Holy schnikes!!! Andrew got initiated to a Minnesota thunderstorm big time! He was fixing dinner, Daniel was off at the corner house and Aaron and I were in the dining room. It had been thundering most of the day and raining off and on when all of a sudden, abut 45 minutes ago, there was a brilliant flash of light that seemed to completely surround us in the house followed by what may have been the loudest crack of a thunderbolt I've ever heard. To illustrate how close it was, we were unable to count to ONE... It was DIRECTLY OVERHEAD and the house shook as if we were feeling God's wrath focused on 716 Duluth Avenue North. Shortly after, I got a call from the pastor's wife three houses down to advise me Daniel was scared witless and needed to come home, but it was a torrential downpour the likes of which Seattle has never seen and he didn't have an umbrella, so I escorted the eldest Widerski boy, Tyler, over there under the golf umbrella and brought Danny back. I saw a Pennington County Sheriff's cruiser drive by us with his lights on and stop only a block down by 8th. I'm wondering if a tree may have been hit down there...
I was beginning to wonder when we were going to get some more good thunder going. It was supposed to be thunderstorms all week and late last night they streamed warnings on the television screen of flash floods, floods, and tornados in about 12 different counties across the tri-state area of ND, SD, and MN. I guess today was the big day for it. I knew it was going to be some bad weather when the dog elected to do her business just inside the back door entryway rather than ask to be let outside... I think I saw her tail stuck between her legs last time I let her out to do #1... :o) That's an indoor dog for ya.
As for me, I'm healing well from the other day's visit to the dentist. I don't have anymore pain, but I still have 98 Percocets left over for "headaches." :o) I even called the pharmacy and asked the pharmacist to verify the script and he told me yes, the doctor wrote it out as "hundred," so it couldn't have been a mistake. Maybe they just dispense pain medication in TRF in advance for the year...?
I gotta go now as the power is flickering again.
Ciao!
Wednesday, June 29, 2005
Saturday, June 25, 2005
It's Gopher Season, I think...
I think I've already told most of you out there of my dental problems these past couple of weeks. For those who haven't been filled in, I've been looking for a dentist to take care of a tooth broken in half for some time now and haven't been able to find anyone in town. It's made getting any work down around here a challenge as it's hard to concentrate with the at times all-consuming pain. I did find a nun who's also a dentist in an outlying town, so hopefully I can get in to see her next Tuesday. If not her, I'll be looking in North Dakota (Grand Forks). I never considered how difficult it might be to get a dental emergency taken care of locally.
We just got back from setting a few gopher traps out West of St. Hilaire on the old 80-acre field. I thought I may have lost my touch as in order to set traps you have to be able to find the entrance/exit hole to the burrow by shoving a stake into the mound of dirt. I was able to set a couple within 5 minutes, though, so now we'll just watch and wait a little bit and see what happens. We have Dusty back over again tonight, so the house will be active a bit more. Andrew picked up a few ribeye steaks since yesterday was his payday, so we'll be firing up the grill for the second night in a row now (brats last night).
We have new neighbors already that just moved into the house our old neighbors moved out of only a week ago. They have two small children, a boy and a girl, the boy a year younger than Daniel and they happen to be friends with the pastor's familiy on the corner and go to his church in town, First Baptist. We helped them move in their 32+ inch television set and entertainment center to put it in.
As for other happenings in TRF, there hasn't been much different other than having to mow the lawn every week and an ever rising mosquito count. It was 86 degrees on yesterday or the day before so air conditioning has come in handy. I'm looking forward to the next three weeks following which at long last we'll be seeing Nana and Aunt Jen, Nick, and Jake. I don't think I knew this before, but it appears they'll be coming to town right at the start of the Pennington County Fair!! Nick and Jake will get to see some 4-H animals and have some small town fun with Aaron and Daniel. Yet another thing to add to their travel itinerary besides the water park.
I gotta go play some football right now, though, as Aaron is beckoning. I bought myself a bike so I can also ride with the boys, but it's nice to mix up the activity a little and throw the ball around now and then. Hope everyone is enjoying their summers! :o)
We just got back from setting a few gopher traps out West of St. Hilaire on the old 80-acre field. I thought I may have lost my touch as in order to set traps you have to be able to find the entrance/exit hole to the burrow by shoving a stake into the mound of dirt. I was able to set a couple within 5 minutes, though, so now we'll just watch and wait a little bit and see what happens. We have Dusty back over again tonight, so the house will be active a bit more. Andrew picked up a few ribeye steaks since yesterday was his payday, so we'll be firing up the grill for the second night in a row now (brats last night).
We have new neighbors already that just moved into the house our old neighbors moved out of only a week ago. They have two small children, a boy and a girl, the boy a year younger than Daniel and they happen to be friends with the pastor's familiy on the corner and go to his church in town, First Baptist. We helped them move in their 32+ inch television set and entertainment center to put it in.
As for other happenings in TRF, there hasn't been much different other than having to mow the lawn every week and an ever rising mosquito count. It was 86 degrees on yesterday or the day before so air conditioning has come in handy. I'm looking forward to the next three weeks following which at long last we'll be seeing Nana and Aunt Jen, Nick, and Jake. I don't think I knew this before, but it appears they'll be coming to town right at the start of the Pennington County Fair!! Nick and Jake will get to see some 4-H animals and have some small town fun with Aaron and Daniel. Yet another thing to add to their travel itinerary besides the water park.
I gotta go play some football right now, though, as Aaron is beckoning. I bought myself a bike so I can also ride with the boys, but it's nice to mix up the activity a little and throw the ball around now and then. Hope everyone is enjoying their summers! :o)
Thursday, June 09, 2005
An Extraordinary Accomplishment!!
Today brought a most joyous accomplishment in Aaron's life. Aaron has been diligently working on learning to ride his bike. Last night, I witnessed him coasting all the way down to the neighbors with his legs just hanging down barely above the ground. He didn't touch the ground the whole way. Today, just about 5 minutes ago, Aaron and his buddy, Drew, came running inside to announce he has just learned how to ride all by himself!! I went out to watch while Drew gave him a little jump start and off he went down the sidewalk... The look of pride on his face was literally priceless! Today was truly a milestone of which Aaron can be most proud. Especially so as he never used training wheels and did it 95% on his very own. I am so happy for Aaron also because he has come home so many times this spring and early summer with a dejected look on his face, commenting how all of his friends could ride their bikes and he couldn't and therefore couldn't play with them as much as he liked. Now he's opened up a whole new world to himself. Three cheers for Aaron!!!
