hike up the mountain

http://2rememberstudio.typepad.com/2remember_studio/2010/06/the-hike-was-awesome.html   Jenny and I went up the hill to fetch a...

Carts, Cars and Storms...

Grandma asked after hearing my eventful story to post it for you all to read! :) So I'm sure you all have heard and or experienced the storms that have been coming through Minnesota recently..Friday's storm was the first one that had actually bothered me..Paul and I had gone to Buffalo to pick up some parts to work on his car, on the way home it started raining, as it got worse it became harder and harder to see..it started coming down so hard we had to pull into the target parking lot to wait for it to pass some..we parked and not 5 minutes later, a shopping cart comes barreling out of a cart corral towards my car and smashes into it, flips up over the hood, and lands upside-down smack next to my car door, 2 wheels busted off! an what do you know, 2 more carts come flying, hit the curb right next to my car and landed in a heap along with the first cart, 1 more wheel busted! while this was going on, golf ball sized hail was pounding down all over, We waited for the rain to calm down to a steady downpour instead of the flash-flood-like rain and hail mix, then climbed out to take a look. the grill of my car..gone! the hood...popped and buckled, dents along the whole front! the radiator...pushed back towards the engine, along with the latch for the hood! what a mess! :) 

i guess i didn't know a shopping cart could do so much damage! -Debbie

Happy Father's Day

Here's a blurb out of an essay i'm working on about the influences i had growing up that led me to public service:

While Mom was township clerk, Dad served as a volunteer fire fighter. From him, we learned never to let the gas gauge get below ¼ tank; you never knew where you might need to rush off to and running out of gas was unnecessary. We parked the car backed in, so he could take off in a hurry in the middle of the night. We made sure our piles of coats and boots and mittens and hats and scarves didn’t cover up his fire boots in the porch. We all learned as soon as we were old enough to dial the phone how the phone tree worked; we’d get a call from a fire fighter’s wife and send Dad off while we called down the line the numbers marked for Mom. It was important when we took the message to know whether the guys who lived closer to the fire hall got the trucks and if Dad needed to get a truck or just meet them at the fire. He’d grab the helmet and coat and boots from the porch and screech his way out of the driveway. Dad would come home exhausted hours later and tell us about the suspected arson or about the Christmas tree that had gotten too dry or about the chimney fire or about how unsafe trailer houses are once a fire gets started.



Dad also served as a minister, Sunday School teacher, sewer inspector, and grave digger, on top of being a father of ten and a full-time millwright in the mines. He ran for school board one year and was beaten badly but continued to serve on school committees to push his view that spending money on classroom instruction was more important than school athletics.

Thanks, Isa, for being a great role model!
 
e.

Yikes. They're on Strike!

It isn't just a threat anymore. The nurses walked out at 7am for a 24 hour strike. Not sure how much movement a 24 hour strike can generate in contract negotiations, so we might be in this mess for awhile. 12,000 nurses in the metro are out. About 3,000 replacement nurses are covering.

Latest from In Motion Therapy

Have been going to In Motion Therapy 3 days a week, for about an hour each time.  My results as of today are 106° flexion and has to get to 120!  The extension is -5° so
it's that close to being straight.  Someone at the Manor asked if the therapist is going
to come to the Manor!  So many kinds of equipment he uses that it wouldn't work to
come to the Manor.

My knee is still warm and swollen.  When I haven't walked for awhile it feels like there is
a band around my knee.  Before going in this morning I did some exercises at home to
limber the joint so that then I get some benefit from the moves he has me do.  First thing each time is to pedal a bike type of thing where the pedal goes all the way around.  First it's almost impossible but eventually I get it to go around.  Also stepping onto a stool is o.k. when good knee leads but when the left leg leads it is very difficult.  Pa was going to call the Dr. re redness and swelling and heat in operated joint.  Ryan said it is
normal to have that heat and swelling at this point.                   Mom

Happy Memorial Day Greetings from Alaska ...

where part of the Marjanen crew explored the town of Valdez over the weekend ... along with the long drive to and from!

From passes covered in snow ....

to the old town site of Valdez ...

the luscious green of nature and it's abundant lakes ....

and finally fields of ice like the Matanuska Glacier.

Hoping your weekend was safe and healthy ... full of fun barbeque and all the fixins'!