News Flash

Nolette News Journal

June 24, 2008, Tuesday
I have been doing this page with Nvu but will now switch to KompoZer, which is mainly Nvu with some bug fixes. However, it still does not have true preview but I will work with it and see if I notice anything different.    Home

June 21, 2008, Saturday
I went to the car show at the state fairgrounds today with Robert Lundberg, as did his son Trey, Michael, Sebastian and Douglas Nolette. It was the first time I had been there. We were there for over four hours. A lot of walking but it was fun. Donna and Snowflake stayed at Doug's home with Mama, Penny and the girls Megan and Natasha.    Home

June 7, 2008, Saturday
Today was my 65th birthday. I am now officially an old man. I now have a Medicare card and a supplemental insurace policy to go with it.

For my birthday, Ronnie and Jill took us out to a dinner at a Chinese buffet in Coon Rapids. Because it is nearing Douglas and Penny's birthday in a few weeks, they also took Douglas and Penny. And also Mama, who has been staying at Ronnie's for over a week, because Douglas and Penny went on a moter home vacation with Michael, Adriana and grandchildren for the past week.

At the buffet, I tried out two kinds of raw fish sushi. I was the only one who did. One was all right, the other I did not like at all. After the meal, we went back to the house for desserts. Douglas brought a vegan chocolate cake he had made and Jill made rich delicious rubbarb cake right on the spot.

Even Dick Reed called yesterday to wish me happy birthday. He has been 65 since last December.

I had a great birthday.       Home

May 6, 2008, Tuesday
It was my mother Jennie's birthday yesterday. She was 91. Last year. we had a big party for her. We didn't do the same this year. Last week I told her for her birthday, I would take her to the Olive Garden, her favorite restaurant. Donna and I drove to Roseville, to Douglas' s house before it was time to go to the Restaurant. We brought the dog to stay there while we ate out. We wished Mama happy bithday and we all talked before we left to eat. Earlier before we went over there, talked to Mama on the phone and asked how she felt on her birthday. She said, " I feel every second of my 91 years."

We left to meet Ronnie and Heidi at the Olive Garden at one o'clock. We had a nice time. During the meal I called the waiter aside and asked if they would sing Happy Birthday. So at the end of the meal several waiters came and sang happy birthday in Italian. Mama at first looked shocked. Like, what is going on before she realized they came to sing Happy birthday. So Mama, Ronnie, Hiedi, Douglas, Penny, Donna and I were there. I had Ronnie take a photo of Mama and me at the table and then we took more photos outside when we left.

Afterwords we all went back to the house where Penny had made a birthday cake. She had asked Mama what kind of cake she would like and Mama told her lemon or coconut. Penny made a cake that combined the flavors. We took photos of Mama blowing out the candle. We stayed for quite awhile before going home at six. Mama told me, on phone this morning, that she had been very happy and was sad the day was over.       Home

February 6, 2008, Wednesday
We went to the visitor's presentation at church again today. They had a five piece brass band, part of the larger army band at Fort Huachuca. With them was a speaker who gave a history of military bands in this country since the 17th century. At certain points in the presentation the band would play a selection from that period of time. It was very good.

Tonight, we went to the Ash Wednesday service at Immanuel Lutheran.       Home

February 5, 2008, Tuesday
I took my laptop to the library today to read my email and check out the internet, as I have several times since I have been in Sierra Vista. I found an obiturary of Judy Reed in the Grand Rapids paper.    Home

February 4, 2008, Monday
Douglas called early this morning and told me Judy Reed died. She was the wife of my cousin Bill Reed. I did not know her well but but she seemed so nice every time I saw her.

We had wind, rain, sleet and snow today but the temperature was too warm for the snow to stick on the ground. By the time I thought about taking a photo of the snow, it was too late.     Home

January 31, 2008, Thursday
Today we went to Cochise Stronghold. Although, as the crows flies, it is not very far away but there are no east-west paved roads that cut across the middle of Cochise County. We went north to St. David's and then east on freeway ten and then went down to Dragoon and then down to the Stronghold. It was about 90 miles. On the way back we went South though Elfrieda and then cut south through Double Adobe and then went back to Sierra Vista through Bisbee. It was also about 90 miles. I talked to a lady at the convenience store in Elfrida and she said they had a petition to pave Gleason Road but it didn't go any where. I told her I took a shortcut across Gleason Road the first day I was here but I wan't going to go down that road again.

The last few miles to Cochise Stronghold were some rough gravel roads. There was some nice scenery at Cochise stronghold but it wasn't as specatacular as either Cherecahau or Coranado Parks. We walked a few trails and took some photos.         Home

January 30, 2008, Wednesday
Douglas picked up Mama from Ronnie's this morning. She had been there seven days. Ronnie, Jill and Terry were going out of town for the day to meet her son Brad and his wife at a casino. He is moving out of state in March.

We went to Immanuel Luthern Church this morning. A retired Air Force man who now works at the fort came and talked about the Apache Wars, which lasted from 1861 to 1886. Much was on Cochise. He touched on Geroinomo at the end. After that there was Q and A. Since, every year, he also participates in a reinactment battle, the farthest west civil war skirmish., I asked him a question I have wondering about lately. How long did the army wear blue? He said about 1900. He said the blue wool uniform he wears at the reinactments are very hot. Donna wasn't sure she would like the meeting but she agreed with me that it was very interesting.      Home

January 29, 2008, Tuesday
We went to Nogalos, Mexico again today. We did some bargaing on the streets again but only bought two things. We also ate again at the same place. It was fun but not like the first time. Who knows when I will return. We were stopped and questioned by the border patrol on the way back. I took a few photos of them plus a close up of the one who questioned us.       Home

January 28, 2008, Monday
The wind howled and whistled all night long. I could here debris blowing around outside.I watched the weather on TV this morning. It said the wind was 30 to 40 mph with gusts higher than that. We didn't go anyplace today. Donna made a chicken stew in the crockpot. It looks like it will last for three days.        Home

January 27, 2008, Sunday
Yesterday, we went Saguaro National Park on the east side of Tuscon. We left at 9Am, but before we started the trip to Tucson, we stopped at Sears and bought two rechargeable spot lights that were on sale for half price plus another 15 percent for the sale -- about nine dollars apiece, final price.

We stopped for coffee at MacDonalds before we got on intersate 10 west to Tuscon. The speed limit is 75 mph so I kept the speed of the van between 70 and 75. The park is about 10 miles off the freeway. At the entrance I stopped and took a few pictures. At the visitor center, I asked for information about trails. You are not allowed off the trails.

It didn't cost anything to get in because we bought a senior pass at Chiriguawa National Monument. We took the 9 mile one way drive through the park. The speed limit was 15 mph but most of the time I drove slower than that to watch the scenery. We drove down a side road to a picnic area and stopped for a few minutes. We stopped to walk at two trails. The first was a short paved trail. But the second was much longer. I took several photos along the way. After walking more than a half an hour down a rough trail and across rocky washes, Donna wanted to go back long before that and I was beginning to think she was right. At that point we met a couple older than us that were returning. They said it was a couple of more miles to go. They said the view was beuatiful at the end of trail. The man showed his photos on the camera. They convinced me. Convinced me, it was time to turn around and go back.

Back on the road, the drive became more steep and mountainous and more beautiful. At one the tops I asked a byclist who was from Duluth if she would take a photo of Donna and I. Donna and I are are in very few photos together. At another small mountian, Donna took a picture of me sitting on a rock.

We bought some postcards at the visitor center. We then headed back.        Home

January 24, 2008, Thursday
Today we went to Nogalos, Mexico. After the funeral lunch one of the members from Donna's mother's church recommended the drive to Nogalos has having nice scenery. But on the way down, I thought to myself, Why not go to Mexico, It may be my only chance. In six days passports will be required. Donna was agreeable to it. The scenery along the way was nice but it didn't compare with the Cherecoqua Monument or the Coronado Memorial.

We stopped on the American side, at the visitors center, and I told the woman at the help desk what we wanted to do. I didn't want to drive in. She told us to park our car at a parking lot for four dollars and then walk a couple of blocks into Mexico. But as I neared the border, I saw that I had driven too far and I was in the road that led to the border crossing. I stopped the van and backed up a half a block until I saw a way to turn around. I'm glad there was no one behind me. I would have been stuck.

After we left the car, I came back and put on a sweatshirt under my light jacket. It was still late morning and and a little windy. I never thought I would have to dress so warm when I went to Mexico. As soon as we went into Mexico, I had Donnna stand under a welcome sign so I could take her picture. We walked down the street trying to follow the map that woman from the visitors had inked in. The streets were narrow and the traffic was heavy. There were no traffic lights. When we wanted to cross the street we started walking across at the intersection. The cars stopped, I least I hope they would stop. After a few mistakes, we found the alley that had a lot of street venders. The venders kept calling to look at their stuff. After a bit, I told one them I wanted to look at wallets. I wasn't use to bargaining but I did some and then said I wanted to look at other places. I never did find exactly what I wanted. But I did buy a wallet, a hat, a small guitar, a small purse for Donna and then last, Donna picked out a Sombrero.

After that we went to each lunch at a restaurant the visitor center woman had recommanded. The waiter brought out some thick corn chips and some spicy dip. I had a fish taco and a Mexican beer. Donna had a grilled cheese sandwich with fries and bottle of water. Donna poured her water over ice. I did think about Montazoma's revenge but only momentarily. The fish taco which I never had tried before was good. It was fun eating there. Donna marveled at the menus where the prices of course were in pesos. The waiter said there were 10.7 pesos to the dollar. The meal cost eight dollars and I left a two dollar tip. The restrooms were unusual. There was a place for men and women but the sinks for washing hands were in a common area. After the meal we headed back for the border. I took some more photos before leaving. There were a lot of cars and trucks, much honking of horns, waiting to cross into the United States.

We had been in Mexico for less than three hours. It still felt good to be back in the United States. Later that evening I joked about getting sick from the food but we really felt fine. The experiene was entertaining and educational.      Home

January 23, 2008, Wednesday
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January 22, 2008, Tuesday
Today we went to Benson, about 30 some miles north of Sierra Vista. I took a photo of Donna at the old train depot and then we visited a museum. After that we went to a Super Walmart and then went back to Sierra Vista.

I called Mama and Douglas today and then I called Ronnie. Last week I called in the late evening to save minutes on my cell phone plan but with a only a week left I now have enough minutes to call in during the day.            Home

January 21, 2008, Monday
Today, we went to what was left of an old town named Fairbank. It had an old schoolhouse and a boarded up house. From there we walked to where the train depot once once. The loading dock for goods and people was still there. It the 1880's the train went to this town and then the people took a stagecoach to Tombstone. We also walked down to the San Pedro River. It was fun walking on the trails. Donna was worried about rattlesnakes. We took a few photos.              Home

January 20, 2008, Sunday
For almost 25 years we went Immanuel Lutheran Church in North Minneapolis, until it was sold to a Baptist Church. Today we went to Immanuel Lutheran Church in Sierra Vista. It is a small church but was packed with about 175 people. There are quite a few Minnesota winter visitors and former residents of Minnesota who attend.            Home

January 19, 2008, Saturday
Donna and I went to Tombstone again today. It isn't too far away and we couldn't agree on any other place to go. We didn't take any photos. I talked quite awhile with one of the old west character actors on the street. He seemed to know quite a bit about Tombstone and the Earps. I asked him if he was from the area. He said no. He said he got started in acting a long time ago. His name was David. I told him it was great name.

We then went to the Tombstone Epitat, because we never went there last week. I also talked quite a while with the woman working there. She warned me that all the information from the street characters weren't always accurate. We toured the free museum there, probably the only thing free in Tombstone. We talked about the movies of the gunfight at the OK corral. She really liked Kurt Russel's portrayal of Wyatt Earp but she liked Dennis Quaid's portrayal of Doc Holiday. She thought he really looked and acted the part. She told me to talk to Ben, the bookstore owner who lives above the store across the street. I told her I didn't have enough time today.

I then went to the gun dealer and looked at the .22 cal single action revolvers. I seriously considered buying one because the price was right. But the only way I could buy one would be to have the dealer ship it back to a dealer in Minnesota. It sounded too complicated so I forgot about it.

Next Donna and I went to the Crystal Palace for lunch. They only had two sizes so we ordered the biggest one and took half home with us. We ate later than last week and the place was packed. Then we headed back to Sierra Vista. Later I went to the library and sent off two groups of five photos.             Home

January 18, 2008, Friday
We ate a breakfast sandwich this morning at McDonalds before heading for Coronado National Memorial Park. It is located only 16 miles south of Sierra Vista on highway 92. The entrance to the park is located a few miles down a side road. At the entrance we stopped and took a few photos. A sign warned us to watch out for illegal entry and smuggling and not travel alone. There is no fee for for entrance.

We stopped at visitors center and watched a short video and bought some postcards. As I already knew the paved road only went one more miles and then switched to two miles of gravel road. He said, It is worth the view.

At the end of the paved road, Donna got out because she didn't want to go up the narrow winding unpaved road. So I went on alone. The speed limit was 15 mph but I kept it at 10 mph. The road was very narrow. I could see it was a beautiful view even while I was driving. I only met one car. He stopped his vehicle as I went around him. He was on the drop off side. The road made several 180 degree turns. By the time I got to the top, it seemed like more than two miles.

I parked the car and got out. I took a photo with the van in the foreground, just to prove I had been there. The view was unbelievable. The photos I took did not do justice to the majesty and splendor to the view. I didn't want to leave but I couldn't stay long. I had left Donna down the road which was against the rules.

On the way down I put the automatic transmission in first but I still had to ride the brakes all the way down. Driving never makes me nervous but there was a few spots on the way down that did. I trusted my own driving but thought, I would never want to ride with some one on this road who likes to speed.

I met Donna on the road before I got to the spot where I dropped her off. She stood there and thumbed for a ride. She had walked quite a bit up the road. After I left her off she started thinking about rattlesnakes and wild animals.

I stopped at the visitor's center before we left so I could make a comment about the great view. When I got back to the van, Donna said she could smell the brakes, which are fairly new. Before we got back to the main road we saw a bunch of border patrolmen loading a car onto a truck. They were also talking to someone. After we passed them, I had Donna jump out and take a photo of them. Then we headed back to Sierra Vista and got back before noon.         Home

January 16, 2008, Wednesday
Donna and I got up at seven this morning but by the time we got out of the house it was nine o'clock. We hit most of drug stores and grocery stores in towns looking for bargains. Prices are definitely higher than the twin cities. It took us about two hours.

After that we went over to the cemetery. I didn't know if I could find after being there just once following the hearse but it was easy to find. The funeral yesterday at the cemetery was not at the grave. They did not bury him until after everyone left. I took a few photos of Donna at the grave from each end of the grave. I think the marker will not be up for a couple of months.

By the time we got back to the house, a little after noon, Donna's Aunt Toni and two of her daughters were there. Just before they left Gordy's friend the "general" and his wife showed up.
After some small talk the "general" went to work on the locks on the door of the home. Donna and I went to the library. I sent off three photos, one of the mountain view from the driveway, another of Donna in the home and one of Donnas' Uncle Bob. Donna made some copies of Sunday's obituary of Gordy. When we got back the "general" and his wife were almost ready to leave. He said they would be back in a couple of months.            Home

January 15, 2008, Tuesday

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January 8, 2008, Tuesday
We got going a little later this morning. Didn't care for our breakfast that came with the room. They did not have decaf coffee. The orange juice was sour. All they had was two different kinds of cereal , toast and one kind of sweet roll that I took two bites of, it had no flavor and was like a roll you might find in packages at a supermarket. We had 29,400 miles on the van as we left Lordsburg at 7:55 pm mountain time.

We arrived in Arizona at 8:23 am mountain time, with 29423 miles. We arrived in Wilcox at 9:15am. When we left Minneapolis we had 27899 on the vehicle and now we had 29473 in Wilcox for a total of 1574 miles. Of course we were going to Sierra Vista but we are going to take a roundabout way.

We stopped at the information center in Wilcox and got maps and other pamplets. I talked to a worker and asked about the Chiriquoa Monument. She said the climb up the mountain was gradual so I decided to go there as was my original intent. On the road to monument I saw a view I liked and decided to take a photo. It was private property. As I got out of the van I saw a man walking up to get the mail so I talked to him. His name was Walter Wayne, I later asked. I asked about his property. He said he owned 12 sections of land. Wow was all I could say. He said you need a lot of land to raise cattle. He owned the property to the top of of the ridge on the mountain. I asked if I could take a few photos of him and his property. I looked at them tonight and they turned out great. He said the chiriquuoa monument was a great place to visit and he didn't know why it was not a personal park. He said it was an easy enough drive for my van even though it was underpowered. I'm glad I stopped to take a photo.

We continued to the entrance gate. At the gate there was an older woman working there that was so very helpfull. The price was five dollars apiece but she alked if we had a senior car. I told her I didn't know anything about it. She explained that for ten dollars I could get a card and get in any time free with 3 guests. The person at NM Wite Sands never said any thing about it. She gave us a map explained the drive up the mountain. She also said we would have no problem driving up the mountain.

I was very surpised because we drove through a forest of pine trees. I was expecting the same type of desert vegetation I had been seeing. There was some spectactular views as drove up the mountain side. It mad Donna very nevous. We stopped at one lot and then contiuned up to the top to Massai Point, elevation 6870 feet. When we first got out of van to take photos it was so misty we couldn't see to other side of the canyon but we took a few photos anyway. But in few moments the sun came out and most of the cloud disappeared. We took quite a few photos but the photos don't do justice to the scennery.

We went back down the very narrow winding road stopping to take more photos on the way. On the way back, we stopped again at the visiters center to buy some postcards. Then we drove make to the gate. I asked the lady if I could take a picture of her. She was surprised but she agreed.

Donna thought it was too late to go all the way down to Bisby so I decided to take a shorcut on Gleason Road to Tomstone. What a mistake that was. After a few miles the paved road turned into gravel road that the sign called primitive and that was no exaggeration. I had to drive 20 mph to keep from shaking the car apart on the bumpy road. It went on mile after mile. We thought we would never get to Tombstone. I think we went more than ten miles before we got there. After getting a little mixed up we headed south.

We got to Sierra Vista around three o'clock. We had a little difficulty finding it but it wasn't that bad. Donna wrote in her journal, "It's good to be with Mom again." Later We went out to eat KFC. Donna and I had the buffet and Marge had something smaller.         Home

January 7, 2007, Monday
I woke up early this morning, before 5 AM mountain time, after a very long weird dream. After a few minutes I woke Donna up and said, lets go. She said, "'Its too early," but she got up anyway.
We were on the road by 6:15 AM mountain time. It was still dark drove down the highway and could barely see shadows of nearby mountains. By seven it was almost full light.

We continued going up in elevation. We reached an area that was mostly a plateu with some low mountains around us. Some of the area looked like badlands. About 15 miles from Santa Rosa we saw a lot of shrub trees.

At seven thirty, we stopped at Santa Rosa and got gas (23.5 mpg) and checked the oil. Then we headed donw highway 54. There was hardly any traffic, not like yesterday. At 8:30 we stopped for road construction. We took some pictures while we waited. Then a guide car led us single lane for about a mile or so. After that it was back to two lanes but we still had to drive at 45 miles per hour for the next 14 miles.

Near Carrizozo Donna saw a praire chicken and cactus. We went down a side rode and took a few photos. Nearing town we stopped and took a photo of a mountain that was mostly clound covered. We could not tell how tall it was At Carrizozo, Donna noticed the town elevation was 5500 feet and there was a mountain there that was 9000 feet. Maybe it's the one we a photo of. We stopped at a conveinence store in town.

We arrived at the outskirts of Alamogordo at 11 AM. We stopped in town and ate at McDonalds and took some picture in the parking lot. I called and talked to Douglas and Mama and the Ronnie. We stopped at Walmart and bought some carrots and apples. While we were there we tried to cash a travelers check that was in the walmart building. They refused to do it. What good is a travelers check? We saw a Wells Fargo bank and cashed it there. The teller there had graduated from a high school in St. Paul. It was one o"clock before got out of town.

We got on highway 10 and headed for the next town. Near San? we kept heading up very lone steep incline my underpowered minivan struggled to make it up the grade. I kept the speed at 40 mph. Finally we recached the top a pass that was 5715 feet in elevation and then down we went again.

After leaving the town we headed for Demming the next town. At one point the border patrol had the road narrewed to one lane as they stopped cars. When we got there they waved us through. We stopped for gas at Demming. At the eastern end of town the chevron station had gas for3.27, at the other end of town, it was 2.97 which was where we got off the highway just by accident. When Donna opened the door, it almost blew out of her hand. She told me to hold on to the door. I did but when I started to stick my head out the door the wind grabbed my cap and blew it away. Donna managed to run it down. I was really surprised when we got 24.5 mpg, after all that downshifting the van did and going up that steep grade in a lower gear.

Before we even got to Demming we made a reservation by cell phone to stay in Lordsburg for the night. The speed limit was quite high 75mph. In one 20 mile stretch they called it a safety corridor. The speed limit was still 75mph but the speeding fines doubled. I don't know if that was the only differnce.

After we chedcked in we ate at Kanberrys. We had a bearn burrito dinner. It came with lots of food . We took some back to the motel to eat the next morning . It was nice to have an internet connection. I sent two photos to Ronnie and Douglas after I reduced there size in Photo Impact. I am tired of writing this though. It's time for bed.        Home

January 6, 2007, Sunday
I had a piece of peanut butter and bread for breakfast. We got gas at Emporia before leaving at 7:35. We got an unbelievable 30 mpg from our drive yesterday afternoon. When we left Emporia, we got on the Kansas Turnpike which cost $3.50 when we got off at Witchata to to go west on highway 54. As we did yesterday we snacked on carrots and celery.

At Prat I had a peanut butter sandwich and coffee at Mcdonalds. I took a photo of Donna in front of McDonalds. Although you can't see it in the photograph it was different other Mcdonalds because the whole town smelled like a cattle barn.

We listened Kasey Kasum doing top 40 hits of January 1971 from El Paso. When we got to Greensberg Kansas we could see it had been devastated buy a tornado. All the small branches on the trees had been blown off. Many of the homes had been destroyed. I took a photo one home that was destroyed except for the front of the house and the front door. I stopped and asked a man, who was working a new house, when had the tornado hot. He said it was on May 4th. He added, his father wanted to rebuild.

We got to Oklahoma at one thirty. The radio station faded by time we drove through Oklahoma, we never did get to finish listening to the top hits of 1971. We saw our first oil well in Oklahoma. Donna also saw a spiny cactus as we neared Liberal.

We entered Texas about 2:45 and we spent about 2 hours in Texas before hitting New Mexico. In that short time in Texas we saw seven trains on railroad that was parallel to our road, six were going east and one was going west. We got gas at Guyon, Texas. We only got 24 mpg. The van had been kicking done more on the steep hills. It also was kicking down when I was passing. The highway had only two lanes.

