Up North

 

May 3, 2021.

We are back in Minnesota and now I have my detached keyboard and mouse connected to my laptop and so writing becomes much easier. I found the USB thingy that goes with my Texas keyboard and mouse exactly where I left it carefully wrapped up to take back to Texas with me. Still have some adjustments to make with this going back and forth thing. Some things shouldn’t have to be listed…. They should be automatic. Such as my secret password book and the little blue tooth speaker that makes music sound so much better. Don suggested that I get another password book. That sounds like a bad idea to me. I’m confused enough already.

We drove through driving rain most of our first day and intermittent rain on the way to Don’s sister’s in Ottawa, KS where we stayed for a couple of days. Then we swung over to see Max Ellmaker at Lake of the Ozarks in Missouri. We had one beautiful sunny day with Max. Max took us to see Ha Ha Tonka State Park where we walked around an old castle overlooking the Ha Ha Tonka SpringsaHH. The redbud and dogwoods were in full bloom and we enjoyed the best that springtime has to offer in the middle of the country.
We traveled with my brother Dick with his Scamp as far as Ottawa but when we headed for the middle of Missouri, he decided to go straight back to Rochester where he lives. Max is doing as well as can be expected and it was good to spend some time with her. Her husband Lee who was a good friend of ours died from cancer in early March so she is still in the early stages of adjusting to that loss and doing well at it.  Max is descended from Italian immigrants, the Vassanellis, who came to Pennsylvania in the early part of the last century and were coal miners. From Ashes to Song by Hilary Hauck is a recently published novel based on Max’s grandparent’s arrival and settlement in this country. I purchased the book and enjoyed reading it.

The Redbud with snow

September 8, 2021

 I wrote the above 2 paragraphs on May 3, a few days after we returned to Minnesota. I had plans to add another paragraph and post it but then the summer got away from me. May turned out to be a busy month. We bought new carpet for an upstairs bedroom. I spent a few days with my sisters, Kay and Jean, at Jean’s new house up in Duluth. We enjoyed some good food, solved some puzzles, mowed her grass and picked rhubarb. She has a neat little house up on the hill and her daughters are regular visitors. Then we had about 15 of my brothers, sister, nieces and nephews over for a fish fry compliments of my brother Mark, who caught the fish last winter and volunteered to cook. Folks brought lovely side dishes and we had way more food than we needed.

Today, I am sitting in the Scamp camper up at my brother Mark’s rural Crow Wing County home about 10 miles from where I grew up. The place has similarities to what was our family farm. There is an old dairy barn here-long since retired, a neat garden shed, a garage and an old farm house where Mark lives. He lets us store the camper here next to his garage. Don and Mark are out fishing and I’m getting some rest and taking it easy. This easily lets me transition into writing about how the summer went. I still haven’t completely recovered from the breakthrough COVID that I came down with on July 11. I got a positive test on July 13. I figured I’d get through easy since I was vaccinated last winter. I guess it was easy. My symptoms were not very severe. I lost my sense of taste and smell on about day 6. Once I was freed from isolation, I figured I could resume my normal activities. It took about 3 or 4 times of trying to have a normal level of activity followed by a few days of extreme fatigue for me to realize I have to make this gradual and when I start to get tired I need to stop. I’m getting my sense of smell back very gradually. This morning I walked with Mark’s old dog, Blue.
She goes about the same pace that I do, very slow. I walked down the mail box and back then put my feet up for a while.

Me and Blue

On August 5, Kelly came to Minnesota with Jett 3 ½ and Andalusia 15-month. We fantasized that we would go to the Minnesota Blue Grass and Old Time Music Festival after going to my sister Elaine’s wedding celebration on her first anniversary. I had done some cleaning and food prep before Kelly came and then helped her out as much as I could with her girls. We camped out at the site of Elaine’s party and on Saturday morning while we were at the playground before sunrise, we made the decision to go back to my house in Coon Rapids and skip the festival. That turned out to be a very wise decision. By the time we cleaned up camp and got back home, I was totally exhausted and spent the rest of the time in my recliner with my feet up except on her last day here.

At the Splash Pad

We took the girls over to the splash pad on Coon Rapids Boulevard so they could play in the water. I sat in the shade with another old grandmother while Kelly and Don played with the girls.

The month of June was pretty much taken up with our family vacation on the Outer Banks of North Carolina. Last fall in the midst of the pandemic we booked a 5 bedroom house, Fare-Sea-Well in Avon… a 3 minute walk to the beach. At the time we had no idea whether we would be able to do this vacation but figured that if we wanted to go, we needed to plan ahead. As it turned out, if you remember… The pandemic was pretty much over in June. All of the adults in the family were vaccinated and the 2 children who flew wore masks. Edie brought her good friend Oscar so she had someone to play with. Kelly and Jason drove down from Pennsylvania. Don and I loaded the car with everything we might need, leaving room for a food run at Costco, and took a week to drive. We stopped and visited friends along the way. As it turns out we have friends every few hundred miles all the way from here to the Outer Banks. We stopped in Hannibal MO, Springfield IL, Lexington KY and Hickory NC and had some really good meals with some of our favorite people.

