News Update

Another week has rolled beneath our wheels, and we are nearing the shore of Lake Superior and my home town. We begin the week in Round Rock in the after glow of Jon & Jennifer's wedding. We wish them well as they honeymoon in Hawaii and begin their married life. We head off early Sunday morning for San Antonio and thus continue our journey of warm reunions and refreshed memories. Thank you Verner & Linda, Viggo & Nancy for hosting us in Dallas. Thank you Jon & Jennifer for bringing so many others together for the wedding. It was great to see Tom & Mariette, Gayla and her mom, and to meet so many new connections. We take along memories of our times spent with Luc and Jason as well. It was a great week, and this week continued the theme. Heat in the 30's greeted us in San Antonio and Abilene, but as the week progressed and we moved northward, the temperatures declined to the zero range in Lawrence and to -20's in Minneapolis.

We met up with Bern, Alicia & Logan at Oak Hills Church in San Antonio. Lynn & Carolyn hosted us for lunch and another batch of remembrances. We enjoyed two days with family–shopping, site-seeing, navigating, car-shopping, playing. Tuesday found us moving on to Abilene to visit with Shepherd, Ruhtt, Miguel, Melina & Manuel. A special joy was catching up with Renée, Chris, Kaden & Kaleb—it was so wonderful to hear and see how they are doing. We finally got our tour of ACU! Another precious time, more teary remembrances, another fond farewell. Much time was spent talking of Zambia and dreams. On Thursday we drove up to Oklahoma City and an unexpected reunion—as we drove into the parking area at OCU, we came upon Stan & Blair. Not only did they refresh our spirits, they provided us a parking space! Then Kresten found us, so we enjoyed a visit with him. After that we continued to Lawrence where Marti & Helen hosted us for Thursday and Friday nights. Actually, Helen abandoned us for sunny California! We hope she had a good time at the wedding.

This morning, I had the special privilege of helping Marti introduce TinkerPlots to her supervisor from Kansas University. Then, we headed north into snow and colder temperatures. Once again, the ditches were filled with cars and accidents abounded in the early going. Fortunately, the snow petered out in northern Missouri, and the roads were good after that. We're spending this night in Minneapolis and planning to complete the tour back to TBay tomorrow.

And that's about it for this week.

News Update

Another week has rolled by, and we have been far from the shore of Lake Superior, my home town! The week has been spent in Texas, where we have enjoyed the hospitality and celebration of our family culminating in the marriage of Jonathan and Jennifer.

We moved in with Verner & Linda upon our arrival in Texas. Thank you for taking care of us so generously! We enjoyed family days all week long. Wendy enjoyed much shopping, and exploring (unintentionally) most of northeast Dallas! It seems she got lost every time she went for a drive!

I got out for two golf games. The first, in Dallas, was with my brother, Viggo, at a course ominously named Waterview! I viewed a bit of water courtesy of my snap hook, and ended with a score of 88. After correction for two triples, this score actually helped my handicap–dropping it to 15.0. Then on Friday afternoon, Viggo and I joined our nephews, Jon & Luc, for a game at Round Rock. I didn't play well at all, and ended with a 98! That did not help my handicap, as it must have pushed one of my better scores out of consideration and my handicap rose to 15.3. But, I certainly had fun, and got more practise than most!

Saturday was the wedding day. It was a joyous affair (read: many tears were shed!), and we wish Jon & Jennifer well in their life together.

We have had email and VOIP contact with the crew back in Thunder Bay. All seems to be going well. Fresh snow has fallen while we've enjoyed our +20 climes in Texas! Kristian had his CT Scan on Friday, but we don't have any results to report yet.

And that's the kind of week it's been.

News Update

Another week has rolled by and we have rolled far from the shore of Lake Superior. On Monday, we got the news confirmed that, yes, the shifter linkage was broken on the car. We ordered repairs and began our wait to see when we could actually head south. I had a bit of follow up work from the conference last week, and also worked a half-day in support of the Territorial Student Program. Late Wednesday, we got the call that the car was operational again, so we picked it up, and packed for a Thursday morning departure. I booked an appointment with the Apple store in the Mall of America in Minneapolis as I wanted some attention paid to some cosmetic damage on my laptop.

The drive south was uneventful and we arrived in Minneapolis two hours before my appointment, so I settled in a nice chair in the corridor, logged into Apple's Wifi, and caught up on my computer time! Wendy caught up on her shopping time, buying two pair of shoes! Then while Apple repaired the laptop, we went out to supper. After picking up the renovated laptop, we found a hotel and retired for the night. Wendy managed to score us a senior's discount on the handicap room, so with senior throne and everything it was almost as good (as Erica observed) as a theme room at West Edmonton Mall!

Friday morning found us heading south toward Lawrence KS where we planned to visit with Marti. Last year when we came through here the ditches were filled with snow and vehicles. Today, not a trace of either! I wonder what the moisture issues will be in this area. As we drove into Iowa, we ran into a fierce snow storm and soon began to observe that the ditches were collecting plenty of both snow and vehicles. We saw a few spectacular pile-ups–man, you have to avoid those drivers! Here was a semi jack-knifed and in the ditch. There was a four-vehicle pile up, complete with a U-Haul trailer. Yikes! We avoided everyone, made up for all those vehicles that has passed us in the last two days, and as we got into Missouri and approached Kansas City, the snow changed to rain. We rolled into Marti's just after 6pm. A lovely steak supper (thanks, Marti) and a session of TinkerPlots later, we called it a night.

This morning, we headed further south for Dallas and Verner & Linda's place. The day was long and we drove through a few showers but we finally got to there place about 7:30. Verner had a nice pot of chili waiting, so that was a warm welcome. It will be nice to settle down and stop the travelling for a few days.

And that's about it for this week.

News Update

A busy week has passed on the shore of Lake Superior in my home town. February Conference was the dominating feature, and as I had three half-day workshops, I found it very engaging! I had a half-day with the school secretaries, and since it bodes to be my last session with them, I was trying to tie up all loose ends—some knots remain to be tied! Then, I had a full day with the principals as I tried to take them from the yawning jaws of ignorance into the wonders of TinkerPlots data explorations! All sessions seemed to go well, so I felt good about that. I've continued to fight a cold all week—that didn't help. The extra $1500 does help!

The car went down again tonight. Trav was out with it, and after stopping for a train, it wouldn't shift back into drive. It seems the shift linkage must be broken, so, it is towed to the mechanics' place and we'll see what they say next week. We're hoping to head south some time next week, so this is not a good development.

Wendy seems to be getting over her cold. She has been keeping busy driving a friend around to various medical and other errands. Louise had angioplasty last week, so is not allowed to be driving on her own yet. Besides, she likes the company. Wendy has also been back to the gym a few times now that she is feeling better.

Erin, Kristian and Travis have continued with their usual schedules of work, school and day care.

And that's about it for this week.