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Unplugged Vacation

           It's raining outside right now and I'm glad to be inside our comfortable little home away from home. I finished washing the dishes which are drying on the counter.  The rain is pattering against the window and dripping off the apples on the tree outside our window. I have a small load of laundry in the washing machine down th e hall.          This is the 23rd trip C and I have made to Door County.  In the beginning, this was a badly needed break when both of us worked full time. When we first started coming here, reliable cell phone coverage was only available in the southern part of the peninsula. There was Wi-Fi access at the B&B we stayed at, but it wasn't available every where. We were, to a small extent, cut off from the outside world for one week and one day while we stayed here. It was nice to get a break from work, but also from checking messages and email all the time. C would bring a guitar and pla...
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The New Place

           Last spring, when C and I were making our Door County reservations, we found that the room rates at the place we normally stay at went up again. This is partly due to the fact that the family that owned it, sold it recently and it was bought by a man who owns several other properties in the area. We decided to look around at other accommodations to see what else would be available. We thought maybe we could find something a little less expensive but still on the peninsula.          After some searching, we found the place we are staying at right now. It's farther north than we have every stayed and unlike the previous two places, children are allowed.  I was a little nervous about it as I've had bad experiences with children in hotels. The reviews that we read said this was a fairly quiet place and we always come when school is in session. We both thought it would be all right.          We ar...
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A Well Written Song

           Several weeks ago a social media group posted a question. "What do you consider to be the best written song?" There were many answers spanning from classical music to country to rock. It was interesting to read the comments.          Although I didn't comment, I pondered what song I would choose. I wasn't sure I was even in a position to have an opinion on this subject. I'm not a composer or a performer so my choice comes from the position of being a listener. My musical taste is pretty broad, but was it broad enough to answer this kind of question?     I thought about it now and again for several weeks and decided that, in my opinion, the best written song is Year of the Cat by Al Stewart. It was written by Stewart and Peter Wood and released in 1976.     One of the things that I like best about the song is the lyrics. The lyrics describe an unexpected romantic encounter and does so in very visual ter...
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Social Media Interaction

           One of the things that I do almost every morning is check my Facebook memories. It's fun to see what I was doing or thinking about and sometimes it give me topics to write about. Many of my posts were football related about either the Green Bay Packers or the NDSU Bison. Sometimes I find cryptic posts that leave me wishing I remembered what I was posting about.          At one point in time I was posting conversations between Scamp , Colby and me. Those posts were so popular that I moved them to their own Facebook page. I kept it up after we lost Colby and closed it completely once Scamp was gone. I could revive it again with Willow and Barnaby, but I just don't feel like it.          There aren't as many past posts in recent years. I haven't been sharing much on social media. Part of this is due to changed interests. I'm no longer the football fanatic I used to be. I'm turned off by a lot of aspe...
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The Blessings of Being a Woman of a Certain Age

           All of my life, I've heard variations of  'don't get old' from people I knew. In my opinion, the alternative is not better. Those of you who have been reading this column know that I see growing older as a gift.           Until lately, I haven't really thought about just how nice it is to be a woman of a certain age. Today, I'd like to list a few blessings,in my opinion, of being an older woman.           The first is that I don't worry about my outfits matching. Yesterday, when I went to visit my dad, I wore a pink cardigan sweater, a white t- shirt and tan cotton pants. I wore a pink canvas bucket hat that I like. The pink hat didn't match the sweater and I didn't care. I was comfortable and the hat kept the rain off my head. It framed my face in a way that I like. Now, it's not that I go around wearing colours that clash badly. I just don't care if things are a perfect match in a...
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Making Seitan

                   Over the years, I've found that I enjoy trying things. Sometimes things turn out well, like the pot of white bean rosemary soup made from dried great northern beans.  Sometimes they don't, like the basket made from rag yarn. I don't mind the fails. The fun is in the attempt.                Several months ago I rediscovered my love of tofu. This led me to several vegan cooking channels. I found a lot of cool ways to season and use tofu in dishes and have really enjoyed experimenting with it. One of these cooking channels showed something that looked very interesting to me.   The content creator made what she called Homemade Vegan Deli Slices. It called for tofu, vital wheat gluten, olive oil, cornstarch, nutritional yeast and various species.          It looked interesting to me. On days when I know it's going to be busy at work, I...
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A Life Without Cheese is No Life at All

           Lately I've been watching a vegan cooking channel on YouTube. I started watching it because the content creator had a lot of good tofu recipes. There recipes mostly have ingredients that I already have or could easily obtain if I wanted to.           I look at a lot of things that she cooks. On her channel, eating a plant based diet seems to be pretty simple and affordable. Everything looks so good, especially the kale salad that you can customize with all kinds of things. (The secret is massaging the kale.) I could see myself adopting this type of eating. Except for one thing.          Cheese. Well actually the whole  dairy category. I like milk and yogurt, but I love cheese. I love almost all cheese made from cow's milk. Cheddar cheese, cream cheese, cottage cheese, asiago cheese are all good things in my opinion.           Maybe it's because I have some W...
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