A Saturday to Myself

I'm alone - all day - just me and Daisy and Lucy and Simon. Well, I guess I'm not really alone as they're all a lot of companionship. I'm certainly not complaining, mind you. I truly enjoy having a day all to myself on occasion. It's just nice not to have a schedule to adhere to (not that I do anyway, but you know what I mean).

Ole took off on his Harley this morning, along with a friend, to ride the MDA Benefit run. That's the Muscular Dystrophy Association sponsored ride. So he'll probably be gone till later afternoon. I could have, probably should have gone as I haven't been out on the bike yet this year and I need to start developing those butt calluses for our bike trip this summer. We usually leave here about mid-July, head west into the mountains of Montana, Idaho and Wyoming and end up in the Black Hills of South Dakota for the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally. Yes, friends, I'm a Biker Babe, Motorcycle Mama, or whatever you want to call me. Boy, is that a joke - at my age I'm just glad I can still hang on well enough not to fall off!!

Anyway - I've been catching up on blogs this morning. I've been a wee bit lax in that department lately. It just seems that there's been so much to do and that includes working on the computer. I think I've told you that I've become the webmaster for our church's web site and that has been to this point a very time consuming job. But I truly enjoy it with the exception that it's sometimes difficult to get the correct information that I need from the people who have it. That's another whole story I could/should write about some day.

Anyway, as I said, I've been catching up on some blogs and many of you have written about all the flags in the cemeteries on Memorial Day. I know it's a bit late, but I'd like to share with you a video that I put together for our web site. I, too, was amazed at all the flags that flew that weekend. I had no idea that there were that many veterans buried in our cemetery, most of them WWII, but a few from WWI. I just can't imagine the horrible things they saw and the terror that must have been going through their minds. Our pastor is an ex-Marine. He didn't go into the ministry until he was 38 years old - he's 44 now - so lots of this is still fresh in his mind also. He gave a wonderful, very moving memorial that day in the cemetery. Ole, being a veteran of the Vietnam War, had a difficult time not letting a tear slip down his cheek, as did many of the other veterans that attended.

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Hope you didn't get too bored.

Love Lena

Ole and Lena & their Secrets!!

Yah - that's all I've got time for today. Click the little white triangle and see what their secrets are, K?

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Last One In is a Rotten Egg

Yup - that's right - there are two seasons in Minnesota - winter and mosquito season which coincides with construction season here in this great state. And this year we've got plenty of both. The snow and the water finally disappeared and left lots of nice swamps and sloughs for the mosquitoes to hatch and lots of holes in the highways along with mushy gravel roads that are still in the process of trying to dry out from the flood. But that's a little hard when it rains buckets every other day. So we flounder in the mud.

Now I'm sure you've all heard of something called the Mosquito Dance. At this time of year it's the latest craze in Minnesota. Nobody even has to teach you how to do it - it comes naturally if you live or visit here. When you see someone wildly waving their arms over their head, swatting their arms and legs with their hands and keeping their feet moving you'll know that you're witnessing the Mosquito Dance. And all this without any music! Those talented people.

Occasionally you'll see folks walking around completely covered in army green netting from head to foot. You've seen those net head pieces that beekeepers wear - well imagine covering your entire body in that type of thing. You end up looking like a moldy mummy, but at least those pesky little buzzards can't be Dracula and suck your last drop of blood from your body.

The first thing Ole does when small children come to our house is tie their ankle to a concrete block. Otherwise the mosquitoes would carry them off. You think that picture to the right is just a joke - well, you're wrong. It actually happens!!

Ole always tells me he knows that summer is here when I change my perfume from Evening in Paris (remember that blue bottle?) to Off that comes out of a spray can.

And that's another thing - a few years ago they used to tell you NOT to buy mosquito spray that had DEET in it because it was carcinogenic. I believe it probably is because when you spray it on your bare skin your skin dries up and falls off. Now - since they have found out that mosquitoes carry the "swamp disease" (West Nile virus) and that you can die from it - you're told to buy mosquito spray with the highest DEET content you can find. I have found a spray that is 45% DEET - so you can admire my bare bones by the end of the summer. So pick your poison - carcinogenic bug spray or swamp disease.

