On This Date in 1999 (April 15)

This letter will be the last that I send to you in Arizona. JoAnna says that you’ll be back in Two Rivers by the end of the month. Back to reality!

We’ve been experiencing a lot of April showers lately. We had a couple periods of rain during the week, including a soaking downpour that started late Thursday evening and lasted throughout the night. Yesterday we had beautiful weather through the late afternoon when a bank of gray clouds darkened the western horizon. It has been raining on and off ever since, which makes today a good time to stay inside and tackle some cleaning projects or just take it easy. JoAnna’s doing the latter right now. She’s sacked out on the couch watching a biography of Cher on VH1.

“I can barely keep my eyes opened,” she told me a few minutes ago.

The boys are on the other side of the house waiting for a friend to come over, someone who lives just a block away from us.

JoAnna and I started our spring cleaning yesterday. The house was begging for our attention. We started out with the living room/dining area/study, covering every surface from ceiling to floor. The cabinets and buffet were cleared out and cleaned, and then the contents were more efficiently organized. We also tackled the kitchen, again from top to bottom. We didn’t have to clean all the cabinets since JoAnna had rearranged some of them to accommodate the new dishes and glasses we got at Christmas. While I was cleaning the kitchen countertops, JoAnna tidied up the hallway between the kitchen and garage and then removed all the Abrahamson campaign clutter that had accumulated around the computer during the past three months. I’m so glad this election is over. Shirley was easily re-elected to the Supreme Court, beating her opponent handily, by a 63-37 margin. Sharryn Rose couldn’t even win Brown County, her home base.

Friday evening we hosted a card party here. Sheepshead, of course. We started at 7:00 and played until nearly 11:00. Nobody was really into the game. It was the first time this year that the group has gotten together for cards and we were more interested in talking and joking. JoAnna made hot tamales, and our guests brought various snacks – chips and cookies, mostly. Jon Erpenbach brought along Joey and Amy, his two children, so the boys had someone to play with. Amy is just crazy about Boxer, but, unfortunately, the feeling is not mutual. Amy is much too rough with him. Boxer was a basket case by the end of the evening. When we were saying goodbye to our guests, I held him so he wouldn’t make a dash for the open door. He bit me rather forcefully on my left index finger, the little runtski. He was all wound up after having been chased around the house by four wild kids for much of the evening.

JoAnna decided we’d go to church this morning since she didn’t want to get cleaned up for church after our housecleaning and then get all grubby again during the workout at the health club. Andy accompanied her and played basketball while she went through her routine. Eddie and I stayed home. I finished writing a letter to Mom, and Eddie watched TV. Mom, by the way, is doing fine. Dad had become such a burden, the Parkinson’s completely immobilizing him during the last couple weeks of his life. Both JoAnna and I were surprised, almost shocked, by her appearance at Christmas. She had lost so much weight. Some of it is attributable to an overactive thyroid, a diagnosis made by her doctor earlier in the year. I’m convinced that an equal part was a result of the ongoing stress of taking care of Dad. Mom was determined to keep him at home and, fortunately, Hospice was there during his last days so he could die peacefully and with dignity. Now Mom can get back to having a life of her own. 

The boys and I had a nice visit in Warren for a portion of the last week in March, during the boys’ spring break from school. We went shopping a couple times, once to the Jamestown (New York) mall, once to the Warren mall. We took Mom and Barb out to lunch one day. Otherwise we just hung out. Our evening meals lasted for three hours, with the family, including Larry and Kim, who always joined us at this time of the day, gathered around the dining room table for food and conversation.

The boys and I spent April Fool’s Day on the road. We stayed at a motel in Hammond, Indiana, just outside of Chicago. The boys spent most of the evening in the pool. I joined them for awhile, but then wrote a note to Mom while they continued to splash around. We had a great time in Chicago. On Friday, we visited the planetarium, walked through Grant Park to the Art Institute (not a very big hit with the boys, but they did enjoy the arms & armor exhibit) and the Museum of Broadcast Communications (featuring oldtime TV and radio memorabilia), and then walked back to the car – over an hour of walking altogether, which resulted in a few complaints from the boys during our return trip. It was a beautiful day for walking, though.

Around 3:00, we checked into our motel, the Best Western River North, located a few blocks north of the Chicago River and six blocks west of Michigan Avenue. We thought we’d be able to get in a swim before supper, but the pool was closed for repairs. Fortunately, a Nintendo game was attached to the TV in our room. That evening, we saw the Chicago Bulls make history, losing to Orlando by the largest margin in the team’s 33-year history. On Saturday, we went to Lou Mitchell’s, one of my favorite restaurants, for breakfast, took a trip to the Skydeck of the Sears Building, and wandered around the Lincoln Park Zoo. We returned to the United Center that evening to watch a hockey game, the Chicago Black Hawks vs. the Carolina Hurricanes. The Hawks won in the final minute of the game, 2-1. It was, admittedly, an expensive weekend, but I don’t think I went over budget. I have to wait until I get my next Mastercard statement for the final verdict. The boys and I are determined that Mom will accompany us on our next trip to Chicago.

It looks like JoAnna has fallen asleep. I thought we were going to continue with our spring cleaning today, clean the bathrooms, specifically. I should attend to a couple areas I overlooked yesterday – the closet next to the front entrance and the cabinets next to the dishwasher. There’s also a couple loads of laundry to do, and I should go through my closet and chest of drawers and bag up a donation of castoffs to Goodwill. I also need to finish filling out our tax forms. JoAnna has me feeling lazy, though. Maybe I’ll just stretch out on the living room couch and continue reading the book I started yesterday, Little Green Men, by Christopher Buckley, a very funny novel about a George Will-type commentator who becomes convinced that he was abducted by aliens. Buckley deliciously spoofs the pomposities of Washington.

Later that same day.

