A warm winter weekend

A warm winter weekend
Marcus made it down the icy driveway without falling off the sled while practicing his snowboarding techniques on Sunday afternoon.


By Allan Olson
Finally, the weather has turned around and given us a taste of spring, teasing us just a little bit of what’s to come. What a week it was, for work and family it was business –  and busyness – as usual. For the world – in particular the U.S.A. – it was time to turn the tide as the country’s 45th president was sworn into office.
For some it was a state of mourning, for others, a period of rejoicing. Personally, I’m taking a wait-and-see approach. I’ve voted for or against a few presidents over my 20 years of legal voting, and I’ve yet to need counseling or been so upset I’ve trashed something because my candidate of choice didn’t get elected. Instead, I just get up in the morning and take care of my duties to the best of my ability, as I have any other day. Personally, I don’t think either of them will help me out. For those who are worried about the presidency and so upset about the results, I’m going to suggest something. Think smaller. Start with local offices, including the school board, city council, county board, township board. Those small, seemingly insignificant positions have a far greater impact on our daily lives than the president. Also the other local elections for senators and representatives also play a big role in our daily living. Of course, the only real effective way to make a change is to head to the polls and vote at every election.
Politics aside, it was a largely lazy weekend. I probably should’ve been more active in the great outdoors, but I honestly wasn’t feeling the motivation, at least not on Saturday. The kids spent a good portion of Friday and some of Saturday cleaning their messy rooms and they didn’t venture outside any more than the requisite letting the dogs in and out. With the majority of their work done, the kids were allowed some electronics time on Sunday afternoon. I decided to go for a drive to look for trumpeter swans. I found the swans, but unfortunately they were too far away for me to get a good shot of them, so I took some stills of the river with the swans off in the distance and headed back home.
When I returned, I found Marcus and Alivia busy snowboarding on their sleds in the driveway trying to wipe out and not sustain any injuries. True Minnesotans, they were enjoying the 30 degree weather dressed only in tennis shoes and light jackets. Even after falling in the snow multiple times, they never really complained about being cold. I did make them change into boots because we buy shoes often enough to know that if they are wearing their school shoes in the snow – they will quickly be junk.
The evening was spent visiting with my parents. The kids spent the time playing games with them. My wife and I possibly finished going through all the kid’s clothes for the near immediate future, removing anything that was too small or worn out needing to be tossed. With four kids, it’s a never ending battle, but hopefully we are on the winning side for now.
As noted, the weekend was pretty uneventful. Plans for the coming week are quite probably more of the same. I would like head out and do some things - like fishing – but for now it’s not in the cards. Hopefully soon things will work out and I can get back to spending weekends playing.

Please remember to watch out for the buses that are carrying our most precious cargo. Also 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.

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