Oscar had a couple extra days off of school for spring break this week. Jen (with the weather’s influence) closed her dog sled trip season on Wednesday. I had been talking and emailing with my brother and my nephews for a week contemplating a little spring break getaway. I wanted to stay in the Porkies and squeak out another ski trip, but others were less enthused. They ended up heading west to bowl and overnight in Duluth. We embraced a lazy day at home and then headed east. On the way to Michigan, we stopped for lunch at El Dorado in Ashland and listened to a surprisingly good podcast about the Baby Shark song Oscar has been spontaneously breaking out lately. In Ironwood, we got movie tickets and a motel room. We discussed the general pros and cons of hotels vs. motels with Oscar--cost, access, pet policy, look, noise, smell, pool options--and he decided he likes motels best. It helped that this motel had a cute little one-eyed dog and sweet hot tub area just two doors down from our room. After checking in, we drove to Black River Harbor, hiked across the bridge over the river and a mile trail of packed snow and ice to the Rainbow Falls overlook. Oscar got tired on the hike back to the car, but lures of hot tub time before the movie kept him going. We had just enough time to get in a little soak, call the Poppas, rinse off, and eat some leftovers. Then we walked to the theatre. Jen went to Captain Marvel, which she has been eager to see in the theatre, and Oscar and I went to Dumbo. So good! I can’t recommend it enough. A great story about fighting to keep families together. Tim Burton direction. Set in the era of my grandma’s childhoods. My kiddo on the edge of his seat. My kiddo who loves animals and dreams of flight. I am so grateful to have shared this moment with him. I will also be grateful a few years from now when he and Jen go to the next new superhero movie together and I can have the indy tear-jerker flick I’ve been waiting for all to myself.
Back at the motel, we shared the synapsis and favorite moments of each our movies, then fell asleep listening to a couple chapters of Ramona Quimby. The next day was less enchanted (as it always has to be I guess) but we made the most of it-- refueled from the motel offerings and a sit down breakfast at Mike’s, a shorter hike to Interstate Falls (fairly accessible and impressive), bought farm eggs and potting soil from Stoffel’s, listened to a few more chapters of Ramona, and stopped for a few groceries in Ashland, but weren’t really organized enough to buy for the week. At home Oscar and I put some soil in pots, and some seeds in soil. I don’t have a big plan for my starts like I have in the past. Partly, because the professionals just do it so much better. This year I let Oscar lead the charge completely. He asked to buy a couple seed packets from the grocery store. I pulled out the box of seeds from seasons past. He puzzled a mix of large and small containers into the tray. We filled them with soil. We poked in some seeds. We poured water on top and put them in the sun. I am optimistic that something will grow, and that is enough. We finish our day with TV, a little Mario, pasta diner, tidying the house, a round of Pictionary, books, Oscar to bed by 8 (a feat in our house), and five episodes of Transparent. And this is also so good--to have my kid asleep in his own room, and watch TV (on a television) with my wife. A good show that plays without ads or interrupted buffering none-the-less. We bought a Roku on our last trip to Duluth. Enjoyed SMILF with a free Showtime trial, and now with a AmazonPrime free trial have settled into Transparent (with a dash of Marvelous Mrs. Maisel and purchased RuPaul’s Drag Race mixed in). This morning I wake up with my alarm, crunch ice puddles with Oscar on our way to the bus, make tea, and sit down to write. Two weeks of this easier routine, of transitioning into the next season. Then two weeks of vacation. Driving west in our jeep to friends and sun and mountains and desert. (Any family-friendly audio book recommendations? Jen and I decided this morning we need to bail on Ramona.) Then Monday, April 29, Oscar starts his last month of 4K/Headstart and Jen and I both start new full-time jobs. She’ll be helping our friends with their landscaping business on the island, and I’ll be stepping in to the role of Support Assistant at the LCO Ojibwa Community College Outreach Site in Red Cliff. We are both ready for the change, for regular work and routine, for weekends together, but right now my head is mulling on the goodbye. The bitter and so sweet moments of hanging with first-graders after school, of helping a friend in his office while he helps us build our house, of farming with my family, of living by the seasons, of mothering a preschooler. I am sad to say goodbye to the work I have pieced together, but I am eager for career. I hope I can find and overlap with people who would like to pick up the work I am leaving. Please reach out if this might be you. The Bayfield After-School program may need another instructor, especially if you have knowledge of or interest in baaga’adowewin. I know of a very sweet, very part-time, not very organized gig for someone who can manipulate a spreadsheet. And most of all, I need someone full-time (or 2-3 people part-time) from late July through Labor Day to help fill my role at the farm--primarily covering our sales shop and winery tasting room and, if interested, could also include assisting pick-your-own customers in the blueberry fields, harvesting and packing of blueberries, and/or pruning in the spring and fall. We hire a crew of 15 or so to help with harvest, so this could be a good job for a parent/teacher person who has a kid also looking for work. You drive out to the farm together. You chat and take money and pour wine and your kid picks berries. You both finish the summer with a little extra cash in your pockets. Yeah? Let me know. I have a meeting with my family on Thursday to start planning for a harvest season that I am less a part of, so if you reach out before then, even better.
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AuthorsMagdalen Dale and Kaite Sweval grew up a layer apart, overlapping and paralleling. Belonging to the shores of Lake Superior and yet not quite belonging. Laughing and dreaming on the bench outside the ferry booth as Mag passed the time and Kaite chose her time. Left to explore as soon as they could. And then as adults returned home, perhaps to their surprise. But glad to have each other... ‘cause we know there is strength in the differences between us and comfort where we overlap. Archives
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