Monday, June 06, 2005
The 2005 Mosquito Season (MN State Bird) Is Upon Us...
It's amazing how fast they show up with a half mowed back lawn. The grass got to over a foot tall in sections because I wasn't too excited to mow over toys left from Spring and anyone who knows anything about mosquitos knows what that means...a virtual Motel 6 for laying eggs. Andrew got a citronella candle to "protect" him while enjoying a cigar by the back door, but found it was pretty ineffective. We picked up some newfangled OFF! mosquito lamps with something else we're going to try. In any event, I finished mowing about 95% of the back lawn today, so hopefully that will help bring them under control. The nice thing is I can still count the number of bites with one hand and there's none on that counting hand.
We've settled into summer quite nicely here with the boys' first week off from school last week. That is, once I had corralled Aaron from going to his female classmate's house 4 blocks down across a busy street. I think most of you already know I met the local PD again when I got a ride home from them when looking for Aaron last week. Then a couple days later meeting the same officer again as he politely knocked on the door and advised that Daniel and his little friend Zack had climbed out the upstairs bathroom onto the back roof (lower roof). With their second week of summer, they've been on much better behavior, knock on wood.
We had Carol and Roger Delap deliver us a homecooked meal from church last Friday, a goulash with melted cheese and pepperoni, homemade whole wheat bread, watermelon, grapes, and freshly baked cookies. It was a special program our church does, bringing home-cooked meals to people they think could use and appreciate it. We all really did enjoy it immensely.
We headed to church this Sunday after I took a couple weeks off sick and had a substitute pastor, Frank Ehly. He was kind of funny in the beginning, saying most people at the early service were thanking him for "coming out of retirement" to help. He responded each time with, "I'm NOT coming out of retirement...I'm just helping! He also enjoyed the new microphone like telephone operators wear, stating he felt like Garth Brooks at a concert without the cowboy hat.
We went to Dee's afterwards for brunch and spotted Jerry and Marilyn Wigness a few tables down. We discovered the nonsmoking section this time, so it was a little more pleasant to eat in. Following that, we spent the afternoon relaxing and come evening, we met Scott Grochow and his boy, Dusty, at the Galaxy Twin Cinemas and watched the new Star Wars movie. Dusty left about midway in as he got a little scared and Daniel just went with him because he wanted to play at his house. Aaron made it through and enjoyed seeing the whole progression from Anakin to Darth Vader. I think Andrew liked it too. The casting was pretty accurate, I think, as I imagined the much older characters from the first three movies and could easiliy envision the younger versions as older. I'm looking forward to the DVD so I can catch more subtle nuances of the movie and see more of the "behind-the-scenes" footage and special effects.
Dusty spent the night last night, sleeping on the couch with Duchess. Above is a picture of the two of them. Quite comfy, I must say. He might end up spending another night as I haven't heard from Scott or Kristy yet if they're expecting him home tonight.
Today was the first day in over a week we've had nice sunny clear sky weather and it made for nice mowing weather. All last week it was like living in Seattle all over again with overcast cool days and a dreary feel. It's nice to get back to the dry stuff for a change.
Well... It's back to work for me and shortly to bed for the boys. Hope all of you out there are enjoying your collective summers, wherever you find yourself "at home."
We've settled into summer quite nicely here with the boys' first week off from school last week. That is, once I had corralled Aaron from going to his female classmate's house 4 blocks down across a busy street. I think most of you already know I met the local PD again when I got a ride home from them when looking for Aaron last week. Then a couple days later meeting the same officer again as he politely knocked on the door and advised that Daniel and his little friend Zack had climbed out the upstairs bathroom onto the back roof (lower roof). With their second week of summer, they've been on much better behavior, knock on wood.
We had Carol and Roger Delap deliver us a homecooked meal from church last Friday, a goulash with melted cheese and pepperoni, homemade whole wheat bread, watermelon, grapes, and freshly baked cookies. It was a special program our church does, bringing home-cooked meals to people they think could use and appreciate it. We all really did enjoy it immensely.
We headed to church this Sunday after I took a couple weeks off sick and had a substitute pastor, Frank Ehly. He was kind of funny in the beginning, saying most people at the early service were thanking him for "coming out of retirement" to help. He responded each time with, "I'm NOT coming out of retirement...I'm just helping! He also enjoyed the new microphone like telephone operators wear, stating he felt like Garth Brooks at a concert without the cowboy hat.
We went to Dee's afterwards for brunch and spotted Jerry and Marilyn Wigness a few tables down. We discovered the nonsmoking section this time, so it was a little more pleasant to eat in. Following that, we spent the afternoon relaxing and come evening, we met Scott Grochow and his boy, Dusty, at the Galaxy Twin Cinemas and watched the new Star Wars movie. Dusty left about midway in as he got a little scared and Daniel just went with him because he wanted to play at his house. Aaron made it through and enjoyed seeing the whole progression from Anakin to Darth Vader. I think Andrew liked it too. The casting was pretty accurate, I think, as I imagined the much older characters from the first three movies and could easiliy envision the younger versions as older. I'm looking forward to the DVD so I can catch more subtle nuances of the movie and see more of the "behind-the-scenes" footage and special effects.
Dusty spent the night last night, sleeping on the couch with Duchess. Above is a picture of the two of them. Quite comfy, I must say. He might end up spending another night as I haven't heard from Scott or Kristy yet if they're expecting him home tonight.
Today was the first day in over a week we've had nice sunny clear sky weather and it made for nice mowing weather. All last week it was like living in Seattle all over again with overcast cool days and a dreary feel. It's nice to get back to the dry stuff for a change.
Well... It's back to work for me and shortly to bed for the boys. Hope all of you out there are enjoying your collective summers, wherever you find yourself "at home."
Monday, May 30, 2005
Happy Memorial Day...
We had our first "post-school daze" weekend and as usual, there was no shortage of entertainment/drama. Daniel came back to the house early this afternoon to tell Uncle Andrew that Aaron had apparently taken Duchess for a walk "because this girl wanted to see her and have her meet her dog." Aaron has a classmate named Bailey who lives a couple blocks down towards the high school. Unfortunately, along the way he met up with some neighborhood dogs that spooked Duchess and you can probably deduce the rest. Bailey apparently took Aaron to Ben Franklin and bought him a cap gun, then they both went to Taco John's. I'm thinking the latter was Aaron's idea... He didn't have any money with him though...
