Another whirlwind weekend

By Allan Olson

It doesn’t seem to make a difference if the week is short or long, the days still go by in a blur. Since the kids were off Thursday, I took that day to have a “dad” day and went to play in the woods with a friend. I met him at 6 a.m. and we took off for Hill City. Our target was a series of caches that form a star in the woods.

We spent the day hiking and driving, pushing our way through patches of thick brush, carefully avoiding water traps. When they couldn’t be avoided, I embraced the challenge of swamp water by putting on my water-proof boots. By the end of the day, we had logged about four miles on foot and added 32 more caches to our total – not a huge day of finds but still enough to make us feel like we accomplished something. 

I got home a little after 7 p.m., exhausted and tired from spending a full day out in the warm, fresh air. The kids enjoyed their day off at home, doing a minimal amount of work – just what they were asked, without putting a significant amount of effort into it.

On Friday evening, a group of us attended the Night Screams haunted house in Bena. Once again, I spent the time laughing my way through the spooks. For some reason, Bloody Mary and her clown friends, along with the rest of the haunts, don’t bother me; I’m mostly just amused. I laugh even harder at some of the kids in our group who scream their way through it. 

My favorite part this year was the additional clowns. I even asked one of them for a balloon, since it kept hitting me in the face. All it was doing was pointing further down the trail.  Alivia also tried getting in a fight with the clowns, even swinging punches at one. I thought it was because she was scared, but later she explained that they were scaring her friend and getting in her face, so she was trying to get them away. It looked quite comical from a distance.

Saturday was another busy day. My wife and the girls left early for a baby shower, and my boys got in a fight shortly after that about who hurt whom. I settled that dispute by assigning chores for both, and headed out the door to attend a funeral. When I returned home a couple hours later, I found those chores that I had assigned were done, so we once again headed out the door – this time to town to get a couple of things. As often is the case, we ended up spending more time there than intended, buying things both planned and not planned. 

Back at home, the rest of the family arrived shortly after we did. Once everything was settled down again, Marcus started making space in his room for his new/used dresser. I helped with some of the muscle work, my wife with some of the brain work, and then we left the rest to him to work out.  

Gifts received at the baby shower for our niece were larger than anticipated, so on Sunday morning, my wife and this time the boys were once again on the road, helping her transport her stuff to the Fargo area. My wife made quite the whirlwind trip of it, as we had a previous appointment at the gun range to get ready for hunting season. The girls and I met the rest of the family at the range and sent some lead at targets before calling it an afternoon.  

It was an extremely busy weekend; we found little time for much other than running around the state. This weekend looks like it will be just as busy for me, with the first ever Robotics competition to be held in Cass Lake on Saturday, which is sure to be a great time.

Please remember to watch out for the buses that will be 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.