All posts by reneeinnd

2026, Gatherings, Music, Uncategorized

Singing In Harmony

24 Comments

I grew up in the Lutheran church we attend now. I sang in the church choir from Grades 9-12. It was a vibrant musical community. The organist, Mrs Olson, played every Sunday for decades.

We were very active in choir and bells at our ND church, and performed almost every week. It was a shock to find that our new church choir only sings for major holidays like Easter and Christmas. They have bells, but no bell choir. There is a very good guitar/piano/ vocal group that plays every Sunday, and an occasional organist. While they play fairly traditional hymns, they also play a lot of contemporary Christian music, which I don’t care to hear. It is so lacking in substance.

The big problem for the our church music now is that the long-term choir and bell director recently died. She was in her 90’s. There isn’t anyone to take her place. The old organist is still alive, but she is almost 100.

We started choir rehearsals for Easter last week. I hadn’t sung in a choir since we moved. It was such a relief to be able to sing. I didn’t realize how much I missed it, and how important it is for me to perform with others. We will play bells in September at the 75th anniversary celebration of our church’s founding. They have commisdionwd a piece from a composer at St. Olaf. I hope that can morph into more regular ringing.

What activities are essential for your quality of life and well being? What musical groups have you participated in?

2026, animals, Family, pets, Uncategorized

CDS

37 Comments

The CDS (Cat Distribution System) is working its way in our family this month.

A couple of weeks ago our daughter in Washington State told us about this cat that suddenly appeared on the second floor deck of her apartment. She is on the top floor of her building. The cat had descended from the roof. It hung around on her deck for a while and then climbed back on the roof. Daughter put out a cushion for it to sleep on. She didn’t see it again, though.

The cat made another appearance outside the front door of her apartment a couple of days ago. The apartments are all accessable from the outside stairs. He was crying and wanting inside the apartment next door, but no one answered when Daughter knocked. She let the facility management know, and then put out water for him, which he drank. He let her a little nearer to him him and seemed to want love and pets. Her next goal is to get him into a carrier and have him checked by a vet for a microchip. He is a longer haired tortoiseshell.

Daughter already has two cats, but the way she talks about her visitor makes me think she will keep him if she can. Husband, Son, Daughter in law, and I were all on the texts about this cat, all of us hoping she could catch and keep him or else find his people. Almost all of our cats have been rescues from town or from Daughter’s best friend’s ranch in the ND Badlands. Son found our cat, Luna, under a deck in Brookings as an abandoned kitten nine years ago. Our first cat in ND just showed up at our front door one Halloween, and we took her in. Son considered getting a purebred Maine Coon as his next cat until he realized they cost a couple of thousand dollars. Cat rescue is best. Even better is when a cat chooses you!

What animals have you rescued? Favorite cat songs and art? How do you feel about cats as pets?

2026, education, Gatherings, Uncategorized

Fifty

21 Comments

I just received notice that my 50th High School Class Reunion will held next September. Current plans are to meet at a local pub/brewery one night, and then at The Lake, aka the Old Creamery Pond, the next night for a bonfire and gathering.

We were a class of about 190. I have no idea how many of us are left. I missed the reunion 10 years ago as we were just getting back from a trip to Europe with our kids. I haven’t run into any former classmates who live in town since we moved here, although I know there are a few. I have encountered a couple of our very aged, but hale, former high school teachers. Our soon to be housemate is a classmate. The local paper makes a big deal over reunions and takes group photos of celebrating classes.

I am so curious to see how everyone has aged, and if we recognize each other. I am also curious how much longer the poor souls who have been in charge of planning these get togethers are going to be sufficiently healthy and willing to continue doing so in ten more years.

Have you attended any high school reunions? If so, tell how they went. If why not?

2026, Family, Food, home, Uncategorized, Weather

Blizzard Fare

21 Comments

I have been reading with some amusement and sympathy for our East Coast fellow citizens dealing with the reality of snowstorms. I can’t imagine having to manage something like that with no experience. It would be like me having to prepare for and sit through a hurricane.

I was very tickled by the NYT cooking site yesterday posting a number of recipes titled “Cooking For The Storm”. If you have to stay in you might as well cook, was their attitude. They highlighted lots of filling soups, pastas, and stews. There was no mention of making a mad dash to the store for provisions, however.

