All posts by reneeinnd

2025, Family, Food, Uncategorized

The Last Rye Bread

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When Husband moved to Winnipeg for graduate school in 1978 he was immediately captivated by the rye bread from the City Bakery, a venerable institution that made wonderful baked goods. City Bakery rye had just the right texture for Husband, neither mushy nor hard, with an open but fine grain. He has spent the last 47 years trying to replicate it.

For all the years of our courtship and marriage I have watched him try scores of different rye bread recipes. Some sour dough, some not, some with dried yeast, some with fresh yeast, some with caraway, some with no herbs, some successful, some true disasters. They have been baked in a variety of pans. Last weekend he declared that he had finally found the last rye bread recipe, which he made yesterday. He also declared that he would throw out seven rye bread recipes and keep seven rye bread recipes.

We shall see how long this lasts, and when I shall have to see him fuss over some new rye recipe. It is hard to be a perfectionist.

What is your favorite bread? What have you tried to emulate or perfect?

2025, Gatherings, home, Theatre, Uncategorized

Priceless

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The Badlands Opera Company staged Into The Woods last weekend at the local college auditorium. It was a fantastic and absolutely professional production. Costuming, special effects, and tech were superb. The cast was comprised of all local folks, and their voices were fabulous. The director/ Cinderella’s Prince was a 30 something local man who had made good as a theatre professor in another state. This was his directorial debut. About half of the cast are members of our Lutheran Church.

The oldest member of the cast was our church organist. She played Jack in the Beanstalk’s mother. She is a feisty 76 year old with a huge soprano voice, wonderful acting skills, and a sharp tongue. Most of the other leads were in their mid to late 30’s, and I realized I have watched many of them grow up through church and school productions. We were at the infant baptisms of the Baker and the Witch! Cinderella’s parents are wonderful ranch people who I have known for years and worked with when they were foster/adopt parents. We sat with them at the Friday night opening and talked and joked. It was wonderful. Little Red Riding Hood’s dad is Husband’s real life barber!

When we got home from the performance I took a look around our home, a pretty modest home for the most part, and saw the family mementos and possessions we have, and thought about the relationships we have built over the decades, and I considered how priceless they all are. They wouldn’t be priceless in the marketplace, but they are irreplaceable to us.

What are the things and memories and relationships that are priceless to you? What is your favorite scene from Into The Woods?

2025, Health, Uncategorized, work

Adjustments

26 Comments

For the past two months I have been inundated with the question “How are you enjoying your retirement?” I usually smile and say that it is nice, but, if truth be told, I would tell people that it hasn’t been the greatest experience.

To begin with, my body has let me know it is unhappy with me by having increased aches, pains, sciatica, a week long low grade fever, and a nasty bout of diverticulitis. I seem to be over most of those ailments now.

I also have been beset by corporate stupidity that has left me exhausted and anxious. I don’t know why these things seem more exhausting and overwhelming than they used to. For example, for years we have dealt with a computer virus protection company we previously utilized that keeps thinking we still want their services, and keep trying to charge an expired credit card to renew our account. I was getting several emails a week saying “Hmm, your card was declined”. Monday it seemed that they had somehow managed to actually get the card to work, so I spent an hour on the phone with their customer service explaining repeatedly we didn’t want their products, we didn’t need their products, and to please leave us alone. The customer service person kept insisting we really needed their products. After repeatedly telling her we wanted this all finished, she finally relented. I think I finally got it taken care of. It was exhausting. Of course yesterday I got an email asking to rate my experience with customer service. Arrrgh!

In January I heard from our auto insurance company that the insurance for our 2011 van was being transferred to a subsidiary company for the same but less expensive coverage, and that I would receive all the particulars in a couple of weeks. Yesterday it dawned on me that I hadn’t received any such information, and the coverage for the van expired tomorrow. Our long term agent retired, and it seemed that the new agent lived in Watford City, about 70 miles away. We finally figured out that she had moved her office to Dickinson, contacted her, and she printed off our new proof of coverage. That took a whole morning to accomplish. They had just forgot to send me the renewal cards. Arrrgh!

