Category: Glimpses of Life

Around sunset, the deer come out to eat. This young buck was in our background outside of the fenced in area. He looked right at me for awhile and then continued to look for food. Earlier, his “wife” and “daughter” were with him.

They are a little skittish and I prefer it that way. Deer hunting season started this past Saturday and, although there is no hunting in our area, our neighbors put out traps for raccoons and shoot red squirrels. This past Saturday morning, we found one of our outdoor pumpkins half eaten. We’re pretty sure the raccoons ate it — seeds and all.

I’ve noticed that most of our trees don’t have lower limbs. I’m guessing it’s because the deer have eaten them.  They will scrounge for whatever food they can find in the winter.

Pretty to look at …

 

 

I never thought I would use a leaf blower but all of the neighbors who passed by and saw me using a push broom for all the leaves we had recommended we buy one so we did.

This blower works very well and is not overly loud so I have not had to use ear muffs. It is also a mulcher so comes with another attachment and a bag that the mulched leaves go into. Since you carry the bag around your arm while using the mulcher, it is not very big so I had to keep emptying the bag.

It’s a good leaf blower/vacuum/mulcher and we’re happy with it.

I’ve put the leaf blower away for the year. Next spring I’ll need to bring it out as I’ll have to remove the banks of leaves from the property so we can try doing some landscaping.

 

Inside our mouths, we have salivary glands. I knew they were there but didn’t realize the impact of having a malfunctioning one. Actually, it was blocked.

I went to the dentist in March 2011 and had a new crown put in along with a root canal and a composite filling. Ever since then, my life has not been the same.

I returned to the dentist 3 times. The first time, I had a lot of discomfort in my mouth and I told the dentist that my crown felt like someone had crammed a wad of gum in there. He made some adjustments but they didn’t help. Then he put me on a short interval of prednisone.

This still didn’t help. My mouth felt dry, gritty and my tongue was burning on the left side. I also had pain in the area of the root canal work that was done which is weird as the nerves were taken out. Each time I went back, the dentist would make an adjustment until finally he said “I don’t know what’s wrong.” I’m going to refer you to a specialist. And he did.

The specialist was an oral and maxillofacial dentist. This specialist told me that my salivary gland was blocked on the left side. He gave me some “tips,” ie suck on lemon drops and drink lots of water with lemon juice. This was supposed to encourage my gland to open up so that surgery was not needed. It didn’t work.

I called and made my second appointment with him. He was very nice. He was prepared to do a small surgery on my gland when I arrived. As soon as he stuck a small instrument in my mouth, a small piece of white matter popped out of the gland hole. He said it was very tiny.

I had one more follow-up appointment with him and the gland was flowing with saliva just like it was supposed to.

Looking back, I believe the gland was blocked by the dental work that was done in my mouth. The dentist did not use a dam which is a thin piece of latex that is placed over the tooth/teeth that is being worked on. My previous dentist always used a dam but I never thought to ask them to put one on as I am always nervous when I go to the dentist office. The dam prevents “stuff” from going all over the inside of your mouth while the dentist is drilling.

I wish I could say that this is the end of the story, but it’s not. I continued to have the burning sensation on my tongue along with the feeling of something gritty leaking from the root canal area.

Stay tuned as the rest of the story gets even more interesting.

 

 

Crisp autumn days have finally convinced us to start a fire in our fireplace.

After months of gearing up for this event (the first time we’ve owned a house with a wood fireplace) we are finally enjoying the fruit of our labors.

It’s pretty. And warm. The roaring fire seems fitted for a house that sits on a treed lot. Nature makes its way indoors.

The sun is slowly going down. This day has been good. And I feel thankful.

 

Angry Birds is a game where you launch cartoon birds at green pigs. It’s very popular and recently surpassed the 500,000 download mark on cell phones, iPads, etc.

People are playing this game a LOT. A recent quote in the IT World Magazine really astounded me:

“Angry Birds Fans around the world have so far played a total of 200,000 years of Angry Birds, with 300 million minutes of playing time daily. Moreover, more than 266 billion levels of Angry Birds have been played, with 400 billion birds launched into action, and over 44 billion Stars collected in the process.”

I remember when I first encountered the game — my family was playing it on their cell phones. I started to play it but the redundancy of the game and the constant “need” to reach the next level made me quit. Thankfully!

I can’t imagine that all these people have so much time to, uh, waste? Entertainment is one thing — addiction is something else.

To add to the “fun,” there are now plush toys, games, etc. for additional enjoyment.

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After purchasing a queen bed frame and mattresses from Macy’s in Roseville, MN, I received a flyer in the mail letting me know that the matching nightstand was now $150 off. A great buy at $199.00.

I decided to head to the store and take another look at it. While there, I asked the salesman if he thought the nightstand would fit in my car. No problem, he said. “Don’t you need to measure or find out the size of the box?” No, he assured me. It will fit just fine.

After filling out the paperwork to purchase the nightstand, I found out that there is a $25 charge for them to deliver it to the loading dock where I would pick it up — still better than their $75 delivery fee, I thought.

