Summer

I’m trying to write outside in the screen house here by the river on this beautiful cool pre-fall summer day. But of course a lawn mower starts up. It’s also a perfect day for mowing at the end of this rainy summer here in Minnesota. The river is still full as it heads south which is, of course, the direction that we are beginning to think of going…after we take a sideways route across Wisconsin and the Upper Peninsula. This is our last weekend here at Mississippi Riverwood.

Full moon over the river

Not much is planned for this weekend except for Niece Aleatha’s wedding reception which is being held at the same location as the wedding was last April. She has had a busy summer and baby Marjorie Helen is getting chubby and strong already. I haven’t seen her since July but FB pictures tell me how much she has grown.

 It is good to have a fairly quiet weekend as we have not had one for quite a while. Two weeks ago we packed up the camper and headed up north to the Minnesota Blue Grass and Old Time Music Festival at El Rancho Manana. Brothers Ludwig and Doug were there as usual and Greg, Peggy and Edie joined us. Great music, good food,

Breakfast at the festival

good company and late nights are the typical experiences, only made better these last 2 years because with Edie I can go and hang out in the family area and enjoy watching her string beads and paint or walk through the magnificent mud on the road up to Old Wash Machine Field where my brothers camp. We can’t camp there anymore unless we leave the camper behind.

At Deb's houe

Then last weekend we headed up to Duluth with Greg’s family to see the Tall Ships Festival. Niece Deb and her family are on vacation out west and let us stay at her house. She has a wonderful old two-story house in the city. It is filled with the comfortable feeling of their lives, books and plants and a basket of rocks, with 2 cats we took care of while we were there. Her 2 teenage children let us use their rooms. They had found some toys that Edie enjoyed.

This weekend we just have the reception and we will have dinner with Greg and Peggy Sunday night at their home. Edie starts pre-school on Monday so they are moving to the school schedule. Greg will be 40 next week. So we better celebrate that. Don’s gift to Greg this year was in the form of labor. They painted on Kelly’s house and Greg got the money for both their work and purchased the supplies to move his fence. Then the two of them spent a couple of days getting that done. They also spent a day putting a slide topper on the big slide-out on our camper.

The Unicorn

The winner (I was the judge)

Baby

Of course, I just babysat while they were doing all of that. That includes camping in the living room. I don’t fit in the tent along with all the luggage so I slept with my head in the tent. I competed in a beauty contest with a unicorn, Barbie and Baby. Edie won the contest of course. She was hands down the most beautiful.

Barbie

Grandma

Brother Jake was discharged from the hospital to the Forensic Nursing Home in St. Peter. His condition is somewhat better. He is fed through a feeding tube and gets oxygen. He still has pneumonia and is very weak and bedridden. The bright side is that the nursing home is state funded and has adequate resources to provide good nursing care and it is a comfortable, clean and well lit. Overall a very nice facility. He may actually recover. Kay and I met with the social worker and she seemed to genuinely care about him. We should all get such good care if we find ourselves in that situation.

Our cousin, Jimmy Dunlap died last weekend. He is not the first in our generation to die. We have other  cousins who have died from cancer in their 50’s. Those were just not right. But Jimmy was 70. He was a few months younger than brother Bob. They were the first 2 children in our generation back in 1945. Jim was the personification of tall, dark and handsome. He was also big enough to take me by the hands and swing me around until I was dizzy back when I was 8 or 9. He and his sister Kathy spent days at our farm and we spent days up north at Camp Deer where they lived. But there is no funeral now. They will have a memorial event next spring. I hope we are back in the state for that. The week after Labor Day we will be up at Camp Deer for the Jug Band Boogie where we can give our condolences to Em (Jim’s wife) and Norman (his little brother).

Labor Day weekend we are planning a family reunion by Brainerd. You wouldn’t think we would need a reunion a week after a wedding reception but that is just how things work out. After the Jug Band Boogie, we will head out east and then south and west to visit friends in Illinois and Missouri before going back to Texas.

Here’s some poetry or something

Running in Flip Flops

I wear flip flops most of the time now and

Often I have to run

A foot race with barefoot Edie, laughing all the way

Catching that girl when she trys to get away…

Yes, I can still outrun her.

To get to the other end of the camper to check for obstacles

To the driver’s window to consult with my driver

Then back to the other side to check the branches of the tree

Then to the back so he doesn’t go too far.

No, we are not yelling at each other.

Just trying to communicate.

Yes, I run in flip-flops even though it is not recommended.

Writing prompts:

Running in flip flops

Leaving Minnesota

My son is 40

2 funerals and a wedding followed by a family reunion?