Time is flying!

I was so restless before, wanting to "get on with it" and start this new RV life.  To me that meant moving from one spot to another, but I think I missed the mark.  From the first night we slept in our motorhome we were already "getting on with it".

My focus had been so much on getting to the rally and taking care of changing our residency that I was missing the joy of the journey.  This is not how I want to be.  I want to savor each day fully and take it as it comes with no eye on the finish line.

As it occurred to me that our time with the kids was coming to an end I want to rewind and go back and be more patient.  When will I ever learn this lesson?  Will I ever learn it?

Now we are on the next leg of our journey and visiting our friends the Charbonneau's right now, who thankfully have internet service out in the middle of the boonies.  We may have to look into Hughes.net to see if that might be the service we want to sign up with.

Well, we gotta get going now - there's a Wal-Mart in Ashland!

Long Live the Queen

Dream interpretation

Dreams are not only entertaining, they have information for you if you only know how to interpret them.

I've been experiencing many more dreams while using the CPAP machine, which allows me to reach that lovely REM sleep state.  Aaaah.

They did tell me that eventually I'll want to replace the tubes and nose piece as they will stiffen with time and not be as supple and comfortable.  I'd been ignoring that message.  This is where the dreams kicked in.

My first dream was that I was a great white shark and was just having a blast swimming around the beach area and scaring the crap out of people.  Being a shark might be kind of cool when you think of it that way.  However, the mean old people retaliated and hired some guy named Ahab to catch me.

And he did this by hooking me in the nose.  I fought and fought as hard as I could from the pain and finally shook him loose.  This was where I woke up and found I had shook my face mask completely off and the air was making a hideous sound, much like a dying shark might sound.

Hmmm.  That was interesting.  I think that might be a sign I need to replace the nose piece.  But not the tubing, that certainly will last longer.  Right?

Enter the second dream.  I'm a tiny baby and ready to be born but I'm having difficulty.  My breathing is becoming rapid and labored.  This was how I felt when they had to help pull me from the kayak during our recent demo so I chalked it up to that experience.  Message ignored.

As I went back to sleep I was again in the birth process.  There was a pressure on the top of my head.  Hmmm. I had recently tightened the face mask straps, maybe a bit too hard.  So I eased those up and resumed my slumber.

Now I'm through the birth canal.....What!  Again with the birthing dream.  Where the heck is this going?  Okay, I get it...new birth...new life style for us.  That makes sense.  But I feel like I'm being strangled here, what's that about.  Oh my goodness...the umbilical cord is wrapped around my neck - it's choking me!  Somebody help.....oh. 

Now that I'm fully awake again I see that I must have been twisting and turning during the "birth" as the six foot plastic tubing that runs between the CPAP machine and my mask has gotten wrapped around my neck.  Good grief!

Okay...okay!  I can take a hint.  I'll get this replaced soon!  Now please...let me go back to sleep....perchance NOT to dream.

Long Live the New Born Queen

Guess who's coming to dinner?

We had a perfectly quiet day planned but that changed when we listened to the message that was received very late in the evening.  Okay, to us that means anything after 9:00 pm, but still ....it was really late.

Our cousin was going to be in the area with his apprentice and would we like to get together for lunch?  Due to our own time mismanagement (translated: sleeping in late) this gave us about an hour and a half to be ready.

Since we had bought a bunch of different meats earlier and hadn't had a chance to fix them, we decided to have them come here for a smorgasbord of sorts and I cleaned out leftovers from the fridge.  It was our own Old Country Buffet style lunch outside under the awning.

We had a lovely visit with them and I gave my sympathies to his apprentice for having to deal with Joel all day long.  They ate, we talked and when it was time to clean up and do dishes they left.  Yup.  That's how this family rolls!

I did some running around looking for new hair for Henry who's as bald as ...well, Left Brain, right now.  I stopped at a Super Target to pick up some stuff so I could get the groceries also. It's nice that they've expanded their stores to include groceries.  It makes it very convenient for one stop shopping.

When I got home I planted my new plants in the fairy garden and added it's little gourd house and fairy.  Now it just needs to fill in.  These are so much fun as they take very little space and if I want to redo "my yard" I can just dump it into a dishpan and start over.


Stand Up Paddle boarding (SUP)

Then Left Brain and I headed out to Lake Nokomis for our demo of canoe, kayak and SUP (Stand Up Paddle).  I'd been waiting for this night for a long time and as just beside myself with giddiness.

Everyone there appeared to just have shorts and tops with no swimsuits so we opted to do the same.  Our first venture was to try the kayaks.  I chose the one that was small, short and wide...much like myself.   It's designed for quiet lakes and not built for speed...again, much like me.


No one warned me about the dangers of
sharks while kayaking!

It handled quite easily and soon was across the lake and exploring under the bridge and sliding under the trees edges with the ducks.  Either they were very tame or they thought I was some sort of bright fluorescent orange cousin of theirs.

I was doing well until it was time to come out of it...not so easy.  My arms are not used to this much work and I got a charley horse in my right bicep.  But I managed to extricate myself from it without getting too wet.

