surface!
My beverage of choice on the bar.
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The summer evening was divine, despite the barely comfortable dew point temperature, the live music was very good, the more than reasonably priced food was delicious and portions extensive. I found myself wondering aloud about how rich it all made me feel.
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Relative Something 