My mother was a very dedicated Grade 3 teacher who didn’t like to cook. If we had to stay at home due to bad weather she always made rather complicated waffles that called for the eggs to be separated and the whites beaten into a meringue and folded into the batter. I absolutely loved them. We called them “Blizzard Waffles”, and I made them for years until I moved on to Husband’s sourdough discard waffles. They are the best.

In our ND town, the minute bad weather was predicted the main grocery store would be overrun with customers stocking up before the storm hit. I have yet to experience this in our MN town, but I imagine it is the same here.

Husband and I seem to go to the grocery store every day for one thing or another, but in a pinch we could manage for weeks with what we have in our fridge, freezers, and pantry. As long as the power stays on and the larder is full, how fun to be snowed in!

Quick! A blizzard is coming! How will you prepare? What do you need to get at the store? Any advice forEasterners on how to deal with the snow?

2026, Family, Kids, Uncategorized

Family Resemblances

33 Comments

It has been nice since moving to our new town to run into people I remember from growing up here. One comment I hear from many people is “You sure look like your mother!” That sits ok with me, although I hope their memories of her are from decades before she died at age 91. I know the move has taken its toll, but I hope I don’t look ancient.

A photo of me at age one year shows me looking a lot like my dad. As I aged, my face grew less round and more elongated. Now I look like my mother’s side of the family, especially my Hamburg great grandmother’s family. The women were tall. My mother’s mother was 6 feet tall. My dad was several inches shorter than my mom, and I hit the mean in between their heights.

Our children look like my side of the family, but with Husband’s curly hair. Flat feet run in both my and Husband’s families. Both our children inherited that. Both are tall (Daughter is 6’1”, and Son is 6’4″). Our grandchildren resemble their East Indian mother, although both are going to be quite tall. Son lamented that he looks like the 16th century Dutch guys in the paintings in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. Sometimes you can’t escape your genetics.

Who do you look like? What traits have you inherited?

2026, Computers, Family, Government, home, Media, Uncategorized

Approach/Avoidance

39 Comments

Yesterday Husband and I successfully closed out a small retirement account he has had for years. The occasion marks a finale in business actions we have been deluged with for the past 14 months.

When I say “we” I really mean “me” since I am the one who has handled the bulk of address changes, registrations, and monetary decisions needed with our retirements and move. I am so sick of dealing on-line and over the phone with faceless beings, automated “helpers”, and pressing the needed number on the phone keypad to get my work done.

For some reason I was dreading this final transaction more than any of the others. I kept putting it off, finding more pressing things to do instead. It left me sleepless, and gave me bad dreams. I think the issue was that Husband had to do the bulk of the work on the phone, and that left me feeling out of control. I really didn’t want the control, but that is the essence of anxiety, I think. I am a master of avoidance.

Yesterday’s transaction went without a hitch. I am so relieved! Now it is just a matter of getting everything to our accountant to do our taxes. All I need to do is mail it, since I collected everything needed. My new task is to find the next thing I need to worry about.

What are you avoiding? What makes you anxious?

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2026, Food, Health, Nature, Uncategorized

Go Fish

23 Comments

One benefit of living in the oil patch in ND was found in our local grocery store. To entice oil workers who came up from Lousiana and other southern states, the Cashwise store made a point of having a wide variety of very fresh and frozen seafood.

I don’t care at all for oysters or shrimp (shrimp is no better than eating mice, in my opinion) but the cod, salmon, lobster, clams, mussels, halibut, and crab were wonderful. I especially came to like Chilean Sea Bass.

I am somewhat disappointed with the seafood choices around our new town. The local grocery store has no fresh fish. The larger stores in Sioux Falls are better, but no sea bass. When did tilapia become so popular? I like to make a North German Fischgulash with cod or sea bass, shellfish, and scallops. The sea bass makes it particularly good.

Tuesday Husband and I made a quick SF grocery run and went to a specialty gourmet grocery and there was sea bass! I bought 3 pounds of filets and they are all safely frozen.

Our town had an ice fishing derby for kids and adults on February 14 at a spring-fed pond in town. It was 60° but the ice was 10 inches thick. They hauled out pounds and pounds of crappie, bluegill, perch, and carp. I am not sure if it was catch and release or if some of them were kept and eaten. I won’t eat freshwater fish because of all the contaminants in the ponds and lakes. The seafood I eat is probably not much better, but I can only hope.

