The weeks seem to go by quickly.  Work is still filled with lot’s of challenges and more changes coming.  But it is just work.  We have sunshine and blue sky today, although at 10 am it just made 40 degrees.   I hate seeing that temperature that starts with a 3 when I get in the car in the morning.  Although I will hate 2 and 1 even more!    But the wind is down, after a number of days of strong wind again.  I should stay home and work on getting the shore station ready for winter,   but we will head to Milwaukee shortly.   We will see Mom and then spend a nice evening and over night downtown.  And then stop and see her on Sunday.  Skip bears the bulk of seeing her and giving her company so he can have a little break.   We were down on Thursday for a meeting with Manor Park.   She is progressing and able to walk 150 feet.  And she is not experiencing much pain,  which amazes all of us.  But she still is not getting up on her own without assistance, and they estimate another 3 weeks of therapy.  But by then she should be able to get out of the nursing home.   For now she is trying hard, and lot’s of anxiety over what to do next.  We had looked at some options, but for now have decided on bringing her back to her apartment.  After looking at some ‘dorm’ room assisted living she had some shock.  And with help, we think she can be independent yet.   At her complex, if they qualify her, she can get assisted living ‘light’, which will get her some help and 3 meals.   So we will try that and can take the next step if she is not doing well in that environment.  Our goal is still to start cleaning out things from her apartment.  Lot’s of ‘stuff’ in two bedrooms.   Clothes she wore 100 lbs ago.  She just cannot get rid of things,  so we need to help and see how that goes.  But the good news she is stronger than the therapists would have expected and pain has not become an issue.

Otherwise outside work we are having fun.   Chris had an Insurance Women’s state meeting last Friday Saturday, and it was in Appleton.   Last Saturday I made some more progress around the house, although not much since then.  Sunday I attended the Green Bay-Rams football game with my group of homebrewers.   We start early with a tailgate and my breakfast burrito’s, and lot’s of good beer.   It was a very fun day, topped off by a Packer win.   Wally is happy the St Louis Cards finished the Brewers season,  but at least we have football!

So we hope everyone is enjoying the fall.  Most of us are blessed and have lot’s to be thankful for.  Get out and make someone smile today.

This is really Columbus day isn’t it?  Of course when he became politically incorrect I guess it doesn’t matter.   We have had wonderful Wisconsin weather for fall.  This too will come to an end but it has been a great ride.  I have lot’s of things left to do before winter – finish moving 9 face cords of fire wood for the winter, move trailers, winterize trailers and boats, set boats for the winter, gardens need work, yard needs weed and feed.   But if it doesn’t get done it doesn’t get done!

Noel and Jo Ann were up here on Saturday and helped me accomplish a lot.  We took both boats out of the water and took out the dock.  And took the canvas top off the shore station, and cleaned and put it away.  A lot for one day.   I still have to move the shore station but we made great progress.

We had a meeting at the doctor for Mom today.   Relatively good news.  Her knee is pretty bad.  Bone has degenerated and caused the leg to angle off at 20 some degrees instead of the normal 6 degrees.   But after resting it a couple of weeks he said she can start to put weight on it and work with the therapists on walking.  We worried about her being able to walk again, so this was good news.  We will still need to see how much pain she has, and she will need to wear the brace for walking.  But even if she can only walk short distances her quality of life will be greatly improved.   And we talked about possibly moving her to an assisted living situation.   She is OK with moving elsewhere and agrees she will need more help.  As bad as I think Manor Park is understaffed and needs an attitude adjustment,  she really likes the food there!   So if  their assisted living acomadations looked good she would like to stay there-if she gets the same food.   So she has worked hard on trying to stay positive through this.  She was in an upbeat mood when Skip and I left today.  She had feared the worst and got better news.  Now we see how the therapy goes working with the walker again, and have lot’s more decisions to make.

I am enjoying a long weekend in Colorado.  Weather here is wonderful, as opposed to what looks like cold and windy back home.   We should be in the 80’s today.   Thursday we walked downtown Denver and spent the evening at the Great American Beer Festival.   462 breweries, hard to make choices.   But we did our best.  Yesterday we spent a big part of the day in Boulder.   Deb we skipped Coors tour, although I heard it is a good tour.  But Colorado is home to an unbelievable amount of great breweries!  At Avery Brewery in Boulder they are wonderfully inventive with their brews and barrel aging.  I had beers there that cannot be had anywhere else.   And we went to Mountain Sun, Walnut Street, and BJ’s breweries.  And just walked the fun downtown area.  Then back to the Rehfeldt’s home for their great hospitality.  Will have to see what today brings,  but we need to catch the start of the Brewer’s playoff series and the Wisconsin/Nebraska game!

