Not much to report from recent days. I've been working and doing this and that. But on Saturday, my wife and I went out of town for most of the day. Destination: Iron Mountain.
Ordinarily these trips center on department stores and, of course, Walmart. But this time, would you believe it, we never dropped anchor in Walmart's parking lot. Or any other store, really. One exception. We stopped in at the big grocery store in town because my wife remembered she had to get a lemon--to make lemon bars for this morning's fellowship dinner at church. I always cooperate with her on such endeavors--because there are usually a few lemon bars that go home with her, and I like the lemon bars.
Let's face it, I was a little bored, too. I had visited K the week before (just for a few busy hours), and the next visit won't be for another week and a half. And I know my wife and I hadn't gone anywhere since the wedding (which was only two weeks earlier, true), and I don't want her to get too bored at home.
So during the week, I had mentioned going to a movie with her. In looking over the offerings, she seized upon the current movie adaptation of a Nicholas Sparks book, "The Lucky One." I'm neutral on Nicholas Sparks books, but I'm not the one in the family who reads them at night before going to sleep.
We were a little early getting to town, so we stopped briefly at McDonald's to try their cherry berry chiller. We both agreed that we liked it and probably will get more during the summer months. It was sunny at that time--later, it clouded over.
Next, the movie.
Since I had seen a few movie adaptations of his Nicholas Sparks books before, I knew what to expect. And that was exactly what I got. Feisty, independent girl. Rugged, handsome, quiet, mysterious stranger who always seems to have lost his razor. (Understandable that he doesn't shave, since during the course of the movie his whiskers never seem to grow.) Borderline psycho ex-boyfriend/ex-husband, deeply jealous and hostile to quiet mysterious guy. Charming, intelligent little kid. Wise old mother/female relative, trying to guide feisty independent girl towards rugged, handsome man. Inevitable sex scenes where some flesh but no naughty parts are shown--barely even the curve of a breast! And, of course, the inevitable rainstorm at some dramatic point in the saga.
It was about as edgy as a glass of milk. I swear to you, all the movie adaptations of Nicholas Sparks books seem to come out of the same sausage machine. You've seen one, you've seen them all. I suppose it's like a cinematic version of comfort foods. If you like Doritos, you like Doritos. My wife likes Nicholas Sparks books. I've got other stuff to read.
One other thing worth noting: Back on April 27, K and I saw "The Hunger Games" in Rhinelander, That theater has digital video and sound. Very sharp picture and impressive, powerful sound, especially during the trailers that preceded the film. I made a mental note to compare that theater experience to Iron Mountain. Saturday, I got my chance.
Not even close. In Iron Mountain, you hear the projectors whirring softly in the background and see slight variations in the picture (frame-to-frame brightness, mostly) during the film. It was ... OK. What we are all used to. It's sort of like the first time I saw a hockey game televised in HD. Wow! I have seen many hockey games on TV over the years--but nothing like that. Same thing here. The difference between the two theaters is like high def TV vs. standard definition, for both video and audio.
I had told my wife about the Rhinelander theater before. After seeing the film yesterday, I told her the next time we see a film, we're going to Rhinelander. She will be impressed. And it's only slightly farther away.
Anyway, after the movie, we went to a local sit-down type restaurant for dinner. I had an omelet, and my wife had haddock. We both got lemonades--but I drink a lot during dinners, and they didn't offer refills of the lemonades. So I asked the waitress for a glass of water, and she eventually came back with a six-ounce glass. I'm not a complainer, and I didn't say anything. But her tip was much closer to 10% than 15% or 20%.
From there, we went to visit an aunt of mine. My dad had three brothers and sisters. The two sisters are still alive--one is far away in downstate Michigan. The youngest one is in Kingsford, 82 now, and still pretty active. We wanted to show her pictures of the wedding. I put them on a tablet computer and we looked at them for a while. Then we sat and talked for a while. We hadn't visited that much since my mom died (September 2010), so we talked for quite a while, and we met her two little dogs and then she took us on a tour of her house.
She has a background in interior decorating and really has expanded and furnished the house--it's what she enjoys doing, and she is justifiably proud of what she has done. She also visits flea markets and auctions and picks up items that she cleans up/fixes up. We were suitably impressed and had a nice visit--for about two hours. We all looked for "the supermoon" as we were leaving--but it had clouded over already.
We left for home a little after 9. That means we got home a little after 10---too late for making lemon bars, so I made sure my wife got up early this morning, and she is making them now.
So while we didn't do a heck of a lot, we had a nice day, and my wife was happy. I like to take her out on trips and do different things with her--break her out of her routine at home--and she enjoys that. A busy day--we did a lot of different things, and we were both tired when we got home.
Today will be quiet. We finally are having a rainy day--the rain moved in during the night--so it sounds like a good day for resting and relaxing. And maybe a little reading.
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Here is another piece of news from last week:
My wife has made her final decision: The bus tour vacation with me to Nashville is now officially off the calendar. Instead, she and two of her sisters will be making a bus tour to Door County in early August (the week before the planned Nashville trip). That's the weekend of the rodeo and a strongman competition I will have to cover, so I can't come along.
But I will drive her to Ladysmith (in NW Wisconsin, where the sisters live and the tour starts and ends) and pick her up afterwards. By a strange coincidence, the road to Ladysmith passes right through Rhinelander, where K lives. I am hoping I can take advantage of that.
My wife and I took a trip to Door County a few years ago, but we only went as far north as Sturgeon Bay. The most memorable part of the trip (to me) was touring the maritime museum there--since the 19th century, they have had several big shipbuilders in Sturgeon Bay, and there is still a major defense contractor in the area today. So that was a nice visit--the rest of the time, we were in the Green Bay area, shopping and looking around.
