Here it is the first of July and I am thinking winter.  I live alone now and wondering if I should get a dog.  This is a big decision for me and I think about it a lot.  My friend used to raise German Shepherds with her husband.  They would show these dogs and she still raises the pups until they go to their owners.  She has been very persuasive and would give me one of the pups when they are ready to leave the nest.  I think the thing that bothers me most is getting too attached to the dog. I know how that feels. The company sure would be nice.      I don't know, should I or shouldn't I????

We have a fellow up here in Northern Wisconsin that has a raft and he fills the raft with twigs, branches, weeds, and anchors it  away from the shoreline and hopes a pair of loons will find it and make thier nest on it.  He has also attached a camera on a stationary object near the home made "island" so that he can watch to see if any loons are attracted to his "island".  

Loons are unable to maneuver on land because the drum stick part of their legs is covered by skin and attached to thier body so they only have the front part of the leg, which makes for a good swimmer and diver.

Around the 1st week in May he starts watching to see if the loons are going to participate and make their nest on his ’island’ and luckly around the 5th. of May there are a pair of loons showing interest and they make their nest and lay their eggs (two eggs) unaware that they are being watched.  Then they take turms turning the eggs and sitting on them. .  Day in and day out they sit - rain or shine, wind or hail - they sit on the eggs for 28 days.  They are definately the most patient of all birds and then on the twenty -eighth day the male bird refuses to reliquish the nest and the female bird waits, the chick is hatching and after several hours the chick will appear from under the loon, just  a tiny black furry little ball, and soon the other egg will hatch.

They leave the nest within 24 hours and are very dependent on their parents, for there is danger in the waters and with the large turtles, northerns, bass, eagles and other prey, survial is uncertain.  So that is what goes on up here in the north country.  At least in my small part of the world.

  It was August 2007 that I had cataract surgery.  It was a simple surgery and everyone said I would be surprised how much better I would be able to see.  I always took the Large Print books from the library, I wasn’t able to see the road signs very well, and so off to the local Opometrist I went.  My neighbor had just had the same operation as I did and within a week he was reading his newspaper without his glasses.  Soon after operation I began seeing Floaters, a lot of Floaters.  My local Opometrist sent me to the cities which is about 90 miles from where I live. I’ve had to see him several times, in fact I have another appointment with him next month. .

 I was given several tests each time I went and after the last test he tells me it probably is a "natural part of aging" The Floaters are st;ill there and all of a sudden I see double lines on the television and I have to close one eye to read.  During this time I also was running to my local Opometrist who would change my lenses costing me $100.00 a time, insurance doesn’t cover her calls. So what started out to be a simple procedure has turned into a real problem.  There is nothing simple about any kind of surgery.  I am hoping that, in time, everything will go back to normal, and I am so thankful I have my sight. Otherwise it’s all good.

I just got back from a baseball NCAA Regional Tournament that I attended with my son, his wife, and 2 of their 6 boys.  The oldest one is the baseball player, but a couple of the younger ones are playing in their own litlle leagues.  My oldest grandson attends a Division III college and isa pretty good player, in fact for the week ending 4/13/2008 he had the best batting average on all three divisions in the nation at 588. His team was #1 seed so we left my house at 4 AM because they had a 10 AM game Wednesday and we made it in time to see the first pitch.  Drove 6 hours.  They won that game and on Thursday they won again and all was happy and smiling.  On Friday we had two games and needed only one of these to go to  the NCAA playoff championship games.  We lost.  Both games.  7 to 1 and 4 to 1.  What a blow.  My grandson was to graduate on Saturday but he didn't attend the graduatuion.  Probably wasn't up to it.  I will miss these games and watching him play.  He got into a real bad slump during these games but things like that happen.  It's all good.

