Wednesday, June 12, 2024
Nancy and I went to see brother Dave and sister-in-law Jayne’s new kitchen, which is under construction. IT IS FABULOUS! I took pictures with Nancy’s phone, because of course I never remember to take mine. I then did not remember to text the pictures to myself. It doesn’t matter, because they did NOT do justice to it at all. The wall between old kitchen and sunroom is gone and now when you stand at the sink (or where the sink will be) the view out the bank of sunroom windows and patio doors gave me goosebumps. The backyard is a forest and there is hill of greenery to the side, so the sun is SHINY but the trees are gorgeous. I will volunteer to wash dishes next time I am there.
The bride-to-be came back to Nancy’s to pick up her gifts and then there was spontaneous wedding dress trying-on. Both of my sisters’ dresses are at Nancy’s house, because Nancy has hers and Donna wore my mom’s dress and it used to be my mom’s house, so that dress is there too. Emma is making her dress…from fabric that hasn’t arrived. I heard it involves blue daisies, but that has been neither confirmed nor denied. (Although I did hear both the bride- and groom-to-be say, “What daisies?” at some point today). Donna was trying on a dress of our Gramma’s, which we believe to be just about exactly a hundred years old. Can you guess the dates of the wedding dresses?
The sisters drove me to Columbus, Wisconsin, which I had never heard of before the whole train idea happened. It was an hour from Nancy’s and a less traffic-y drive than into Milwaukee. I liked getting on at the tiny station. Two National Park rangers got on with me, and they announced that the Rails and Trails program would be in the observation car between Columbus and LaCrosse`. I went and listened for a while and learned that Wisconsin is the Badger state not because of the animal but because of the lead miners wintering in dugouts in the SW corner of the state. Donna says I already knew that, and I like thinking that I did. I heard about sand hill cranes and the Wisconsin dells and, ooooh, something else…um…darn. I talked to a lady from Rhode Island about it and now I can’t remember. It was new. Oh well. It will be new next time, I guess. The train really gives you a new view on everything.
The sunset was spectacular and of course pictures don’t do it justice. It was hard to get a picture because we were not traveling the right direction to see it very often. It was dark the last hour of the trip and I read my book a bit – first time I did anything but look out the window during both trips.
Seems like I just got home from a trip and now I am home again. It seems nice here.