Daniel went with Andrew to comb the neighborhood for sight of boy or dog while I contacted authorities and burned a CD with pictures of Aaron and Duchess to bring down to the police department. I walked over there and a local officer gave me a lift back. He said he had picked up a "boy and a girl who matched the description," but let them off shortly after after the girl apparently said she could "get out now." Aaron was still AWOL, though, so the officer drove me one last place to look as he had a small inkling he may have headed to the park (coincidentally known as "Lover's Lane"). He wasn't there, though. Somewhere on the way back home in the squad car, the pastor who lives on our street corner found him and picked him up, so all was well. Any more days like today and I'm going to be on a first name basis with the TRF PD.
The rest of the day went much better, though, with the boys playing just out front of the house with their buddies and Bailey came back later in the evening and we all had a nice game of catch with the junior Cougar football, Nick, Bailey, Aaron, Daniel, and I, before the sun went down. Now I just gotta get their laundry done. They keep pulling their Star Wars shirts they got from Lisa out of the dirty laundry to wear again as they apparently like them quite a bit and can't wait for the washing.
Aaron and Daniel gave me their report cards this afternoon and they were both officially promoted to the next grade, Aaron in third, and Daniel in first. Aaron made some improvements in his music class and Daniel maintained solid achievement in his alphabet and related skills. It was kinda funny reading the personal note from Mrs. Miller to Aaron, thinking of what she would have written to Jennifer years ago in first grade.
I discovered rhubarb in the backyard this weekend, so am picking it for Mom to prepare in July. I also took a walk around the house today and found on the South side of the house there are large green leafy plants/bushes that appear to be ready to bloom. Not roses, but they look like they may be pretty once they finally bloom. I'll have to post a picture if they turn out well. They've filled in the outside of the house nicely so it's not so barren. I also bought a weed trimmer this weekend so I got the back fence cleaned up a bit. The flowers in the backyard garden area are coming up nicely, about 4 inches tall so far.
Hopefully everyone has a safe and happy Memorial Day holiday. I've been getting over a chest and head bug with an eye infection to boot, so I'll probably be laying low much of the day just typing, but will probably get out the football later on with the boys just to get the blood flowing a bit.
Daniel went with Andrew to comb the neighborhood for sight of boy or dog while I contacted authorities and burned a CD with pictures of Aaron and Duchess to bring down to the police department. I walked over there and a local officer gave me a lift back. He said he had picked up a "boy and a girl who matched the description," but let them off shortly after after the girl apparently said she could "get out now." Aaron was still AWOL, though, so the officer drove me one last place to look as he had a small inkling he may have headed to the park (coincidentally known as "Lover's Lane"). He wasn't there, though. Somewhere on the way back home in the squad car, the pastor who lives on our street corner found him and picked him up, so all was well. Any more days like today and I'm going to be on a first name basis with the TRF PD.
The rest of the day went much better, though, with the boys playing just out front of the house with their buddies and Bailey came back later in the evening and we all had a nice game of catch with the junior Cougar football, Nick, Bailey, Aaron, Daniel, and I, before the sun went down. Now I just gotta get their laundry done. They keep pulling their Star Wars shirts they got from Lisa out of the dirty laundry to wear again as they apparently like them quite a bit and can't wait for the washing.
Aaron and Daniel gave me their report cards this afternoon and they were both officially promoted to the next grade, Aaron in third, and Daniel in first. Aaron made some improvements in his music class and Daniel maintained solid achievement in his alphabet and related skills. It was kinda funny reading the personal note from Mrs. Miller to Aaron, thinking of what she would have written to Jennifer years ago in first grade.
I discovered rhubarb in the backyard this weekend, so am picking it for Mom to prepare in July. I also took a walk around the house today and found on the South side of the house there are large green leafy plants/bushes that appear to be ready to bloom. Not roses, but they look like they may be pretty once they finally bloom. I'll have to post a picture if they turn out well. They've filled in the outside of the house nicely so it's not so barren. I also bought a weed trimmer this weekend so I got the back fence cleaned up a bit. The flowers in the backyard garden area are coming up nicely, about 4 inches tall so far.
Hopefully everyone has a safe and happy Memorial Day holiday. I've been getting over a chest and head bug with an eye infection to boot, so I'll probably be laying low much of the day just typing, but will probably get out the football later on with the boys just to get the blood flowing a bit.
Sunday, May 22, 2005
Countdown to summer with a house full of rowdy kids...
The days are numbered for the school year in TRF. The kids are about out of class for the year, which means a lot of noise around the house and hopefully just a morsel of quiet time left for daddy to get some work done. I will soon discover the true test of a home-based business. It's with somewhat mixed emotions I greet summer with to say the least.
The boys and I decided to take in some of the beautiful evening weather here at sundown and took a long walk, making a wide square to the local train tracks and back, stopping for some Mexican food before looping back and stopping to chat with an old acquaintance, Terri Cuppett, who was out with her guide dog on the corner in front of her house. The sunset was truly spectacular, with the sun being eclipsed by this single white billowy cloud in an azure blue sky with brilliant beams of sunlight bursting out of the top of the cloud in all directions. I wished I had my digital camera with so I'd have a nice new wallpaper for my computer. If nothing else, it's good motivation to make a habit of the evening walk. The only complaint out of the boys is Daniel started saying he was going to "die" if he didn't get something to eat and drink "right away." That was about halfway through the walk and was shortlived as I boosted him on my shoulders and his mind was then shifted to his "fear of heights..." The boys watched a movie Friday night at one of their friend's houses, a rather gawdy colored house in an otherwise conservative neighborhood. Imagine a whole street of white, off white, light yellow, brown/earth tones and pastel blues, then right in the middle of it all, a PURPLE house. At least it's easy for the kids to find...
I finally took a few minutes of free time yesterday afternoon to put together Aaron's half of the bunk bed, lacking my tools to finish the entire set, but I found my tools tonight, so I will likely get the rest done tomorrow and the boys can return to their "pre-Minnesota" sleeping configuration. Speaking of sleeping, I think I'll post a picture of Daniel following a LONG day of play last weekend. You can see he truly had nothing left to give that day...
Since I last wrote, we did take another trip to Grand Forks, North Dakota and signed up last weekend for Sam's Club, so I can keep the kids better supplied with snacks and other staples with fewer trips to the supermarket. We were impressed at the amount of stuff one can fit in a 1991 Honda Civic. This time around we got home before the sun went down completely and didn't have any more run-ins with the local deer population, knock on wood.
