Last day of BEDFAMM bedlam

It's a cold day in the tundra. I have not been out, although I have seen the weather report and forecast for tomorrow, which will be December. Cold and colder. Plus I'm currently nursing a hurting left wing, so I'm staying in and defaulting to what I used many times in November. Old photos.

Marvin, Leona, Louise and Lillie Anderson in about 1926, 88 years ago. Taken, I assume, at the farm, and with a big flock of black chickens. I cropped and edited a larger image to bring the faces closer to the viewer.

Tom and Jane Miller in 1914 - 100 years ago this year. On the back it says, "Tom and Jane at old Gaslyn. Probably 1914." There is a black dog in the foreground, too. I did some cropping and editing of this one, too.

We have leftovers to eat tonight. The Flaherty Thanksgiving was bountiful and we are helping finish the best of the vittles. PP is here handling the world of Skyrim on the playstation. I've been struggling with the two crossword puzzles in the Strib. One down and about half of another to go.  NCW is working on an online crossword puzzle.

I blame the shoes

I was running out of ideas for BEDFAMM, so I broke a couple of fingers so that I'd have a bloggable subject. Tennis wasn't going as well as usual or as well as I like it to go. The first set was lost and we were a bit behind and I wasn't about to give up on any point. There was a sharp volley to my backhand. I turned and reached for a low bounce, but as I ran to my left I caught my left shoe on my right one - or vice versa - and fell heavily on the ring and little finger on my left hand. I also lost a little skin on my knees, but the main damage was to the fingers. I was sure immediately that at least one of them was fractured. That was it for tennis today. I think the shoes were to blame - see their guilty expression below.

My bound up left hand after a trip to urgent care and some X-rays. Two fractured fingers and probably a cast for a while.

We had Flaherty family Thanksgiving today at NCW's daughter's place. Plenty of good food, plenty of fun, and there will be more as leftovers tomorrow. NCW made buns and pie and also a ham to go with the 12 pound turkey. And stuffing for the bird. Maybe more than that. I was mainly a spectator. I have a hurt hand.

Only one more blog this month. I'm going to make it. too.

Photo Booth shenanigans

There was some talk at the Thanksgiving get-together/feast that the photos from the August wedding of Unky Herb and YY hadn't received enough exposure.  The photo booth shots were entertaining and fun to do.  I have copies.  The folks in these photo are well known to my usual readers.  The photographer deserves credit.  Spicy Meatball Photography.  They did a good job.  They provided a release requiring that no money be made off these photos.  These are free.  As Santini says, "Behave."

The bride and groom:

Some people mostly dressed in blue.

The father of the groom and a lady of the lake.  Swan Lake.

The same crazies.  This photo was made into a print and a copy given to me.  I put it up in the second bathroom to scare puppies.

Some gypsies off the street.

Visitors from the east.

Just two more days of BEDFAMM bedlam.

Thanksgiving comes around just once (or twice) a year

We packed the pie and a bottle of wine and went off to the Moohoo house to celebrate and give thanks for a great and eventful year. As we left we learned that NCW's granddaughter gave birth today to a healthy 6 pound 7 ounce boy - after a long labor.  The news made the atmosphere much lighter and the food taste better.

The menu was much like the last many years, traditional, filling, delicious. The main course was the big bird roasted in the oven and perfectly turned out. This was taken just before we wrestled it out onto the carving board and before starting on the mashed potatoes and gravy. In the extended menu was a unique recipe for green grape salad(?).

Dinner was about to begin and all looked around to get into the photo - all but the photographer of course.

The cooks and hosts posed in the kitchen before sitting down to the Thanksgiving dinner.

Some of the guests posed before sitting down to the banquet.

No tennis today and we held off on the Christmas shopping, too. Although we drove by Target on the way home and saw there a very full parking lot - people off to a fast start for Black Friday.