  It was a cold February day in 2004.  My husband and I were out grocery shopping and when we got home Bob was carrying the groceries in the house as I was putting them away.  Bob was taking somethings down our basement steps when he fell.  He missed a step and he hit a brick wall squarely with his head.  He got to a chair and then came up stairs and laid down in the bed and shortly after that he said I had better call an ambulance and he was taken to a local hospital and then transferred to a St Paul Hospital.  Our daughter and I follow in her car, a distance of 90 miles, his neck was broken.  I don't know how long we waited in the ER waiting room before we were informed of his condition.  He was in the Hospital for 72 days.  He was never without a family member at his bedside, 24/7 - thanks to my three children.  He went through hell.  Everyday he asked to go home.  When his insurance ran out, the rehab he was in found a nursing home near our home and said he could go there so they arranged a beat up van, barely equiped to handle some one in his condition and he was placed in a home in Wisconsin, close to our home.  He lived 2 days.  It has been 4 years ago today that he passed away.  I know everyone remembers when thier loved ones passed and I just feel better by having this chance to "talk" to someone about it.  Thanks for listening.
 

  Anything that happens up here in the North Country usually involves some kind of animal or bird.  This morning I entered my garage to get the car and make an appointment.  It was a mess.  There was things laying all over, I am just lucky that some wooden plank or something hadn't  fallen on my car.  The bird feeders were broken, the gas can had been tipped over and there was glass broken and things hanging on nails were now on the floor.  I would guess a raccoon had been in the garage and couldn't get out.  It wasn't a squirrel or any very small animal but small enough to climb up on shelves and push things off, large things.l  I cleaned the glass up and put a few things back where they were but I was already late for my appointment, so I left and shut the garage door behind me.  When I came back home, you guessed it, the thing was still in garage because the place was a mess again.  I was getting a little scared so I banged on a few things hopeing it would come out and show itself but it never did and so I left the door openned and went in the house and hopefully it is gone, maybe I should leave the garage door up for a while, just in case.  .But It's all good. 

  Can I talk about this at the coffee table?  I think it is ok, but if it isn’t maybe you should stop reading my journal right now.  Tomorrow I will be attending my sisters memorial service.  She passed on after a long illness from COPD.  COPD "is a lung disease that makes it hard to breathe.  It is caused by damage to the lungs over many years, usually from smoking."  My sister was 71 years old.  I am the last sibling from a family of 8 children.  I will tell those attending about how pretty she was as a small child, long blond natural curly hair, a perfect little girls face.  How she loved to laugh, how funny she was, how she loved to have fun.  She was our ma’s favorite, we used to call her ma’s pet.  She could do no wrong.  When she got older and we moved from small town to the Twin Cities, she was the one always staying close to the folks, the rest of us all going our own way.  Was she watching out for them a little.  She was a hard worker although she didn’t work outside the home she did babysitting and that’s not an easy job.  She watched all three of mine when they were very small.  Our dad lived 19 years longer than our mom and was not in very good health.  He was 88 years old when he died and the whole 19 years he lived with my sister and her husband.  19 years.  And in all that time, when I would go to take him out to eat or to some outing our dad never said one bad thing about his care, nor about my sister and her husband.  So I will go tomorrow, it is on my mind so I thought if I wrote it down it would help.  Hope there isn’t any rules that  say only happy things are said at the coffee table.  By the way, my daughter is a smoker.

  My neighbor just got back from living in the cities with his daughter for the winter.  He is alone and loves his place here by the lake but age has crept up on him now and like me he can't get around very well any more.  These are our Golden Years and I thank God for them, but wouldn't it be wonderful to feel like you did when you were in your midlife years.  I know some people do feel great at 76 but I bet there isn't that many that feel like they did in their thirties or forties.  Take care of yourself, eat the right things, don't overdo, but keep going, all very good things to keep in shape but somewhere along the line I must have not done something right.  It's great to be here though. Isn't it? 

  April 27, 2008 - I let my grandson who is a junior in high school use my car to take his date 8 miles to town to the prom.  Pictures were taken and they left in my car, a large grey mercury, with a half tank of gas.  Be sure to be here by 10 AM tomorrow morning because I need my car to go to 10:30 Mass.  I got a call from him at 10:05 AM Sunday saying he would be right over with my car as he thought I was to leave at 10:30 AM for an 11:00 AM Mass.  So I was a little late for Mass, almost out of gas, but all was good.  Only cost $52.00 to fill the tank. 

  April 26, 2008 and it is snowing in Frederic, Wi.  Ground is covered and lake has thawed and it is a beautiful sight.

Spring has brought the loons back to the lake and as the eagles fly by they let everyone know they are here and are already nesting.