A Mini Reunion, a Project Update and Bike Time

Sue and Bryan came into town last week. They had been in Nebraska where Sue's side of the family had a reunion. It was nice that they took the time to go out of their way to spend a few nights in Minnesota so we could visit with them as well.

I met them in Northfield at Keith and Tracee's Tuesday night. We had dinner and drinks at Fielder's Choice. It was such a nice time. I would like to have hosted them here but that wasn't going to happen with our remodeling project in full swing—plus, Bryan commented that they were fine with staying in hotels along the way. He doesn't think they'll be back this way again for a long while so it's up to Tammy and I to make the trek to Portland, Oregon if we're going to get together. I look forward to doing that at some point. We're overdue for a road-trip.

Our remodeling project continues to move along at a steady pace. Joe was working on removing baseboards. He's replacing our 2 3/4" oak trim with 5" white trim. Jeff put in quite a few hours priming the trim on our windows. We seldom open our windows and Jeff found one where the sash was rotting away. The others appear to be fine.

Karen and I made a trip up to Hennepin Made (Jackson's studio) to have a look at the pendant lights I ordered. They're awesome! He'll have them ready for us this week. We also stopped at Above All Hardwood Floors to select a stain color for our floors. We chose 4 somewhat similar colors. They had a rep from the company come out the next day to sand a section of our wood floors and apply the stains to see how they look in the lighting of our home. We're going with Coffee. It works best with the floor color in our sunporch. It's such a departure from what we currently have and I look forward to the change.

Drywall work will take up most of this week with the sanding and staining of our floors next week. The project has ballooned in cost but we expected that. We look at it as an investment in our home.

It's so convenient that Tammy is able to spend this time up in Babbitt with her sister, Cindy. She's been as busy as ever sorting through a lifetime of mementos and things her parents had squirreled away. One of her finds was an envelope with newspaper clippings and magazine articles about then newly elected President Obama, saved years before Alzheimer's disease took over. Elaine commented back in the day that she was doing it for her grandchildren. She understood the significance of his presidency.

I'm finally getting back out on my bike after several weeks of being distracted from it. My fitness has taken a hit from the time away, most notably in the form of a painful right knee. It sounds counterintuitive but for my knees to feel fine I need to ride regularly. It's when I rest them too long that they become sore and don't allow me to ride aggressively.

I went out on Friday intent on doing something less than 40 miles but I didn't make home until 77 miles (124 km) later. My hamstrings were cramping after 3 hours from a lack of fluids. That's almost never an issue for me. I was more careful yesterday making sure to drink enough. I ventured into Wisconsin where the best roads in a 50-mile radius can be found. Lots of rolling, desolate highways. The sort of roads I imagine will be waiting for me in heaven if I make the cut.



Comments

Popular posts from this blog

David Crowder Concert, NWA188 and Photo Review

Riding, Retirement and a Home Revisited

A Tragic Loss