I was able to check off most of the chores on my to-do list, while JoAnna continued to sack out on the couch. She must have used up all her energy at the health club last night. During the early afternoon, she did get up and prepare a round steak in the crock pot for supper and then completed the meal preparations between 5:30 and 6:00. Otherwise, she was snoozin’ or surfin’, the perfect couch potato. Eddie’s soccer practice was canceled. Andy’s lasted nearly two hours. Right now JoAnna is preparing the boys for their first communion, which takes place the first weekend of May. We hope to see you here then. We send you our love.

On This Date in 1999

I have a little bit of time before I have to drive Eddie to his Cub Scout meeting. Yesterday, on a beautiful spring evening, he had his first soccer practice, and I taxied him there and back since JoAnna had a meeting after work and didn’t get home until 7:00. Andy’s team practiced on Tuesday at a park in the Town of Middleton, about five miles west of here. JoAnna drove him there and then dropped off Eddie at the library since I had to work until 6:45, when it was time to attend a parent meeting and pick up Andy. The parent meeting was over by the time I got there since one of the coaches had given JoAnna (and others) the wrong time.

As you can deduct from the first paragraph of this letter, it didn’t take long – a day, actually -- to get back into our busy schedule.

JoAnna returned home from Pennsylvania on Monday morning about 10:00. She was beat but went to work anyway, until she couldn’t keep her head up and eyes opened. She was home at 3:00 and immediately changed into her pajamas and crawled into bed. That evening -- after getting dressed again, of course -- she spent a couple hours at the AFSME headquarters doing phone-banking for Shirley Abrahamson.

I spent Monday doing wash and getting the house back in order. I also did some grocery shopping since the milk smelled as though it was close to go sour and the bread had an about-to-mold aura about it. The boys played roller-hockey in the driveway, watched TV, and generally ignored their dad except when they were hungry. Even though I had taken the entire day off, I debated about going into work to check my mail and catch up on my email, but I saved that stuff for first thing Tuesday morning.

Today started out beautifully, but clouds began moving in during the midafternoon and now it is raining, with some muffled thunder occasionally thrown in. Looks like we’ll be getting quite a bit of precipitation this week, which will be good for the grass and the perennials that are already a couple steps beyond peeking through the ground. Our daffodils and crocuses have just started to bloom. I noticed that a cluster of crocuses I planted in a section of the front yard last fall have become bunny food. They just can’t stay away from those new plants. After the first season, I guess they’re just not tender enough.

The boys are already looking forward to their next Chicago trip. We talked about taking a day trip to Wrigley Field some weekend this summer. If Sammy Sosa is going to have another fence-busting season, we better order our tickets now. The problem is, we haven’t finalized our summer schedule yet. Considering what we already have on our calendar – the Nelson family reunion in the Twin Cities, our Bastille Day party, the Richard family reunion in Louisiana, and two or three baseball tournaments, I don’t think we’re going to have many weekends left. Maybe a night game during the week is a better idea.

Were you able to read about the first part of our Chicago adventure? I should have enclosed a magnifier. I always write so small when I use blank greeting cards as stationary. Am I trying to get my money’s worth or ruin people’s eyesight?

You might be interested to know that we were eyewitnesses to history at the Bulls game. We were there to see most of the biggest loss in the team’s 33-year history. How the mighty have fallen, as they say. Andy was ready to leave before the end of the third quarter, which gives you a clear indication of just how bad the game was, but I insisted we stay until Orlando scored 100 points, which occurred very early in the fourth quarter. As a result of our early departure from the United Center, we didn’t have to fight the crowds and quickly hailed a cab back to the motel. 

By the way, Toni Kukoc did play, Barb. He must have made a quick recovery from whatever injury he had. He was the Bulls’ leading scorer with 13 points.

I guess I was somewhat surprised that the game was sold out – the Bulls’ 558th sellout in a row. An article in the March 25th New York Times offers a reason for the team’s continued popularity.

During their reign, the Bulls had become the darlings of celebrities and business tycoons, a favored night-on-the-town entertainment for people from the woodsy, wealthy North Shore. But now it is possible for a man like Rick Peterson, who works for an auto parts business in the working-class south suburbs, to take his 15-year-old son to the game, without forking over the equivalent of a house payment.

Our seats, one row below the very outer ring of seats on the top tier were $22 apiece. They probably could have been scalped for five times that amount last year.

We started out Saturday at Lou Mitchell’s, a loop restaurant known far and wide for its breakfast menu. I had eaten here three times previously, twice with JoAnna, during the mid-80s. I chowed down on a huge omelet (turkey, swiss, tomato, and mushroom) and a side of hash browns, while Andy settled for a bagel and Eddie picked at a Belgian waffle. From here, we walked to the Sears Tower a few blocks away and snaked our way, along with hundreds of other sightseers, to the bank of elevators that took us to the Skydeck. Before taking the 70-second trip to the top, we saw a 15-minute film entitled “Above Chicago”, which, of course, featured only the attractive portions of the city.

Our bird’s eye view was limited due to the day’s hazy conditions. We couldn’t see much beyond a one-mile radius of the loop. Back at ground level, the boys uttered cries of “I’m hungry” so I bought them slices of pizza at a conveniently located Sbarro’s.

From here we drove a few miles north to Lincoln Park. At first I thought we weren’t going to find a place to park. Lots of other people had the same idea we did, but having a basic familiarity with the city, my nose led us to a parking lot located on the Lake Michigan side of the park just west of Lake Shore Drive. The boys rollerbladed for a while but changed back into their shoes when we learned that rollerblades were not allowed in the zoo.

The Lincoln Park Zoo is a very compact facility. We were able to make a leisurely stroll around the grounds and through the various animal houses in less than two hours. Then it was back to the motel to relax for awhile. We were denied the amenity of a swimming pool since it was undergoing a renovation. As a consolation, the boys were able to play Nintendo in our room.