Mom is at Village at Manor Park,  Maplewood Healthcare Center, room 1405.  Skip said she is settling in pretty well.  Hopefully the bones in her knee heal up and they can teach her to walk some with the brace.  They will give her lot’s of therapy to try and keep her strength up.  And in a few weeks we will see what the next step is.

Judy congrats on selling the big trailer! And on the new one.  It won’t be as much fun pulling it into Penninsula next summer!  Hope you have electricity, I see a lot of people in Door County don’t because of the winds.  Marie I hope to bring Chris back here to Denver one day, and then we can drive down to New Mexico!  So hope everyone is doing well, enjoy the weekend.

A partly sunny Saturday.  Cool at 51 degrees but should get a little warmer.  Chris and I are camping at High Cliff State Park, and have been for 10 days.  It has been relaxing and fun.   Last Saturday we headed to Milwaukee for Noel’s birthday/Octoberfest party.  A great time as it is every year!  Then we came back up on Sunday and had to move camp sites for the duration.   Noel and Jo Ann came up on Tuesday, and the days have gone quickly since.   I head in to work each day, and we are fairly close to Menasha where I work.  Yesterday did not start out well, as my computer would not start up.   Turns out the hard drive somehow lost everything on it.  So now a new hard drive and have to get all my software back on it yet.  And links all gone, and documents, etc.  Sucks.  And I was already behind on things at work!   Tiff and Steve came up for a couple of days of camping also,  and last night we all went out to eat at a restaurant we go to each year when we are here.  Great food and cocktails, and saw the Brewers clinch the division.

Not good news for Mom.   Since she has been home from her last hospital and rehab stay, we have thought her leg seemed to get worse.  She has been very good trying to stay active and not complaining.   Skip got her to the orthopedic doctor this week, and he says the arthritis has deteriorated the knee and there is bone digging into bone.  He was surprised she was not in a lot more pain.   He wants the knee immobilized for at least 3 weeks, hoping that gives the bone a chance to heal.  So obviously she could not be home.  Skip spent the whole day with her being chased around town.  They ended up at West Allis Hospital.  They admitted her and she will spend a few days there.  Then She can transfer to a rehab facility and medicare will kick in.   So we want to find a good place that she will be comfortable at and will keep her as strong as possible.   And hopefully the bone heals and they can do some type of brace to keep her leg straight and usable without damaging it further.  A tough time for Mom.

So hope things are well with you.  Will see what the next couple of days brings for Mom.  We will head home on Sunday, and Wednesday night I have plans to fly to Denver with friends for the Great American Beer Festival!  And visit some great breweries in Colorado!

It’s one of those special days.  I have watched a number of TV programs today about 9/11.  Bad things happen everyday, but the pain that day was so immense.  So many lives affected in those hours.  And it still continues to affect us all.  And by remembering, we gain resolve that we must defend our country, our way of life.  We live in the best country in the world, even in bad times we live wonderful lives.  Through all our disagreements we can not lose sight of common goals.  God, family, country.

Chris and I have had a good week.  Labor Day weekend was cool and wet to get started.  The Appleton Wisconsin area was hit very hard by rain and wind storms on Friday September 2.  Lot’s of trees down and damage.  And with trees down lot’s of power lines down,  and many people had to wait until Sunday and Monday to get electricity back.   We were fine in Oshkosh.  We spent the weekend at home. Time to catch up with things that needed to be done around here.  And we made the Farmer’s Market Saturday morning, got some fresh corn and Michigan Peaches.  We had strong, cool north winds blowing in off the lake.  But it was good to be home.  Monday we were off for Labor Day, and were lucky enough to be able to have a picnic with friends.  Steve and Nancee Rehfeldt were in town from Denver and Mike and Mary and Mark and Terry were able to join us for some brats and corn, and of course great beers.

The work week went quickly, just Tuesday Wednesday and Thursday.    Thursday night we headed to Milwaukee.  We spent the night with Mom.  The Packers kicked off the NFL season Thursday night and we watched the game with Mom.  What a game!  So the Packers started out with a win.   Friday morning we spent some more time with Mom, but then headed out for lunch on our own.  We had a certificate I had bought to stay at County Clare,  a bed and breakfast in downtown Milwaukee.  We had always wanted to stay there, and this was our chance.  So Chris and I just spent the afternoon together.  We walked downtown and the river walk, which we love to do. And the weather turned much nicer than forecast, warmer and more sun.  So it was a great day.  We made our way back to County Clare in the evening.  The food was wonderful.  And they did a good job of making an Irish , welcoming atmosphere.  In the evening musicians wandered in.  The music was informal, lively and fun.  We absolutely loved it.   And I may have had a few Murphy’s stouts.

