All posts by reneeinnd

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?

2026, Business, Food, Uncategorized

Product Reviews

38 Comments

Husband and I quite regularly purchase specialty foods from a Spanish and an Italian importer, as well as things now and then from Amazon. We also order quite a bit from King Arthur Baking Company. I usually ignore the pleas from these entities for reviews of our purchases.

I mostly have better things to do, and I would hope my continued ordering would let them know we are happy with their products. I know the reviews are all in the aid of marketing.

The other day, though, the King Arthur Baking Company hooked me with an offer of a possible $100 if I reviewed our recent purchase of all-purpose flour. I really do like their flour. I told them it is the only all-purpose flour we use. It was impossible to submit the review, however, and I finally gave up in frustration.

What products do you order on-line? Ever submitted a review? What products would you like to honestly review?

2026, Family, home, Nature, Uncategorized, Weather

Touch The Sky

41 Comments

In 1986-1987 Husband and I and our son lived in far southern Indiana in a place nicknamed “The Athens of the Prairie”. We were only there for a year while Husband did his 12 month psychology internship, We were at 624 feet above sea level there.

I flew to Luverne with my son in the summer of 1987 to leave him with my mother while my dad and I drove to western ND to find a house to rent. Husband had just secured a full time job there. Luverne is 1463 feet above sea level. Winnipeg, where we moved from to Indiana is at 700 feet above sea level. Dickinson, ND, where we eventually moved, is 2460 feet above sea level. I remember being amazed at how different the sky looked in Indiana compared to Dickinson. It was as though I could pluck the clouds out of the sky in ND. We lived there from 1987 until 2025.

Husband and I are noticing differences between living in a tallgrass prairie in Luverne as opposed to a mixed grass prairie in Dickinson 1000 feet higher. The weather, humidity, and vegetation are much different. Jim Brandenburg, our local celebrity nature photographer dedicated about 1000 acres of tallgrass prairie just north of town as a nature preserve. It is named “Touch The Sky”. Look it up. It is wonderful. Much of the Twin Cities, by the way, seems to be in an oak savannah. Look that up.

Where are the highest and lowest places you went to. Ever read Giants In The Earth? Look up The Athens of The Prairie.

2026, animals, home, Nature, Uncategorized

Hawk!

41 Comments

Husband has installed five bird feeders just adjacent to our deck. He tries to entice fiches, cardinals, juncos, and other smallish birds. Late last week he exchanged one feeder that seemed to be too squirrel friendly, since the backyard furry thieves were emptying it daily. The dog is disappointed since he loved chasing the squirrels off the deck.

Over the past couple of weeks we have seen the little birds suddenly take flight from the feeders en masse, and the silhouette of a much larger bird flying over or else perching on the new fence. I finally got a good look at it, and it seems to be this one:

It was blue-grey with a pink breast. We determined it was a Coopers Hawk. I finally got a closeup view as it was standing in the yard devouring a small bird. The little birds eventually all return, especially when it is sunny..

There are hawks and other large birds here we didn’t see often in ND. It has been fun to try to identify them. There is at least one Bald Eagle that flies over our neighborhood. We also saw some ravens. I also think we saw a snowy owl fly out of a ditch as we were coming back from Sioux Falls.

What is the rarest bird you ever saw in the Great Outdoors? What are your favorite wild birds?

2026, Family, Gatherings, Uncategorized

High Church, Low Church

32 Comments

Last month Husband and I became members of the ELCA Lutheran Church in our MN town. It is the church I grew up in, and the church we were married in. We had been members of the ELCA Lutheran Church in our ND town since 1987. Although they are both ELCA churches, they are quite different from one another. Both churches have women pastors, I should add.

Our MN church was founded by Norwegians. The ND church had German and German Russian roots. The ND church is quite formal, with a liturgy sung/chanted by the pastor. There is very little talking as people are being seated and wait for the service to begin. The congregation relies on the choir to lead the singing. The music is quite formal and traditional. It is definitely what I would consider “High Church”.

Our MN church currently has no full time choir since the 90+ year old choir director died and they haven’t found a replacement for her. There is a good organist. People talk and laugh and drink coffee as they sit in the pews and wait for the service to start. We were very much involved with the choir and handbell choir in our ND church, and it is different for us to be in the congregation and not in the choir loft. While the order of service is the same, the congregation is much more involved in the service, and sings very loudly. They also sing in tune, which is wonderful to hear. There is a worship music team that plays contemporary songs, although the old hymns are also sung. It is definitely what I would consider “Low Church”.

