I have been remiss in doing updates, not that you ‘all miss hearing from me!   Life has seemed as busy, or busier the last couple of months.   Wisconsin weather was good, then lousy, and now hopefully getting better.  It is time to get the yard cleaned up and have not done much yet.  The weather held us back, and then Chris was sick and had bronchitis,  then I had the flu and had pneumonia.   It seems we are still recovering!

But good weather helps, and we left Wisconsin and came back to Florida.   While it has been more rain than usual,  the weather has also set some new temperature records for April.  So I finally got warm!  Chris and I have been working from here, so our days are filled.  But we have spent some quality time with our 90+ year old neighbors Al and Viv.  Cocktail hours and favorite restaurants.   Chris and I made it to a local brewery (guess who’s idea that was?).   And we have had continued construction on the condo building.  Wait until this bill comes in!    A couple of weeks have gone by quickly and now heading home.   But it looks like the weather in Wisconsin will be welcoming.

The house is still for sale, and that is getting old.  We have had a lot of activity this spring and had some nice comments but no offers.  Lots of good things but most think the house should have more ‘finish’ and probably more room.  So we are considering what we want to do with the price.   Obviously the realtors just guess on a custom home like ours,  how much money do we need for our retirement?  We will see what is next.

In the meantime we are hoping for some nice spring weeks to enjoy.  We hope you are all well and enjoying life!

 

 

 

It has been  a long week!  Chris and I arrived back in Wisconsin last Saturday Feb 14.   It is a shock leaving that wonderful Florida weather and hitting the cold Wisconsin winter.   And the last few days have been below zero Fahrenheit.  But that has been the easy part of the week.

We lost my Mom this week.   Assisted Living found her unresponsive in the bathroom Monday morning.   She was taken to the hospital and they guessed she has some type of infection in her system.   They found a UTI infection but did not think that was bad enough to be causing the systems they saw, and thought the infection may have entered her blood stream.  Skip and Claire spent a lot of time with her, but she was not recognizing or responding to anyone, and was very agitated and her body was in constant motion.  The hospital needed to restrain her arms to keep the IV’s inserted as they gave her antibiotics and tried to sedate her.   24 hours later and there was no change in her.   The antibiotics did not seem to be working and she had not calmed down at all.  The doctor felt she was in discomfort and pain, and we made the decision to give her enough morphine to calm her.   Mom was always very happy that even with her knee degenerated she had no pain, and that was one thing she did not want to have- pain.   Chris and I went down to Milwaukee Tuesday and we were all with Mom when she passed away Tuesday evening.

She has no more pain.   Skip saw her last week and she was doing well, and I spent some time with her before I went down to Florida.   I thought she was doing well, and am glad that when her time came to leave us that it went quickly.   She was ready.   She would have been 94 this week, and thought that is too long to live.   Having to depend on others to help her was understandably tough on her.  She had some wonderful caregivers, and some that should do something else with their lives.  Her friends and family are gone and she had few of us to talk to.   This last year she grew more tired, but she enjoyed decorating her apartment and outside of her door.  She still had a good memory and was very ‘with it’.  We say that assisted living will struggle without her, as she often would help the other residents who would forget their way.

Now that lent is here the church’s are very busy and finding and open time for a funeral mass was not easy.   Mom and I had discussed mass so I wanted that.  We will have a mass at noon on Monday in Greenfield.   We encouraged Mary Jane and Craig not to spend the high cost and the difficulty of traveling to get here for the mass.  The time spent with her while she was with us and keeping those memories is most important .

She is peaceful now.  She is with Dad again, and can talk to Lottie every day.

Emily A. Bauer (Nee Sikora),

Emily was born To Eternal Life on Tuesday, February 17, 2015, at the age of 94 years. Preceded in death by her loving husband, Russell. Loving mother of Duane (Claire) and Randy (Chris) Bauer. Beloved grandma of Mary Jane (John) Espina, Denise Bauer and Craig (Andria) Bauer. Emily was born in Milwaukee to Joseph and Anna (Nee Dudon) Sikora on February 20, 1921.

