Fester

Next week, Fester will turn six months old. This Fester is contrary to the image of Uncle Fester in the Addams Family. Young Fester full of smiles and happy as a baby can be. Fester does get a bit grumpy when his clothes and/or diaper are being changed. I think that is because Fester is a perpetual motion machine, which one could expect when you look at his paternal grandmother, but I should say grandparents, or else I will hear about it from the grandmother. Almost always moving his arms and legs and at the same time giving one of his precious smiles, Fester likes to move his limbs and body. Fester is also known as Simon Anthony Hovel, our second grandchild born to our oldest son Andrew and his wife Gena this past April. This is a story of a trip we made to visit Uncle Fester, I mean our grandchild Simon.

Centennial Lakes Paddle Boats

Fester got his alias from a possible Halloween costume. Simon, aka Fester, has some peach fuzz hair, but could well pass for bald. My son, and perhaps his wife, a few months ago thought it would be neat to dress Simon up as Fester and they would go as Gomez and Morticia. I think this was rather clever, but my wife does not like it. She thinks the cutie pie Simon should be dressed as a bumble bee or some other charming figure. When she suggested this at home, the day we left before a visit over a week ago, I noted I liked Fester, but then suggested he could be an Ewok, one of those loveable characters in Star Wars, which could be a bridge between the two. Simon would need a wig, or fur on the edge of his hat. As of this writing, I am not sure what costume Fester will wear, but me referring to him as Fester is likely working against the idea that he will be Fester of the Addams Family.

Mini-golf hole

On Sunday morning my son left for a work trip in Asia. Simon was a pleasure to be with, entertaining us and us entertaining him. I laid on the floor and moved my head which got him laughing. Most striking, with a video my daughter-in-law posted, was how bald I am on the top of my head. On Monday, my wife and I walked to his pre-school, and I commented to a worker, who was in a rocking chair holding an infant, that she had the best job. I am sure day-care work is difficult, managing varied schedules for feeding, naps, and the like, not to mention managing their bottles and possibly other food sources, depending on age. Not to mention, but when one baby starts crying do they all join in? When my wife and I got back we did some reading and then went to play mini-golf on real greens in Edina. 

Centennial Lakes Pavilion, viewed from mini-golf course

That course is part of a redevelopment of a former non-metallic mineral mining operation and is owned and operated by the city of Edina. It is a pleasant area with varied shops and restaurants on two levels, with lower and upper level parking. Running along much of the "mini-golf" course were cooperative like buildings for seasoned citizens. My wife looked them up, and they were pricey, noting minimum annual income to be able to afford to live their. There were walking paths along the course, so it was rather busy. Many of the people were of an age to be working or in school, which made me wonder, does anyone in that community work? After lunch at a place near the mini-golf (they could use some good wayfinding) we departed to back to Simon's house where we did some work outside, much of it involved pulling out volunteer maple trees in their flower beds. We then headed to pick Simon up at daycare.

When we picked Simon up that afternoon, we could hear him crying. I think they were changing him, and they said he would need to be fed soon, but he was a good, smiling boy for the near one mile walk to their house.

Aerial View of Centennial Lakes

One time, I was doing some stretches and from below, I could hear him crying. I made my upstairs to see his mom and grandma changing him. I entered the room, looked at him and his crying stopped. I am not sure if it was my presence, or my appearance coincided with the completion of his diaper change. Grandma was in her nurture mode, and was particularly pleased to bath the little guy. 

The most memorable moment of being with Simon as when we were walking him to daycare. That Monday morning, the sun was already up, but dark shadows existed on parts of the street. The route to daycare has us crossing a road with a 40 mph speed limit. We cross on the near side of the roundabout, but of course the morning rush hour traffic is moving fast as it approaches the roundabout as Minnesota drivers do their best imitation of Illinois drivers, or, perhaps, of Monday morning rush hour traffic everywhere. A few cars we let in, but there is good break in the traffic, but a white car fast approaches desirous to close the gap, but we are already in the crosswalk, and my wife sticks our her left arm and points a finger at the car driver. We were in a designated crosswalk, in which by rules of the road drivers are supposed to yield to pedestrians. Our daughter-in-law, when told of the incident, said "Toni was doing her best grandma Bear impression." Walking Simon on the way back a black vehicle approached from the roundabout side, and we waited, but it stopped to allow us the right-of-way. Finally, someone obeying the rules of the road. It was even more odd, in that it was police car. Often I see police as the worst followers of traffic laws. 