I admit I prefer a more formal service and music. One of my favorite memories is attending a very full Solemn Evensong service at King’s College, Cambridge and being seated in the choir loft right next to the baritone section. It was wonderful.

It is a comfort to be back in my childhood congregation. There will be choir that sings Palm Sunday and we will participate in that. There used to be a handbell choir but not enough players at the present time. and there was quite a lot of excitement expressed when I mentioned that Husband and I were ringers. It may be only a matter of time that we are church musicians again.

Even if you don’t believe or attend, are you High Church or Low Church in how you live your life?

2026, Art, Family, home, Uncategorized

Hanging It Up

38 Comments

After three months in our new home we finally found enough energy to hang pictures.

Our “Boommate” will be moving in with us in a couple of months and we needed to get the pictures out of her space downstairs where they are all stacked against a wall. Our new home is bigger than our old home, but has less wall space for picture display since there are many more windows. Part of the hanging process involved deciding which ones we will continue to store in the furnace room. Husband decided he didn’t want any of his old family pictures hung. That made things a lot easier, as some of them are pretty big.

For some reason I make Husband anxious by my picture hanging method, which involves careful measuring and centering. He worries that the pictures will fall off the walls because the nails and/or fasteners will rip out of the drywall, and wondered why we didn’t secure them in the wall studs. I explained that the hangers pictured in the header photo are very secure and that none of our pictures is so heavy as to require securing in a stud. I think he believes me, but still is anxious about the whole process.

In a tribute to our famous local photographer Jim Brandenburg, we hung all his nature photos in the dining room A large John Coltrane poster graces the area with the piano and Husband’s guitar and cello. The house is really feeling like home.

What are your picture hanging methods? What makes your abode feel like home?

2026, Government, Uncategorized

Conflict Of Interest

32 Comments

One of the more irritating things I had to do recently is register with the ND Secretary of State office to declare any possible conflicts of interest in my role on the ND Psychology Regulatory Board.

Even though I moved out of state in October, the Board’s attorney from the AG’s office said I would remain on the Board for six months, as that is how long it takes to establish residency after a person moves. I still find that hard to understand, but, oh well. We heard from the Secretary of State’s office in early January that we had to declare any financial or other conflicts of interest that could sway our votes on the Board by January 31. Anyone running for office, holding office, or appointed by the Governor to boards and commissions had to get this done by January 31 or face fines.

I understand why this is important, but I only have three more months on the Board. There are very few fiduciary conflicts for Psychology Board members that would sway our decisions regarding ethical complaints against the professionals we license. I think a greater conflict of interest is that there are so few of us psychologists in ND that we generally know all the licensees, and we might go softer or harder on folks depending if we do or don’t like them! In my 10 years on the Board I haven’t seen that happen, though.

Well, last week I printed off the 41 pages of instructions for filing my conflict of interest declarations on-line and got the deed finished. I had no conflicts to declare, of course. Between doing that and making sure any entity needing to send us tax documents had our change of address, I have been somewhat irritable and anxious. I shall be glad when May arrives, I am officially no longer on the Board, and all taxes are filed.

How comfortable are you doing business on-line? What’s irritated you lately?

2026, Family, Health, Uncategorized

The Tedium Of Self Care

39 Comments

Husband has been hit pretty hard this past month getting reestablished with a variety of health care providers. We are fortunate to have the same health system here as we did in ND, so it has been easy to get records and appointments. I am waiting to get started on all this until March.

At a recent first visit with a new GP, Husband was given a course of prednisone for some sinus inflammation and referred to OT to increase the range of motion for his bum right wrist. This has meant two hours of OT sessions a week and exercises outside of appointments. He also went to the new dentist for a cleaning and check up. He has started cello and guitar lessons. He got connected with the local medical supply store for CPAP filters. All his prescriptions have been transferred to the local pharmacy. He has a considerable number he has to take every day.

At this point he is heartily sick of it all. The prednisone made him sleepless, irritable, and anxious, although it helped his sinuses quite a bit. The OT exercises are just what his wrist needs, but make his wrist sore, especially at night when he is trying to get to sleep. He really likes his music lessons but finds his medical and dental appointments cut into his practice time. The weather hasn’t been conducive to a positive attitude, either.

He is glad he is doing all this self care but finds it tedious. He knows the alternative of just doing nothing is unhealthy. It is a real pain to get older!

How are you doing with self care? How do you deal with the tedium?