Visitation will be held on Monday, February 23, at ST ALPHONSUS CATHOLIC CHURCH, 6060 W. Loomis Rd, Greendale, from 10:00 AM – 12:00 noon. Mass of Christian Burial Celebrated at 12:00 noon. Private burial at St. Adalbert Cemetery. – See more at: http://www.churchandchapel.com/obituary/Emily-Ann-Bauer/Greendale-WI/1482394#sthash.GgGPvWw6.dpuf

Seems like I have been slacking in updates!   January has gone by and we are well into 2015.   January started off great, with Chris Mary Jane and I in Florida.   We brought the New Year in with Noel and Jo Ann in Estoro Florida.   They treated us wonderfully, and of course we left relaxed and our stomach’s full!   I stayed on in Florida until January 10th, and then headed back to real life!   December and January in south Florida were above average temperatures.  So even though Wisconsin temperatures were pretty comfortable compared to 2014, it still was a big let down to get back.   Marie came to Florida before I left, and has kept Chris company.   I returned January 31 and can stay until February 14.   This time Chris will come home with me.   We are lucky to be able to work as we travel, that is a big perk for us now in our last working years.  Being able to get away and enjoy some of life without having to burn our vacation time quickly.   No plans yet for what we do next in our travels.  Certainly we want to get back to Florida again, and we want to get to New Mexico this spring.   We will have to see how the cost of airfares rise around spring breaks and Easter and try to make some plans.

Since Christmas we have had  a lot of activity looking at our house.  We are told we have some very interested people, but no offers yet.  Oh well, it will happen when it happens.   We will just stay the course and continue to prepare for the next steps in our life.  Don’t stress the small stuff.  We are blessed to continue to enjoy life.   Being here in the warm weather is wonderful.   We spent part of the afternoon outside with our wonderful neighbors for cocktail hour.  At 90 and 93 years of age they are an inspiration!    We have met a lot of great friends, and certainly our Florida friends fit into that category.   Enjoyable to spend time with them and they are all very caring.

So we hope your winter is going well.  Stay safe.

 

Those that know me also know how much I am enjoying life.   Warm weather, was in the low 80’s today.   Sunny, a light ocean breeze!  The intercoastal waterway was full of boats and the ocean beaches full!!   Just a perfect day.

And the Packers won a big game today, now NFC north champions and get an off week next week.  Very concerned when Aaron Rodgers went down, but now no doubt he should be league MVP.     A little nervous while we were watching the game at 2 Georges, tradition for us when we are in Florida.  But fun and turned out well.     I will miss the Monday morning at work, which is always positive when the Packers win.   But will work Monday with the wind blowing through the palm trees.

And now I will find a good beer in the fridge,   a good cigar from the humidor,  and go outside with my shorts on and relax a little.

A very  Merry Christmas to you and yours.   OK,   December  seemed to have gotten away from us this year.   We did not get Christmas cards sent out as the weeks flew by.  But I wanted to let you know we think of all of our family and friends and wish you the best for 2015.   Chris and I are blessed and 2014 was good to us and we pray for those continued blessings.   We had lot’s of fun in 2014 and had a chance to spend time with many of our friends.   We did not get to Door County for the first time in 30+ years, but for that we spent time in Germany and Switzerland which we will never forget.   Our thanks again to the cousins in Switzerland who treated us so well.  And special prayers for Annemarie recovering from surgery, that recovery comes quickly and 2015 is pain free.

We had some extra time with Mary Jane and John this year and they contributed to my beer tasting!  While we did not get to Albuquerque we did spend a lot of time with Marie!   Special prayers  for her good friend Betty which cancer took Christmas morning.   The pain is over for Betty but she will be greatly missed.   My Mom is doing well.   I have seen her age have more effect this year, but at 93 years that is not a surprise.   We had a nice Christmas Eve with her and she was in great spirits.   The wheel chair makes getting around difficult but she is thankful she is pain free and her days go quickly.

Chris, Mary Jane and I switched things up this year by taking advantage of air fares and flying Christmas Day.   Even though recent Wisconsin weather has been mild,  it is nicer to be at 77 degrees even though today is cloudy.  But sunshine ahead!   I am confident that when I do retire I will not see snow very often, South Florida is a great place to be in winter!   So we have a some days of relaxation ahead, and Chris and I will both be working some days- with the door open and breeze blowing through the condo.  New Years Eve we plan to see the Enders.

Chris’s eyes are doing well.  The second eye surgery took a little longer than the first, more to what they told us to expect.   And she is very happy.   Another couple of months the eyes should be to their new normal and she can decide on glasses, likely for computer work.   We are blessed, and the many blessings to you and yours for 2015.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

Hope you all are doing well, and that those that had a Thanksgiving weekend thoroughly enjoyed it!  Charles we wished we could have shared a Thanksgiving dinner with you!   We had a wonderful weekend.   The house we rented had a couple of issues but overall was a very nice house.   We had a relaxing time, lot’s of good food and some visits to Paw Paw and Kalamazoo Michigan.   The weather has been up and down.  We had some weather above freezing on the weekend and then dove down into the single digits.   And being home during the daylight at the end of the week I see it has taken a toll on the lake, and our lakefront.   These early freezing nights have formed good thick ice on the lake but still enough water to allow it to float and expand.   And for only the 2nd time I have seen in 40 years we have some pretty good ice shoves along our lake front.  The ice has buckled up along most of our shoreline, and where it has not buckled it has pushed the land inward.   We have areas that the land has pushed up and buckled the frontage up a foot.  There are a couple of mounds in the lawn that were not there a couple of weeks ago.   The force of nature is mighty powerful!  Amazing.

