An absolutely delightful day.

I had an adventure this morning to start the day. Chelsea and I went out for our first walk at 5:45AM (not my idea). It was still dark and I saw something moving at the foot of the street. It was a rabbit running frantically in tight circles. Chelsea got all excited and chased it and knocked it down and it just kept running. (Chelsea is not a bitter or vicious so she didn't hurt it.) I dragged her away from it and we finished our business and went back in. After it was light I went back out but it was gone. I hope it was just disoriented and finally found its way off the road and back into the woods.

Bobbie and I went with Discovery Tours to the Fireside to see their musical revue, The Best of the Bands. It was a perfect day for traveling and there were several people on the bus that I knew. Notably, Stan and Sue, who have traveled with us several times. Kentucky, South Dakota to mention two. They were right in back of us so we had a nice visit.

The meal at the Fireside was again excellent. We had mushroom soup, chicken piccata, a wonderful rice and sausage and fresh snap peas and carrots. Dessert was a delicious apple tart. We were stuffed and content.

Then we enjoyed the Best of the Bands. And it was the best. It was virtually the same band that played for the Fabulous Fifties last year. They are SO talented. The singers and dancers were excellent also. Just before the intermission, they featured the Latin Bands and ended the first half with a Conga Line around the stage and out the door. Guess who were two and three in the conga line. BOBBIE AND ME.

Before the show they gave everybody a form for Stumping the Band. Those who wanted to could put their name and the name of a song that they figured would stump the band. Guess who got called. I wrote Whiskey on a Sunday. The band did not know it. They made some feeble attempt at pretending. (I loved their humor) but they did not know it. So I sang the chorus for everybody and got a $10 gift certificate for my efforts.

The show featured the music of the Big Bands, Country Bands, Jazz Bands, Latin Bands, Rock bands. It was just super.

An uneventful easy trip home followed. It is good to be home. The promised storm is still a promise and has been downgraded from tons of snow to some snow and rain, which is REALLY scary. Nothing more dangerous than rain and then icy cold.

Well, tomorrow CAN be an at home day though I really want to go to church and would like to go out the Rhine to shoot in the afternoon.

I told Bobbie that I would put a copy of the poem St. Kevin and the Blackbird which is what I TRY to think of when Chelsea become the most pesty, as she is old and in need of me. It is by Seamus Heaney.

And then there was St. Kevin and the blackbird.
The saint is kneeling, arms stretched out, inside
His cell, tut the cell is narrow, so

One turned-up palm is out the window, stiff
As a crossbeam when a blackbird lands
And lays in it and settles down to nest.

Kevin feels the warm eggs, the small breast, the tucked
Neat head and claws and, finding himself liked
Into the network of eternal live,

Is moved to pity: now he must hold his had
Like a branch out in the sun and rain for weeks
Until the young are hatched and fledged and flwon.

And since the whole thing's imagined anyhow,
Imagine being Kevin. Which is he:
Self-forgetful or in agony all the time

From the neck on out down through his hurting forearms?
Are his fingers sleeping? Does he still feel his knees?
Or has the shut-eyed blank of underearth

Crept up through him? Is there distance in his head?
Alone and mirrored clear in love's deep river,
'To labour and not to seek reward.' he prays,

A prayer his body makes entirely
For he has forgotten self, forgotten bird
And on the riverbank forgotten the river's name.

Have a nice Sunday and stay warm and safe.

Mary

A long day after a long night before. It was an uncomfortable night's sleep for me on Thursday night. I ached. But usually that is a one night event and as busy as I was today I should really drift into dreamland when I get to bed and stay in dreamland until morning.

When Chelsea and I went out the first time this morning the plows were just making their way into the driveway area of the complex. The main roads were plowed and the man that comes and shovels the walks had already done his magic. This was just a bit after 6AM. By 7:30 they were all done. This IS the nice thing about living in the condo and the nicer thing of being retired and NEVER having to leave before 8AM or so. It was cold this morning, 7 degrees but warmed up to the teens before the day was over and there was a bit of sunshine which is so very welcome at this dark time of the year. I cleaned the kitchen early this morning too. With all the grime that is hauled in on boots with all this snow, I just can't let it go for a week. By the way, we believe that yesterday added about 10 inches to the accumulation. I am taking pictures of some of the "mountain range" in the empty lot in front of our condo and of some of the other extreme winter scenes. I will share next week. We have another storm supposedly to arrive on Sunday.

Dick was scheduled for 11:45AM for his first vein work. We allowed for extra drive time so were there 45 minutes early. They took him in a bit early too.

By 12:45pM we were all done and ready to come home. He said it was a cakewalk. It was in the lower right leg. There was no pain. Dr. Siddique told him that this one is the easiest one. He said there will be some discomfort with the future procedures but we won't dwell on that. The procedure was done with Dick lying on his stomach which made him VERY happy too. He is so uncomfortable on his back. We have a list of things to do but they are easy. He cannot shower for 24 hours, he needs to be sure to exercise (get up and walk around) often, he needs to keep the stocking on. Then next Wednesday he will have an ultrasound and on Friday, Dr. Siddique will go in again. He was quite excited that that sore on his left foot healed. Did I tell you that there is an infection (not a serious one) in his right foot sore but he is on antibiotics.

Anyway. We are home in our nice warm cave to heal. I am going to the Fireside tomorrow as planned. Dick was not comfortable going with us not having gone through this type of procedure, so I called Bobbie. I think I told you that yesterday. She is going with me. That is good. I don't get to visit with her anymore like we did because she no longer belongs to Rhine Plymouth. I miss our visits.

I went to St. John the Baptist tonight to pick up fish fries for our supper. BOY are they good. Makes you forget that Lent is supposed to be a time of discipline. Not to hard to give up meat when the perch tastes SO good.

Have a nice weekend.

Later

Mary

I did get to stay home until this evening. Actually, it was not a bad day. Chelsea and I go to go for a LONG walk this morning. I would not let her lead me to the park. There are several feet of snow and God knows what else out there. But we went all around Tallgrass and I think that made her happy. Then the snow got worse and it snowed steadily ALL day long.

We did go out this evening the the Wilderness which has reopened. We had heard that there were service problems but we did not have them. I got salmon and Dick got spaghetti. Both good. Again way to much food and we have plenty that we brought home but it was a nice evening. Chelsea was out of her furosimide so we stopped at the Kettle Moraine to pick up her refill. She has to see her vet on Wednesday for blood tests. We may have to up her dose as she is having occasional seizures again.

I finished the denim quilt today and got it washed and dried and everything. It looks great. Those are really warm and very heavy. I wonder if it would be big enough for our bed. I don't think so but I really like it.

The rest of the day was spent sorting out my desk. I am trying to arrange it so I have a "bucket" for each of my projects. Then I can find things easier.

Most days I am still writing my Haiku. I read back on them sometimes and some of them are OK. I wrote this one from memories of going jeeping in the Imperial Sand Dunes near Yuma. We called it Duning. It was especially beautiful at night.



Soft and rippling sand
A gentle looming ocean
We sailed on it.

Love

Mary

Today started out not too busy but turned out to be a marathon.

It looked like all we had to do was go shopping and I had made an appointment with Mark Miller to do our taxes.

SO - it mushroomed. The morning was not too bad. We went shopping and then I cleaned a couple of cupboards and vacuumed the bedroom.

My appointment with Mark ended up with a trip to the post office, the bank, Aurora Pharmacy in Sheboygan for a new pair of sox for Dick, Walgreens in Plymouth for an antibiotic AND the bank.

So much for a quiet day. It looks like tomorrow I may be able to stay home all day. I certainly hope so as the next day is the first of Dick's vein procedures. That will be a stressful day, no matter what we do.

We were supposed to go to the Fireside in Fort Atkinson on Saturday to see the Best of the Bands show. Dick doesn't think he wants to try it but wants me to go. So I called Bobbie and she will go with me. Maybe Bill to IF they can get another ticket with Discovery. Anyway, Bobbie and I will go. I am a bit nervous about leaving Dick that soon, but he said it would be OK.

I am really exhausted this evening and IF I can will go to be early.

It was not unpleasant outside today but there is ice everywhere. It is just cold enough that layers just stay there to trip you up anytime you get at all complacent or careless. Tomorrow we are possibly going to get some more snow. We have no where to put it but it is coming. At least it is projected to be only 1 to 3 inches. That is nothing at this point. I just don't want any problems on Friday.

Take care.

I love You all

Mary

Things went very well today. We had an appointment at the Sheboygan Clinic with Sue at the Anti Coagulation Clinic. Yippee. Dick's blood is now just perfect for the procedure that he will be having on Friday. We will have to be monitoring every week for the weeks that he has these done. It has to be below 2.5 but over 2. Since it was all the way up to 3.9 last week we were very pleased at the count today.

We then went to the Plymouth Clinic because Dick's "clicker", the piece that you put the needle in to prick the finger, is malfunctioning. We still don't have it resolved but are getting there.

After we got home, I watered plants and vacuumed the living room. We had good old cheeseburgers and fries for supper tonight.