As for current vocational activities, I was just graded for my third month's work at Transolutions in Illinois and earned a rating of 99% accuracy, which means I've now gotten 97, 98, and 99% in three consecutive months. They just now switched my backup account from an emergency room in Connecticut to the University of Illinois - Chicago, so I will possibly have the potential of typing discharge summaries and consultations for a large population of residents and therefore a number of English as a second language dictators given it's status as a teaching facility. I'm actually hoping against hope I will always have enough work on my Orthopedic Associates of Hartford account so I never have to type on the secondary one. For those of you interested in who I'm actually typing for, here's their website: http://www.oahct.com/4udr2/webpage.asp?wppagename=physicians.htm&wpleftmenu=leftmenuphysicians.htm&wptitle=Physicians&g_cid=1&g_sid=270796116&chk=9643
They have some nice bios of the various surgeons and physician's assistants with pictures, etc. It's more fascinating for me as I type them all sight unseen and then match up their face with their voice later on. As a transcriptionist, you often conjure a picture in your mind that is far from reality, i.e. thinking the doctor came over on the Mayflower given their stuffy old voice, then finding out they're actually 30 years younger than you had thought. Speaking of transcription, this past week was National Medical Transcription Week and my first week I got a nice card from my employer for it. It's nice to be appreciated at least once a year as this job is mostly unsung for all the things we put up with from doctors.
That's about all that's goin' on over here. I gotta get some sleep before church in the morning. I'll try to get more pictures of the neighborhood for posting so you can see better how TRF looks in the summer. It's so nice and green here right now!
The boys and I decided to take in some of the beautiful evening weather here at sundown and took a long walk, making a wide square to the local train tracks and back, stopping for some Mexican food before looping back and stopping to chat with an old acquaintance, Terri Cuppett, who was out with her guide dog on the corner in front of her house. The sunset was truly spectacular, with the sun being eclipsed by this single white billowy cloud in an azure blue sky with brilliant beams of sunlight bursting out of the top of the cloud in all directions. I wished I had my digital camera with so I'd have a nice new wallpaper for my computer. If nothing else, it's good motivation to make a habit of the evening walk. The only complaint out of the boys is Daniel started saying he was going to "die" if he didn't get something to eat and drink "right away." That was about halfway through the walk and was shortlived as I boosted him on my shoulders and his mind was then shifted to his "fear of heights..." The boys watched a movie Friday night at one of their friend's houses, a rather gawdy colored house in an otherwise conservative neighborhood. Imagine a whole street of white, off white, light yellow, brown/earth tones and pastel blues, then right in the middle of it all, a PURPLE house. At least it's easy for the kids to find...
I finally took a few minutes of free time yesterday afternoon to put together Aaron's half of the bunk bed, lacking my tools to finish the entire set, but I found my tools tonight, so I will likely get the rest done tomorrow and the boys can return to their "pre-Minnesota" sleeping configuration. Speaking of sleeping, I think I'll post a picture of Daniel following a LONG day of play last weekend. You can see he truly had nothing left to give that day...
Since I last wrote, we did take another trip to Grand Forks, North Dakota and signed up last weekend for Sam's Club, so I can keep the kids better supplied with snacks and other staples with fewer trips to the supermarket. We were impressed at the amount of stuff one can fit in a 1991 Honda Civic. This time around we got home before the sun went down completely and didn't have any more run-ins with the local deer population, knock on wood.
As for current vocational activities, I was just graded for my third month's work at Transolutions in Illinois and earned a rating of 99% accuracy, which means I've now gotten 97, 98, and 99% in three consecutive months. They just now switched my backup account from an emergency room in Connecticut to the University of Illinois - Chicago, so I will possibly have the potential of typing discharge summaries and consultations for a large population of residents and therefore a number of English as a second language dictators given it's status as a teaching facility. I'm actually hoping against hope I will always have enough work on my Orthopedic Associates of Hartford account so I never have to type on the secondary one. For those of you interested in who I'm actually typing for, here's their website: http://www.oahct.com/4udr2/webpage.asp?wppagename=physicians.htm&wpleftmenu=leftmenuphysicians.htm&wptitle=Physicians&g_cid=1&g_sid=270796116&chk=9643
They have some nice bios of the various surgeons and physician's assistants with pictures, etc. It's more fascinating for me as I type them all sight unseen and then match up their face with their voice later on. As a transcriptionist, you often conjure a picture in your mind that is far from reality, i.e. thinking the doctor came over on the Mayflower given their stuffy old voice, then finding out they're actually 30 years younger than you had thought. Speaking of transcription, this past week was National Medical Transcription Week and my first week I got a nice card from my employer for it. It's nice to be appreciated at least once a year as this job is mostly unsung for all the things we put up with from doctors.
That's about all that's goin' on over here. I gotta get some sleep before church in the morning. I'll try to get more pictures of the neighborhood for posting so you can see better how TRF looks in the summer. It's so nice and green here right now!
Sunday, May 08, 2005
Thunderbolts, Lightning, and Tornado Warnings
Sorry for the delay since my last post. Been a little busy over here these days. That's getting to be the norm nowadays. Since last post, we had our combined choir performances at three different churches in two days. I've sent recordings of it to some of you. Those who didn't get one and may be interested, go ahead and e-mail me at cougalum1@hotmail.com. With that performance, the choir is off now for the summer, so we have our Wednesday evenings free again, which I think Andrew needed, working his two jobs and all. He gets a little more time to snooze that way.
The boys seem to continue making new friends all the time and broadening their play experience. Today we set up the volleball net in the back yard and the neighbor girl and another boy from the neighborhood, Dorion, played with the boys back there as well as horseshoes in the front yard. It's nice to have two yards for a change. I don't miss the asphalt jungle a bit...
The boys had Uncle Andrew take them out to the school carnival at Challenger Elementary as I had to work yesterday. They had a really good time and got a lot of prizes. The prizes are a little nicer then when Jennifer and I went to the carnival in our old country school house in St. Hilaire.
My work continues to go well with the transcription company in Illinois. They had been holding on to all my work for close inspection during my orientation period, but recently took me off 100% hold and authorized me to send my work directly to the doctors' offices, so it's nice not having someone looking over my shoulder all the time except for those few reports I am not able to understand the doctor on. I scaled my hours back a little bit so I'm just working 9 to 3 pm on weekdays and 8 hours on Saturdays. I'm already feeling a lot of pressure lifted now that the evenings are more open and I'm not "chained to the desk."
In the past week, the boys helped me plant our herb garden and some flowers and Daniel planted his tree from school for Arbor Day. I have yet to see how they do as it's been hard keeping them watered enough. It's so windy and sunny that the soil tends to dry out pretty quick.