We ate supper at a nearby restaurant and then took a cab to the United Center. Our driver got us there in record time, shaving $2.50 off the average fare we paid on Friday. I handed him a $10 bill for the $5.40 fare and told him to keep the change. “You are the champion,” I added. The boys seemed impressed with my generous mood, figuring that Dad will buy me that jersey (Andy) and cap (Eddie) tonight. They were right. Dad broke out the plastic. The hockey game wasn’t anywhere near a sellout. The arena seats around 21,000 and at least a quarter of the seats must have been empty. We saw a great game, a much better contest than the previous evening, the Black Hawks pulling out a 2-1 victory in the last minute of the game. Where Eddie had been lethargic through most of the basketball game, except for the halftime break, he was into this game from start to finish. Our seats, though located in the third tier, put us right on center ice, providing a panoramic view of the action. At the Bulls’ game, one of the backboards partially obscured our view since we were located in the “end zone”.

Sunday morning, after checking out of our motel, we walked around the area looking for a restaurant where we could eat breakfast. Everything didn’t open until after 11:00, it seemed. We saw some activity in front of a place we had checked out the previous evening, the Rainforest Café, when there was a 45-minute wait for a table, and of course that didn’t fit into our schedule. Here’s a description of the restaurant from its promotional brochure. 

You’ll be immersed in a tropical wonderland with dazzling special effects: cool mists that permeate through cascading waterfalls; gentle tropical rainstorms (off to the sides; the customers don’t get wet), thunder and lightning; huge mushroom canopies, animation featuring Tracy the Talking Tree, butterflies, crocodiles, snakes and frogs, trumpeting elephants and other wildlife, all moving within the surroundings of larger than life banyan trees, with the sounds and aromas of a tropical rain forest. 

The boys loved this place. Our service was very leisurely, purposely, I think, since a store is attached to the restaurant, so we ended up spending nearly two hours here. The place is designed to provide a shopping experience as much as a dining experience. Fortunately, I only had to pay for the latter. The boys didn’t even ask to buy anything. I think they already appreciated how generous Dad had been during the past week. As a result of our visit, Eddie has decided that he wants to be a city planner and live in Chicago. I wish I could pinpoint the time that he made this career choice during the weekend. Maybe he picked up on some offhanded remark I made while we looking at this scale model of the loop area while waiting for our turn to go up to the Skydeck.

On This Date in 1999 (March 20)

It’s a beautiful Saturday morning, not a cloud in the sky, a blinding sunshine warming the earth, a work-in-the-garden kind of day. But, of course, it’s too early for that. Instead, I’ll concentrate on the list of chores I’ve prepared for myself. Write letters, finish yesterday’s pile of laundry, organize the hallway between the kitchen and the garage so it doesn’t look as though a tornado just passed through, transfer the scattered gloves and mittens and scarves to the chest of drawers in the garage, a piece of furniture that I bought when I first moved to Oshkosh.

JoAnna is spending the day at Shirley Abrahamson’s campaign headquarters. I know she has a lot to catch up on. Andy is sitting at the kitchen table doing his math homework, and Eddie is playing with his Lincoln logs, organizing them according to some complex plan inside his head. Although we brag about his artistic side, I think Eddie could easily move toward a career in engineering or architecture.

As I mentioned during our phone conversation yesterday, we made great time on the return trip to Middleton. We crossed the Indiana-Illinois border a few minutes before 2:00 p.m. and pulled into the driveway at 5:20. It was one of our easiest road trips.

I always seem to get the job of unloading the van. I pleaded for some assistance and initially my family responded. Very quickly, though, I saw JoAnna writing down her ten voice mail messages, Andy shooting baskets in the driveway, and Eddie watching TV. JoAnna went to the health club, and, feeling sluggish, I decided to work out on the Walkfit. For supper, the boys ordered pizza and JoAnna returned with the order I called into Grand China: shrimp fried rice, steamed potstickers (a meat-filled Chinese pasta is the best way to describe this entree), and crab Rangoon.

The visit to Warren almost seems like a blur now. Yesterday I spent most of my passenger time in the van transcribing my reflections of the funeral home visitation and Dad’s funeral on the message side of Ohio and Indiana picture postcards, six of them altogether. After reading Dad’s 1943 autobiographical sketch, I truly regret that I wasn’t more insistent that he write about his life experiences. Sometime during the late 1980s, I think I gave both of you blank books with the encouragement to write about your lives. I now repeat this encouragement, Mom. Your reminiscences will be something the boys will treasure when they are older.

I didn’t say this as articulately as I wanted to when we said our goodbyes Friday morning, but I just want to let you know you proud we our of you, Mom. You conducted yourself with such dignity and poise during the visitations and funeral. You were very gracious when accepting the many expressions of sympathy and made everyone feel at ease. I know you were an inspiration to the rest of us. I was concerned about how I was going to react once people started arriving at the funeral home. Let me start out with people I don’t know or can only vaguely remember, I said to myself. So who is the first person I see at two o’clock Wednesday afternoon? Yolanda Peroski. When we embraced, I lost my composure and blubbered some response to her expression of sympathy.

Later I wondered if some of my emotional reaction had to do with the fact that I didn’t take the time to visit her this past Christmas. After that, though, I was fine. The other challenge during our visit was reading the two scripture passages without being overwhelmed by another emotional bubble. Halfway through the 13th chapter of I Corinthians, I felt a pull on my vocal chords. Fortunately, the tension was quickly released. I did feel my body start to quake a little bit after I returned to the pew.

Overall, I felt that the funeral arrangements were handled very well. It helped me, at least, to put a big exclamation point at the end of dad’s life. What was evident at the retirement party for Dad in 1981 was again very much in evidence this past Wednesday and Thursday. Dad deeply touched the lives of many people.

On This Date in 1999 (February 24)

The ground is covered with snow again, but I don’t think it will last too long. About three inches fell during the afternoon, making rush hour traffic treacherous, which, of course, was of no concern to me or JoAnna, The weather is supposed to warm up, with temperatures in the 40s by the weekend. I haven’t bothered to shovel the sidewalk, and I think I just might let Mother Nature take care of the job. (As it turned out, I shoveled the sidewalk but not the driveway, which I did leave to Mother Nature. She did a good job, too.) 

