Year End 2017

Another year is coming to a close, and for me it has been a good one. I have friends, a loving family and a wonderful boyfriend. Our President hasn’t blown up the world. We had a rare solar eclipse. Wisconsin has remained beautiful.

The best thing that happened to me in 2017 was Pete. Our relationship has lasted more than a year. Pete and I met in October, 2016, at a speed dating event held by the Madison Senior Center. (Stop laughing. Most people laugh when I tell about how we met. What’s wrong with speed dating? Okay, I met some other men at that event who weren’t my type.) Pete and I found that we like each other a lot even though we have some differences. During the year we went to plays, movies, museum trips, and some trips that lasted more than a day. Before this year I didn’t know that Madison has a lot of theatre groups. Pete knows about them all and took me to many performances.

In June Pete and I took a long weekend trip to Mackinac Island in Lake Huron. We stayed at the Grand Hotel, where we were treated like royalty. We toured the island by horse drawn vehicle, and I did some walking around the island. We ate five course dinners and visited the island’s “uptown” where fudge is dispensed everywhere. Then, in September Pete and I took a six-day trip to Seattle and Portland. In Seattle, we visited the public market and the Space Needle. The piece de resistance was a visit to the Boeing airplane factory, where we saw three planes under construction in a building said to be the largest building in the world. With clear weather in Seattle we were able to see Mt. Rainier.  On the road to and near Portland we saw Mount St. Helens and Mt. Hood from a distance. We went into the Columbia River gorge, which had just experienced a forest fire. It is beautiful country that the fire didn’t completely destroy.

I took a lot of short trips to Washington Island during the warmer half of the year and stayed at the campground in a cabin. I am enough of a softie camper that I now like to have a roof over my head and some electricity at hand. The island is rural, woodsy and never too hot in summer. I was able to watch the entire solar eclipse, which amounted to about seventy-five percent full, from my lawn chair in the campground, using special eclipse glasses.  On one trip to Door County I showed Pete Washington Island.

Granddaughter Dana gave everyone a scare earlier this year, when she had a nearly fatal diabetic spell that left her unconscious.  Dede/Dori, my daughter with two nicknames, is her mom. When Dede and Steve had not heard from Dana one day, Steve, Dede’s fiancé, went to Dana’s apartment and found her unconscious. He asked Dana’s roommate to call 911, and Dana survived after a short stay in the hospital. Steve is a great guy who is a cab driver. I am very glad he saved her. We expect Dede/Dori and Steve to have a wedding next spring.

That’s the excitement of 2017. The grandkids continue in school.  I visited Mary and Gareth in Maryland and Libby in Minnesota. I would like more day trips to be with Dede and Steve. John and Sherry and Sarah are nearby. I’m still enjoying my little house. I love my family.