Who is the pickiest eater you know? When was the last time you went fishing? What is your favorite fish to eat?

2026, books, Health, Uncategorized

Age And Experience

38 Comments

Husband started guitar and cello lessons, and also attends OT to improve an injured wrist. He enjoys all his activities and finds they are mutually beneficial.

The other day he mentioned feeling disconcerted because he suddenly realized that all his teachers, helpers, and guides are younger than he is. His cello teacher is in his late 20s. His guitar teacher is 40. He went on a nature hike on Sunday led by a very young naturalist. He tries to share experiences, music, recipes, etc, with them that they don’t know about or haven’t had. They are very interested in the things he talks about. He sees himself as having experience without expertise, while they have expertise without experience. He hopes that he and the others are all learning together. He says It’s like being an old book in the library that is still good but no one takes out anymore.

I don’t know why it took Husband this long to finally feel his age. Perhaps working full time until he was 71 had something to do with it.

What kind of a library book would you be? How old do you feel these days?

2026, Family, Food, Gatherings, Uncategorized

Decadence

35 Comments

This past weekend has been one of fun and simple excess. My birthday is February 1. Son’s is February 10. We decided to celebrate together this past weekend.

Son had arranged a Valentine’s Day treat for his wife in Sioux Falls including a live production of Moulin Rouge at the Washington Pavillion and dinner at a really exquisite Italian restaurant. We watched the 7 year old and the 6 month old while they were in Sioux Falls. We celebrated with birthday cake when they returned after dinner and the musical. They all spent Saturday night with us.

Son and I agreed that we wanted a German/Central European cake to celebrate, and he found a lovely recipe for Schwartzvald Kirschtorte. It was a fairly easy recipe for an experienced baker, and I baked the three cake layers on Friday. Grandson and I assembled the cake on Saturday afternoon after I had made the massive amounts of sweetened whipped cream, excessive chocolate ganache, chopped dark, sweet cherries, and kirsch syrup that completed it. Grandson loves to bake and cook. He really loved licking the spoons. It was a 9 inch cake that served 12 people. The header photo is all that is left after we all had second and third helpings on Sunday. It was a decadent cake..

It was also decadent to spend so much time with grandchildren. Granddaughter frequently fell asleep in our arms after her bottles. She smiled and blew raspberries and cuddled. Grandson was so excited to play basketball and Scrabble with his Opa. He also got to roast marshmallows in our fire pit on Sunday morning. How decadent is that?

What is the most decadent thing you’ve eaten or done lately? When was the last time you took care of a baby?

2026, Automotive, home, Medicine, Uncategorized

Just Like That!

29 Comments

I continue to be amazed by the speed at which we can access goods and services here. Our town in ND was 20,000 people. Our current town is about 4,900 people. You would think it would be easier to get things done in a bigger town, but that has not been the case.

A couple of weeks ago I finally had it with the front right tire on my van losing air with sudden temperature changes. This has been going on for a couple of years. No one in ND had offered a solution. We randomly chose a tire shop here to deal with the matter. The nice young mechanic/owner explained how he would fix it, and then told us he could probably squeeze it in that afternoon. What? I didn’t have to bring it in the following week? Well, he fixed it in a couple of hours. There was a leaky pressure sensor that needed to be replaced. I then figured out from his last name that his grandmother and my mother had been members of the same sewing club, that his parents lived across the street from us, and that I graduated from high school with his aunt. The tire has behaved admirably ever since.

Wednesday I was feeling awful with a flare-up of diverticulitis. I phoned the medical clinic at 9:50 am. They said they had an appointment for me at 10:15. I took it. This was the actual clinic, not Urgent Care. There is no Urgent Care here. The clinic is a 3 minute drive from our home. By afternoon I was feeling better.

The wired-in smoke detectors on our new home were all a faded, aged yellow. They looked original to the home, which was built in 1998. They should be replaced every 10 years. When our son tried to brown the Thanksgiving turkey at 500°, the upstairs was filled with smoke yet none of the smoke detectors went off. Yesterday at 12:15 pm I phoned an electrician to get them replaced. He told me he could come over that afternoon. He was at the house by 12:40 pm, and by 1:10 pm all seven of them had been replaced. They are white, not yellowed.

What are the wait times for you to get goods and services? How are your smoke detectors? What is the longest you had to wait for a medical appointment?