I received a call when the nightstand arrived and went a week later to pick it up.

When I arrived, the loader brought it out on a dolly. The box looked big but I was hopeful. I opened the trunk to my car and the young man proceeded to try to fit it in. It did not fit. He then tried fitting it in the back seat then the front seat — the box was too big.

At this point the young man looked at me and said “It doesn’t fit.” My response was “Well, the salesman said it would.” He then proceeded to take the nightstand out of the box and try to fit it in the trunk, the front seat and finally the back seat. Finally! It fit in the back seat.

I was thankful and drove home. After pulling into my garage, I proceeded to take the unboxed nightstand out of the back seat. As soon as I pulled it out, I saw that the edges of the front were scraped. I was afraid something like this might happen as the loading man went from one location in the car to another to try to have it fit in the car.

I took the nightstand inside and set it in my family room and took pictures of it. I called my husband and thought I would wait to have him look at it. I didn’t think there was anything we could do since the nightstand is not real wood but a veneer wood.

When my husband got home, he confirmed what I had suspected. It was not repairable by us. Since it was late Friday, I decided to call on Sunday regarding the problem since Saturday is the Sabbath for us. When I called the customer service number the recording told me that they were closed until Monday.

So, early Monday I called and spoke with a woman. I explained the problem and how the nightstand had to be taken out of the box in order for it to fit. The woman assured me it would be no problem. They would send someone out to see if they could repair it and if not, they would replace it with free delivery. I told her that I was pretty sure it was not repairable as the piece is veneer. She suggested I email pictures to the company they contract with who would be coming out to look at it. I did as she suggested.

I was happy that it would be this simple but my happiness would soon turn to frustration.

On Friday the contractor came out. He looked at the nightstand and said “boy, they really messed that up when they delivered it” or something to that effect. He told me it would be replaced and called the customer service desk, told them they needed to exchange it, then handed the phone to me so they could make arrangements for the exchange.

I explained to the contractor, before taking the phone, that the piece had been loaded into my car at the loading dock. He nodded and left.

When I spoke to the customer service desk, the woman said “Wait, this was not delivered.” I told her “No, I explained that to the person when I called on Monday and to your contractor.” The woman put me on hold, came back on the line and said “I’m sorry but you’re supposed to check the merchandise before you leave the loading dock so it’s your responsibility.”

I then told her that I couldn’t check for damage once the nightstand was loaded into the car. Her response was “It’s not a manufacturing defect so it’s your fault.”

Whoa! After going back and forth with her I requested to speak with a supervisor who reiterated the same jargon back to me.

Then the supervisor told me I should have called immediately. I told her I called Sunday but they were closed. “Would it have mattered if I called on the Friday I picked it up?” I asked. “No,” she said. “So why are you arguing that point with me?” We finally ended the discussion as it was going no where.

Okay, I thought — I’ll go at this another way since Macy’s has always been fair about exchanges.

On October 3rd I wrote a letter, per the online instructions, to the customer service office. To date, no response.

I keep getting Macy’s regular emails offering me free shipping and 10-20% off of this or that. I was getting rather irritated and finally responded to one of the 20% off offers with “I don’t plan on purchasing anything at Macy’s until my problem is resolved.” A few days later, I received an email from customer service saying:

“I am so sorry to hear that you have an unresolved issue regarding an
exchange. I sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this has caused.
Please be assured that this is definitely not the typical Macy’s
experience.

Please respond to this email with the specifics of your issue, or you
can chose to contact us at the number listed below and a Macy’s
representative will be happy to assist you.”

In other words, I have to start again. My next letter will be sent registered and to both customer service and the corporate office.

Since purchasing our new house in Minnesota, I have been to Macy’s many times to make purchases and have never had a problem. For all the “almost everyday” offers they send me, the $199 problem could have been resolved.

Oh well … I shall learn perseverance from this.

 

On a trip through Little Falls, Minnesota (south of Brainerd), I stopped at The Charles A. Weyerhaeuser Memorial Museum.

The location of this museum is perfect. It has a beautiful garden area in the back and a view of the Mississipi River can be seen from the gazebo.

Visitors can search the county’s past by looking at the resources and documents that are inside the museum.

The museum was named for lumberman, Charles A. Weyerhaeuser, who played a large part in this area’s history. It is open year-round and admission is free although donations are accepted.

The current exhibit was The Apron: Body Armour or Bling. Many aprons of different varieties were hanging throughout this section of the museum. There were many other displays of clothing, tools, etc.

This is a nice place to stop to get a feel for the history of this area.

 

 

 

As we traveled through Minnesota past the town of Brainerd, we stopped at the Crow Wing State Park.

We were really impressed with this park as it was clean and has been kept up very well. It meanders along the Mississipi River and has a lot of cultural history. The Crow River and the Mississippi River merge together at this location.

We started our walk down the Historic Trail and then headed down the Red River Trail for a bit.