As for the headline of today's post, we had a severe thunderstorm warning flash on TV last night, but all we got was a dazzling light show. Tonight, however, both thunder and lightning are here in TRF and in full force. I'm probably stupid typing this right now given the state of weather affairs, but I didn't want to put this off another week as there are a few still reading what's going on over here. There was also a tornado warning this afternoon for the counties of Grand Forks, Marshall, and Polk, all areas surrounding TRF, but probably a good 40-50 miles away. They just said conditions were "favorable" for a tornado. None sighted yet, though, knock on wood.
I took some new pictures today of the kids and will probably post them next, but give me a few to get around to it. We had to come inside from playtime thanks to the thunderstorm.
Hope everyone had a happy Mother's Day!
Until next time...
Jim, Aaron, Daniel, and Andrew
The boys seem to continue making new friends all the time and broadening their play experience. Today we set up the volleball net in the back yard and the neighbor girl and another boy from the neighborhood, Dorion, played with the boys back there as well as horseshoes in the front yard. It's nice to have two yards for a change. I don't miss the asphalt jungle a bit...
The boys had Uncle Andrew take them out to the school carnival at Challenger Elementary as I had to work yesterday. They had a really good time and got a lot of prizes. The prizes are a little nicer then when Jennifer and I went to the carnival in our old country school house in St. Hilaire.
My work continues to go well with the transcription company in Illinois. They had been holding on to all my work for close inspection during my orientation period, but recently took me off 100% hold and authorized me to send my work directly to the doctors' offices, so it's nice not having someone looking over my shoulder all the time except for those few reports I am not able to understand the doctor on. I scaled my hours back a little bit so I'm just working 9 to 3 pm on weekdays and 8 hours on Saturdays. I'm already feeling a lot of pressure lifted now that the evenings are more open and I'm not "chained to the desk."
In the past week, the boys helped me plant our herb garden and some flowers and Daniel planted his tree from school for Arbor Day. I have yet to see how they do as it's been hard keeping them watered enough. It's so windy and sunny that the soil tends to dry out pretty quick.
As for the headline of today's post, we had a severe thunderstorm warning flash on TV last night, but all we got was a dazzling light show. Tonight, however, both thunder and lightning are here in TRF and in full force. I'm probably stupid typing this right now given the state of weather affairs, but I didn't want to put this off another week as there are a few still reading what's going on over here. There was also a tornado warning this afternoon for the counties of Grand Forks, Marshall, and Polk, all areas surrounding TRF, but probably a good 40-50 miles away. They just said conditions were "favorable" for a tornado. None sighted yet, though, knock on wood.
I took some new pictures today of the kids and will probably post them next, but give me a few to get around to it. We had to come inside from playtime thanks to the thunderstorm.
Hope everyone had a happy Mother's Day!
Until next time...
Jim, Aaron, Daniel, and Andrew
Thursday, April 28, 2005
Combined Choir
We had a great combined choir rehearsal tonight at Zion Lutheran Church in town with that congregation's choir as well as the one from Redeemer. The three choir directors (for Dad's info) are Linda Samuelson (Trinity), Diane (Mosbeck) Johnson (Zion) and Ruth Stenson (Redeemer). Diane Johnson recognized Aaron in the church parking lot and said hi. Apparently she taught him music at Challenger a few times this year already so they are well acquainted. She remembered me as a small boy.
We found our places in the sanctuary pews and sat down, watching all the others come in. I saw just a few famiilar faces. Deb Fulton, Daniel's kindergarten teacher at Challenger, was there and this lady sat down right in front of Mike Lehrer and I and her face rang quite a bell in my head of someone I recognized from long, long ago... I was going to ask Mike whatever became of Nancy Fellman, my old swimming instructor from the 70's, but didn't get a chance. Our combined choirs totaled probably 50-60 members and for once we had a "real" tenor section. It sounded so great having so many guys singing at once and we balanced the ladies out pretty nicely. We sang "I'm Going Home" again from the Cold Mountain movie with Nicole Kidman. I'm going to have to rent that one to see what the song sounded like there.
Our combined choirs will be performing at Redeemer's Saturday evening service this weekend at 5:00 (practice at 4:30) and then will sing the early 8:30 service at Zion this Sunday followed by the late service at Trinity, so we will have a full three services to attend... I can't wait to see the look on Aaron's face when he has to sit through all that...
After the practice, we headed downstairs for an old fashioned Lutheran coffee fellowship with all kinds of bars and lemonade. Down there, I again saw the lady that had earlier sat down in front of me and asked her why she looked so darn familiar to me. She said her name was indeed Nancy Fellman... Good grief! At our table was Diane Johnson and another lady who apparently graduated from Lincoln in 1984, a year prior to when I would have. Her first name was Cory, but I couldn't recall her last name, unfortunately. Daniel had yet another visit to his buddy's AWANIS program at the other church in town here. The pastor and his wife who drive him with their boys obviously had a good time with him. He basically took the one vacant seat that was left in their minivan so it was truly a vanload of boys.
It actually snowed today in TRF if you can believe that. It's been in the 30s now for several days. Nothing stuck to the ground, though, so that's good. I'll have to wait another week or two before I think about starting the whole planting thing here.
Take care everyone,
Jim, Aaron, Daniel, and Andrew
We found our places in the sanctuary pews and sat down, watching all the others come in. I saw just a few famiilar faces. Deb Fulton, Daniel's kindergarten teacher at Challenger, was there and this lady sat down right in front of Mike Lehrer and I and her face rang quite a bell in my head of someone I recognized from long, long ago... I was going to ask Mike whatever became of Nancy Fellman, my old swimming instructor from the 70's, but didn't get a chance. Our combined choirs totaled probably 50-60 members and for once we had a "real" tenor section. It sounded so great having so many guys singing at once and we balanced the ladies out pretty nicely. We sang "I'm Going Home" again from the Cold Mountain movie with Nicole Kidman. I'm going to have to rent that one to see what the song sounded like there.
Our combined choirs will be performing at Redeemer's Saturday evening service this weekend at 5:00 (practice at 4:30) and then will sing the early 8:30 service at Zion this Sunday followed by the late service at Trinity, so we will have a full three services to attend... I can't wait to see the look on Aaron's face when he has to sit through all that...
