Richfield Linksman’s Blog

It’s past time to blog a little.  So much to say – so little time.  Other “priorities” keep coming up, so please bear with me.  Maybe I should just plan on a post every ten days – that’s probably a reasonable goal and hopefully one I can meet.

I’ve reactivated my flicker account and will again attempt to attach some photos to this blog.  If this works today, watch out, cause this site might just rock.  Hope I haven’t over-hyped this now.

Plenty has happened since my post on the Wednesday the 18th.  I’ll try to hit the high points:

Matt & Madeline were in the Twin Cities, so we had a few opportunities to spend some time with them.  If you recall from my first blog, Matt inspired my blogging with his blog site www.mattlogelin.com - some day I hope to make website links the slick way instead of the ‘old fashioned’ way above.  You may recall that Matt’s wife, Liz, my wife’s sister’s daughter died on March 25th after giving birth to her daughter Madeline on the 24th.  So trajic at a young 30 years of age.  Matt’s blog is a daily journal of his and Madeline’s lives since the week of Liz’s passing.

So now back to the M&M visit here:  they were here about two weeks.  Matt was catching up with folks here in his homeland including his family and Liz’s family.  We even experienced Madeline’s 1st pool party on Father’s Day.  Later Matt and his brothers/friends went fishing at a family connected cabin on Mille Lacs, then on Saturday the 21st Matt’s cousin Josh got married.  Penny and I were invited to the wedding and really enjoyed our time there – thanks Josh and Jane!  Madeline was at the wedding for a while and later headed to Candee & Toms, previous site of the pool party where we were able to join them in sharing some time with Madeline while Matt partied at the wedding.  Later still, we had one last visit with Matt & Madeline on the eve before their return to the LA.  Madeline was every bit as special as she appears on Matt’s blog.  It’s so easy to love her.  She’s great to hold as well as she gets along with everyone.

I also had a gathering with some retired friends from my USAR career.  Our breakfast meeting at the Pannekoeken Restaurant in Maplewood was most enjoyable on the morning of the 21st.  Here’s our group less yours truly.

 Gardening and landscaping work around home has occupied a lot of my time of late.  We shrunk the garden a bit and transplanted strawberries and some peonie plants as part of the shrinking process.  Reducing the garden size also prompted the installation of a new gate for the garden.

Meanwhile inside the house our son, Jeff, is doing all he can to help us get better organized at home.  Hopefully, we’ll get there before he ships out to return to Marquette near the end of August.

Then there’s my brother Dwain and his situation.  It’s been a tough go for him for the past few months.  His weak state has forced him to move in to a nursing home in Bismarck.  We’re happy that he’s in Bismarck after initially being in a Garrison nursing home – that home was about 75 miles from his home and his wife Elizabeth.  Now she can visit him frequently.  It’s tough on all of us to see Dwain in this weak state, we’re more used to seeing him bowling, golfing, and yes smoking.  Unfortunately, Dwain has Emphazema, sleep apnea, and now an infection of his bladder or kidney.  We’re hoping and praying for his healing so that he can be with us as many years as possible.  Dwain is 86.

Ok, I’ve used up my blogging time and the garden is calling.  I think I’ll close with a photo of our newest and wonderful great-niece, Madeline.

And one more of sleepy Madeline deep in thought!