An apple pie before it's a pie, and maybe after

I've been waiting for the apple pie maker to arrive. PP decided to go do some rock climbing and then do a pie later. Rock climbing is her newest activity and the pie had to wait. The ingredients are ready, but she just arrived and the pie is a distance from completion. I decided to show a few of the ingredients and then maybe later, if I'm still up and about, edit and add a photo of the finished product.

I went to the grocer on Grand earlier to day to get some granny smith apples and, by special request from the baker, a few honey crisps. They were busy at the grocers, all the last minute preparations were going on in the midst of a snow squall. I managed to get the ingredients and get home in time to shovel and get ready to go play some tennis at Ft Snelling.

Before the pie:

Perhaps later; after the pie is done:

EDIT:  Going into the oven.

My Tennis Racket

Wilson Hyper ProStaff 6.1 tennis racket. I've been using it, or one exactly like it, since about 2001. It was the racket of choice for Roger Federer for a while in 2002 before the French Open that year, but he has since moved on to newer technology and I'm still playing with a 13 year-old racket. I even bought a new racket in about 2005 that I thought would work for me. It was a nSix-one tour 95 - a racket very much like Federer's racket in 2004-2006, but after playing with it for about a month, I started to get pains in my shoulder so I came back to this one. I gave the nSix-one to Unky Herb.

This racket is getting scarred up from scraping on the court on low shots and the paint is beginning to look bad in spots. So I'm thinking about maybe buying Fed's newest racket - the one he's supposedly using now. Wilson ProStaff RF97 Autograph which is $219 on the internet. My main problem is finding somewhere to get a demo racket and trying it out to see if I'm man enough to swing a racket worth that much dough. And whether or not the racket is as good as it has been reviewed. Fed participated in the design, so it's probably a great racket.

November is getting towards the end and it's back to acting like January. It may be a really long winter.

I lost my new camera

Sometime last weekend my new walk-around camera turned up missing. I searched all over the house thinking I had left it in the pocket of my parka. It wasn't to be found. I've only had it since February 6th of this year, but it takes pretty good pictures if I point it in the right direction. I like that camera. It's a lot like the one that Santini has been using, except mine is the silver body and not quite as fancy. I was beginning to think that I'd have to go buy another one just like it at Best Buy. Or maybe the gods were telling me to use my SLR camera more. But I had a couple of candidates for places it may have fallen out of my parka pocket. Fort Snelling and Wooddale, the places I play tennis. Today I visited Fort Snelling and their lost and found department. They had a lot of stuff - shirts, gloves, socks, and a fine assortment of water bottles - but no camera.

I drove to Wooddale and checked into an almost deserted facility. I asked the woman at the desk if I could check the lost and found. She asked what I was looking for and I described my hand-held camera. She had it at the desk. The lost is found. So I walked outside, lighthearted and took this next photo. It was getting ready to snow and there was a dark looking sky, but the day was much brighter than when I went into the building.

The second picture I took after I got it back. It's the place where I lost it. They call it the "Fun Zone," but I call it Wooddale Tennis Center and that's the name I put on the check when I pay my tennis bill.

Aunt Mayme

A foggy day in November and warm, unseasonably so. Not a good day for photos, so I'm opting for more genealogy.

Mary Elizabeth Miller Mowrey was born August 16, 1884 in Desoto, Wisconsin. She was the daughter of G.L. and Nancy Jane Miller. This was taken in the 1900's, but I'd just be guessing the date.

George E. (Fritz) Miller and Charles Miller taken about 1884 in Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin. Mayme's older brothers. Fritz was born August 28, 1875. Charles was born May 22, 1877.

From a letter from Mayme Miller Mowrey to Jane Miller in 1968:

“Don't tell me that you've never heard any details about the journey north! Or when the girls first came to our house. Mama and I were home alone one day first week in July, 1899. Papa was gone out of town for the day. George McDill came to tell the folks about Uncle George's death and to talk over what was to be done about the four girls. He had always told the girls if anything ever happened to him, they should get in touch with their cousin George. Mama didn't know just what to tell him and they made no decision. The next thing happened about a week later. Papa got a telegram from George saying he and the four girls would arrive on the midnight train on the Burlington road. Charlie happened to be home, so he and papa met the train. I don't remember the exact date, but it was in the first week of July, 1899. They all stayed with us until early in November. Then Gladys and Mollie went to live with George, and Ruth and Ella stayed with us. The next summer, as soon as school was out, Glad and Mollie came back and stayed all summer.