After the practice, we headed downstairs for an old fashioned Lutheran coffee fellowship with all kinds of bars and lemonade. Down there, I again saw the lady that had earlier sat down in front of me and asked her why she looked so darn familiar to me. She said her name was indeed Nancy Fellman... Good grief! At our table was Diane Johnson and another lady who apparently graduated from Lincoln in 1984, a year prior to when I would have. Her first name was Cory, but I couldn't recall her last name, unfortunately. Daniel had yet another visit to his buddy's AWANIS program at the other church in town here. The pastor and his wife who drive him with their boys obviously had a good time with him. He basically took the one vacant seat that was left in their minivan so it was truly a vanload of boys.
It actually snowed today in TRF if you can believe that. It's been in the 30s now for several days. Nothing stuck to the ground, though, so that's good. I'll have to wait another week or two before I think about starting the whole planting thing here.
Take care everyone,
Jim, Aaron, Daniel, and Andrew
Monday, April 25, 2005
Emergency Response in Thief River Falls...
I was hoping I wouldn't have reason to find out what the response time is for 9-1-1 in Thief River for at least the first year, but come last Friday, that went by the wayside. I had to call the ambulance Daniel. He had gotten up off the couch in the living room and was wearing those nylon kind of warm-up pants and had to go potty. He ran through the dining room on his way to the bathroom pulling his pants down as he went, covering his stocking feet in slippery nylon on the hardwood floor. Next thing I know, I hear a resounding crack on what sounded like the doorjam of the entrance to the kitchen followed by a bloodcurdling wail. On the bright side, I learned emergency response time here is every bit as good as Seattle's, which isn't bad when you consider Seattle's Medic One program set the standard worldwide for response time. The police were here at the house in between 20-30 seconds....all five or so officers (They were only a block and a half away when they heard the medical dispatch). They beat the ambulance, which wasn't too far behind. Ambulance services are now provided by Great Plains EMS, a private outfit. I carried him out to the ambulance for a head injury evaluation and got an all clear from the paramedic. I was just concerned becuse it swelled up to a pretty big size knot within only a minute or two of the injury and didn't know if there could be more extensive damage underneath, i.e. a subdural hematoma, given the force of impact. In any event, we all enjoyed the excitement and Daniel got a nice fuzzy blue stuffed bunny rabbit out of the whole ordeal. All's well that ends well... One other thing we found out is a former police officer's sister was one of the previous owners of the house we live in.
We spent the weekend getting some implements for working in the yard including a Garden Weasel. I'm thinking we'll plant a flower bed in the bare area of the backyard and reserve a space down one side of it for some spinach, garlic, and herbs. Seems like Martha Stewart has overtaken the entire garden section at Kmart. Incarceration does wonders for sales these days, ya know... :o)
We also took a trip up to the 80 acres and found there' s lots of mounds of dirt that have sprung up all over the field, so gopher trapping should be good this summer.
As for church this Sunday, we didn't see Ormand Johnson and we're all pretty concerned how he's getting along these days. Come Wednesday we have our combined choir practice at Zion. I met the "Samuelsons" at morning coffee yesterday. They were having a going away for the Johnstons (not sure of the first names) who are moving to Warroad.
We spent the weekend getting some implements for working in the yard including a Garden Weasel. I'm thinking we'll plant a flower bed in the bare area of the backyard and reserve a space down one side of it for some spinach, garlic, and herbs. Seems like Martha Stewart has overtaken the entire garden section at Kmart. Incarceration does wonders for sales these days, ya know... :o)
We also took a trip up to the 80 acres and found there' s lots of mounds of dirt that have sprung up all over the field, so gopher trapping should be good this summer.
As for church this Sunday, we didn't see Ormand Johnson and we're all pretty concerned how he's getting along these days. Come Wednesday we have our combined choir practice at Zion. I met the "Samuelsons" at morning coffee yesterday. They were having a going away for the Johnstons (not sure of the first names) who are moving to Warroad.
Thursday, April 21, 2005
A Nice Spring Week in TRF...
It's been so nice outside this week I haven't taken much time to update my blog lately. It was 85 degrees plus earlier this week, which was the first day the boys came inside for any length of time to cool off. I met another new neighbor this week, my parent's old insurance agent and his wife, who happen to live on the corner of the next street up and had commented that they would see me every day in the winter with the dog dropping off Aaron at the bus stop and picking him and Daniel up in the afternoon. Aaron took a walk downtown with me that day to pick up my tax return from my accountant. It was all of about 15 minutes for the complete round trip to town and back and with the flat Minnesota land, it was a bit easier to walk it than in Seattle.
We had choir practice last night where I fixed about half the problems with the youth's foosball table in the basement beforehand. I was just missing a few bolts to replace broken men on the table. Practice went pretty well, but we did have to practice a "level 4" song. I don't know if you know what a level 4 song means, Dad, but it was quite the challenge for us all. The director said it took her choir at the community college something like 2 straight weeks of 3-day a week practices to learn. We only have one more rehearsal before the combined choirs meet. It also has a rather incredibly high note for the tenors at the end, too. I suggested it was more in the range of a castrato than a tenor...
As a sidebar, Terry Soine and Steve from the auto dealership were talking about obligations for the upcoming Lincoln High prom and someone mentioned something about "anyone" getting into the prom and Terry's role as vice principal in limiting access to the prom when he was still working for the school. Terry joked, "After a while, I just said, the heck with it... Just let 'em in and charge 'em admission!"
Come tomorrow, we have to take Duchess to her vet appointment to get her heartworm preventative and other shots. Dawn Williamson told me the heartworm preventative is something like $85 versus over $1,500 to actually treat the heartworm should she contract it. I'm still considering bringing funny bunny in too to have her nails professionally clipped so we don't end up with gouges in our forearms from doing it ourselves... Hopefully we'll get a chance to run down to the 80 acres and get a look at the gopher mound situation so we can hopefully get started soon on the gopher trapping season. Unfortunately there's not much else going on that's fit to print, but in this case, no news is definitely good news... See ya all later!
We had choir practice last night where I fixed about half the problems with the youth's foosball table in the basement beforehand. I was just missing a few bolts to replace broken men on the table. Practice went pretty well, but we did have to practice a "level 4" song. I don't know if you know what a level 4 song means, Dad, but it was quite the challenge for us all. The director said it took her choir at the community college something like 2 straight weeks of 3-day a week practices to learn. We only have one more rehearsal before the combined choirs meet. It also has a rather incredibly high note for the tenors at the end, too. I suggested it was more in the range of a castrato than a tenor...
As a sidebar, Terry Soine and Steve from the auto dealership were talking about obligations for the upcoming Lincoln High prom and someone mentioned something about "anyone" getting into the prom and Terry's role as vice principal in limiting access to the prom when he was still working for the school. Terry joked, "After a while, I just said, the heck with it... Just let 'em in and charge 'em admission!"
