I wonder "Could I get tired of this?"

Tim and I have actually been out after dark a few times. The bugs have died down a lot and since we got our fishing licenses, it's hard to wrap it up and go home. We enjoyed the full moon on the water and had to go and take a few pix. We went fishing where large blocks of granite act as a shore break and I got a picture of Tim just before we called it a day. I don't do granite rocks and I ditch the cane for pictures but I truly enjoy this. We see dolphins, and that's so cool. We saw a sea turtle that followed our bait in to the shore. I caught a crab, which was only hanging onto the squid I was fishing with. He let go when he hit the water's surface. A kid fishing a little bit away from us caught an Angel fish, and it was really big, about the size of his hand. There are just such unusual things to see here. We haven't caught a fish yet, but we'll keep trying. We have the power chair plugged in so getting to the beach will be less exhausting for me. The beach is amazing hard and like walking on a paved road, a soft paved road. I don't have to fight soft, squishy sand and that's a good thing, because I wouldn't be able to go. I'm loving it though and so is Tim. He gets in long walks on the beach while I sit and enjoy the surf and sounds.

An air force training plane went down in the gulf just off our shore last week. One pilot's body was found off Port Aransas shore, he was from East Troy, WI. The other hasn't been found yet. Yesterday I was looking at shells on the shore and saw something pink. I looked closer and there were teeth. I looked closer and closer and spotted some wire. It was a lost partial. Man, I thought I found part of a body. That was the creepiest thing ever, but alas, false alarm.

Zoe enjoys her walks and has been to the beach twice. She wants to follow Tim on his walks so if we are going for his walk, she doesn't go along. She is stronger than I. We are still pulling sand burrs from our little lawn, which will be 90% sand by time we are done, but I'd rather have sand than burrs. I'll try and get a pix of those nasty critters.

Saw pix of my Arizona friends celebrating Jane's birthday and got a little home sick for their company. I'm lucky to have made such interesting friends there. Here? Not so much (yet?).

Take care, love to all, Diane

Fun with birdies

Tim and I spent some time at one of the piers in Port A and had fun talking to some fisherman and watching the birds. A group of pelicans decided to hang out with us and a few fisherman, for bait I'm sure, but what fun that was! The third picture is a crane. I watched it walk really slow to get to a bait bucket the left side of the picture. Said crane made off with a pretty big lunch.

I love the water and the people and the birds. It makes the wind, the storms, the humidity and the sand burrs, tolerable.

We've been having a good time. Enjoy the clip.

Love to all. Diane

I hate that the pictures don't show up the way I upload them but here goes. I forgot to show you what Tim found when we were getting our trailer ready for our trip. Yep, a register full of acorns, stashed away by chipmunks. Thank heavens they didn't get into the trailer, but I would love to know where they found a breach in the duct work. We have our fingers crossed that we got them all. I'll be they are still looking for the stash.

There is a picture of a storefront with a pretty ambitious beach disply of concrete and stone. Can you believe all that work to sell tee shirts and other junky stuff, although I have to say, some of it is pretty neat.

Finally, I was outside pulling sand burrs out of the lawn so Zoe could poop without hurting her feet and when I came back in, Tim had rearranged the furniture. He actually unscrewed the couch and put it in the middle of the room. We moved the chair and wow, it feels so big! It actually feels like we have a 3 room place. I'm thrilled with it. We'll have to reattach the couch where it belongs when we leave, but for now, I'm quite comfortable. Whatta guy!

We have cold and blustering weather today. Thank goodness the heat and humidity of yesterday are gone. It was 90 and I think 90% humidity. I coughed outside just breathing the air and was suprised there wasn't ozone alerts on the local tv stations. Everywhere you were outside, people were coughing. Tim tried to go for a walk on the beach but the surf was up almost to the dunes, his eyes burned and he coughed too much. He had to abandon his walk but he managed to pick a few fisherman's brains while he was out. I think we'll be getting a license and some supplies next week. I think he's ready to try surf fishing.

That's about all for now. Take care y'all. Diane

Blurry movie

I know this is blurry, I don't know why though. We'll try again but for now, I posted this little movie, at least you get to see the Zomeister. She goes to the beach every few days and she beginning to try to avoid the walk already. But we drag her along anyhow. Love, me

The Colors of Port Aransas

Port Aransas is nothing if not colorful! I am amazed how New Orleans - like the colors are here. I took a few pictures I thought I would share. We watched some fisherpeople and this woman pulled in a large salt-water cat fish. It was the smallest of the ones they caught and this picture makes it look small but it was about 20 inches long. Actually, I guess that's tiny for what people catch here. There is a shop with a huge shark outside and some funky sea horses at another. We've weathered two rather wicked storms so far and there are some more in our future. One couple here lost the awning on their motor home. He's already getting it fixed, less than 24 hours. Our windows are real clean now though and our car sparkles. We had been getting pretty (very) dusty. We'll be doing laundry again today. Then a walk on the beach. Enjoy the pix. Love, Diane and/or mummy

Storms aloft, hang on

We experienced a storm last night and one right now. Our trailer is rocking from 41 mph gusts and I think we'll have enough standing water to feed the mosquitos for the rest of the winter. They are horrible here. Don't leave the trailer after the gloming. They got in last night, when Tim took Zoe out, and he slapped mosquitos with the fly swatter for half an hour. The buggers look like northern mosquitos but they are nearly invisible and they don't make a noise. I hate their buzzing noise but given the option, I like a warning. I'm all bit up.

