Bathroom Remodel

It is a rare trip to the Midwest that we don't spend most of our time on a major remodelling project, and this trip was no exception! The task this time was the bathroom - the existing sink was small, and the mirror/medicine chest, attached to the wall, was sticking out so far you bumped your head to spit out your toothpaste... The "before" version is shown at left on our last trip to Illinois.

You can see part of the wall has already been done - Maj had worked extensively on the bathroom over the winter, but waited for us on that last wall to enjoy some of the fun with plumbing and electrical work!

We had gotten a pedestal sink a year or more in Iowa at a second hand store, but couldn't find a pedestal that fit it, so it was abandoned and a new set obtained.

By the time I returned from my RAGBRAI trip, the girls (Melinda and sister Maj), had already removed the mirror from the wall and ripped out the sink and vanity. I arrived just in time to help enlarge the hole in the wall to countersink the mirror/medicine chest, and install plumbing fixtures in the new sink. Melinda spent an evening replacing wiring in the wall and also installed new light fixtures over the sink.


The next work session involved installing new bead board siding, matching the efforts that Maj had completed up to the sink. It is always impressive watching sis-in-law Maj - always a whirlwind of activity. Best not to get in her way when she is wielding a nailgun! It was about all Melinda and I could do to keep up with her on the chop saw cutting trim...

Once the wall was finished and a coat of primer/sealer put on, we had to complete the tiling, which was missing where the old vanity stood. Fortunately we had a few squares of original tiles to fill in, though not enough to remove partials and install full tiles to match the floor pattern. So the tiles look a little funky under the new pedestal sink, but who notices those sorts of things?


And then it was time for the sink installation, which went just fine. The only issue was the waste line that seeped a little for a couple days, till we figured out that one of the clamp gaskets had been installed backwards and wasn't sealing properly. The last step was to install a little shelf to hold glasses or jewelry and finally the project was done...

The remodel went pretty quickly, but only after working hard on it for a week or so. The girls continued to be productive with sewing projects, and we spent an evening installing and running a coax through the house for a wall-mount TV in the bedroom, so our "vacation in the woods" had a relaxing second half enjoying the fruits of our labors!

Annie's Excellent Vacation

While we've travelled with our cats before, it was usually for an extended period, and never on a plane. For this summer's trip, we had made plans to bring Annie with us on the plane. She seemed to like her under-seat carrier from the start, and according to Melinda was great on the plane (though the drugs might have helped!). We were encouraged on our May trip by the couple bringing along 2 cats a few rows in front of us, though put off a bit by the price ($100 each way), we decided to try it!

So it has been a couple weeks - time for a report. She grew up in the Illinois cottage, and ran through it when she arrived, seemed to adapt very well. She seemed surprised to be alone for the first time in years, and still searches behind the couch and under the covers for imaginary creatures or for the cats that she's sure must be around somewhere. Annie has never been a lap cat, but for the first part of her stay here she followed us around, getting lots of attention, even with company in the house. She's not seemed to miss running around outside like she does in Tucson, but spends some time looking outside at the strange green stuff on the ground...

But when her "cousin" Jack (the rather large golden retriever) came to visit, she disappeared under the bed until hours after he left. She really hasn't recovered, disappearing to that or other hiding places, and her favorite spot is now way up out of the way on the mantle - an appropriate hiding place in a high spot. The return trip is in a few days and she's expected to do well - it will be interesting to see how she reacts to all her brothers and sisters in Tucson...

A Very Popular Plant!

While visiting Illinois, I've been trying to get out to explore the nearby woods like I do most days here... This summer though, for the first time in my 5 (!) years coming here, the mosquitoes are so thick you really can't stand still for more than a few seconds without being swarmed. It is probably a combination of the higher-than-normal heat and the wet summer that makes it so. The last few summers have been reasonably cool without skeeter issues.

So when trying to take pictures, especially with the macro lens, you get at most about 10 seconds to frame, focus and shoot before you need to stand up, swat, shake them off, or move on. Similarly, changing lenses takes the skill of an Indy pit crew to coordinate motions.

Today, I spent over an hour walking through Tekakwitha Forest Preserve, half for exercise, half for the photo ops, returning home about midday, when the pests are usually not very active. Their activity had lessened somewhat, so I walked down to the Fox River a few yards from our house and noticed a literal beehive of activity around some thistles in full bloom.

After searching for signs of Monarch butterflies the last few weeks around the milkweeds here (butterflies, caterpillars or chrysalises), I finally saw one and watched it for several minutes feeding on the thistle nectar. This one was a male, identified from the lighter black markings, and the small pheromone emitter spots on the top of the rear wing. It was interesting to see him feeding, moving from flower to flower, occasionally sharing with other insects. I got a pic of him with a bee, and while they would share for a bit, the butterfly would always defer to the bee and take off when it got too close.