Tonight was Fr. Van Beeck's last Adult Education for this year. He went through a lot of how to interpret the bible. Should you take it literally. His prime example. Jesus said that if your eye sins you should pluck it out and if your hand sins you should cut it off and throw it away. He pointed out that we sure would be a weird bunch of blind cripples if we took THAT part of the bible literally. AND it contradicts another statement that He made stating that we need to take care of our bodies because they are the temple of the Spirit. We all found the thought of hobbling blind Christians quite amusing.

My cousin Harold Ziegler, who used to own an office supply store in Plymouth. He is my second cousin as my Grandma Deeley was his Aunt Helen. Dad used to stop and see Harold when Dad worked at Gilson, now Toro, in Plymouth. Dad was the only one who kept in touch with the Zieglers. Harold brought me some pictures that his mother had of my grandmother, my uncle Jack and Aunt Helen as children and a couple that are unidentified except with Deeley on the back of the pictures. They are treasures. I am SO excited and can hardly wait to share with the rest of the family.

Now, home again, I am blogging and enjoying a glass of wine after having dipped my poor sad hands in a lavender pariffin dip. That is such a good feeling, warm, soothing and healing.

Tomorrow is shopping day AND I will be taking the taxes to Mark to get him started on them. We have LOTS of deductions this year because of the two house situation. He will be able to advise us on what to do ongoing.

A poem for you from Austin Clarke who is one of my favorites. It is short but will make you think.

Til tomorrow night.

Mary

Penal Law

Burn Ovid with the rest. Lovers will find
A hedge-school for themselves and learn by heart
All that the clergy banish from the mind,
When hands are joined and head bows in the dark.

Well, the deep freeze is still with us. I DID go to Bible Study this morning. There were five of us there this morning which, since the temps were well below zero were brutal, was pretty special. There was Ione, Peggy, Joe, Liz and myself. I had a call from Fran Woodke wondering if we were meeting. She was not plowed out yet and lives out in the country quite a ways. I told her to stay put. I try to go in whenever I can because I also have my visit with Mother to look forward too. It is good that I stop at least that once a week to be sure she is OK and to give her a chance to remember any errands that I can do for her.

She is just fine. We reviewed the Wild Game Dinner. That sure was a fun day. I fixed a hash from some of the leftover Guiness Beef. Boy was that good. We will have the rest with eggs tomorrow for breakfast.

I got home at about noon. Dick was concerned because his open callous had developed a green color last Friday. The green was gone yesterday but was kind of brown and he was worried despite our call to Dr. Hodous, so we went to see Dr. Sharon this afternoon He said it looks fine, but did take a swab so the results of that test should allay any of Dick's fears.

On Friday De Siddique will do the next procedure to fix the circulation in his legs. There are up to eight of them over a ten week period. These will be far less invasive than the artery procedures as he will only be in the hospital for about an hour versus the 8 hours for the artery work. He is relieved about that. Eight hours on his back was just about unbearable.

I clipped away on the denim quilt. I figure I should be able to finish that part of it tomorrow, then it just needs to be washed and dried a couple of time to fluff it up and it will be done. The Clifford Crest is coming along too. I must stop and pick up some interfacing for a fill layer, I decided what I will use for a backing but should have SOMETHING for a bit of body between the layers. The crest looks great on the fabric I chose and the gold binding will really set it off.

Take care and enjoy your Tuesday. We are promised more snow. Doesn't seem quite fair. I hope it isn't bac in the morning when we have to go into Sheboygan.

love

I am watching the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show. I just love it.

Mary

We are in a deep freeze. The highest temperature I saw on our thermometers was -2. Isn't that unbelievable? Chelsea has been very quick out there. She has caught on as to how cold it really is. She like rolling in it but knows that her little paws start to hurt if she is out too long. I am trying to be really patient with her.

However, when she woke me up at 4:30AM. I gave her some lettuce and shut her out of the bedroom until 6AM.

I did go to Mass this morning. It was -11 when I left but the roads were good and I don't have to go far. I was Eucharistic Minister this morning and did not want to miss unless I REALLY had to. there were far less people in attendance than usually are. Understandably so.

Because it was SO cold I was sure glad that church was my only obligation. I spent the day sewing, cleaning a closet and working on the computer.

I also read a journal that my friend Kate did of her trip to Ireland. She listed a few "Just for You to Know Facts." Here is one that impressed me.

"If you get into a conversation in a bar, a certain etiquette id followed: men always buy everyon in the group a drink, taking turns to buy a round."

I remember going into Fitz's Tavern in downtown Sheboygan Falls on a trip home after I had moved to California. I was sipping my beer and a friend of Dad's bought a round. I said I was not ready but Dad whispered to me that then I should get a candy bar or something because it was not proper to turn down the round.

Love

Have a good week

Mary

Well, the 31st Annual Wild Game Dinner and Beer Tasting Contest is over. (Probably not totally over for some of the participants, but Jim, Michelle, Dick and I got home at about 7PM.) Michelle and I acting as serving wenches, Jim as combination dishwasher and photographer and Evan Thuemmler as busboy did a bang up job of supplying 22, count 'em, 22 beers to 18 participants in the annual event.

The winner with nine correct was Randy Deeley for the forth time, I think, maybe more. So we will be back on School Street next year. There were four runners up. Shawn, who is trying very hard to win so we all have to go down to Chicago for the event, Fred, Joey and Kathy, who has come in second more times that ANYBODY and deserves to win just on points. They all had 7.

The meal was super as usual. I had made Venison and Guiness, we had squirrel and rabbit, wild turkey and gravy, a curry noodle venison casserole, chili, beans , and potatoes ala Michelle that were to die for. We also had salads and bars for dessert. Altogether decadent. As Randy said we would not have done better at a five star restaurant.

Now for a story. The other day I was watching Antiques Road Show and they had a cupie doll for sale. It reminded me of Bret when he was little. My in laws, Vic and Lil had friends who lived Mexico, Mexican citizens. Ramon and Concha. They came up to the U. S. and to visit Vic and Lil one time. My ex and Bret and I went over to visit with them. They took one look at Bret with his blond hair that curled on the sides and the top of his head and his sparkling blue eyes and said. "Cupie Doll." And sure enough, that is exactly what he DID look like. I will have to find a picture of him at that age and post it for you that did not know him then.


Have a nice Sunday. We are going to be back in the deep freeze.

Mary

It is now light enough at 6:30AM that if it is not too slippery and if the snow goes down A LOT, Chelsea and I will be able to take our morning walks again.

This morning we did go around the Tallgrass cul de sac and then up the road and down Cattail. She was a very happy little girl. Between the snow the cold this is the worst winter that she and I have gone through together. Now it is supposed to drop down into single digits and below zero for the next couple of days again. EEEEWWWWW!!!!!

I cleaned the kitchen today and then went to have lunch with the girls at Dairy Queen. I am sure glad they have grilled cheese as it is lent and Fridays are meatless. They also have a fish sandwich or a dinner salad so there are choices. But since Dick and I had supper at St. John the Baptist tonight I did not want fish. I will not be able to join the ladies for several weeks as Dick will be starting his vein procedures next Friday.

I had several errands while I was out. Chelsea was almost out of one of her pills so I stopped at Kettle Moraine for that, then on to the Pig. I bought a couple of things we needed to take advantage of .99 eggs. The Pig Points are mounting. I now have .79 off on my next gasoline fillup.

We went for our supper at St. John's at about 4:30. Boy do they have a good fish fry. We will go every Friday that we can during Lent. They serve fish, potatoes or noodles, rye bread, cole slaw, applesauce and homemake desserts. It is the best fish in Plymouth. At least the best that we have found. We can get a senior plate which is two pieces of fish and MORE than enough as they are big and very meaty. It is so sweet. Groups of children take your order, lead you to your seats and then bring your your fish.

Then I drove out to Rhine and shot three targets for the league. I did not do badly at all. I got ALL 30 ON the targets. And two of the targets had all scoring shots. A long way to go but I AM improving.

I have my new schedule for next year at Rhine, at least through October. Doesn't look bad at all now that we are closed on Sundays except for the Lewis Shoots. I think that MIGHT increase our membership as people will no longer be committing such a big block of time. I am going out on Sunday to take a picture of Tom Lawonn. He laughed, but I told him that I want to name the wine made from HIS currants and put his picture on the label. He looked secretly pleased. I won't be able to shoot pistol and it is supposed to be REALLY cold so I won't want to shoot trap so it is strictly a "business" meeting.

Tomorrow is the 31st Annual Deeley Annual Wild Game and Beer Tasting Party. I think that most of you know that this event is always held at the home of the winner of the previous beer tasting contest. This year it is at Aunt Donna Deeley's (and Uncle Randy of course) house. She is PLANNING on winning again. Her daughter, Jessica, and niece, Sara, plus nephew's Shawn and John are seriously wanting to take away the crown, (actually a traveling trophy). Any of these challengers would take the trophy from the now "older" generation and put the "youngsters" in charge. Are they ready for the challenge? Only time will tell. It has been done before. I don't know what is happening to the "experienced" among us. I, myself along with my daughter in law, Michelle , being only a serving wenches, do not compete and have to rely on the expertise of my siblings and their spouses to keep these young whelps in line.