Andy brought home a terrible midterm report in math, an overall grade of 60, which is barely passing. When I returned home from work last night around 9:15, JoAnna was attempting to help Andy with his homework. He had written down incorrect answers for all of the math problems using the symbols > (greater than) and < (less than) but couldn’t be convinced that they needed to be changed. He got upset when we told him that he must have misunderstood something in class. As a result of this downfall, Andy is grounded for a week and his Playstation game will only be available at selected times during the weekend. I suggested that sleepovers be disallowed until the end of the school year.

Although Andy went to bed mad last night, he woke up this morning in a pleasant, even affectionate, mood. He corrected the mistakes on his homework assignment. The disagreement with Mom and Dad seemed to have been forgotten. 

I signed up the boys for baseball on Monday evening. Andy will again try out for a traveling team. This year, the 11 year olds will play in 5 (!) tournaments, the first one scheduled for the middle of May. I don’t think Andy is going to be playing much soccer this spring.

JoAnna made a casserole for supper tonight, using boneless chicken breasts, Stove-top stuffing, and cream of mushroom soup. It was very tasty. In fact, I should be able to have an encore for lunch tomorrow unless JoAnna has seconds once she returns from an evening spent at Shirley Abrahamson’s campaign headquarters. Both Shirley and another Supreme Court justice, Ann Walsh Bradley, have asked JoAnna to stay on until the election in April. I know she’ll stay involved, but I don’t see how she can continue to do everything she’s doing now once she starts working in the Department of Justice.

On This Date in 1999 (February 19)

JoAnna starts her new job in the Department of Justice on Monday, March 1st. I think she’s looking forward to getting back into a go-to-work routine, as opposed to her current work-at-home routine. She has experienced firsthand one of the major drawbacks of working at home. You’re always available. Your office hours are all the time you spend at home. Morning, noon, and night. Evenings and weekends. As JoAnna complained the other evening, “It seems like I don’t have free time anymore.” Since she’s been working on Shirley Abrahamson’s election campaign, JoAnna gets phone calls from 7:30 a.m. until 9:30 p.m. Boy, has our phone been ringing a lot lately!

As a result of JoAnna’s new employment, our spring break getaway has been cancelled. Maybe next year. Even though Shirley now has a bona fide campaign manager on board, JoAnna is still coordinating her fundraising efforts. Between that responsibility and her new job, I think she would find it difficult to leave the state for a week, especially when the spring election falls on the day after we had planned to return from baby Richard’s christening in Tamaqua. Now I’m debating whether or not the boys and I should make a trip to Warren. With the Richard family reunion in Louisiana this August, I don’t see many opportunities to travel to Pennsylvania during the summer. Mom would be very disappointed if there was a gap of a year between our visits. It would be very painful for her to go that long without seeing her precious grandsons. Last March, JoAnna was busy with Brian Manthey’s special election, which kept her at home while the boys and I spent some time in Warren and Chicago. I bet the boys wouldn’t mind an instant replay of last year’s road trip. Dad wouldn’t either, for that matter. I’ve already requested the time off, so I don’t have to worry about missing anything at the library.

It looks as though Andy’s basketball season is going to be extended an additional week. Going into the final weekend of the regular season, Middleton’s record is 12 wins and 1 loss. Tomorrow and Sunday they play nonconference teams, i.e., teams they didn’t play this season. Next weekend they play in the Tri-County League tournament. The add-on is a tournament the following weekend (March 5-7) in Oregon (not the state!!, the suburb of Madison, although if it were an all-expenses paid trip to Portland or Eugene, I’d volunteer to be the team mascot.) By the middle of March, Andy and his teammates will have played in close to 25 games, quite a full schedule for fifth graders.

Andy continues to bring home good grades. His class has been studying the southeastern states in Social Studies, and he did a report on Georgia. His teacher attached a very flattering note to his assignment, for which he earned an “A”. She was very pleased that he provided more information than was required.

Eddie and the other scouts in his troop received their Wolf badges last night at the annual Blue & Gold Cub Scout banquet. He was so proud of himself. His den also put on a skit, about the benefits of eating a healthy lunch. Eddie delivered his lines with gusto. JoAnna helped to coordinate all the set-up activities: coordinating volunteer assignments and getting the tables set up, covered and decorated. I think she originally agreed to do this when she thought she was going to have more time on her hands, but she managed to fit this commitment seamlessly into her schedule which, of course, should be no surprise to anyone.

Larry called the other day with the news that Sheri (or however she spells her name) is engaged. JoAnna thought she might have been using Larry to get this other guy jealous so that he’d pop the question. From JoAnna’s half of the conversation, it sounds like Larry is planning to come back to Wisconsin. She suggested he look into the Department of Corrections, since they were blessed with such a big (obscenely so) increase in the Governor’s budget. She thinks they’ll be needing additional computer operations employees.

We’re experiencing another cold spell, nothing subzero, but during the day the temperature barely gets out of the 20s, a breeze always making it feel colder, and at night it falls into the teens. JoAnna and Andy sleep with an extra blanket or comforter over them. Eddie and I must be the hot-blooded ones in the family.

JoAnna is talking about flying to Louisiana for the reunion this summer, especially since it takes place over a weekend. If we drive, we’d have to leave in the middle of the weekend. The boys and I were a little disappointed to hear this as we were looking forward to a road trip in a recreational vehicle. I checked the mileage between Madison and Lafayette on the Internet, using Mapquest, an interactive atlas. Lafayette is actually 75 miles farther away from us than Colorado Springs. Considering the short duration of the reunion – three days – I guess flying might be the better option, unless some other destinations are incorporated into this trip. Once again, though, JoAnna’s new job might impact on any expanded plans. It’s likely that in August she’ll still be in her probationary period, which means she’ll have to get a dispensation to use any vacation time.