We went to the library and got our card and books, we visited the Chamber of Commerce for info on the area and we ate on the warf. We window shopped at a fishing store to price the equipment we will need to fish. I may just watch, and let Tim have the fun. You can surf fish here or fish off several public piers. There are fishing boats too, but they are mighty expensive. Several hundred dollars for 1 day is a cheap trip.

If I could take the gulf to Arizona, I will have found Neverland. But alas, I'm just dreaming.

The pictures are of the beach, amazing clouds and the boardwalk covered in sand. The sand blows on and it blows off, all in one day. Always windy here.

Later folks. Love, xxx ooo Mummy

Photos

Heading for Texas - 2nd Session on Wheels

Season 2 began later than last year. Just in time too. Two inches of snow fell the afternoon we left. We began with a visit with the kids and my folks and after 2 fun filled days, we left on our journey. Zoe gets drugged these days for travelling. She sits in the back seat now, in the cab, but still enjoys spending time in the bed of the truck when she's in the mood. The drugs make her pretty sad looking, but she doesn't pant, pace and whine. That's a good thing. We stayed at KOAs again, they're always convenient and we know what to expect. We stayed 4 days in Arlington to visit old friends and then headed to San Antonio. We had fun there. We took a bus from the campsight, that we very convenient. We ate high in the sky at the Tower of the America's. When Tim was here about 7 years ago, there was a Mexican restaurant. Now it is a Chart House and mighty expensive but we still had a nice dinner. The Alamo was amazing but there are no dioramas like Pee Wee Herman saw with Jose and Inez in the A D O B E. HaHa. I came away with a greater understanding of what that battle was all about and was suprised how big the entire Alamo is, and yet it is smaller now that in the past. We each bought a coffee mug. The river walk is larger than I thought too and a truly magical place. It would take an entire week to explore every nook and cranny. The boat ride was fun and entertaining.

Finally we headed to our winter home on Mustang Island. We got set up but still have work to do. We took a walk to the gulf, Zoe too, and that is very pretty. There was a "red tide" (hotter than normal water) that killed a bunch a fish. Our section of beach has scattered corpses, but in the news there are sections where the fish are 2 feed deep. UGH

We are a little miffed with our site here though. The traffic sounds are louder than I thought they would be and we are on the fence backing Hwy 361. I thought "It's an Island, how heavy can traffic be?" Dah, blond thinking. The worst is the burrs in the grass. Zoe can barely walk without picking up these tiny burrs and we have to take them off her pads. The burrs stick to our shoes and we drag them into the trailer. I had to get on my hands and knees and pick them out of the carpet. We are going to rethink our plan. Some areas of the park are burr-free zones (we noticed on our walk) but I doubt if there are any available sites there. Our friends warned us we wouldn't like it here. We do like it here! I don't think they knew about the burrs though. They would have said something, for Zoe's sake.

I'll post photos on a seperate blog. It won't let me do it now. Enjoy. Diane and Tim

Summer moves on

Summer is moving right along. After Jackie's visit Tracy came up and now Jackie is heading up again for a weekend of fishing. Tim is very sick and tired of fishing. I don't mind so much. I actually like fishing, except at night. I also decided leaches are better than worms, and yes, I touch leaches.

When Tracy was here our fishing trophies came up short but we had a good time at the Sawyer County Fair, the casino and were treated to a beautiful sunset while fishing at twilight. I hope you can see the rays of blue on the photo. Usually, you see rays of sunlight bursting over the horizon, this time I saw clouds with blue sky streaking and forming the rays. It is reflected in the water too. Man I wish I had a $$$$$ camera sometimes. I might replace Zoe on the front of the blog with that picture. It was awsome, I've never seen it before. I posted a picture of Jackie and Tim walking along the Lake Superior shoreline after fishing the big water. She had the only catch, a 3 inch white fish. Enjoy the pix!