Retirement has been an adjustment for mind, body, and spirit. I thought the months leading up to my retirement were stressful. I just hope I can tolerate the change now that it has begun.

What corporate stupidity have you encountered lately? What are some big adjustments you have had to make?

2025, Family, Uncategorized, work

False Alarm

18 Comments

On Tuesday, one of my coworkers posted on Facebook that her husband’s old, beat up pickup had been stolen from in front of their house. He works in the oil field and leaves for work every morning at 4:00 am. He is always picked up by someone driving a company truck, and a whole group of workers drives up together.

I didn’t see any updates after the initial post. My coworker’s husband has had a rough 6 months, getting jumped at the bowling alley and beat up in October by a couple of guys from Colorado. The pickup is real old and doesn’t have a tailgate. I couldn’t imagine why anyone would steal it.

Yesterday, I was at work and saw my colleague and she told me that for some reason, on Tuesday her husband decided to drive himself to work in his pickup but didn’t tell her. She gets up well after he leaves for work, and the first thing she assumed was that the truck had been stolen. He is out of phone service in the oil field, so she couldn’t contact him. It wasn’t until he got home that she realized she had jumped to conclusions. The police thought the whole incident was pretty amusing, and suggested that her husband communicate better with her. I suggested that perhaps she shouldn’t jump to conclusions. She agreed, but said the one time she didn’t call the police about something like this, it would turn out to be the real thing.

When have you jumped to conclusions? Ever had a vehicle stolen?

2025, Government, home, News, Uncategorized

Annexation

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I was much alarmed recently to see that some strange State legislator from Iowa was proposing to annex all the bottom southern counties in Minnesota, including my beloved Rock County, and make them part of Iowa. I haven’t seen much in the MN press about this, so I am hoping that it is being viewed as a political stunt and nothing to take seriously.

I lived within 15 miles of Iowa my whole life and lived in south central Iowa for a year, and I sure wouldn’t want to become an Iowan. Too conservative for my tastes. I also lived for a year in southern Indiana, and my, was that strange after living in Manitoba for six years. North Dakota is conservative, too, but I have managed to tolerate it for 37 years. People here are quirky enough to make life fun and interesting despite the influence of big oil and conservation politics.

We still plan to move to Minnesota in the next year, but if the Iowa annexation actually happens, it sure won’t be to Luverne!

What states or countries have you lived in? Where would you consider or not consider living?

2025, books, Uncategorized, work

They’re Everywhere!

24 Comments

Writers, I mean. One of the perks of living in a smaller, more isolated community is that we get to know about the lives of people we wouldn’t necessarily get to know about in a big city. It goes both ways, though, and people get to know about us, too.

Husband and I usually purchase wine at the liquor store attached to our biggest grocery store. The liquor establishments have to be separate entities in ND, and grocery stores can’t sell liquor in the grocery store proper. We have come to know one of the liqour store clerks fairly well, and he always tells us about his day and recent life events, and he asks us about ours. He is a military veteran in his late 40’s. He knows we are both psychologists.

Yesterday while he was checking us out he stopped and grabbed a notebook and hurriedly wrote something down. He told us it was a for a scene in a novel he was writing about PTSD in military veterans and if he didn’t write it down he would forget it. He then shyly asked us if we had ever worked with veterans, and I was able to relate some of my experiences working in a VA hospital with Vietnam and Gulf War veterans some 30 years ago. He made it clear he didn’t have combat related PTSD, but he felt a need to write about it for those who did. At that point another customer came into the store and we had to end our conversation.

I guess I shouldn’t have been so surprised that he is writing a book, and it was just delightful to hear about his ideas. It made me wonder how many other aspiring writers are lurking behind cash registers and counters in town.

What would you write about if you were to write a book? How many published authors do you know? Have any favorite store clerks?

2025, Uncategorized, work

Transitions

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Today is my last weekday off before I start back to work next week. I have to go in on Monday, start my work computer that has been returned to my office and reset, and “onboard” in Peoplesoft, which means I set myself up as an hourly employee instead of a salaried employee. That means I have to clock in and out, but I needn’t stay when I have nothing to do, and I can just go home. I haven’t had to clock in and out since I worked at Mr. Steak in Moorhead, MN in 1980.