The results tomorrow.

love
Mary

Got up this morning to deep snow. The plows had been on the main road but the driveways were not plowed yet nor were the sidewalks shoveled. But before we had to leave for Dick's blood test the sidewalks were shoveled and when the guy with the plow saw that the door opened and I was taking stock of how to best get over the snowpile in the driveway he did ours first. I was SO grateful. I could have done it with the four wheel drive, but am just as glad not to have to test it.

Dick's blood test was MUCH better. It is down from 3.9 to 2.8. We have to get it to below 2.5 before the surgery next Friday. Sue will test it again on Tuesday. Then she will be able to fine tune it.

We did not go out again today. I was glad. I cleaned bathrooms and snipped on the denim quilt and worked on the desk stuff. I finally transcribed my notes from the retreat and am ready for the Cream City Writers in two weeks.

Some show on TV showed a woman who did not know how to hold little kid. She was holding him under his arms with his little legs dangling. It reminded me of a trip that I made to Wisconsin when Bret was just a baby, maybe nine months or something. Mother and I went out shopping and everybody was gone except Dolores and Jeff. So we left them in charge of Bret. He needed his diaper changed and they decided that the easiest way to do it was to have Jeff hold him up in the air while Dolores took the old one off and put the clean one on.

It worked, as I remember, because the diaper stayed on but it must have been quite an adventure for Bret. For the rest of the visit, whenever he set eyes on Dolores or Jeff he would start giggling.

Saturday is the annual Deeley Wild Game and Beer Tasting Party. I must remember to take the roast out in the morning.

Have a good Friday.

Love

Mary

Can you believe that is it Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent already. Easter is March 23. VERY early. I wonder if it is possible for it to be any earlier?

What a day. I had plans to take Mother to Church AND we were supposed to go to see The Miracle Worker in Sheboygan for our dinner/theater evening. However, since it started snowing last night shortly after dark and only stopped about an hour ago, (It is now 8PM) we went NOWHERE. I am sure glad that I decided to take her pills to her last night. Two or three days is way to long for her to be without them.

There have to be at least 10 inches out there and it is drifting. Mother laughs at the picture of me trying to get her with her walker and Dick with his cane anywhere with ice and drifting snow. I am really surprised that they did not cancel the play. They probably had two people in the audience.

We had good old Kraft Spaghetti for supper. Dick saw it in the store the last time we shopped and thought it sounded good. Since it IS the first day of Lent and I fasted and abstained from meat it was a perfect easy choice.

Tomorrow, we go to the anti coagulation clinic to have his blood thinness tested. We hope it is down between 2 and 3 again.

I finished a cancer hat today. Toni Nevicosi's Homemaker's group knit and crochet hats for patients to wear when they have lost their hair. I told her I was not joining anything else, but making hats is a good way to keep my hands busy of an evening when I am watching TV.

I am all done sewing the denim quilt together and have one side snipped.

Have a good Thursday. Pray that the snow goes away for a few days anyway.

Love

Mary

It's been a long long day.

Got up at six and walked Chelsea a little bit. I was careful with her today. Last night, after I went to bed and before Dick came in, Chelsea was on the bed with me. She woke up coughing and stood up as is her wont when she starts that. Suddenly she just kind of fainted and tumbled right off the bed. Scared me half to death. She landed on her back, I think and turned right over. By the time I got to her she was looking a little puzzled and seemed somewhat subdued. But she came alert pretty quickly after I held her for a bit. Poor Baby.

I finished the sewing on the denim quilt today. Now I have all the clipping of the seams and then a good washing to fuzz it up.

Dick had a dentist appointment today. His first with the new dentist. He decided to got to the same one I am going to and we will coordinate our visits from now on. Dick likes him because Dr. Joseph said his gums and teeth are in really good shape.

On the way out of the parking lot, I Looked both ways and then looked back to my left and backed out slowly right into Bill Cain. Should have kept my eyes to my right. Fortunately there seems to be little damage. The side of his van has a slight buckle and he is going to take it over to Burkhart to see if they can pop it out the rest of the way. There is no scratch and no break in the paint or the metal. At first we weren't sure there WAS anything, but Bill had heard it and knew there was contact. Bill hugged me and pointed out that noone was hurt and that is the important thing.

We are getting another winter storm. I do believe that this one will ruin any chance of taking Mother to the play and dinner tomorrow night. We certainly will not be able to go to church during the day. I took a run to her house this evening before the snow because she was out of her pills today and I did not want her to go any longer without them.

I also swung over to Kate's this afternoon to look at her newly painted kitchen and see what I thought about one spot of color and to take her the papers from the retreat. She really hated to miss that.

I guess that is all. It was all in all a mixed day. Some ups some downs. The trouble is that the downs were quite troubling.

Anyway. Tomorrow may be a day to stay in our cave. Take care and stay warm.

Mary

Monday, Monday. It snowed. Actually it both snowed and rained a bit and left the roads very slippery. It was just fine when I left for bible study at 9ish. But by the time I left Mother's at noon it was snowing and slippery. SO I decided to forego the Rhine Plymouth meeting tonight. Since it sleeted more this afternoon, I was afraid of icy roads.

Bible study was lively. There were eight of us. I shared a couple of things I learned at the retreat and Joe shared some poems that he had written at a retreat that he had attended in Oshkosh.

I stopped at Walgreens on the way home for prescriptions and OTC meds for Mom and Dick. Sure was glad to get home and be able to stay here.

I spent the afternoon cleaning my desk off and doing some of our accounting. I am getting things ready for Tax Preparation. I believe that we have everything now.

We had chicken enchailada stacks for supper. Boy were they good.

We are going to change our schedule a bit this week and do our grocery shopping tomorrow instead of Wednesday. Wednesday is getting rather busy with it being Ash Wednesday and the Sheboygan Theater with Mom in the evening.

Mom and I were talking about hospitality and how she never knew who would be there for supper. First Dad brought home friends or buddies then her kids did the same. Jeff had army buddies who came and stayed sometimes. I mentioned that when I was living in California in my previous marriage, I never knew who I would be feeding either. My ex worked on vehicles in the garage in back and those who were there just ate if it was dinner time. I remember one day making cookies and the first two sheets of 20 were gone before I finished baking up the batch just with people walking in and out of the house for whatever.

This is an early Irish verse welcoming the stranger that made us remember our "hospitality". I shared it with her and used it for our opening prayer at bible study this morning. I love the thought.

I saw a stranger yesterday,
I put food for him in the eating place
Drink in the drinking place,
Music in the listening place,
And in the holy name of the trinity,
He blessed me, my family and people,
And the lark said as she sang:
Often Often Often Christ comes in the form of a stranger.

I mentioned to her that Dick found that very odd that people just dropped in and stayed. We did not find it odd because it just happened. Sometimes I miss it.

Love

Mary

No weather report today. I hope you all missed me. I had a totally relaxing weekend away from EVERYTHING. I had never been to this Retreat Center and was very impressed. It is easy to get to (unless you miss the turnoff because you are not sure where your purse is). I had my own room. The food was excellent and the retreat was well planned and packed with many opportunities to learn and to pray and to meditate.

Padraigin Clancy was our leader. She lives on the Aran Islands on the west coast of Ireland. She says she is the second house nearest to the United States. She works six months for the tourist bureau and spends the other six teaching and conducting retreats ALL over the world. She joined us fresh from a sojourn in Australia where she learned a lot about the spirituality of the aboriginies. They have surprising parallels to the spirituality of the ancient Celts.

Anyway, joining the team was Dennis Doyle a harpist singer from Glendale California Who talked on Holy People and Places and Seosai Nie Rabhartaigh a poet/Irish language teacher speaker who spoke about Gaelic poetry through the early and contemporary eras. She also conducted a workshop later int he day which I naturally attended. The other workshops were the making of St. Brigit Crosses with reeds FROM Ireland and a slide show of the island of Iona where Colm Cille banished himself and established his monastery/university. It was not hard for me to choose with the chance to write and consort with a fellow poet. I figured that this was my serendiptity.

Seosai is charming and VERY knowledgeable. We had an hour session where we discussed poetry and ideas and methods of getting stuff on paper and were able to write for about half of the time. I have a very rough draft of the thoughts that were in my head this weekend that I will share with you. I will try to give you the final when I finish it.

THE TROUBLE WITH DOGS

They steal your heart
Then age so fast
That you fall behind.

When my brother died
We told my Dad
That loving has its price.
To have the joy
One must accept the pain.

Now I need to teach
This lesson to myself.
Again.

There is a labyrinth at the retreat center. It was, of course, covered in snow. However, during the hour of silence on Saturday afternoon, I bundled up and went outside and tried to walk the circles. I could see the circles but not the turn around points, so I decided to do the Celtic thing and walk seven times around the center. It may have been more than seven. I just walked until I got to the center stumps and sat down. Sue joined me as I was walking. She slipped into the circle ahead of me. Is started to catch up with her. God must have sent her to slow me down. You know me, hell bent for leather. But I paced myself to her and finished my rosary in the middle. So there is a reason and that is one of the lessons I must learn.

Take care and have a good week.

As Padraigin would say" An bhfuil Failte roimh Brid? ( Is Brigit Welcome)" You should then answer "Se Beatha, Se Beatha, a Bhrid. Bheannaithe. (It is life, it is life, O Blessed Brigit).

Mary

It was 0 degrees when I woke up this morning. The high was about 19 which was a real pleasure after these days of sub zero that we have had the past few days.