We hit Mountain time when we hit New Mexico at 4:40 CST. As we neared Tucumcari, we saw dark clouds in the west and northwest. We had a little difficulty finding the motel but we never did get any rain. We walked from the motel to eat at Denny's.        Home

January 5, 2007, Saturday
I woke up at 5:10 AM this morning and then couldn't go back to sleep. At twenty minutes to six, I decided that was enough. When I got out of bed, Donna woke up and I said to her, "It's time to get ready to go." Donna made some decaf and we each had a piece of peanut butter toast. I brought all of our stuff we had packed and put it on the kitchen floor. We could harldy walk around the kitchen. We left the house by 7:15.

It was very foggy kept getting worse until we made our first stop at Albert Lea to get gas and use the facilites. We ate half a sandwich and drank some of the coffee Donna had brought. I called Douglas on the phone. Back on the road we snacked on carrots and celery. We stopped again in Ames, Iowa and bought coffee. It was sunny in Ames. Ames is near Boone which is the original home of the Reed clan. I called Ronnie. He said put Snowflake in the bedroom with them and he kept getting on the bed no matter how many times they him down. They finally gave up on it and let him sleep ont the bed. He never sleeps on the bed at home. I also called Douglas again and talked to Mama.

We arrived at Des Moines just before noon but we didn't stop until we reached Missourri where we got gas. We drove all the way through Iowa without getting gas and we only used up about a half a tank. We were getting almost 22 mpg on the Chrysler Minivan. We ate another half sandwich at the gas station before we proceeded.

We made very good time. We ate more snacks of carrots and celery and we each an apple. We crossed over the Missouri around three. I didn't like like driving around Kansas City, too many cars. We arrived at Emporia, Kansas at 5 PM and checked into the motel. After that we walked to a small local cafe and got something to eat. The wireless connection was very poor but I stilled used the lalptop to write this.      Home

January 2, 2008 Wednesday

Here is what brother Ronnie wrote today: On January 1, 2008, Gordy Larson went home to be with the Lord. He was 85 years old and leaves behind his wife and only child, Donna (Larson) Nolette. This entry is not meant to be an obituary but rather a very brief testament of a man’s life who succeeded in some the most important things in life.

How do you pay tribute to a man that you barely knew? You look at those he left behind. I have known his daughter for almost 40 years. She is my sister-in-law.

The measure of a man is often gauged by his successes, whatever they might be. But, perhaps even more important is his legacy. Gordy was a husband and father and today, it is his wife and his daughter (along with many others) who lament his loss. This was his legacy. He was loved, he was cherished; therefore, he will be missed. This would not be true of a lesser man. Although he was many things to many people - soldier, brother, friend, worker, caregiver - he was first and foremost a husband and father.

To Marge, Donna, David and everyone else, you were lucky to have known him. But God is now blessing him more than any of us ever could. Home

December 24, 2007, Monday
It's Christmas Eve already. Thanksgiving came early this year, so there was a longer time than usual between Thanksgiving and Christmas, but it didn't seem like it. The time went by so fast. Maybe it's an age thing. Time seems to go by faster when you're older.

On Sunday, Douglas dropped Mama off to stay a few days because they are staying with Robert and Tracey tonight. Mama stayed with us last Christmas too. We have the start of a new Christmas tradition.

Although Ronnie has been having some bad headaches from impacted sinuses, he stopped by to give Mama her present. He also gave us a calender with photos of American Eskimo Dogs. Donna had been looking at the calender at Brookdale but I kept telling her the price would down. She was very happy with the present. We also took some photos of each other with Mama. Our Christmas Eve service was at 5 PM, so when Donna and I left for church, Ronnie was still there. We sang lots of Christmas carols at the service and ended with singing 'Silent Night by' candlelight.\

Donna and I ate something after we got back from church and then I read Luke 2 to Mama. We later watched "A Christmas Carol" and listened to Christmas carols.    Home

December 18, 2007, Tuesday
Donna and I went to North Memorial Hospital, at our usual time of 8 AM, for our Senior Striders walk and meeting. It was our last meeting of the year. We will next meet on January 8, 2009.

Donna talked her mother tonight, after her mother visited her father today. Her mother, Marge, said he looked pretty good, considering all that he has been through. He understood what she said when she talked to him but couldn't really talk because his throat was so sore. Donna felt better after the phone call.

This is what Ronnie wrote in his blog today: "Every year, I get caught up in the commercialism, hubbub, and general busyness of Christmas. I say "I’m not going to let it happen this year" but it inevitably does. Collectively, we blame stores - merchandising that begins months in advance - but it’s our own fault. We allow ourselves to fall victim - Did you get your shopping done? Is the house decorated? Are the cookies baked? Did get a beautiful tree? And on and on....

"We can’t lose sight of the TRUE meaning of Christmas." How many of us have said that in our self-righteous moments? While that statement is certainly true for Christians, I, for one, have frequently put the "TRUE" meaning of Christmas on the back burner. Shame on me.

As Christmas gets closer, we see and hear the frustrations of those we greet. "I’m not ready", they moan. But I say to them, "Don’t worry, there’s still 6 more shopping days until Christmas."

Reflect on the birth of our Savior, sing Christmas carols, read the Nativity story, go to church, think about the peace that used to be associated with Christmas!

But, I hate to cut this short; I’ve got to quit this entry and go finish my Christmas shopping." Home

December 16, 2007, Sunday
Donna and I went to church this morning. I read a portion of scripture at the podium. After coffee Donna took me home and she went back for the annual dinner. I didn't feel like sitting there and watching people eating their ham dinner.

I haven't mentioned Donna's father in a few days. He hasn't been doing well. It even makes Donna very nervous just to call down there.        Home

December 15, 2007, Saturday
This morning Donna and I went a breakfast and listened to a choir, "Partners in Praise", at church. There a couple of other churches involved. The choir was good. They sang mostly Christmas songs.

Brother Dennis, wife Laurie and daughter Jayne came down to Douglas' house today. Donna, Snowflake and I went over there in the early afternoon. Quite a few people showed up showed up before the end of the day. We did a lot of talking. We ordered pizza for supper. Ronnie and Jill started to come over but Ronnie was too sick and turned around and went home. Robert bought a new camera and he let me take many photos with it. He took a photo of the three brothers. Dennie was going to stay overnight and go home on Sunday.    Home

December 14, 2007, Friday
This morning was my official monthly weigh-in. I lost three pounds in the previous four weeks, which is the least I have lost in a four week period, it included the Thanksgiving week. I am down to 254 pounds, which is 126 pounds less than I weighed in March of 20005 and 150 pounds less than my maximum weight. The next four weeks will include Christmas. I am setting a goal of 250 pounds. I only make a firm goal one month at a time.

Tonight we took Douglas, Penny and Mama out to eat at the Ihop in Maplewood. Ronnie and Jill met us there. We got their before five so each couple could get the senior's buy one, get one free meal. We had a nice time. Afterwards Ronnie and Jill went Christmas shopping and the rest of us went back to Douglas' house. We had left our dog, Snowflake there. He greeted in the basement entrance. I don't know how he got down there because I thought I had shut the basement door completely but there was no harm done. For most part he is a gentle, well behave dog.

Leah came over to bring her cat back. The surprising thing was that Snowflake didn't seem to like Leah. Leah was wearing her work clothes from the Pet store. Maybe he didn't like the smell of the animals on her. But Leah wasn't deterred, by the end of the evening she had taken him outside, which seemed to be the ice breaker for snowflake.    Home

December 12, 2007, Wednesday
Here is what Ronnie wrote today: "The news of Rose’s passing, although expected, was nevertheless sad. Although she had a troubled life at times, she is now at peace with the Lord.

Growing up, and in the many years of my adulthood, I was probably closer to her than most of my other aunts and uncles. Part of the reason is because I was closer to Mike Sherman than I was with most of my other cousins. Years later, into my adulthood, I probably saw her more than most of my other relatives. She would come from California and visit for months; during that time, she would make the rounds visiting with all of the relatives. Inevitably, she would visit Mama frequently and living next door to Mama, I would see her every time she came to visit Mama.

And Rose was always good with the kids. Both Heidi and Nathan were very fond of her because she had a good way with them. (It must be a family thing; look at how Mama is and always has been with kids - they love her!).

Much sympathy and prayers are needed for Rose’s family - especially her children and grandchildren. Her family and friends adored her but God also loved her. He has brought her to her reward. Indeed, as I write this, she is in the presence of the Lord and all of the Saints that have gone before her."

The news about Donna's father today, wasn't good. He had to have surgery yesterday because the wires holding his chest together came loose. This is the third procedure he has had in a week. When I called this morning, the nurse said he had an infection in his sternum. When Donna called her mother this evening, he was doing better. Even though he wasn't able to talk, She talked to him on the phone.        Home

December 10, 2007, Monday
I just got a call from Douglas at 10:25 P.M., he said that Aunt Rose Sherman died. Dave, Connie's husband and Rose's son-in-law had just called from Escondido, California, and said she had died about ten minutes ago. I knew it had been coming ever since last Friday. Rose has been in a coma most of the last seven months.

This morning, Connie called and talked to my mother for almost an hour. They were going to remove life support today. At one point, Mama told Connie that she had been a second mother to Rose. Connie said that Rose had told her that, many times. Mama is eighteen years older than Rose and I am only eight years younger than Rose. At another point, Connie held the phone up to Rose's ear and Mama told her, "I love you," three times. Connie said her mother blinked her eyes. I had a hard time keeping from crying at that point.

Before calling me, Douglas had called Uncle Ross, Rose's twin brother. He said he would call Mama's brother Jack Reed. A few minutes ago Douglas called back and said he had called Ronnie and Dennis. Dennis and family will be down to visit on Saturday. I talked to Mama, after I talked to Douglas. It sounded like she may have been crying. She said that Rose is now with the Lord and the rest of her family.

On a lighter note, this is what Ronnie wrote, earlier in the day."Yesterday, December 9, Jill and I drove over to River Falls, WI to see her mother, Viola. The home she is in was having a Christmas party. There was a lot of good food and the home (called "Our House") had bought a gift for all of the residents.

Before we ate, they asked for a volunteer to pray. Because no one volunteered and at the urging of Jill, I volunteered for that task. At the conclusion of the prayer, everyone clapped their hands. I've never got that kind of a response from asking the blessing. Usually, I get booed..."

When Donna called the hospital today, to check on her father, the nurse said the doctors were checking on his ticker. She said he is doing good.    Home

December 8, 2007, Saturday
We walked again this morning at Brookdale. Because I walk longer than Donna, she called the hospital and talked to her father, while she was waiting for me. Donna said he sounded drugged up and he didn't want to talk. The nurse said he was doing good.      Home

December 7, 2007, Friday
We walked this morning, as usual, at Brookdale and then went to Roseville to see my mother and bring some pants over for Penny to hem up. Before we went to their house, I stopped at the Big Man's store in Roseville. They were having a sale and I wanted to buy another elastic belt like the one I am wearing right now, which is the same as the last two, except smaller. I wanted another for three months from now. The salesman said they didn't carry any that small. I told him, this will be my last time in the store because I have already lost 140 pounds.

Last Monday, the Maranatha thrift store had a sale on clothes for a dollar apiece. I bought two pair of pants for me and one for Douglas. His pair fit perfectly. I brought two more for Penny to sew, one that needed to be rehemmed because it was still too long and one more pair. She did three while we were there talking. Mama looked good but her hearing seems to be worse.

Donna talked to her mother and she said she had spoke with Donna's father today was very drugged up. I called the hospital later and the nurse said he was sleeping and doing well.     Home

December 6, 2007, Thursday
I called the hospital in Tucsan, about noon, today and Donna's father had just went into surgery. The nurse said it would take from two to five hours. I planned to call the hospital at four-thirty but before I did, Donna's mother called and talked to Donna. They had put a stint in his artery and he was doing OK. I called the hospital later and they were keeping him sedated.

Ronnie wrote today: "I just talked to Heidi a while ago and she was telling me how much snow they have gotten in Duluth/Superior in the last week. Incredible! They got 16 inches yesterday! When the weather is bad, they close down the bridges that link Duluth with Superior. The Arco management shut down work early yesterday for that reason; they were closing the bridges. Even though Arco is located in Superior, more than half of the employees live on the Minnesota side. (Frankly, I can't imagine anyone wanting to live on the Wisconsin side.)

I am at work until 6 PM tonight. It's Thursday and I will be working until 6 PM until at least March. It is my cross to bear...

I tried to call Mama and no answer. I tried to call Nathan and no answer. I wish they didn't have caller ID. I did talk to David, however. I guess it was his day for 'slumming'."      Home

December 5, 2007, Wednesday
Donna's father had heart surgery today and the operation went well. But they did find an aurysum that will have to be operated on tomorrow.         Home

December 4, 2007, Tuesday
Donna's father, Gordon Larson, is having heart surgery tomorrow in Tucsan, Arizona. She has been very nervous all day. Although he is 85 years old, he is strong and healthy and should do fine.

Ronnie wrote in his blog: "It is snowing again; I am sick of winter already and it's only December 4th. With my attitude, it's going to be a long winter. But let us not forget the old Japanese proverb, "One kind word can warm three winter months." Imagine what two kind words will do! Do you think it will work?

As I write this, Jill and Kathryn are decorating the credit union for Christmas. I appreciate the decorations when they are completed but, in all honesty, I do not want to contribute 'my talents' to the effort."         Home

December 3, 2007, Monday
We got the first Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers movie, "Flying Down to Rio" from the library today. We are going to watch the whole set of ten in the next couple of months. It was great watching that big image from my Optoma HD70 projector. I imaged myself watching the movie in a theater in 1933. It was great.         Home

December 2, 2007, Sunday
Although I am not convinced there is any advantage in being able to look at your own rear end, check out the photos of Trey at the Lundberg photo site.        Home

December 1, 2007, Saturday
This is the day Donna has been dreading for over a week, ever since the weatherman began forecasting a big snow storm for this weekend. Donna and I left the house at eight o'clock this morning to go walking at the mall, which has been our custom for the last few months, although usually we start a little later, but today we wanted to get home before the big snow hit. It was not snowing when we got to Brookdale but by the time we left it was already snowing. We then went to Rainbow to do a little grocery shopping. By the time we left the store I had to clean the back window of the van because it was snowing so hard. We made it home by ten without any trouble. Douglas said he shoveled this afternoon before the snow got too high.

As of ten tonight, it hasn't been that bad in this area. It could have been a lot worse. We only had about five inches. Near Duluth, they got about ten inches. We may get more tomorrow but it has tapered off for now. The average snowfall for November is 10 inches but this year we got less than a quarter inch. I would like to see it less than average the rest of the year.

Yesterday afternoon, we took Douglas and Penny out to the Country Buffet because Penny is still hemming up my pants as I lose weight. We brought Snowflake over to their house, and Mama watched Snowflake and their cat while we went out. Although I don't think he likes it, Snowflake puts up with the cat pawing at him and trying to play because he is a pretty nice dog.
Here is what Ronnie wrote today: " Today is the first day of December and it really looks like winter. At this writing, 3PM, there is already 2 or 3 inches on the ground. Depending on which forecast you believe, we can have as much as 10 inches by the end of the day. Jill is out Christmas shopping in this weather and I still have a headache. I had a few tests done yesterday; I'll know the results in a few days."     Home

November 30, 2007, Friday
Today Ronnie wrote: "Today, November 30, is my father's - Alden Nolette's birthday. If he were alive today, he would be 95 years old. Happy Birthday, Daddy! I hope that they will have a birthday party in Heaven for you today.

After all these years (23 1/2), I still miss him. Because of David's web site and all of the pictures of him on the Web, his memory will always be vivid. Nathan and I were talking about my dad - his grandpa - the other day. Nathan lamented that his memories of his grandfather are more faint than they used to be. It's understandable; Nathan was 6 years old when my Dad died. But by talking about him, writing about him, looking at his pictures, we can keep his memory fresh.

Because he was only 71 when he died, it's hard to visualize Daddy at 95. We have this mental, visual picture of him the way he looked the last few years of his life. And that's the way he will always look in my mind's eye.

I am grateful that my mother is still alive at 90. Although my dad died too young, we are blessed with my mother's long life. Hang in there, Mama, and keep praying for the rest of us.

So Happy Birthday Daddy, from your entire family! Home

November 23, 2007, Friday

Today Ronnie wrote: " We had our Thanksgiving dinner at our house yesterday. We had 18 total diners. Absent from dinner were: Nathan, the Lundbergs, the Brad Heins' and "Leah and Dave". Of course, Dennis and his family had their Thanksgiving celebration in Grand Rapids.

It was a very nice dinner with lots of good food. Natasha, Sebastian, Abbey and Logan were all given disposable cameras. So the little ones were busy snapping pictures of everyone. The camera idea was a good one that came from Jill.

I have nothing very profound or mundane to write about. I would venture to guess that not many people will read or comment on this entry. Therefore, I will quit.

PS,
Snowflake was here and he was a very good dog. And the Grandma's were here - both Nolette and Johnson."

Heidi also wrote today: " It was a wonderful Thanksgiving! The majority of the family was here. The dinner was held at Dad & Jill's house. The house was set beautifully and the table was filled with plenty of delicious foods, that everyone had brought.

It appeared that everyone was in good health and good spirits. I took several photos and believe I captured most everyone on film. After we stuffed ourselves, we laid around talking, napping, and watching photo slide shows.

Later after the family left, we watched Amazing Grace. It is a newer film, a period piece surrounding the man who fought to abolish slavery, and his friend, who wrote the song Amazing Grace. It was a touching film, well acted. It made the song ever so touching after knowing the story behind the creator of this hymn.

Today was more of a laid back relaxing day. Dad was showing me his blog, and it made me start one for myself. It will be fun to play with and set up in a creative manner. "    Home

November 21, 2007, Wednesday
My brother, Ron Nolette started a blog today. I will be making partial or full quotes from his blogs if he keeps writing them.

Today Ronnie wrote: "We are having Thanksgiving dinner at our house tomorrow. Jill has been preparing our home for 20 or so guests. It should be fun. "O give thanks unto the Lord, for He is good, and His mercy endureth forever." "     Home

November 16, 2007, Friday
Today was the day of my monthly weigh-in. I lost six pounds in the last four weeks. I now weigh 257 pounds, that is 123 pounds less than I did when when I started weighing in with Deb the dietitian, a year ago last March. It is also 143 pounds less than my maximum of 400 pounds.

Because I never eat before I get weighted in we stopped at McDonald s after the weigh-in. I had an egg biscuit and decaf coffee. Home

October 19, 2007, Friday
I got weighed in again today, at the North Memorial out patient building by Deb, the North Memorial hospital dietitian specializing in diabetes. I lost four pounds in the last four weeks. I now weigh 263 pounds, 117 pounds less than I did when when I started weighing in with Deb in March of 2006.   Home

September 21, 2007, Friday
Last night we were hit by a storm that was similar to a storm we had two years ago at this time. At about quarter to six in the evening, after some thunder and lightning and howling wind, our electricity went out. It rained hard, filling the street and overflowing onto our yard. After the rains died down, I stepped out onto our front steps. The sidewalk on the house north of us looked like a stream with the water flowing from the front yard back to the alley. We did get some water in the basement but not too much.

Near the end of the street south of our house a huge branch from a boulevard tree fell against a house. At the time I thought it was a tree because the branch was so large but this morning Donna went outside and said it was a large branch. Today, when we were driving to the mall, to walk, we saw a tree down, just one block north of us. Because it looked like it would scratch the van, I turned around in the middle of the street and went back half a block and turned down another street. On the street just west of us, there was a huge tree laying in someones back yard. On the way back home, Donna noticed what a large trunk it was but I noticed the trunk was mostly hollow. It was a willow tree and it looked like it had rotted out like the willow trees we had in Cohasset.

Before it got dark around eight o'clock, last night. Donna and I found some flashlights and candles. The lights hadn't went back for over an hour and we wanted to be ready. We didn't realize what a long vigil it was going to be. We had some stubs of church candles we had gotten years ago at Immanuel Lutheran.   We set one up in some sand in a cup and lit it and also two partially used scented candles. Donna found some cards and we tried playing cards by candlelight. We also did some reading by candlelight. Electric lights are still the greatest invention. My parents never got electricity until the 1930's, only seventy some years ago. We used up a couple of candles before we went to bed. At twelve-thirty, we woke up when the lights came back on. Home

July 1, 2007, Sunday
I haven't put anything on the Internet in over two months. Michael shut my web access down after someone stole my password. It was discovered in less than a day but not before someone put a phishing page on the web site. Some very good things have happened but some very bad things have also happened. I have written a few entries without uploading them. I will add more events as if they happened at that time but because it is such a long time ago, I may have forgotten some details. I hope I can get back in the habit of writing regularly.      Home

June 21, 2007, Thursday
Donna and I celebrated the longest day of the year by going to an ice cream social. Our church and a couple of other churches in the group set it up. We had strawberry rhubarb pie, ice cream and coffee. Afterwards, we listened to bluegrass music. The event was at an old historic farm. Later, when we got home, we stayed outside until 10 minutes to 10, which was when a few mosquitoes started to bite. It was the first time I noticed them this year but it had rained earlier in the week. Although it was difficult, I could still read my watch when we went inside.    Home

June 13, 2007, Wednesday
Donna and I finished the fence today, exactly five weeks after we started it. On May 9, Ronnie and Nathan came over and I rented a two man post hole auger. It was very hard to use and we got stuck on the first hole. I was ready to quit then but Ronnie said to try some more. I'm glad we kept going, although the work was hard, digging the first few holes were the hardest.

In the next few days Donna and I deepened some of the holes by using a pick and sucking the dirt out with a shop vac. Through many hot days and many visits to Menard's to buy pickets, Donna and I worked on the fence picket by picket. Finishing the fence felt like a major accomplishment.    Home

May 1, 2007, Tuesday
Donna and I celebrated our wedding anniversary by eating out at the Red Lobster in Golden Valley. We used one of Donna's Red Lobster gift cards from her retirement. Home

April 30, 2007, Monday
Donna retired from work on April 28th. She had been with TCF for nearly ten years. She has been working for 42 years and was tired of the daily grind. On Wednesday the 26th, the boss and a few others took her out to lunch. In the afternoon they had a party at work that included a retirement cake. I went down there to have some cake and take some photos. She got several gift certificates and basket of live plants. I took photos and her boss took photos. On Friday they had a potluck for her at the bank but I didn't attend that. Her boss also gave her an album of the photos she had taken. When I picked her up on that Friday I took some photos of her at the teller window and then took a few photos of her leaving the bank. That same evening we went to Douglas's and we all went out to a seafood buffet at a Chinese restaurant. I paid the bill because of all the sewing Penny has done for me, and Douglas because of the work he had done selling Mama's house and Mama because she is Mama and her birthday is coming up. We met Ronnie and Jill at the restaurant.

On Sunday, Terri and Jim had a birthday party for Abbey. Donna and I rode with Douglas, Penny and Mama, to Roberts, Wisconsin for the party. After we got back, Douglas and I went over to Sam's Club to see what we would buy for Mama's Birthday party the next Saturday.   Home

April 19, 2007, Thursday
I forgot to write about an important matter to me last week. On Friday, I had my monthly weigh-in with the dietitian at the North Memorial outpatient and education building. I lost another six pounds for a total of 89 pounds in the last 13 months. It is also 94 pounds since I met with my doctor on the January visit 15 months ago. It is also 109 pounds less than my maximum weight of five or six years ago.

