The Rambling Insomniac

My wife Stephanie and I just got back from a weeklong trip in Minocqua with our kids, Lyndsy and Buck. It was a great trip. We stayed in a beautiful cabin on a picturesque lake. The weather was as perfect as you can get, and we didn’t see a mosquito all week! While there, we did all the usual family stuff including boating, fishing, swimming, shopping, horseback riding, go-carting, treasure hunting, casino hopping and hit just about every attraction that will keep a 3 or 4 year-old’s interest (Lyndsy is 4 and Buck is 3). We must have done a good job at keeping them interested, as they were both extremely disappointed that we had to leave after being there for 7 whole days.

It is so cliché to talk about, but our biggest problem with the kids all week was the five-hour ride up there, and the subsequent return trip home. We have a SUV that has a DVD player in it, and even that couldn’t keep the kids occupied enough not to whine the entire way up. If given a dollar for every time we heard “Are we almost there?” I think we could have easily covered the entire price of the vacation. Luckily, the anticipation of the trip kept everyone in a good mood, so the drive up wasn’t too bad. Unfortunately, I can’t say the same thing about the ride home. Both our kids caught major colds while we were up there, so when it came time to leave, they were both grumpy to begin with. Couple that with them not wanting to leave in the first place, and I can tell you, they were not exactly what you would call “happy campers” when we began our journey home.

Anyone that’s raised children knows that times like these truly test what sort of fortitude you have of trying to be a perfect parent. For instance, after listening to Buck cough and cry for the first two hours of the trip home, we decided the best way to keep our sanity was to pump him full of enough cough syrup to make him a non-factor for the rest of the ride (c’mon…of course we followed the recommended dosage!). While that trick worked well for Buck, Lyndsy was bound and determined to make our entire ride home truly miserable. She whined and cried the entire way, and at some point decided she was going to tell us that she wants to go to Betty Brinn (the children’s museum in Milwaukee). She then proceeded to tell us this over, and over, and over, and over again! Now, between Steph and I, I’m normally the more patient parent, and whining like this normally doesn’t bother me. But after hearing Lyndsy cry out her ten-millionth, “I want to go to Betty Brinn”, I blurted out, “BETTY BRINN IS DEAD!”. Luckily, Lyndsy’s own whining prevented her from hearing me say that, so no harm was done. My comment did however at least give Steph and me a good chuckle for the rest of the way home.

So, all in all, we truly had a great family vacation. We are already talking about doing something similar next year. However, Steph and I both agreed we’d plan it somewhere MUCH closer to home!

A classic Buck moment from our vacation............


G’Night G’Town!

The alternative to a vacation is to stay home and tip every third person you see.
~Author Unknown

How often do you see an invention, a new product or just a trick that someone shows you, and you immediately say to yourself, “Why didn’t I think of that?” Well, on a recent fishing trip to Eagle River with my buddy Dave, I encountered one of those moments.

We were sitting around the campfire with Ray, our resort owner, shooting the breeze over some cocktails. Now, you have to understand that Ray, who's a chipper 69 years old, is as close to being retired as possible. Like most folks up in “da nort woods”, he counts every penny he can to get by. I’m not sure how the subject came up, but we were talking about freezing things such as meat or fish that you may have bought or caught in bulk. Someone mentioned that having an electric, vacuum sealer was a great way to accomplish this. That’s when Ray chimed in;

“Nah, you don’t need one of those fancy-schmancy gizmos. I just put the food into a baggie, which, by the way, you can get a box of 50 of the quart sized ones at that Dollar Store down in Rhinelander for a buck. Then I just take the straw out of my cocktail, zipper the bag almost shut and insert the straw. I then start sucking until I can’t suck anymore and seal it off as quickly as I can. It works great, and if you suck long and hard enough, it gives you a pretty good head rush too.” And as Ray told us that tip, I thought to myself, “Why didn’t I think of that.”

Well, having caught a bunch of salmon this week while on a Lake Michigan charter, I thought I’d give Ray’s trick a try and prepare some of my catch for the freezer. I got out my baggies, and I pulled out my cocktail straw, and just as Ray described, the method worked “slick as water off a ducks back!” And after my 5th bag of salmon filets was done, I quickly realized I had quite the head rush going on.

Thanks for that one Ray.

G’Night G’Town!

The production of too many useful things results in too many useless people.  ~Karl Marx