I opted not to take Chelsea for a real walk though. The roads are really quite slippery and I am not taking any chances on slipping again. I fell twice at the beginning of the winter and managed not to hurt myself. I am not pushing it.

I was a medical taxi today. This morning Dick had to to to the anti-coagulation clinic. Not good. His reading was 3.9. It is supposed to be between 2 and 3 and last time it was 2.1. We think we know why. Sue has adjusted his meds and will see him next Thursday to see if it is working. Then we have to go back the following Tuesday to be set for his surgery on the 15th.

At 10AM I picked up Mother and took HER to see Dr. Hancock for her checkup. All of her readings were good. He said she can wait four months for her next appointment unless something comes up.

Then I came home and spent the afternoon cleaning bathrooms and getting ready for tomorrow.

It is set, Maureen, her friend, Gail, Rosemary and I will meet at 5PM at The Gathering on Hillside (we liked the idea of the name Gathering, it sounds so Irish) for supper. We will check in at the Retreat Center after 6:15PM.

Hope your day was nice and warm and went Just the way you wished.
Love
Mary

It was frigid today. When Chelsea woke me up at 5AM it was -10degrees. I was not really happy with Chelsea. We zipped out and even she agreed that it was much too cold. She piddled and rushed back to the house. It took several trips throughout the day to be sure that she was not in trouble that way.

Of course, there were no walks and she did not ask either.

I worked on the denim quilt today. Two more seams, then stitching around the whole quilt and it is assembled. Then all I have to do is clip the seams and wash it a couple of times to fray it.

Dick was really tired most of the day. We did manage to go grocery shopping despite the cold. Then we were able to stay home safe in our nice warm cave away from all danger.

We watched some of the Republican debate at the Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley. I had friends in Simi Valley. I still communicate with Steve Hansen, a dear friend, and classmate of my ex husband. They lived there when the Sylmar Quake hit and had some damage to their home. I remember his ex wife telling us the tale of th quake.

They had four children who were sound asleep in bedrooms around a two story house. Then came the quake. Jean said that the noise was incredible and the kids started hollering as they were, of course terrified. The shelves and cabinets in their bathroom were rattling and clanging and poor Steve, waked out of a sound sleep, headed into the bathroom and "saved" the bathroom cabinets. He valiantly held them on the wall until the crisis was over.

About the quake, though, Jean said that there was not one thing in their house that was in the same place that it started. Fortunately there was no major structural damage and not one of that six member family was injured.

This is the same quake that woke up me and my ex. It was the noise that woke us. First we thought it was a plane flying really low as we lived near the Orange County Airport (now the John Wayne Airport) then realized that the noise was coming from underneath us. It went on for well over a minute. I remember asking Dick, my ex, if maybe we should be standing under a door frame or something. But we just waited. And it subsided. It was loud, like a huge animal growling underneath us and everything in the house shook. Bret had crawled in bed with us and never even woke up.

Boy is this week going fast. Tomorrow I take Dick to get his blood test and then will pick up Mother and take her for her physical. Whew.


Have a nice evening and a good Thursday.

Love

Mary

It was 39 degrees when I took Chelsea out for her walk this morning. The promised cold front waited until just a bit ago to come in. Now it is blowing, snowing and Cold.

I made salmon croquettes for supper tonight and took Chelsea for what was intended to be a LONG walk before the cold set in. We got to the corner of Tall Grass and Highland and started to head around the park. A lady and her black lab were also walking. Chelsea apparently got way to excited and had a seizure on a snowbank. She just flopped down on her belly in the snow and trembled. I held her and her little heart was like a sledgehammer. So. I carried her back towards home until I could tell she was OK. Then she walked the rest of the way. This is the first seizure she has had in at least a month. I am quite distressed.

At noon, I met Kate and Toni at Antoinettes to do some planning for the Spring Fling. We have good solid ideas for gift bags and name tags. I think the board will like the ideas. We had the best turkey spinach wraps I have ever had for lunch.

I got my hair cut at 2:30PM. That was fun. There was a gal in there tuning to a blond as I watched. She has dark dark hair naturally and is really trying something new. What a blast.

I told them about the time I lightened my hair to blond - about 50 years ago. I told them that I used Light and Bright. These young chicks laughed and admitted that they had never heard of such a product. When I did that it seemed like such a good idea. After all, I was blond when I was a little girl. However, before long the roots started showing. Do you know that you have to keep taking care of the roots? I am much to lazy for that and because of that have never even thought of dying or bleaching my hair again. My friend Rita Petrie Ertl still doesn't believe that I don't touch up my hair. I am actually pretty lucky. There is some gray but not much.

Tomorrow is a quiet day. Dick and I will go grocery shopping unless the roads are too bad. We don't have far to go.

The salmon croquettes were great. We had mashed potatoes and creamed peas to go with them.

Love

Mary

Another Monday. I still have Mondays. Today was a full day.

Chelsea and I started with a nice walk. It was only degrees 19 at the time. I knew it was supposed to get up to almost 40 but figured it was just a well to get the walk over with when I knew I had the time.

Bible study was interesting. There were six of us there today. Next week's gospel is Matthew's presentation of the Sermon on the Mount, the Beatitudes. They are a road map of how to live and a promise of wonders in eternity.

Then I stopped at Mother's and brought her a meal and some dessert. We signed her up for Equifax monitoring of her credit as it was offered free because she was one of those whose SSN was sent out on a mailing. As Mother does not use credit cards or even her debit card, which she does have, there is little chance that she will be hit, BUT we figured that if this was offered, we might as well take advantage of it. That is the dumbest system for signing up. Mother could never have done it. It is an interchange with an automatic system. Voice and keypad were offered. The machine had difficulty picking up my voice. I ended up shouting and Mother thought that was very funny. It is done anyway.

Then home again where we got Dick ready for his shower. I made some chicken salad for his lunch tomorrow, as I am going to meet Kate and Toni to discuss the April Spring Fling for CWI.

Does anybody know of a good place to eat in Oconomowoc that is easy to get to and near either Sawyer or Delafield Road.

We listened to the President's State of the Union. Lots of Hoop La. He spoke of balancing our budget and living within our means. He did not mention that his war got us to the majority of the debt that we are in right now and we are sinking deeper with each day. I am glad that some troops are not being replaced when they come home. I find the fact that no one wants to admit that SSI SHOULD be solvent and WOULD be solvent if it had not been tapped for things that it was not intended to be used for.

Anyway, now the Democrats are responding and we will see what they have to say.

Apparently there was a death in Tall Grass today. Helen and Harold said that the emergency vehicles, followed by and ambulance and then the hearse from Sushon Funeral Home blocked off the street this morning while I was still in Falls. I will know for sure in the morning. It was probably early enough to be in the Press's death announcements.

Well I have to get ready for bed now. Have a good Tuesday.

Mary

Sunday and Much warmer than it has been. Chelsea and I took a walk. A nice walk. It was about 19 degrees when we went out. As we were nearing home, she suddenly stopped and looked at me so sadly. I do worry. She is getting old and I see her aging. I am minded of the little boy who said that dogs don't live as long as we do because: God puts us on earth to learn how to be good so we can come and be with him and dogs are good to begin with so it doesn't take them so long.

Betsy is in town to stay with her mother for a week. Don't know if I will get a chance to see her. Sure hope so. But I KNOW how precious that time is when one comes from out of state and I am sure that Dorothy is in need of a lot of TLC.

Went to the 8AM Mass. It was still a bit slippery at that time. The Mass was nice. Fr. Van Beeck does do such a nice sermon. He spoke of John the Baptist saying that people were to "Repent for the Kingdom of God is at hand." Then Jesus preached the same thing. The thing that was interesting is that we think of "at hand" meaning either the end of the earth or our own death. What if he just meant that God Is Here! Why not.

The rest of the day was quite lazy. I finished a sweatshirt jacket for a CWI member and finished crocheting a hat and Dick and I bottled some current wine.

Now it is after 7, we are watching the Screen Actor's Guild Awards and winding down for the evening.

My son in law Bill Smith sent the following. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did. Read til the end please.

Mary

SIGN IN A PHILADELPHIA STORE WINDOW

"WE WOULD RATHER

DO BUSINESS WITH

1,000 AL-QAEDA TERRORISTS

THAN WITH ONE SINGLE AMERICAN SOLDIER!"

This sign was prominently displayed in the window of a business in Philadelphia . You are probably outraged at the thought of such an inflammatory statement.

However, we are a society which holds Freedom of Speech as perhaps our greatest liberty.

And after all, it is just a sign.

You may ask what kind of business would dare post such a sign.

Answer: A Funeral Home

(Who said morticians had no sense of humor?)

We had a whole day at home again. The temperatures were up. When Chelsea and I walked, and we did walk, it was 19 degrees with no wind. We can take that. I think she was trying to lead me around the park, but I did not let her go out of the tract at all because they had not yet plowed the walkway around the park AND wading through 2 to 5 feet of snow to get back to Tall Grass was not in MY plans. She would have disappeared anyway.