I have added a new feature to "Nolettes on the Net". It is called "Verse of the day". It features, randomly displayed, original photographs by family members . These are landscape and nature photos. If there are any people in the photographs, they play a secondary role. Beneath the photos is a ESV Bible verse that changes once a day. The link is below the introductory paragraph where I replaced the link "A Verse to Remember". I first had the idea of doing this over five years ago. At that time, I put Bible verses on a few photos but it was too time consuming and never worked out.

After a nine days stay at the home of Penny's brother, while he was on vacation, Douglas and Penny returned from the North Woods today. Mama is still at Ronnie's home. He has been sick with a bladder infection the last four days. Every time he gets sick, his ataxia is also worse.

Donna is looking forward to her retirement a week from tomorrow.

I can't overlook the horror of last Monday, April 16th, when 32 people were murdered at Virginia Tech in the largest mass murder in the history of the United States. Home

April 16, 2007, Monday
Last Wednesday, April 11, on the day of the last entry, we woke up to find a couple of inches of snow on the ground. When I took Donna to work, there was very little snow on the road but some of the road was snow packed and icy and slippery. But by afternoon, when I took Donna to the Dentist, the snow was melted off. It has been the coldest streak of April weather in nearly 30 years. But by the weekend the temperatures were up to over sixty. I think spring is finally here.

On Saturday, Donna and I went over to Ron and Jill's to look at a dog, we may be taking. They like the dog, which Jill got when a relative went into a nursing home, but they have three dogs already. We will get the dog when Donna retires on April 27. If for some reason, we don't want it, we can return it. A better deal can't be found. They picked Abbey up Saturday and she stayed with them overnight. We also visited with Mama, who was still there. Of course, Terry Hein was also there.    Home

April 11, 2007, Wednesday
Last Sunday, we had Easter dinner at the home of Douglas, Penny and Mama. Terri, Jim and all their children were there. Ronnie, Jill and her son Terry were there, as was Michael and Adriana and their two kids. Tracey, Robert and family had went to Crookston. Douglas had ham. I brought over a large Turkey breast that I had put in the oven before church and then just before we left for dinner, I took it out. Everyone brought plenty of food.

Yesterday, Douglas and Penny went up to Big Fork to stay at her brother's home for a week while he went on vacation. I called them on their cell phone this morning after I went to my walking club. They were already north of Hinckly. I also called them tonight. Everything was going fine.On Easter, Mama left with Ronnie to stay at their house while Douglas and Penny are up North.

Mama saved four letters, for over sixty years, that her brother Orval had written her before his death in World War II. She thought he had written more but that was all she had. Douglas found them while cleaning out our home in Cohasset. The first one is sixty-four years old. It was from Oregon and was dated April 11, 1943. I will put up the rest in the future. In the letter, Orval mentions how it must be warming up here. I don't know if it was in 1943 but it has been very cold this last week -- the coldest in ten years. Home

April 2, 2007, Monday
It was one week ago that we went to Grand Rapids and sold our old home in Cohasset. It seems like a long time ago. The setting was so different. The weather was so different. It was 81 and sunny then, today it was cloudy and cold. It is finally dry though. It has rained two and a half inches in the last three or four days. There was no snow on the ground a week ago. Tomorrow, it is going to start snowing again and the night time temperature will fall into the twentys.

We made good use of our HD projector today. It was the first day of basball. Donna and I started watching pre-game shows at four PM and then the Twins game at six. The Twins won seven to four. Morneau, who was most valuble player last year, hit a home run on his first time at bat. The next batter, Torri Hunter hit another home run. Santana won the game and Nathan got his first save of the year. We watched the Twins game and other related shows for over five hours. I bought the projector three weeks ago last Saturday. I had set it up to project onto the west wall in the basement but in the last few days I changed it to project onto the opposite wall. There is a certain area of the room that must remain clear and I decided it should be where there is slanted foor and floor drain. That way we can make use of the best of the floor.

Already, Ronnie went back to Grand Rapids today to see son Nathan. They are going to Hibbing tomorrow to straighten out his birth date on his social security records. It is one month off. Douglas got a call today from his gastroenterologist. He told Douglas his liver readingss were all high. He said he was going on vacation on Wednesday and asked if Douglas wanted to have an ERGC tomorrow. Of course, Douglas agreed immediately. The procedure involves sticking a cable down a person's throat until it gets to the liver and the then opening the liver duct and letting the stones pass through. It doesn't sound like anything I ever want done.       Home

March 29, 2007, Thursday
I don't think many people have used the nolette.net search on the Nolette page. I use it once in awhile. I haven't used it much lately because Google has fallen down on the job. When Google first promoted it and I started using it, it worked well. But Google doesn't seem to have kept up with it. Nolette.net web searches that previously got results, now show no results. I have switched the search to Yahoo, which previously didn't have a dedicated domain search. It works great. When I enter "David", I get 67 results. When I enter "liver", I get four results, a Google site search for "liver" got no results. Try it.

Ronnie has put up three pages of photos that he took on our final trip to our home in Cohasset on Monday. Use the Northern Vangard link on the Nolette page and then add "mama1.htm" and then add 2 or 3 for the other pages.

Ronnie went to the hospital yesterday and had a kidney stone blown up. Because he told the doctors he did not want a stint, he had a very painful night. About one in the morning he almost went to the hospital emergency room but then decided not to go. When I talked to him this morning, he was still in pain but somewhat better. He was well enough to go to his eye appointment in the afternoon.

Douglas also had a painful day yesterday. He said he had pains similar to when he had liver stones, four years ago. He talked to his gastroenterologist this afternoon but the soonest appointment was in May. When last I talked to Douglas, he was still undecided what he will do.    Home

March 27, 2007, Tuesday
Yesterday, Monday, March 26th,2007 was unusual. The Twin Cities had a record high of 81 degrees. But more than that, it was also the day we sold our childhood home. Douglas picked me up at seven AM and then we picked Ronnie up at seven thirty. It was a very foggy drive with poor visibility. We stopped in Aitken about nine-thirty and had breakfast at the Roadside Cafe, a place I've stopped at many times. We each had two pieces of French Toast and even though I shouldn't have, I had a whole Carmel roll. It was delicious. Douglas and Ronnie split one.

We reached Grand Rapids about eleven o'clock and picked Nathan up before we went to Cohasset.
We called Dennis on the way and he met us at the house. The sun was shinning and the sky was a deep blue. Because this was our last chance, we took a lot of photos. Mama told Ronnie she wanted some photos of us on the couch, so that is where we started. Nathan took some photos of the four brothers with each of the three cameras. Then we move outside and took another group picture and then we walked around and took some of whatever we felt like.

I also wanted to pick up some things. I took four green treated 2 by 4's that I had bought several years ago. I wanted them for fixing the steps at my Grand Rapids house where Nathan lives. I also picked up a coffee table that Donna and I bought not long after we were married. Ronnie took a lamp he had bought for Mama. We took some other miscellaneous items for sentimental reasons and then left the rest. Some of the things we left were Daddy and Mama's bedroom dresser that they had bought in the 1940's. We also left two couches and a stuffed rocking chair. Every thing left was going to removed by the new owners before the house could be torn down.

We went outside and walked around and talked some more. Ronnie and I looked inside one last time. It seemed like we we're going to miss it the most. That is, next to Mama who would have liked to have seen the house one more time but she wasn't in good enough health to take the one-hundred and eighty mile ride. In the last month, the process has been bothering her quite a bit. And then I shut the door and locked it, one last time.

We went to Grand Rapids, to the Forest Lake Cafe where Dennis's wife Laurie works. We had to wait for her to get out of work at three o'clock, because she needed to have her signature notarized. Because it was still early we ate an early supper. Douglas, Ronnie and Nathan had hamburgers. I had chicken and a green salad.

Then Dennis and Laurie took Nathan home and Douglas, Ronnie and I went to the Grand Rapids Abstract office where we waited for Dennis and Laurie. The abstract agent took us back to a small conference room where she went over all the details and make four copies of everything.
She dispersed the five checks, Douglas took Mama's check.

Outside the office, we said goodbye to Dennis and Laurie. Douglas, Ronnie and I went to see Nathan so Ronnie could say goodbye to him. We didn't stay long. We stopped a couple of times on the way back. Douglas bought gas at the Holiday station in Garrison. Ronnie and I both chipped in on the forty-eight dollar gas bill. We dropped Ronnie off in Coon Rapids and then Douglas took me home. I called Donna when we got there, she opened the back door and Douglas helped me bring the coffee table down to the basement and then he left. It was almost nine o'clock. I had been gone for almost fourteen hours. A long day in many ways.    Home

March 25, 2007, Sunday
Last weekend Douglas and Penny stayed at a cabin in Wisconsin. Their kids had bought them an overnight stay for their 40th wedding anniversary which was on March 18th. Their children and their family had thrown them a party the week before.

For the past several weeks by phone, Douglas has been negotiating the nitty gritty of the sale of Mama's house and lot in Cohasset. The property had always been in our father's name. First, the title was divided and transfered to Mama, my three brothers and me. With the exception of Dennis, who lives in Grand Rapids, we have signed and notorized the warranty deed and purchase agreement. Yesterday, I made five copies of the abstract. It was a hassle because the copier kept resetting because it took me so long to get the next page ready for copying. After that, Donna and I took the deed and purchase agreement over to Douglas's. We were the last ones in the city to sign it. Douglas looked the papers over and then we collated the abstract. We will each have a copy. The original will be turned over at the time of the sale.

Tomorrow Douglas, Ronnie and I will go to Grand Rapids. There Dennis will sign the papers and in the afternoon all the final papers will be signed. Before that, we will go to Cohasset and take some final photos of our home. It will be torn down after the sale because the house is no longer livable. It has been in the family almost 63 years, since 1944, when Daddy and Mama bought it for 900 dollars. Home

March 15, 2007, Thursday
Last Friday on March 9th, Douglas and I went to Cohasset again. As before, Donna drove our mini van to work. We didn't leave quite as early because it was the day of my monthly weigh-in. So Douglas picked me up and dropped me off for the few minutes it takes to get weighed and have a short chat with the dietician. I lost another five pounds for a total of 83 in one year's time.

We got to Grand Rapids about 11:30. We picked up Nathan and went to Cohasset. We called Dennis, who lives in Grand Rapids and he met us in Cohasset. I took some photos inside the house.We loaded up the outdoor bench and other items to take back to Nathan's. Then we went back to Cohasset.

We took out the bathroom vanity and the upper kitchen cabinets and packed them in the van. By this time Nathan had to go to a meeting to find out if he was getting laid off. So Dennis took him down there and then he went home. Then we went back to Nathan's. While Douglas and I were bringing the cabinets in, Nathan got back from his meeting. He was pretty upset because he was getting laid off. We went back to Cohasset for one more trip.

We loaded the old dresser from Napoleons house. It wasn't in very good shape but I thought I would take it.We also took some saws and tools and other items Douglas packed up. I even took the old fashioned push button light switch in the living room. On my last trip out the door, probably the last time ever in the house, I saw a mail or note holder laying on the couch. Most of the notes looked blank but a few looked like something was written on them. I took two notes and threw the blank ones on the couch. I am glad I did. One note Mama wrote on the day of her eightieth birthday party

On Tuesday, Ronnie had a colonoscopy. It was his first one. I talked to him Monday night. He was so mad. He couldn't stand drinking all that liquid that cleans you out. They found two polyps, one bigger than the other. They did remove both of them. The doctor told him because of his family health history, he should have came in years ago. Home

March 8, 2007, Thursday
Another big snow storm has come and gone. Two snows storms in one week. This second one was worse than the last. It started on Wednesday, February 28 with light snow. On Thursday the snow kept getting worse. It was the day Donna had to work until 7 PM. The alley was still in bad shape from the last storm. It kept snowing and snowing. There was no way I was going to get out of the alley in the condition it was. I called the city three times and told them I needed the alley plowed before seven because I had to pick up my wife at work. I finally got an answer -- they would plow that night. Of course that would do me no good. I called Donna and asked if she could find someone to bring her home and drop her off in front of the house. She did. The driver got stuck turning into a side street but after a little shoveling, he got Donna home safely. The next morning it wasn't snowing as bad but the plow had plowed up frozen chunks of ice and snow in back of the garage. Donna and I started shoveling it but even though the bank did open that day, Donna didn't make it to work. Even the Mall of America closed that Friday. By evening the snow had ended. We got about 14 inches at the house even though the official was lower. Some areas near us got as much as 17 inches. I hope that's it for the year.

Robert Lundberg loaded some more photos on his site last week. Home

Feb 27, 2007 Tuesday
Donna drove the mini van to work last Wednesday, February 20th because Douglas and I drove up north to Cohasset. He picked me up in his mini van about seven in the morning. We picked up Nathan in Grand Rapids. We had lunch at McDonald s before going over to Mama's house in Cohasset. We wanted to take some things out of the house. First we took the refrigerator. It was hard to get out the door because the door is fairly narrow. By opening the doors on the refrigerator we wiggled it out the door. The refrigerator was heavy, Douglas and Nathan did most of the lifting. It was also hard to get into the kitchen in Grand Rapids. It was easy to get in the door but then we couldn't get in past the kitchen sink cabinet. Douglas and Nathan lifted it over the sink by balancing it on the short wall that keeps people from falling downstairs. In two separate trips we picked up the electric stove and a metal clothes cabinet that was in the bedroom. We left Nathan at his home and then went to visit Dennis. After visiting there we went back to Cohasset and picked up some more stuff we brought back to the cities. I got home about nine-thirty that night. Donna was still up waiting for me. It was a long day.

On Thursday, I went over to see Mama. Penny started making some napkins from some of my old shirts. On Friday morning I went to Rainbow to get groceries. There was a big snow storm coming up on the weekend and I wanted to make sure we didn't have to go any place. The snow started slow on Saturday and by evening we had only a couple of inches, which was less than predicted for Saturday. I thought, "Maybe we're going to miss it like we have all year." I was wrong. Sunday morning Donna could push the front door open because of all the snow that had drifted against the door. We didn't go to church and later in the day we went out to shovel. I shovel the front sidewalk first, to stay legal and then the walk to the house. Donna shoveled out to the garage. After Donna went in, I shoveled out the driveway and then tested it out by backing the van out. I wanted to make sure I would be able to get out on Monday.

On Monday, Jill had a colonoscopy. The results were good. She doesn't have to have one for another ten years. Also on Monday Heidi had surgery on her shoulder. It was the least invasive surgery, so that was good. Last I heard, she was doing OK. Home

Feb 20, 2007 Tuesday
Just because I haven't written in a week doesn't mean nothing has happened. I went over to Douglas's house last Wednesday because Ronnie and Nathan were going to stop in. I got there before eleven but they weren't there yet. Penny was just making some peanut butter cookies with chocolate chips. They were delicious warm, right from the oven. I ate more than I should have. While waiting, Penny hemmed up a pair of pants I had bought a few weeks ago. Ronnie and Nathan arrived sometime after noon. We had a nice visit. Ronnie complained once about his kidney stones. I left before three. Ronnie planned to drive Nathan back up north on Thursday.

Because Donna usually goes to work late on Thursday, I sometimes sleep later. I was still in bed at eight when Ronnie called. He said he was in the hospital. Jill had taken him in at 2AM because he had been having excruciating pain from his kidney stones. He said they were going to remove the stones that day but the time hadn't yet been scheduled. Douglas was going to take Nathan home. Nathan had been at the hospital since Ronnie went in. Jill brought Nathan back to the house and Douglas picked him about about ten.

Later, I called back to the hospital and Ronnie said the doctor was going to remove the stone at 12:30. Because the other full time employee had just quit the week before, Jill was going to have to work all day until closing and then have meetings with the board until nine.

I thought Ronnie wouldn't be in the recovery room until three but I decided to go there by two PM anyway, to beat the traffic. When I got there he was already in his room. He said he was slightly groggy but I thought he sounded quite lucid. He said he had to argue with the doctor to take the stone out, the doctor wanted to put a stint in and then remove the stone in a week. They did remove the biggest stone, the one that was causing the pain. He has another one in his other kidney that will be done some other time. They said they would release him as soon as he used the bathroom and ate something without getting sick. He did without any problems. It was typical of most hospital releases that I have had. I didn't get him home until after six. After staying at Ronnie's home for a few minutes, I left to pick up Donna at work at seven.

On Saturday Robert and Tracey Lundberg had a family birthday party for Trey. He had had one with his friends the night before. Tracey went all out. She made homemade bread bowls for the two different kinds of chili, one was a white chili and the other a more traditional one. Robert showed a photo CD he make of Trey for the previous year. Robert had also made a very nice one at Christmas of past Christmas photos. Ronnie and Jill came later, he looked pretty good. The Lundbergs always do a good job of putting on parties.

Yesterday, Monday, was the first day in 23 days that the temperature was above average. It got up to over 40 degrees. It was the warmest in seven weeks. Today, Mama went for checkup. Her blood pressure was good but her heart was beating more irregular than usual.      Home

Feb 13, 2007 Tuesday
Last Friday was my monthly weigh-in at the North Memorial out patient clinic. I lost seven more pounds for a total of seventy-eight pounds since my first weigh-in with Deb the dietitian last March. I have lost over eighty pounds since last February. Last Saturday was the date for the submission of Team Nolette's weight for Get Fit Twin Cities. We lost 2.5 percent in the first month of the program which will last for four months.

Today is a fun day for Douglas. It's prep day for his colonoscopy tomorrow. From experience, I know that once you get to the colonoscopy the hard part is already done. The preparation day goes by so slowly. I always counted the hours until the colonoscopy would be over. But it is something that is absolutely necessary. Because two of my mother's brothers died from colon cancer, I started having the exams when I was 40 years old. I would be dead today if I hadn't had one in 1995 when I was 52 years old. They found a polyp that was too big to remove during the examination. I had colon surgery and they removed nearly a foot of my colon. They caught the polyp before it turned to cancer.   Since that time, we have had a cousin die from colon cancer when he was only 47 years old.

Ronnie went up to northern Minnesota yesterday and picked up Nathan for a few days. I will be visiting with them tomorrow when they stop by and see Mama at Douglas's.     Home

Feb 5, 2007 Monday
This morning it was 17 below Fahrenheit. It was the coldest day in over three years. We had more than three days that the temperature didn't reach zero but this afternoon it made it up to two degrees. Wow! It is not as bad as the winter temperatures we had in northern Minnesota, when I was a kid, but this is cold enough.       Home

Jan 28, 2007, Sunday
Donna went to the diabetic doctor on Tuesday. Her blood pressure was still high so the doctor increased the dose of one of her high blood pressure medicines. The clinic took took blood samples and tested Donna's A1C, among other blood tests. Later in the week she found out her A1C was 8.3 which is her best so far. I know her doctor wants to get it lower than that. Donna will see her again next month. Donna had a mammogram on Wednesday and the results on that were good. Today is also the last day of her vacation.

I went to my doctor on Thursday and he was impressed by my weight loss. Blood pressure was also good. He is also having my A1C checked but the results are not back yet.

Penny went to the doctor earlier in the week and had a ultra sound scan of her thyroid. The results were good. Because of the medicine she takes one of the nodules had disappeared completely and the other had shrunk.

Douglas picked up Mama from Ronnie's on Friday. I think she was away from her home with Douglas for over a week and a half. That is the longest I can remember since she started living with them over three years ago.

I am reading a new book, from the library, by Leslie Sansone. It contained an interesting list, which she calls the dirty dozen. It follows my way of thinking but I have never seen it exactly like that in print before. Here is her comments and the list.

Now that science has confirmed the health benefits of so many foods and the wisdom of eating a variety of natural ones, only a handful of foods are still on the wanted poster. For a simple and effective dieting guideline, just avoid these twelve food categories. You'd have to get creative to gain weight without these (which are all sources of either artery clogging saturated fat or insulin spiking refined carbohydrates).

Beef and Veal

Bacon, Ham and Sausage

White Flour

Hydrogenated Vegetable Oil

Pork

Full-fat cheese

White Rice

Sugar

Lamb

Butter and margarine

Potatoes

Sour Cream, cream and whole fat milk

Eight of these on the list I do not eat at all. Of the ones I do eat, I eat potatoes rarely. I never eat them when I go out. Donna likes them, so we have them once in awhile. Potatoes are a good tasting comfort food but it is one I could easily go without ever eating again.

Another is white flour. Although I always eat one hundred percent whole wheat bread, I have white flour, in the form of a small piece of carrot cake, when I go out to eat at a buffet every two weeks. Although I usually never have desserts at home, I may have them at other peoples houses, especially in the form of birthday cake. I do not see myself, at least at this time, ever completely eliminating white flour from my diet but sometimes on a weekly basis, I do.

Of course, I also eat sugar. I have it in the form of desserts, that I already mentioned. It's also in the bread I eat. It's in some canned food I eat. It is everywhere. We have dessert at home in the form of no fat, no sugar yogurt and also no fat, no sugar instant pudding. I can't see myself ever completely eliminating sugar from my diet but sometimes I come close on a weekly basis.

The last one on the list that I do use is margarine but it is soft margarine in a tub. It has no transfat, is low in saturated fat and has both mono and poly unsaturated fat. I use it on toast and a small amount on some vegetables. The brand I use also contains omega 3 fat. Because some fat is necessary, I have no intention to stop eating this type of margarine but because it is high in calories it must be used in moderation. I use peanut oil in cooking. Home

Jan 22, 2007, Monday
This week Donna is taking a week of vacation. Not that we're doing a lot. The highlight of the day was going to a thrift store. I bought a pair of pants and a shirt. Donna also bought a pair of pants. On the way home we went to McDonald s and then went to the grocery store to do some shopping. I think we could live for two months on the food we already have around the house but there is always something to buy.

Douglas brought Mama over on the 14th to stay for a few days and then last Friday, on the 20th, Ronnie stopped over and brought Mama over to their place for a few days. She is still there today but I don't know for how long.

Donna and I both weighed ourselves last Friday and we are losing some weight as part of the team for "GetFitTwincites." We also have been exercising by walking in place to DVD and TV exercise programs. Donna says, "It sure isn't easy", meaning losing weight. Home

Jan 17, 2007, Wednesday
Last Friday was the day before Donna's birthday. It was the week she had to work on Saturday. By coincidence she got Friday off. We celebrated by eating out in the morning at Perkin's in Crystal and later in the afternoon at the Red Lobster in Golden Valley.

Last Friday night Dennis and Laurie came down for the weekend. They stayed at Douglas's. We saw them Saturday afternoon at the party Michael threw for Donna, Jim and himself. Donna managed to get out of work two hours early that day. The day started out with a disaster. We had a flat tire on the car when we went out to the garage. Donna called someone from work and they picked her up. She was late of course. I pumped the air up on the tire but it soon deflated. Later I went to the filling station next to where Donna works and they put the spare on and I had to order another tire because the hole was in the sidewall.