Fare Sea Well - Our VRBO

Ready for the Beach

Catching the sunrise over the Atlantic

Beach Shelter

Then we stopped at Costco in Raleigh NC on Saturday morning, finished loading up the car and headed to the beach where we spent a week. Kelly, Jason, Jett and Andalusia came in about an hour after we arrived. Greg, Peggy, Edie and Oscar flew into Norfolk and came down in a rental car arriving in time for a late supper. The week was not without its challenges as one would expect but we did some really good cooking and spent a lot of time at the beach. I will flesh out this story with pictures.

Greg and I both came back from this trip with a cold. There was nothing novel about it… congestion, cough, sore throat. Greg got himself tested and came back negative so I didn’t bother. This leads me to believe that my immune system might not be as robust as I would like. But I got over that cold before we went to Don’s family reunion in Scottsbluff NE from July 7 – 11.

The Ruff siblings. 

It was sometime around there that I picked up COVID. IT was novel. It didn’t feel like a cold or the flu even though some symptoms are the same. It’s hard to describe the generalized awfulness all over my body that I experienced for a couple of days. Ibuprofen helped with the pain. I was never terribly sick and didn’t need any medical attention. I just thought it would be all over by now. So that has been my summer.

Now we are “up North” and will a do a little fishing, head to Effie for the Edge of the Wilderness Battle of the Jug Bands, and then to Duluth to see my sister and nieces and the North Shore for some camping and sightseeing.

At the Lakehead Boat Basin - Duluth

At Lutsen Ski resort

The winners of the the Contest
Fat Chance Jug Band

September 9, 2012

 I once more have been left home alone while Don and Mark go out to catch some Northerns from South Long Lake for dinner. Hanging out with a professional chef totally spoils a person. This morning, in the time it would take me to put out a tub of yogurt, carton of granola, some fruit and 3 bowls and spoons, Mark prepared perfect omelets with fresh vegetables and cheese and toast along with sliced home-grown tomatoes.

Last week I baked that big Northern that I caught in Coon Lake back on July 2 before I went to the family reunion and got sick.

Me and Edie

I had cleaned it and frozen it in a vacuum pack the day I caught it. It’s been sitting in the freezer which I’m trying to empty out before we go south. The timing was right. It was Ludwig’s birthday and I have more than enough siblings to call together to eat fish whenever I have some. A couple of days before I thought of Mark who is furloughed right now while his restaurant is being remodeled and only lives a couple of hours from me. I really wasn’t thinking of having him cook for me so I had the fish scaled with some lemon slices, onions and butter, wrapped in foil and in the oven when Mark arrived. I had underestimated the cooking time by about 1 hour so Mark arrived in time to finish it off and serve it up. It was delicious. He also brought some peaches and strawberries along with his home-made shortbread and whipped cream for dessert. I expect he can get fish from the live well, cooked and on the table in half an hour or so. We’ll see. Bob is going to join us to eat this fish.

Scaling a 2 foot Northern…. Before you start, put on an old shirt. Then cover your kitchen island with newspaper and lay your cutting board with the fish in front of you. Using a serrated steak knife (there are probably better tools but it was handy) beginning at the tail end scrape up the fish, lifting and removing the scales along with the slime. Repeat this process until the fish is mostly naked. Then turn it over and do the same to the other side. Dick assures me that the fish will taste much better cooked without the scales. He also observed that scales are easy to vacuum up so don’t worry about that. Slice up onions and a lemon and turn the fish over to someone else for the final prep. Wrap up the scales and slime that landed on the newspaper, put the cutting board in the sink, wash your hands, change into your clean shirt and go sit down because you are exhausted. Ignore all complaining from the clean-up crew about scales on the backsplash (that’s hard to believe…it was behind me), the cabinets and countertops. The next day, if you have the energy, take out the vacuum and clean the kitchen floor.

The most recent pictures of my smart and strong granddaughters!

Andalu - 18 months

Edith 9 going on 10

Jett - almost 4

Yes we have no bananas

Yes, we have no bananas and we are rationing what’s left of our milk. For the last 5 days there have been no milk or bananas or a lot of other stuff in our local HEB stores. Today there was very little produce at all and most of the shelves in the store were empty. It has been 6 days since the first storm went through and yesterday electricity was being restored throughout the state though everything is still not online. I remember reading one time that we live about 2 weeks away from famine and now I believe it. I’m sure that a lot of the citrus and produce that is grown in the Rio Grande Valley was killed by the hours of hard freezing that we endured. North of here fared much worse and they still haven’t cleared their roads of ice and snow. But it is starting to warm up so things will get better. My proud state was brought to its knees by this winter storm. I am now resisting the urge to politicize my commentary. You can fill in the blanks. We were fortunate here at Palmdale in that we never lost electricity. We think it may be because we are next door to a facility called Comprehensive Health Services which houses hundreds of immigrant children and they had to keep electricity going for them. 