Ruth graduated from high school in 1901 and she came up here and taught school. Maxwells lived up here and she stayed with Aunt Em as much as possible. She always had the most horrible boarding places!

In April, 1903, the move up here was made. I've always wondered why! Your dad had been up here since the fall of 1901 - I think. Papa chartered a box car for the move. One end of it was shut off some way an d was fixed up for living quarters for mama, Ella, and "grossvater" and Papa. In the rest of the car, they brought a pet trotting horse, some cattle, I don't remember how many. They left P.D.C. [Prairie du Chien] in the evening of April 7, 1903, and arrived in Spooner the morning of April 10th. It must have been a horrible trip. How many times have I heard that pastures were green, so that the cattle could be turned out to eat!? Nothing like that very often the first part of April these days.

I stayed in P.D.C. until school was out in June. Gladys was graduated in Omaha the same year. Then she came up here the same day I did. We met in the union depot in St. Paul and came on to Spooner together. She never went back.

Your dad and mother [Ed. Geo. E. and Melissa Miller] had been married in January and lived in the log house. It must have expanded its walls, for it encompassed all the new comers! It was about two years before the other house was built. You must remember a lot about things in later years.”

Revisiting 1944-46

November made a comeback today. 36º at 4 pm in the Saintly City. But it's cloudy and gloomy.

I'm posting a couple of photos from the 1940's. The first one has four generations of women - Jacobine, Hansine, Lillie, Sylvia. The background - Gloria Hansen, Richard Anderson, Jake Hansen, Nels Hansen. I'm guessing 1946 based on the supposed age of the youngest in the photo.  The photo was taken by the door to the farmhouse at Dick's Farm.  Photographer unknown.

The Anderson family from, I think, 1944, mostly because Santini is absent and it looks like she may be born soon.  Back rows: Marvin, Sue, Marian, Lillie, Louise, Dorothy, Leona, Hansine.  Front: Tommy, Richard, Jimmy, Anita.  This was taken very near the same spot as the first - just a bit to the west perhaps.  Richard's cigar and hat on the ground for scale. Photographer unknown, but may have been my old man.

I indulged in a bit more tennis today. We played two sets in 90 minutes at Wooddale this morning. The participants are not yet geezers, except for me of course, but mostly sixty-something aging, but active athletes. It was my fourth day in a row, and I'm basically knackered. I get three days off from the wars until I start again on Wednesday.

NCW and I took a walk to Penzey's Spice emporium on Grand Ave. this afternoon, too. We were in need of cinnamon and cumin, plus a walk was called for after the recent nasty weather that was beginning to induce cabin fever. The sidewalks were mushy and slushy and didn't feel dangerous. I think the ice will return next week, but for today all was good. Penzey's always smells nice.

Tag, a dog

January seems to be relenting just a bit. We climbed to 28º and slush began to appear.

Tag, the border terrier that we had for 11 years, was a puppy in November, 1991. That was a nicer November than this one and besides the kids, later to be known as PP and UH, got a dog. And what's as cute as a puppy? I found and scanned some photos from his first few days here. A dog, even (or maybe especially) a puppy will change your life. He was around for quite a spell, until 2002.  "If you want a friend in Washington, get a dog." - Harry S Truman.

There aren't many border terriers around, but I've run into someone walking with their canine from time to time. The last time was on Pike Island when I was walking with PP. The dog's owner was surprised that I recognized his breed, but one gets to recognize the features of one's own hound dog.

Alert and happy dog.

A sleeping dog gathers no moss.  My hand for scale.

I played a couple of sets of tennis again today. I was planning to take the day off, but one of the other geezers had to go to his wife's retirement party, so I played for him at Fort Snelling. It was enough to get me back to knackerdom.