With the plentiful food supply, the insects were quite tolerant of each other's presence. Here is a shot of 6 insects of I think 3 species sharing a single flower. Still, I think the honeybees were the alphas, taking dominance over all that I saw, but they did share. I still need to develop my id skills - the copper-colored butterfly is likely in the skipper family, given the thick body, large eyes and long proboscis. Melinda, is on the case and names it a Fiery Skipper, known to be in the Kane County area. The honey bees looked happy with their little thigh-bags packed full of pollen.

In all, I took about 50 picturesin 11 minutes elapsed time(from the data files), from which these pics were culled. A nice variety of insects in such a short time, particularly from a single plant!

I'll leave you with a mystery - one which I've never seen and have a hard time describing, let alone look up - the colorful fellow on the right... There is another honeybee in the background, and what looks to be a cabbage white on the left. Late-breaking news - Melinda found it! It is an Ailanthus Webworm moth. A new find for me!

ADDENDUM! Today (Sunday) was one of those treasured Midwest summer days - pure blue sky, temps in the low 80sF, dry with a nice breeze. The breeze kept the skeeters at bay, and I went down to yesterday's popular thistle plant and found more of the Ailanthus Webworm moths. Though the wind made imaging difficult, I managed to get a little better angle than up it's rear end. A striking insect!

A RAGBRAI Detour

Day two of the RAGBRAI route this year had the bikers going from Storm Lake to Algona. Shortly after I agreed to drive the support vehicle, I noticed Spencer, Iowa was pretty much on that drive, so I contacted friends Anthony and Anita if they were up for visitors. Friends of mine from way back in my University of Iowa days, they have led extraordinary lives. She graduated with an art degree, he worked with an insurance company in Seattle before a career change - administrator for US Aid for Southern Africa! After 2 decades in Africa (including raising 2 daughters), they retired to his hometown in Spencer where they continue to pursue their art interests. Their specialties of interest are a little fuzzy and overlap somewhat (to me, anyway), but Anthony dabbles in graphic arts and metalworking, with Anita the ceramics expert.


They live on a small acreage outside of town, in fact, the bike team stayed with them a couple years ago shortly after Anita moved onto the property (Anthony was still in Africa at that point). Instead of mowing acres of lawn, they decided early on to convert to a prairie yard. Instead of manicured grass, in late July it was a showpiece of native grasses and flowers, insects and small animals. Before we left their garden close to the house, Anthony spotted something - a Black Swallowtail caterpillar, close to pupation (no horns showing). A few steps into the prairie, we easily found some Monarch caterpillars as well - I still can't tell which end is the head - from the abundance of caterpillar poop around him, I should have waited a few more minutes...


His prairie yard, still in the formation stage, was last mown 6 weeks earlier, but was deemed ok by their advisor to skip mowing from now on. He also mowed paths through it to more easily examine the details of the life zones - great for easy access for a photo nut like me! Also abundant, as well as in the ditches and prairie remnants through Iowa and Illinois is Queen Anne's Lace - broad white flower clusters with the requisite red bloom in the center (from the drop of blood from a pricked finger as she made the lace). Also visible in the background is the bus and trailer I drove for Team Toad support across Iowa...

A tour through their home was like going through a gallery - which it was, in essence! Visible were some of their pieces from their African days, as well as metal working experiments Anthony performed, and shelves of ceramic works.

It was great seeing them. Northwestern Iowa is sort of an out-of-the-way place, so it was nice to have an excuse to see the changes they've made to their place in the last few years.

RAGBRAI Wrapup!

I'm embarrassed it has taken so long to finish this writeup - I guess that is what happens when you are on vacation - things get put off!

RAGBRAI is hard to describe. It is virtually unknown outside of Iowa, yet is a true icon within the state. It is a bike ride with some friends, generally from the Missouri River to the Mississippi over a course of 7 days and about 500 miles. Oh, and did I mention that your group of "friends" run somewhere between 8,000 to 15,000? And that is just the bike riders - add another 5,000 or more support people and hangers-on and you've got quite the traveling side show! The pictures shown at left are from Register photographers, taken from their website above. Check out my pictures at my RAGBRAI 2010 page.

The ride was started in 1974 by a pair of columnists for the Des Moines Register, which has sponsored the ride from the start. Joined by 300 die-hards on that first trip, it grew quickly to it's current phenomenal size by media reports about the event. Maximum attendance for a single day was estimated to be 23,000 riders on the day in '88 from Boone to Des Moines. The Register officially caps the ridership at 8500, but unregistered "bandits" can't be kept off public roads, so generally many more than that ride. The unusual-looking acronym stands for the Register's Annual Great Bike Ride Across Iowa.

While used by some as an excuse for a week-long alcohol fueled party, as with most things in life, it becomes what you make of it. For some it is a summer-long culmination of a goal to exercise and get into shape. It is used by multitudes of families and friends to spend a week bonding in the heat and humidity of an Iowa summer with a daily 75 mike bike ride thrown in. It is used to eat some of the best food anywhere (church basement pies and Pork and Beef Producers sandwiches in particular) guilt free after 8-10 hours on a bike. You can see silly outfits, silly bikes and silly local residents when the bikes come into town, and believe me, the ride takes over any town it enters, whether a pass-through during the day, or an overnight stop. Traffic stops, music blares, food offerings everywhere as hordes of hungry bikers descend. It is said a small pass-through town can generate $200,000 in a few hours (20,000 riders looking for a sandwich, slice of pie and a Gatorade), and an overnight host town almost 10-20 times that. Picture at left taken from Toad member Maggie Jessie.

