Mini Family Reunion
This weekend my Mom and Dad had visitors from Arizona...my Auntie Alice and four of my cousins. We collected for dinner and had a great visit. The cousins wanted to tour areas here in Northern Illinois where they had lived and where other family members lived, like our grandparents who had a couple of farm houses.
My cousins Cathy and Tom and their spouses arranged a mini family reunion on Sunday at cousin Robin's condo party room and ...WOW...45 people showed up including twelve of the twenty-eight cousins of my generation. Now that's alotta cousins! My grandma and grandpa had 12 kids so that explains it. Here's the group!
I wish my kids, grandkids and great-grandkids could have been there so I could brag and so we could see who looks like who. That's the really fun thing at reunions along with catching up on the lives of people you've lost touch with. It's a nice family and the Arizona contingent was honored to have so many people there.
In other news: Jim somehow strained his right arm on Friday and can't lift it above his waist...although by now it's getting a bit better. Our Dr. Steve in Montana referred us to a kinesiology chiropractor in Harvey, Illinos who called Jim, gave him some pressure points to massage and a supplement to take. Both seem to be helping and we'll see that fellow tomorrow. (a 75 mile drive). Well it's amazing what you can't do with your right arm out of commission...including driving.
Thus our move out of Illinois Beach is delayed. I had to go give a sob story to the ranger this morning so we could extend our stay past the 14 day limit. I didn't want Jim to further irritate his arm by packing it in an moving. However, we must move on Wednesday and, if necessary, I'll do the driving.
On Sunday mornng we did need to dump the tanks so I did most of the heavy stuff and drove us over there. When we reparked and started up the satellite, the automatic GPS would not lock on so the satellite dish would not go up. After several phone consultations with technicians they determined that the battery in the controller board is shot; it is welded in so we need a whole new board now on order. There is a way to bypass the auto GPS locator but for whatever reason it did not work.
However....came home from shopping and doing laundry tonight and the system had updated itself so that we could access the manual GPS and raise the dish...so we got on the computer just in time for a tornado warning and had to put it down. Now the storm has passed so here I am. Looks like we lucked out again. No hail, no 70 mile winds. Good thing because where do you go for safety in a motorhome? :) The weather radio is quiet, the weather radar is clearing...so one last glass of wine and off to sleep.