We haven’t decided what we’re doing with the boys this summer, at least I don’t remember JoAnna and I making a formal decision. At this point, we’re leaning to letting the boys stay home on their own. I’m sure we wouldn’t consider this option if I didn’t work so close to home. Andy and Eddie have shown themselves to be very responsible the times we have left them home alone during the past six months. We haven’t had to use a sitter since last spring, our summer get-togethers always being family-oriented. Nevertheless, I still have some reservations about leaving them on their own, day in, day out, all summer long. JoAnna and I would have to set up some very firm ground rules. And, if it turned out that the boys needed more supervision, it would be hard to get them into a program halfway, or whatever, through the summer. Last spring, we registered the boys late, a couple months after the program brochure for the Camp of the Trails program at Sauk Trail school here in Middleton was first distributed, and, as a result, some of the programs Andy wanted to participate in were already full. But let me put this all in perspective. In less than five years, we’ll be worried about whether Andy returns home with the car in one piece. 

Hope this letter finds the both of you doing well and enjoying the desert warmth. We send you our love.

On This Date in 1999 (February 14)

It’s a very springlike afternoon – warm and breezy with lots of sunshine. After I finish this letter, I think I’ll ask Andy if he wants to play catch, get an early warm-up for the baseball season. Actually, it’s not too early to think about it. We received a postcard in the mail last week announcing that the baseball registration starts on February 22nd.

After today, JoAnna should be able to reduce her work load on Shirley’s campaign. Right now she’s talking with the person who agreed to take on the duties of campaign manager until the election. JoAnna will now, hopefully, be able to limit her activities to fundraising.

Three weeks from today, the library will open on Sunday for the first time ever. Our schedule of 1:00 to 5:00 p.m. will run through the Sunday before the Memorial Day weekend and then resume on the Sunday after Labor Day. I plan to work the first three Sundays just to get a sense of how things are working. We expect that it will probably be the busiest four hours of the week as far as circulation and people in the library are concerned. Last week I offered the position of Young Adult Services Librarian to our second choice of the five candidates we interviewed. Our first choice, a very dynamic and personable woman whose has been working in or for school libraries for the past 15 years, turned us down because we couldn’t offer her enough money, although it’s not like we made a secret of the salary when we advertised the job. Her dilemma was compounded by the fact that she would be moving from a full-time to 3/4s time job. She thought she might be able to work out some free-lancing training opportunities on the side, but that opportunity never materialized during the five-day extension I gave her to give us a final decision. Our second choice might actually be a better fit for the job. She’s a recently library school graduate (1997) who served in the Peace Corps, in Palau, a Micronesian island, for three years and also has a storytelling background. Rebecca was too modest during her interview, the three of us on the selection committee felt. Eve, our children’s librarian, attempted to draw her out a couple times when she seemed to be holding back. Although she looked very calm on the outside, she could have been suffering from a severe case of nerves on the inside. At least one candidate we talked with had a rash covering most of her neck by the end of her interview. It’s been 13 years since my last job interview, the one that landed me in Middleton. Because of my extensive public-speaking experience over the past decade, though, I think I’d handle this situation well. Not that I’m planning to test the waters. After all, the library board worked very hard to get me that big raise. What a slap in the face it would be to turn around and say, “Thanks, but I’m moving on to bigger and better challenges.”

Two more basketball victories this weekend. Middleton trounced DeForest yesterday, an away game, 65-33. In today’s game, at home against Stoughton, whom Middleton beat in a 31-30 thriller a few weeks ago, our guys got off to a very slow start, scoring only 3 (that’s not a typo) points in the first quarter. Stoughton didn’t do much better, managing only 8 points, their guys probably as nervous as our guys, knowing that this was going to be a hard-fought game. Middleton ended with a one-point lead at halftime and went on to win by 10 points, 33-23. The regular season concludes next week, followed by a tournament in two weeks. The month of March should provide us with a sports breather until the first soccer practices are scheduled after spring break. Because he chose to play football last fall, Andy will play in a recreational league, which doesn’t involve as many games or much travel as the soccer leagues where the kids try out.

I’ve become the chocolate chip cookie king as far as baking is concerned. I usually make a batch every Sunday evening. This past week they lasted until Saturday because I put nuts in them, much to the boys’ chagrin, and JoAnna has been counting her calories, a little disappointed that she hasn’t last more weight since starting her regular visits to the health club. The batch I made this past week was almost as good as yours, Mom! I prepared the dough and then refrigerated it for a couple hours. It made a big difference in the texture of the cookies. Today I’ll think I’ll add peanuts to the dough, or at least to half the dough, although when I just asked Eddie, whose a knight in shining armor for today’s imaginary play, he thought the peanuts would be OK.

In case you’re wondering, I’m feeling much better today. In fact, I was up and about early Friday afternoon. I went grocer y shopping before picking up the boys at school, did a couple loads of laundry, and tidied up a very messy house. Between Eddie and JoAnna, this place, until Saturday morning, looked like it should qualify for disaster aid.

It’s almost 3:30 and I feel like I should be doing something outside. There’s a scattering of branches in the back yard that could be picked up. Or I could walk to the grocery store to get shake-and-bake, at JoAnna’s request, for the pork chops I took out of the freezer earlier today. By saying I’d get that ingredient, I probably volunteered to make supper. We went out to eat last night, after attending 5 o’clock mass as a family, a weekly family activity that JoAnna has made mandatory. (Going to church, that is. Eating out is an occasional treat.) We went to the Bavaria, a locally-owned, “family-style” restaurant just a block from the library, one of a handful of “downtown” – what little of it there is -- Middleton success stories. With a new restaurant opening up in April, giving us 6 in a square-block area, the library’s neighborhood is turning into quite a dining district.

I wonder how long the impeachment post-mortems will last. I’m sure CNBC and Fox News will try to milk these proceedings and the aftermath for every last drop, but I won’t be there to see it, except for those few occasions when I’m surfing, not in the mood to read anymore, not quite ready to go to bed. Monicagate, as it’s been dubbed, has become an industry. For some people, it will be analogous to closing a military base. Some people may say we don’t need this, but my job is at stake.

