Fifteen weeks to go! With five weeks of vacation and a couple of holidays, less than 50 normal workdays remaining. Leaving work, changing careers, selling the house, moving to the beach, simplifying, letting go of most of our possessions… all these changes. Someone said… “You must be really stressed” And yet… no. When I think…
T -106 Days: Skating
Yesterday we were eating at out favorite restaurant on the Mississippi River, looking out and gazing at the large expanse of smooth, unbroken ice. I wondered if anyone ever tried ice skating on it. With the swift moving water underneath the ice, probably not the best idea. Ice skating on Lake Michigan, at least very…
T -107 Days: The Last Ice Storm
The Last Ice Storm It was a few years ago, here in Iowa. The day before, I had told my ice storm story from yesterday’s blog, at a staff meeting when we were discussing this upcoming potential ice storm. And now it was very early in the morning, my wife was getting ready to go…
T -108 Days: Ice Storm III
Ice Storm III I had joined a new company in St Louis that fall. Over Christmas we had a major ice storm. It was the kind where you felt you could put on ice skates and cruise the subdivision. But since it was Christmas, it was really a non event for me… we had nowhere…
T -109 Days: Ice Storm II
Ice Storm II Last night I remembered the ice storm that preceded yesterday’s post. My first car was a midnight blue 1966 VW bug. I drove home and parked on the driveway after basketball practice one evening just as freezing rain was rapidly making the roads slick. The next morning, school was canceled due to…
T -110 Days: Ice Storm Cometh
Ice Storm Cometh A little Iowa style ice storm had everyone scurrying home as the building was shut down today. By the time I was able to leave, it was getting bad… but not too bad… I have seen much worse. My first serious ice storm was back when I was a high school junior….
T -111 Days: Flying surf board
As I was leaving work tonight, we were talking about a few people in our plant that come in at 5am every morning to get the paint line started up for the day. On the positive side, they leave many days by 1pm. Reminded me of a coworker / friend I knew back in Holland,…
T -112 Days: Ship in ice
My wife was watching her favorite beach cam this morning and saw this 728 foot ship stuck in the ice. Eventually, a tug came and freed the ship to travel to Duluth, MN. What a great trip it would be… crossing icy Lake Michigan on a freighter. Unfortunately, I learned that is it very difficult…
T -113 Days: MLB
We had a brief discussion tonight on where we would watch our beloved Kansas City Royals when we live in Michigan. We will be much, much further from Kansas City… so maybe one road trip per year down there. I’m not particularly interested in going to Chicago or Detroit for games. Toronto is a longer…
T -114 Days: Four seasons and slow
Certainly you can write from anywhere in the world. But it helps to have some inspiration. Living in a major city like New York would be great for people watching. Sitting in cafes, observing and quietly eavesdropping on humanity. On the other hand, who can afford New York City? And then, sorry, but those are…