It Was A Good Dam Trip!

Yesterday we three girls took a little cruise on the Mississippi! Through Community Education we took a run up the river to experience a Lock and Dam. It started out pretty cloudy but ended up a beautiful Fall day. Our boat was a paddleboat.

It's a little early for much color but we saw pockets here and there.

There were plenty of bridges.

Our cruise included a rather elegant lunch...at least for me! Linen tablecloths and napkins, fancy coffee cups and plenty to eat.

As old as we are we felt like we were the youngsters of the group. The fourth slot at our table was taken up by someone just looking for an open spot. Small world! Turned out she is the wife of the biology teacher both Cher and I had back in junior high, she is the mother of one of Jill's old supervisors and she knows Mom and Dad.

It was a fun lunch! The timing was such that we were going through the lock while we were eating but we figured well, we have to come back through on the way down so we'll catch it then. 

The doors are closing behind us here.

Here are the other girls before they start lowering the water. Notice the trees and stuff behind them.

It takes about 15" to lower the water 39 feet. These are the gates opening in front of the boat.

And here are my crazy boatmates after the level has been lowered. You see how far we are from the top of the lock now.

These guys are such good sports when it comes to my taking pictures! :)

It ended up sunny for a lot of the trip...actually quite warm. The breeze felt pretty good! 

We weren't the only ones on the river yesterday either.

It was about perfect for a boat ride. Very calm waters, sunny skies, good company! I wouldn't need to take this particular trip again but I'm glad we did it once!

A Cloudy Fall (Birth)Day

You haven't wanted to acknowledge birthdays for years but it IS your day.

Happy birthday to my big brother!

From 0-3 to 3-0!

I have three football teams...two Fantasy teams and, of course, the Vikings. Last week all three lost.

But this week it was a complete turnaround. All three won!

I wish that could be a weekly occurrence but I see stumbling blocks on the horizon!

I'll Do It Myself(ie)!

We bought a new toy the other day. Here is the first official picture taken with our new selfie stick.

I just thought it might be fun since I have a heck of a time holding the phone out far enough in a position where I can still hit the buttons to take the picture.

"Picnic"

Shorewood left box lunches in the resident's refrigerators for the Labor Day holiday but we were out on a zucchini fry so the next day we packed our own lunches and joined Mom and Dad out on their patio for a little post-holiday picnic!

Labirthday!

It's Labor Day and it's a birthday!

Have a great day, Tricia!!!

Our Fleet

A very sad story indeed...may we hear violins please? It all started last year when our usual mower developed an engine problem that took three trips to Earl's to figure out. After that it was the self-propel cable that needed fixing. This Spring it appeared we had power to one rear wheel but not the other. So Jill insisted we get something different and that's when we ended up with the mower with a mind of it's own. She didn't like that one so we got the old one fixed. They had to replace both rear wheels. I should have known this wasn't the end of it when one of the wheels fell off as they pushed it to the car! A short time later, while mowing uphill, the power assist just stopped. They ended up replacing a belt at no charge. Then, totally my fault, I mowed over a stump and needed to get the blade replaced. So while in for that they checked the rear wheels again since they seemed to just skid along if trying to back up. The wheels and some other parts got replaced again. So now after having used it a couple times after repair it's back to the engine problem they couldn't figure out last year. Not wanting to sink more money into it we went and bought our second new mower of the season and, call us silly, it's the same kind as we started with at the beginning of this sad tale. But wait! We're not done. The Ariens mower we bought to replace the first one is developing ignition issues. Used to start on one pull. Now it's taking as many as 13. And this week as I was mowing one of the front wheels just fell off and rolled away. It was an easy fix but not a half hour later the tread worked it's way off of one of the rear wheels. Now yesterday Jill was using the second new mower but stopped for a short bit and come to start back up, it wouldn't! We and mowers this year are simply doomed! I hope we don't have as many troubles when it's snowblower season because we only have one of those. When you have four mowers, if we're lucky, one of them might work!

The most reliable one has actually been that cheap little green one we bought many, many years ago from Menards!

A Day To Remember

Missy Maya, Happy Birthday to you!

Four candles on your cake. I hope you blow them out all in one puff!