Bobbie and Bill came over for dinner this evening. I fixed liver, as I mentioned earlier, for Bobbie and me and ribs for Bill and Dick. We also had tater tots, corn and Jello with banana cake with brown sugar frosting for dessert. It was a lovely evening and we got caught up with them. Bobbie and I split the liver and onions so we will have sandwiches for the next few days. It is really good liver. Randy Walter from Rhine Plymouth gave it to us. He and Regina buy a side of beef every so often and don't like liver so they share.

The other evening I was watching one of those shows where the host goes all over the place trying strange and different things to eat. This one mentioned Abalone Sandwiches. It reminded me of a story.

My ex husband loved abalone. You dive for abalone, you know. At one time I think he worked as a tender for an abalone diver. Anyway, he brought some home one evening and I told him that I didn't know how to cook it so he said that he would.

Sounded good to me. The boys were maybe 12 and 7 and we lived in HuntingtonBeach. We also had and electric oven. Dick had never cooked on anything but gas.

I went about my business, cleaning something upstairs and the next thing I knew there was black smoke hanging from the ceiling at about a foot deep and growing. He had started melting the butter in the frying pan while he cut and pounded the abalone for frying. Not realizing that you have to anticipate and turn down the heat before it gets too hot, he had the butter burned . The kids thought it was funny. We were opening doors and windows and crawling around on the floor to stay below the smoke.

Eventually, we got it cleared out and I instructed him on the nuances of electric heat so we could eat those delicious abalone.

Have a good Sunday.

Bobbie sent me an email for sharing and I l0ved a statement in it so will include it here.

'Whenever God Closes One Door He Always Opens Another, Even Though
> 
> Sometimes It's Hell in the Hallway'\ 

Isn't it a great statement.

Mary
 

Last night I was so tired by 8PM that I could not stay awake any longer. I went to bed and did not even REALIZE that I had not blogged until this morning. I really can't tell you why I was so tired. I stayed home the whole day and guess I just kept busy with cleaning and sewing and all the other things that have to be done. Maybe I am better off to leave at least once a day.

It is now after 11PM and I JUST got home from working at Rhine. We are in the middle of winter league. Last week was SO cold that very few teams showed up to shoot so this week was busy. We shot 20 scorecards and only three of them did not shoot both sets. Then trap two started breaking birds and we could not use it for about a hour and a half. The last team finished at 10:10 or so. We fudged a bit as we are supposed to be done by 10. I had the gun room and had to field the unhappy guys when they had to wait what must have seemed forever for their turns. I was able to keep them pretty calm. Poor Tom Lawaan and Peter Hatas spent the whole night scoring in that snow and cold. We took in enough money. I drove home VERY carefully. I did not exceed 40 MPH. One could not see the white line and I could tell it was slippery. I did not test the traction control OR the 4WD. I just drove slowly and steadily home.

The early part of the day consisted of cleaning the kitchen, baking a cake and going to lunch with my friends. On the way home from lunch, I got the car washed and then went to the Plymouth Inn and made arrangements to block off several rooms for the Celtic Women's Spring Fling in April.

Tomorrow we get to stay home the whole day again. I invited Bobbie over for a liver and onions dinner. (Bill and Dick will have oven farmer ribs.) They will grumble as we enjoy our dinner. We will both have enough for sandwiches during the coming week too. Num Num.

Ellen Burstyn said "Most of my life, if a man did something totally other than the way I thought it should be done, I would try to correct him. Now I say, "Oh, isn't that interesting."

Sounds like a good philosophy (mostly.)

Mary

This is one of the best pictures that I have ever taken. Isn't it great?

Mary

Dick and I went grocery shopping this morning. We checked the Wilderness Restaurant because Jim and Michelle had told us that it was open again. It is apparently, BUT not for breakfast so we proceeded on to Mc Donalds. Dick got a big breakfast and I got a sausage Mc Griddle. They do have good breakfasts. Then on to the Pig for grocery shopping. With a concentrated effort we were done by 9:15 and even with getting gas in the car were home by 9:30AM. Not a bad effort.

I put the groceries away and Dick and Chelsea went down for a nice nap. My friend Nancy Roehre picked me up at 11AM and we headed for Sheboygan. We stopped first at her sister in law's house. Her sister in law is Kathy Roehre Burich who graduated from High School with both Nancy AND me. They are on the high school reunion committee and Nancy was picking up the flyers that are to be mailed for our reunion this summer. Would you believe that we will be celebrating our 50th High School Reunion this summer? I can't.

Then we drove over to Gander Mountain where Nancy's pistol was waiting for her. Nancy is really enjoying pistol league and shooting. I am delighted to have someone to shoot with once in a while. She had been using her brother Jack's pistol but it is rather big and cumbersome for a little person. She bought a ruger. When she went to Gander Mountain and explained what she was doing and where she was shooting and who she was shooting with, Norb, the salesperson said that he knew me and was SO helpful to her. Bobbie, he is Norb of Norb and Rocky.

We stopped for a quick lunch at Quisno's on the way home.

I tried to take a short nap but it was cut even shorter by Chelsea, who was a real problem this afternoon. I took her for a 15 minute walk, she did everything. Was at my desk 10 minutes later and she was whining to go out again ( at least I THINK she wanted to go out) So I took her out again for another 15 t0 20 minute walk and then she started pestering me again. She is really either getting senile or really having difficulties. I try to be really understanding because she is old, But I am getting very tired and am not exactly young either. I sure get tired after the third or forth time dressing up to take her out in a two hour period. One has to start with that because she cannot talk and tell us what she wants.

Tonight we took Mother out for her birthday dinner. We went to Richards in Sheboygan Falls. It was a lovely evening. I mentioned to Rose, the waitress, and a dear friend, that it was for Mom's birthday and they brought her a big piece of decadent chocolate dessert to share with a candle and we all sang Happy Birthday. The other waitress is Nancy Roehre's sister and went to school with my brother Jeff. She was totally surprised that her sister is shooting pistol. So I spilled lots of stuff to her.

One more extremely cold night and then the temperatures are supposed to warm up a bit. We are certainly ready for a break.

Love

Mary

I think we must have had a foot of snow last night. It was fluffy and deep. Chelsea was up to her little neck. She did her Pepe Le Pew bouncing this morning which is awfully cute to see but then we had to wander around until we found a spot with the snow low enough that she could do her bathroom duties. It is pretty hard to squat when the snow is as high as your bottom.

This afternoon, she was really funny. She ran across the plowed road and jumped up into the bank that had been made even deeper by the plows and darn near disappeared. Didn't bother her too much.

We had an appointment with Dr. Hodous for Dick's feet this morning. There was black ice off and on all the way between here and the Clinic. Fortunately, we were not in any hurry and I just took my time. A couple of times I felt the car start to stray but was able to keep it steady. One of the open callouses seems to be healing. It is almost healed which we really did not expect. So that was and is a relief. We must be doing something right.

Had the furnace and humidifier checked today. All is well, and he changed the filter. He did suggest that we get a Carbon Monoxide Detector as the heat exchange on these furnaces is known to be weak and it is eight years old now. We need to be on that. We will check on that. Seems to me that Jim checked those things out when we were at Hunters Glen and we had one. Ryan, the inspector, said that Steger DOES carry them. They run from $45 to $195 including installation. We will ask Jim first.

I received an envelope from my niece, Vikki, today. She sent back the pictures that I had shared from when we used to go jeeping out there in the deserts and sand dunes. She also sent me a wonderful gift. A poster of her son Scott Simon #181 riding his cycle with an insert of his face. She is right, he has Johnston plastered all over him. A nice looking young man. I will hang this poster. I love things like that.

Love

Mary

Hello. It was a snowy cold Monday. Because of the snow, the birthday dinner we promised to Mother this evening has been postponed to Wednesday when it should be safe, (cold but safe) to take her AND Dick out and about.

The bible study had six of us there today. Several people are on vacation so we were pretty much full group. The readings were very interesting in that they were the handing of the reins to Jesus from John the Baptist and Jesus picking his first four apostles. Joe was quite clever in his wording. James and John were called from their job working with their father Zebedee on a fishing boat. He referred to it as the Zebedee Fishing Company and indicated that these young men were probably much more interested in following this guy who had been recommended by John the Baptist. They must have hear John speak and were more excited about following Jesus than hanging around fishing with their father for the rest of their lives.

Then I swung by Mother's and gave her the birthday card. This was when we decided that unless things changed we would put off the birthday dinner. While I was there a beautiful azalea plant arrived from Nora and Leif. Eileen and Fred were out to see her on Sunday. Presents and flowers were piling in and everybody was calling which is certainly proper. When one reaches 92 years old, the world should stand up and take notice.

Believe in yourself.

Mary

Believe it or not , it is actually warmer now than it was most of the day and it is only 0 degrees. This is bitter cold but it is supposed to be warming up a bit this next week. At least we will get to double digits.

I went to the 8AM Mass. It was not quite as full as usual, probably because of the cold. I got a call from Mother. She asked me to pick up a Blessed Trinity Bulletin for her. She stayed home because of the bitter cold too. I am sure glad she didn't try to go.

The rest of the day was very quiet around here. I sewed a bit on my denim quilt and cut out the edging for another Celtic Women Sweatshirt Jacket. I did some crocheting. I am going to be making caps for cancer patients who loose their hair during treatments. Apparently there is a big demand for them so I figured I can put some together of an evening while watching TV to keep my hands busy.