Aerial view of roundabout we crossed
we used the crossing at top of page

Our time with Fester came to an end, on Tuesday morning, before he departed for daycare, and after his morning diaper change Gena took a photo of smiling Fester with the grandparents. It was sure a pleasure spending time with the kids and Fester, or Simon. In a few weeks we may know his costume for Halloween and see if really was Fester or not. Several years from now, maybe he will read this and get his own laugh knowing that his paternal grandfather liked the idea of calling him Fester.

Couch Buddy

The evening fire had become rather large, with yellow flames spouting into the air, and making the fire warmer than anticipated for those of us who sat on the wooden benches surrounding the fire pit. The large fire was not my doing, as with a strong wind, I thought it best to keep the fire smaller. With that, I built a log cabin fire arrangement. I went to check the fire I had started a half hour earlier to heat up the sauna and came back to find someone had added at least four logs in a pyramid shape to make it much taller flame. The fire leads us to how we came to meet my brother-in-laws new couch buddy, on that second Monday night in September.

Wood carving of Fisherman
outside of Panda Palace

As we sat at the fire, a spark landed on the lower part of my forearm. Even though the temperature was rather cool, I had the sleeve pulled up due to the heat of the fire. A large group of elderly men were in the shelter right next to the fire pit, and one of them put the wood on the fire to make it a pyramid. They really should have known better, as they were celebrating their service years ago as counselors at a Boy Scout Camp in the 1960's. Located on White Sand Lak, the scout camp used lodging for a former Civilian Conservation Corps from the Great Depression, and at the time was a high adventure canoe base for the Boy Scouts. 

The CCC camp was established in 1933 and ran to late 1941, when induction for WWII took the manpower that would have been at the camp. It was known as the Crystal Lake Camp. The White Sand Lake Boy Scout Camp became active in 1940. Why the overlap in the record, I do not know, perhaps it operated with both boy scouts and CCC that summer, before the war kicked in. In 1944 it became a High Adventure Wilderness Canoe Base. At some point it was replaced, as the current high adventure base is near Ely, MN and the boundary waters. My two sons and I were part of a Boy Scout group that did the Boundary Waters twenty years past. My feet were in much better shape then.  

Over the past five years, my wife and I have joined my sister and her husband in a trip to Boulder Junction for a week of biking. We usually have done this for seven nights starting midweek after Labor Day, due to my twice a month Thursday meetings. This year we arrived Wednesday and departed the following Wednesday. Big Bear Hideaway, where we stayed, has an outdoor fire pit, and over the past five years we have met some interesting people who stayed in one or more of the other cabins. This trip, two to three of the other cabins were used during our stay. Some of that large group stayed at the large Kodiak cabin, others at a cabin on White Sand owned by a brother of one of the participants, and perhaps a few at other places. Of the whole group, there was one woman, which perhaps was a daughter or a wife of a participant. 

Me and a wood carved Bear at Panda Palace

You would think a former Boy Scout camp counselor would have had enough sense to not make a larger fire on a windy evening, but perhaps he forgot that part of the equation with fire building. I do know the person who added the wood to the fire was not the couch buddy, as someone else from the group came over occasionally to check on the fire, and with his interest he was probably the one. He had also been present when I left to check the sauna, while couch buddy was not yet present.

Couch buddy was rather tall, and got involved in a conversation I was having with another former counselor. The latter told me he had been to Little Bohemia and saw the room where John Dillinger stayed. The room was all shot up. I then noted that Johnny Depp, when starring in the film Public Enemies, had stayed in the Kodiak, the cabin some of the group stayed in, when filming in northern WI. He did not seem overly impressed. His buddy then goes into a detailed explanation of his life as a camera salesman and lighting technician. In his work as a lighting technician he mentored a man who went on to do production design for a number of movies, including The Help. He is currently doing so for the remake of War of the Roses. He went on and on. I finally found a way to get out of the conversation and use the sauna. At that point he wheeled into my brother-in-law, Rick, who seemingly heard is whole life story. Rick even knew that his new acquaintance lived in North Carolina and his wife had to drive 45 minutes to pick him up at the air port in a couple days. 

Wood Carving of a wolf

When we got back to the cabin that night Rick started to talk about us leaving him hanging with the Carolinian. At that point, my sister annoyed him, when she referred to the guy as his Couch Buddy. I am not sure that Rick wanted to invite him in to watch Monday night football, where they could pound down some beers together, although perhaps couch buddy had already pounded down a few too many Schlitz (Yes, they had Schlitz beer). In the conclusion of that game, we found out Da Bears still find ways to lose, except for the last game last year when they beat the Packers.