There were lots of relatives at the party. Each one of the birthday three blew out one of the candles on the large cake that Adriana had made.I took lots of photos. Some were with Mama and the sons and daughters in-law and others with just the sons and others with just the daughters in-law. The next day, I thought to myself, nobody took a group picture of the birthday three. We also did a lot of visiting. Denies and Laurie went back up north on Sunday.

Last Friday was also the day of my monthly weigh-in. I lost six more pounds for a total of seventy one since last March. Because I started to lose weight in February after I went to a prediabetes class, I lost about 75 pounds last year. About two weeks ago I started a team for "Get Fit Twin Cities." The members of the team are Donna, Ronnie, his wife Jill and myself as the captain. The tenth was the first day we could record our weights. I did Donna's and mine on late Wednesday and Ronnie and Jill did their own the next day. We will compete with other teams. I am not hoping to win anything except for added incentive to keep on track for a healthy lifestyle.

Yesterday it was six below zero in the morning, the coldest day so far this year. It was warmer today but more windy.      Home

Jan 11, 2007, Thursday
Today is Michael's birthday. Douglas and Penny are going over to their house for supper tonight. On Saturday, Michael is having a party for Donna, Jim and himself.

Donna has been sick the last few days with a bad cold. Yesterday, on Wednesday, she called in sick. Also yesterday afternoon, I went over to Douglas's. Ronnie was also over there. I brought over Nathan's Christmas present which I had forgotten to give him when I saw him a few weeks ago. Ronnie will deliver it in a few weeks.

I also brought over a bag of clothes and books for Douglas to give away. I am starting to give away clothes that were too small for me when I first started losing weight last year. Over the years I have saved the clothes that were too small for me with the intention of some day losing the weight. The time finally came. I have lots of shirts but less of pants. I have had to buy a few clothes but not many. Later this year, I will have to buy more pants.

Donna went back to work today although she still has some coughing. We have been sleeping on the recliners on the sofa the last few days because it is easier for her to breathe that way. She gets Friday off but will have to work on Saturday.   Home

Jan 1, 2007, Monday
Happy New Year 2007. The year 2006 has passed into history. Most of the Nolettes and relatives spent a quiet evening at home last night. Donna and I watched the ball drop in Times Square at midnight. It was a delayed broadcast to coincide with our time zone. For New Year's last year, I bought two bottles of champagne. I only opened up one. I opened up the second one last night and Donna and I had a toast at midnight.

The little snow we had so far melted away by yesterday and Donna and I managed to go to church in the morning and then go grocery shopping before the snow fell in the afternoon. We got three or four inches. On Saturday, Ronnie and Jill brought Nathan back up north. Last week, coming down, the trip took less than three hours. Although it didn't snow coming back yesterday, it took over eight hours because the the roads were so slippery. Home

Dec 28, 2006, Thursday
Jim Hartline is in the hospital again. He started having heart pain and spasms and then throwing up. He will be kept at least overnight in the hospital.

I went over to Douglas's again today. I was over there yesterday too. Abbey has been there since Christmas. She has been making pot holders from the kit Donna and I gave her for Christmas. Ronnie and Nathan came over to visit Mama and the rest of us. Nathan looked pretty good. I haven't seen him in a long time. Penny had made some oatmeal raisin cookies and we ate some of those and drank some of the strong coffee Douglas makes. This morning, I typed up a couple of versions of the bible verse from Hebrews chapter 10 verses 24 and 25, and brought it with me. We discussed what we thought it meant. I also brought over a present for Nathan but I forgot it in the van. Home

Dec 25, 2006, Monday
We hope everyone had a good Christmas. Donna and I did. Douglas and Penny left yesterday afternoon to stay at the Lundbergs overnight. We met them at the cafe "Back to the 50's" for lunch. Mama paid for it. Mama then came home with Donna and I for the night. She brought only one suitcase. Later in the afternoon Donna and I went to a candlelight service at church. After we got home we baked a turkey to bring it over to the Lundberg's today. We started it at six and took it out at ten but decided it wasn't done so we put it back in for another hour. I then cut it up in pieces for today and then Donna cleaned up the mess. While waiting for the turkey we listened to Christmas music on TV and I read the Luke 2 Christmas story to Mama.

We watched the Shirley Temple movie "Heidi" this morning before we went to the Lundberg's for Christmas dinner. I took a few photos of Donna and Mama before we left. We brought presents and the turkey. Tracey and Robert had the house well set up for the celebration. There was vegetables, fruit breads and cookies before the meal. We opened presents before the meal. After the meal we had more cookies. I had plenty to eat but was slightly more careful than other years. I had forgotten Robert and Tracey had Christmas games last year but as soon as they said we were having them again this year, I remembered. In the first round of the games Donna won a water fountain by getting all questions about "A Christmas Carol" right. I won the second round. Adriana got an unbelievable number of words from "Feliz Navadad" in just three minutes. Andrea also won a round. Before leaving, I played a game of darts with Robert. Having only tried it a few times before he beat soundly. Then we left with lots of leftovers. Mama went back home with Douglas.

Yesterday, Ronnie drove to Grand Rapids and Duluth to pick up Nathan and Heidi respectfully. With Jill's mother and her son' Brad's family they celebrated their Christmas at Ronnie and Jill's house. Heidi was sick but decided to come down anyway. I hope to see them in the next few days.

On Friday, I went over to Douglas's when Ronnie went to give Mama her Christmas present, a box of several books. She goes through them fast. She reads a lot books. After picking Donna up after work, Donna and I went to the Country Buffet, as we do every two weeks so I can have some salmon, which they serve on Wednesdays and Fridays.

Before I leave this Christmas writing, let us remember a 1901 family Christmas.      Home

Dec 21, 2006, Thursday
For Christmas, yesterday, I took Mama, Douglas and Penny, Ronnie and Jill out to lunch at the Red Lobster. It's too bad Donna was working and didn't get to go. Because Jill had to plan the lunch around her lunch hour, I thought Ronnie and her would be late but they got there before the rest of us. We all had walleye except Douglas and Mama. Douglas got shrimp scampi and Mama got chicken strips. Mama said her chicken strips were tough and she didn't eat very many of them. She sent them home to Donna and later Donna ate them. Donna also said they were tough. Everyone else was happy with the meal. We had a good waitress and a fun time. After being seated at the table I looked around for a place to hang my cap. The waitress noticed and offered to hang the cap up but said jokingly she wasn't responsible for remembering to pick it up when I left. Naturally, I had to go back in to get it after we left.

On a Monday a few weeks ago, I went to the YMCA and reached into the backseat of the van to grab my gym bag. It wasn't there. I hadn't used it since the Friday before and hadn't missed it all weekend. When I got inside, I told the fitness room worker, that I may have forgotten my gym bag there. We looked in the lost and found room but couldn't find it. I came to the conclusion that someone grabbed it out of the van when I forgot to lock the door, which I have done many times. This morning at the Y, I saw the fitness worker leaving the laundry room, which doubles as the lost and found room. I asked if I might take another look for my bag. We looked around and couldn't find it but just as I was leaving, I saw the bag, on the floor, almost hidden behind the open door. "There it is," I said. I looked through the bag. My new shoes were in there and so was my mp3 player. "It was in a funny place," the worker said. I was happy for the next couple of hours. I don't think finding the gym bag had anything to do with it, but today was the first day, I managed to reach 1.6 miles in the first half an hour on the tread mill.

Although we have had a few flurries before, we had our first real snow today. After Donna and I went out to our usual Thursday lunch at McDonald's, I drove over to the Rainbow grocery store. It started snowing hard on the way over there. I bought a frozen turkey for Christmas and few other items. By the time I got back to the car, it was so covered with snow, I couldn't see out of the windows. I had to clean the windows before I could back out of the parking spot. It was also slippery on the short drive home. Tonight, I went the back way to pick up Donna at work. It wasn't snowing but the road was rutted with ice and still somewhat slippery but not as bad as earlier.    Home

Dec 18, 2006, Monday
Last Wednesday Ronnie picked Mama up at Douglas's and she stayed at Ronnie's and Jill's until yesterday when Douglas picked her up. Last Wednesday I exchanged some unopened tee shirts and bought a pair of jeans. I brought the jeans over to Penny's to shorten them. By this time Ronnie and Mama had left. Douglas had gone to a business lunch.It was Donna's day off so we visited with Penny for awhile and she also fixed the pants while we were there.

On Friday, I went over to Ronnie's and visited Ronnie and Mama. Terri Hein was also home because he lost his part time job. We sat in the basement in front of the gas fireplace. It was very cheery. I brought a stainless steel thermos jog for Ronnie and and exercise DVD that we got last week at the diabetes class. I had a tuna sandwich while I was there. Ronnie says they don't like the tuna and never eat it.

I didn't want to go to our church Sunday because they were having a program followed by a lunch where they usually serve ham and I only eat chicken, turkey or fish. Even though we are Lutheran, Donna and I went to Bethlehem Baptist in downtown Minneapolis on Saturday night. The service got a little long for Donna who had worked all day. Home

Dec 12, 2006, Tuesday
It rained all last night. A very unusual December day for Minneapolis, Minnesota. They're predicting highs in the 30's and 40's for the next week. The weather forecasters moan about the lack of snow but I think it's great.    Home

Dec 9,  2006, Saturday
Yesterday morning at eight o'clock, which is my usual time I go, I had my monthly official weight check. I have now lost 65 pounds. I started the process in March so I am losing about seven pounds a month. I have did it by eating healthy and exercising. Of course, I also use portion control. I was motivated to change my ways in March because my doctor said I had prediabetes. My blood sugar level has been normal. Even though I do try to control carbs, my main focus is always on lowering my fat intake, especially animal fat. Lower fat intake is part of healthy eating but because of it's importance I have made into a separate category. I have a long way to go but I will stay on course by healthy eating, portion control, lower fat intake and exercise.    Home

Dec 5,  2006, Tuesday
Robert and Tracey had their house broken into yesterday. They were not at home but a neighbor saw somebody break in. They called the police and then called Robert at work. The police came in about 10 minutes. They entered the house with guns drawn. They saw the burglar run into the bathroom and lock the door. They kicked the door down but the thief had already escaped through a bathroom window. In the short time the crook was in the house he found and piled a few valuables by the front door but he didn't have time to take anything. Robert arrived shortly afterwards. The thief made a mess of the house and broke the lock and damaged the front door. Of course, the bathroom door was also wrecked. It could have been far worse.

Yesterday, I gave plasma for the first time. It takes longer than giving blood. It was interesting watching it done. The blood was pumped out and filtered and the red blood cells were pumped back into my arm. At end of the procedure, they also pumped a saline solution back into the arm to replace the lost liquid in the blood. What they collected was a bag of liquid looking somewhat like a bag of urine. One of the best parts is that I let the healthy eating slide for awhile. I drank a couple of bottles of juice before I left and ate a small small bag of mixed chips. I also took home a small package of Fig Newtons. I was back on the strait and narrow today. Home

Nov 30,  2006, Thursday
Today is the ninety-fourth anniversary of my father's birth. Ronnie went over to Mama's today so Douglas, Ronnie and Mama could talk about memories of our father. I was going to go over there also but Ronnie had to leave early and after I took Donna out to lunch on her late day, it was getting late. I did talk to Ronnie about it later. He said they actually talked quite a a bit about the day Daddy died.

They had forgotten a few things. Douglas remembered Mama's Paster Ziegie reading John 14 at the bedside but it was actually another Pastor from Grand Rapids. When he read the verses, Pastor Ziegie was still at his church but he did come later. They also said Daddy wasn't wearing his hearing aid and they couldn't understand his reaction when John 14 was read. Daddy was laying with his eyes shut but when he heard the passage and he sat up in bed and looked around for a moment. His blood pressure also doubled. Our hopes rose but he immediately lay back down and his blood pressure dropped again. He was wearing his hearing aid and I remember holding his ear piece in his ear. I know I did it for quite awhile but I don't know remember how long it really was. Ronnie said a little regrettably , "Today is his birthday and we talked about his death." I said, "Birth and death are connected. It is the cycle of life."  That day was a traumatic day and is hard to forget. Sometimes I wish I hadn't been there so I would only remember him when he was full of life.    Home

Nov 29,  2006, Wednesday
Today I went over to Douglas' and Penny's and took them out to lunch at a Chinese Buffet. Because it was a buffet, Mama didn't want to go because she only wanted soup to eat. We drove to the restaurant in my van because he had his van worked on today. The dealer brought them home while the car was being repaired.

I also brought over five pairs of pants for Penny to hem up. She hemmed up four before I left. One of the pants were cotten but the rest were a cotten polyester blend. Not good pants for the winter season coming on but those were the pants I had around the house and I am going to use them until I get to a smaller size.

Jim got his money yesterday from the benefit that was held for him. Also today, Robert updated his photos on Smugmug. Home

Nov 23,  2006, Thursday
We had a big Thanksgiving dinner at Ronnie and Jill's today. There was lots of food. Everybody was there except for Robert and Tracey's family. They went to Missouri to his parents. Because of the Thanksgiving ads for Friday, we seemed to spend a lot of time talking about HDTVs. Adriana's mother arrived from Argentina this morning. She went right to bed after Michael and Adriana brought her their house. We left around four o'clock.

I spent some time in the evening looking over the specs and reviews of some of the TVs. I finally decided I wasn't buying any. Michael called me up around 10:30 tonight and he also had been investigating the TVs and wasn't buying any. I think he had done a more thorough investigation than I had. Last year he stood in line to buy a monitor but I don't think he really wanted to go through that again.   Home

Nov 21,  2006, Tuesday
Yesterday, I took the turkey I bought last week over to Douglas'. Ronnie also went there to pick up the turkey and the roaster that Tracey had brought over on Sunday. He also picked up the paper products Mama had bought. Ronnie was already there when I got there. Douglas had went out to lunch with somebody he worked with 30 years ago. Mama was the only one there when we arrived. Penny had went down to their church to work.

We went to see Donna's diabetic doctor today. She is going to increase Donna's insulin dosage because of her high A1C. She is also going to switch to another blood pressure medicine. We also discussed eating habits. Her doctor is going to the same series of three meetings about diabetes that Donna and I are. We have went to two. Her doctor spoke at the first meeting. The dietician that weighs me in once a month spoke at the last meeting. We will go back to see her doctor in a couple of weeks.    Home

Nov 18,  2006, Saturday
Yesterday, I created a set of Douglas' photos from October 17, 2006 and tonight, I uploaded the set to the intenet.

Also today, I gathered more clothes together so I can bring them over to Douglas and he will give them to a charity. Some are clothes of Donna's that were upstairs, others are mine that are now too big for me.

Last Thursday on Donna's day off, she had a blood sample taken at North Clinic. After that we went over to Perkin's for breakfast. That was the first time we had been there in a long time. We got the blood results today. Everything was good except her A1C, which was high. She will see her diabetic doctor on Tuesday. Home

Nov 14,  2006, Tuesday
Mama stayed over last weekend. She was here from Wednesday until Douglas picked her up on Monday. Last Friday Ronnie stopped in for a few hours. He ate two peanut butter sandwiches while he was here.

On Friday, I had my monthly weigh-in. I have now lost 59 pounds. I strayed a little this weekend because I ate more than one of piece of cake at Natasha's birthday party on Saturday and at church on Sunday.

Quite a few were at the party Michael and Adriana had for Natasha. Michael demonstrated his Optoma DLP projector that he uses at work and at home. I was quite fascinated by it. I am going to get one sooner or later. I can't resist those techno toys.

Ronnie has been buying computer parts and upgrading an older computer. He was surprised and happy the Pentium III had a 12000 mghz processor. He tried it out last night and worked great.

Douglas and Penny babysat Logan today because Jim had another doctor's appointment. It ended up that he will have another tomorrow so Douglas took Penny over to Terri and Jim's to stay overnight.

I usually grocery shop in the morning after I take Donna to work but today Donna and I went shopping at Rainbow after I picked her up. We bought an unusual amount of groceries for us, 38 dollars worth. The cart was full. We had to buy more so we could get a turkey for 38 cents a pound. I bought a 22 pound turkey. The turkey was included in that 38 dollars. Ronnie and Jill are having Thanksgiving at their house and I will give them the turkey sometimes this week. With very little cleaning, it fit in the freezer of our refrigerator we bought about a year and a half ago. The only thing I threw out was a couple of ice packs that we keep getting with Donna's medicine that is shipped to us.    Home

Nov 9,  2006, Thursday
Donna found an interesting news clipping last weekend when she examined the contents of a bag that she had found upstairs. It is a newspaper article about Gold Star Mothers. I didn't even remember we had it. In it, Grandma Reed recalls the death of her son Orval. There is some inaccuracies in the article. The most glaring is that he died in the last year of the war, not the first. Also, the name Orval was spelled wrong and there were four brothers in the war not three. It is an appropriate time to read this article as we approach Veteran's Day.    Home

Nov 7,  2006, Tuesday
The photos for day seven, eight, nine and ten all come from the same roll of film. Two of them have been in "100 years of Family Photos" for years but I came across two more in September that were dated Sunday, September 20, 1936. It is unusual to get that many photos that were taken on the same day so long ago. For people, 70 years is a long time. The only ones left are Mama and the twins. Grandma Reed was 41. Grandma's sister aunt Peggy was 30. Ella was 25. The siblings were young. Mama was 19, Marion 18, Otis 16 and the twins were only 20 months old. They were carefree as only youth can be.

For the first time, Douglas was a Republican poll watcher today for the general election. He did it for seven and one-half hours. It was too bad it was a bad day for Republicans. Home

Nov 6,  2006, Monday
The picture of the day for the sixth day of this month and next month was taken in Duluth about 18 years ago. It is a group picture I took on Mama's camera of Mama, Donna, Heidi and Nathan in front of a yellow plane. We went to an air show in Duluth, that included a fly-in of the Concorde. What is interesting about the photo is that the film has been laying around in the camera all these years. Douglas found it when he was cleaning house in Cohasset a few months ago and when he got home he brought the film in to have it developed. Because of the camera quality the photo is not sharp but it remains an interesting photo. I did a slight adjustment of the color to get the flesh tones right and left the rest of color the way it was after laying in the camera for 18 years.      Home

Nov 5,  2006, Sunday
The Roberts, Wisconsin Fire Department had a spaghetti dinner fund raiser for Jim Hartline yesterday evening. Douglas and Penny went. Douglas said the place was packed. They didn't stay very long because people needed places to sit. He also said that Trivent was going to match any funds that were raised. Mama had mentioned something about matching funds to me on the phone last night, after Ronnie and Jill stopped in and visited her on the way home home from the dinner. The Robert Lundberg family also attended. Douglas and Penny went to see Andrea in a play after the dinner.

Leah received good news Thursday, when the complete lab work for the biopsy, taken during her surgery, was completed. There were no cancer cells present.

Donna and I did some more cleaning upstairs, yesterday and today. Michael said on the phone last night that he would take the other two folding sponge chars that have been upstairs for 10 or more years. We can only get rid of so much every week because there is a limit to how much the garbage collectors will take away. Home

Oct 28,  2006, Sunday
Leah came home from the hospital yesterday. Except for some pain, she is in good shape. Yesterday, Douglas and Penny went to Terri's and helped Terri clean the garage.

I got my hard drive installed Friday night and then installed the operating system PCLinuxOS. I copied 40 GB of files from a usb hard drive all Friday night. It took 10 hours. The computer only has version 1.1 of usb and the computer is an older one with a 667 mhz Pentium III.

Yesterday, Donna and I went upstairs and did some cleaning. We threw away four garbage bags of clothes and have one bag to give away.

I talked to Michael today, he is replacing one of his basement windows with glass blocks.   Home

Oct 27,  2006, Friday
Leah had surgery today. She had half her thyroid gland removed. During surgery they did a biopsy on a nodule on the thyroid. They found no cancer. She is spending the night in the hospital but will be released tomorrow. Her mother, Terri spent last night with her. This morning Douglas and Penny went down to the hospital and didn't come home until six this evening.

While Douglas was gone today, Ronnie and I stopped over to visit Mama. I brought Ronnie an old monitor, keyboard and mouse because he is going to try out an old computer. I brought some of my homemade soup for them to try. Mama said, "Leave out the broccoli next time." She also made me a cup of capachino. Mama, Ronnie and I talked about a lot of things including a conversation about towels and washing clothes. Both Ronnie and I left about 2:30 PM.

I picked up Donna at work and we ate out at the Country Buffet. We will eat out again in two weeks. I ate healthy and kept the portions under control. I have to if I want to keep losing weight.       Home

Oct 26,  2006, Thursday
As I pulled into the Best Buy parking lot today, the van hit 20,000 miles. I sat there contemplating the event for a few moments but couldn't think of anything significant about it. So, I went into the store. I went there to find some screws that hold computer cases together. They didn't sell any but the Geek Squad guy gave me four.     Home

Oct 23,  2006, Monday
On Saturday, I bought a wireless keyboard and mouse at a computer store. Earlier in the week, I had bought a 120 GB hardrive. I want to make some changes on one or two of my computers. After I bought the hard drive, I went to visit Mama at Douglas' house. Trey was there. He had been there the last three days because of a teacher's convention. Sebastian and Natasha were also there. I tried out Trey's Game Boy Advance. Douglas and Penny took the kids over to Tracey's before I left. I stayed and visited Mama until 3:30 and then left to pick up Donna.

I called Ronnie today. He was in bed and wasn't feeling well. He is having a lot of pain and blood because of that stint that was put in last week. Tomorrow afternoon it will be removed. He can't wait.     Home

Oct 21,  2006, Saturday
Heidi and Nathan Nolette's maternal grandmother (Blanche Kreklow) died last Saturday and her funeral was on Thursday. There was an obituary in the Wednesday edition of the Grand Rapids Herold Review.

I talked to Heidi, on the phone, late Friday for over an hour and a half. It was the first time I talked to her in quite awhile. On Wednesday night, she left her apartment in Duluth to drive to Grand Rapids for the funeral the next day. She only got has far as the mall in Hermantown before her car broke down, so she did not go to the funeral. She talked her to her brother Nathan, who lives in Grand Rapids, on the phone Thursday and he said he went to it.

I talked to her about a lot of things including her health, eating, exercising, her mother and her mother's relatives. She is soon moving across the state line to Superior, Wisconsin, where she will be closer to her job. Which is a good thing, if you have an old unreliable car. Her apartment will be in a better neighborhood and will even have a garage. We talked until my cell phone started to beep from being discharged.     Home

Oct 19,  2006, Thursday
The credit union had their open house today. They had drawings and served snacks and coffee and pop. I was in the building before it opened and they have made some great changes. They added fully enclosed teller windows and another office. The building, which the credit union bought earlier this year, is now a very nice professional looking building well suited to it's business.

Donna usually starts work late on Thursday and today was no exception. Knowing I would be gone a long time, we turned the heat down before we left at 10 AM. After taking her to work, I exercised at the Y for almost an hour an a half, I then picked her up and we went went to lunch at McDonald's. After lunch I went to the open house. Ronnie was there. He said it's the most people he has seen there at one time.