Just finished watching the Packer's lose the playoff game with NY. What a disappointment. They just weren't playing. They didn't seem to be putting any heart into it. So despite the fact that they managed to be tied at the end, they did not play all that well and we were not really surprised. Disappointed but not surprised. So , we wait until next year.

Barb called during the game and we had a nice phone visit. It will be nice when she is done with that assignment in Florida and they decide for sure what thy are going to do. It is hard for them to be so far apart. She goes home for four days in early February.

Take care and have a good week.

Mary

Another Chilling Day. It never even reached 0 degrees. Can you believe a day spent in temperatures below zero? Tomorrow does not look much better. Pity to poor football players tomorrow. Actually, they do get paid enough. As I said I am sure glad that I don't have to go to the game.

I cleaned the office today. The rest of the day was a lazy day. Jim and Michelle came over for dinner. We were "paying" them for putting up the new blinds in the living room for us. One of the strings broke on the old one. So I had to replace all three as I don't know where these came from. Besides I found out from Donna that they have them with touch rather than string controls. So I had ordered them from Penney's then found that the new brackets are slightly different than the old ones. I was able to take them apart but am not good about using drills and stuff over my head to put them back up.

Jim got them up in no time at all and they look wonderful. I am so pleased and it even gave them idea for their bedroom blinds.

We had chicken enchilada stacks and bean tostadas for dinner along with a chocolate cheesecake. It all turned out very good.

Leslie and Bill closed on their home in Louisiana yesterday and began moving today. We will not hear from them until Tuesday when their internet and phones are all hooked up again. They are SO excited and will be SO exhausted. But what a wonderful way to get exhausted. Leslie had the neatest quote at the bottom of the last email.

***Live your life in such a way that when your feet hit the floor in the
morning, satan shudders & says..."Oh no....she's awake!!"***


Sounds like a good way to hit the day. Lets all pray that the Packers win tomorrow. Isn't this exciting?

Love

Mary

Another very busy cold day. I cleaned the kitchen this morning. Then at 11AM I went into Sheboygan and gave blood at the Blood Center. That is always about 45 minutes but after I donate I have some orange juice and oatmeal raisin cookies. Sounds like a good trade to me and I figure someone will benefit from my donation.

Went from there to Dairy Queen to meet the Wells group for lunch. There were five of us today. We had a nice visit. I got tons of errands done while I was out too. Went to the bank, the grocery store, the Sewing Basket, city hall (to pay the taxes and get Chelsea's license renewed. Whew, was I ever glad to get home.

I had fixed a cabbage soup yesterday for supper tonight. It is really good. I added a bit of brat sausage patties crumbled and browned to give it some protein. We will really appreciate it with the cold weather that is upon us. This is suddenly turning out to be a VERY cold month. We have several days ahead of us with single digits, even getting below Zero during the night time. It will be 2 degrees at the start of the Packer Game on Sunday. I have always said that I want to go to a Packer Game in Lambeau Field, but I am sure glad that the opportunity was not presented for THIS one. As my friend Betty said, There are not enough clothes.

Tonight I went out to Rhine to shoot some pistol. Pretty poor attendance for the trap league. Too cold for most of them too. Actually, Hoover, our trap machine expert, did not want us to be open because of the cold being hard on the equipment. Shooting pistol is at least inside. I seem to be maintaining a decent score. My lowest this year so far is 49. Not to bad. Tonight my last target was worst and I seemed to have dropped so must have been tired. My friend Nancy was going to come but called in the late afternoon because she is coming down with something. I told her that I didn't want to catch anything any way.

Monday my Mother will celebrate her 92nd birthday. Dick and I are going to take her out for dinner. I asked her the other day if she would like to go out for dinner on Monday and she got real quiet, then she started to laugh as she remembered that, as she said, it is a rather special day.

Have a lovely weekend and STAY WARM.

Idiot Sightings

We had to have the garage door repaired. The Sears repairman told us that one of our problems was that we did not have a "large" enough motor on the opener. I thought for a minute, and said that we had the largest one Sears made at that time, a 1/2 horsepower. He shook his head and said, "Lady, you need a 1/4 horsepower." I responded that 1/2 was larger than 1/4. He said, "NO, it's not." Four is larger than two.."
We haven't used Sears repair since.


Mary

Today was such a nice day (until tonight when Chelsea has been a real real pest.) Dick had his blood test this morning and his count was just perfect again. We have to go back in two weeks again.

Then I cleaned the bathrooms.

At 10AM, Nancy Roehre and Kate Herman picked me up and we went to the Research Center for our CWI meeting. Such a nice time. There were 8 of us plus Katie Dippel. We ordered sandwiches from Ella's for lunch and then spent the next three hours sharing our genealogy. We found out a lot about each other. Peggy Feider's Mom had their history researched by a specialist and we got to see how they do their work. Peg Payne had LOTS from her brother Bernard Michaels who wrote three books about the Irish in western Sheboygan County before he died AND a wonderful hand written collection about County Meath where her family came from that was put together by a lady over there just to help Bernard get the feel of Ireland. Kate shared her New York Irish background and explained the difference between Black and Orange Irish. Nancy Gallagher Roehre found out more about her family as Beth knows a lot about them . She had some basics. Toni Nevicosi explained why she was there, her husband is part Irish, but she also explained her last name. John, her husband, was the grandson of an orphan who was left at a nunnery. The nuns gave him the name of Notoli Nevicosi which means Christmas, the first name, and new snow, the last name.

There was more but I can't remember ALL of it. We will meet again for SURE on St. Patrick's day for the Irishman's Walk. Then we are hosting the CWI spring fling. We will do a cemetery tour and whatever else would be interesting. I will see what Betty Gavitt wants to do.

Beth gave us the Research Center's password to Ancestry. com and I have been able to get into some of the census information on the Clifford's and the Deeley's. I found out that while Grandpa Deeley was a widow, before he married my Grandma Helen, his mother Honora, his brother John and his sisters, Nelli and Elizabeth were living with him and my Auntie Marge who was only three at the time. That confirmed some information that we had.

So I will have fun with that program.

Take care and have a good Friday.

Mary

Today was really rather pleasant. The sun was out for a portion of the day. There was very little wind and the temperatures were in the upper 30s. For a winter day in January in Wisconsin not a bad day at all.

I took Chelsea for a nice long walk right after we had lunch. The school must have been letting out earlier than I thought because we ran into a lot of young people. Chelsea found that very exciting. She barked until they got close, then just figured they were part of the walk and ignored them.

Dick and I went grocery shopping. Dick was taking care of something on the computer and we got a rather late start. It was almost 9 when we finally got to the Family Restaurant for our breakfast. He has vowed that we will never do that again because the store was packed. People everywhere. He does NOT like crowds, especially in stores.

I finished vacuuming the living room after removal of the tree and also got our bedroom. I took down the other two blinds from the living room windows. Jim and Michelle are coming over on
Saturday and Jim will drill the new holes that I need to have in order to mount the brackets for the new ones. I could use two holes but really need three. Working our drill upside down would not work for me and Dick is just a bit too unsteady on his feet these days.

Tonight I went over to St. John's for a talk on Hospice Care. All five Hospice providers were represented and did a very good job of explaining Hospice Care, what it is and what expertise they bring to the patient. They all cooperate with each other which is commendable. I found that Medicare covers all Hospice care except housing (if it is in a facility). They have social workers who will consult with the patient and the family to coordinate all care and see that all ducks are in a row. They also will stay with the family for up to a year with bereavement counseling and help. I learned a lot.

Rabbit hunting and an email from a friend reminded me of two bunny stories. My friend, Joanne was saying that there were bunnies all over her back yard if we needed them and we have them all over Tallgrass too.

Here are my "stories". One morning when we were still at Hunters Glen, Chelsea and I went out for a quick walk and I walked her around the house. As we came up the rise from the back and headed towards the street, I noticed, huddled up against the house two of the biggest eyes I ever saw. They were in the face of a bunny who was not over 4 inches long and was just petrified. Chelsea, "the great hunter," did not even see it. I reached over and stroked its little back and the poor thing still did not move. I quickly realized that this was not too smart a move because if Chelsea DID see the poor creature, she could have hurt it so we moved on.

The other incident was told to me by my brother Jeff. He and Mother went out into her back yard to check the garden. There in the middle of the yard was a mother rabbit nursing her babies. She never moved and just watched them.

The city bunnies are almost domesticated. If they weren't so destructive they would be fun to have around as they are so cute.

Love

Mary

We got to stay home all day today. That is really such a pleasure nowadays.

Chelsea was really goofed up this morning she started pestering us before 5AM. Dick took her out at about 5, I took her out again at 5:30 and shut her out of the bedroom afterwards. I finally got up at about 6:30 which is pretty good.

I spent the day vacuuming the living room, taking a set of blinds off of one of the windows (It is broken and I have the replacement.) Now I have to figure out how to drill one more hole and if I need to use those plastic screw holer thingies. I am replacing all three in the living room. One had the draw string break so naturally all three have to be changed. We will save the other two in case any of the bedroom blinds break.

We filtered the Gewertiminer wine today too. AND I finished sewing the Clifford family crest together. Now I need to fine a fabric to back it too.

I got a request to sponsor my niece, Jessica, in a "Polar Plunge" for Special Olympics. So I emailed her that I would be glad to.