Time continues to fly by.   We want to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving.   A long weekend to enjoy here in the states, at least for those of us still working!   Some day I will get to retirement and it won’t matter as much for me!  For now I am looking forward to a short work week.  We will be traveling.  To Milwaukee Wednesday night, then to Kalamazoo on Thanksgiving.  We rented a house again, and will get together with John and MJ, Skip Claire and Denise.   Then some sightseeing for a couple of days!  We will relax and enjoy.   And the same to all of you!

Chris had her second eye surgery and all is well.   The first one was so perfect and this one has been as they tell you to expect.  A little more discomfort and taking a little longer to heal.  But still great.  She is seeing better than she ever has, but will have to wait for it to fully heal before determining the next step.  Since one eye is distance and one eye is reading (as her contacts were) and she will likely need glasses for computer work.  She had her week after surgery examination today and all signs positive.

Not so positive, winter has been here in full swing for Wisconsin.  We have had plenty of cold (which I hate) and last night had 6 inches of wet heavy snow.  We had a little warmup in between the cold and snow, with some rain.   I am not sure that was a positive change, but we deal with what we have!  Now some cold (well below average)  and I see the 10 day forecast shows another warm up.

Take some time to enjoy life, give thanks for our blessings, and tell someone you love them!

 

We are into November, and it looks like from here on in the temperatures will be going down!   At least that is the 10 day forecast.   We have had some nice days and the yard is in pretty well prepared for winter.    Unfortunately my ATV/plow is not ready to go and it will need to go in for some service.   But I won’t need to plow anytime soon, will I?  We have had a bunch of fun!   This weekend my homebrew club, the Society of Oshkosh Brewers, SOB’s,  held their charity event serving all homebrewed beers, wines, and meads.   And it sounds like we exceeded previous years attendance.  Which is great, we were hoping we could give $10,000 to the food pantries this year.   It seemed like a good time was had by all, and we had a good crowed of happy people!

Chris had cataract surgery today,  and first results are excellent.   Trying to look out from the eye shield on the way home she said she was seeing better than she ever has in her life.   Went back for a check up this afternoon and the doctor said it could be 2-3 weeks before the eye is fully healed and all swelling gone, so things should only get better.   Chris did great.   We will see how she does the next couple of nights trying to sleep, she needs to protect the eye for a week.   And in two weeks she has the other eye done.    And Marie recently had cataract surgery and says she is doing great.   All good news.

I wanted to share some photo’s from Cousin Charles in Switzerland!  He has been doing some hiking and shared some photo’s of the areas we saw this summer.   The views in Switzerland are awesome!  Thanks Charles,  I will include a little of his e-mails that came with the photo’s. (If you click on the photo you should see and enlarged version, I need to use the back arrow to get back to the home page)  Wish I was hiking with you and Walter.

As promised in your blog 2 photos from the top of the Grosse Mythen which I climbed end of Sept. To the south you see lake Lucerne and 4300 ft below the towns Schwyz and Brunnen. We had actually planned to take the boat from Brunnen but as there was no parking space, we drove on the Flueelen and boarded the boat there and passed Brunnen again – this time on the water – on the way to Lucerne. In Flueelen we met Emil who astonished us again with his fabulous memory of the good old times in Milwaukee. To the north you see part of Einsiedeln at the far end.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yesterday I was enjoying together with my brother Walter probably one of the last warm days before winter is coming on one of the surrounding hills. One of the photos you see part of Einsiedeln. On the left you see the inrun of the ski jumping hill and just behind even part of Lake Zurich. You also see part of the Sihlsee with the bridge. On the second photo you see some snow covered mountains. Glad to say that I have been on all of them.

 

 

Nothing overly exciting going on lately,  just living a good life!  House still for sale, we have an accepted offer but they have had no offers on their house.   And we knew that offer may never come to fruition.   So still waiting for the perfect couple to look at the house.   In the meantime we think positive and keep getting deeper into our cleanup.  We keep moving things out of the house!   More for sale, gift, or charity.  Amazing how many things we collect over the years.   Some are harder to get rid of, but still just ‘stuff’.   When it comes down to taking a hard look at things most are just ‘stuff’ we can do without.   And in many cases have stowed away for years with hardly a look anyway.   And ‘stuff’ being saved will be used!

