Thursday, August 06, 2015

Just like riding a bike, right?

My six-year-old niece asked me the other day if I knew how to drive.

I explained to her that I don't drive because I am legally blind.

"Yeah, I get that," Ainsley said. "But do you KNOW HOW TO drive?"


I told her that technically, yes, I did know how to drive. When I could see, I used to drive. I had a driver's license, I even drove a manual transmission.

She shook her head. She didn't know what a manual transmission was, nor did she care about that right now.

Ainsley just wanted to know if I knew how to drive AND if I would teach her when she got older.

I thought about it for a moment.


Absolutely. I will teach you how to drive, Ainsley. 

Monday, May 25, 2015

The Brickyard in Prescott

Dad and I took a rainy Sunday afternoon road trip yesterday. We ended up hungry in Prescott, Wisconsin, so we stopped in at the Brickyard Pub & Eatery.

A frosty glass of Spotted Cow and an order of Ellsworth Creamery Cheese Curds were perfect starters. Dad had the soup and we split a Jack Burger...delicious.

I think we'll have to return later this summer when it is not pouring rain to spend some time on the patio...looks nice!


Brickyard Pub & Eatery216 N. Broad St., Prescott, WI 54021715.262.3622

http://www.brickyardprescott.com/index.html

Sunday, May 24, 2015

Bono: Punk rocker?

On CBS Sunday Morning today U2's Bono mentioned he wrote a song about his mother for their latest album and it's not very punk rock to write songs about your mother.
About as punk rock as this?




I've been a U2 fan for over thirty years. Saw them in concert for the  first time at the Minneapolis Auditorium on March 19, 1985. I was a month shy of my thirteenth birthday and my mom said I could go if I found an adult to take me. My Aunt Eeny rose to the challenge.

I remember exactly what I wore: dark indigo cropped jeans with deep pockets on the side legs, white v-neck tee-shirt, pink Bennetton lambswool cardigan, pink and white striped socks and black loafer-style flats.

Not very punk rock.

Tuesday, March 24, 2015

First Days in London - September 1995

So, I pried the drawer open and found my 1995 photo album, covered by a thick blanket of dust. I didn't realize dust accumulated in drawers. I suppose when said drawer is in a hundred-year-old built-in wood buffet, dust gets in.

The album is fairly typical of the time - brown exterior with metallic detail, housing a three-ring binder of plastic-covered sticky sheets. These pages hold photographs, postcards, ticket stubs, dried flowers, brochures, receipts, and more. I guess it's a scrapbook more than a photo alubum.

I still need to locate my travel journal. It wasn't where I thought it was, so I guess I need to go to the next layer of storage!

Let's get started looking at the scrapbook...


The first thirty-two pages of the book are devoted to five days in London. I had forgotten how super excited I was to go to London. This section of the scrapbook features A LOT of postcards. I remember us not taking many photographs while in London. I would like to think were too busy "being there", but we were most likely too busy looking at street maps, Tube maps, keeping track of our passports and getting on one another's nerves. But never fear, there are a few gems of us in our mid-1990s glory.

I won't bore you with all 32 London pages, such as the four or five pages of postcards of my favorite paintings from the Natinal Gallery, or the three pages full of Westminster Abbey brochures. I will try to hit the high points.

Page 2 made me chuckle. We took this bus from Heathrow to our hotel. If I remember correctly, the bus ride took about three hours, stopping at every single hotel in greater London. I am sure I was queasy. And tired. And anxious that Airbus Direct would forget to stop at our hotel.

Our hotel was the Ridgemount near the British Museum. It was run by a very nice couple.

I will describe the hotel and our cute little room when I get to that photo.


We didn't lose anytime, hitting the British Museum the afternoon we arrived.

Nothing like bog bodies and ancient marble monuments to perk up one's jet lag!

This is Regan, on the bottom of the page.

You can see the strap of her "pouch" around her neck. Those pouches were the biggest pains in the neck. Meant to keep your passport, money and credit cards safe and on your person at all times, they proved to be sources of much annoyance and many jokes throughout our three week trip.



That's me on the left. I sure look young...

Looks like I am referencing the guide book. Probably "Let's Go: London". I think this was one of the last times I used a guide book.

In fact, I am pretty sure this was the only time I looked at that guidebook!

Regan - what exactly are you looking at? My memory fails me...












That's all for now. This trip down memory lane might just take me forever...

And by the way, some other items in that broken drawer: a strobe light, an even older scrapbook from my first trip to Ireland in 1988, some tarnished silverware from my grandma, and the clock that hung in the kitchen of my childhood home.

Those things stayed put, covered in the dust blanket. Their times will come.






















\\\

Wednesday, February 11, 2015

Twenty Years

Me at the Cliffs of Moher, 1995


My sister, Regan, and I first visited Ireland together in September 1995. Twenty years and seven Irish adventures later, it is difficult for me to believe anything that happened in  my adult life could be twenty years ago.

I was 23 years-old, Regan 26. I have so many great memories from that trip. Of course, between sisters, there were a also few disagreements along the way!

I decided I want to go back twenty years and retrace the trip, here on the blog. I will need two things: my travel journal and my photo album. 

I know I have seen that journal over the years, as I shuffled papers and mementos from desk to file cabinet to plastic tote. I suspect it in storage in the basement. Maybe I will get at that on the weekend.  

The photo album is another story. The knob on bottom drawer of the built-in buffet in my dining room fell off in 1999, making it impossible to open by myself and it is nothing I ever think about when someone is over here. Next time Regan's over, we will get that drawer open and pull out the photo album.

I wonder what else I will find in that drawer?