SUMMER 2020

Busted! Raccoons are amazingly agile.

Tom and his girlfriend Kaiyla were up for a visit in mid-June. They live in Minneapolis, so we were very concerned when the violence started there. Fortunately, the violence didn’t spread to the area where they live.

It is too bad that the discussion about race and police practices has gotten pre-empted by the violence. It’s a discussion we really need to have.

When we’re together, we do talk about these subjects but try not to let them detract from family time. Kaiyla works in a store that was looted, so it is particularly interesting to hear her take.

Next to come up were our fairy god-daughter Alice and her family (Mike and Meghan). Alice is now 4 and is becoming quite the little lady.

Their dog’s name is Greta and she loves retrieving toys and sticks. She would take a flying leap off our dock or pontoon.

Alice and Barb have the best time together.

Alice loved riding on our giant inflatable swan.

Alice’s Lambie pretty much goes everywhere with her.

Alice’s smile just lights up a room.

In early July, our youngest son David and his wife Courtney were up. Their dog Baxter may be the most spoiled dog on the planet, but he is extremely cute.

Courtney also enjoys the giant swan.

Courtney and Dave share custody of their Indiana Jones hat.

Barb literally cooling her heels.

Porcupines move with all the speed of a snail. They know other animals are not going to bother them so they’re in no hurry.

Nothing says Wisconsin quite like BBQed cheese curds. Very tasty.

Gilmore got a new squeaky ball. He isn’t letting it out of his sight.

We just had our side deck screened in. Our cats have never gone outside so this is a whole new world for them.

By now many of you have probably heard that we’re moving to the Indianapolis area. One of the reasons is that I’ve been having back problems that I just can’t ignore anymore. The discs have deteriorated to the point that they’re putting pressure on the nerves going down to my legs. A year ago, I was walking 8 ½-9 miles/day. Now I’m having difficulty even walking ¼ of a mile. There are many wonderful things about the Northwoods, but unfortunately medical care isn’t one of them. The closest back specialist is Wausau, 2 hours away. They’re talking about surgery to insert pins in my back to relieve the pressure on the nerves. The recovery time is lengthy. That’s one of the reasons we’re moving to Indianapolis, it has one of the best sports surgery centers in the world. Barb’s family all live in Indianapolis, so that is another reason for that location.

It has been difficult leaving our home up here. We have become friends with so many truly kind people. And we have so many fond memories of life in the Northwoods.

A peaceful afternoon on our dock.

We had a nice picnic in the park before we left. Everybody brought their own chairs and food and we just spread out.

Cathy brought some flowers from her garden for Barb.

Greta is the daughter of two of our friends and a very cool kid. She made us this plaque.

We gave our pontoon to Janice, Barb’s friend and hairdresser. This was our final cruise. I know it’s dumb to apply human feelings to inanimate objects but I patted the pontoon on her railing when we got off for the last time.

As I write this, we’ve moved to the Indianapolis area. The real estate market is unbelievably hot right now because of how low interest rates are. We did very well with our house up north which sold in two days for above asking price.

Being on the other side and buying a house is not so nice. We’d looked at dozens of houses and were beginning to despair of ever finding what we wanted. This past Monday one of the houses that had sold fell through, and we were literally there in 2 hours. By late afternoon we had made an offer and at 10 that night it was accepted.  

This is the new “Chateau de Cober” 8645 Sommerwood Drive in Noblesville, Indiana zip 46060. We close on it on 9/25/20. It will be hard to adjust back to living in the suburbs, but this will be a nice place. 3 golf courses within 10 minutes and several large reservoirs in the area.  

This will be the last issue of “Living in Presque Isle Wisconsin.” That doesn’t mean I won’t be writing regularly. We’re just moving on to new adventures and of course we’ll continue visiting the Northwoods often.