And then there's more fish'n

We can always learn new things from our kids. Yesterdays lesson? Hold the fish close to the camera and it'll look bigger and you will look smaller. Actually, Tim's bass was bigger by a smidge. We sound competative because we are! I caught this 19 inch northern pike. We didn't keep anything. It was all catch, photograph and release. You can thank me for not putting all the pictures up. I'm getting exhausted with Jackie here and our friends, Tom and Deb and their grandson Even (yes, I typed that right) were also here. We had pudgy pie fun, a fish fry, more fishing and swimming. Tim and Tom didn't swim and were smart! The rest of us ended up with swimmer's itch. DON'T EVER GET IT. We weren't smart enough to watch the local weather - they announce when conditions were right for this parasite to be present. It's not catchy and the parasite doesn't live on humans but they burrow in and bite, then die, and you break out for up to a week with this awful rash and it is impossible to find relief. I used stick deoderant (advice from a local up here and got relief for a while but then quit working), a skeeter stick but how do you treat 50 plus bites with more coming every day, and finally gold bond 2x itch cream. That's my current treatment and it seems to be working pretty good.

Take care all of you, Love, Mummy

Finally got some keepers

Jackie is visiting and she has a friend visiting her so we had to go fishing. Tim and I both caught keeper Walleye. What fun! The girls weren't as lucky but who cares. (hahaha) Our lake has an 18" minimum, anything less has to go back into the water. I caught a perch but of course I didn't know that yet, and started reeling it in. Whatever I had on the line started to got really really heavy. The rod was bending almost to the point of snapping and I thought I was caught up in the weeds but whatever was on the hook was really fighting back, even when I let up on it. I handed the whole thing to Tim and he pulled on it, as if he were getting it out of the weeds and finally let up but "suprise" the fish was still on. Well when I got the fish in the boat, it had bite marks on it! Something big was trying to eat the fish I caught. You might see some of the damage on the perch I'm holding up. I can clearly see how people can really get carried away with "fish stories". I posted Jackie with her non-keeper walleye too. As far as my picture, Jackie cut half my face off when she took the picture. I wasn't about to pose a second time with that fish! I was laughing more for the fact that I was holding the darn fish than I was for catching it!

Rain today so no fishing. Maybe some downtown Hayward shopping.

Love, Mummy

North WoodsFun

Hi eveyone. I got the urge to share some pictures, stuff you don't see just anywhere. Our neighbor, in his 80s, plays with a band up here, they sort of "jam". Well, they do jam. In all, there were 11 muscicians on the stage, a woman fiddle player, a young guy from Milwaukee who represented Fender's guitars, an 85 year old guy who sang Danny Boy, a banjo player whose right hand couldn't strum anymore so his son did the strumming, that was pretty special.

We stopped at a roadside chainsaw shop. We stopped last year when the shop was new, and now, he is really doing fabulous work. He has a real sense of whimsey in his work. See the bench? Got $5,000? It's yours.

When we were in Ashland I noticed more than one building with pictures on the sides. I liked the one I posted here. I reminds me of a needle point I did 27 years ago.

Finally, where else will "ride the Musky" ever enter your vocabulary? She's not the Miller Highlife Lady on the moon, but she sure is unique!

Today we are going to the casino. I'm really looking forward to it. As far as I'm concerned, everyone should have to go once a week. This is only the 2nd trip this year. We've been good.

Take care, loving every one. Mummy

Or is it?

Jennifer's "Cooter"

Jennifer bought a scooter and it has become everybody's toy, including Mackenzie. Watch the video and see how the scotter came to be called the "cooter."

A few more pix

This picture of Darien makes me laugh. He looks like he is singing in the choir. I also like his "cake face" and had to share! Rachel made him his own cake, a baseball cake and she did an excellent job. Go Darien! Mackenzie is such a good big sister. She let Darien have the spotlight - well, when his big events were over and Lola and Lolo headed home, Rachel did have to make her a special cake. But that was pretty good.

Shame on me

I tried to get on this blog and couldn't, then I got lazy. Here are a few pictures of what we've been up to. We have Tim up here with a cake some friends bought. Tim and I at dinner after fthe baptism. One at the Brewers/Dodgers game with the entire family (including my brother and sister-in-law in the back, barely visible) at a tailgate party at Miller Park. Darian at his baptism. Mackenzie (with candy necklace).

The park here was been busy busy busy and the owner came up short with pontoons boats for rent so we were able to rent out the pontoon boat. That was easy $$. (Shhhh).

We are just sitting back, enjoying alot of nothing, and planning to return to Waukesha (George will love that we stay with Jennifer and him!) in August for the Puza Family Reunion.

Summer temps and sunshine returned yesterday. We had some on the 4th of July but for the most part, the weather this summer sucks. If it were hot and muggy, I would complain too. There is no pleasing me.

Oh, and then there is me

Somehow this picture got dropped from our bowling post. Seeing Darien eat a pickle and chase it with a lemon is worth his own post.

Now I'm moving on. Love again