Friday, August 16

This Mornings Ride...

Rode to Winkleman's switch and back. 8 mile total. From Winkleman's Switch north to the bridge, a distance of 1.5 miles is pure joy to ride.  And here are the trail pictures for today.









Wednesday, August 14

The past few days ...and this morning

Since having the house mostly done and nothing really pressing to do I have been sort of at loose ends. But in the past few days I have managed to pull myself somewhat together. For one thing we will finally be doing a wee bit of entertaining. Tomorrow evening we will be hosting what I call the Deja Vu Bunch, those of us who have returned to our hometown to make a niche for ourselves. And I need to get in touch with our Yale/Panora friends because I have Keri lined up to feed us depending on if we can get the night to coincide with her busy schedule.
Colleen slept in this morning so I decided to do a minimal bike ride instead of walking. I consider a minimal walk as the 2 miles Colleen and I do every morning and a minimal bike ride for me is to the bridge and back for a total of  5 miles.
Here are the pics I took this morning.
The river is very low.

These fellows were A-OK to have their picture taken.

Waiting to be rescued.

Another biker met





I bought this little teacup when we were in Michigan. I was making flower plates at the time but I did not end up using it. It makes the perfect little vase for a Marigold.


Update: We made our annual call to DirecTV for renegotiation. Our normal bill was $74 but if you call them you can get all kinds of discounts with most  only in effect for one year. Thus the annual call. We have done this for many years. Our bill per month this past year was $35. The only rule to this is that you must be prepared to lose DirecTV because the threat does not work if you are not committed to cut the ties. This year they told us they do not currently have any "deals" to offer us at this time. So we cut the string.
The truth be known we watched very little satellite TV. And now after the purchase of our giant antenna whereby we receive 16 high definition channels for free we feel we have all the TV we need.
Another add on to this story involves a good hi speed internet connection. We do pay a bit more for it than we used to ($50 then-$65 now) but it is unlimited and much better quality than we were getting with Verizon. Unfortunately not everyone has that choice. And now with the unlimited super duper Internet we can stream videos over the TV. We are Netflix members and enjoying movies and TV shows without commercial interruption. Our TV experience is greatly enhanced. We watched all of the "Orange is the new Black" episodes that were available and we are hooked on that show. Can hardly wait for the next season. Currently we are watching "Breaking Bad" and it is another one whereby the time zips by. And we have not had time to start watching the list of movies I have compiled.
Every now and then we need to analyze our options and making sure our choices from the past apply to the future. Sometimes a change is called for.




Sunday, August 11

Family Connections

Butch and I rode our bikes out to Roger Conant's place for a family reunion, Zimmerle connected. Roger was married to my late cousin Sharon Zimmerle Conant. Roger and their daughter Joanna host a family gathering each year for that particular branch of the Zimmerle clan. My mother and their father/grandfather were siblings. Roger lives on the bike trail which makes riding out there seem like a good idea. It is approximately 4 miles so it makes an 8 mile round trip.
We had a great time as we always do. I think next year I will try to encourage a bit more involvement of my siblings and offspring. We all need to know our connections.
Here are some photos my cousin Howard Zimmerle, a great photographer, took of us.
My cousin Bill Zimmerle and his granddaughter. Howard photoshopped the American Gothic background. I told you he was good.

My cousins Bill, Phyllis and Howard.

A rare photo of us. Rare you say? What is rare about it? I like it and that is why it is rare!