When I was an Iowa resident through the 70s, I never had time in the summers to take a week off, though I joined the ride on it's last day in 1976, biking the 45 miles from Iowa City (where I lived) to Muscatine, then turned and rode back! It wasn't until the great flood year of 1993 that I donated a week and registered for the ride, knowing no one else doing the ride. Unfortunately (or perhaps, fortunately), the airlines misplaced my bicycle and I met my savior Glenn Losey, who was there to collect another biker that I had met on the flight. The airlines eventually got my bike to me the next day, but by that time, Team Toad had adopted me and invited me to join them for the week, and, in fact, ever since! I went on and rode the full length of RAGBRAI 9 times, then after my heart surgeries, have driven support 3 times now. It is a way to take in part of the fun without biking the miles, and it fulfills an important role for the team members who don't want to lose out on biking.

This year's ride was pretty good - not a lot of rain, not a lot of heat, or wind, but just the right amounts of each to appreciate when they left! Since the support drivers are purposely kept away from the bike route, I didn't get shots of biking multitudes, but I got some good shots of our overnights and team members. My favorites were of Rusty unpacking his bike, the postcard perfect sunset over Storm Lake, Iowa, and the final-day group shot of our intrepid leader Carl with Kurt and his daughter Anne. Stroll over to my RAGBRAI 2010 page for more.

It is always hard to think rationally so soon after the ride. I know on the most miserable years, when the heat index hit 120+F and the road's melted asphalt stuck to your tires, you wondered why you were subjecting yourself to such torture. Well, a few months later, the pain subsides and you can't wait for it to start again. With the fine year just past, I'm thinking I'd like to ride a day or two in the future as the weather and my dissected aorta permits. We'll see, and certainly, continuing to drive support is an easy way to live the ride vicariously. I suspect I'll be back!

A Visit to the Friendly Confines!

We finally got our Internet line repaired with the cable company yesterday, so as our busy schedule permits, we'll fill you in on new stuff as well as the recent past...

Today, for example, nephew Jeff, his wife Sandy, and friend Carolyn joined Melinda and me for a trip into town to see the Chicago Cubs take on the Cincinnati Reds in person. I think it has been at least a couple decades since I've been to Wrigley Field, and living so close in St Charles, it was about time to make the trip. Jeff and Sandy go pretty frequently (a couple times a year), so used them as "old hands" to assist in finding parking and favorite beer sources in the Park. We actually found inside parking in a private garage a few blocks away - nice to have a second income while the owner was off to work! The picture at left is of the iconic entrance to Wrigley from the intersection of Clark and Addison.






It was a great day for baseball - temps in the low 80sF, with plenty of blue sky and puffy clouds. We first found our seats - upper deck, row 1, even with outfielder Kosuke Fukodome. Great seats with shade the entire game. Being in the front row we had no cup holders though were tempted to use the top of the metal sign in front of us (not allowed). Ariving a good 90 minutes early and not particularly interested in watching the Reds stretch and hit batting practice, we went in search of food and drink, since the local pubs we passed on the way in were quite packed. We found the upper patio suitable, with a distant hazy view of downtown Chicago, the Willis Tower (formerly Sears) at center, Hancock building at left.




While the ballpark was sparsely attended as we explored, by about game time it was nearly full and the attendance announced later indicated a near sellout. There was a breeze blowing in, so likely not many home runs, but enough to see the Cub favorites who have had their numbers retired - their flags and numbers hanging off the home run poles down the baselines. Shown here are Greg Maddox, Ryne Sandberg and Billie Williams. Down the 3rd base line were the flags for Ron Santo, Fergie Jenkins and Ernie Banks, stars of the past few decades.



The giant scoreboard still towers over the "bleacher bums" in the outfield - where Jeff and Sandy usually try to sit. It was interesting to note that the Cubs game was the only day game scheduled - the rest of the Major league schedule were night games.

While we had a great time there, the "friendly confines" were a little too friendly to Cincinnati, who won the game 3 to 0, two runs being driven in on a homer to left field - thrown back onto the field, of course, by the Cub's fanatics. The Cubs were sluggish on offence, getting base runners, but leaving them stranded. We still love them, though and will cheer down the stretch for them!

Techical Difficulties!

We've not posted in a while - but it isn't our fault! I've been off on a week-long adventure on this year's RAGBRAI and have been away from Internet access. Meanwhile, Melinda and her Energizer Bunny of a sister Maj are tearing up the bathroom here in Illinois, so there is plenty to blog about. But our Comcast Internet access has been down, very intermittent, or extremely slow when it works at all and it is scheduled to be repaired as soon as tomorrow. So sit on your hands another day or so for our latest adventures!



We are continuing to have internet difficulties...so please bear with us!