Mud Runs

Well, I learned a bit about myself and my community yesterday. I don't know if I will ever fit in completely. Jeff was asked to provide sound for two events during the Minnesota Northern District Fair held at the Littlefork fairgrounds this weekend. As we have been so busy while the kids are visiting grandparents and I hadn't had a chance to see much of Jeff, I told him I would accompany him on Saturday and serve as his roadie. I watched the 100 meter dash for cars and such yesterday. It is called the mud run and involved about 100 meters of deep mud for cars and trucks to drive through as quickly as they can. Times over the day varied from just over 2 seconds to over 22 seconds. The first vehicle to travel the course flew over the mud and seemed to barely notice it was there. But about the fourth or fifth vehicle struggled down the course and took out the end timing device and then hit a water spigot covered with a tire and rolled. The driver, a female, ended up going to the hospital with (as someone said) only a broken leg. I was unable to enjoy most of the rest of the event. If any of the vehicles started to jerk or slide I tensed up. I came home exhausted and very stiff from being so uptight. Today Jeff went alone to cover the oval races. I decided I couldn't handle another day of potential crashes and had stuff to do around the house.

Take care everyone and enjoy summer.
Love,
Diane

Home from CONvergence

Hi Everyone:

I’m writing the family’s ‘Post-Con’ blog because we have just returned from CONvergence 2007, the sci-fi convention that I’ve now attended for five years. It’s a strange choice for a family vacation, but this year, that is exactly what it was. All four of us attended for the first time. And, for the first time, some of us went in costume. This picture is of me dressed as Carl Kolchak from the old Night Stalker TV series, and Rachel dressed as River from Firefly.

This was Diane’s first con, and she had a good time too, spending her time in quality Mother-Daughter with Rachel, and attended more of the book themed panel discussions. Next year, she said she’d spend more time a musical events as she really likes the Celtic bands who always seem to attend these events.

Now, the kids are off to Oregon/Washington to spend a few weeks with grandparents. Diane and I will have the house to ourselves. Diane still has summer reading to manage, and I’m going to try and get a show recorded in studio. Oh, for more info about ‘our’ convention, this is the offical website: http://www.convergence-con.org

Happy Canada Day!

Being here on the border we walked over and watched the Canada Day parade in Fort Frances and then Rachel rode with a friend to Emo and was playing with the community band in their celebration. Stephen is working out at city beach this afternoon. We hadn't had a chance to see their parade yet as since we have been here we have had to work or been involved in other activities. It was very similar to our small town parades.

We have all had a very busy week. Stephen worked at the pool teaching swimming in the morning and then four days worked out at city beach lifeguarding.

Rachel had band practice four days and spent part of the day on Tuesday with a group of Swedish teens in the country singing and were hosted by our church on Monday and Tuesday. She went to open swim and spent some time swimming laps on Wednesday - Friday to see how out of shape she was before participating in a fun swim meet on Saturday morning. This weekend the third All-Class reunion at Falls High school took place. In honor of the retirement of the only swim coach Falls high school has ever known, a swim meet was held for any former swimmers as well as any current swimmers. It was a lot of fun. Friday and Saturday she also spent time in the park helping man the Espresso Lane smoothie booth. Espresso Lane was also selling IBRT discs and playing a sampling of the shows available for sale.

Jeff helped out with the Swedish concert on Monday night and had rehearsal for the Old Koochiching play in which he had a part and had two performances on Saturday. He prepared discs for the booth at the park during the all-class reunion and during the fourth of July. He worked at the Christian radio station four days this week and kept the family running.

Diane was missing her main desk employee this week. Summer reading is in full swing and had stories in the park and a program on Thursday. Friday the library had a book sale and open house for people returning to town for the reunion. Then Friday morning the library lost Internet connectivity for almost two hours. That created some additional stress as we had lots of extra people looking to check email and deal with Internet business. But by 11:30 we were back on Internet and the open house was a success with almost 1,000 people coming through the library in four hours. She attended the swim meet with Rachel and then helped at the smoothie booth during and after the parade Saturday afternoon.

This next week will be busy as we celebrate Independence day with community celebrations and then prepare to vacation in the cities for a science fiction convention and send the kids to the west coast for three weeks with relatives. We hope your summer has been good and you are busy and healthy.