Mellow Yellow?

Due to road construction, there is not a direct way to get to work in Stevens Point via Plover these days. Lots of detours.

So my morning commute means I have to go south first to head to the Interstate and then head north to Point. It adds time and miles (good thing gas is cheap).

Yesterday morning there was lots of fog. And today there were pockets of it. And this weird yellowish hue to the sky. I was pretty sure there weren't any wildfires causing this. And thankfully the Internet again came through with the answer:

The glow is an atmospheric effect, a result of how the sun is filtering through particular clouds. 

There you have it. It is not the end of days or anything dramatic!

I was kind of hoping it would but me in a "mellow yellow" sort of mood today but that only lasts so far into the day at work. Ha.

Good thing I balanced it out with a nice Book Club meeting tonight. We tried out The Lantern at Bullseye Country Club. The prices were decent and so was the food. It was sparsely populated in the dining area so we actually got a quiet little table where we were free to discuss the book and not disturb anyone. Always great to see everyone and spend an evening on the banks of the Wisconsin River.

I call this one "Book Club With a View." Now that's mellow!

The Land of the Lost

I could have titled this blog "Land of the Lost" or "Somebody Moved my Cheese" and both would have been appropriate.

First, the 6:20 a.m. alarm is jarring after setting it to 7:25 a.m. to walk across the hallway and login at 7:30 a.m. for 6 weeks. Secondly, weather conditions were strange.

I feel like I was literally trying to find my way back to the office. And Mother Nature was saying, "Why? Just stay home." LOL. Wishful thinking.

My new digs. Of course it looks impressive. We happened to open it just before COVID. It's modern and also so foreign in layout that I felt everyone was quite lost finding our way around – from where to park, how to enter the building and how to set up our work station to where are the meeting rooms and what's the cafeteria like.

Summary: Confusion overpowered Productivity today.

Also our is on the 6th floor so my fear of heights/falling ramped up any time I was in a meeting or near the ground-floor indoor "courtyard" area. Uff da. I gotta buck up for the next 4 years. Feeling grateful we share a desk with someone so we're only in office every other week for this transition period!

Look up to stay positive about change. Don't look down! 😆

Building a Mist-ery

Last night was so weird. As I exited work, I could see crazy dark clouds to the north – heading south quickly. As it turned out, two neighbor friends had come up to Stevens Point to meet me for a little experiment.

We got to be treated while taking very serious participation in a "test run" of a new upscale restaurant experience. (Hey, hubby and I know our share of restaurant owners and managers! And he had golf league. His loss.) So here we are indoors and we missed the whole storm, which did end up reaching Rapids and sort of flattening my flowers – and also took down walls of the new Pizza Ranch under construction. Gasp!

The important thing is that my friends have adventurous appetites so, following their lead, I tried new things, too. For the good of the experiment.

The super delicious salad I had was just the beginning with its blueberries and toasted almonds with... kohlrabi (first time trying – new fan), white balsamic vinaigrette (this typically ranch girl is a new fan of this, too), and... goat cheese.

What the heck have I been missing for... ever? OMG. It's so good and light and creamy and wow.

To defend my lack of adventure with the goat cheese... Who among you siblings and Hedberg cousins recall when we'd visit Grandma in her apartment, she would not let us have one of those pecan cups she always made "not until you have some goat cheese."

I don't even know if we ever had to eat it. But my mind saw it as disgusting punishment. 

Oh, Grandma Minnie. Sorry I disappointed you. It's good stuff!

The rest of the dinner – off the charts. When we stepped outside it was sunny. So who knew while we were indulging that things were twisting and turning and down pouring?

The weird thing was that because the asphalt was so hot during the day with nearly 90 degrees again, the cool rain created a weird, fog-like mist to drive through on the way home to Wisconsin Rapids. Some of it was pretty thick. But we all made it home.

Today my foggy mist was my brain and body working together to remember how to golf.

First night of Ladies' League at TriCity. My friend Molly and I were shaking off the rust but had a blast because, well, what's better than golfing with a friend? It's the one thing I am not competitive in because I know my limited skill set. And I don't want pressure. Just fun.

I saved our scorecard so we can see where we go from here. We can only go up... while our score goes down, that is.

I just re-read this all and realize... there's Robyn... typical 24-hour span of life... so much. And I didn't even mention I got to King Cone for the first time in 2026 as a welcome-our-intern social after work! 

#livingthedream #ifyousayso

The Fog is Trying to Lift

My morning commute was trying so hard to display color despite the lingering winter darkness and the fog.

Naturally I realized this was the most appropriate metaphor for the past few days. My brain is foggy and mushy from two days of training and my color (aka Creativity) is trying to show through!

Pretty spot on, actually.

I was trying to do my "normal" job today and found it challenging to put words together. I guess upending how you normally do your work can cause a bit of fog. Not to mention mental and physical exhaustion.

So I am just sticking close to home tonight. Was going to shoot some pictures at school but I just don't have it in me. From what I've read about New Year's resolutions, it's a good one to realize and practice the art of saying no. 

Especially when it's a non-paying volunteer gig where someone else is capable of handling it. (Also known as: Note to self, Robyn. You don't need to be the hero here.)

So I'm going to veg a bit, maybe hook a little, then go to bed at an absurdly early time. Because I really want to. Really need to. And because I can.

Don't forget to make choices for yourself this year!

They CAN Fly!

After a day of work that felt like a week, I was not amused on my foggy, rainy commute home when two dozen turkeys in a field decided they must cross the road in front of me. So I brake and then suddenly some of them are flying to expedite the mass movement.

