To a good man at a bad time

My father in law, Don Thurston, is dying and now that I've written it, it looks worse in print than in my head. Carolie has gone back East to be with him and her family.

If there was ever a guy who deserved a healthy -- and long -- retirement, it was Don Thurston. But it was not meant to be. Instead he got Parkinson's. Mysterious ways? Yeah, I've got your mysterious ways right here.

The boys and I are back in flyover country, waiting for a call that has no choice but to come. In the meantime, the only thing I could do early this morning was the only thing I know to do.



The original (slightly bigger) version can be found here. You can also look at it in full screen, although the movement and loading degrades when viewed in full screen.

Update 10/6/09 - Don died this morning.

An afternoon at the Arboretum

We went to the University of Minnesota Landscape Arboretum (we're members) last spring and I got some ideas for the gardens. Lots of purple and lots of petunias this year. How did it work out? Not so good. Lots of slugs. Not much grew except for the perennial garden.

So today -- Labor Day -- we went for our late summer/fall visit. The Arboretum had a better year, I guess. For the slideshow below, I recommend the full screen version. Just click the icon with the four arrows on the bottom right. Hit play and the rest will display automatically.