Highlights from Classic Wave 5 at the 2013 Birkie

• The cute young man skiing past as I tried to surreptitiously (and safely) slow down at the bottom of a hill and turn to see if my husband was still behind me. He said “Your dude fell,” then gave me a smiling, sly little sideways glance. “I know you didn’t want him to.”

• The man off his skis, posing at the 13K maker, taking his own picture of his face right next to the sign. I wished I had the generosity to hop off my own skis and do it for him. But I didn’t.

• Skiing next to Jacque Lindskoog and seeing the look of determined concentration on her face. I wanted to yell “I love you, Jacque Lindskoog!” but couldn’t bear to bother her.

• The music booming out over the slope where the 39K club hangs out. It lifted me up and carried me and I had tears. I vowed to remember the song but of course I’d forgotten it by the next hill. You know which one it is.

• The woman dressed as a leprechaun, dancing in the middle of Bitch Hill, and the woman handing out pins who laughed as she chased us to zip them right into our pockets.

• Skiing up Main Street, side by side with my husband, the sidewalks lined with people cheering us on, me smiling so hard, having no idea how I was managing to do that and keep moving without falling down.

• Crossing the finish line and skiing up to the tall and skinny young man, with clouds of hair and beard, who stapled our 4 year pins on our bibs and told us “Congratulations!” with
  whole-hearted sincerity.

2013 finishers

• The young man working at the bag pick-up who expertly watched people approach, dazed, wearing their Birkie bibs, looking around, trying to make sense of a sea of numbers and white bags. He came up and put our bags in our hands, calling out our numbers with the authority of a professional announcer but the face of a high school sophomore.

• Walking unsteadily into the changing tent, knowing I could never manage getting out of my wet clothes without a chair to sit on, but seeing they were all in use. Just standing there, trying to make my brain work, when a young woman in the corner gestured me over. She said “Ma’am, you can have my chair!”
  
  I was so grateful, and tried to think of what to say. “So you skied the Birkie!” is what came out. She lit up and said “Yes! My first one!” I said “Were you happy with your time?” and she looked at me, uncomprehending. “I’m just happy I skied it!” Which is exactly how I felt the first time. I was so tired I forgot about the point of the whole thing.

Unemployment Fugue

I'm cleaning out file drawers...I've finished my last day of work and am officially unemployed, so I'm taking advantage of this time to get some chores done that I've been putting off for a while.

Like about ten years.

I have a file called "Job Search" that I started in 2004 when I began work on my associate degree in graphic design. It's stuffed with Help Wanted ads from the newspaper.

Population Explosion

Last night I went with Mom and Dad and Terry to a funeral visitation in Marshall, the small town where my mother grew up. I grew up there, too, and my parents lived there for many more years after that. We all still live close by in Sun Prairie and Madison.

On the way home, we were talking about seeing old friends, and laughing about some of the memories we shared about small town life. I said "Marshall has really grown! The population sign said 3800."

"You're kidding! It's that big? I remember the sign saying 750!" Dad was really surprised.

Mom came back with "I remember the sign saying 440!"

I had my own memory. "I remember knowing the population was 998, and being at high school cheerleading camp with all these girls from giant schools in cities like Eau Claire and Milwaukee. Someone asked us how big Marshall was, and we looked at each other and said '998. Oh, wait! Sherrie Kay had twins!'"

Every Single Thing Went in the Dumpster

Our elderly neighbor died and her sons are cleaning out her house, filling three dumpsters so far. They seem to be throwing out everything she owned: clothing, pots and pans, furniture, tools, old bank records, Christmas wrap, suitcases...everything.

Terry had to walk by the latest dumpster and couldn't resist peeking in. He brought home a brand new bushel basket and two new rolls of paper towels. So of course I had to run over and look, too.

I saw immediately that their goal must be to expend no energy or money on sorting, saving, or selling, which I said I could understand, but then was horrified when I saw a library book lying there. I fished it out, of course.

As long as I was at it, I claimed some other things, too, including a brand new electric frying pan that had never been opened, some retro aluminum canisters, a few canning things, a perfect aluminum muffin tin, a depression era quilt, and (Terry took this) a bowling bowl personalized with the neighbor's name, Harriet.


I think we got an early start on some Christmas shopping.

Dinner Invitation

While I was figuring out what to have for dinner last night, and wondering where Terry was, he called to say Bridget was giving him a ride home and they were on their way.