It is believed  that the origin of the name Crow Wing comes from the island formed as the river splits before emptying into the Mississippi.

“Although the Red River Trails served all types of travelers, they primarily carried trade between St. Paul and Red River settlements near Winnipeg and Pembina. This section was known as the Woods Trail.”  It went through the forest, steep hills and boggy lowlands.

We found signs for both a Catholic and a Lutheran mission church. The church below is a memorial in honor of Father Francis Xavier Pierz who established the first Catholic mission in 1852 in North Central Minnesota. It sits on the original site of the old mission church.

“Crow Wing was then a very hard place; composed of three classes of people; Indians, Half Breeds and some Lumber-men. Whisky flowed like water … it was one of the most wicked places there has ever been in Minnesota, or in the North-west.” — Rev. E. Steele Peake

The memorial above was in memory of Father Lautishar. He was born in Austria in 1820 and arrived in Crow Wing in June 1858 to assist Father Pierz. He froze to death while crossing the Red Lake. He was buried in St. Francis Cemetery in Crow Wing and his body was later moved to Duluth.

Here are a couple more pictures of the area.

Very pretty state park. Next time we’ll take the longer trail.

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Traveling along Highway 2 heading west, we decided to see some waterfalls along the way. The first one — well, I won’t even mention it as there was nothing there. The road gave us 4 different directions to go with no signs so we headed to our second waterfall.

The second waterfall is Saxon Waterfalls which is on the Montreal River.

We drove up to see the following sign

We knew there was a boat ramp in this area as we saw a sign for it so we kept poking around until we found something.

We found the dam (with no water) and the lake by driving around to the other side.

We know there are falls somewhere around here. The sign says so!

There’s the boat ramp … and the lake …

Oh — wait. Here they are. They are so small. Tee hee …

Unfortunately, we did not have the privilege of having internet directions to get us to the actual 90 foot falls. (Click here to read about them) These falls are not visitor friendly.

Time to head to the next waterfall — the Superior Falls. I don’t know what is going on in Wisconsin with the signs for the waterfalls — unless they don’t want people to check out the falls. This is the highway sign — we almost missed the turn.

Superior Falls is located on the Montreal River just a few hundred yards from Lake Superior.

There is a hydro plant next to the falls.

We didn’t think we were going to be able to see the falls because of this large fence.

We were rewarded for being diligent in finding these waterfalls. Very beautiful!

From these waterfalls we headed west in Wisconsin towards Duluth. We stopped at a scenic bypass that overlooked Lake Superior and the Apostle Islands but they couldn’t be seen very well from here.

We then stopped in the city of Ashland, Wisconsin at Bayview Park to stretch our legs.

Because of the beautiful day, we also saw a beautiful view.

Our choice now was whether to stay on Highway 2 or head north along Lake Superior on Highway 13. We chose Highway 13 — mainly because we weren’t sure we were going to be this way again so we decided to take this opportunity.

The first few miles were rather boring. For most of Highway 13, you really can’t see the lake although when you look at a map it appears that you will be right next to the lake. Overall, it was scenic — just not “lake” scenic.

We made our way westward to Duluth. This town of almost 90,000 people reminded me of Seattle. The town is built on a hill that faces Lake Superior. It has steep hills very similar to Seattle. It seems more condensed though. I didn’t like the feel of the city — it didn’t flow to me.

Rather than spend the night in Duluth, we continued west and stopped at a rest stop called Thompson Hill Travel Information Center. The Center sits atop a hill and has a beautiful view of the valley and of Duluth.

We really wanted to stop for the evening before the sun set and finally stopped in a small town called McGregor which is on Highway 210. At first we weren’t sure we were going to be able to find lodging but we did locate a hotel called the Country Meadows Inn.

We were a little hesitant to stay at this Inn. First, it was 5:30 in the evening and the parking lot was totally empty. Then, when we walked inside, the place smelled like the swimming pool which means they are using too much solution in the pool.

A shriek from a little girl was soon hushed by one of the females behind the counter. We’re sure this Inn is run by an Indian family.

Well, we thought, why not? The man behind the counter checked us in and we headed to our room. Since I have allergies to strong smells, I had specifically asked him if they used Downy or fragrances on their sheets or towels. No, he said, just some on the carpet. The “some” turned out to be a lot and I had to open a window to breathe.

The room was clean although they use cheaper furnishings and toiletries. The towels are thin. A plunger in the bathroom made me think we would have problems but we didn’t.

After going out to dinner, we came back and the room smelled a little better. The small refrigerator was unplugged and had a cup inside filled with white “stuff” and a note that said “baking soda.” Pretty tacky.

The Inn has free Wi-fi available. Unfortunately, their internet has a virus. When you do a search on the internet, you are directed to an ip address in Ukraine. The sites that came up were sites with advertising on them. This happened with each site that I visited. After I searched for the site a second time, it directed me to the correct place.

I’m not sure the Inn knows that they have a virus and will be sending them an email to let them know they should have someone check it.

Night time came quickly enough. Next — on to Brainerd!