We had a letter from Alice and Larry this past week. They are still living in the trailer that Alice’s brother owns. It sounds like they haven’t made an effort to find any other accommodations, which I told JoAnna would be the case. She cashed in the bonds she received from her grandmother and gave her folks the money as a Christmas gift. Doesn’t sound like they’ve been doing much of anything other than hanging around that godforsaken piece of desert in Buckeye, 2½ miles from the nearest paved highway. Did I ever show you pictures of this place? JoAnna and I and the boys spent our first and last night in Arizona there two years ago. That’s all we could have taken. Fortunately, we had a detailed itinerary for the other nine days we were there. 

That’s all for now. We send you our love. The boys thank you for the Valentine’s Day cards.

On This Date in 1999 (February 4)

I’m slowly cobbling this letter together.

The area around the computer is becoming increasing cluttered, almost to the point where it’s becoming a barrier to accessing this side of the family room. I suppose this is one of the hazards of working at home. JoAnna spends most of the day positioned between the computer desk and our old dining room table. The latter piece of furniture is covered, in no particular order, with papers, a hanging file, a fax machine, a calculator, legal pad with a to-do list filling an entire page, cordless phone, stapler, coffee cup and coaster, reading lamp, scotch tape, paper clips, a UW mug filled with pens, pencils, and a pair of scissors, a pencil sharpener, post-its, a yellow highlighter with a blue cap, and scrap paper for jotting down notes during the dozen or so phone calls that JoAnna receives during the day. JoAnna may be well-organized when it comes to the big pictures, like organizing Shirley Abrahamson’s campaign, but work space tidiness does not appear to be one of her strong points. 

Eddie brought his report card home yesterday. When I first looked at it, I saw a couple “D”s and almost let out an audible gasp. This is terrible, I thought. After a closer inspection, I discovered that a different system of evaluation is used by teachers in the lower elementary grades. A “D” on Eddie’s report card is short for “Developing”, which means that “the child show some understanding and independence”. This is the grade that Eddie received in Reading, Language Arts, and Spelling and is an improvement over the “B” (“Beginning”) he received in these subject for the first quarter. (“The child is working towards completing tasks independently and showing understanding of the skill or concept.”) In his two other subjects, Science/Health and Social Studies, Eddie received S+’s, the highest possible grade. At our conference today, his teacher said that he had made wonderful improvements both scholastically and socially during the first hal of the school year. We’re very proud of both our boys. They are doing very well in school this year. 

Hope to hear from you soon. Happy Valentine’s Day!

On This Date in 1999 (February 2)

We have sunshine, the snow is melting, but I’m sure it’s not nearly as warm here as it is in Arizona. The sky didn’t clear until after the groundhog had made his appearance, which means he didn’t see his shadow when he poked his head out of the ground and an early spring is in store for us. I’ll believe when I feel the 60-degree temperatures in mid-March.

Teacher conferences are scheduled for this week, to follow up on the end of the second quarter of the school year. Andy brought home a very good report card last Friday. Two A’s (Spelling and Social Studies) and two B+’s (Reading, and Science), and two B’s (Language Arts and Math). We are very proud of him and happy to know that any doubts we had about his schoolwork were unfounded. Since he never seems to have any homework, JoAnna and I became quite concerned about his progress this quarter. Andy hasn’t always been forthright with us about what’s in his backpack or take-home folder. We’ll wave a sheet of paper in front of his face, and he’ll tell us, “That’s not something we have to hand in.” The fifth grade teacher that Meaghan has is a big believer in homework, at least a couple hours a night, which I think is going overboard. Mrs. Wellman tells the parents that she is preparing their children for middle school. If she is giving them make-work assignments, she’s not preparing for much of anything besides drudgery. Obviously, Mrs. Ball, Andy’s teachers, has a different teaching philosophy.

We haven’t seen Eddie’s report card yet. I suspect that his teacher will share it with us at our conference with her on Thursday afternoon. I expect that we’ll hear good reports, though, from both his regular classroom teacher and his special education teachers. Eddie has made great strides in his reading during second grade. His behavior has improved also. We haven’t received as many reports about classroom disruptions and recess incidents as we did last year. I’m not sure how much of it can be attributed to the Ritalin he takes twice a day every schoolday – unless we forget to give him his morning pill, like a couple of times last week, to no ill effect, fortunately. From what I’ve read about it, the drug probably does help him stay focused. 

I think JoAnna is already into week four on the Abrahamsom campaign. This past weekend, Shirley asked her to be fulltime campaign manager, but JoAnna declined the offer. It’s very likely she’ll start working for the Department of Justice next month, and she absolutely positively doesn’t want to do anything that will force us to scrub our trip to Washington, D.C. If she accepted Shirley’s offer, she’d have to clear her schedule through the first Tuesday in April, which means, like last year, with the special election for Lynn Adelman’s senate seat, the boys and I could take a spring break vacation, but Mom would have to stay home and work. 

So what have you two been up to? Any traveling around? Have you seem Margaret and Earl or other Wisconsin friends who are wintering in the area? Albert called us this past weekend. “What’s the news?” I asked expectantly, even though I realized it was a few weeks before Cyndi’s due date. Al quickly assured me that the birth had not yet taken place. After a few minutes, I gave the phone to JoAnna. She and Al talked for nearly an hour. It sounds like we’ll be able to attend the christening in Pennsylvania, as it will be held on Easter Sunday, the next to the last day of our spring vacation. The boys don’t go back to school until Tuesday.

On This Date in 1999 (January 27)

Those two obituaries put me in a reflective mood. That tends to happen when I read the Warren paper and come upon a familiar name. This letter may turn into more of a reminiscence than a report on what happening in Middleton.

Midweek already! Where are the brakes on this 1999 vehicle? I’m on the freeway when I’d rather be taking the scenic back roads. JoAnna is feeling the same way. Her schedule has become very full over the past three weeks while she has been coordinating Shirley Abrahamson’s campaign. She’s in Milwaukee attending a fundraiser this evening. The event was scheduled from 5 until 7, so maybe she’ll be home before 10. Andy just returned home from basketball practice and is into a hockey game on his Playstation, which is now back in his possession after a week in storage. Since his intransigence a week ago yesterday, he’s been very good about getting up in the morning, especially on band days. His “I can live without Playstation” statement during a fit of pique last week turned out to be nothing more than false bravado.