Otherwise time keeps fly by.  We are preparing for winter.   With any luck I cut the grass and moved leaves for the last time this year.   We had a nice weekend so good time to catch up outside.   And I had taken down a TV antenna tower and still had the base in the ground.   And I managed to take that apart and out yesterday, through lot’s of cutting/drilling/pounding.   I could have used one of the heavy duty chisels I got rid of last week!   But it is done and no worries about someone tripping on it anymore.   We have 5 face cords of wood for the winter.   Less than usual, but hoping to be in Florida for some of the winter.  Hoping (but not expecting) for a winter not as cold as last year.   And pretty darn sure Chris will be gone for part of it, which means no 24 hour a day burning during the coldest months.   And still confident we will not be in this house all winter!  Chris and I managed to spend Saturday night in beautiful downtown Neenah.   We actually enjoy it a lot, and I had bought a night stay certificate last year for the Holiday Inn.   So Saturday we went to the last outdoor Oshkosh Farmers Market of the year,  partook of a chili fundraiser downtown, and made it to Neenah.  Last weekend I went to a great Packer Win with good friends, our planning goes on all year and this year was better than ever.  Helped by the Packers playing so well!   And the weekend before I had a chance to help out at a brewing of Mike Engel’s pumpernickle rye stout recipe at a local brewpub.   That was a fun way to start the weekend.   Work remains very busy for me,  now in the midst of preparing lots of files for 2015.   And this coming weekend my homebrew club hosts Cask’s and Caskets for charity.  Last year we donated $7000 to local food pantries and hope to go well beyond that this year.   A number of very familiar beer signs will be on the silent auction.   www.casksandcaskets.org     So we hope you are out having fun.   Winter will be upon us too quickly,  I did hear the weatherman mention snowflakes in the 7 day forecast.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(click on the pictures to enlarge them)

We are into Wisconsin fall, time continues to move quickly!   With our travels this summer was especially short. And my worry is we will have another early winter and fall will be gone in a few weeks!   So time to enjoy some good weather that is predicted for this week and start to make winter preparations. The garden did not do well this summer, a combination of lack of care and a cool wet summer.   So I think this week I will pull plants and start to dig up the soil.   Our hope is we will not be at this house for next planting season, but it is best to prepare!   We do have an accepted offer on the house, but it is contingent on the couple selling their house, which may or may not happen. So we continue to do little things around the house and have showings.   We had some positive comments from a showing last week but they felt the bedrooms were too small, so it must have been a family.   Our extra bedrooms were set up to be more guest bedrooms than full time living. So still not the perfect motivated buyer yet! And it may be time to have some firewood delivered to get us through at least early winter.

Chris and I continue to have some fun.   Labor day we went to Michigan to meet Mary Jane and John.   We left our car in Milwaukee and took the Lake Express over to Muskegon. We enjoy the trip even though this was the roughest water we had crossed Lake Michigan on.   But we did fine, a few guests struggled with sea sickness.   John did the driving for the long weekend and we stayed in Grand Rapids, which has a wonderful small brewery community.   We toured 10 breweries, and of course (I at least) had lot’s of fun!   Most had very good beer varieties and good food.   So when we got home we had to diet for the rest of the week.   And this last weekend we went up to Marquette Michigan with friends.   Friends had friends who live there, and set up some private beer tours for us in the local micro breweries.   Again great beers and a lot of fun!   Saturday turned into a beautiful day and we spent lots of time walking Marquette and sitting outside.   Sunday started out much colder with some rain but it made for very interesting sight seeing along Lake Superior.   I look forward to going back for a more extended stay!

In between we will manage to have some fun, and always little projects to do.   Our bar room now has almost all of the beer signs taken down and a quick coat of paint.   Most are going to our beer clubs charity fund raiser for the silent auction. www.caskandcaskets.org , last year we gave $7000 to local food pantries and hoping for $10,000 this year.   The day after Halloween, a great way to support the local charities and try some homebrew beer and wine!

And I need to make another list of items for sale.   Getting down to less things to deal with.   Air compressor and tools, portable generator, roto tiller, tread mill, radial arm saw.   May as well keep cleaning and thinking positive. We hope this finds you well and enjoying life.

Some brewery links if interested!

http://www.mittenbrewing.com/

http://foundersbrewing.com/

http://www.breweryvivant.com/

http://www.hopcat.com/

http://www.osgoodbrewing.com/#home

http://www.oddsideales.com/

http://www.crankersbrewery.com/

http://www.blackrocksbrewery.com/#first-pic

http://ore-dock.com/