Just a little busy

Nikolai and I taking a break on Two Points after the walk across the ice.

By Allan Olson

Oh, what a busy weekend it was indeed, with the daylight hours flying by over the two cool wintry days.

We started the weekend off with a bang – with a broken bone for yet another child of mine. Seriously, I’m starting to wonder if my children are fragile or just unlucky, because I’ve only had one broken bone in my entire life and that was just a finger; already two of my kids have two or more separate occasions wound up in casts and one has broken four metatarsals at one time. Knock on wood – the oldest has suffered no broken bones thus far.

On Friday morning, as usual, I drop the kids off at school. Abigail and Marcus took off running into the school, racing each other. I have no idea why or how this competition started, it’s just something they do. I’ve known full well that one of these times, one of them will get hurt, but I figured it would just be a scraped knee or something.

Everyone was dropped off and I was done with them for the rest of the day, or so I thought. I was at the office working for a bit prior to heading meet a couple friends for breakfast. I had missed a text from Marcus until I was getting into my vehicle about 16 minutes later, when I saw his text and got his phone call at nearly the same time. “Dad, I think I broke my arm,” his text message said, and he said the same thing pretty calmly on the phone to me. I didn’t even get the opportunity to be mad at him for taking his phone to school. I told him I was on my way.

I got to the school and he was waiting at the door for me. He had been told by his teacher to go to the nurse, who wasn’t in, so he just waited for me, not checking in with the office or anyone else. I went in and quickly explained the situation to the office staff, and we headed to the clinic, after a brief stop at the café to explain to my friends who were waiting that I wouldn’t be joining them.

At the clinic they were warming up the x-ray machine for Marcus and after sitting with an ice pack on his arm for over 20 minutes and a discussion with the doctor, he went to get the picture. It proved that his arm was indeed broken, so a splint was applied and a cast will follow this week. Too bad for this young man, because he will most likely not get to play in any baseball games this season, which is something he’s been looking forward to since last year.

On Saturday, I slept in late (until almost 8 a.m.), and then we proceeded to have the kids do some more house cleaning. We had a visit from a contractor to discuss some much-needed possible renovations to our kitchen/dining area. We visited with him for nearly 90 minutes, and after he left we took another child into the doctor for what we feared might be a case of strep throat. Alivia had been complaining of a sore throat for a few days and my wife thought it best to get examined. She went into the clinic with Alivia while I went for coffee and ran an errand to a store. An hour later, they called and I picked them up. The test was negative for strep, and she seemed better the rest of the weekend; hopefully that trend continues. After picking up a few grocery items, we headed for home, after connecting with my niece in town so she could follow us home.

My wife made an amazing supper of Chicken Gravy and Biscuits along with dessert for the family and my niece and her boyfriend. After supper they all played a game, while I slipped off and read my book instead. Perhaps I was a little anti-social, but I wanted to read, so that’s what I did.

On Sunday it was time for my geocaching adventure. My friend that was going with me couldn’t make it and I wasn’t going by myself, so I asked Nikolai to go with me. Thankfully he said yes, so I didn’t have to tell him he had to go with me. We left home at about 10:30 a.m., and after talking with a property owner whose land we were crossing to get to the lake, it was 11:46 before were trudging across the frozen surface of Leech Lake to a little “island” called Two Points. It took me about 13 minutes to make the .7 mile trek over the frozen water and snow, and it took Nikolai a few minutes less than that. Once were there, it didn’t take me long to spot what we were looking for. We took a couple photos and then took a break. 

I really wanted to trek the .9 miles to the next geocache, but the whiteout conditions on the lake were less than desirable. In all honesty, it was downright creepy that we couldn’t see the property on shore that we had left from after sitting for a few minutes. I still wanted to continue but Nikolai didn’t, and I really wasn’t going to push it, because I was not all that comfortable in the whiteout, either. In the end we headed back to land. I guess I’m going to have save that other cache for another weekend. As it turned out, if we had waited until the afternoon to head out on our geocaching adventure, we would have been able to get both because the snow had quit blowing by then.

After we got home, I read some more and then decided I needed a nap, so that’s what I did. The rest of the day was pretty boring, but I was okay with that as I had gotten out of the house and done something other than work or going to a store.

This weekend, I’m supposed to help clean ditches along Highway 71 by Menahga, but that’s not likely to happen with all the snow that’s still on the ground, so I’m not sure yet what plan B is, but you can bet that there will be some geocaching involved, for sure.

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.