That having gone well, we decided to try a canoe so we could both paddle.  We've had canoes before so this didn't take much of a learning curve and it was enjoyable but nothing too exciting.

Then it was time to tackle the SUP.  I've always prided myself on being limber, strong and with good balance...but those are old memories from when I did karate.  I was a little leery after watching a young boy splash into the lake over and over, but dismissed this as his being young and silly.  None of the other ladies were falling...how hard could it be? I mean they say you can fish from them and do yoga.

The lady held on to it while I kneeled down  and slowly stood.  So far so good.  The paddle is freakishly long and I did feel like I should be singing "O Solo Mio" as I paddled gondola like across the lake.  But that vision was in my head alone.  I soon lost my balance...but not to worry.  I'll just kneel back down.  There that went well....NOT. 

I managed to kneel down quickly and then fell over the left side even faster.  There's not much you can do when you fall into the water fully dressed but laugh about it.  And since nothing worse could happen, I climbed on again and parked my butt on the board and paddled outwards.  They tell me it's less wavy further out and easier to get standing.  They lie.

Well, yes...it is less wavy.  And perhaps that should make it less difficult.  To me it just means you fall into deeper water which allows you to go under completely.  Now I'm just getting mad.  I couldn't tell from Left Brain's expression if he was upset, embarrassed or trying not to laugh.

Actually, I think I may have looked like this at
some point in my "dismount" from the board

So I decided to call it quits, the SUP board wins.  I lost.  As I slogged out of the murky water like the creature from the black lagoon, he was there to hand me a towel.  Such a sweetie.  I have since renamed it the FOQ for Fall Off Quickly.  They advertise you can glide across the water and even do yoga poses.  Yeah, right.  I wanna SEE that for myself!  My guess is there's someone underwater in scuba gear holding the board steady.

After visiting the bath house to change into dry clothes we called it a day and went home.  The driving time to and from this adventure far outweighed the actual time using any of the toys.  Left Brain is a good sport.  He believes in me and knew how important it was for me to try this.  I think he's secretly relieved that I announced we would not be buying anything like this anytime soon. 

When we come across the opportunity to do so, we will rent.  With the exception of the SUP.  I don't plan to do this anytime soon.  Here in the cities they have a "pub crawl" where you paddle from bar to bar on these things.  Who knows?  Maybe the drinking helps.

Long Live the Soggy Bottom Queen

Rolling along

The Stone Arch Bridge is behind us

Last week we went on a "date" with our adult children and had a blast. 

We met up and went downtown Minneapolis for a Segway tour.

Our group ...short people in front...that would be me

These are some photos of that excursion.  The people who accompanied us on the tour were kind enough to take many photos and post them to a website where we can access them.

On the Stone Arch Bridge admiring the water fall

The day started out drizzly and a bit cool so everyone opted for the yellow slickers that proudly showed we belonged to the "Human on a Stick" segway tour.





What a sight we must have made as we glided over the sidewalks, bridges, streets and yards of the downtown area.

Me and Left Brain

Left Brain & me

In the afternoon, after our break at Mill City Museum, we removed the raingear and enjoyed the warm summer day.

The group

During the tour we learned that the flour mills were prone to explosions.  I never knew flour was so dangerous.  It's really a good thing I cook as little as I do...just for safety sake!

The four of us on our "date"

So it's MY understanding that Pillsbury wants to share the excitement of these spontaneous explosions by creating that "BOOM" when you try to open the tube of crescent rolls, pizza dough or whatever product you are working with.




I know that sound always scares me, even though I know it's coming and am waiting for it, it still sets my teeth on edge.  This is usually accompanied by traumatic memories of the hideous "jack in the box" I used to play with. 

Steph rolling along with Left Brain in fast pursuit

Really?  Why did they give these kind of toys to us as kids anyway?  And then read story after story of orphaned children alone in the woods with witches and wolves and everything but vampires and zombies (those didn't come until much later) that wanted to gobble us up! 

It's no wonder I have sleep problems!

Long Live the High Roller Queen

This really sucks

The great thing about living in a motorhome is that you can go where ever you want to go, whenever you want to go.

The bad thing is the dirt IN the motorhome goes along for the ride.  There's just no way to outrun the dishes, laundry and need to sweep and vacuum.  Sigh.  So much for my glamorous carefree life I had envisioned.

The cheapo vacuum cleaner I had picked up earlier was basically a hand vac on a stick.  It worked okay  put was awful to clean.  So my plan was to pick up another Dyson that I admired and invest the $300 into my cleaning supplies.

But today we were at Wal-Mart doing some back to school shopping with the grandkids and Left Brain found a Bissell for about $36.  It has a crevice tool and soft brush as well as a Hepa filter for allergies.  Hmmm.  I'm game to try this and save a lot of money. 

It's assembled and I had my first turn at terrorizing the cat by cleaning the floor.  I'm never sure if it's the noise of the vacuum cleaner or seeing all that hard work of properly layering all her cat hair over the carpet destroyed that upsets her so.  It just goes to show that nature abhors a vacuum...and so does She Devil.

Long Live the Queen of Clean