Farmer Neighbor Dave's son had West Nile a couple of summers ago. He was a healthy young man to begin with, came down with West Nile and was extremely ill for an entire summer. And it's left him with permanent after effects. So I guess it's nothing to fool around with.

You'll have to excuse me now. I have to go get my moldy green mummy outfit on now and go mow the grass.

Love Lena

You'll Fall in Love if you Watch This

Now I know that some of you go back far enough (you notice I didn't say you were old enough) - go back far enough to remember when music was really music. It was pleasant and comforting and often brought a tear to your eye or made your heart palpitate. Go back to the days when guys and gals "went steady" and you wore his class ring on a chain around your neck. When you would walk down the school hallway together and everyone would know that you were "an item." When you would ride in his car and drag Broadway on a Friday night where everyone would see you and know that you "were together." When you had a midnight curfew and you'd leave Broadway at 10:30 so that you could spend some time "parking" out on a country road being alone. When you wore his letter jacket even though it was 4 sizes too big but it was "his" and that made you feel extra special. Back to the days when you would wear matching sweaters. Back to the days when today's kids would think we were absolutely corny.

Ole and I started dating the fall of our senior year in high school, and from our first date on we were inseparable. We went to all the high school events together - the winter formal, prom, senior skip day, all the high school graduation parties, all the BIG events. From our first date on we never dated anyone else. A year and a half later we were engaged and four months later we were married. Back in those days it didn't take a year or two to plan a wedding. You just did it.

But the music from those days - are there certain songs that when you hear them you can remember exactly where you were and what you were doing? The car Ole had when we were in high school was a 1949 Ford - dark blue - really pretty and he took great care of it, washing and polishing all the time, and always tinkering with the engine to get "more power" out of it. He was a car guy even way back then. Always having to scrub the grease out from under his fingernails (chuckle). Back then the radios weren't instant on, like they are now. You turned on the radio and had to wait for the tubes to warm up before you could hear anything. Boy, don't I sound like I'm from the dark ages? Anyway, the radio in his car didn't have digital readout like they do now - they had numbers and you had to turn the dials to tune in a radio station. There was Roy Orbison, Buddy Holly, Frankie Avalon, Bobby Vee, The Four Tops, The Temptations, Dion - and on and on and on. Many were the nights that we would sit and listen to Wolf Man Jack out of Oklahoma City coming this far north because of the "skip" that took place during the cold winter nights. If you don't know what skip is, ask some radio man - but it has something to do with bouncing radio waves in cold weather. Anyway, his radio would give off a soft glow as it played those old tunes. So many memories.

Someone sent me the following video in an email this morning and it's just to wonderful not to share. So tune in and fall in love all over again.

Brings back SO MANY memories from the days when they wrote REAL music!!

Love Lena

A New House - Possibly?

I'm so tired of cleaning up all the trash left after the flood. We're still raking and burning, although we couldn't today due to more RAIN!! Yes, that dirty word - RAIN!! Things were just beginning to dry out a bit so that you could walk on the grass without squishing. Now guess what - squish, squish, squish again. When will it ever end.

Ole promised me that I would NEVER have to go through another water ordeal again - ever. And since the Watershed Board won't allow us to build a dike because according to them it will only slide into the river - where do we go from here? Well, if it's up to me we'll sell this darn place to someone younger who has the energy to keep it up and buy something that's on high ground.

I NEVER thought I would get Ole to agree with that, but the other day he came home and told me about a guy he had run into that lives about 4 miles from here and has a setup that would almost suit our needs. The house is about the same age as ours, but has a swimming pool (which I wouldn't want) and a 4-stall garage, partially heated but unattached (darn) and a huge storage building for Ole to keep all his toys in. So we actually went to look at it today. The kitchen is butt ugly, but I like the layout. There would have to be some changes made to suit my needs - like moving walls, and stuff. Right now the laundry is in the basement and I would want it on the main floor. It's also got a huge family room with a gas fireplace (which we have and I wouldn't want to give up) and a three-season porch big enough for our hot tub. So there are a lot of pros, but also some cons that could get a bit costly.

I know what a mess remodeling is - been there done that with this house. So I don't know if I want to go through all of that at this point in my life. But just the fact that Ole has actually agreed to the idea of moving just blows me away!! I think he's tired of cleaning up this mess too. We've both got other things we'd rather be doing. Getting ready to take another trip is one of them. - but who knows if that will happen this spring with all the work that awaits us currently.

