May in Minnesota

 

5/26/26

I fancy myself a writer. But I almost never write. Last year I replaced my old laptop because it was no longer supported by Microsoft. I don’t know if that was really necessary. But I have seldom used this computer since I bought it. My current reading list includes:

Gilead by Marilyn Robinson (I read this before but it is one of my favorite books so I’m rereading it. I learned that Barak Obama really liked this book and invited the author to the
White House. How cool to be in a position to do that.

A Shepherd Looks at Psalm 23, by W. Phillip Keller. It was first published in 1970 or so. I’m reading this with my Methodist book group. I like this Psalm (I think it was on both of my parents’ funeral programs) and I like the people in the book group. If I’m wrong, I will be corrected by one of my siblings with better memories.

Wild New World: The Epic Story of Animals and People in America, by Dan Flores. This has been by my chair for about a year and I pick it up from time to time. Eye-opening history of North America.

El Paso: Five Families and One Hundred Years of Blood, Migration, Race, and Memory, by Jazmine Ulloa. I have this in digital format from the library and have read the first couple of chapters but am waiting for it to be available to check out. I’ve thought about buying the book but not sure about adding it to my library. El Paso shares much of the same story as the area I live in the Rio Grande Valley.  I own the other 3 books on my list.

This is the heaviest reading that I have done in a while. Most of the time I prefer getting lost in fiction where I can escape to another time and place. When I hang out in ancient Rome or World War II, it helps me realize that we are not living in such unusual times. Murder mysteries or crime novels are just good distractions. I’m waiting for some of those books to be available from the library.

Tomorrow, we are heading up to Brainerd to do a little fishing and de-winterize the camper at my brother’s house. That will be a good getaway from this place. We have done quite a bit of work around here getting the place cleaned up. Don is working on greasing the boat axle which we replaced a few weeks ago.

Yesterday, Greg and Peggy hosted a backyard cookout with brats, potato salad, watermelon and beer. Nephew Ken and his wife, Lori came over. My brother Ludwig also stopped by. We had perfect weather for the event.

Today marks the one-year anniversary since we returned from our European travels. It has been almost that long since I posted on my blog. Wow! Scary how time just seems to pass. In less than a month I will be 77 years old. My grandparents were pretty old when they were this age.

I have not chronicled the last year because really it was much like the year before that. We did a lot of the same things, hung out with the same people and participate in the same activities. We don’t have many travel plans. We are going to the family gathering at Camp Deer at the end of June… a lot like last year. Peggy, Edie,  Kelly and her girls are coming and that makes it special. We are planning to take our RV to Montana sometime but haven’t got that scheduled. We may even take it back to Texas this fall if it works out well on our Montana trip. We’ll probably go up to the North Shore again in September like we have for the last several years.