Rhinelander visit

Well, we had a good trip to Rhinelander. There had been some dire warnings about road conditions for that weekend, but the roads were clear on Friday and we had (mostly) good roads on Sunday, when we headed back to Eau Claire. There was a lot of drifting snow in the Wausau-Abbotsford area, as always, and one car in the ditch, but we made it through without mishap.

Responsible parent that I am, I tried to creatively pack things that might be helpful should we wind up in the ditch. I had a shovel, jackknife, cell phone (of course), blankets, first aid kit, flashlights, food and water, tool kit, and more-- just in case. Jon laughed at me when we returned and he saw that I had packed a camping lantern, along with the two flashlights. Apparently he thought that was excessive...

Speaking of being a good scout-! This coming weekend Michael is slated to have his first winter camping experience, at the Boy Scout camp. It's not technically camping-- they stay in a heated cabin-- but it will be his first time away without Mom. I asked him if he wanted me to come along (apparently some moms do), but he was adamant that he did NOT want that. He'll be gone two nights, and I think it will be a good experience for him.

Emma will be very lonely without him, but I'll try and do something special with her this weekend while he's gone... maybe go to a matinee at the theater or have some coffee/cocoa girl chat.

Eau Claire has had about ten inches of snow over the past 2-3 days. It's relatively warm out, so the snow is heavy and packy. Great snow fort conditions. You see a lot more local kids outdoors when it's like this.

We look forward to Laurie and Mark coming over for a visit during the last weekend of March. They'll come to Eau Claire after visiting Bill in Minneapolis. Brother John will be home for a two-week visit around that time, so we hope to see him as well. We can either go to Madison or Rhinelander to visit him, when we know his schedule better.

We hope to see Don's family in Rhinelander, at Easter time. So that just leaves brother Bob unaccounted for! He's probably recovering from all the snow removal he had to do in Madison this weekend!

Nostalgic tidbit: Mom and I went to Pine Lake School this weekend. The school's shut down, but the building and playground are still there, mostly intact. Desks and chalkboards fill most of the classrooms, but there are no kids. Most of the building is closed off and there's a makeshift Thrift Shop set up in the kindergarten and first grade rooms. The third grade building addition that I remember is no longer there. It's become an informal parking lot, right next to the big-rooted pine trees we used to play house in and chase each other around. I don't know if those are the same trees I remember, but they sure look like it. Except they don't seem to have gotten larger; if anything, they've shrunk. Maybe all those years of being trampled by little feet... or maybe because I'm a giant grown-up, now!

Spring Thaw Already?

It was seriously cold here for a few weeks, but temps have been climbing and yesterday reached a balmy 54 degrees. That's over 70 degrees warmer than it had been just a few days earlier.

Warm weather means mud in Jon's line of work. They've been working seven days a week this month and are west of Minong, over an hour and a half from Eau Claire. He comes home about two nights a week to drop off his laundry and have a little family time; the rest of the week he stays in a motel. It's a little strip motel that looks a lot like the one Norman Bates' family owned in Psycho. We visited him there this weekend. He should be back to normal hours in March.

It was a four-day weekend, but busy. Besides visiting Jon, Michael had his last basketball game of the season, and we had the Blue and Gold Banquet for Boy Scouts, as well. The banquet took about 5 1/2 hours, including the set-up and clean-up afterwards. But Longfellow has a very small pack, so they need all the help they can get.

This weekend (tomorrow night, actually) we're heading for Rhinelander. We're due for a visit and are hoping to get in on some of Dad's birthday cake (kidding-- Happy Birthday, Dad!).

We're in the Deep Freeze

It's COLD here in Eau Claire, though we seem to be coming out of it. Monday was so cold that all the schools were cancelled (-40 below, with windchill). It's still sub-zero, but not as windy.

Michael returned to school today after four days missed in a row. He's still not 100%, but he seems better and shouldn't be contagious anymore, at least. It was just a string of things... pink eye, sore throat, cough, fatigue, swollen glands. We took him to the doctor twice but were told it was viral and something we'd just have to wait out. Emma was actually the first one sick, but she had fever and a cough, none of the other stuff, and recovered faster.

They're having a school program Thursday afternoon. I'll post pictures from the event, if I get some good ones. It sounds cute: Emma's going to be Cinderella, wearing a costume, and kindergarten is doing three different song & dance numbers, including Mickey Mouse Club and Hello Dolly.

Jon's back to work after a long, four-day weekend. It was so cold they had to shut down; their equipment wasn't starting. Hopefully today went better for them. Jon was crawling the walls, with so much time at home. It was even too cold for him to snowmobile or icefish (though he tried). I tried to find him useful household tasks to help pass the time, but he gets touchy about that after awhile... hee hee.

I had to miss a lot of my regular office hours last week, because of the kids' illnesses. Luckily I had things I could work on at home. There's a school board race coming up in April, and our teacher's union is interviewing the candidates. I'm typing up transcripts of those interviews.

Brother Don already knows about that! I had to call place an emergency call to him this weekend; after working on the transcripts for six hours, my computer crashed... I thought I was going to have to start from scratch. Luckily Don was able to save the day and help me find my files. Thank you Don C. Bragg!!