Eddie’s at his art table, drawing dinosaurs, which is one of the units his class is studying this week. While Andy was at practice, I drilled Eddie on his vocabulary words for this week, and then he read to me for 15 minutes.

I received a belated Christmas card and note from Tina (Werlin) Branstad, who now lives in Chicago. I enclosed a note in the card I sent to her and her husband. She sent a picture of her “family”, which includes a huge black Standard poodle. Tina looks great, as well-coifed and well-dressed as ever. She extended an invitation to JoAnna and me to visit them sometime. We actually need an excuse for a trip to Chicago, but I’m not sure if it’s going to happen anytime soon. Tina mentioned that both her parents died in 1997, so she really doesn’t have any reason to visit Warren anymore, outside of our high-school reunions, I suppose.

We received another interesting piece of mail today. A wedding invitation. Sandra Kay Richardson and Charles John Stark. When I saw the return address, I thought it was an invitation to another of his occasional concerts that he plays in the Madison area. The wedding is at Bethel Lutheran Church, located just a block from the capital square. You attended services there with us a few times in the late 1980s. I would guess that the ceremony will be in the chapel, since the sanctuary of this church is so large. I can’t imagine that Sandra (whom I don’t know) and Charles would have invited that many people. Unless Andy’s basketball tournament interferes, both JoAnna and I should be able to attend.

On This Date in 1999 (January 22)

It 5:15 on a Friday afternoon, what a great time of the week, especially when I can look over the past five days and feel that I accomplished everything I wanted to do. At least at work, that is. The house is in a state of disarray, a situation JoAnna and I will probably address tomorrow. Now that both boys come home right after school, they have more time to trash the place, legos here, toy soldiers there, the signs of their presence everywhere. “Clean up this mess!” is an order that JoAnna and I frequently bark.

The house was quiet when I returned home from the library, which struck me as odd since both boys were supposed to be here. They didn’t run off somewhere, to Meaghan’s house, I wondered. 

Walking through the living room, I noticed that the bathroom door was closed. As I knocked, I announced my presence,

“Hello, I’m home. Who’s in there?”

“It’s me, Dad,” Andy replied.

“Where’s Eddie?” I asked.

“In the bathroom,” I thought he said.

“What Eddie doing in there?” I demanded, my hand about to reach for the door handle.

“In the back room,” he said, carefully enunciating the last two words.

“I didn’t see him there.”

“Well, maybe he’s in the other bathroom.”

That’s where he was.

Eddie called out to me as I walked back into the kitchen. Then he started to describe the details of a picture of an airplane in a book that he was browsing through. His voice was muffled so I couldn’t hear every word he spoke, so I resorted to standard responses like “That’s interesting” or “Cool!”

JoAnna’s had a busy day. In fact, she’s had a busy week. In fact, she’s been very busy ever since she agreed to plan Shirley Abrahamson’s re-election campaign to the Wisconsin Supreme Court. You should be very proud of your daughter. Her name is always at the top of the list of progressive candidates when a campaign manager position needs to be filled. Both Russ Feingold and Rick Phelps wanted her to take on that responsibility in their respective campaigns, i.e. Senate re-election and 2nd Congressional election. She declined both times because she knew she’d have no family life. It was the right decision – both times. In this case, though, JoAnna is freelancing, signing on for three weeks, although I wouldn’t be surprised if Shirley extends her contract for a week or two. So far, JoAnna hasn’t heard anything from the Department of Justice regarding the Legislative Liaison position, which has her name written all over it. Jim Doyle told her that the position wouldn’t be filled until sometime in March.

I just returned from dropping off Andy at his basketball practice. Eddie’s in the bathroom again. I hope everything’s OK. JoAnna and I came down with colds last weekend. Both of us had scratchy throats Saturday morning and from there it progressed to an achy body and runny nose. Neither of us missed any work this week, although I was definitely still on the mend on Monday. Since Tuesday, I’ve just been waiting for my head to clear. I think I have another day or two to reach that goal. Andy stayed home from school Wednesday morning. He was in an ornery mood on Tuesday, probably due to his feeling out of sorts. He wouldn’t get out of bed for band practice, which starts at 7:20 at Kromrey Middle School. We may have been a little harsh with him considering the circumstances, at least from the vantage point of the end of the week, but JoAnna and I told him – no band, no Playstation for a week. We also had an argument over bringing his trumpet home from school, which he routinely refused to do.

“I don’t like carrying it,” he regularly complains.

We talk to him about responsibility, following through on commitments he has made, which probably sounds like so much blah blah blah to him. Maybe not, though. During a Tuesday afternoon outburst, while I was home during a late afternoon break from a long day at the library, Andy was sent to his room and ended up tidying up the bookcase headboard of his captain’s bed. 

He’s still reachable, I told myself. He’s not a teenager yet, in mind or spirit.

Eddie participated in his second annual Pinewood Derby last night. Once again our model couldn’t sprint to the finish line. We were one ounce above the five-ounce legal limit, and it showed in the home stretch. We always got off to a good start on the slope but ran out of gas on the flat homestretch. Once again, Eddie won “Best Overall Design, which I think should go to Dad. I admit that Eddie created his design on paper, but I sawed and sanded the block, and then reminded Eddie every day for ten days, “You need to put the primer coat of paint on your car,” “You need to paint your car,” “You need to put the decals on your car.” “You need to put the wheels on your car.” 

“Dad, you’re taking this too serious,” was his usual response.

Not as serious as many other dads, it appeared to me as I saw the line-up of cars on weigh-in day. Our entry was the result of two to three hours of work. Some of the cars, though, looked as though they had been designed by professionals, untold hours of planning, design, and development.