Detail on a cabin at Big Bear Hideaway

The guy claimed to Rick he was the best tri-pod salesman in North Carolina. Rick said he knew why the guy was the best tripod salesman in NC, because people bought a tripod just to get out of the store and away from him. I wondered what it would have been like if my brother Greg had stayed. Greg and his wife volunteer at the Overture Center in Madison, and I figured he and Rick's couch buddy could have talked all night on lighting and sets for the varied productions he and his wife have seen at the Overture. Greg knows a great many people, and my wife figured he and Rick's couch buddy probably would have found someone they know within three degrees of separation. That may have meant Rick losing a couch buddy and Greg gaining one. That would be the same degree of separation to our family has to Al Capone. Our uncle, Joe Sweeney, dated Al Capone's niece and surely Al and the niece (Al's sister's daughter) had met and knew each other. Al Capone's mom lived only 550 feet away from where my mom grew up on Prairie Ave in Chicago. My mom said that Al's mom could be seen walking down the street to daily mass. She had much to pray for.

Table in Panda Palace

After evening turned to night, we are sitting in our cabin and see a person pacing back and forth in front of the windows that look over the gazebo and general gathering area. One corner of the cabin contains the office for Big Bear Hideaway, so we wondered if he was looking for the owner, who would be at home at that time of night. It was dark, and I at first wondered if it was Rick's couch buddy who was looking for him, then realized it was not someone I recognized. The guy got our attention and Rick went out to talk to him. It turns out he is at an AirBnB above the Aqualand Restaurant two doors down from Big Bear Hideaway where we stayed, toward the downtown of Boulder Junction. He and his wife had gone to sit at a table when the door locked behind them, and he did not have his cellphone which contained the passcode for the door lock. Rick and my sister helped him by contacting the owner of Big Bear, who contacted the guy who owns Aqualand, and eventually, after verification of name, address, mother's maiden name, first pet, and so on, the guy was able to get his code. He must have gotten in because Tuesday morning he was not seen still sitting at the table. 

Boulder Junction's streets are seemingly rolled up at seven pm, with almost all businesses closed but perhaps one bar. Being a restaurant, Aqualand was closed Monday, and add this to after Labor Day when it is common that other businesses, such as the ice cream shops, closeup for the fall-winter-spring seasons. A few remain open and I wonder how the apparel stores and other shops stay open with a penchant for shopping at Amazon. Boulder Junction is an unincorporated hamlet, with a population in 2023 of 221 persons. Yet, one would not know it by looking at their town hall/community center/library.  I have to say, low population, but high second home ownership, make for an interesting situation for ability to provide such services. The guy was probably looking for some sign of civilization and came upon the lights emanating from our windows. He was a former math teacher, principal and school superintendent in Michigan. It must have been a bad couple of days for the guy, the Lions lose and then he gets locked out of the tourist housing unit. Rick and I agreed that the worst part for the guy was yet to come, listening to his wife relive the incident. 

Wood carved lumberjack at Gazebo

The fire was dead by the time the Michigan guy showed up, put out by the former boy scout counselors. We had left the fire pit, to get away, in part from couch buddy, and the group of men who were now playing a game at the gazebo, which sits adjoining the fire pit. When I could see no activity at the gazebo I went outside to make sure the fire I had started in a log cabin shape, later changed by the former scout counselors to a pyramid, was fully out. As I type this, I need to ask Rick if couch buddy will be on his Christmas Card list for this year.          

Images date from 2021

 

Making Dinner

It came to pass, that on Labor Day weekend, I indicated to my spouse I would make dinner on Labor Day. Except for the mosquitoes, it was a nice weekend weather wise, from what I recall. It was a big deal, as I knew I was taking my spouse away from something to keep her busy. My wife really likes to keep busy and cooking is one way she does that, so I was concerned that making a meal for the weekend, would take away from her desired tasks. I know she can find meal planning and cooking tedious at times, but she also wants to keep herself busy, so it is quite a balance on her part. The last thing I wish to do is get her upset because she got bored in not being able o make a meal. She consented to my making dinner, and this is a story of that day. 

I had suggested, and she concurred, that I would cook some steaks I received for father's day from my oldest son. We had two 1 plus inch thick bacon wrapped beef filets. I also cooked some potatoes that had come in the same father's day package. We finished it off with me having a salad and Mom Bear having her cucumber salad. We had been getting plenty of cucumbers and she desired to try to use them. She loves cucumbers, so I try to make sure to grow a sufficient number, although last year's crop was meager, quite the opposite of this year.

