Just Another Day At The Beach?

It was a beautiful day today. Almost a perfect day to go to the beach. So thought hundreds of others.

As I age, that which is appropriate seems to be changing. Perhaps we are becoming more like those European beaches. As I age, I also have become more attentive to sunburn prevention. So prior to today's trip to the beach, I purchased a beach umbrella. Good purchase in my estimation. Although it took me awhile to master how to use it on a windy day. At first, I had it full up and the wind caught it and turned it inside out. I finally used only the top half tilted towards the wind utilizing with it loosely inserted in a beach umbrella anchor allowing it to adjust to the wind without any undue strain. It was pretty low to the ground though.

So, here I am sitting in the shade of the beach umbrella in my Speedo and coming toward me is a young female wearing only a floppy hat. I avert my eyes knowing that staring is not appropriate. Just as she passes with the umbrella between her and me, her hat is blown off her head and lands at my feet. Politely I pick up the hat and hold it above my head and above the horizon of the umbrella where it could be retrieved. The hat is taken and I receive a "Thank you" in return. Just another day at the beach.

I affirm that all the facts laid out above are true and I do have witnesses to back up my story.

Tour de Wisconsin

What was I thinking?
For our 34 anniversary I wanted to go somewhere special. I look at southern Wisconsin revealed a number of rail-to-trail paths. The Elroy-Sparta trail is claimed to be the first of such trails. Maps.google.com showed that the trip there would be 5 hours and 44 minutes. I rounded it down to 5 thinking that google was conservative in it's estimation. We didn't get away until 3:15pm Friday and by the time we hit Chicago it was time for the exodus from the city to outlying destinations and we crawled for what seemed to be hours. We finally made the Illinois-Wisconsin border and it was still daylight, but the daylight was dimming. The sun went to bed and we were still driving. Seven hours after our departure we arrived at our destination. Had my calculation been a seven hour drive, I probably wouldn't have planned it. Even at 5 hours 44 minutes, what was I thinking?

Saturday morning we drove from our accommodations in Hillsboro to Elroy. As we hung around waiting for the Trail Shop to open, I noticed all the other bikers were wearing their helmets. I began to feel the peer pressure to wear a helmet and I applied that pressure on Barb who eventually conceded to wear the helmet. I believe that in wearing the helmet we advanced our standing among serious bikers.

What was she thinking?
Finally we were on the Elroy-Sparta trail, a 32 mile trail from Elroy to Sparta. My plans were to bike midway to Wilton (15 miles) and then back to Elroy. Maybe even to Norwalk (21 miles). Round trip to Wilton and back would have been a 30 mile ride. Norwalk would have been 42 miles and the longest ride we would have ever done. The Elroy-Sparta trail had 3 tunnels. Two of them were a quarter mile in length and the third was three quarters of a mile long. Lights were recommended. I had planned to buy some lights but never got around to it. The trip to Wilton went well. We even made it through the first tunnel without lights. Bikers must walk bikes through the tunnels. Inside the tunnel the path was crowned and water dripping from the walls fed streams of water on either side of the path that were designed to take the water out of the tunnel. Barb's odometer turned 1,000 as we approached Wilton we lunched at Pies Are Square. Also a visit to the hardware store enabled me to purchase a flashlight. I now had determined we would go through the second tunnel and then on to Norwalk. Truthfully I had planned to go to the third tunnel (24 miles) and halfway into the tunnel before heading back to Elroy. Sparta was 8 more miles beyond the third tunnel. Barb thought, "What's another 8 miles?" (actually 16 round trip). I conceded thinking that we could do it with a break in Sparta and nourishment from perhaps some ice cream. The trip from the third tunnel to the Sparta end of the trail was all down hill. Unfortunately, the Sparta end of the trail did not end in Sparta, but short of Sparta. We had now biked at least 32 miles, more with the side trip into Wilton. No ice cream. Not even clean drinking water. What was she thinking? We now had an 8 mile climb back to the third tunnel where we would then get a little relief down hill. It was gruelling. Now we had envisioned Wilton where we would be assured of ice cream.

Left for dead
Barb's strength and her desire for ice cream soon put her out of my sight. With a mile left to go to reach the tunnel, I welcomed a small descent under a bridge, but something was amiss. Instead of being able to coast, I actually had to pedal. Something was not right. In the shade of the tunnel I examined my bike. I picked each wheel off the ground and spun it to find out where the drag on it was and to see what I might be able to do to fix it. I knew that I could not bike the remaining 25 miles in this condition. To my amazement, each wheel spun freely. The descent had been an optical illusion. I continued my trek. For all Barb knew, I could have been dead alongside the trail. I then heard her voice call my name. There she was, sitting in the shaded grass near a little hut that sold all the amenities bikers would desire on a long ride. Even ice cream. But our ice cream awaited us yet another 9 miles. We needed the incentive to continue.