After I hung up and thought about it for a minute, I called him back.

Me: Hey, let's ask Bridget if she wants to have dinner with us.

Terry: Great! Whaddya got?

Me: Pork chops with parsley/basil sauce, and we have a ton of peppers. I'll think of something.

Terry: Bridget--stay for dinner!

I hear muffled talking.

Terry: Bridget says thanks, but she has a turkey leg in her purse.

Cyndi's Bird Story

Cyndi told us about birds making a nest in one of her plants.

"I was watering my hanging flowers on the porch and a bird, one of those little red finches, flew out of one of them. I thought oh no, that's not good. Cute, but they ruin plants and this one was expensive, plus I'd had one like it in Alaska and had been looking for one like it for years. So I didn't want to sacrifice it for a bird's nesting spot."

"I took the plant down and looked at it. There was the most perfect little compact nest. On the bottom there was a price tag, $13.99, neatly molded to the round bottom of the nest. There were grasses, plus a couple of cigarette butts, all fluffed up, but fit smoothly into the sides. You could see vermiculite from potting soil poked in here and there."

"I felt bad, but I took it out because I really did not want that plant ruined!"

"Later I noticed a pair of finches sitting on the trellis by the plant. They were just sitting, side by side, facing the nest for the longest time. It was exactly like they were talking it over. 'No more nest! What'll we do? I don't know, what do you think?' Except they weren't making any noise, just sitting there, looking and looking."

"That evening I looked in the plant. There were two eggs where the nest had been. And I haven't seen them since. I guess they decided, well, it's too late for anything else, you'll just have to lay them there."

Dear David and Cathy

Cathy, you sent the best card and letter at Christmas with a photo of your horse, and David's old show bridle, which I loved. I hope we get to see your place and meet all of your animals some day...of course I understand that now is a bad time but please let us know if and when you'd ever consider it. We like to have a project to help with instead of being entertained so maybe that will trick you into letting us come visit.

And I thought maybe if I did this electronically a letter would actually get sent instead of just rattling around in my head. I started this blog a while ago but only my sister has read it, and Terry. It's just for practice.

So it has been too hot everywhere, even up here in Wisconsin (especially up here?), but when the weekend comes and the garden is in danger of disappearing under the weeds, we get out there anyway. By "we" I mean Terry, of course.
And it happens eventually, like today...but first we have to walk around holding cups of coffee, looking at things. It was easy to decide to pick some raspberries first, because those are my favorite things to eat (except strawberries, which did NOTHING this year so no point even mentioning them).
Then we needed a break so I hung some clothes out, Terry made a list for the grocery store, and we went to buy groceries including garden produce because Terry gave Cully and Laura all the ripe stuff we had from the garden when we went up Thursday night to help them move the last couple of things from Laura's apartment into Cully's.

When we came back from the store I had visions of making a really good lunch but we had leftover pizza instead. Then it was time to look at the garden again and really decide what to tackle. But instead of doing that I looked at all the flowers I planted. I always wanted bunches and bunches of tall annuals to cut however many I wanted for bouquets in the house and this year I have them.
I also love the scent of lavender and grow that. I snip the flowers and then dry them in the living room window because it's so hot and sunny there.

I have experimented with sewing little sachets for them for putting in dresser drawers so your clothes smell good.

Almost every single time I go out and snip the lavender flowers our next door neighbor Virginia, who lives to garden and take care of her huge lawn, comes out and asks what I'm doing.

I also wanted to mention the animals we have. Here's where one of them lives.
Terry likes to greet him or her with a shovel whenever he can. But this family of groundhogs has a real survival instinct.

We also have raccoons who love to visit with us. We take them for a ride out to the fancy neighborhood on Lake Mendota and let them go so they can get to know other people, too.
So I guess that's plenty of our garden tour for now. I'm inside in the air conditioning writing this while Terry finishes weeding the worst spots, which happened to be the leeks and onions. In a while we're headed to my parents to help them with hanging a quilt thing mom made for above their staircase and then to their neighbors' for a cook-out.

We think of you all the time and treasure the notes you both send. You guys are terrific writers and have a beautiful optimistic and can-do spirit of handling whatever comes your way, which is inspiring. I know you draw strength from each other, your faith and, I hope, from the support and love of your extended family.
Shirley