March 2018

Grandkids books are done and delivered, taxes submitted, and garden in fairly good shape, so it was time to start planning the Spring Road Trip. I work online with a free Furkot software program that plots out the stops and gives mileage, etc. It will even locate lodging for hotels or campsites. I worked around two time restraints; a reunion for my family in Tennessee in June and wanting to be in Mt. Rushmore for the 4th of July. Rog wants to visit the 5 northern states he has never been to and I want to see Niagara Falls and Yellowstone. The plan fell into place and I have reserved campsites at the major locations.

We had a date with Max at the beginning of the month and Karissa a week later. We took each of them to a play at our local Finnish Hall put on by school aged kids: “Pinnochio, My Son” They did a phenomenal job. Didn’t bother us at all to see it twice. There is a bunch of talent out there.

Our craft project honored our Irish heritage. We made clover flowers and pretzel shamrocks. Lots of green everywhere. Max also came over to work on his stained glass window.

I am helping Rog with marketing for his SKA dojo. We are now one of 10 SKA dojos in a nationwide Beta Project. We meet via teleconferences and are working together to develop websites, facebook and instagram presence, and marketing tools. It has been interesting.

I attended an orientation program for 6th/7th/8th graders at Rocklin Gateway for Max. His folks were both busy and they had questions about the curriculum. They have been using a web based program called Summit and are moving to Google Classroom. I am impressed at the use of shared resources and I think there will be some exponential growth in quality over the next few years as teachers feed into it. Amazing.

It was a pretty rainy month so Rog focused on his model railroad. It involves a lot of climbing on the table, fitting curves and determining heights but it is taking shape! He plans to lay his own track so had to stain the rails and ties and nail it down on the roadbed. He completed his prototype. Even with the rain, he managed to prune the eucalyptus trees on our back hill and fill all 3 green barrels. We also got the pump replaced on the waterfall and have it running again. There are some leaks, but we are finding most of them.

We ended the month babysitting for pets. Princess was here during the day while Ryan was getting his kitchen remodeled. We went over to feed and walk Scout every morning while Blooms were on their annual trip to San Diego. Then I spent a couple of hours playing with him in the evening and fed the rabbits. Luckily, the rain gave us a respite and we had wonderful weather all week.