Years ago, before even Bret was born, the Orange County Four Wheelers, the jeep club we belonged to, was asked to provide jeeps for the pre-parade at the Special Olympics in Orange County. The Special Olympics was not all that old at the time. I, along with a few other jeepers, drove our jeep in the event. I will never forget that I carried a very pleasant wrestler named Boom Boom Mahalic. I was lucky, one of the guys had an animal trainer with a cougar that was really not too happy to be there.

Take Care

Mary

This has been a full day, a good day. But somehow or other I feel sad. And I can't really tell you why.

This morning was the bible study. There were only four of us this morning. Quite unusual, but we had a lively discussion about the "servant" who brings the word to the world dating back to Isiah. So, even if the Jewish people have chosen to ignore this , they were instructed way back then to bring their God and salvation to the world and to treat ALL as their neighbor. AHEM!!!

Then I went to Mother's and stayed and visited with her until Helen came to pick her up for lunch. I made sure to stay until I could help her get in the car. I swept her walk and the ramp too. Don't need to have that get slippery on her and I helped her get the hope chest moved and the card table set up for the big canasta game that she hosted after lunch. She is such a dear and her friends are just charming.

I have been very achy in my joints and my left leg today. I took a walk with Chelsea late this afternoon and it did seem to loosen up my leg anyway.

We had chicken and rice for supper and I baked some Market Day gingerbread men for dessert. That was a pleasant taste.

So. It was a good day. But I am sad. I am sure a good night's sleep will help. Last night was weird. I kept waking up and then Chelsea woke me up at about 5:15AM. It took her out and then went back to bed leaving her outside of the bedroom. Then Dick got up and didn't know that I had let her out so he let her in at 6 and she got pushy so I got up. It just didn't pay to try to get back to sleep again.

Remember this old Children's poem

If all the world were apple pie
And all the seas were ink
And all the trees were bread and cheese
What would we have to drink?

Have a nice Tuesday.

Mary

Today was rabbit hunting day. Not very successful actually.

We met at Leroy's house at 8:30AM. Strange things are happening. Jeff was there with his friend Faff when I got there (Jeff is always late) and the others, Randy and Ken and Dennis and Vic were about 15 minutes later.

It was snowing when we got out to the woods. A very gentle snow and it was quite warm. Except for trying to avoid the swampy wet area it was an extremely pleasant day and the woods were heavenly. Each branch covered with a layer of snow. Copper, Dennis's dog did get a scent and chased a bunny for quite some time. Randy saw it but was too far away for a shot. After about an hour at this spot, we gave up and moved to a pine woods quite near the bar, the Wierl Wind where we always go after the hunt for the sausage tasting contest. We hunted for about an hour there also. Leroy got a couple of shots off at one and so did Vic. Copper did a bit of chasing but it was really a rather disappointing day game wise. Jeff has some squirrels and rabbits for the wild game dinner anyway so we will have our variety of dishes.

We went to the Wierl Wind next and Jeff and I cut up NINE different venison sausages for sharing and voting on. That is probably the biggest variety that we have had at least since I have been coming. I don't know who the winner was but we had sausages from Miesfeld, Roehrborn, Hickory Hill, School Hill, Troy, and a couple of others. Actually none of them were bad this year. Some years there are some real duds. This year it was very hard to choose.

I got home at about 2:15 and Dick was sleeping. So I could have stayed a bit longer I guess.

I had put a stew in the crock pot this morning so we had that for supper. It is the easiest stew in the world. I wish I had known about it years ago when I was making those pathetic, tasteless excuses for stew that I would try.

Years ago, my friend Ernie Schonert and some of his buddies decided that they were going to get themselves a steer. One night they went to a ranch area, at the time in Southern California there were still mini ranches, huge truck farms and orchards between the cities. Now it is all practically one big city.

They went out and shot themselves a steer. At that point they realized how BIG these things are. They managed to gut this thing out in the dark. At this point the drive in theatre which was right across the street let out so they sat leaning against the truck with a big tarp over the carcass until they traffic cleared. They got the thing home and butchered. They had a big huge barbecue to use up the meat and Ernie said that the thing was darn tough.

Have a good week.

Love

Mary

The tree is undecorated AND in its box for a rest until next year. I also stored away all the Santas and Angels that are too Christmasy until next year too.

I WAS able to stay home most of the day. I did, however, go to Mass tonight. As I am going rabbit hunting, (or as Dick calls it Bunny Killing) tomorrow morning and have to meet the other hunters at Leroy's house at 8:30AM, Mass in the morning becomes impossible. I AM starting to belong at St. John's . Ed Schroeder, who usually goes to Sunday morning Mass, asked what I was doing there Saturday night. I told him that I was going rabbit hunting and he said he would really like to go along, however, HE has a commitment to some breakfast or other which is why HE was there on a Saturday night. Regardless, we all tore ourselves away from the Packer Game to make sure that poor Fr. Van Beeck was not doomed to say mass for himself and puppy.

Even Ceil Gorsky came tonight because she was afraid that Fr. Van Beeck would be alone.


The Packers started off letting Seattle score two touchdowns in the first five minutes on fumbles. They don't call them the heart attack pack for nothing. But they recovered. By the time I got to Mass they were already tied and they WON 42/20. Quite a comeback. That was the snowiest game I have ever seen. They kept having young people run across the field with shovels on the yard lines so the players had some idea where they were aiming. Yippee, Now we have to find out who and where they play next.

I am working on the Clifford Crest and am almost ready to shape it into a shield shape so it can be mounted on a banner. This is fun. The Clifford motto is Always Prepared.

Have a nice evening and Sunday.

Love

Mary

Today I packed away ALL the ornaments from the tree. THAT is a daunting job. Kind of fun too as I have the opportunity to enjoy each one again before it is hidden from sight until next Christmas.

Chelsea is wearing me out. She is asking to go out five to 8 times a day. I find that sometimes she just seems to think she is done but isn't. It is a combination of old age and the medications she is on but I am wearing out fast.

This noon I joined the gang at Dairy Queen. They have a new thing, a chicken wrap that is only $1.39 so I tried it. It was quite good. Mary Schroeder was there. I had not seen her since well before Christmas, so that was a nice surprise.

Then I drove to Mother's house. Jeff and Kathy were there. Jeff brought the venison for me. I have a lot now, steaks, chops, ground meat and sausage. My freezer is quite full. I feel secure.
On the way home I swung by Woodlake to pick up some Revolution Tea. I love that tea and Woodlake is the only place I know around here that carries it.

Tonight I picked up Nancy at about quarter to 6 and we went out to Rhine to shoot pistol league. The Winter pistol league is quite large. There are 12 - a big change from the three of us who shot in the Fall league. This is only the third time that Nancy has shot and she did very well. She got a 40 on one of her targets. Not as well on the others but she is really doing well. Like I told her we are really shooting against ourselves. I didn't do badly at all. The first two scored over 50 and the last was 72. Yippee. I was worried because my arm has been so sore, but it does not hurt when I shoot. Of course, reek of cigarette smoke but that is what happens at the club.

One year, my Dad came out to California for a Union Conference. He stayed with me and my ex of course. We took him out to the high desert for the day and he collected cactus and rocks to his hearts content. He also shot Dick's 357 Magnum. Now my Dad had never shot a hand gun before. He was a deer and small game hunter and used rifles and shotguns but never a hand gun. Dick told him to be sure to really hang on to the gun because it has a kick.

Dad took aim, peering down the sites at some cans we set up for targets, fired the gun and it kicked. It kicked him right across the nose and cheek. He had a nice scar (nothing really serious) So he laughed and said that he would just tell everybody that his son in law had hit him. After all, he said, it was his gun.

When it came time for Dad to go home, he packed all the rocks and cactus in his suitcase. I told him that I would be glad to ship things but he wanted to take everything with him. I could NOT lift the suitcase. So he grabbed hold of it and did a double take. "What do YOU have in here?" He said. Believe it or not, they did let it on the plane. Heavy as it was.

Have a nice weekend.

love

Mary

This is one of the pictures that Richard took on Thanksgiving. I thought it was nice to share. For those not family.

Back Row: Richard, Dick, Jim and Bill hugging Bobbie.

Front row: Brenda, Me and Michelle with Chelsea trying to figure out what is up.

Love Mary

I DID get to stay home all day. I woke up at 6AM anyway but that was OK.

I did a lot of cleaning and took down a lot of Christmas ornaments and worked on the quilting projects that I have going downstairs.

Chelsea and I took our walk at about 10AM. She was all perky and happy for that but has been a bit tired and mopy since then. Poor baby is really getting old. Sometimes we wonder if she knows who we are right away. She looks so confused.

It has started to snow tonight but we are not supposed to be getting much, maybe two inches max.

This morning I checked the obituaries in the Sheboygan Press for the past couple of days and saw a Lorraine LeMahieu. One of Mother's dear friends is Lorraine LeMahieu. It had occurred on the 7th and I thought that Mother probably wondered why I had not mentioned it. Then I read the details and things did not gel. So I called Mom this morning and found that it is NOT her friend but her friend's husband's cousin's wife. (Does that make any sense at all?) Mom said that her heart stopped when she saw the name too but when she read the husband's name she knew who it was. The trouble is that Mom's friend has moved to Sheboygan, no longer drives and has not been calling them so it could have been her.

