A quickie trip

I must have an a premonition about yesterday. I didn't think we would be going anywhere. We hadn't talked about going anywhere. But somehow I had a feeling things would change.

They did change, too. Shortly after noon, my wife talked about wanting to go out of town. This time, the destination was Rhinelander. Basically, we grabbed our jackets and jumped in the car. I shaved first, and we both put on different shirts, but we were gone within minutes. Talk about spur of the moment!

We had lunch in Eagle River and then stopped at a number of places in Rhinelander. First up was Menard's (a home center store, if you don't know). She wanted some edging for an upcoming garden project, and I wanted to look at cordless electric mowers. We have a cordless mower now, but it's getting old, and maybe it's time to look into a replacement.

From there, I detoured to two auto dealerships (Toyota, Honda). I wanted to look at (get brochures for) a pair of cars I may wind up getting someday. Maybe. Don't know. It's a lot of money, and there is no reason for me to hurry into a decision. After all, the Mazda only has 180,000 miles on it. By this time next year, it could hit 200K ... if I stay with it that long. Not sure. And if I do, I'm thinking more and more about taking "the used route" again.

Next up was Fashion Bug (where my wife bought two blouses) and ***-Mart. She wanted to get some fabric, and I wanted to look at smartphones. I'm getting very interested in Android phones, and one of them may be in my future. They are much faster than the Blackberry Pearl I use now, with a bigger screen, and they have an actual keyboard (as does the Pearl). The virtual keyboards that are on most smartphones today are very challenging to my fat fingertips. Also, the Android has many apps that run fast, many of which are free. I'm especially looking at RadarNow. I'd love to have that one ... and that one's free, too.

No more stops to make, but we had one more highlight on the drive home. It's 60 miles from Iron River to Rhinelander and 60 miles back (honest!). The first 50 miles were routine. We were on the two-lane state highway, M-73, when we saw a black shape at the edge of the woods on our side of the road. I took it to be a bear. A lawn ornament-type bear that was holding one paw up in the air. Maybe it was a wooden cutout

But as we got closer, the wooden cutout dropped his paw, turned around and ambled back into the woods. It seemed to be an adult-size bear. We laughed because earlier, as we were about 20 miles into our trip south, I noted that I forgot to take my camera along. She said, "So this is the day we see the moose. Or the mama bear and her three cubs."

Of course, there wouldn't have been time to get a picture of this bear--within five seconds of the moment we first saw him, he was gone.

There's another line we say when we don't take the camera along: "This is the day we see the moose and the wolf fighting in the middle of the road." There are both mooses and wolves in our area, but I've yet to get a photo of one.

My main thing today was mowing the lawn for the first time this year (with the old mower) and then rewarding myself with the hockey playoffs. One in the afternoon, and the Red Wings at night. They lost the first game Thursday but should be better rested for game 2, even if it's on the road. Then, on Tuesday and Thursday, they're home.

We won't be. Not on Thursday, when we head out of town for our trip to Milwaukee, Madison and Beloit. Gone three days and two nights. This afternoon, my wife and I went to the computer upstairs to order our tickets for the Dead Sea Scrolls at the Milwaukee Public Museum and then looked at the Angel Museum website. Both places had videos we watched. I also printed out maps to each destination. Just part of the normal planning for a trip when I am the pilot, co-pilot and navigator.

****

Just after having my physical lately, I had my blood test. The results came back a few days ago.

The doctor wrote: "I hope this is helpful. Please call me if there are any further questions, but essentially what I want to say is that everything looks very good."

No sign of problems with diabetes, kidney or liver disease. Electrolytes were normal. Cholesterol was 161 ("very good"). HDL was 49, and LDL was 89 ("desirable" range). The controversial PSA test for prostate cancer was right in the middle of the normal range. (I did not have the highly enjoyable "finger test" this year; we both agreed to have that done every other year since no problems have been indicated.)

The tests are a routine part of the physical. I didn't mention about getting tested for STDs, and he didn't raise the topic either. Maybe I should volunteer the idea next year.