I’m sure you’re eager to hear about the weather in Wisconsin. Earlier this week, we had close to a foot of snow on the ground, which since Wednesday has dissolved to half that depth due to a couple days of rain. Everything looks so ugly now. I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I’d actually prefer another foot of snow. It’s Wisconsin. It’s January. I can live with it. For this weekend, the weather sounds like it can’t make up its mind, a mixture of rain and snow in the forecast.

News flash. I just realized that my parents’ anniversary – their 54th – is on the 26th, just four days away. I haven’t bought them a card, so any greeting from us won’t arrive on time, so I’ll have to make sure I order flowers tomorrow. This anniversary offers an interesting perspective. Four years ago, on my parents’ golden anniversary, the celebration was kept lowkey, since by that time, the Parkinson’s had kept my dad pretty much housebound. I know the members of St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, my dad’s parish for 24 years, would have loved to honor my parents with a reception, but Dad was already past the point of dealing with crowds of people.

I did a little research on Parkinson’s after we returned from our recent trip to Warren. It said that those who suffer from this disease can only focus on one activity at a time. For example, this morning, while I was brushing my teeth, I noticed some hairs of JoAnna’s in the sink, so without stopping the movement of my right arm, I grabbed a kleenex with my left hand and wiped the sink clean. Someone with Parkinson’s can’t do that. I suppose it’s the same with conversations and room noise. If there is numerous conversations going on at one time or people talking with the TV droning in the background, nothing makes sense. This, of course, is a layman’s interpretation of a disease I don’t know that much about. A few weeks ago, I kept asking myself, “What really goes on inside the mind of a Parkinson’s sufferer?”, as I observed Dad in his pitifully debilitated state. So far I haven’t been able to find much about someone who is an advanced stage of the disease, which is definitely where my dad is.

On This Date in 1999 (January 16)

Back on the computer. Andy and Meaghan are working the controls of Playstation. JoAnna just concluded a “kitchen cabinet” meeting here with Shirley Abrahamson and two other women on her campaign staff.

Andy’s basketball game was scheduled to start at 9:00 this morning at Glacier Creek Middle School in Cross Plains. The person responsibility for opening the school either overslept or forgot. The teams are supposed to have a half hour to warm up, but the doors weren’t unlocked until a few minutes before nine. Luckily, Andy’s coach knew who to call. Otherwise the game would have probably been postponed.

Middleton rocketed to a 19-0 lead over Waunakee in the first quarter. Their opponents didn’t score a point until almost ten minutes into the game. (They play 7-minute quarters.) Middleton seemed to lose its focus in the second quarter, scoring only 4 points, while Waunakee scored 7. The final score was 45-17, Andy’s team scoring 11 points in each of the last two quarters, getting into a consistent groove. Andy looked a little tentative in the first half. He said he hurt his right hand during gym class this week, and he did look like he had some trouble holding onto the ball, especially when rebounding. He looked more aggressive in the second half. I thought he scored 2 points, but he says he scored 4. Maybe I missed something, but I thought I was watching the game pretty closely.

The weather today is great. When I went outside to warm up the car this morning – the windows having been turned into frosted glass – I was surprised at how springlike the air seemed. Of course, we’ve been suffering through some intense cold, so anything above 30 degrees is going to feel almost tropical.

On This Date in 1999 (January 9)

And indeed it was.

JoAnna has been hired by Shirley Abrahamson to plan her re-election campaign. What was going to be a volunteer effort became a 3-week consulting job. Her meeting with Jim Doyle went very well. Because of civil service requirements, she can’t be officially hired until late February, so it looks like she will have some additional time off after all.

I spent an hour this morning helping Eddie with his Pinewood Derby race car. Eddie prepared the design, and I transferred the outline onto a block of wood (7” long and 2¼” wide), then used a small hacksaw to complete the first step of “manufacture”. Then Eddie helped me smooth away the rough edges with some sandpaper. That’s all we accomplished today. Tomorrow Eddie can start to paint his car.

The Pinewood Derby is a very popular Cub Scout event. The scouts race their cars, 3 at a time, on a 20-foot track that is set up like a slide. Eddie’s car didn’t do too well last year since it was too light. During the construction, it’s allowable to add weight to the vehicle, as long as it doesn’t exceed 5 ounces.

On This Date in 1999

Since our return to Wisconsin, we've been treated to snow and cold and wind. Eleven inches of the white stuff fell on Saturday, the high winds blowing it into huge drifts. The temperature plunged to minus 20 degrees Tuesday morning. Although the weather was relatively moderate today -- a high in the low 20s -- below zero temperatures are predicted for tonight and through the weekend. 

Except for Monday, which marked the beginning of the 1999-2001 legislative biennium, JoAnna has been in a serious domestic mood this week. Yesterday she applied contact paper to the shelves in the utility room, which, of course, gave her an opportunity to reorganize the contents of those shelves. She also changed the location of the kitty litter box, putting it next to the sink. Previously, we had kept it between the window and the door, where it always seemed to be in the way when unloading the dryer. Today she reorganized Eddie's art corner in the family room, providing more surface storage space for all his supplies. She bought a gliding kitchen organizer for underneath the sink; two lazy Susans for our canned goods cupboard; a shade for one of our living room lamps, replacing one that had unsightly stains on it (from exactly what, we're not sure); and a small, clear plastic CD holder to put next to the boombox we keep in the utility room.

JoAnna has a meeting with Wisconsin Attorney General Jim Doyle on Friday afternoon. His office has an opening for a legislative liaison person and, not surprisingly, JoAnna's name was at the top of a list of potential candidates. Shirley Abrahamson, the chief justice of the Wisconsin Supreme Court, would like JoAnna to work on her re-election campaign, something she'll do in a volunteer capacity. Even her former boss called her this week, asking if she'd return to the caucus staff for a few weeks. JoAnna declined his offer, and I agree with her decision. To go back now, even temporarily, would make her look wishy-washy. I think he's is just starting to realize what he has lost. 

As a result of these contacts since our return to Middleton, I would guess that JoAnna's stay-at-home Mom phase is going to be a brief one.