We eventually made it to Wilton and enjoyed our ice cream. We were now a mere 15 miles from the end of the trail. Another 6 miles and we were going back through the first tunnel. This time we decided to ride the tunnel instead of walking it. This required my holding the flashlight with my left hand and peddling slowly while trying to light the path. Barb kept beckoning for me to slow down and warned that she thought I was too far left in the tunnel. I made an exclamation of surprise and warning. She took it to mean that I had definitely strayed too far left and was endanger of ending up in the stream. She countered by going to the right. Unfortunately she had been in the center of the trail. By the time she realized she had strayed to far right and attempted to put her right foot down to balance herself, there was nothing there for her foot to keep her upright. She had an encounter with the rough hewn wall and the stream. Her right arm was now almost totally incapacitated due to an injury to her elbow. Fortunately the three miles from the tunnel to Kendall were downhill. In Kendall she was able to clean her injury while I obtained antibiotic cream from the gas station, the only establishment in the town to sell such an item. The remaining 6 miles were unpleasant. But now we have the bragging rights for completing the Elroy-Sparta trail from one end to the other and back. My trip odometer read 69 miles as we approached our car. Never did we intend such a ride. Aside from the injury we suffered no other adverse side effects.

Christmas Lights, Christmas Love

Each year right after Thanksgiving I haul down the icicle lights from above the garage, check to make sure they are still working, brave the extension ladder to the peak of the roof and hang those lights in what is generally cold weather. Then shortly after Christmas I reverse the process and brave the extension ladder in what is generally cold icy weather, try to remove the lights without breaking the plastic clips that attach them to the gutters or shingles, try to get the lights back into plastic bags (the light strands have become stiff from being in the cold and do not like to bend quite so easy) and then haul them back up into the storage space above the garage.

The lights look so nice on the house during this season and the reason I do it is because I love....Barb. Even though they look nice on the house, I seriously question whether they would be up if it were not for the fact that I love Barb and want to please her.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

Stalking Tannenbaum

I just had to post a video from three years ago. By the way, live trees are more environment friendly than artificial trees. Oh Christmas tree, oh green Christmas tree

33rd Year of Honeymoon

Barb and I celebrated our 33rd wedding anniversary this weekend. I had been attempting to plan a trip that we could take, but it never got off the ground. Barb's brother Tom was celebrating his 50th birthday the day before our anniversary, so we combined the two celebrations and met him in Indianapolis. We arrived late afternoon. At 8:00pm we dined on the rooftop of Dunaway's. I ordered the salad that came with Hazelnut Crusted Goat Cheese. Magnifigue! We dined as the sunset over the city skyline. Tres romantic!

The next morning we biked the Monon and Fall Creek Greenway trails. The 26 mile ride was enjoyable particularly the Fall Creek Greeneway.


After the bike hike we walked to City Market for lunch and then on to the Circle where the Jaguar Clubs of North America was holding it's Challenge Championship. I think I'd look good driving one of these.

While at the Circle, we decided to take the elevator to the top of the State Soldiers' and Sailors' Monument. It was hot! (Not the Paris Hilton definition of hot, but the weatherman definition of hot.) All the hot air from the monument traveled to the top where there were no vents to let it out. Maximum time for staying at the top would be 1-2 minutes unless you were into the sauna experience.

Then a trip to Boca Loca Beads for Barb. I was unable to find any Czech pressed-glass coins, but Barb found some Afgan Jade.


Finally an evening dinner at the Canterbury. Tonight I ordered the Heirloom Tomato and Chevre salad. (More goat cheese.)

The trip home included a stop at Bailey's Discount Center in North Judson. An interesting stop. I might describe it as a Sam's Club for rednecks. (No membership required.) We did walk out with some great deals. I got an $18 value for $0.99 and it's something I will use!

The final stop on this trip was the Rodger's Reunion in Knox where we renewed friendships and had an enjoyable time. Somehow, my father has managed to make him and myself the official auctioneers of the reunion. I'm not an auctioneer! I didn't even sleep at a Holiday Inn Express last night! The auction is a way to fund the reunion. Items from Whoopie Cushions to old family photo's and memorabilia are donated.

When we pulled into the garage back home, our trip odometer read 333.3. Coincidence on this our 33rd anniversary...I think not.

The Wrapper

Wrap, wrap, wrap
They call me the wrapper.
Wrap, wrap, wrap
You know what comes after.

Sorry, I slipped back to the 70's. There was a song back then where the lyrics were Rap, Rap, Rap they call him the rapper. Back then rap was slang for talking. Today it's a music form. But I digress.

One of my jobs at Christmas time is wrapping the presents. This year, I was using the "Wrap similar" method. That's where all the gifts to one individual was wrapped in the same paper as much as possible. Ooops. Barb's a "Variety wrap" kind of woman. So I had to change my method so there was a wide variety of wrapped presents under the tree. I also like to "Personality wrap" as well. This is where you use paper that reflects the receiver in some way. I had use the manly paper for the son's-in-law, kid paper for the grand-kids, festive paper for the females. Then I found out that Barb did not like the paper that I had used to wrap her presents. Double ooops. I had wrapped all hers in the same paper. Oh well. The paper didn't stay on long and in a day or two the trashman will be by to pick it all up.

So, what wrapping style do you use?

Grape Road Gridlock

Christmas is 9 days away and the residents of Michiana are realizing that they need to do their holiday shopping. The Grape Road / Main Street corridor has reached gridlock. It's worse than a parking lot. Parking lots don't have a car directly in front of you and directly in back of you. At least you can move around in a parking lot. Parking lots have aisles you can move around. The intersection of Edison and Grape was particularly problematic. Cars heading east on Edison and turning north onto Grape would back up and cars would be left in the intersection while the light turned green for traffic on Edison heading west. It wasn't until the light turned red that the traffic on Grape would then move and then the cycle would repeat while traffic on Edison stood still. I should have known that it would be bad when traffic heading toward the mall was backed up to Capital Avenue and State Road 23. Somebody take my car keys away.