Well, enough complaining - I guess what is meant to be will happen.

Daisy and I and the two kitties are home alone tonight. Ole had a meeting to attend. Daisy is kind of anxious when Ole is gone - but she's getting better. She's slowly adapting. I gave her a big knuckle bone the other day and she immediately carried it out to the front yard, tossed it onto the grass and began barking at it. Then she rolled on it, got up and ran in circles around it, jumping just like a little puppy. Then she'd bark at it again and wash, rinse, repeat. It was so cute. I don't think I've ever seen her play like that even when she was a young dog, and she's eight now. When Beau was here she wouldn't ever chase the ball. Now she chases it, picks it up and places it at your feet to be thrown again. She is such a sweetheart and such a lady. She barks when someone comes, but when she's told to be quiet she stops. Beau on the other hand, has his "dog psychiatrist" appointment on Friday morning. He's a boy dog, you know, and there are always those young males who think they have to prove their manhood by being aggressive and assertive.

It's the old mello ones, like Ole, that are the keepers. Of course, it's us women who work hard all those years to make them that way - right?

Love, Lema

Miscellaneous drivel

At All Saints Lutheran Church they have a weekly husband's marriage seminar. At the session last week, the Pastor asked Ole, who was approaching his 50th wedding anniversary, to take a few minutes and share some insight into how he had managed to stay married to the same woman all these years. 'Vell,' Ole replied to the assembled husbands, 'I've tried to treat her nice, spend da money on her, but best of all I took her to Norvay for da 20th anniversary!' The Pastor responded, 'Ole, you are an amazing inspiration to all the husbands here! Please tell us what you are planning for your 50th anniversary." Ole proudly replied, 'I'm a-gonna go get her.'

Well, we haven't quite made 50 yet, but we celebrated 42 last week - I was ten when we got married (snicker).

We celebrated our first anniversary and then two days later I drove Ole to the AFEES station, put him on a bus and sent him off to Navy boot camp. Nine weeks later he showed up at my office a very tanned, svelt hunk of a young man in a Navy uniform. He was home for two weeks and left for Great Lakes, Illinois to go to Navy school. I was able to join him where we lived outside of the main gate of the Great Lakes base in an upstairs efficiency apartment with the bathroom down the hall. We suffered through a Chicago winter with the wind blowing off the lake right through the single pane window that we had in our apartment. The radiators would clunk and bang but there was no way that one radiator would keep our apartment warm that winter.

When he finished school it was back to Minnesota for us for a month's leave, then I put him on a plane headed for Keflavik, Iceland. I joined him there three months later and spent two years there with him. He was then sent to an air craft carrier based on out Florida, so I lived in Florida while he was out to sea. Then it was back to Minnesota where we've lived ever since.

I must say, it's not been a boring 42 years - that's for sure. Lots of things have happened in those years and there's not a lot I would change if I had the opportunity. Probably just the part where Ole broke his back in three places - I'd change that if I could.

I've been really busy lately - I know, I know - that's always an excuse for not keeping up with my blog. I was asked to build a web site for our church, so that's been occupying most of my alloted computer time. I've finally got it to where I want it and have it up and running, but there's constant updating with information and pictures to be done. It's almost like a full-time job, at least now in the beginning stages. I hope it will become less work as time goes on.

I think I told you previously about the dog situation. Beau has gone to live with Lovely Daughter and she has an appointment for him with a dog behavioral specialist next Friday. He's a vet that will give Beau a complete physical to make sure there is nothing physical that caused his biting, and then will work with him regarding his behavior. Beau has always been an assertive dog, and that't not always good, especially when you're a German Shepherd. I think there was more competition between Beau and Daisy than what we realized. Daisy was here first and thus thought she was the top of the pecking order. Beau was getting to the point where he was threatening that position and I think that's what made Daisy so neurotic about everything. Since she's an only dog now, she's a perfect lady and is so calm and peaceful - something that she wasn't previously. She's a joy to have around now. So I hope everything goes fine for Beau when he sees this vet because the alternative is not good.

Other than that, not much else is new in the world of Ole and Lena.