SB

 I've been thinking of Suzie a lot over the past few days as I was deciding whether I wanted to fire up the Fantasy Football group I have run for the past 13 years.  Suzie loved being part of that group and she made it more fun for me too.  So,  in her memory,  we are continuing with the group.

Today,  her life story is in The Denver Post.  It makes me miss her even more, it is a nicely written piece.

♥️♥️

1-800 JUNK & The Rest of the Story

 What is this?  Who knows.  Dad knew. 

It was a piece of equipment that he used somewhere along the way in his 70 years cabinetry work.  I am guessing this is about 60 years old, or more.  Maybe it glues the edge on a countertop?  Or something.  It has a motor, a gear box, and all manner of cranks for adjusting the big rubber wheels.

For me it is a big piece of junk taking up room in my garage.  I contacted a Junk man and he is coming on Sunday to haul this off, a couple of old saws of Dad's and an old recliner.  $55, a bargain for sure!

Maybe I'll be inspired to clean up the garage after he hauls off this stuff.  I started today and filled the trash can so that is a good beginning.

I sent this photo to Glenn, told him I hoped he wasn't mad I was getting rid of it.  He asked me what it was and I said I thought it would make a good boat anchor.  I think we will let the Junk Man have it.

Update:  After talking about this piece of machinery with Glenn, Kathy & Andy, Andy suggested that I take a photo of the plate with model number and then we could have Google help us figure out what the machine's purpose might be. 

Goggle gave us a photo of a similar machine in action.  For a small cabinet making shop, this is an excellent addition to help feed lumber stock through a table saw.  No doubt, Dad used it often as he had his own shop for many years.

On Sunday morning, Chuck from Chuck's Greener Junk came to pick up my unwanted items, including this heavy piece of equipment.  He asked me what it was and I gave him the condensed version of the story.

As we chatted, he told me that he lives in Milltown and his helper offered that he lives in Luck Township but has a Frederic address.  I told them that I grew up in Luck and that my Dad had a church furniture factory in Milltown until the early 1960's when it burned to the ground.  I said that this piece of equipment might have even come from that factory in Milltown.  I explained to Chuck where the factory had been located and explained that there was still a cement pad where the building once stood.

Chuck said that it was a full circle trip for the machine.

Later on, I got a text from Chuck with this photo.

This is the cement pad, just East of downtown Milltown, where Indianhead Wood Products once operated under the ownership of Valdemar Johansen.

I guess that is The Rest of the Story.

Football & Farmers

 Football pre-season has begun.  Last night the Denver Broncos played. Suzie would have been texting me throughout the game and after. It won't be much fun this year, but I'm grateful for all the years of friendship that we had. 

♥️♥️♥️

I went to the Rice Lake farmers market this morning.  Sweet corn,  tomatoes,  new potatoes,  Amish-made egg noodles & mini loaf of bread and a photo of these two beauties.

Goldy & Chief. 

I asked permission before taking this photo.  I respect the life choices that these folks have made.   They don't seem to judge the non-Amish, but I'm not sure that it goes both ways. 

SB

 It's really hard to lose a friend, and I feel, it gets harder, as I get older.  People who have been important friends in my life are getting older. Over the past couple of years,  I have said sad goodbyes to several close pals.  

Suzie and Dave were friends I met working at Coors. Dave was in Research  & Development.  His wife Suzie was a teacher. They loved cats, maybe more than I do.  

Until we all retired, I only knew Suzie from a few company gatherings.  After we were retired, and a few of us gathered for lunch a few times, I could see that Suzie and I had lots in common.

Once I moved to Wisconsin, we kept in touch over the occasional email.  DB & SB even came to Rice Lake to visit me for an afternoon.  Not many have made that trek, and understandably so.

Suzie and I started emailing more and more frequently, often times, we shared a daily exchange about our day, politics, sewing, cats, food, flowers, birds, beer, more politics, you name it.

I think, about 6 years ago, Suzie was diagnosed with a rare lung disease and endured many IV medications, nebulizers, respiratory therapy treatments.  In the end, she had to use supplemental oxygen full-time.  The disease was determined to be progressive. Suzie tried hard to stay strong through exercise & many appointments with medical personnel.

During the Covid lockdown we started adding the occasional Zoom live chat.  It was fun to see them & their cats. It was not fun to see how Suzie struggled for each breath, even while breathing oxygen.

One year ago, after getting through Covid, both SB & DB ended up with bad upper respiratory distress and were hospitalized.  I'm not sure of everything that happened,  but David passed away, as a result of medical malpractice, on 9/1/2022. 

Suzie carried on.  Over the last 11 months, she has been hospitalized several times and rebounded each time. Living alone in Conifer was not easy but with the help of neighbors, friends and DB' s sister, she managed.  She loved being home with her two siamese cats.  She tried to do Silver Sneakers exercise classes at home to keep up her strength. Home assistants were hired to help with housekeeping & cooking.

Suzie and I were still emailing often but we also added texting everyday to check in on each other.  During football season, Suzie was an avid Bronco fan, but kept up on NFL league news and she kept me tuned in.  When she had to spend some rehab time at her SIL's house, it was not good, only HULU for TV, no sports. It was torture for SB.

When the Denver Nuggets made a run at the NBA championship, we 'watched' every game together, texting all through each game, often times into the wee hours!  

Suzie would text me about watching all manner of sports, men's, women's, football,  baseball, basketball, golf, LaCrosse,  soccer...you name it.

I think she loved her Denver Broncos the most.  She would forward the latest Woody Paige article to me to read. I wasn't always interested in the minutiae of the team, but I would skim so that I was up on the latest.

My last Zoom with Suzie was about sewing, the cats and what was happening with a coaching change for the Denver Broncos.

Recently, Suzie had a set back with her oxygen and landed back in the hospital.  It was an emotional rollercoaster as she graduated to rehab and then was taken by ambulance back to the hospital and ended up intubated.  I feared the worst, but then she rallied again and was weaned off the ventilator.  Her body was frail, she had lost the little bit of weight that she had.  Her strength was gone.

She knew she was in trouble. She told me that the pulmonologist did not give her much hope. She was too frail to be considered for a lung transplant, which might have been considered on a patient with fewer risk factors.

One night she sent me a text saying she hoped she lived long enough to tell me about the latest stay in the hospital.  But, sadly, she did not.

Saturday, I got a call from Sharon, also very good friends with DB & SB, to tell me that Suzie was gone.  

This email came soon after.

Rest in peace Suzie. 

I like to think you are back together with David 

&

 gathering up all those cats that you loved so well.

 I'm grateful for our 15 years of dear friendship.

We clicked.

I miss you SB & DB.

❤