Jeff called this evening. I will be able to pick up the venison that Tom gave us and Jeff arranged for butchering tomorrow after my lunch at Dairy Queen. I will also be going to shoot pistol league with my friend Nancy Roehre. So it will be a full day.

I'll lean on you and
you lean on me and
we'll be okay

-- Dave Matthews


Love

Mary

Chelsea and I had our first walk in three days today. It finally did not rain and was not cold enough to be icy. Dick and I went grocery shopping first. We had breakfast at the Family Restaurant downtown and split an omelet. It was very very good. I have no IDEA how anyone could eat a whole one.

I had hoped to be able to stay home the rest of the day but Dr. Sharon's office called and I had to go to Walgreen's to pick up a prescription for Dick. While I was out, I filled the gas tank. We really have cut down on driving and this has reduced our gasoline bill even with gas prices up. The points from the Pig are helping too. But we DO have to fill it up occasionally.

Now, tomorrow, I should be able to stay home all day. Hopefully, I can get the ornaments off of the tree. I packed up the Nativity scenes today. Takes just as long to put it away as it did to put it all up.

I have also spent the last two days rescheduling the CWI meeting. It was going to be on Wednesday the 16th, then the SCHRC (Sheboygan County Historical Research Center) became unavailable. So we are going to meet on the 17th instead, one day later. I have gathered all I know about the Deeley and Clifford Families. I must remember to check Mother's information on Monday. She MAY have more on the Clifford family.

I am making a quilted wall hanging of the Clifford Family Crest. I will try to get it done by Thursday but may be pushing a bit hard as Sunday I am going rabbit hunting with by brothers and the Behrs and Leroy. Maybe this time I will actually GET something.

When it gets this cold, I think of wonderful trips out to the sand dunes at Glamas and Yuma. They are truly beautiful in their simplicity. We could ride them for hours and not see a single soul or go to a predesignated place and see hundreds of other jeepers and sand buggy people.
Our club would always go out at the same time and set up our camp in a big circle much like the old wagon trains did way back when. In the evening we would haul in old dried out trees and abandoned railroad ties soaked in creasote to fuel a fire at night for all to gather around, young and old and sip brandy and beer and sodas for the kids and talk and sing til we couldn't stay awake any more. Then the next day we would load up everybody in the jeeps again and go out riding some more.

Are we going to get more snow?

Love

Mary

Another warm rainy day. Tornadoes touched down in the southern part of the state yesterday. Wisconsin was blessed that there were no deaths but several houses were demolished. Kind of odd to have tornadoes in January in the middle of winter.

No walks for Chelsea and me. I see no sense getting wet when I just have warded off a bad cold. I started with a icky throat etc last week but managed to stop it in its tracks. The rain should change to snow overnight and we will have sun tomorrow. Back to walking again. We walk unless there is rain or ice.

This morning Dick had blood and urine tests at Aurora here in Plymouth. Then we headed to Sheboygan, via, the Point for breakfast and the bank. We dropped our condo fees off at the accountant's office and stopped at Aurora Pharmacy on Superior to get some new rubber gloves with those little gripper things so that we can get his thigh highs on. I actually have worn a pair out. The thumbs on the old pair split and disintegrated.

I feel like I was busy all day. But it was all odd things. I took down all the door wreaths and plaques. Now I have to remember how I stored them or at least store them so I know where they are next year. Tomorrow the nativity sets get packed away too.

We will be grocery shopping in the morning, but will be home the rest of the day.

Tonight I went over to St. John's for Fr. Van Beeck's adult education classes. He is discussing Faith this year. He always gets such a big crowd. Usually up to 200 people. It just goes to show you that people do want to learn about their faith. Just give the opportunity.

On the way home I stopped at Kate's. She had prepared a chicken salad luncheon for the Daughters of Isabella. I mentioned that I have always wanted a good chicken salad recipe. SO. She saved some of the salad for Dick and me for lunch tomorrow. AND gave me the recipe. It is truly delicious. She also gave me a stick of venison sausage that her son Dean had given her. He had given them four so she wanted to share. I told her that I am going rabbit hunting on Sunday and that we always have the sausage tasting at the Whirl Wind out in the sticks and that I will serve Dean's sausage. She is going to call him for the name of the butcher shop and city. I have none left from last year and have none of ours from this year so this is great.

I have a little story for you. I don't know what made me think of this but it was funny.

I had a friend who lived with her mother. Two women in a house that they owned. This was in California. They both worked. One morning after her mother had left for work, my friend went out to turn on the sprinklers for a couple of hours before she left for some errands. She turned the handle and to her dismay, it broke off in her hand and water just spewed all over the place, drenching her to the skin. There she stood with this faucet in her hand and not idea on God's green earth as to how to turn of the water.

Then, she remembered. A couple of blocks away, on her way to the house the night before, she had seen some city workers working on the water lines for the city. So she got in her car and drove over there. She jumped out, ran over to them and explained her situation graphically. They all just looked at her,drenched and babbling, in amazement so she grabbed one of them by the arm and pushed him into her car and drove back to the house. She said that the poor guy looked somewhere between terrified and bemused and stayed really close to his door. He did however find the main and turned off the water for her. And she took him back.

Later, she realized that those guys had nothing to do with houses directly and they probably thought she was nuts but fortunately she never had to see them again.

Love
Mary

The first Bible Study of the New Year. We were 7 strong with one new person who joined us, Pat Hendrickson. She has a lot to contribute. Not bad for winter and lots of fog and rain. The readings were around the baptism of Jesus and the fact that all of us, even Gentiles, are called to serve AND be a part of the kingdom. The middle reading is simply Peter's acceptance of this fact. I figure that must have been hard for Peter, a Jew who grew up with the fact that he was a member of the chosen people, to understand that, but understand and accept he did.

Then I went to visit Mom for a bit. She is just fine and we had a really good visit. I have some banking to do for her.

Leaving there I came home and fixed Dick's lunch then went over to Kate's to pick her up for lunch. She needed a break. We went to the Exchange Bank. I had a Mocha Coffee and a Corned Beef Panini and shared a scone. Quite good and we caught up on things. I brought her over here to see the tree before I take it down this week. Pray for Ron again. He is OK but had some diarrhea this afternoon, Not a good thing.

Tonight was the Rhine Plymouth meeting. A lively discussion. We have decided to close on Sundays except for the Lewis shoots and other special events because of the decrease in our membership AND the fact that fewer and fewer people are showing up on Sundays because of the cost of ammo and lead. Most members were happy with that because our hours are discouraging new members and old members alike. The compensations are not worth the time we are required to spend. I know that Doc and Del, two members who started the Sunday open shoot, are unhappy because it takes time to develop a following but the following is WAY down.

So my day is finally done. It rained off and on most of the day but the fog stayed pretty steady too. It was warm. Up in the high 40s and the snow is melting fast. We will have another day or two of the rain and warmth then winter will return. Even when we know this, it is so easy to get used to the nice temperatures.

Dick was very happy with supper tonight. We had Mac and Cheese with ring Bologna cut up in it. One of his very favorite meals.

Til tomorrow

Mary

It was very warm today. I got up at 6AM so that I could get to the 8AM mass. I was a eucharistic minister this morning. That is always a lovely ministry. Fr. Van Beeck wants us all to feel sorry for and pray for him next Saturday evening. The Packers will start their playoff game at 3:30PM and Mass starts at 4:30PM. He figures it will be him and the dog. Actually I will be there. I am going rabbit hunting on Sunday morning, SO will go to the Saturday evening Mass.

When I got home, Dick and I had a nice Sunday Breakfast which always thrills Miss Chelsea. She LOVES Sundays. Have you tried the Jimmy Dean Breakfast Skillets. They consist of potatoes, peppers, onions and meat. You just fry them up, add eggs and serve. We get three meals out of each package.

Then I took down the outside Christmas lights and wreaths. As today is the Feast of the Three Kings, it IS the end of the season and time to put it all away until next year. The rest will be stored during the coming week.

Chelsea and I had a really good walk this afternoon. With the warm weather the snow is melting fast. The trouble is that there is a coating of dirt, oil and gook on it which all seems to gravitate to her tummy and legs. She is not a happy camper when I have to wipe them off, even with an extra treat involved.

Tomorrow will be a nice day and a busy day. First will be Bible Study. I can wear the t shirt that I bought in Dallas at the Hebrew shop. It has Faith written in English and Hebrew on the back. That will be fun. We have not met since before Christmas so will have a lot to catch up on.

Then I will stop off at Mom's to visit and do a bit of banking for her.

Then home to fix lunch for Dick. I am going to pick up Kate Herman and we are going to lunch out. She is stir crazy. With Ron having been so ill so long she needs a bit of a break. He is doing much better, by the way, sounds stronger and has gained a couple of pounds.

Tomorrow night is the Rhine Plymouth meeting. I will find out the new schedule. The league started on Friday. I will just start next week. I must find out if Lil Pippng and Ken are shooting this league. Nancy Roehre a friend of mind wants to shoot league too.

I fixed a venison tenderloin with a Texas rub and baked beans and salad for supper. Num Num

Have a great week.

Love
Mary