Monday, October 18, 2021, MN

A cold spell has caused me to go through winter clothing and reorganize my closet this week. Other than needing a couple of pairs of wool socks, I am in good shape for the long, cold winter.

I had a first-time haircut appointment Thursday afternoon with Shirley and I really like her. She did a great job on my hair and we found lots of very interesting topics to talk about. I will definitely be seeing her again. It’s not that I wasn’t happy with the haircuts that I had been getting from Jeanell but she is almost 20 miles away from me now.  Shirley’s salon is within walking distance.

Kathy (lives in my building) and I got to talking last week and since we both enjoy walking, we met up on Sunday morning and walked and talked for 3.5 miles. I had well over 10,000 steps in by the time we got back home. It is so nice to have someone to walk with - it just makes it go so quickly.

Lois called me yesterday morning to see if I was interested in joining them and Ben’s family to celebrate Dennis’ birthday. It was a beautiful fall day and I wasn’t about to turn down an invitation to be around people, especially family. It was a great afternoon that included a walk to a nearby playground, sitting around a campfire, and having some great chili, cornbread, and apple crisp for dinner.

When I got back home, I walked Frisco and then Tom and I had a very nice Duo video chat. He is back home in Apache Junction, getting settled in and reconnecting with friends and family. We had an enjoyable visit - to be continued next week.

By the end of the day, I had walked seven miles and had almost 17,000 steps in for the day. I was tired and ready for bed early.

Monday, October 11, 2021, MN

After making a batch of chili yesterday and some Happy Birthday Brownies for Roger, I headed out this afternoon to meet up with them at Rochester KOA. I feel like it is always nice to not have to cook dinner after a day’s drive. They have started their trek to Arizona where they will be spending the winter and I really wanted to see them again before the spring rolls around. We had a very nice visit for a few hours and then I headed back home again.  Happy Trails, you guys!

Sunday, October 11, 2021, MN

We had our family celebration of Camille and Norah’s 8th birthday today and it is so great to see what kind, loving, talented and appreciative girls they are becoming. They both designed their birthday cakes and baked them with the help of Mom and Dad and they decorated them by themselves.  Norah’s request was for a Chocolate Caramel Monkey Face cake and Camille’s was for a Tie-dye Rainbow Cake.  Here are the results:

We hung around, opened gifts and managed to get some good family photos. It was a very enjoyable afternoon.

Saturday, October 9, 2021, MN

Life is good! As I walked Frisco this morning, not fully awake, with my head in the clouds, a Bald Eagle took off from the treetops and flew right over my head. What a beautiful, graceful bird! A great way to start the day.

Our weather for the last few weeks has been unseasonably warm and beautiful with temps in the mid to upper 70s.  It looks like today might be the last we see for a while, as we will be dropping below 70 for the first time in a long time.

Wednesday, October 6, 2021, MN, WI

Way back on Saturday morning, I met Ben and Charlotte when the twins were dropped off for their Gymnastics classes. Charlotte had already been to swimming, so there she was with a wet back and butt because she forgot to bring underwear with her.  She was feeling a bit cold, so I gave her my raincoat and that did the trick.  We walked over to the farmer’s market and sampled a few things, picked up a few items (apples, corn, and eggs for me - carrots, apples, and honey sticks for Ben), and grabbed a hot dog for Charlotte before we had to get back to pick up Norah and Camille.

On Wednesday morning, I picked Mavis up and we headed out on a road trip in hopes of finding some brilliant fall colors, some places to shop and some good eats. The colors were not quite as brilliant as we had hoped but we did see some scattered patches. 

In Osceola, we parked along the street and checked out a few shops and the waterfalls, then stopped at The Watershed Cafe for a tasty brunch.  After leaving there, we went to Interstate State Park on the Minnesota side of the St Croix River and walked some of the trails around the Potholes.  The park has over 200 potholes of various sizes, all were formed when the powerful water and sand from the St Croix River swirled and formed the potholes, the deepest one is 60-feet deep but there are many that are quite small.

I ‘borrowed’ this photo from the NPS.com website-hope it’s ok.

Trees really do grow out of rocks. Amazing!

A friendly passerby offered to take a photo of us.

From there, we headed south on MN95 that ran along the St Croix River. It is along that stretch that we saw the most color.  I spotted a sculpture garden alongside the road and had to do a U-turn and go back to check it out. It is a place that I might want to stop at another time, as we just didn’t feel like doing that much walking.

It was just a short driver farther south to the sweet town of Stillwater. We found a place to park and checked out a few shops before heading back home. It was a very nice day in good company.

Thursday, September 30, 2021, MN

As I was heading out for my walk yesterday morning, I saw a large flock of White Pelicans flying in a southern direction. The migration is a true sign of fall and because of the summer drought, we are seeing the leaves turning colors much sooner. I’m feeling like I need to take a long drive up north to see the colors.

This tree is at the entrance to my parking lot.

The girls schools had their annual fundraiser, Dragon Dash, this week - they get donations for the school, then have to run around a track, doing at least 30-35 laps. I wasn’t able to make it to Norah and Camille’s event but did go and watch Charlotte run her laps on Wednesday. She said she ran 90 laps, but I think she might have miscounted, although she was quite driven at times.

Sunday, September 26, 2021, MN

Since my refrigerator had no fresh produce in it, I decided to find a farmer’s market nearby and headed to Savage to stock up on fruit and veggies. It was a rather small market but there were plenty of choices and lots of late summer goodies available. I spent $25 and came home with 2 ears of sweet corn, a head of cabbage and broccoli, a bunch of radishes, kale, and spinach, 3 tomatoes, 3 onions, a small melon, about 8 Honeycrisp apples, and a large flower bouquet - it seems like a lot for that money.

When I got back home, Frisco and I went for a nice walk on this beautiful fall day. Temps are in the upper 60s and will warm up to a perfect 80 degrees today.  I fixed myself a healthy egg scramble with onion, spinach and cheddar cheese when I got back home.

The fans that I have used all summer have a heavy coat of dust on them, so I took one apart and gave it a much needed cleaning. By the time I finished, I was ready to lay down, do some reading, and take a rest. I no more than laid down and the phone rang and Ben invited me to meet him, Charlotte, Norah, and Yoshi at Minnehaha dog park for a walk. It was sure nice to be on the trails along the Mississippi River again and to just hang out with Ben and the girls.  Yoshi had a blast running around among all of the other dogs and taking frequent dips in the water.  I didn’t let Frisco off the leash, as I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to catch him if we wandered off, and he seemed to be content being on the leash.

I just got a call from my brother, Ron, and he has successfully relocated to Kansas City where he will live at Rita and Denny’s Stadium View Apartments and become their after hour’s maintenance guy. He is feeling good and positive about his life change and I’m wishing the best for him.