I returned home around four o'clock. After awhile, I noticed it seemed chilly in the house. I turned the thermostat up. After watching TV and falling asleep, I noticed it stilled seemed cold. It was 63 in the house but the thermostat was set at 68. I called Service Plus at six o' clock. He tried to run me through a few things to get it going but it just buzzed when I tried to start it. He said he would send someone out. I told him they couldn't come until 7:30 PM after I picked Donna up.

After I picked Donna up and we had some soup at home, the serviceman came at eight o'clock. I showed him the furnace and told him the problem. "I think you have a bird in the fan." he said. I didn't say anything but I thought, "Is he kidding me?" He quickly ripped it opened and looked in the induction fan. "There's feather's in here." he said. "Where's the rest of the bird?' I asked. "It's in here," he said and asked for a waste paper basket. He threw the feathers in the basket and then pulled out a bird and threw it in. "It's a wonder I don't get sick more often," he said. "How often does that happen?" I asked. " It's the second time today." he said. I had to go and tell Donna while he was putting the furnace back together. She was as surprised as I was. By the time I was back downstairs, he was ready to go and the furnace was working. Home

Oct 18,  2006, Wednesday
Happy Birthday Terri Harline. How old are you? We know. Douglas, Penny and Mama are going over to Terri's today. Mama may not go because she has pain in her legs. Terri is going to cut their hair. It's her vacation this week. She took a vacation this week because this is the week they planned to go to New York but because of Jim's health problems didn't go.      Home

Oct 16,  2006, Monday
Dennis went to the funeral of Andy Reed today. Dennis lives in Grand Rapids where the funeral was held at the new Assemblies of God church. There was about 450 people at the funeral. Most of Dale's brothers were there. All funerals are sad but these are the saddest -- the sudden loss of a young person.

Ronnie has an old computer that he wants to use. He asked me if I have some peripherals. I told him I would look around. I may have some keyboards with serial ports but I may have thrown away a 14 inch color monitor.   Home

Oct 14,  2006, Saturday
On early Thursday morning at 1:30 AM, Jill took Ronnie to the hospital emergency room. He had intense pain. During the night they determined he had a kidney stone. Later, during the day, after he was admitted, they said he would have to have it removed that day or on Friday. They didn't get to it until Friday morning. They blew up the stone and put in a stint. He will have to have the stint removed in 10 days. He was home by late Friday afternoon. I talked to him not long after he came home. He still had some pain but not like before. Today he didn't feel as good as he did last night.

On Friday morning, I went to my monthly weigh-in at the North Memorial out-patient building. In my quest for healthy living, I have now lost over 50 pounds since the middle of last March. Donna and I celebrated by going to the Country Buffet but I did not go overboard. I ate a large salad, two helpings of salmon, both times with cooked broccoli and had a small desert of carrot cake.

My cousin Dale Reed's son died in a work accident. Here is his obituary from the Grand Rapids newspaper.      Home

Oct 6,  2006, Monday
On Saturday, Ronnie stopped over for a visit for a few hours. He doesn't get to leave the house much during the week. Douglas picked Mama up around one this afternoon.

Today is Columbus Day. I took the flag down. It was up since the week before Memorial Day. Jill had the day off but Donna didn't. I spent an hour on the treadmill this morning at the Y. I usually am on it for about 35 minutes.

The Lundbergs have updated their photos on Smugmug.      Home

Oct 6,  2006, Friday
This exciting year of Twins baseball came to a quick end today. They were eliminated in the first three games of the playoffs. They just didn't play very well. Last Sunday, it was so much fun watching them clinch first place on the last day of the season. If a team is going to be in first place one day of the year, the last day of the season is right one. By clinching first place, they got the home field advantage in the first two games but it didn't help them. In the pregame analysis before the first game, the three experts picked the Twins to win this playoff and go on to the next round. It was not to be. Even with this sudden end of the season it was the most exciting Twins baseball season in the last few years.

Douglas and Penny went out of town this weekend to view the fall colors. They went south along the river. I picked up Mama yesterday and she is staying the weekend. We were going to visit Ronnie today but Mama did not feel well so I called and told Ronnie we weren't coming.   Home

Oct 3,  2006, Tuesday
Jim is back in the hospital tonight. After just doing some short walking, he got heart pains. Terri took him to the hospital. This time there may be some heart damage.

Ronnie did not get any good news today, at his consultation with the doctor about his MRA. His leg is permanently damaged. He will always have pain. He will always have some swelling. The problem is damaged muscle that was cut after he had bleeding in his leg. At the time they wanted to amputate his leg to save his life. Of course, they decided not to amputate. Of course, he wouldn't have had the problem if the doctors hadn't sent him home with his leg bleeding.    Home

Sept 29,  2006, Friday
Yesterday, after Donna and I went out for lunch at McDonald s, I picked up Mama and we went over to Ronnie's. We got there around two-thirty in the afternoon. We sat around talking for awhile before one of Vi's therapists stopped in. Mama stayed in the living room while Ronnie and I checked out some of his Napster downloads. He had also bought a Frankie Laine CD that included the record album "Hellbent for Leather". Although years ago Douglas had bought the first one, eventually Ronnie and I both bought copies of the record album. Later Ronnie served us soup, corn bread and Apple pie, all of which he had earlier bought at Baker's Square where he and Jill had went out for lunch. I left at six-thirty to pick up Donna. Douglas picked up Mama not too much later. He and Penny were coming back from one of his business appointments.         Home

Sept 25,  2006, Monday
Although first place hasn't been decided, the Minnesota Twins clinched a place in the American League playoffs. Hunter and Morneau both hit home runs tonight and the rookie pitcher Boof Bonser did a great job. I was so hoping during Morneau's last at-bat that he would hit a home run and he did and got his 129th RBI of the year. On June 7th, on my birthday, their record was 25 and 33. What an incredible come-back. Even if they don't go any farther, they brought a lot of fun to watching baseball this year. Douglas and Penny and Mama were also watching the game. I am sure Terry Hien was also watching it. Donna went to bed before the end of the game but watched it in the bedroom. She was so tired when she went to bed but the excitement of the game woke her up completely.

Ronnie was working hard to finish the newsletter for the credit union today. He said he probably wouldn't finish it until tomorrow. He made a birthday cake for his mother-in-law Vi. She is 84 years old today. She has been staying with them for the last two weeks after she fell down in her apartment. She is in a wheel chair.         Home

Sept 24,  2006, Sunday
Douglas and Penny had a birthday party for Logan at their house today. The usual suspects were there. Ronnie and Jill were out of town at a "bread and breakfast", belatedly celebrating their one year wedding anniversary. Jill's brother took care of Vi, Jill's mother, while they were out of town. Even Leah and her boyfriend attended the party for awhile. Surprisingly, Robert and Tracey and family were the last to arrive. Here is a photo of Logan blowing out the candle on the birthday cake.        Home

Sept 23,  2006, Saturday
I haven't written anything in a long time. Not that there wasn't plenty to write, I just haven't written anything.

Ronnie went back to his regular doctor earlier in the weeks. The results were mixed. He said all the pain Ronnie has in his leg may be caused by a blood clot. So Ronnie got an MRA but hasn't got the results back yet. Ronnie is hoping this is the problem because it can be fixed relatively easy.
He also got a an xray on his chest because it keeps popping when he does anything and keeps having pain. The xray showed he was still wired together which was good in a way but now he doesn't know how long his chest will heal and without the pain and pops.

Other people have made lots of visits to doctors this week. It looks like Penny has a growth on her thyroid gland. Her granddaughter Leah also has problems with her thyroid gland. She had a biopsy earlier in the week. It showed she may have some precancerous cells. She will have surgery and find out more.

In good news, Mama's checkup looked good for someone her age.        Home

Sept 11,  2006, Monday
Today is the 5th anniversary of the terror attack on America and the destruction of the Twin Towers in New York. Almost 3,000 people were killed. It still makes me angry. There were many programs about it on TV today. For many of the families that had loved ones killed, it led to a spiritual awakening.

Jim Hartline returned home from the hospital last Thursday but doctors told him he could not work again. I hope the process for getting Social Security is short. Doctors said they would sign any papers necessary.

Douglas and Penny went camping over the weekend in Grand Rapids again. So Mama went to stay with Ronnie and Jill on Friday but it did not work out very well. On Saturday, Jill's mother fell down and had to go to the emergency room. She returned to her apartment later in the day but could not stay alone. Jill stayed over night with her. On Sunday, she had to return to the hospital. So Ronnie brought Mama over to our house (David and Donna) and he went to help Jill with her mother. They ended up bringing Jill's mother home with them. Last I heard today, they were still waiting for a wheelchair to be delivered because she could not walk.

I brought Mama back to Douglas' home today. I also brought a couple of pair of pants that Penny said she would hem up for me. I bought one pair on Saturday. Hopefully I am set for another six months as I continue to lose weight. I got weighed in again last Friday and it still going good. Last Wednesday I went to the doctor and he ordered an A1C test. I got the results back today. They were great. I got a 5.5. I don't think I am a pre-diabetic any longer. Exercising, cutting back on carbs and losing weight did it.      Home

Sept 5,  2006, Tuesday
Jim Hartline was taking EMT training tonight when he started having chest pains again. After checking his blood pressure, which was extremely high, he was taken to the emergency room.
A cardiologist was called in and they adjusted his medicine. He will be in the hospital overnight. He has had repeated problems these last three months.     Home

Sept 2,  2006, Saturday
Today is the birthday of Sebastian Nolette. Michael and Adriana had a party for him today. The first part of the party was at an indoor park for climbing. The next part was a couple of hours later at their home. Donna and I picked up Mama and we went to the second part. Douglas and Penny went to the first part. Adriana made two homemade decorated cakes for the party, one of the cakes was very unique. After snacks Sebastian opened his gifts. Terri was there but husband Jim was not. He has been having problems with his heart again. Although he is now home, he was in intensive care Wednesday and Thursday nights. Ronnie and Jill were also missing, he has been very sick with a bladder infection that also may be a kidney infection.

The Robert and Tracey Lundberg family was also at both parts of the party. Robert said he has been checking the website every day but I don't always have a entry in the newsflash everyday. This is true but this web site is very time consuming and I want to devote more time to scanning old photos and negatives. This ever expanding website has almost four thousand family photos and documents and over 15,000 files.      Home

Aug 30, 2006, Wednesday
It's almost the end of the month. The end of summer is near. I like this time of year but it also means that those long Minnesota winter months are getting closer.

On Monday, Douglas and Penny got back from their three day camping near Grand Rapids.They also did some cleaning at the house in Cohasset. He came over yesterday and picked Mama up. He brought a few photos, some of which I have started to scan. There is probably no more photos left at the house. He also found Daddy's funeral book and sympathy cards.

A couple of days of days ago, I put up the the CCC discharge paper of Orval Reed in the family records section. If any one cares to look at it they can find it there.     Home

Aug 26, 2006, Saturday
Donna's cousin Sharon Mowser and her husband Keith picked up Donna's aunt Alice Larson this morning. They are going up to see Sharon's brother Nathan near Moose Lake, Minnesota. Alice is the 81 year old sister of Donna's father Gorden Larson.

After Adriana went to work this afternoon, Michael took Sebastian and Natasha to a park. After that they came over to the house. I ordered out two pizzas. The kids watched cartoons on TV. Michael and I looked the streaming media which he is trying to set up. He also looked at my Linux setup.

Ronnie and Jill were busy today moving the credit union office. I called Ronnie once this afternoon when he was busy setting up computers. I called Douglas on the cell phone this afternoon. He and Penny were at Dennis's house. They were going to a picnic this evening with Dennis. It was at a public radio station in Grand Rapids. Home

Aug 25, 2006, Friday
Douglas and Penny went to Grand Rapids today to go camping. He brought Mama over before he left. He then drove up north on highway 169. Alice is still here today. She will sleep on the couch and Mama will sleep in the spare bedroom, as she always does.

I have added this month's "photos of the day" and some of the past "daily photos" to the random photo folder. There are now 231 photos in the random folder.    Home

Aug 24, 2006, Thursday
Today is the 125th birthday of my grandfather, Frank Reed, born in Kansas in 1881 raised in Iowa and at the age of 40 moved to northern Minnesota and died in Deer River, Minnesota in 1965.

Donna's aunt Alice Larson is visiting the relatives this month. Her niece's husband brought her over this evening. She is staying here for a day before moving on to visit other relatives. She bought a month pass from Greyhound bus.   Home

Aug 21, 2006, Monday
Yesterday was Tracey's birthday. Douglas and Penny and Michael and kids went to church with the Lundbergs. Afterwards, they ate out. Later they went to the Arboretum. Robert took more photos and uploaded them to the Internet already.

Ronnie and Jill also returned yesterday from going to the county fair in Grand Rapids. Nathan, who lives in Grand Rapids went with them to the fair.      Home

Aug 18, 2006, Friday
Ronnie and I both went over to Douglas' house yesterday. Later Michael, Sebastian and Natasha came over. I showed Douglas a method of preparing photos for the Internet. We went through two groups. I loaded three of his groups to the web site today. The Lundbergs also updated their photo page at Smugmug. Ronnie and Jill went to Grand Rapids today to go to the Itasca County fair.

Last Monday, Donna and I went to our last health class at North Memorial hospital. We had met for five weeks. The class was free and on Monday, we were each given a certificate of completion and a 25 dollar gift certificate to Cub groceries. Today, I went to my weigh-in at the North Memorial out-patient building. I have lost 38 pounds since the middle of March.   Home

Aug 13, 2006, Sunday
On Friday night, after Terri and Jim got back from Rochester. Terri dropped Andrea off someplace. On the way home she suffered severe dizziness and had to pull of the road. She called Jim who called an ambulance. Jim got there before the ambulance which took her to the emergency room while Jim followed in his truck. Terri was there for three hours. They gave her medicine for dizziness.

Yesterday, Donna and I toured the firehouse in Robbinsdale which we also did last year at their open house. We ate a few free goodies and then went to the Y.

Today is the birthday of my grandfather Napoleon Nolette who was born in 1882 in Quebec and died and was buried in in Cohasset in 1953. His birth date on his tombstone is listed as 1881 but his baptismal certificate which I sent for listed it as 1882.   Home

Aug 12, 2006, Saturday
Jim Hartline and Terri got back from Rochester yesterday afternoon. The doctors concluded that part of his heart goes into a spasm. It was a condition he was born with. They will treat it with medicine. He will have to live with it the rest of his life.The procedure was quite painfull because he was fully awake when they induced the spasm in his heart four different times. After they got back, Douglas picked up Penny and came back home.

I put up a group of photos that Douglas took on his July vacation. The photos were from a group that Douglas took with a digital camera that he borrowed from Ronnie. I put them with the rest his photos.     Home

Aug 9, 2006, Wednesday
Jim Hartline and Terri went down to Rochester last night where he is having tests today. He is still having heart problems and no one yet knows why. Terri picked up Penny after Terri finished work yesterday. Penny will be babysitting the next few days until Jim and Terri return home.

This afternoon, Jim was given a heart monitor to wear for 24 hours, to see if they can see anything in that time period.

The Minnesota Twins beat the Detroit Tigers tonight. They won two of three in the series. Justin Morneau hit his 30th home run and now has 101 RBI's. They have been a great team to watch in the last couple of months.     Home

Aug 7, 2006, Monday
Last night the power went off at 1:30 AM. Donna and I both seemed to wake up at the same time when the lights went off and the air conditioner shut down. We found our self generating winding and shaking flashlights and then found a couple more of the standard variety. I called the power company and a computerized message said it would be four hours before the electricity came back on. I didn't want to leave Mama without knowing what to do so I woke her up and gave her a flashlight. Not trusting the first call, I called the power company again in about 45 minutes. After laying there without sleeping, the power came back on at ten minutes to three, so it was out for about one hour and twenty minutes. Donna got less than four of sleep and I got about four but I took a nap after I took Donna to work.

Douglas stopped to pick Mama up in the afternoon after I picked Donna up from work. He helped me do some work on leveling the frame of a small wooden patio, I am making. I will put plywood on it later in the week. After some soup, they left. Not long after, Donna and I went to a class on health at North Memorial Hospital. Next week will be the last meeting.    Home

Aug 4, 2006, Friday
Last night Mama stayed at Ronnie's so she could see him a little more before he went back home. I picked Mama up at Ronnie's house today and stayed and visited for awhile. Douglas also went up north today to pick up Penny. He will be there all weekend. Mama and I left before two and went to the Rainbow grocery store before we went to pick up Donna.

Today is the 16th wedding anniversary of Robert and Tracey. Where do the years go? Donna's grandfather Art Campbell also died on the same day but Donna's folks didn't call and tell us about it until the next day so as not to interfere with our enjoyment of the wedding.   Home

Aug 2, 2006,  Wednesday
Douglas took Penny, Andrea, and Abbey to Penny's brother's house, near Big Fork. She is house sitting this week while her brother takes a motorcycle trip around Lake Superior. I wonder how he is doing, considering the weather we're having. On Monday it got up to 101 degrees. That morning the low was 84 degrees, which was a record high for a low on that day. July was the third warmest July on record. That night, Monday, it started raining. We had four inches of rain by this morning but it has finally stopped. The ground was so wet this morning a shepherds hook with two plants on it was on the ground this morning when I went into the backyard.

Mama stayed the weekend at our house this weekend. Douglas came back by ten Monday morning and he picked Mama up in the afternoon. While Donna was working on Saturday, Mama and I stopped at a few thrift stores. She wanted to buy some books but didn't find any she wanted. She reads a book almost everyday. She also gets books from the library. With reading that many, it's hard to keep a supply. On Monday, Ronnie picked Nathan up in Grand Rapids and brought him back for a few days while Nathan is on a short vacation.     Home

July 27, 2006, Thursday
Even though it's a little late, Ronnie took Douglas out for a birthday lunch. Douglas picked Famous Dave's. Mama came with Douglas, and Donna and I drove over to the Snelling Avenue, Roseville location. Penny wasn't there because she has been taking care of kids at Tracey's. Robert has been gone all week on business to Birmingham, Alabama. Jill didn't attend because she had work to do at the credit union. Today is Donna's last day off before she starts back to work tomorrow after six days off. Douglas had a barbecued brisket sandwich. We all had a sandwich and a side order. Douglas had a bread pudding for dessert while Ronnie and I ordered a great tasting, very rich Brownie. I gave Donna a small portion of mine. Afterwards, Douglas took Mama home and then went to pick Penny up. Donna and I looked at books at Barnes and Noble and then, on the way home, stopped at the credit union, where we saw Ronnie and Jill.     Home

July 22, 2006, Saturday
Jim Hartline with Logan and Robert went to a car show today. Jim dropped Abbey off at Douglas' house. Douglas, Penny and Abbey went to visit stores near St. Cloud. They dropped Mama off at our house while they were gone. She has been having lots of pain in her legs the last few days. Mama usually likes to stay alone for awhile but today she didn't. Donna, Mama and I went to eat at at Country Kitchen in the afternoon. They had one in Grand Rapids that Mama always liked to go to. She likes their soup and that is what she had today -- a cup of baked potato soup. She also had a buttermilk biscuit. Donna and I had a more substantial meal. Donna had a skillet breakfast and I had a chicken breast dinner from the senior or "light" menu.

Earlier, around noon, Donna drove over to the YMCA and tried out a dance aerobic class. She liked it but got very tired from it. Yesterday, I installed another Linux distribution on one of the computers. I liked it, but didn't like the leftest links already installed in the bookmarks.  Home

July 20, 2006, Thursday
Last Saturday, Douglas and Penny took care of Logan and Andrea because Jim and Terri were going to a concert. That afternoon, they and the Robert and Tracey family went to a water park. While going down a slide with Logan, Robert cut his chin when Logan raised his head up and bumped his chin. Although the cut wasn't long, it wouldn't quite bleeding. After a couple of hours, he went to the emergency room and they glued the cut shut. He has had some problems with it all week but today it is getting better.

I picked up a wireless notebook mouse today in Roseville and also went to Douglas' home to pick up a pair of pants that Penny had lengthened. I brought my laptop computer with me. Ronnie came about five with his new laptop. At six Michael came over and set them up so we could get in on Douglas' new well secured wireless network.      Home

July 13, 2006, Thursday
June Allyson, the movie star died a few days ago. In 1998, Donna and I were in Grand Rapids and we went to the Judy Garland days festival. June Allyson was going to be there to sign autographs for one hour. It was a hot sunny day. Donna got in line to get an autograph. I waited in front to take a photo. June was escorted out to sit at a small table in the shade of a tree. I watched as she signed autographs. One person had a package of old June Allyson paper dolls to sign. Another person had "Depends" diapers to sign. She signed everything and was friendly to everyone. After an hour her manager told her the hour was up. She said, "I can't stop with all these people waiting." When Donna's turn came, I took a picture of them and then Donna started to take a photo of June and I. But June Allyson said, "Get closer." She pulled my hand towards her and I put my arm around around her neck. I know being nice when a person is signing autographs is not a perfect barometer of their character but it could be an indicator.     Home

July 12, 2006, Wednesday
Last Saturday, on the 8th, Dennis, Christian and Jayne went with Douglas and Penny and Mama to Terri's home for a pool party. Michael and kids were also there. Somebody gave Jim an above ground pool. It came with all the parts. They were there for about five hours. In the evening they went shopping. There is a wider variety of stores here than in Grand Rapids. Dennis and his kids went home Sunday afternoon at one-thirty.

Yesterday, Douglas and Penny went with Michael's family to the Mayo Clinic. They had Sebastian examined. He always seems to have a lot of breathing problems. The doctors said he had swollen tonsils and adenoids. He said they could have them removed but they could also wait. They may improve on their own. So they are just going to keep an eye on him.

Yesterday I gave blood again. This time I gave at the YMCA in a bus. While I was giving blood Donna used the treadmill. I got a free tee shirt for Donna.

Last weekend, Robert and Tracey went down to Quincy, Illinois to pick up Trey. He had been staying with his grandparents Robert and Mary Ann Lundberg. Trey is actually Robert Lundberg the third. It can be confusing.

Ronnie received his notebook computer yesterday. He has been waiting for it for over a week. He has been diligently looking for one ever since I bought mine. It sounds like it is a very nice one, equipped in most ways even better than mine. He is going down to the Credit Union every day for the next two weeks because Jill is alone at the office.    Home

July 8, 2006, Saturday
Dennis, Christian, and Jayne came down, late yesterday afternoon, from Grand Rapids. Donna and I were there, as were Ron and Jill, and Michael with his two kids. Douglas had another cookout. We have to keep him busy. We had good food and a nice time talking. Later in the evening Donna took some photos with one of our cameras and Michael took some photos with Ron's and his Dad's. I am putting up for the picture of the day a slight crop of one of the photos Donna took. Good job Donna.   Home

July 5, 2006, Wednesday
Because of the long holiday weekend Jim Hartline was not given more tests. He was given a nitro prescription, which he did not have before, and then sent home.

Douglas and Penny went to Galena, Illinois stopping to look at scenery and visit museums along the way. They camped at a Park in Minnesota on Saturday night but stayed in a motel on Sunday. Like us, here they had lots of hot weather. But unlike us they hit some rain which we didn't have here. They returned very late on Monday night.