Everything comes down to timing and so it was with dinner. Rather than using our large gas grill, I chose to use the Weber Smoky Joe, a small grill perfect for two filets. Weather conditions can vary, and so can how long it takes to get the coals to their grey-white for grilling. I then had to try and time the start of the oven to 425 degrees, so as to be preheated when cooking the potato recipe. Each has a certain amount of time to cook (the potatoes longer than the steaks) or warm through, and each had a different internal temperature for when they were to be at their best, or for the steaks, the level at which we like them cooked. Each took a different amount of time, which added to the issue of timing, so as to have the food properly cooked, but then not sit and get too cold, or put in the oven and have the steak dry out and lose its juices.

I never would have guessed that trying to get a grill timed with an oven could be so perplexing. I made some comment that getting the timing right for the meal required quite a bit of planning. That of course got a big belly laugh out of my wife. 

I was happy to know that I got my wife to laugh, even it was at my expense. She is a first born child, and a no-nonsense woman. The latter may be due to the former.  Dinner turned out quite well, the steaks may have been on 30 seconds longer than they should have, but they were still in the appropriate temperature and color for medium rare. My mental gyrations on estimating timing for getting the grill coals to proper white-gray, and then timing of the preheat of the oven seemed to work. I am not sure when my next foray into the kitchen will come.

I am not sure when my next foray into the kitchen will come. I have to make sure my wife is in a proper state of mind, that she will not get bored from not cooking dinner. I had to write this blog post, as my wife said, "There better be a blog post about this!" 

Carrington

In the morning as the sun just rises above the trees and houses in the neighborhood, about 30 minutes after sunrise, a single beam of light reaches the backyard and illuminates Carrington. Carrington gleams in the soft, auburn colored early morning sun as the sun path struggles to illuminate the dew on the grass into a sparkle of lights. 

Carrington sitting in Butterfly bed as
morning sun illuminates his granduer

Carrington is a stainless steel two dimensional crane figure, in profile, with legs made out of rebar. My wife received Carrington as a birthday gift from her mother, and I placed it in the butterfly bed with an angle that points to the house such that Carrington does not follow the almost southerly line of the rock bed retaining walls. Rather, the figure faces just over 25 degrees off south to the east, which allows the morning sun, at this time of year, to shine off Carrington giving the creature a glow in the path of morning sunlight that sets it apart from the remainder of the backyard still awaiting nature's warmth. The sun still hits Carrington, but as we approach the Autumn equinox I will have to see how the changing sun's position alters the sun hitting the stainless steel, and reflecting the sunlight. With the sun, orientation is everything.

The sun will rise later and it will, day-by-day, for months decrease its height in the horizon. At some point the sun may fail to reach it with house and trees in the way, and with its angle partially off direct south. At direct south, we would not see it as well from the house.

Carrington

Carrington maintains a commanding presence above the plantings of echinacea, lilies, milkweed, rudbeckia, and hollyhocks which predominate the butterfly bed. The bed has gone through transition as the trees have gotten larger, providing more shade, and requiring movement of plants. The retaining walls were built in the fall of 1991, when my wife was several months pregnant with our first child. She would pick out the limestone rocks and I would move haul them into position. It has helped transform an otherwise mundane backyard with a slope running north to south into something more pleasing to the eye. In addition the upper bed, in particular, is a haven for pollinators.

Carrington later in morning

With its neck outstretched to the southeast it presents a majestic appearance in the bed, with a understated air of sophistication. I was in a quandary as if it should be given a name and if so what to name it. I thought of simply calling it Crane, as I did the first couple weeks. Then, in order to keep the wife on her toes, I started calling it Crawford, but after two days, I thought people may think it too similar to the big red dog named Clifford. Crawford, I realized did not do justice to the sleek crane figure and I realized it was a name best left to a cuddly dog. I then came upon Carrington. It was not meant to be after the Carrington family in the old evening soap "Dynasty." Yet, that surname provides some snobbishness as if it is out of Downton Abbey. I never watched Downton Abbey but I have thought of tracking the snobbish, petty gentry of England. I did not pick it because of Dynasty, but due to its overly pompous British connotation.

Cranes in Lake Kegonsa Wetland
north side of lake, east of Fish Camp County Park
31 Aug 2025

In the Madison paper there is a cartoon called "Mendota Marsh" by the State Journal cartoonist. The cartoon has two characters Lewis Crane (you guessed it, a crane) and Oscar Fox (yes, a fox). Lewis is a long-time Madison resident who is the stereo typical pompous, self-important, imperious NIMBY, 60's like Madison resident portrayed by mane of long grey hair and a pony tail, and circular spectacles hanging on its beak. Lewis, in my mind, would not call them glasses, or eye glasses, but rather spectacles.

I think Carrington is in the best possible spot in varied our gardens, and its ability to catch the first glimmer of morning sunlight was simply happenstance. Yet, that happenstance allows an extra pick me up and smile to my face as Carrington reflects back the morning sunlight.