Rest

(it's been 2 years)

thinkin' about me Pop

So, it's my dad's birthday today. I've been thinking about him some and missing him this week. It's funny, because how does my subconscious know it's his birthday? So weird - I feel a bit at a loss. If he were here I'd be spending time and money and phone calling or visiting one of these weekends or something. Since he's not, what do I do? Some coworkers suggested a charitable donation in his name... not a terrible idea, it's something after all.

Life is going full tilt - we had the Johnson Family Reunion Saturday [pictures here]. It was really an outstanding time. Amy and Tim came down and it was so fun to see them, and then just catching up with the cousins (who I only see once a year or so). I got to talk quite a while to my Dad's cousin Kevin and he had great memories of growing up with my dad. Hooray for the outstanding-est ever family! My only regret is not having a bit more time to spend with everyone.

Sunday - my darling Katie-friend had her bridal shower! Hooray! Her aunt, mom and sister helped me throw it, and we really had a sweet time. Good food, good conversation, great presents - what's not to like?!

And now tomorrow I leave for a week-long backpacking trip to Colorado! Really looking forward to it - and REALLY should get packing....

If we blog, I'm thinking here would be a good spot - either that or I'll post individually here.

Happy Birthday, Dad.

Clues to a Vanished July

Not exactly sure what happened here, but unless I'm mistaken July has come and gone. I would suspect it of not having happened at all, but I believe that July made a few clumsy mistakes that left evidence of its presence, and for which it has yet to produce a good alibi.

Strongest evidence: weddings. If you are a month who wishes to come and go unobtrusively, do not allow weddings! People have interesting habits of adding rings to their fingers and sometimes changing their names - VERY hard to explain away!

I, for one, am onto the trick: my stepmom Amy is now a Richardson, and has a lovely new ring on her finger. And I remember distinctly going up there early, hanging with her mom, Beth, wandering through shops in Bayfield, picking hundreds of daisies on the roadsides with her and strawberries for shortcake with Gus and Chris, playing with her granddaughter Margo, helping Amy get ready, watching (and singing in!) the wedding, and catching up with lots people at the reception.
But that's not all: my friends Terry and Anna are now BOTH Shermans!
Very suspicious, and the odds of it happening completely at random are practically nil. In fact, I will state for the record that I could produce distinct evidence as follows: Patrick and Aaron will have dated plane tickets that will show the to have flown to Wisconsin during this time. We have pictures of an overnight camping trip that Aaron, Patrick, Tammy, Serena, Javier and I took to Point Beach State Park the night before the wedding, and then more photos of the wedding celebration itself.
And now that I have July on the run, for further corroboratory evidence, I will also state for the record that I have memories both June AND July ending with bouldering/climbing trips to Devil's Lake. Now, this may seem a tad suspicious to you (perhaps a little TOO coincidental?), but really - who could make up a story like that? If you were trying to cook up a plausible record, wouldn't you mix it up a little bit to add believability? No, "for real", Javier, Tammy, Serena and I met up in Devil's Lake the weekend after S coolly moved to Chicago, and had fun exploring the flood-ravaged area. We got rained out not too long after lunch, but had a great morning of boulder hopping, rail walking, and swimming on a no-longer-existent beach.

Not content to leave it at that, Tom (who was here for work for the week), Ray, Becky, Tammy and I met Tom's sister Nancy and her puppy Poky last weekend. This time around we found that bouldering with a Poky makes it an entirely different sort of adventure, and that the flooded area on the south end of the lake was now "wadeable". We also got to top rope in the afternoon, and all of us got a good chance to challenge ourselves on the rock face. Unfortunately for the purposes of this post, I do NOT have photos documenting that second trip - I believe Becky and Nancy were the photographers for that expedition - so I will rely on them to back me up on this one. Becky may also be able to produce photos of geocaching last Sunday which would certainly help the case.

While the rest of my memories of July are somewhat blurred, I really do think the above at least yields enough evidence to prevent the month from squirming its way out of the calendar's clutches altogether. If you have items to add that I've missed, please do so - we really can't let this one get away!