In the morning they fed us a relaxing breakfast.  The restaurant is only open in the morning for guests.  That made it nice.   And before leaving Milwaukee we stopped downtown at the Milwaukee Market.  We had never taken the time to stop and look around.  It was interesting and fun.  I believe it was probably a large warehouse.  Now it is full of small businesses.  Bakeries, counter diners, candy shop, spice shop, seafood, wine beer.  A neat place to stop and spend some time,  go hungry!

We took a slow ride home, I wanted to stay relaxed!  We stopped in the city of Theresa to go to Widmer’s cheese that we had not been to for a long time.  That was fun, and tasty!  And I took the country roads home from there,  lot’s of them.   I messed up at an interchange in Fon du lac that was new since I had last taken that road.  Guys don’t need maps,  I really just wanted to see the extra country roads, really.

We got home for a couple of hours Saturday afternoon, but our weekend was not done.  We headed to Green Bay.  We had a nice supper at Titletown Brewery, at the foot of the Ray Nitchske bridge.  And a couple of good beers.  Then we headed over to Oneida Casino, to lose a few dollars and spend the night.  Chris let me down,  she usually wins, I always lose!   We agree the hotel is nicely done and always well kept up, must be the casino money!

Today was back home.  More projects at home.  I did get the deck sealed today.  And we spent time packing the trailer.  Wednesday we start our fall camping trip at High Cliff State Park.  Fall in Wisconsin can be beautiful.  The days are getting shorter, and I saw some leaves turning color in the way home today.  So we enjoy our time at High Cliff as fall takes hold.  Hopefully not too quickly.  Thursday is supposed to be in the 50’s and lows in the 30’s.  But it should warm up some by the weekend.  We will stay 12 days.  Enders will join us for part of that time.  I have my bike in the truck and a batch of firewood.  And the grill.  Tuesday night I have an SOB board meeting here, so I will have time to just hook up the truck that night.  In the morning I will take the trailer to work with me, and after work head right to High Cliff.  It is actually closer to work than home is, but on the other side of Lake Winnebago.  So it will make it easy for me to go to work from there.  And Chris should be able to work from there when she wants to.  The MiFi we purchased earlier in the year should give her wifi access at the trailer.

So that’s our story for now.  Life is good for us.  We try to take the time to enjoy it and each other.  We will have these next 2 weeks to enjoy the outdoors, then I head out with a couple of friends  to visit Steve and Nancee in Denver.  It happens to be the weekend of the Great American Beer Festival.  And we already have plans for Thanksgiving weekend.  Our daughter and son-in-law have invited us to Detroit, and to the Packer Lions game!   And Marie will fly in to join us also.  So it will be a fun weekend, and then Marie will come back to Oshkosh with us for a week.  And December 8th we will head to Florida for a long weekend.  Is life going to fast or what?

Another weekend comes to an end.   The weather has been very nice, and tonight is a great evening to watch the water and relax.   I am behind on an update,  so a little information!

Last weekend the 19th we were down in Milwaukee for Irish Fest.  Chris and I enjoy the music, the food, and just relaxing.  We have made most of the 20 some years.  We saw lot’s of friends, as always it was great to spend time with you.  We spent Friday night, most of the day Saturday, and mass then part of Sunday.  We were not disappointed.  Friday night time with friends to kick off the weekend.  lot’s more good music all day Saturday, finished off by seeing long time favorite Finbar McCarthy.   The quintessential Irish pub singer!  And Sunday started with Mass led by the Archbishop of Milwaukee followed by time with friends and music. And we headed for Oshkosh around 3pm.  Hated to leave but needed to get home to prepare for Monday!

Mom is home at her apartment.  We had both worked in Milwaukee that Friday and brought her home from rehab.  So she has a full week in at home.  It has been busy with her therapists coming, both Physical and Occupational, and Skip took her to see her doctor.   So she is settling back in.  She seems weaker than a couple of months ago, and a little confused.  So the time away took its toll on her.  But we are hoping as she settles into a routine she will continue to improve.   We stocked her refrigerator on Saturday and she seemed to be doing well.  We will just have to wait and see, and hope she eats well and gains strength.

