A Home Weekend

My oldest two kids and I attended a movie on Saturday at the Bemidji Chief Theater. It was a great time with just the three of us.

By Allan Olson

I spent most of my time this past weekend binge-watching the show “Game of Thrones.” After watching it for the last few weeks, I finished the last season at about 5:30 p.m. on Sunday. I can honestly say that’s probably the most I’ve ever watched any series of television in many years. I guess I’m glad it’s winter, because my excuse is that it’s too cold to do anything outside, and I don’t want to go out.

On Friday night, my goal was to get kids to do some work in the house, especially some homework for those that had it. While they did do a little housework, all my efforts to get them to do anything soon went by the wayside. I was tired, so instead I watched my show, snoozed on the couch, watched some more episodes and finally headed off to bed. I accomplished absolutely nothing that evening.

Since we weren’t going anywhere on Saturday, I stayed in bed. Eventually I got up to make breakfast and then got back to binge-watching, either on the television in my room or on my tablet, depending on what else I was doing. 

My wife and I did get the kids working on some things. Abigail helped me with making some more apple jelly from the juice from the apples we picked last summer. She did all the measuring of the sugar and assisted me with getting the hot jars and lids from the boiling water bath, while I poured the juice in the jars. We repeated the same process on Sunday night. All together we made about 20 pints of jelly. I’m very proud of the fact that both times the batches set up the way they needed to.

On Saturday afternoon I remembered hearing about a free movie at the Chief Theater in Bemidji; playing on the Big Screen was “Grumpy Old Men,” perhaps one of the greatest movies ever made, with an all-star cast. I told the kids about it, and at one point there were four of us going, but in the end it was just me and the oldest two. For me, that night at the movies was the highlight of the year (of course, the year is young, but it was still a very memorable time). I was able to sit with these two kids of mine on either side of me and watch a great movie, and we laughed the whole night. At one point I had them both resting their heads on my shoulder and rotating off and on each night. I can also relish the fact that they both wanted to go with me; I didn’t force them, and I didn’t have to go by myself. From our time in the theater, to the almost two blocks walking back to the vehicle, to the hour in the store getting some staples for the home, and the ride back home, and even for a short time at home, they both seemed extremely wound up and wired. All three of us laughed harder than we have in a long time.

Back at home we finally settled down, after cooking pizza for the family, and the kids went off to do their thing and I went back to binge-watching a couple more episodes before going to sleep.

Aah, Sunday – a day of rest. I stayed in bed again, until getting up to find something for breakfast that I had prepared for on Friday with a donut coupon from Teal’s. Of course, someone had already gotten into one of the two containers I bought on Saturday, but there were still plenty left. Some of the chocolate ones I bought Saturday allowed for plenty for the kids and enough for me as well. 

I only left the house long enough to shovel the snow off the deck and get it away from there since my neighbor came over to plow the yard again. It’s great to have someone that comes over and pushes that big pile of white fluff out of the way, because frankly, if I had to shovel it, I would’ve quit a long time ago. A snow blower wouldn’t be very effective in my big yard, either, and if I bought a truck and plow it would probably spend just as much time at the shop as the rest of my vehicles. A lawn mower with a snow blower attachment? I would have to figure out how to be mechanical enough to figure out how to attach them or call someone to do it, and that would get old as well. 

When they came over to plow earlier in the week, I had one of the kids give them the last bag of caramel rolls that I had been hoarding in the freezer as a gift of thanks, and on Sunday they received one of my jars of jelly. I would rather give up either of those goodies anytime than have to go through any of the above-mentioned steps to clear away the snow from the driveway.

I spent the remainder of the evening doing my work and trying to assist Abigail with homework – a very frustrating task – since I had finished my binge watching earlier. I think now that the series is done, I will finish a couple books.

The next several Saturdays I have plans, but everything is going to depend on the weather. I wouldn’t mind finding a fish house to visit sometime in the near future, but with my schedule, the odds of that are looking slim. Oh well, I can just keep counting down the days until I can get my boat back in the water again.

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.