Yesterday, Tuesday the 4th of July, Douglas and Penny went grocery shopping and organized a last minute cookout at their house. Donna and I went. We brought Mama back at the same time. Ronnie and Jill and Michael and family also attended. I played catch with water balloons for the first time in my life. Adriana brought a package. While she did most of the filling of the balloons, some of the rest threw them back and forth. Douglas, Sebastian and I got into the act. Even Natasha tried it. The only one that really got wet was when Adriana caught one near her face and it broke, splashing water all over her face. Michael brought fireworks but Donna and I left before the show. Ronnie said today that he and Jill also left before the display. Mama also told me today that Natasha was afraid of the noise.

I scanned in a few old photos from the forties in the last few days. I especially liked one from 1948 with Daddy and Douglas and me drinking pop. I sent it to Ronnie to clean it up. He is better at it than I am.

I have been going to YMCA everyday but Sunday. Donna has been going almost as much. I did 60 minutes on the treadmill for the first time on Saturday. I think my heart can take it but I don't think my feet and legs could go that long every day. At least not at the present time.    Home

June 30, 2006, Friday
Jim Hartline had another heart attack today. He drove himself to the hospital in New Richmond. They took him by ambulance to Unity hospital in St. Paul. Tomorrow they are going to try and induce a heart attack.

I picked up Mama at Douglas's today. Douglas and Penny are leaving on a camping trip tomorrow. They often vacation at this time of year. He will still be in touch by phone.

Ronnie had an MRI on Monday. He got the results back Wednesday. Even though his leg has swollen he has no new bleeding in his leg. The doctor said it will take time for that old blood in his leg to go away. He said the exercise might have made it swell more but told him to keep exercising. Ronnie also did not have an infection.

Speaking of exercise, I have been using the treadmill at the YMCA everyday. I had an appointment this afternoon to learn the electronic anaerobic machines. Donna has not had as much time to get over there as I have.      Home

June 27, 2006, Tuesday
Do you fondly remember those "photos of the day" from the past year? Are you longing to see them again? This is your day. I have put a link name "Random" in the menu bar. By clicking on it, you will see one of the 186 available pics from the last year.    Home

June 25, 2006, Sunday
Robert and Tracey had a birthday party for Megan today. Most of the same relatives were there. Ronnie and Jill did not attend. He is still having problems with his leg. Robert's parents came up from Missouri on Friday. Robert, father Bob and Trey went to the "Back to the 50's" car show yesterday at the Fair Grounds in St. Paul. The show is an annual event.

Robert made a CD of Megan's previous year. He has been doing that the last few years. Tracey had Taco salad with ground chicken and pizza salad. She also had cut up melons and a frozen birthday cake. Megan got lots of presents.

Michael and kids came to the party with Doug and Penny. Michael's chest was red and even painful to look at. Besides painkillers he also put ice packs on it.

The weather was very nice and we all had a good time. We packed up Mama's luggage before we left for the party. She then went home with Douglas when they left.    Home

June 24, 2006, Saturday
Douglas brought Mama over on Wednesday to stay a few days. He went up north on Thursday to pick up Penny and do some business in Duluth. He and Penny came back on Friday.

Ronnie is having some problems with his leg again. It has swelled up and he has lots of pain in it. On Friday morning, he went to the cardiologist. Ronnie didn't like what he said, (Or didn't say or do.) So in the afternoon, he went to his own doctor, where the doctor did tests and scheduled more tests for next week. Ronnie didn't go to his exercise class on Friday. He thinks it could be part of the problem. On Friday night Mama, Donna and I watched a couple of episodes of the TV series "Monk". It was from the second season collection that Ronnie and Jill had bought.

Donna and I got a guest pass in the mail from the YMCA today so we tried it out late this afternoon. We made a tour of the place on Wednesday and will probably join next week. We both spent a half an hour on the tread mill. I like it because you can set the speed and then keep monitoring the heart rate. By the workout I got, I know I haven't been walking fast enough at home.

One of the reasons, Douglas came back yesterday was that Michael had a rash high fever. If it got worse he was going to go down to the Mayo Clinic last night but it stayed low enough so he waited until this morning. It turns out he now has Shingles. He was given a morphine and a drip treatment this morning and then again in the afternoon. Douglas called around 8 PM and said they were coming home.     Home

June 20, 2006, Tuesday
It's been a week since I last wrote. It might not be appropriate to call it "Newsflash" any longer. But it is still a record of events. One event that happened today is that it is the latest setting of the sun for this year at 9:03 PM. After tomorrow the days will slowly get shorter. When we lived in the country near Deer River in northern Minnesota the latest setting was about 9:10 PM. Another event today -- the Minnesota Twins won their eighth straight game.

Douglas and Penny and the Lundbergs went north last weekend to visit Penny's brother. She is staying the week but Douglas came back Sunday. Mama stayed the weekend with Ronnie. Ronnie and Jill had a small Father's day celebration on Sunday. Donna and I went over there. Ronnie grilled some chicken breasts and wieners and Jill made a delicious rhubarb cake. Jill's mother was also there. Donna and I made a chicken salad. Actually because I never made it before, I watched Donna and then I stirred it all together. It looks easy to make.

Ronnie is continuing his physical therapy. He really likes the workouts. Last Wednesday the resistance on the treadmill was set too high and he was very sore the next day. After the adjustment on Friday, he was fine again.

Jim Hartline now has a rare infection in his eye. He did go back to work yesterday.

I have been working on pictures of the day for next month. I have them all ready to go except for one more.     Home

June 13, 2006, Tuesday
Michael went down to Rochester yesterday for blood tests. They turned out great. Jim Hartline did not fare as well. He went back to work but got a bloody nose that wouldn't stop. He had to go to the doctor who said he shouldn't start back to work yet.     Home

June 12, 2006, Monday
Well, Ronnie returned on Saturday from visiting Nathan. He said, he hadn't been too tempted to smoke when he was around Nathan. Douglas also returned. They had stayed Friday night at New Ulm. It rained hard there. We had a cool weekend. It was 53 degrees Saturday morning. Both Friday and Saturday, it never got up to 70. It was nice to turn the air conditioner off. Last Friday Dennis also called to wish me happy birthday. He had called before but I wasn't at home.

Yesterday on Sunday, Douglas came over and picked Mama up. Douglas is going out of town next weekend. Mama likes to stay alone but even though she hasn't fallen down lately, it is better she doesn't stay overnight by herself. She doesn't like the situation but she accepts it. She is happy when she gets to stay by herself on some days for several hours. It isn't easy being 89 years old. When you're 89 and can walk, talk and think, you are doing alright.

Donna is feeling somewhat better. She has quit taking the vicadin. She is still taking the ibuprofen. She saw the chiropractor again this evening. He gave her a sheet with back exercises on it. Even before Donna's problem started, I was considering a program of core exercises. I have bought a couple of books but haven't done anything about it yet. I am getting close though. I have been following my walking program quite well.

Ronnie started his physical therapy today. I talked to him this morning before he went and it sounded like just the right thing for him. Douglas talked to him later and he told me that Ronnie had really liked it.      Home

June 9, 2006, Friday
Yesterday evening, Douglas brought Mama over to stay for a few days because they were going out of town. He had to go to Mankato on business. Terri dropped Abbey off at their house this morning and Douglas, Penny and Abbey left for southern Minnesota. They are staying the night in New Ulm.

This morning, I went grocery shopping after I dropped Donna off for work. After I put away the groceries at home,I went to the education and outpatient building of North Memorial Hospital where Deb, a North Memorial outpatient dietitian, weighed me in. I have been doing this once a month for the last three months. I took a pre-diabetes class in February. Right away, she showed me a new kind of pasta, named 'Dreamfields' which contains inulin, a carbohydrate that does not digest until it gets to the large intestine. That might be interesting, I thought. I left after less than five minutes, which is the same amount of time I usually spend there.

I kept thinking I would like to try the pasta in a soup I would make for supper but didn't want to go to the store for one item. Later, Mama wanted to go shopping and buy some 'Seven Up'. So I went back to Rainbow again. She bought several items and she paid for the pasta. I created a recipe for a chicken corn chowder and I put the inulin elbow pasta in it. It turned out very well. I can see lots of possibilities for the pasta, because it does not increase the sugar levels like ordinary pasta and has half as many calories.      Home

June 8, 2006, Thursday
Jim Hartline had a stress test today and the results were good. He went home in the afternoon. He has to take four or five pills.

Ronnie had a physical therapy evaluation this morning and then in the afternoon went up north to visit son Nathan. He will be back on Saturday.      Home

June 7, 2006, Wednesday
Today is my birthday. I can't believe I am this old. I will be going out to lunch with Ronnie and Mama. Originally Douglas was going to be there but he will be too busy today.

Jim Hartline had some chest pains at two in the morning. They gave him some nitro to take away the pain. He had no pains the rest of the day. If he is still pain free tomorrow they will let him go home.

We did go out today to the Old Country Buffet. Jill also took time from work to be there. It was nice to get together.

Donna went to see a chiropractor this evening. It was the first time we were ever in a chiropractor's office. It looks like it might work out.      Home

June 6, 2006, Tuesday
Jim Hartline had a heart attack this morning. I don't know how bad it is but right now at 7:30 AM, they are flying him from New Richmond, Wisconsin to United Hospital in downtown St. Paul. Terri, with her son Logan, is driving to St. Paul. Douglas will pick Logan up at the hospital. Jim is only 36 years old.

By 10 AM, they had already done the angiogram but had not removed the tube. They are going to wait until the blood coagulates more. The good news is that they didn't find any damage to his heart and his arteries look good. They were speculating on the possibility of a clot. He will be on an aspirin a day and blood thinner. Because the hospital is full he will not have his room until four this afternoon.

By four o'clock Jim's procedure was done and he was in his room. Douglas went to Wisconsin to pick up Logan and check to see if Andrea and Abbey wanted to go to the hospital. Just after I uploaded this paragraph, Douglas called. He and all the kids were eating at a MacDonalds in Hudson, Wisconsin.

Jim had lots of visitors at the hospital this evening but they all left by 8 o'clock. They were going to give him a sleeping pill at nine. He will find out more tomorrow.

On the news today, there were stories about the date -- 6-6-06. Some people connected the date to the 666 of Revelations. I don't think there is any relevance.    Home

June 5, 2006, Monday
Yesterday on Sunday, Robert and Tracey and kids went with Douglas and Penny to the Arboretum in Chaska. Robert took lots of photos. He called me yesterday evening to tell me he had uploaded the photos already. Before I made an update today, I noticed that Terri had also uploaded some photos.      Home

June 3, 2006, Saturday
It was three months ago yesterday, that Ronnie had open heart surgery. He seems to be doing quite well. They went to Zumbroto today. Also today, I put out the garden ball they gave us a few weeks ago and set up our angel water feature.

Donna went back to the Doctor yesterday because she still having so much back pain. He gave her a prescription to Vicadin, a powerful painkiller. He also gave her a referral to a back therapist. She didn't work today. She usually works one Saturday every month and today was it.     Home

June 1, 2006, Thursday
Ronnie called last Tuesday and told me he had uploaded the photos he took on Memorial Day at Lebanon Hills Park. I have used two of them for the daily pics of Megan and Natasha that rotate once a day on a weekly basis. The photos are at a page on his web site.

Today, I had a colonoscopy. As anyone who has ever had one knows, the prep is the hardest part. I drank a gallon of liquid laxative last evening. I could not drink the last four ounces. Happily, I had no polyps. I will not be required to have another test for five years. Because I had uncles who died of colon cancer, I have had tests ever since I was forty years old. In 1995, I had surgery to remove a precancerous polyp. They took out 11 inches of my large intestine at the time. One my cousins has also died of colon cancer since then.

Donna has had the last six days off but will have to go back to work tomorrow. She has had back problems this weeks and can hardly sleep at night.     Home

May 29, 2006, Monday
Robert Lundberg called tonight and said he has updated his photos on smugmug. Robert has been the most the consistent at taking photos of family events and also of uploading them to the Internet. He has uploaded the photos that were taken just yesterday at the picnic at Lebanon Hills Park in Eagan.

We almost didn't go yesterday because it was so hot out. It was in the nineties, record breaking heat for this time of year. I told Douglas I wasn't going and then called and told Ronnie I wasn't going. I wanted to make sure he knew I wasn't going because Jill had bought some chicken patties for me. Not long after that Ronnie called back and tried to talk me into going. He said, if it gets too hot, you can leave early. I told him I would think about it. By this time I was more or less persuaded to go but when I told Donna, she thought it would be a long trip (about 30 miles) just to come right back home. So I said, We won't go. But in a few minutes, she said, we my as well go because we weren't doing anything anyway.

I am glad I went. We rushed to get ready and didn't bring much. I didn't bring a map but I had read Tracey's email the night before and didn't have any problem finding the place. I was surprised there wasn't more people at the location in the park we picnicked at. The location was near the cars, so we didn't have carry things for long distances. And it was right across the road from some decent restroom facilities. It was hot and windy but it was fun. It was almost too windy to have a picnic. If it wasn't anchored down, the wind blew it away. After a couple of hours, about half the crowd went to a swimming beach at another area of the park. We took Mama home and Ronnie, Jill and Terry went to her mother's. Adriana had to go to work.

Today on Memorial Day, Donna and I went over to the cemetery and put some flowers on her grandmother's grave. I wonder if Dennis put any flowers on Daddy's grave. I put a new flag on the front of our house on Friday.   Home

May 27, 2006, Saturday
Ronnie and Jill did return last Sunday night around 9:30 PM. His chest was still sore because he drove about 400 miles one day. They saw several shows. He really liked the Andy Williams and Glen Campbell show. He said And Williams was still a very good singer at age 78. He also said that Glen Campbell could really play the guitar. Although I don't think Ronnie has played guitar lately, I always thought he was pretty good. He plays by ear which I always thought was amazing.         Home

May 21, 2006, Sunday
I charged up the battery for the lawn mower from 6 PM Friday until Noon yesterday. Then Donna and I adjusted the wheels, added the oil and gas and tried it out. After priming the gas three times it failed to start when I turned it over with the electric starter. Continuing to follow directions, I gave the priming button two more pushes. It fired up immediately. I mowed the back yard a couple of times because the grass was over seven inches high. I used the mulching feature. Donna also tried it out. After I finished, I tried starting it with the pull cord. It started with one pull, of course the engine was warm. Then Donna and I went out and bought some flowers and plants. When we got back, I took out the mower and tried starting it again. It started with one pull. I had forgotten the key in the house. A good start.

Today Donna and I went to church and then went out and bought some more flowers. I haven't heard anything from Ronnie yet. I thought he would be back today some time. When I talked to Mama, she said she hadn't heard from him. Douglas was going to help Michael get some office furniture from Tracey's workplace, the company she works for was changing offices today. They were then going to to take the furniture over to Michael's business in St. Paul. At last report from Mama, Douglas and Penny had left at noon and still weren't back yet tonight at ten o'clock. I can't think of many worse things to do on Sunday than moving furniture.       Home

May 19, 2006, Friday
Douglas picked up Mama on Wednesday to bring her back to his home, where she lives. He had a business deal in Wisconsin today. He and Penny spent the afternoon and early evening on the trip back and forth to his appointment.

I bought a new gas lawn mower today. I have been using electric cordless lawn mowers for the last six years. The first one I had for three years and was a good reliable mower but it got wet in a storm. The second one was a piece of junk. I wanted a mower that would last longer but I didn't want one that was hard to start. My last gas mower, I almost pulled my arm off trying to start it. This one has an electric starter and a long warranty. We shall see.      Home

May 16, 2006, Tuesday
Last Sunday was mother's day. We all went out to a buffet for lunch. There were 22 of us there. The lunch wasn't up to my expectations but it was nice to get together.

Ronnie and Jill and Jill's mother left for Branson today. They will be seeing several shows. They are driving their new car. I hope everything works out for them and they have fun.

I recieved an email from our cousin Marcel Nolet. He sent a link to an article in the Boston Globe about his son Simon Nolet.   Home

May 13, 2006, Saturday
Ronnie brought Mama over for a few days this morning. Ronnie and Jill are moving to the basement and Terri is moving to the main floor. Mama didn't want to be around when they were moving. Of course, Ronnie won't be doing the lifting. Jill's son Brad is coming over to help. It doesn't sound like much fun but they will have a nice place down there. They will have their own private sitting area. I took a quick look at Ronnie's new car. It looks very nice. It looks bigger than I thought it would.

I downloaded the iso's for the new Suse Linux 10.1 yesterday and made CDs of them last night. They are ready to install anytime I want. I have been using Suse 10.0 for much of my computing since last November. I am using it right now by writing on the Nvu web editor and then I upload with gftp, the gnome ftp program. I use the KDE graphical interface but with some gnome additions and some KDE deletions. I still consider myself a newbe. Pesonally, I don't know anyone else who uses Linux.   Home

May 11, 2006, Thursday
Ronnie bought a car yesterday. It was a 2003 Mercury Sable with only 9,000 miles on it. He said it looks and runs great. After he bought the car he picked up Mama on the way home. She will stay with him for a few days. Jill drove it last night and really liked it. They are going to give it a good workout because it only has three months left on the warranty. They are driving it down to Branson sometime next week. He bought it at a dealer.

The last used car he bought looked nice but had more miles on it and he had a lots of problems with it. He bought it at a carnival at the Itasca County Fair. The car was suppose to have a warranty but he never received it. He sued the seller and went to court. When he and Jill got to court, they were shocked to find only the family of the seller there. The seller had died. They won but it was meaningless because there was no money. There is a valuble lesson to learn here, "Never buy a car at a carnival."        Home

May 9, 2006, Tuesday
There are updates for the photos for the Lundbergs, the Hartlines and Douglas. The one I did for Douglas is from August 9, 1999.        Home

May 7, 2006, Sunday
Yesterday, I went out to the Lundbergs with Douglas, Penny and Mama. They picked me up around noon. Soon after we got there, we went, in two different vans, to the arboretum in Chaska. The redbud and crabapple trees were in full bloom. I was really impressed with the redbuds. They have an interesting shape all the time. Douglas keeps a season pass. Mama was still tired from going out on Friday. Back at the Lundbergs we played boccie ball before we left.

Donna had to work on Saturday but after work, her bank branch in Robbinsdale had a cookout at the Metrodome and passes for the Twins game. She was quite excited about going. After I watched the Twins on TV win in the bottom of the ninth, she arrived home. She didn't know the Twins won because her ride wanted to leave before the game ended. She was a little disappointed that she didn't see it but she had fun at the game.        Home

May 5, 2006, Friday
Today is the birthday of my mother, Jennie (Reed) Nolette. She is 89. There is a photo of her as a baby on the website today . She is sitting on a chair on some type of rug. When I was young my mother always said it was a photo her. A few years back, Barb Hart showed me this same photo and said it was a photo of Art Reed. It didn't look like Art Reed but I was never as positive until I found a different photo taken at the same time or near the same time. In that photo there were four kids in the photos and their identities were written on the back. She and Art are both in that photo. So today's photo is positively of her.

Douglas, Penny, Ronnie, Mama and I went over to the Olive Garden Restaurant to celebrate her birthday today at noon. We all had soup and salad except for Mama who ordered the Chicken Alfredo. She took half of it home with her. Of course Donna was working.

After that we went back to Douglas' house. Terri stopped in to wish her grandmother happy birthday. Later, after I left to pick up Donna, Michael and kids stopped in with a birthday cake. Jill also stopped by.        Home

May 4, 2006, Thursday
For the first three days this week, Michael Nolette was at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester. He was given many tests and a thorough evaluation. It has been one year since his liver transplant. The doctors gave him an A-.        Home

May 3, 2006, Wednesday
Yesterday, May 2nd was the one year anniversary of Michael's liver transplant. Besides many others, we were both at Abbey's birthday party last year and this year. During that one year, there has been an amazing transformation. Last year he was extremely thin, his skin was jaundiced, he talked slowly and even his thinking was effected. I could think of only one thing when I looked at him, "How much longer will he live?" Now, he looks healthy, his weight is normal and maybe even above normal. It is truly a time to thank God.       Home

May 1, 2006, Monday
Yesterday Terri and Jim had a birthday party for daughter Abbey. Donna and I drove to Roseville and then went over with Douglas, Penny and Mama for the rest of the trip to Wisconsin. They live almost 60 miles from us. Most of the relatives were there except for the family of Robert and Tracey. We had pizza and cake and then Abbey opened birthday presents.

Today was Donna and I's actual 35th wedding anniversary. I took Donna to lunch at Mcdonalds and for supper we went to the Country Buffet. I was disappointed that they are now serving salmon on Wednesdays and Friday only.

Today is also the birthday of Christian Nolette. He is now 19 years old. When Douglas talked to Dennis on Saturday, Dennis said they were having a shared party that night. They had lobster and steak at home. Dennis's birthday is on April 30th. He is now 53.     Home

April 29, 2006, Saturday
Even though our 35th wedding anniversary won't be until Monday, Donna and I went out to eat tonight at the Red Lobster restaurant. Donna had shrimp and I had salmon. Although it was a very rainy day today, we had a nice time. We went to several different stores but did not buy much.

Today is the 22nd anniversary of our father, Alden Nolette's death in 1984. There were times in that first six months when it was very hard. That summer of 1984, I got out my film enlarger which I hadn't used in years. I found and enlarged several photos of my father. I also started taking more photos and used my enlarger for some time. I can't remember how long I used it but it is has now been gathering dust in the basement for many years. The use of digital cameras has now almost made enlargers obsolete. But the combination of a Single Lens Reflex and film has yet to be beaten. The summer of 1984 was also the summer Terri stayed with us.

Ronnie has been doing great this week. He has been driving around a lot and even went down to work at the credit union last Thursday. It was the first time since heart surgery eight weeks ago.

I did a roll of Douglas's photo last night and put them on the website. I also notice that Robert Lundberg has updated his online photos.    Home

April 22, 2006, Saturday
Well Ronnie finally went to see his primary care doctor last Wednesday. Although he has seen plenty of doctors, because of having to change insurance companies last year, he had to find a new primary care physician. Jill found this one and Ronnie seemed to like him. Ronnie is improving rapidly.

Yesterday, when I got back home from taking Donna to work, the garage door didn't open. That was bad sign. I went around to the front and parked on the street. The power was out. I called it in but someone had already called. At nine o'clock, after waiting for two hours, I went over to Douglas's until it was time to pick Donna up. Abbey was there because she had had a fever that morning. Later, after Donna and I got home, I found out the power was off for five and one half hours. I was thankfull that hadn't happened last winter. Today Donna and I worked on our front door. Douglas and Penny took Abbey home.    Home

April 19, 2006, Wednesday
Douglas and Penny brought Mama over yesterday so we could visit Ronnie. Douglas also brought over a dehumidifier. I have one already but I might need another one. After they left, Mama and I went to visit Ronnie. I brought him a cane, I hope he uses it. I left there at 2:30 to pick up Donna but Mama stayed, Douglas would pick her up later. I wanted to go over there yesterday because it looked like it was going to be the last nice day of the week.

