A working weekend
The girls and I with our painted faces during Summer
Fest.
By Allan Olson
This weekend was another one of those crazy
weekends, a “which way do I go,” sort of weekend. With the weekend technically
starting on Friday night, I was in town covering all the fun and festivities of
the Cass Lake Summer Fest, enjoying the night with my girls all the way up to
the fireworks. We even took some time to get our faces painted – something
unusual for us. I also gave them some a few funds for some games and a treat,
and that evening we enjoyed a nice cool snow cone. We ended the evening taking
in the fireworks and enjoying the show with some friends.
On Saturday the whole family attended the
parade. I was left alone for the remainder of the afternoon, covering the Miss
Cass Lake pageant and other fun activities of the day while Susan and the boys
headed off in search of supplies and the girls went over to a friend’s house for
some fun. In the end, it worked out great for all of us. We all got back
together again at home that evening. I was exhausted from running for the last
three days, and so required a nap to refuel my batteries. In the meantime, the
rest of the family started working to clean up some of the clutter that has been
gathering for a while in the extra room downstairs. When I woke up, Susan was
replacing some light fixtures in that room and most of the ceiling tiles had
been removed. Several of them were already in poor shape or missing, and just
removing them all seemed to be the smart choice. I assisted her with the rest of
that project, and then we started on the living room, removing about half of
those remaining ceiling tiles before finally calling it a night.
With Sunday being a day of rest, I stayed in bed
as long as possible. We crawled out at around 9 a.m. and I began making
breakfast. I got the bacon ready to be fried and the syrup made, while directing
Alivia on how to make French toast. Soon we were eating as a family for the
first time in several days. We took a little break after breakfast and watched a
little television before returning to finish the work we started in the basement
the prior night. It took a few hours longer, but soon it was completed. Even
with all the tiles removed showing the exposed plumbing and flooring, it still
looks better than it did with the old tiles. Once the cleanup from the demo was
done, we took the rest of the day off.
After some down time, I decided to go work on
the boat a little more. Earlier in the week, I had applied some spray adhesive
to the areas that were leaking, and after letting it cure for a few days I
decided it was time to check on it again. I discovered that what I sprayed on
had helped, but there were some areas I missed. I used the remainder of the can
trying to cover those, but it looks like I’ll need another can.
A couple hours later, I was staring out the
window, trying to decide what to do. Nikolai wanted to go fishing, Alivia wanted
to go swimming and fishing, and the twins just wanted to swim. I was torn. I
wanted to fish, swim and canoe. Doing all three was just not a viable option. My
wife and I agreed that the kids should be rewarded for their help with the
downstairs project, and so we decided to fish and swim.
We headed for the store to get some bait, and
got the boat launched and underway all by 7 p.m. It was the first time all us
had been on the boat at the same time. I knew the little 15 hp motor might
struggle a little bit with all of us aboard (and it did) but we all made it
safely across the lake, where I dropped my wife and the youngest three at the
beach to go swimming. Nikolai and I headed off to try some fishing.
Once we finally got to our fishing area, it took
about 15 minutes to finally get our lines in the water. I dropped my hook and
right away a fish was on, but right away the reel was messed up. I was able to
get it working and reeled in a very small pan fish. I put it back in and tossed
out again, this time there was no hope for the mess the line made. I cut it,
pulled in the line, saved my hook and anchors and grabbed another pole. Earlier
in the day, Nikolai got them all set up, so once again I baited my hook and made
the cast, only to watch my hook and sinker go sailing across the lake. Either he
didn’t tie something right or hook something up right, but either way it was
gone. I looked at him, shook my head and grabbed the final extra pole in the
boat. I tossed the line out and right away something was hooked, but there was
no give – whatever was hooked wasn’t moving. I had Nikolai hoist the anchor and
tried moving the boat closer to where we were hooked. No luck, I couldn’t get
it. I handed it to Nikolai and he didn’t have any better luck. “Cut the line,” I
said. We had just spent the last 45 minutes trying to fish, but had less than 10
minutes with lines in the water. Nikolai suggested we try the fishing hole where
we had scored some luck a few weeks ago, but on our way over I had noticed the
time – 7:45 p.m. We still didn’t have supper, and darkness was fast approaching.
We headed back over to the swimming hole to check on the rest of the family, and
after talking with my wife, I informed Nikolai that if he wanted to swim at all,
he’d better get to it now. He jumped in while I parked the boat, and then I took
the plunge and swam for a bit, too, before telling everyone it was time to pack
up. We got loaded up, headed home, unloaded everything and finally had supper at
10 p.m. It was worth the wait.
Our plans for this weekend, hopefully will
include some swimming, fishing and/or geocaching. As long as it’s spending time
with the family, it should be fun.
Enjoy your summer, and be sure to snap a photo
or two to preserve a lifetime of memories. Thanks for reading, and have a great
week! Feel free to drop me a line at cltimes1@arvig.net or
stop by the office for a visit. To our Law Enforcement officers and other
emergency personnel, be safe, and thank you for all that you
do!
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