Chris and I had gone down this Friday night and spent some time with her,  and then we went out to meet some friends at Kegels.  Thanks to the Reilly’s and Enders for spending the rest of the night with us.  Kegels is a long time German restaurant in Milwaukee, and some of us love it for the boneless duck.  And it did not disappoint!  It was fantastic.  Of course Chris won’t eat the duck but enjoyed the beef rouladen.  Of course the Spaten Optimator complimented the taste of the duck for me.   And we got back to the bar to see the Brewers win and the Packers kick a game winning field goal to win.  A perfect night.

After spending the first part of Saturday with Mom, Chris and I had planned another relaxing weekend.  We took a slow ride to Cleveland Wisconsin to stay at a bed and breakfast.   We had a wonderful time and highly recommend it.  http://www.wbba.org/inns/KesslerOldWorldGuesthouse_Cleveland_WI.html

They are hospitable hosts.  At one time they thought of moving to Germany to run a guest house,  But the addition of Grandchildren in Wisconsin made them decide to build a bed and breakfast back home in Cleveland.  Frank is full of information about German, Austrian and Swiss history and the extensive research he has done on his family.  And Saturday night Chris and I went to a local restaurant that turned out to be a treasure.   And we topped it off with some time with Frank for some conversation, and a taste of his German cousin’s homemade Cherry Kirsch.  And Sunday morning a German style breakfast and more conversation.   We hope to go back.

We were in no great hurry to get home today, so took a trip to the Trout Springs Winery on the way home.  We saw lot’s of country side and spent some enjoyable time tasting at the winery.  And of course brought some bottles home!  When we arrived home it was time to do a little work.  So I made some headway cleaning up our gravel driveway and doing some weeding and trimming around the yard.  And the tomato’s decided to ripen in bunches this weekend.   So we picked a lot, washed and cored and have them freezing on cookie  sheets in the freezer.  I need to remember to put them in bags before I head to bed.  It was a nice night to relax as the sun went down.   The sun is setting earlier though, and the nights are cooler.  The flock of geese going by as I watched the sunset reminds me summer is almost over,  I don’t like that at all.  While our Wisconsin falls can be beautiful, they are often short and always followed by snow and cold!

So get out and enjoy the days before they get shorter.   Life is short!

Another week flew by.  There are times I worry about life being to short.   I worry about it being too short after I retire.   We had our usual busy week,  but enjoyable.    Mom is doing well.  The therapy seems to have helped her get stronger and walk better.   I encourage her to keep using the walker when she gets home,  but of course she only listens to some of what I say.   there is a meeting at the home this week,  not sure if I can make it but Skip will be there.  He and I are thinking she may be ready to come home this weekend and then take some therapy at home.   That would work out well as we would stay with her this weekend and go to Irish fest, as is our custom.  She is in a good frame of mind and trying hard.   But seems ready to go home, although I think she will miss the activity.  She could have more of it at her apartment complex,  but there she has a choice.

So the weather here has cooled down some.  And the days are getting shorter.   A sign that I do not want to see.  Summers are beautiful here,  but way too short.  We did some work to catch up on yard work this week,  still catching up from our time away in Door County.  And this coming Wednesday I have my Society of Oshkosh Brewers (SOB)  picnic at our house.   So we are working on preparing.  Of course it is the only day this week they are predicting rain.   But things always work out.

We had a nice night Friday with Skip and Claire.   Claire had bought tickets for the Brewers / Pirates game.   Traffic was hell getting from Appleton to Milwaukee.  But the stadium is always a fun place to be.  The game was a good one, and the Brewers won.   And we spent some time back and Skip and Claire’s enjoying the evening.  A nice way to end the week.

So back to Sunday.  After fixing the fitting on the kitchen faucet that broke last night and flooded the kitchen and basement, did some more yard work.  And after making some steaks on the grill the lake had calmed down and we took a long boat ride into Oshkosh.  Stopped at the BrewPub an picked up a growler, and took an easy ride home.   So now have to prepare for Monday morning,  my favorite day of the week (not).   Sounds like a good week ahead.  MJ is in Florida and the weather there sounds good also.  So get out and enjoy it.  Life is good.

Another week went by quickly.  I am worried summer will end soon!  This last week was warm enough to keep those worries in the background for now.  I do enjoy summer.   I made it to my Taurus investment club meeting on Wednesday in Milwaukee.  Good to see a few friends.   The aging process is taking it’s toll on the club though.  Our meetings continue to get smaller in attendance.  We are planning an October dinner party, to continue to take opportunities to see the members and spouses when possible.