But it turned out to be a decent day today. For a walk today, I paced up and down the block knowing a round trip would be 1200 feet. I made five round trips for a total of 6000 feet. Most of my walks have been walking circles in the basement. This is more precise. Whenever the weather permits, I will walk at least nine trips, which would be 10,800 feet or almost two miles.

I have been working on and off since last year on a short biography of A. F. Brown, our only ancestor who served in the Civil War. Although not quite satisfied with it, I decided to upload it to the web site anyway.    Home

April 17, 2006, Monday
Yesterday was Easter. We went to church at 9AM, the church was packed, unusual for our church. After coming home, Donna and I packed up the food and everything else we were bringing and went over to Douglas' house. We were the first ones there. We parked right behind the garage, it was easier to bring everything in that way. Douglas helped carry some of the stuff in. He had been working in the kitchen. Within the next couple of hours, everyone was there except Ronnie and family. (Jill drove Heidi down to the bus depot in the early afternoon, Ronnie even went for the ride. They had a brunch in the morning.) Leah and her boyfriend arrived later.

We all had lots of hor'derves before dinner. The deviled eggs that Tracey made went fast. There was lots of food for dinner including turkey, ham, mashed potatoes, cooked vegetables and lots of pies. It was even nice enough to go outside after dinner. We have had a week of over 70 degree weather.

I was fascinated by Michael's new cell phone. I called it a toy but he called it a tool. Besides the phone it had a built-in camera, which is now quite common. It also had a mini keyboard, mini operating system which had email, a web browser, a media player, and more, a wi-fi and and phone connection. Last night. I was tempted to run out and buy one today but I had to keep telling myself-- I don't need it -- I don't need it. I didn't by one -- yet!

We all had a nice time and when Donna and I left at six, the only visitors left were Michael, Sebastian, and Natasha.   Home

April 15, 2006, Saturday
I bought a book at Brookdale this morning and then went over to pick Mama up. I was going to visit Ronnie and Heidi today so Mama decided to visit Heidi again before Heidi leaves on Sunday. We got over there around noon. We had a nice visit. We left at 2:30 PM so I could pick Donna up at work. After that, we ate at the Country Buffet. I ate plenty of vegetables and two helpings of Salmon. Mama didn't eat enough to get her money's worth. After we got to the house, we took Mama back home right away. We hurried home and got ready for Good Friday service at church. I was pretty much on the go from 6 AM to 8PM today.    Home

April 13, 2006, Thursday
Douglas and Mama went to Coon Rapids today to visit Ronnie and Heidi. The physical therapist came while they were there. She had Ronnie walking with his cane. It was six weeks ago today that he had his heart surgery.        Home

April 12, 2006, Wednesday
Today is the 165th anniversary of the firing on Fort Sumter. It was the beginning of the American Civil War, which lasted for four years. Huge numbers were killed in the war (360,000 Union dead; 258,000 Confederacy dead.)

Mama went back over to Douglas' yesterday. The night before she left she told Donna good-bye because Douglas was picking her up in the morning. But the next day Douglas decided he was coming later in the day. So my mother said, "I will see Donna again." I answered, "I'm sorry for Donna." She said, "I'm sorry for her too, she's married to you."

Heidi took a bus down from Duluth today. Jill picked her up and brought her to their house around 11 AM. The trip from Duluth doesn't take long -- less than three hours. I talked to both Ronnie and Heidi this afternoon. Ronnie said that the nurse took him off the infection pump today. The cut had healed up enough so it was too shallow to use the pump anymore. They will now use the old way by packing the incision.     Home

April 10, 2006, Monday
We finally got some weather that feels like late spring. It got up to 79 degrees today. It was the first time it got that warm since late October of last year. The physical therapist had Ronnie walking around outside on the driveway yesterday. They had him walking six minutes without stopping.    Home

April 7, 2006, Friday
I received permission today from Marcel and Simon Nolet to put Simon's brief summary of his family on 'Noletes on the Net'. I am also putting up a photo of Jean Baptiste Nolet (which I enlarged slightly). He was the son of Ernest Nolet (brother of my grandfather Napoleon), and the son of Majorique Nolet. Jean Baptiste would be the first cousin of my father Alden Nolette. He was born the same year as Alden Nolette which was 1912. The photo was taken in 1937 when Jean Baptiste was 25 years old. He died in the year 2000. My father would have been so happy to hear all about this but he died in 1984. Home

April 6, 2006, Thursday
I got an email today from Marcel Nolet and his son Simon. They are descendants of Majorique Nolet and are fairly close relatives. I think Marcel would be a second cousin. I sent them back an email and hope to hear from them again.

Well, Douglas took Ronnie to the doctor today to see the infection specialist. Later, on the phone, Mama asked Ronnie who did a better job--David or Douglas. Ronnie thought a moment. "Douglas, he stopped and bought me a donut." Home

April 5, 2006, Wednesday
I took Ronnie on his first outing today. A visit to his cardiologist. He hasn't left the house in almost two weeks. The doctor ripped apart his dressing and said he is healing very well. As soon as he got home he called the nurse to put in a new dressing and put new hoses on his infection pump. I left after the nurse arrived. Ronnie was walking very good today. I was a little nervous about the whole thing. I was afraid he might fall.

I also gave blood today. It went very smooth just as it did the first time I gave blood in January. The blood center in Coon Rapids was very easy to find. Home

April 4, 2006, Tuesday
Ronnie has two doctors appointments this week. Because of her work load this week, his wife Jill can not take any time off. So tomorrow, I am taking Ronnie to a doctor appointment at the hospital and Douglas will take him to a clinic appointment on Thursday. Because I will be in the area anyway, I made an appointment to give blood in Coon Rapids tomorrow on April the 5th.

So far this week, everything has been going fairly smooth. Home

April 1, 2006, Saturday
It's April 1st. It's been raining the last few days. The snow is all melted. The weatherman is not predicting any freezing temperatures for the next week. Baseball starts next Tuesday. Spring is here at last.

I went over to see Ronnie yesterday afternoon. I brought my new laptop computer over for his examination. He was anxious to see it. He approved. He thought it had a lot of good features for the price I paid for it. He looked and sounded pretty good but he got sick at his stomach before I left. I also talked to him on the phone this morning. He thinks, once, he quits taking all those antibiotic pills he will be all right.

Douglas, Penny and Mama went over and ate lunch at Michael and Adriana's today. Michael was going to serve walleye.          Home

March 30, 2006, Thursday
Douglas and Mama went over to see Ronnie this morning. They stayed about three hours. They were there when the physical therapist stopped in for Ronnie's therapy.

Happy birthday, Nathan.      Home

March 29, 2006, Wednesday
When I bring Donna to work, I usually take a shortcut down the alley behind the bank. This morning, just after I turned into the alley Donna yells out, "Stop, stop!" She is looking out the window. So I stopped. Donna jumps out of the van and disappears behind the van. A moment later she jump back in. "Look," she says, "I found a ten dollar bill." She holds it up to show me.
"Wow," I said, "You have good eyes." The bill was damp from laying in the alley but it was a perfectly good bill although slightly beat up. Forty-some years ago, it was a day's wages.

At lunch hour Donna decided to walk down the alley to see if there was any more money laying around. She found a one dollar bill stuck in a bush but that was it.   Home

March 27, 2006, Monday
A nurse came out and changed Ronnie's dressing today after he managed to resolve the scheduling conflicts between the nurse the physical therapist. The nurse had top priority. Douglas took two photos of Ronnie when he was in the hospital. Ronnie doesn't remember them being taken. Here's one where it looks like he is saying, "Wish you were here."   Home

March 26, 2006, Sunday
I talked to Ronnie on the phone today. He was already on the computer. He is working on the credit union newsletter. He can't do it for very long without the leg incision hurting. He has to keep laying down to get rid of the pain. If he moves somewhere for only a few minutes he disconnects his vacuum pump. There is a procedure for turning it on and off. Overall he sounded pretty good.

Around noon, Douglas took Penny over to the Lundbergs. She will be babysitting there all week because they don't have school. Mama stayed at home. She called me in the evening. She said she was feeling lonely. Douglas will be returning around 10 PM.

Donna and I went to church and Bible class today. In bible class, the pastor said one of his favorite bible verses was Isaiah 40:31. He told the class a couple of times, "It is a good verse to memorize." For supper Donna made a chicken casserole.       Home

March 25, 2006, Saturday
I called Robert Lundberg this morning and asked him for advise on buying a new mouse. He recommended an optical mouse. I've never had one before. I have been using the rolling ball style for years. His folks are visiting this weekend. After shopping today, which included buying the mouse, Donna and I took Mama out for soup at the Olive Garden. I talked to Jill this morning and she said Ronnie was pretty tired out. I uploaded a set of Douglas's photos from February.    Home

March 24, 2006, Friday
Ronnie is now home from the hospital. He went home about four o'clock. He made it up the stairs without too much trouble. I talked to him for a few minutes in the evening. He said Jill made a healthy fish dinner. He hadn't moved from the living room.

I took my cardio stress test today. Four years ago I had one and had a chemical one at that time. Today, I took the test on the tread mill. Even though I got out of breath and tired, it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. They got my heart rate up to 160 bpm and I could still keep going without pain. I was there for a long four and a half hours. One of the cameras was broke down. I will get results in about a week.

The snow keeps melting slowly. The snow coverage is now down to about four inches, with some areas in the backyard being bare.      Home

March 23, 2006, Thursday
I went over and visited Ronnie for quite awhile this afternoon. He is leaving the hospital tomorrow. While I was there, they delivered his pump and supplies that he will be taking home with him.

Yesterday, Terri went to the emergency room in the middle of the night. She was out of there by six AM. Today was a good day. No one in the family went to the hospital. Tomorrow is my turn. I am having a cardio stress test in the morning. It does make me a little anxious. Mama called tonight and told me she praying for me.    Home

March 21, 2006, Tuesday
Yesterday was the equinox. Despite what you may have heard, it doesn't mean it is the start of spring. The start of spring depends on where you live. Spring starts a lot earlier in Memphis than Minneapolis. It was reported on the news yesterday that we had seven inches of snow on the ground. That is not the start of spring. But it is only a few weeks away. I consider the start of spring when the nighttime temperature reaches an average temperature that is above freezing. That doesn't happen here until April 9th.

I went to see Ronnie this afternoon. This morning, he had been having trouble keeping his food down but he looks and sounds a lot stronger. The infection specialist checks on him every day. He will still be seeing her once a week after his release.

Happy Birthday Adriana. I hear she is feeling better.             Home

March 20, 2006, Monday
I talked to Ronnie, on the phone, several times today. The calls kept being interrupted by nurses or doctors. He had the dressing changed on his leg again today. It was slightly less painful than Friday. He said he felt stronger and was going to do some more physical therapy later in the afternoon.

Adriana fainted this morning. Her blood pressure was low. By the time the ambulance arrived, she was awake again and refused to go. Later, on doctor's advice, she went to the emergency room. The doctors did not think there was anything seriously wrong with her and sent her home. Results of some tests are pending.             Home

March 19, 2006, Sunday
Mama and Douglas went over and seen Ronnie today. He seemed pretty good. Mama was quite tired after the visit.             Home

March 18, 2006, Saturday
After mailing our bills, running errands, and having fish sandwiches at McDonald's, Donna and I decided to visit Ronnie in the hospital. When we pulled into the parking lot we saw some people crossing the road. "That's Douglas and Penny!" Donna said. As we got closer, I honked the horn at them. We had no idea they were going over there. When we got to the room, they were there, as well as Jill. We stayed and visited Ronnie for a couple of hours. He seemed OK but tired.               Home

March 17, 2006, Friday
Douglas visited Ronnie this morning, in the hospital, before going over to Wisconsin to pick up Penny. She has been babysitting the last two days at the Hartlines because they had no school. I visited Ronnie this afternoon. It was right after they changed his dressing for the first time. It caused him intense pain. The cut is pushed apart by a sponge packing that is about one and a half inches wide. The sponge packing is attached to a pump. Ronnie showed me it but it was not something I really wanted to look at. I wasn't over there long because I then had to pick up Donna at work.

Donna and I then went out to eat. It was a birthday. Our van is now two years old but still has less than 16,000 miles on it. Today also marks the anniversary of the death of Grandma (Amy) Reed. She died 16 years ago in 1990.             Home

March 16, 2006, Thursday
Ronnie had surgery on his leg again today. They made the incision bigger and deeper and cleaned it out. They put a pump on it to suck out the bad stuff. The pump will be on for the duration of his hospital stay and they will put a smaller one on when he goes home. They didn't put any stitches in the cut but packed it with charcoal. Jill said it looked awful. He will be in the hospital another five days.

We had another bad snow today but it wasn't as bad as Monday's. We had six inches of snow this time but it was much lighter, fluffier snow.            Home

March 15, 2006, Wednesday
Douglas stopped by this morning and then drove us over to see Ronnie. Ronnie looked good but sounded depressed. He said he may have to stay in a nursing home for a month while he received antibiotic injections. We stayed until noon.

Douglas picked Mama up to go back home with him when he dropped me off. This is where she lives most of the time.         Home

March 14, 2006, Tuesday
They have now determined all the different kinds of bacteria in Ronnie's leg infection. He will probably be in the hospital for a few more days.

There is lot's of snow piled up from yesterday's snow. It is quite beautiful but I still don't like it. I am ready for spring. There is suppose to be another storm in two more days. I hope they are wrong.      Home

March 13, 2006, Monday
The infection specialist made several cultures from Ronnie's leg incision today. It looks like there is three different bacteria. They will know more tomorrow but he already has been started on more than one antibiotic. He also had an MRI. His voice sounds good and he no longer seems depressed.

We had the worst snow storm of the last three years today. At the airport they had 10 inches of snow but I know I had 12 inches in my back yard. It was snowing very hard when I took Donna to work at 6:30 this morning but the manager called on the cell phone and said the other person had an accident and wouldn't be in. She said she would be in as soon as possible. As we waited, the snow was unbelievable. It looked like like someone was throwing buckets of snow on the windshield. We waited half an hour before the manager showed up. I took the back roads home to stay away from the traffic. I was most worried about getting stuck in the alley but I made it and didn't go out again until I picked Donna up. This year's winter snow had already melted away and the ground had been bare. So now we start again, but I think it should be melted away before April.       Home

March 12, 2006, Sunday
Ronnie is back in the hospital tonight. This morning his temperature was up to 101 degrees. The NH decided he needed to be on an antibiotic. His leg started hurting, even more than it has been, and then it started to bleed. They decided he needed to go back to the hospital. By this time Douglas was over there and he and Jill put Ronnie in the van. Jill drove to the hospital and Douglas followed in his van. In the emergency room they decided he needed to be admitted to the hospital.

They took x-rays and tests and decided tonight the infection is in his leg. Tomorrow he will have an MRI and more evaluation. An infection specialist will also see him. Douglas has been very good about calling and informing us of the situation. He was over there for over eight hours. On his way home tonight, he stopped at the nursing home and picked up Ronnie's clothes because they will not keep his room for him.       Home

March 11, 2006, Saturday
Donna worked today as she does every fourth Saturday. Mama didn't feel well, so I went over to see Ronnie by myself this afternoon. There was no one else there when I got there. I pushed him down to the atrium in his wheel chair where we talked for about 15 minutes, when he wanted to go back to his room and lay down. His ataxia didn't seem too bad today and he talked fairly well.

Jill came not long after I took him back to his room. They told about all the problems he had by going home for awhile the night before. He said he is not going to try that again for a few days. I asked if ataxi was half the problem. He said it was 80 percent of the problem. After a couple of hours I left to pick up Donna. By going by freeway. it was only about 16 minutes to the bank. Douglas, with Robert and Tracey, also went over there in the early evening.       Home

March 10, 2006, Friday
Ronnie left the nursing home and went home for a few hours this evening. He had problems getting up the steps. His heart was beating very hard by the time he made it up the few steps.
He was glad to be home for awhile.

Starting yesterday morning, after we had just visited Donna's doctor, we had a very stressful time getting Donna's medication. On Monday, the mail order drug company, we are required to use for long term medication, left a message saying they were shipping on Wednesday. But yesterday, on Thursday, they left a phone message saying there would be a delay of shipment. When I called, I found out it was a discrepancy about Donna's birth date, even though we have been using them for the last three years. I got that straightened out by contacting my former employer before retiring and they had to contact the insurance company. After waiting, I called the mail order pharmacy, who now had the right birth date, but said they wouldn't be able to ship the medicine for two more weeks. But Donna would be out this weekend, so she called the clinic and they said they would call in a prescription to a local pharmacy. After checking with the pharmacy several times yesterday and again this morning, I called the clinic and not only didn't they call the pharmacy but they had no record of Donna calling, which both Mama and I had listened to her do. Although it took until afternoon, she finally got a prescription and we did picked up the medication after Donna got out of work.       Home

March 9, 2006, Thursday
Ronnie did go to the nursing home today. But this morning, before he left the hospital, he fell down. It took three people to pick him up. When I talked to him on the phone tonight he sounded very depressed. His attitude is, I just want to go home.       Home

March 8, 2006, Wednesday
Because Ronnie had some more problems today, he did not go to the nursing home but he is scheduled to go tomorrow afternoon.         Home

March 7, 2006, Tuesday
Mama and I talked to Ronnie this afternoon. It sounds like he will be released to a nursing home tomorrow. He sounded a little depressed. But the good part is that it will be in Roseville, which is a lot closer than the hospital.       Home

March 6, 2006, Monday
Douglas and Penny took Heidi back to Duluth this afternoon. She may be back in a few weeks. Douglas got back sometime before seven tonight. We had some snow last night but it melted away during the day.

Before Douglas picked Heidi up, he brought Mama over to stay for a few days. After I picked Donna up this afternoon, I called Ronnie. I asked him if he had been able to sleep after everyone left. He said, "No, I've been laying around in a stupor."

They have giving him pills to get rid of the fluid buildup in his leg. So he had getting up to go to the bathroom a lot. Mama also talked to him at the same time. She is concerned that he is not eating enough.

Douglas called over and talked to Ronnie about 9:30 tonight. Jill has found a nursing home for him to go into when he leaves the hospital. He has been resistant about going into one but with his balance problems, it is the only thing to do.

I was shocked and saddened by the death of former Twins baseball player, Kirby Pucket today. He was not quite 46 years old. He gave us a lot of fun and excitement when the Twins won the World Series. I remember when he had been around for only a year or two, Donna and I went to get his autograph at a book store in Crystal. Donna waited in a fairly short line to get the autograph while I stood by the table and watch him sign sign the autographs. A few years later the lines were too long to wait for an autograph.       Home

March 5, 2006, Sunday
Ronnie called this evening around 6:30 from the hospital. He said he had quite a few visitors today. Douglas and Penny, Robert and Tracey and kids, Jill, Heidi and Terry Hien. He said his walking speed was faster today.

I talked to Douglas later. He said Ronnie didn't have as much pain today. They are giving him enough pain medication to get rid of the pain but it it doesn't keep him as clear headed as Ronnie wanted to be when people were visiting. But he is getting better.     Home

March 4, 2006, Saturday
Donna and I went over to see Ronnie this afternoon. Douglas, Penny and Mama were already there. Heidi was also there but Jill was out shopping. Ronnie's voice sounded better. Of course, he still has lots of pain. Dennis also called when we were there.

It's Ronnie's birthday today. When Jill returned she had a Happy birthday balloon for him. She also bought him some sweat pants. He is going to have a long recovery.     Home

March 3, 2006, Friday
When I talked to Douglas this morning he said he had talked to Ronnie. He said Ronnie's voice was very hoarse and he was in a lot of pain.

Not long after that, I talked to Jill and she said that Ronnie had forgotten everything from yesterday. It was Jill's birthday yesterday.

I called and talked to Ronnie about 2:30 PM. His voice was hoarse. He said, "It feels like I am having a heart attack all of the time." Earlier he had been out of bed and taken a few steps to a chair. He was thankful he was at least done with the surgery. At the time Douglas and Mama were visiting him but they had stepped out of the room.

I talked to Ronnie again about eight-thirty. Jill and Heidi were there. They were getting ready to watch the TV show "Monk". He said that earlier with the help of two nurses, he had walked out of his room and past several other rooms.

At noon today, I went with Donna to her appointment with her diabetes Doctor. She checked Donna's glucose levels for the past week and decided to increase Donna's slow acting insulin injection, she takes every night, by six units. We asked some questions and we learned some things we didn't know.    Home

March 2, 2006, Thursday

The hospital sent Ronnie home on Tuesday even though his leg was painful and had been bleeding. Last night he had to go to the emergency ward because the pain so bad in his leg. He was still having internal bleeding in his leg. Three pints of blood had leaked out. Great Job hospital!

At 11:30 AM he went into surgery to repair the leg and then do the heart surgery.

Donna and I went to McDonalds for her lunch break today, as we usually do on Thursday. Her break was later than usual and at 2:15 PM Douglas called. He said that Ronnie was out of surgery and everything had went well. He would be on the ventilator from two to four more hours.

I called Mama around four and she had just talked to Douglas. He had just seen Ronnie in his room and he was still unconscious and on the ventilater.

Ronnie was off the ventilater by 5:30 PM. He talked with people. Joked. Quoted bible verses. He also repeated every few minutes. "Oh, it hurts."

Around nine o'clock, Douglas called the nurse who is stationed at all times in Ronnie's room. He was sleeping. Every once in a while the pain would be too much and he would wake up. She would increase his pain medication and he would go back to sleep.     Home

March 1, 2006, Wednesday

I talked to Ronnie on the phone around noon. His voice sounded pretty good. He was, of course, just laying around. He said his leg, that they did the angiogram on, was extremely swelled and painful to walk on. He did have an uninterrupted sleep of five hours last night before he woke up a 4 AM and couldn't go back to sleep. He said, "Heidi has been waiting on me hand and foot."

The open heart surgery is tomorrow at 11:30 AM.

Douglas and Mama went over to Ronnie and Jill's house late this afternoon and stayed for a few hours. I talked to Ronnie on the phone again about 8 PM.      Home

Feb 28, 2006, Tuesday

Ronnie was still in some pain this morning. Around eleven, I went over to his house and picked up Heidi and we went over to the hospital. He didn't look too bad but not as good as he did on Sunday before he had the procedure.

He was served lunch not long after we got there. He didn't finish the meal. "It's tasteless", he said. Even with other added seasonings, the meal without salt just didn't taste good. "I am going to lose some weight, without trying," he added.

He hasn't been able to sleep, even at night. I was a little apprehensive about going there because I was afraid he wasn't getting enough rest. But he said it didn't sleep anyway. I think he was happy to have people visit him and I'm sure he was glad to have Heidi there. We talked about everything.

Before I left, he got the news that he was going to have to go home and then come back Thursday for the surgery. I thought it was dumb, going home for one day. But maybe he will sleep better at home.    Home

Feb 27, 2006, Monday
Ronnie was scheduled to have an angiogram and angioplasty around 8 AM this morning.

There were several delays and decisions about what to do. Douglas went over there at noon.

