Yesterday, January 25, 2025, turned out to be a very nice day. I love it when things just happen and work out. Long range plans are not for me. I think about it too often because I don't want to forget. I have to plan when to leave and should I eat first? What should I wear in case I get too warm or too cold. That's what happens when you are an over thinker like me. Some people love to have a planned schedule, but I like to wing it within reason. That doesn't mean I like chaotic situations or disorganization, I just like plans not too far in advance. I might get a better offer and then I am stuck with something I agreed to six months ago.
Last Thursday my grandson Jack had a swim meet more than an hour away. His parents were both going, and I hadn't planned on it. A few minutes before they were going to leave, my son-in-law had an emergency to tend to. My daughter decided to drive alone. She called to tell me and I said I could go, all I needed was twenty minutes to get to a meeting spot 12 miles away. I went to the bathroom, brushed my teeth and put on my coat. In twenty minutes we had met and were on our way. I think I forgot to comb my hair, but I didn't care. I did overdress because pools are HOT and I didn't have time to consider that, but I stripped off a few layers and all was great. My daughter didn't have to drive home in the cold and dark alone which made me happy.
Since winters are quite long for me, I was also happy when two days later, my other daughter called. She wondered if I wanted to go to Green Bay. My youngest grandson had one of his paintings being displayed at the Neville Public Museum. It is Youth Art Month which is sponsored by the Council for Art Education. It features creative works from students in grades K through 12. Sixteen school districts in Northeast Wisconsin were represented at this location. It shows the value of art education for all kids and supports programs in Wisconsin schools.
After having coffee and a sweet treat at a little coffee shop, we headed to the museum. First we went in to see Ewan's picture displayed and some other very good art presented there. It's is amazing the talent all children have. It just needs to be nudged out at times and nurtured. Of course Ewan lives and breaths fishing so a painting of a trout was the logical subject matter. For those of you who followed his Youtube channel called Old Time Skills when he was much younger, you can now see him tie flies for fly fishing. His Youtube channel is now called Old Time Skills Outdoors. You won't recognize him or his voice. He's 14 now and really good at it.
They have a lot of fun displays at the Neville Museum in Green Bay Wisconsin. We saw a replica of Lambeau Field constructed out of Legos, and we saw how chocolates were made. Ewan practiced being a weather man on a green screen and discovered it is much harder than it looks. Upstairs they had some of the old displays from the local Prange stores. Those stores were part of both my daughters' childhood. There were a lot of animal displays and old time vehicles. There was a cross section of a beaver lodge. It reminded me of the times I have watched beaver in my marsh. This is a blog I wrote about it in 2013. https://www.thecabincountess.com/2013/07/the-beaver-are-back.html As we were looking at the displays, we saw a bunch of people gathering at a big window. We laughed thinking these people were at a museum and all they were doing was looking out the window at the river. Then we discovered why. Apparently a man was trying to cross the ice on the river either to get to the other side or to run from something. A moving river isn't the safest right now and he slipped, slided and fell down several times. We joined the gawkers and were sure he was going to go through the ice. He made it and on the other side he was greeted by police and firefighters. They brought a ladder for him to crawl out and took him away. We haven't seen any details of this event, but you never know what you will see.
From the museum we went to a few stores my family needed to go to. I was fine walking around clutching my purse and looking like I was lost. I didn't buy anything, but it was exercise.
Our next stop was the Verizon store. I had needed a new phone but had avoided getting one. It is always such a pain to set it up and learn all the new features. I always put it off as long as I can. Since my grandson and son-in-law also needed new phones, we did it together. I got an iphone 16 and added a new iwatch as long as we were there. Hopefully these two pieces of technology will last me for as long as I need them. The phone is actually awesome and it has a longer zoom than my "good" camera. Many of you have seen so many pictures of the church across the river from my deck. I took this from the window. It looks much much closer than it is and pretty clear too. The iwatch has a crash feature besides getting messages, phone calls and Facetime. If I fall and can't call for help, the watch will call 911 for me and give coordinates. Living by myself, it seemed like a good idea. It takes EKG's which I was afraid to do, but I had a normal rhythm. It tracks sleep as far as awake time, REM, core and deep sleep. You can listen to music and a multitude of other things. I would never have thought growing up a million years ago that any of this is possible. Necessary, maybe not but pretty amazing.
We finally ended the adventure with a meal at a new place I had never heard of. I don't eat out much. It was called Freddies. It is a hamburger and ice cream joint with tiny little fries. It was good.
Next we headed home. The next few hours weren't the best but we got through it. The person at Verizon said it was easy to transfer all our information from the old phones to the new phones. That was not the case. Because the phones were older or some other reason I am not capable to understand, the numbers didn't transfer. My daughter handled all of it so I can't give any details but eventually she spoke to a real person and got it figured out. It was such a relief.
I left my house at 10:00am and got home at 10:00pm. It was a great diversion. I try to be really independent but sometimes you just need your family.
