Yea Coffee

Broke my glass beaker in my french press before we went to Arizona.  Finally figured out what size I had with the help of my brother Jim.

Yesterday, Amazon delivered and this morning I have good coffee again.  Not that my old drip coffee make I had (and thankfully did not get rid of) makes ok coffee,  it just makes, well ok coffee and hard to gauge how much I should make.  Too little and the carafe gets cold quick, too much and I dump it.

Ah, the simple things.

One week in for some one week to go for the other

I'm talking about school.  Joel has one week of class and a weekend on his own under the belt.  Sounds like he's adjusting pretty well.  We have chatted and texted and emailed and even a little video chat.  Being so far away is not as far away as it used to be in as technology has advanced.  No more long distance phone calls that cost an arm and a leg. Hand written letters a thing of the ancient past.

Anyone want to send him a note let me know. Email or phone number! I can provide.

Anyway, that brings me to the other youth in this house. Funny how things change.  Used to be that she wanted to go back to school, now she's not looking forward to it at all. Not that she won't enjoy it, I think doing nothing all day is better than arguing with dad on how to do math or the drama that comes with becoming a teenager.

Can't wait!

Happy Birthday Mom!

Happy Birthday to my Mom.

Could not ask for a better one.  No sappy, long drawn out narratives.
 

Thanks and hope your day is great.

Love Jeff.

Routine

Well the week in the desert southwest was fun.  But time to get back in the day to day routine.  Some routines are old hat, and some will be new.

Going to be hard to let Joel do his own thing out there without constantly trying to see what he is doing.  He's creating his own routine and we have to let him build it.

Great Taste

Just got back from the Great Taste of the Midwest.  Perfect weather, great company.  Too bad I have no pictures.

Tasted a lot of different beers with close to 600 to choose from, there was no shortage.

Keeping it brief.  Look for updates here and in the alternate blog Turks Travelogue as we head out to sunny Tucson Arizona and move Joel out for his first semester as a college student.

Its part vacation part move, so I will use both places to update.

Bring lots of tissues, akready been some crying...

State Fair

Fairest of the fair,  highly doubt it.  Saw animals, and plenty of Wisconsin's finest residents all in their natural habitat.  Eating fried foods and drinking beer...

Not us , well the fried food part anyway.

August?

Dog days of summer?  I think we have had plenty of those already.  Seriously it's August and where did this summer go.

In 13 days we will head to Arizona for vacation and moving Joel.  7 days after that he starts school.  Yea School!  Ready to do this yet really not.  Doing a lot of spaz panicking. Worried about this, then not then yes I am, then it's something else then it's ok then it's not.  Do you know what I mean?  ADD of stress.

Get me outta here.

Now for something completely different

Everyone knows what a rabid fisherman I am.  Seriously - I fish once every 3 years.  Not that I don't like to, it's just that I don't have the time, a boat, people that want to go and on and on.  A man can only have so many hobbies.  My garage and basement are testament to failed or hobbies discarded.

Anyway, my fishing expeditions always start with some converstion when I have been drinking....."oh we should go fishing!"
"Yea we should totally do that!"
"We go all the time!"
"Duuude, let me know when, I will so do that with you I have always wanted to do that."
"Cool, I will let you know"

And the momentum is started, it cannot be stopped.  Seriously.  That's how every fishing trip to Canada has happened, road trips to god knows where, golf outings and the like happen.   Don't get me wrong, I like doing things like this, just sometimes I wonder what I was thinking when doing them.

Anyway, yesterday was one of those times.  Months ago I agreed to do a Lake Michigan charter.  Down to McKinley marina we go.  Fishing with nephews and their friends.  Goldilocks weather, ya know what I mean? Just right.

This was a 3:00 PM Charter that went until dark.  Apparently Aaron, the guy that set this up has used this charter several times and had a great repoire with the crew, Chris and Tom.  Put 6-8 lines in the water which ran from 85 to 145 feet deep and sat and watched and waited.  Within 30 minutes the first fish was on, a nice lake trout.  

The rotation was that we had a number in line and when it was your turn you got the next fish that hit. I was 5 of 6.  Got my first fish.  King Salmon or Coho Salmon as they call them. 

Then as the sun started going down it got crazy.  At one time we had 5 people at the back of that boat bringing in fish!  Orchestrated chaos.  

All in all we caught 18 fish which is a bit shy of the 30 fish limit.  By the time we got back to the marina and cleaned the fish is was 10:00 PM!  Talk about where the day went.  Definitely a good time and would do it again if ever asked.  

More Pics in this album HERE

Get back in the saddle

I have been trying to get more in shape all summer and it has not fared too well.  Partially because I am lazy and partially because I seem to have little free time until much later in the evenings.

Well a few weeks ago I got on my bike and realized it was not very comfortable.  Too crouched for this old guy and his neck.  So I took it to a bike shop and had them add a 3" stem riser.  This raised my shoulders up just enough to not be so tightly tucked but not so high to be a wind catching cruiser bike.  Much better.

Last Friday I dug out some gear and hit the trail.  The Eisenbahn State trail to be exact.  This is an old railroad (Rails to Trails) conversion.  So there are no huge hills and what grade there is, is marginal.  Perfect to start with I thought.   Parked my car at the Columbian and started north.  Pedaled all the way into Kewaskum and went to Kiwani's park to watch the Varsity K-Town baseball team win the sub sectional in the state tournament.  After that, I took the trail all the way back to the car.  12 miles in 58 minutes (of actual bike time).  Not bad.

Sunday, I did the same thing only this time I went south from the Columbian.  This takes you through Barton and West Bend.  I took this all the way to the end (beginning?) of the trail and then all the way back.  Another 12 miles in 56 minutes.  Pretty cool as you see parts of West Bend not normally visible by car.  Also the trail cuts over the Milwaukee river a few times with some bridges.

Anyone interested in riding the trail let me know.  The entire trail runs from West Bend to Eden about 22 miles in one direction.  Ready to take this farther north into Campbellsport next.

Next up is the Blue Glacial Hills trails.  A free county trail system.  The cool thing is if you take it all the way through you end up at Culver's.  Who doesn't like a little motivation?

Well the graduation party has come and gone and man, yesterday I was beat.  Cleaning up the aftermath, the release of stress of that party being over.  Around noon after running a few errands in town, all I wanted to do was nap, and I tried.  Just couldn't fall asleep for more than 20 minutes at a time.

Summers basically half over and we get a slight breather before August and all the activities that month holds.     It will be here and gone before you know it......

While you wait for that, look at these handsome guys in their sweet hats.

Happy Fourth of July!

Here is a time lapse of most of the Fireworks from Tuesday night.

How things work out

Four years ago when Joel graduated from grade-school, we took that awesome road trip (http://jnjturktrip.blogspot.com/) and ultimately ended up seeing the Foo Fighters....

Fast-forward to Thursday the 28th.   Joel has graduated from High School and we are watching the Foo Fighters again.  Awesome.  A new tradition in the works?

2008

2012