Ronnie called me at 1 PM and told me he would have to have open heart surgery. Two coronary arteries are blocked; one at 80%, the other at 65%. Because of the position of the arteries, they can't be corrected any other way. They are going to try and schedule it for this afternoon. It they can't get it done today, he will have to go home and wait a few days.

They didn't do it and he is not going home. I talked to Ronnie tonight and he was in a lot of pain caused by blood that had collected in the spot where the tube was removed. He will stay in the hospital until the surgery.       Home

Feb 26, 2006, Sunday
Mostly because of her cold, Donna still didn't feel well enough to go to church this morning. We slept late. It has been hard to keep track of time or the date this last week.

Douglas and Mama went over to see Ronnie this afternoon. They said he looked and sounded well, but earlier in the day, he had a slight chest pain, so they put a nitral patch on him. Jill, even though she also has a cold, drove to Duluth to pick up Heidi.

I called and talked to Ronnie. He had been trying read but said he kept falling asleep. Jill hadn't gotten back yet.

Donna called her parents and told them about her episode of DKA. I didn't see any reason to call them when she was in the hospital. They are such a long ways away.

Later today, Michael and family went over to visit Ronnie. Heidi was already there. A friend of Jill had dropped her off. Michael and Adriana gave Heidi a ride back to Ronnie and Jill's house. Their small car was full.      Home

Feb 25, 2006, Saturday
Donna and I went to visit Ronnie, tonight, in the hospital. I went to a book store by North Town before going over there. I bought him a computer magazine and a CSS book. We had a hard time finding the store. I'm not familiar with that area.

Although I didn't really know where I was going I drove right to the hospital. As soon as we went in the hospital we started looking for the cafeteria because Donna needed to eat. We got lost finding it. Because Donna had a cold, she stayed in the cafeteria. To get to his room on the 4th floor, I took the wrong elevator twice. The second elevator trip took me to the birth section. I finally took the elevators up by the entrance we came in at, before we started looking for the cafeteria. Ronnie looked and sounded good. We had a nice chat but I didn't stay too long because Donna was waiting.    Home

Feb 24, 2006, Friday
I got a call last night from Douglas at 10:30 PM. "Ronnie is in the hospital," he said. "I can't believe it." I told him. "I just talked to him two hours ago. Douglas said he had intense pain and he thinks he has kidney stones like he had before.       Home

Feb 23, 2006, Thursday
Last Sunday, February 19, I got out of bed too late for church. When I went into the living room, I asked Donna, "Aren't your going to church today?" "I'm sick," she said, "I have such bad heartburn."

A few hours later she vomited. As the day progressed she got worse. I asked her if she wanted to go to emergency but she said no. I thought maybe she had caught some flu from the party the day before so I called around but nobody else was sick. By ten o'clock that night, I was really worried because her breathing was rapid even when she was sleeping. I told her we better go down to the emergency room. By this time she could hardly walk, talk or stay awake.

We got there before 11 PM. Because they could see she was in bad shape, they brought her back to a room almost immediately. They took blood, x-rays and asked questions. They would ask a question and Donna would wake up long enough to answer and then fall back to sleep immediately. I would describe it as a semi-comatose state. They decided to admit her to the hospital but they had to call in another nurse before she could up to TN ICU. They had checked her glucose level and because it was so high, over 500, they had put her on an insulin drip.

She was brought to her room by 2 AM, and was seen by her own doctor, who by coincidence was working on Sunday. Although at first they were checking for a heart attack or internal bleeding, I think by this time they thought it was a diabetes problem. I talked to her doctor who said he would be back in the morning after he got a few hours sleep. I left at about 3 AM, fairly worried, but fairly confident that they had every thing under control. When we had came in an attendant had parked the van, but now he was long gone and after getting the keys, I had to wander around across the street to find the van.

When I went back around noon Donna's glucose level was around 350. She still kept falling asleep when I talked to her but the nurse said she had been awake earlier. I asked the nurse what they were treating her for. She said Donna had DKA. I never heard of it before but I asked her to write it down so I could look it up on the Internet. They had several bags hooked up to her IV. The nurse said Donna's chemistry had been way off but it was rapidly improving. I could see Donna's breathing looked normal.

I had noticed earlier, in the ICU lounge, that they had a computer. When I checked, it was being used. Later, I checked back and the same guy was using it so I asked him if I could use it. I made a search for diabetic kenoacidosis or DKA as it is usually called. After reading about it, I realized how dangerous it could be. The death rate was two percent. If I had known how dangerous it was, I would have been more worried the night before. By now, I was confident Donna was getting better and from what I read, there would be no long term complications.

By supper Donna was doing better yet. She was starting to talk without falling asleep. She ate some of her supper but just eating, made her tired. I left a couple of hours later.

When I came back late Tuesday morning, she was a lot better. She was awake and seemed normal. Her blood glucose level had fallen to 105 that morning and they had taken her off the insulin drip. Her level did go up throughout the day but the nurses said that was normal because they were adjusting the level of the insulin shots. By that afternoon they decided to move her out of intensive care and into another room.         Home

Feb 18, 2006, Saturday
Tracey and Robert had a birthday party for Trey today. Almost all the relatives were there. Mama was still not feeling well so she didn't come. I brought my camera and Ronnie took a few photos with it because he forgot his.        Home

Feb 17, 2006, Friday
After the warmest January on record, I am not ready for normal winter temperatures. Tonight is suppose to be the coldest night in six years.

Using css, I went online with a front page with a fixed header on "Nolettes on the Net" tonight. I have been working on it for the last couple of weeks. It is not an easy thing to do. It is very rare to see it on the Internet. Hats off to Stu Nicholls, a 59 year old css programmer in England, who has some amazing examples on his web site.    Home

Feb 15, 2006, Wednesday
Yesterday morning on Tuesday Feb 14, it was very slippery when I took Donna to work at 6:30 AM. It was less than 20 degrees and there was a light freezing drizzle. Every time I put my foot on the brake, the van would start to slide. I went 30 mph on the way to the bank when I usually go 40. On the way back I went the side streets and went 20 mph. It was so slippery I called Douglas at 7:30 and then Ronnie at 8:00 AM. Ronnie said that they were having a meeting at their house with Terry and his counselors at 9:00 AM, so they wouldn't be leaving until after ten. Later Ronnie called and said it wasn't slippery at all. It had warmed up enough by that time that the roads were melted. Later it got up to 38 degrees but there is a cold spell coming.

Mama and Penny both went to the Dr. yesterday. Penny had a regular checkup but Mama had been having some problems. Today, Donna went to the diabetes Doctor because her glucose level has been higher. She came back with a shopping bag of stuff. She got a new kit, pamphlets and videos and even a pedometer. They want her to watch her carbs and walk.

Today I had a meeting with Ronnie about web pages with fixed headers and footers. I couldn't get over there until afternoon so the meeting wasn't long enough. We didn't have time to get fully organized. We had both both been working on the pages independently. In the last couple of weeks I discovered how outdated Microsoft Internet explorer really is. It is relatively simple to get fixed header pages with css in Mozilla or Firefox. I did realize Ronnie knew more about the pages in Internet Exporer than I did and that is what most people are using. I was there long enough to realize it is possible.    Home

Feb 11, 2006, Saturday
Terri went to the Dr. yesterday, because she was having some problems but the doctor said it was just the result of the surgery. She is going back again today, just to be sure. She is going back to work on Monday.

I talked to Douglas this morning and then I talked to Mama afterwards. Although I can't remember why, we started talking about the Reed reunion. I said it must be about three and and a half years ago. She said, "It's a lot longer than that." So I looked it up on the website and sifted through some photos to find the date. She was right. It was in the summer of 2000, five and a half years ago. It's hard to believe it was that long ago.

It was a three day event. At the time Mama was still living in Cohasset. Donna and I went up and attended all events, as Mama also did. On Friday evening, there was a dinner at 'The Harbor' restaurant on Pokegama lake. Dennis also went to the dinner. On Saturday, there was a picnic at a park in Grand Rapids. Douglas and family and Ronnie and Heidi were there. On Sunday, there was our own church service, pot luck and slides and talks at Morris Town Hall, north of Deer River. At the well attended three day event, I saw a lot of relatives I hadn't seen in years. In the past, there had been several Reed reunions. It's sad but the year 2000 reunion will probably be the last Reed reunion, at least the last one for all the descendants of Frank and Amy Reed. Home

Feb 9, 2006, Thursday
Today was Donna's day off, so we went to the credit union. Jill and Ronnie, after leaving for work at the the credit union, noticed their van door light was on. He had left the van door partially open and my camera battery charger, which I had forgotten at their house a few weeks ago, had fallen out. They went back to the house to get it but it wasn't there. After driving around and looking on the streets, they finally found it on the side of the road. I may never take it out of the house again.

After leaving the credit union, Donna and I went over and picked Mama up and we went out for lunch at the 'Olive Garden". Douglas was not there. He had left at six this morning to go with Michael to have Michael's blood tested at the Mayo Clinic. Lately, Michael has been doing that only every three weeks. It has now been about nine months since his liver transplant. When I last saw him about three weeks ago, he looked very good. The other people at the retreat last week couldn't believe how well he looked.

Of course, Penny is still in Wisconsin staying with Terri, who is still recuperating from surgery. Besides washing clothes, Penny has been making cookies with Logan.

We didn't see Douglas when we brought Mama back at 1PM. We left immediately because it was starting to snow. I talked to Douglas on the phone and he said that Tracey had called and said it looked like a blizzard in Shakopee. The drive home was a little slippery.  We ended up getting about two inches of snow. Home

Feb 5, 2006, Sunday
On Thursday Feb 2, the day Donna works late, we went out to lunch at McDonalds, as we often do on that day. After that, I went over to Douglas's. I played board games with Sebastian. --- On Friday, Ronnie also went over there and played games with Sebastian.

Also, on Friday Feb 3, I went to a pre-diabetes class. I always thought my glucose level was good but recently, they have lowered the acceptable levels. I am not a diabetic but I should start lowering my levels by exercise and better eating habits. The class was better than I thought it would be.

Yesterday on Saturday, Feb 4, Michael and Adriana got back from their retreat. Because of his liver transplant, he still has to avoid eating raw vegetables. At the retreat, he had a problem finding the right food to eat. One night, they had to eat at a restaurant. They thought the retreat was great.

Terri Hartline is recovering from her bladder surgery she had on Friday. Starting today, Penny will be going over there to stay all week. Home

Feb 1, 2006, Wednesday
January may have been the warmest in history but a heavy blanket of wet snow last night demonstrated that winter is not over yet. We have one month of possibly cold weather left and hopefully no more than two months of winter left, at the most.

I talked to Nathan on the phone today. He is doing fairly well. He is on his third day off. He had a checkup at work. He may have to take high blood pressure medicine.

Michael and Adriana went on a Christian retreat for the next there days in Siren, Wisconsin. Douglas and Penny will be taking care of Sebastian and Natasha. Home

Jan 31, 2006, Tuesday
I became royalty today. I got my gold crown. Home

Jan 30, 2006, Monday
Mama returned back to her home with Douglas and Penny yesterday. On Saturday they had painted the living room walls. --- I am trying to work out a new look for the photo pages of '100 Years of Family Photos'. On the phone today, Ronnie gave me a critique of the new trial page, after I asked him to take a good look at it the other day. It helps to to get new ideas and also reinforce some of mine own new ideas. --- Tonight, I watched "Flight 93", a gripping reenactment of the heroic efforts of the passengers and crew on that tragic day. Home

Jan 28, 2006, Saturday
Adriana's mother, Delfina, flew back to Argentina late yesterday afternoon. She was here for four weeks. She had to go back to work. She will be probably be back in July. --- Terri Hartline updated her photos yesterday. Home

Jan 27, 2006, Friday
It was 42 degrees Fahrenheit this morning. That is the warmest low for this day on record and it ties for the warmest low ever, in January for Minneapolis. Maybe all this warm weather is the reason Christmas seems so long ago. The time seemed to go by so fast. Here is a reminder of that Christmas dinner. --- Here's an undistorted look at my last group of photos. Home

Jan 26, 2006, Thursday
Michael Nolette heard that some people had received phone calls from telemarketers on their cell phones, so he registered his phones at the National Don't Call Registry. Douglas and I each did our home phone and cell phone numbers. It is easy to do.     Home

Jan 25, 2006, Wednesday
I visited Ronnie and Mama at his house today. He played the different video clips, we had made, on his HDTV. I gave blood today for the first time ever. I had no problems. The best part came after I gave blood. They said, "Don't skip any meals." Home

Jan 24, 2006, Tuesday
Penny's brother, Buzz, had surgery on his elbow today. They sent him home already. He won't be doing much for six weeks. --- I am getting close to unifying all the web pages. It is too much work. Home

Jan 23, 2006, Monday
Mama will be staying with Ron and Jill for a few days. --- Google indexed this website not long ago, so anything before Jan 14, 2006 can be searched for in the nolette.net Google search. It is amazing how detailed the search can be in ' Nolette News Flash." Home

Jan 21, 2006, Saturday
While Jill went to a baby shower in Wisconsin, Ronnie went to the home of Douglas, Penny and Mama, today. Donna and I also went over there. Mama bought us lunch at Chilli's restaurant. Ronnie made one video clip after we got back to their home. Using css, I have been working the last few days on unifying the looks of this web site. I am not done yet. Home

Jan 18, 2006, Wednesday
It was Ronnie's turn today. He had a permanent crown put in. He goes to the same dentist I do. Donna had a crown put in December. What would those dentists do without us? Home

Jan 17, 2006, Tuesday
I went to the dentist this morning to get a temporary crown. I will get the permanent one in two weeks. My tongue stills hurts from where they kept pushing it down to get it out of the way. Douglas got a permanent crown today. We have to keep those dentists off the streets. --- Sun City is not all gravel. Here's a good photo that Donna took that has real grass.    Home

Jan 16, 2006, Monday
The twins are 71 today. Happy Birthday Rose and Ross. ----- Jim Hartline went back to work.    Home

Jan 15, 2006, Sunday
It is not a holiday for Donna tomorrow but it is for Jill, so Ronnie and Jill went out of town for a couple of days. Here is another photo from yesterday's birthday party.       Home

Jan 14, 2006, Saturday
Michael and Adriana had a birthday party for Michael today. It was the first time I had seen Adriana's mother, Delfina Luegoes in a couple of years. She lives in Argentina. Ronnie called me this morning and said he was sick and he and Jill would not be there. He has been sick the last few days with some sort of stomach problem. Donna had to work today so I went by myself. Jim was still recovering and wasn't there but wife Terri and the three youngest were there. The Robert Lundberg family was there as well as Mama, Douglas and Penny. Friend Al was also there. Adriana made two birthday cakes. Lots of photos were taken. I brought a couple of used items for door prizes. Andrea won the world globe and Adriana won the boom box. Here is one image of the party.    Home

Jan 13, 2006, Friday
Happy Birthday Donna! We ate at the Olive Garden in Brooklyn Center. ---- Because of continuing lung problems, Tracey had a CT scan this evening    Home

Jan 12, 2006, Thursday
Jim Hartline is recovering at home from his surgery yesterday. He will be going back to work on Monday. His throat is sore.

Years ago, I put a short biography of my father in the history section of my web site. Today, I revised it somewhat and put a link to it in the bio section. I incorporated two of the video clips I made last week. It didn't affect me last week but when I transcribed the interview and got to the part where Alden sees the baby David with eyes wide open, my eyes filled with tears. It seemed so real. Here is the revised version of the biography. Any ideas for additions?    Home

Jan 11, 2006, Wednesday
Because of frequent infections, Jim Hartline had his tonsils and uvula removed today. Douglas and Penny went to Wisconsin to bring Jim home after surgery, Ronnie and I visited Mama today. Ronnie brought his tripod and camera, hoping to make some video clips of Mama but she didn't feel like it. --Happy Birthday Michael. He and his family went to the Mayo Clinic today to check his blood. Home

Jan 10, 2006, Tuesday
Mama has been having more problems with breathing. She didn't feel well enough to talk on the phone this morning. ---Donna and I opened a new account today. ----Here's another view of Donna's cousin, Don Jerde's, backyard on January 7.       Home

Jan 9, 2006, Monday
Donna is still on vacation today and tomorrow. She told me more about her weekend trip. She also showed me the photos she had taken. I'm going to show a link to two of them. The first is of her parents Gorden and Marge Larson, who were married January 12, 1946. She took the photo last Friday at their motel room. The second is of Donna's cousin Donny Jerde and wife Carol. When they still lived in Eagan, Minnesota, they gave us a 25th wedding anniversary party which many in the Nolette family attended. Notice the pebbles instead of grass in their backyard and the large cactus behind him, which he calls "my favorite cactus".    Home

Jan 8, 2006, Sunday
I added an update to Douglas's photos on the front page. The file is for December 22, 2005.

I talked to Donna on the phone this morning. She was going out to breakfast with her father and one of her father's old army buddies from California. She said her Dad's friend came to the party yesterday dressed exactly like General Patton. Donna's father, Gordy Larson was in the army for over 20 years. I will be picking her up at the airport tonight at 9:30 PM.    I picked Donna up tonight and we got home a little before eleven o'clock. Home

Jan 7, 2006, Saturday
I am putting a crude temporary link for video files here.

The Hartlines now have a smugmug photo site. There is a link on the nolette.net front page.

Donna called this morning about 9:40 Minnesota time, she was going to eat out with her father, Gordy Larson at 9 AM Arizona time. Her mother always gets up earlier and uses her nebulizer and then goes back to bed. It was 52 degrees F. She said she didn't sleep that well, the motel was on a busy road and it sounded like their were trains going by, not too far away. She called back tonight at 10 Minnesota time. She said they went to the 60th wedding anniversary party at one PM and didn't get back until 7:30 PM. She took lots of photos.  At the party, she tripped on a step and fell on the concrete." I was so embarrased," she said. "But were you hurt?' I asked. "No, just embarrassed," she said. She has to check out tomorrow at noon. Home

Jan 6, 2006, Friday
I thought getting up at 5:45 AM every day was bad, but getting up at 4:30 is worse. But we had to get up early to get Donna to the airport by six o'clock. Neither Donna or I slept very well. Because I hadn't been there in a few years, I was a little apprehensive driving to the airport. I was worried about finding the drop off point. But there was no problem and I dropped Donna off among a crowd of vehicles. I was back home by 6:30. I called Donna on her cell phone about five minutes later but she didn't answer. Right after that, she called me back. She had heard the phone ring in her purse but couldn't get it out in time. She had already met her cousin Sharon and Sharon's husband and after waiting in line had already gotten their tickets. Her voice sounded calm. I told her to call when she got there. I know that Mama has been praying the last few days that Donna will be safe and less anxious during her airplane trip and I thank her.

Ronnie and I both went over to Douglas's today. I brought my camera to try it out. Douglas was still out when we got there, but with Ronnie asking the questions, I made a video clip of Mama. Later when Douglas was there we made a few more. I took a couple of pics and both Douglas and Ronnie took a couple. So far I am happy with the camera. I may have the videos uploaded by tomorrow. I ate supper there, Penny made walleye and green bean casserole.

Donna called me on the cell phone about twelve noon. She had taken her pills that the doctor had prescribed for the plane flight. She said they had helped, but not enough so she could nap on the plane. She called back tonight at about nine, not too long after I got home, and told me some of her activities of the day. They went to lunch at her aunt Alice's, which was about 30 miles out of the city. Donna's folks arrived at 3 o'clock but Donna didn't get back until four because there was an accident on the road and the drive back from Alice's took two hours. Of course, Donna was happy to see her parents, she hadn't see them in a year and a half , when they last visited Minnesota. Donna's parents took her out for supper. When she called at nine, it was eight there and she was getting ready for bed after a long day. The room she got was only about four rooms from her folks.    Home

Jan 5, 2006, Thursday
Donna is leaving for Phoenix early tomorrow to celebrate her parents 60th Wedding anniversary. She is taking our digital Cannon Powershot camera with her. Because I now won't have a digital camera at home this weekend, I had to go out and buy another one today. It's an excuse anyway. I like the Powershot but it has half the megapixels of the new Sony four megapixel camera and the Cannon cost almost twice as much. The new Cybershot also has a better video camera mode. Check out my first video from the new camera. I think it's pretty good for 150 dollars. You may have to wait for the full download. Play it through a second time if it doesn't play smoothly the first time.      Home

Jan 4, 2006, Wednesday
Yesterday. Ron Nolette contributed 12 photos to the project, in the method called for in the criteria for photo submission . I thank him.   Home

Jan 3, 2006, Tuesday
Highlights of 2005: Michael Nolette had a successful liver transplant. Ron Nolette and Jill Hein were married. Leah Hartline graduated from high school. Do you have any highlights from 2005?

In January of 1996, as I was recovering from colon surgery, I transcribed a taped interview I had done with my father in the summer of 1975. I decided last week, I wanted to install it on this website, but first I had to find it. I am sure I have it backed up somewhere on a CD but I didn't want to look through them all. I finally found a copy on a USB external hard drive I am using. Here is that interview. [Warning: Technical. The file was in a WordPerfect format, which I prefer above all else but on this Linux machine I use OpenOffice. It opened flawlessly in OpenOffice and then I resaved it as a html file. The resulting file seemed to have more code than necessary but it looked fine except for too many line breaks between paragraphs. Because it was an interview, there were lots of paragraphs. Using Nvu, I removed them manually and linked to an external style sheet. All in all, the process was fairly easy.]   Home

Jan 2, 2006, Monday

Weather this morning was one of the worst kind--freezing rain. When I went out to the van at 6:15 this morning to take Donna to work, I didn't notice it until I backed out of the garage and then I could see a very light drizzle on the windshield. Donna was nervous but the road seemed pretty good. But it got worse after I returned home. There were many accidents on the road. Jim Hartline didn't think the roads were that bad either but he hit a bad spot and spun into a 360 degree circle on the freeway. Fortunately it was still a holiday for many, and the traffic was light and he was not hurt.

One of the things I have been working on is a chronological archive of the 2005 newsflash. By cutting and pasting, I arranged so that the oldest entrys are first, as in the style of a log book or a diary. I think this is the best way of reading through the complete document at one sitting, if anyone ever wants to do it in the future.  I also archived the 2005 newsflash in the same manner as this document. Links to both will always be found at the end of the January 1, 2006 entry.   Home

Jan 1, 2006, Sunday

Happy New Year. Last evening Ronnie started to arrange eating out at a restaurant today. It all worked out and the weather was cooperative. We ate at the Olive Garden in Roseville. There were nine of us there including; Mama, Douglas, Penny, Ronnie, Jill, Jill's mother, Jill's son Terry, Donna and I. We had a nice visit. Afterwards, back at their van, Ronnie and Jill gave us some gifts including two sets of gold colored Fire King cups and saucers.

This afternoon, I wrote up a for the web site because I can't keep up with all the new photos. I want to start concentrating on older photos and other older documents. I tried to email Ronnie and Robert but the email server reported as being full. After trying to notify Michael, I left him a message. He called me later and is going to correct the problem.
The Minnesota Vikings ended the season today with a win but within an hour the head coach Mike Tice was fired. They had a winning season but will not be going to the playoffs.

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