A Mother’s Day Weekend



By Allan Olson
This weekend was the counterpart to the previous weekend – no trips out of town no hiking and virtually no sunshine and warm weather. This weekend was also spent mostly indoors – while last weekend was spent largely outdoors.
A friend of mine was heading into the Paul Bunyan Forest over the weekend to play  - or in my lingo Geocache finishing up the NSGS series deep in the woods I really wanted to join him. However it was called to my attention all the other work that needed to be done before going out to play so regretfully and perhaps a little annoyed I bowed out of the playing and consented to the work.
The work that needed to be completed included staining some windows and painting some walls and trying to get some semblance of order back into our house. After a month hiatus of real cleaning and coupled with some renovation project it was in due order.
Friday evening we made our plans and started prepping and staining the areas that needed it or rather my wife did the work and I was more of the “behind the scenes” person as she was enjoying her handiwork. The house was a little smelly be evenings end but with the windows open just a bit the worst of it evaporated overnight.
Saturday morning I made my usual opening weekend trip into and around Cass Lake – in my vehicle and not fishing. I “trolled” around the lakes looking for some anglers on the water trying to hook a fish or six. Soon it was time to head back home to help with the staining or rather do the same thing as Friday and be the good assistant. That evening I started priming a wall for its first coat of fresh paint in what has probably been many years. Prior to 11 p.m. I had the one room ready for a coat of paint in the morning and started getting things ready for the next morning.
On Sunday we were up –way early then we should’ve been for a weekend – but we had work to do. I wanted to get the walls painted before dinner and my wife had a couple windows to put a protective poly coat on. I began my work project that morning and with the help of a couple kids both the night before and this morning and my wife helping with some of the finer details of painting we were finished by 11 a.m. and soon started getting ready for dinner.
On Sunday after dinner, we visited Clem’s Hardware to get a few more painting supplies a new paint color for a wall and headed home to get some work done again – although a detour to a geocache was needed first. Once we were home another layer of paint was added to the wall that was painted earlier in the day and once that was completed we started on the new wall and my hopes of getting our house back together that evening faded fast as another coat of paint was going to be needed for that wall and there wasn’t much point of putting furniture back until all was dry. By Monday evening we had shelves and photos back up and while we still have some more photos to put on the wall we are so much closer to getting that part of the house back together and at least as organized as it can be in our chaotic life.
The next project is our guestroom – another room that has never been painted since we moved in, we have the paint for the room – now we just need to get the motivation to get that project started, the problem is we will need to move things from the guestroom to the living room for the duration of the painting – which means our living room will once again be a mess room.
Other projects that we will be working include making a few more shelves for my displaying our various collection of stuff, hanging more photos, laying some linoleum in a couple rooms and probably some more painting. If anyone wants to grab a brush and help out so I can go geocaching – I will gladly give my portion of the project up – however I have a feeling that I could possibly get in a little bit of trouble if I did something crazy like that.
This weekend, weather depending it could be more of the same as the last weekend, painting and cleaning – boring.
Thanks to everyone for reading, and as always, please be safe while enjoying your favorite outdoor recreational activity and on the lakes, and remember to take pictures to preserve a lifetime of memories. Remember to drive safely, and watch out for those buses carrying our children. Thanks for reading, and have a great week! For more of my columns visit: http://allan-crazykids.blogspot.com.
p.s. Over the weekend we were notified that an anonymous person had gifted our family a dinner at the Stony Point Canal House Restaurant for Mother’s Day on Sunday as a thank you for what I do in the community. While I’m not sure that I’m deserving of this more than any other person the kindness of whomever the individual is, was greatly appreciated by the entire family as we enjoyed a delicious meal at the restaurant and as an added bonus the family didn’t have to suffer from my cooking. Che-Miigwech!




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