Last Wednesday, we received our second Moderna Vaccine and now we feel pretty safe when we go out into the world. We invited 7 of our vaccinated friends for dinner in our house last Monday night. None of us wore masks. I commented on the momentous occasion that it was but we just ate and visited and enjoyed being warm indoors and it all seemed so normal. We didn’t even talk about the Coronovirus or politics. It was the strangest thing and yet so ordinary… a throwback to another era.. .

Other than that, there is not much going on. SpaceX is building rockets and getting ready to test SN10. One of the great things that SpaceX did was to provide a generator to the Turtle Rescue Center so that they could keep thousands of sea turtles alive that otherwise would have died from the cold. You can check their website at seaturtleinc.org.

Andalusia and Jett reading

Ice cycles on the neighbor's eaves

 

Vaccinated

 

Here at Palmdale almost all of our 200 sites are now full putting the population at near 400 people all coming down from the cold north. That includes North Texans now as winter has moved south. And there isn’t a lot to do so people do a lot of walking about. Yes, there is golf and the beach is still open and SpaceX is doing exciting things to provide us with a distraction. I worry though about COVID coming here. Whenever I begin to join someone in lamenting all the things we can’t do around here, I try to stop and say something like, “If the worst thing that happens this year is that we don’t get to line dance, I will be so grateful. NEXT YEAR, I want us all to come back and dance to our hearts content.”

Some of us are beginning to get our vaccines. We are making an effort to get the county to come to Palmdale and set up a clinic for our residents but that doesn’t seem to be the preferred way for Cameron County to get the vaccine out. Because of Don’s regular contact with Cameron County Public Health, we got a heads up about a clinic at the Los Fresnos Fire Department about 5 miles away from here. We were able to position our car in the 14^th place of a long line of cars on January 12. We have 6 seats in our car so we invited my brother Dick and friends Rick and Karen to participate in tag team car sitting for all of yesterday and all night. Don spent the night. The rest of us came home and slept in our beds getting up at 4:00 in the morning so we could all be in the car at 5:00 to be counted for the 6:00 AM vaccine distribution. My first thought about this process was not positive. It is problematical in that it favors those who have resources and time. I thought it sounded “Darwinian”. On the other hand it was effective in getting a lot of people vaccinated safely and quickly. They had 2325 vaccines in people's arms before noon. We drove through the fire department.. about 10 cars at a time with vaccinators on both sides of the car ready with syringes to give us a shot and collect our paperwork. The five of us received our vaccine in about 5 minutes and we were out of there. They even had us park in a separate area for 15 minutes to make sure we didn’t have an allergic reaction with EMTs monitoring us. Our friends, on the other hand got in line at 4:30 this morning and were home by about 10:30. I don’t know which way is better but if one came late (4:30 AM) they may risk not getting a vaccine. It was well organized with workers handing out forms and counting vaccine recipients. As it is, we don’t know whether the fatigue we are feeling has to do with the Vaccine or with sleep deprivation. In a month, we’ll get our second shot and in 6 weeks we should be safe. At least that is the plan. And for the doubters out there, this feels better to me than getting the virus. I know that I am participating in an amazing public health experiment.

My brothers Dick and Ludwig arrived at Palmdale on December 30. Dick is staying in the Scamp across the street from us and Ludwig has been staying in our guest room. He will fly back to Minneapolis tomorrow, January 14. We haven’t done much of interest with them but have certainly enjoyed a lot of meals and a few games of 500. Last Sunday we drove over to Boca Chica to take a look at Starship SN9 which is on the launch pad. We had hoped to get over to the island to watch a launch with them but it got put off and now may go up tomorrow while Ludwig is flying off to Minneapolis. SpaceX has Nerdle Cam 4K that streams continuously on You Tube so we can turn on our TV and check on activity at the launch pad any time of the day. Sometimes … actually a lot of time… that is like watching paint dry. But other TV is so disturbing nowadays that watching a rocket sitting on a launch pad isn’t bad. If you look closely you can see the Gulf of Mexico on the other side of the dunes.

I spend way too much time with my device and I’m halfway convinced that contributes to a lot of anxiety and insomnia. That is one reason to sit down and do some writing, just to engage my brain differently. Someday, I will make a change there.

In the meantime, I continue to participate in 2 Zoom book groups with some folks who I have never met in person but who are part of the United Methodist Church in Anoka where I will go next year and meet them. That forces me to read so I can do my homework.

And I pray for our country. So much heartbreak and trauma.

Tomorrow is Edie’s birthday. She is 9 years old and I am not going to Minnesota for the first time in 9 years in January. It will be a Skype birthday I guess.

Kelly’s two continue to grow. Here are pictures.

Edie - 9 years old

Palmdale sunset

Jett in her new pajamas

Jett and Andalusia

SpaceX Starship SN9    

Andalusia

New Year's Eve