Come tomorrow, we have to take Duchess to her vet appointment to get her heartworm preventative and other shots. Dawn Williamson told me the heartworm preventative is something like $85 versus over $1,500 to actually treat the heartworm should she contract it. I'm still considering bringing funny bunny in too to have her nails professionally clipped so we don't end up with gouges in our forearms from doing it ourselves... Hopefully we'll get a chance to run down to the 80 acres and get a look at the gopher mound situation so we can hopefully get started soon on the gopher trapping season. Unfortunately there's not much else going on that's fit to print, but in this case, no news is definitely good news... See ya all later!
Thursday, April 14, 2005
Spring Cleaning
It looks like we're heading into a leisurely spring weekend here in TRF. Aaron just reminded me on putting him to bed that he doesn't have to get on the bus until a whole two hours later at 9:50. Daddy gets to sleep in!! :o) It's been a long week here burning the candle at both ends with the working at home, but it'll all be worth it when I can finally put my feet up for a little bit tomorrow. We went out to K-mart tonight so I could finally get a bookcase to replace one of the ones we gave away in Washington in order to move. I'm looking forward to getting at least a couple of more boxes emptied and books on shelves where they can be accessed.
I had the boys pick out new shoes at the store as they're no longer having to wear snowboots everywhere they go. Daniel picked out a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle pair, but Aaron's feet are so big, he can no longer get those cute little boy shoes anymore, but rather has to wear the men's shoes. Aaron has jumped from a 6 to a 7-1/2 in men's and Daniel has gone from an 11 -1/2 to a 13 in boys. The next mission will be to get them both into bigger pants. Daniel is beginning to wear more of Aaron's hand-me-downs, which means he must be really growing.
When I took Duchess out to pick up the boys at the bus stop this afternoon, I saw an older guy out on a lawn tractor across the street in Fern Williams' lawn going up and down the greenbelt by the sidewalk. He stopped the tractor and climbed off when he saw me and it was Dale Folger. He's back from his trip down south for the winter. He told me all about seeing the Dead Sea Scrolls on display down in Alabama. He also regaled me with his story of being in Seattle when he was in the Navy way back when and having to call his uncle, an admiral, to get him out of there and down to San Diego. Dale said he was mowing three lawns now as Ken Murphy on the corner has his left arm in a sling these days. I finally figured out which house is which on this street. Directly across the street is the young couple Laci and Jason who are selling their house and renting the house next door to us, just to the left of theirs (my left) is Fern Williams, and the one next to hers at the end of the block is Ken Murphy's. On my right of Laci and Jason's is Dale's house. I've now identified all but one of the homeowners on the block. Fern came out of hibernation too, so I'll be seeing more of her now.
Choir went well this week, but Mike was gone, so it was a good thing I decided to sing tenor. It was just my accountant, Randy, and I in the tenor section. Ormand unfortunately was unable to attend and I didn't learn until after practice that he was in a motor vehicle accident earlier in the week, which apparently made the paper on Tuesday. I guess he pulled out in front of someone here in town. There were no details on his condition, but in the meantime, I found out he had had a heart attack more more than two weeks ago and I had never known it. Some other members thought he looked a little under the weather this past Sunday, but I didn't make much of it. We all hope he's doing much better. Speaking of choir, our choir director, Linda, said her husband is pressuring in a nice way to scale back on some of her responsibilities at the college and church. She had spoken to Pastor Hermodson and he was suggesting she take over the reigns of the new job they were batting about, that of youth program director, and the new job would be responsible for ALL music at the church. She was like, "Ah... NO!" He said, well the pay would be bumped up, of course," to which she again said, "NO!" She can't think of how she's going to cut corners as it is without sacrificing us or something else. At that point, Jerry, Marilyn, Shirley, and Carol were talking about drafting you, Dad, to return to the fold.... :o) Then Shirley told us how you liked to visit the snow in the mountains when you wanted to, not have to live in it full time and shovel. Ah well, it was a nice thought for a moment. Maybe you could guest direct when you come in September??? We're now singing "Wind of the Spirit" next. Apparently we're supposed to be gearing up for a cooperative kind of service between Trinity, Zion, and Redeemer and our choir is only going to get one practice with the music by ourselves before we join the other two choirs because the publisher didn't have more than one copy when Linda ordered them. We should do fine, though, I think...
When we were at K-mart tonight, Terry and Rita Soine walked up to us and I talked them into coming out to the house soon to take a look around the grounds and suggest shrubs/flowers to beautify the front and sides of the house. I wanted to get something planted in the barrel planters out front so they're put to good use. I may be the first house on the block to do it too. I'm thinking maybe annuals this year and perennials starting next year. I'll let you know what we decide.
Last, but not least, Daniel came up to me last night and begged to go with his buddy, Tyler, at the end of the street to his AWANIS (Sp?) program at the Evangelical Free Church in town. I guess it's for adults and kids alike, so the pastor and his wife drove Daniel with them last night and dropped him off at Trinity afterwards. Daniel was full of enthusiasm about it when he got back and wants to go again next week... That's all for now... :o)
I had the boys pick out new shoes at the store as they're no longer having to wear snowboots everywhere they go. Daniel picked out a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle pair, but Aaron's feet are so big, he can no longer get those cute little boy shoes anymore, but rather has to wear the men's shoes. Aaron has jumped from a 6 to a 7-1/2 in men's and Daniel has gone from an 11 -1/2 to a 13 in boys. The next mission will be to get them both into bigger pants. Daniel is beginning to wear more of Aaron's hand-me-downs, which means he must be really growing.
When I took Duchess out to pick up the boys at the bus stop this afternoon, I saw an older guy out on a lawn tractor across the street in Fern Williams' lawn going up and down the greenbelt by the sidewalk. He stopped the tractor and climbed off when he saw me and it was Dale Folger. He's back from his trip down south for the winter. He told me all about seeing the Dead Sea Scrolls on display down in Alabama. He also regaled me with his story of being in Seattle when he was in the Navy way back when and having to call his uncle, an admiral, to get him out of there and down to San Diego. Dale said he was mowing three lawns now as Ken Murphy on the corner has his left arm in a sling these days. I finally figured out which house is which on this street. Directly across the street is the young couple Laci and Jason who are selling their house and renting the house next door to us, just to the left of theirs (my left) is Fern Williams, and the one next to hers at the end of the block is Ken Murphy's. On my right of Laci and Jason's is Dale's house. I've now identified all but one of the homeowners on the block. Fern came out of hibernation too, so I'll be seeing more of her now.