I didn’t complete as much household organizing and cleaning as I envisioned at the end of January, but illness and travel and a sciatica flare-up got in the way. I expect all sorts of questions from colleagues on Monday about having a “fabulous” month off, and I expect they may be disappointed when I tell them how mundane it was. I look forward to work but more flexibility for being at work, and that will be a really nice transition.

What life transitions have been the easiest and most difficult for you? Have you ever had to clock in and out at work?

2025, Family, Gatherings, Kids, Movies, Uncategorized

What’s In A Name

51 Comments

A couple of Sundays ago, Husband and I arrived at church to play bells with the hand bell choir and found, upon reading the bulletin, that there was to be a baptism. That wasn’t at all unusual, but what was unusual was the name the parents chose for their son. Yes, we were to participate in the baptism of a little boy who had been named “Tarzan”.

Of all the names to hang on someone, Tarzan isn’t one that immediately pops into my mind. We have had some unusual names for baptisms lately, like Coven, pronounced like cove and not like the name for a group of witches. Tarzan, however, really takes the cake. What would you call him for short? Zan? Tarzy? Tartar? Zanzan?

I really can’t imagine what could have led people to choose that name, and I can foresee a rough time for the child once he starts school. We didn’t get to see little Tarzan as the family all had the flu and they cancelled and haven’t rescheduled the baptism.

What are some unusual names that you have run across? If you had to change your name, what would you change it to?

2025, Business, History, Uncategorized

Greenbacks

27 Comments

In addition to a daily check of our local regional jail for the inmate list so I can see which of my little darlings are in the hoosgow, (There are several today) and the two funeral homes to see who died, I also check a history site to see what of importance has occurred on this day in the past.

I see that today is the anniversary of the US Congress in 1862 authorizing the printing of paper money. I rarely have any paper money in my purse. Husband usually has some, but it is hit or miss. I remember my dad being so happy to have some “Silver Certificates” in his possession when I was a child. I remember that the engraving was quite elaborate on those bills. I wonder, given the advent of all that is digital, if we will need paper money in the future. It seems the penny is also on the way out.

What is your favorite bank robbery movie, song, or story, or songs or stories about money in general? What is the largest monetary bill you ever carried?

2025, Family, home, Uncategorized, work

Taking Inventory

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Since I have been home full time after retiring on February 1, I have had time to sort through some closets, papers, and freezers that had been pretty well neglected over the past couple of years. It has dawned on me that we can either have a clean, organized home or work full time. We can’t do both. Husband is still working essentially full time and has been for the past several years.

Because of our harried work schedules and after work exhaustion, things like papers have been thrown on our work desk or filing cabinets to be gone through “later”. It is hard to see what you have in closets if it is poorly organized and things are just stuffed in. It is also hard when you live in a food desert and you love to cook and you run across hard to come by items that you get excited about and buy a whole bunch because they are scarce, and then you throw them in your poorly organized freezers and you sort of forget you have them as they get covered up with subsequently purchased groceries, and then you inadvertently buy more the next time you run across them.

I decided to start by sorting and organizing the freezer that has all the sausages, ground meat, lamb, and homemade brodo. I was rather dismayed to discover we have seven pounds of ground veal, five pounds of ground lamb, and four legs of lamb and a huge lamb rack. Veal and lamb are virtually impossible to obtain out here, so we bought a bunch when we had the chance, then forgot we had it. There will be meatballs and meatloaf on the menu for the next several months. I have plans for one of the lamb legs for Easter.

I also organized the linen cupboard, and found we have eight sets of queen sheets. We only have three queen beds, and we only sleep in one of them, and I have no idea why I thought we needed so many. The sheets are all in great shape. We will not need to buy new sheets ever again.

I have several closets to go through and a couple of freezers to organize. I am so glad I will only work part time starting in March so that I can finish sorting and organizing.

How do you fold fitted sheets? What are you prone to buy too much of? Any helpful home organizing tips?