Typing Out Loud: Don't Dream It's Over

The adrenaline hit resulted in this joy. It didn't last long. 

Is this the last locker room selfie? 

It is not uncommon in my sport to fall down and go boom. The celebration of resilience in figure skating is called the "Get Up" campaign after all. 

But what happens when you get up and have to force yourself to keep getting up? 

I fell last Monday doing a salchow. It's the worst fall I've ever taken, I took the brunt on my bad hip and it resonated all the way through my body. Even today, 11 days later, I'm in pain and I've been to the chiropractor four times this week. FOUR. I'm grateful I didn't break something. 

I went from thinking I could get the gold, to settling for silver, to grateful that I got my skates on at all. 

Being laid up, sleeping on ice packs, the constant need to rest or rehab or walk or find my mojo... again and again and again. Is it time to hang them up? 

I've been told age is nothing but a number, and I get that but my hip is telling me "Girl! what more do you want from us?" Honestly, I'm worried about being able to walk at the age of 80. 

This is my sobering reality. I have decisions to make. And by looking at my Facebook history and even the posts I've made here, perhaps a decision that is long overdue. 

I love competing and the resulting medals, but that's only about two minutes of my life. I need to be able to walk for the rest of the week. 

Little House Travels: De Smet Part 3, Placards

I wanted to put these somewhere to save from Main Street, remembering what was. I don’t need to add a descriptor, it’s already there. 

 

June's Secret Life of Objects: Beatles in Beads

It’s Fab!

This is a relatively new addition to the collection of stuff I own.

Over Memorial Day weekend Dave and I like to go hit the garage sales up at the cottage. It’s cool because then we are laser-focused on what we want or need there, and rarely do we buy more than we need. 

Until I meet BeatleFan Rachel. 

She’s a crafter and a great lover of the Beatles. She had a room devoted to her collection and was selling for a song so she and her husband could travel the country in their RV. She had a lot I already had or things I simply talked myself out of purchasing. I found the cartoon Beatles figurines and had to have them since that was my four-year-old introduction to the band.

I was about to pay her for that and an afghan when I saw this, a nifty little piece of beadwork she had done. With a shrug, she said “$2?”

Oh my yes. 

It’s now sitting on the dining room table, waiting to be framed and hung with the rest of my offbeat local artist collection. I can’t wait to hang it next to the portrait of Frida Kahlo. 

Little House Travels: De Smet Part Two - Little Town

Laura in bronze. Didn't they know her signature color was pink?

Yeah, I got the shirt.

Waiting to start the tour. I met up with Bonnie and Cathy, who I had met at the homestead.

Another placard.

Ma, Pa, and Grace's cozy bedroom at the Surveyor's House.

The wonderful pantry. 

The attic bedroom, as seen from the mirror. A great way for visitors to be able to see things while preserving the delicate stairs. 

Get that claim, Pa!

The actual schoolhouse was moved from downtown to the museum. 

Read up. 

The many layers of the walls of the schoolhouse through the years. 

Exposed floorboards. 

Original blackboards were discovered behind all the batten and board walls, whoa! 

Rock that seat, Carrie. 

The school house, again these rooms are getting bigger.

The tale of how the class was almost lost in the prairie. 

Grind that wheat.

The actual Bouchie School!

You bet I sat at her desk.

Sympathy for the devil.

Get it, Manly.

After the events of the book series concluded, the rest of the family moved to the house Pa built on Third Street (the lady in mint is Cathy). After a series of misfortunes, Laura and Almanzo also moved to town and lived on Fourth Street. I went looking for the house, I think I found it, but the guy was mowing the lawn. 

Whew Ma, that's some wallpaper. 

Ma's fainting couch - fancy. That is not Pa's fiddle.

Mary's organ that Laura helped purchase. 

The optical illusion of those stairs made me dizzy. Glad I didn't have to go down them. 

Rose's room at her grandparent's house. She returned as an adult and this served as an office.

That was one big lilac bush. I can imagine Ma going into the backyard to enjoy them. 

After the museum tours were over, I walked Main Street De Smet. On the right, the first red brick building is the opera house, and the second is where the Ingalls family's first town home was located, which is where they lived during The Long Winter. 

Eatin' salad at the Tinkham Furniture Store. The new owner is from Marquette, MI. 

The Nissan "Prince and Lady" parked out in front of The Loftus Store. 

I love that this is still open. 

Loftus' is where you could buy all things Little House, including this tee. The only instance where I'm not even mad singing Bon Jovi. 

Pa's first store building! 

The front of Pa's first business building, but not the one they stayed in for the winter. Methinks Pa's place the pot dispensary across the road...

Maynard's Food Center is located at the north end of town, and takes up the lots that were formerly The Mead Hotel, Hinz Saloon ("I'm Tay Pay Pryor, and I'm drunk"), and the Wilder Feed Store; reading up, I'm guessing Royal's store is now the parking lot? I had to buy something. 

But what to buy? Attempting to make a LH foodie connection, I looked for rhubarb pie (FFY) or pancake mix (TLW). I settled on a local BBQ rub to take home and a blueberry fry pie. 

I did cruise the cemetery and stopped to see Pa and the girls. 

By the shores of Silver Lake, or what's left of it. They drained it a hundred years ago and basically turned it into another slough. I can imagine her figure skating here.