Choir went well this week, but Mike was gone, so it was a good thing I decided to sing tenor. It was just my accountant, Randy, and I in the tenor section. Ormand unfortunately was unable to attend and I didn't learn until after practice that he was in a motor vehicle accident earlier in the week, which apparently made the paper on Tuesday. I guess he pulled out in front of someone here in town. There were no details on his condition, but in the meantime, I found out he had had a heart attack more more than two weeks ago and I had never known it. Some other members thought he looked a little under the weather this past Sunday, but I didn't make much of it. We all hope he's doing much better. Speaking of choir, our choir director, Linda, said her husband is pressuring in a nice way to scale back on some of her responsibilities at the college and church. She had spoken to Pastor Hermodson and he was suggesting she take over the reigns of the new job they were batting about, that of youth program director, and the new job would be responsible for ALL music at the church. She was like, "Ah... NO!" He said, well the pay would be bumped up, of course," to which she again said, "NO!" She can't think of how she's going to cut corners as it is without sacrificing us or something else. At that point, Jerry, Marilyn, Shirley, and Carol were talking about drafting you, Dad, to return to the fold.... :o) Then Shirley told us how you liked to visit the snow in the mountains when you wanted to, not have to live in it full time and shovel. Ah well, it was a nice thought for a moment. Maybe you could guest direct when you come in September??? We're now singing "Wind of the Spirit" next. Apparently we're supposed to be gearing up for a cooperative kind of service between Trinity, Zion, and Redeemer and our choir is only going to get one practice with the music by ourselves before we join the other two choirs because the publisher didn't have more than one copy when Linda ordered them. We should do fine, though, I think...
When we were at K-mart tonight, Terry and Rita Soine walked up to us and I talked them into coming out to the house soon to take a look around the grounds and suggest shrubs/flowers to beautify the front and sides of the house. I wanted to get something planted in the barrel planters out front so they're put to good use. I may be the first house on the block to do it too. I'm thinking maybe annuals this year and perennials starting next year. I'll let you know what we decide.
Last, but not least, Daniel came up to me last night and begged to go with his buddy, Tyler, at the end of the street to his AWANIS (Sp?) program at the Evangelical Free Church in town. I guess it's for adults and kids alike, so the pastor and his wife drove Daniel with them last night and dropped him off at Trinity afterwards. Daniel was full of enthusiasm about it when he got back and wants to go again next week... That's all for now... :o)
Monday, April 11, 2005
Who's Got The Hip Waders and Water Wings?
I got my first unpleasant surprise as a homeowner last night... Andrew was invited to an after-work party down in St. Hilaire and was gone until about half past midnight. While he was gone, I went to the kitchen to use the sink and found the water pressure wasn't quite where it should be nor was it normal in any of the bathrooms. I just shrugged it off and went back to work until Andrew came home. Andrew went downstairs as soon as he got home only to come running back upstairs to advise me his room in the basement was "afloat." Now for the multiple choice question. See if you can guess the cause of Andrew's newfound "waterbed."
a) We just had our first thunderstorm.
b) The water heater broke.
c) The boys with their buddies left the outside faucet on yesterday when having a water fight.
If you picked "c," you're right...
I had explicitly told both boys to turn the faucet off and not play with it after 3:00 yesterday as it was getting soggy on the lawn. I'm guessing the faucet was left on a good 9 hours or so before Andrew discovered it. He was the first to guess what was up, to his credit. The faucet is located just above Andrew's egress window that sits actually underground with a plastic leanto roof to "protect" it from snow in the winter. That was unfortunately the water's point of least resistance and it all flowed through his window into his room. Luckily I invested $250 in a Bissell carpet steam machine last Christmas that acts as a wet vac... We must have vacuumed up a good 60-75 gallons of water with that. We've got fans blowing down there now in hopes of drying it out before black mold or mildew sets in. There were a couple of bright sides to the whole crisis, though... The flood was confined to the area just at the bottom of the stairs and Andrew's bedroom and didn't extend to the other "laundry" half of the basement or sauna so the damage is pretty well contained. The other bright side is Andrew now has a good reason to keep his room clean!! It was a mixed blessing in that regard. As he had a lot of clothes and towels laying around on his floor, they probably stemmed the flow of the water somewhat, but on the other hand, he lost a nice set of collector cards. I don't think he was too pleased when I suggested the need for room cleaning in the future. :o) I think I'm going to unscrew the faucet handle at this point to prevent future surprises.
We actually had our first Minnesota rain this morning when we left for the school bus this morning. It's been overcast for the first time I can remember in recent memory. I think the sun is just now peeking through a little. We missed the thunder from further south near Fargo. It's kept the boys in today too for the first time in a long while. The nice thing is Duchess waits for her paws to dry off before she hops up on the couch.
a) We just had our first thunderstorm.
b) The water heater broke.
c) The boys with their buddies left the outside faucet on yesterday when having a water fight.
If you picked "c," you're right...
I had explicitly told both boys to turn the faucet off and not play with it after 3:00 yesterday as it was getting soggy on the lawn. I'm guessing the faucet was left on a good 9 hours or so before Andrew discovered it. He was the first to guess what was up, to his credit. The faucet is located just above Andrew's egress window that sits actually underground with a plastic leanto roof to "protect" it from snow in the winter. That was unfortunately the water's point of least resistance and it all flowed through his window into his room. Luckily I invested $250 in a Bissell carpet steam machine last Christmas that acts as a wet vac... We must have vacuumed up a good 60-75 gallons of water with that. We've got fans blowing down there now in hopes of drying it out before black mold or mildew sets in. There were a couple of bright sides to the whole crisis, though... The flood was confined to the area just at the bottom of the stairs and Andrew's bedroom and didn't extend to the other "laundry" half of the basement or sauna so the damage is pretty well contained. The other bright side is Andrew now has a good reason to keep his room clean!! It was a mixed blessing in that regard. As he had a lot of clothes and towels laying around on his floor, they probably stemmed the flow of the water somewhat, but on the other hand, he lost a nice set of collector cards. I don't think he was too pleased when I suggested the need for room cleaning in the future. :o) I think I'm going to unscrew the faucet handle at this point to prevent future surprises.
We actually had our first Minnesota rain this morning when we left for the school bus this morning. It's been overcast for the first time I can remember in recent memory. I think the sun is just now peeking through a little. We missed the thunder from further south near Fargo. It's kept the boys in today too for the first time in a long while. The nice thing is Duchess waits for her paws to dry off before she hops up on the couch.
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