Tuesday was my homebrew club’s Timberrattler outing.  the local A ball baseball team, and Brewers affiliate.  It was a great time as in past years.  Too much food that I ate at our tailgate.   And I think it was the best game we have seen, and they won!

Chris and I planned to take the boat out to eat on Thursday, the lake was very calm.  But when I got home from work Oshkosh had clouded up and there was rain on the radar.  So we grilled out.  It turned out not much of the rain reached the ground.   So after it passed we still took a long boat ride on the lake.

Friday was down to Milwaukee to see Mom.  We have moved her to Golden Living Heritage Square,  very close to her apartment on Loomis Road.  She did not feel confident in her walking after laying in bed at the hospital, and this is a nursing home with a rehab wing.   So she is working with the therapists, not all fun for her.   But Skip and I think she is doing well and she won’t be there long.  Unfortunately the arthritis in her knee won’t get better.  They will teach her how to cope as best she can.  And the therapy can only do so much for her.   With her leaky heart valve she could not do strenuous exercise or long periods, and she has no desire to.   But she will keep it exercised and as mobile as she can.  She asks that I not pray for her to live longer, just pain free while she is here.  So we will get her back to the apartment and see what comes next in her life.   The good news is she complains about the help and the food, so she is feeling pretty good overall.    Skip has been great in taking care of her needs and I get there when I can.  We will see what the therapists have to say this week and plan from there.

Saturday we came home in the afternoon for our annual neighborhood fish fry.  One of the neighbors has done well in catching walleye, northern, and perch and donated the fish.  And another did an excellent job of frying.  And everyone brought a dish.  So another day I ate too much.  But is was worth it.   We left just in time to walk home before the rain started.  We had a little storm roll through last night,  and it dropped a lot of rain.  Thanks Jeske’s for hosting us all, and we will pray for Nick’s surgery on Monday.

Today we made 9:30 church and then Chris and I went golfing.  I needed my exercise to get rid of some of the pounds added on by all the eating.  So the heck with the yard work and off to our local 9 hole golf course.  We had an enjoyable round topped off by bloody mary’s and lunch (did I really need to eat?).   I think Chris is hitting the ball better than ever this year.  After brunch we came home and I battled the mosquito’s and tried to bring the garden back to being presentable,  after not being in there the last 3 weeks.  So progress was made and we have some tomato’s and jalapenos for salsa this week.

So hope this finds you well.  Get out and enjoy life!

We are home tonight,  back from our Door County trip.  Life was good,   now back to this other life!   We had a great time.  I came back to work Tuesday and Wednesday each week to save some vacation.  But Chris stayed, and Mary Jane was there both weeks.   John joined us for the second week, as did our niece Denise.   It was good to see old friends, even though I did not spend enough time with them.  We spent some time at golf and going out for some nice meals.  Very enjoyable times, thank you all.  From Taco night, to Spaghetti night, to going out for a fish fry they were all enjoyable.

I think I ate too much and drank too much, or the scale says that!  But I love the food!  And Drink!  My golf game improved a little over 2 weeks, the challenge is to keep getting out and try to get some consistency to my swings,  I do love to golf.  And Mary Jane and Chris golfed several times and I thought hit the ball very well.   And one night we went to Birch Creek for a Big Band Concert.  Jeff and Donna Pindel joined us which was enjoyable.  13-18 year olds come to the camp for 2 weeks for heavy instruction and quickly playing with other musicians.  The kids are amazing,  and the second part of the concert were the instructors, all of which are very accomplished.

So the trailer is unpacked, Chris is on who knows what load number of wash, and a few things around the yard done.  The bad news is my Mom is in the hospital,  but sounds like nothing very serious at the moment.  She went in because she said her stomach was bothering her and she had not been eating much.   So far not much of an answer to that other than a slight bladder infection that could be giving her a problem.   Skip says she is complaining less about it and ate well tonight.   She has had issues the last month with some swelling in her knee.  They ran lot’s of tests on that but think it is arthritis.   With the cat scan they did looking for any issues they do say there is a cyst behind the knee also.  but not much they can do about that either.  They did drain the knee again and gave her another cortizone shot,  and it sound like the knee and leg are looking better.   And she is complaining about the food and wants to go home,  all good signs.

So hope all are doing well, enjoy your week!

Trailer almost all packed,  truck hooked up.  We will be off shortly to Door County.  Our annual summer vacation.  Hard to believe though that summer is going by so quickly.  Hopefully some f the days can slow down the next couple of weeks!  I hope to get some golf in, and some bike rides.  And time to just sit with friends and catch up with their lives.

So I hope everyone else is enjoying the summer.  Take time to smell the roses!