I immediately thought of the famous quote from a WKRP in Cincinnati episode: "As God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly." You weren't wrong. They can! They really can!

I was thankful half of them crossed in front of my car and the other half I saw crossing in my rearview mirror. Whew. Definitely don't need a collision with a flying bowling ball!

Of course, when I got home my mood lifted – as it does anytime there's an Amazon box with my name on it sitting in my office.

The long, skinny box contained my new 4-iron – to match the rest of my new blue SMOKE clubs I got last summer. I realized I needed a "long distance" iron in the rare chance I have to shoot out of the rough. (Insert eye roll here.) 

I can see now why part of the Amazon logo is a smile. They pretty consistently deliver happiness. It would be nice, though, if Mother Nature had similar branding. The overnight snow and sleet did little to expedite my first tee time of the season. 

Because it's Lent, I'll give her some grace. But even that is in short supply.

Foggy Monday Slow-Down

Today's day off consisted of a day of relaxing. Plus a little chiropractic time and some relaxing in front of a Hallmark movie. Definitely no thoughts of what we were going to give up for our new year's resolutions!

And with the dense fog, I had no important travel anywhere. 

For now. I'm gonna continue as a queen of my neighborhood, er house. And then some!

Foggy with a Chance of Photo-Worthy Clouds

Tuesday was an emotional weather day. Is there such a thing? If not, I just made it up.

First I had to deal with thick fog on my morning commute. God thankfully answered my prayer of "Please keep the deer off the road" because they're active now and I wouldn't have seen them in time to stop. I didn't want to drive on the interstate because of yield signs and road construction, but after attempting a shortcut and seeing all traffic stopped for a train, I turned around.

I haven't been this grateful to arrive at work safely since the last winter storm!

All day I was monitoring the weather because I was supposed to take senior pictures at 6 p.m. and the various apps kept saying "rain and storms start at 6 p.m." So we changed our start time to a little before 5 p.m. to "beat the rain."

Well, we definitely beat it because it skirted around us somehow. Meanwhile we suffered in high 80s heat and about 300% humidity. Uff da. Thankfully it was a boy since they usually don't have to worry about the whole humidity and hair bad combo.

As we were wrapping up, I was treated to one amazing view of the storm clouds as they passed and the setting sun was catching up to them. 

I saw this view and was like, wow, that is cool. Then I zoomed in a bit was completely awestruck...

We've got a stormy sea with that peek into sunny skies in the middle. Wow. Just the coolest thing to capture!!

When I got home, we still had kick-ass cloud views, but nothing like that quick moment that I snapped before it moved on. Still... very cool. Thanks, God.

Speaking of photographers... I have still been pretty much bonding with Mr. Recliner and watching the Olympics. Gymnastics is pretty much my summer fave so I HAD to see those girls capture gold last night. Well, me along with all these photographers – and millions of viewers. Go team USA!!

Hope you're finding some photo-worthy moments in your life this week. Even if they're just nice moments with no cameras in sight!

Rudolph, With Your Nose So Bright...

Props to Dwight for nailing our Christmas Eve and Day weather. We definitely needed Rudolph – in the traditional sense, not the practical one.

First of all it was a brown Christmas (including branches from a newly cut down dead ash tree), which was fine with us since we had traveling family. Then, it was misty and foggy on the way to and from our 4 o'clock choir gigs at church yesterday. Thankfully, Carter and Mamie made it safely from North Carolina to Blue Jay Drive before we were done! Had a great Christmas Eve with the long-distance kids plus Clay (who brought us fresh-smoked meat off his grill) and Becca.

Despite our close but not good enough game earlier in the day, Jim and I found one way to cheer up Vikings fans...

While daughter-in-law Emily opened her gift in Portland, Oregon, Mamie and Becca opened theirs here.

All smiles over Austin's Pour House jackets with their names embroidered! 

Now we all have one! 💜

And I have an appropriate hat and glass and sticker with our die-hard theme: SOMEDAY! Just one Super Bowl win before we die!

Even though the girl got great gifts, we can't overlook the brothers who brought them into our lives! 💜

By the time Clay and Becca headed home, we reached the high for the day. 50 on Christmas Eve!

And this was today by noon. This is not a usual Christmas temp in Wisconsin. Don't call me a Scrooge or Grinch, but some of us are OK with that! And now it's a steady rain. But the furthest I have to travel is from my bed to my Hallmark movie-watching recliner.

Hope you had a Merry Christmas with your favorites!!

The Good, The Bad, and The Foggy

THE GOOD: My Vikings pulled off a win last night against the 5-1  San Fransisco 49ers. And Cousins was on fire.

THE BAD: I needed 70 fantasy football points from him to maintain my undefeated status in our fantasy football league at work. In the end, I got 21.02 points. A solid outing any other week when I wasn't getting knocked off my perfect season pedestal. Still, I'll take the REAL win over fantasy any day.

Also the bad, maybe. We had thunder, lightning, and hail in the middle of the night. As far as we know, the hail didn't damage anything. But our trees were greeting the morning sun naked. Just kidding, there was no sun today! Just rain.

THE FOGGY: When I got out of work, all the car windows in my level of the parking garage were fogged up. Yes, I've been driving for decades but I always forget the best way to de-fog the windows so I could get out of there. The answer is pretty much put your defrosts on high.

And tonight the foggy was settling on the front property. Maybe you can't tell. But as I type, it's already thundering and raining again. 

All I can say is I will take any and all of these any day over snow and ice and freezing temps. Yeah, let's not talk about that. Almost time to watch The Voice!

USSO :: Day Three

The poor air quality could do nothing to dampen my spirits today on day 2 of practice rounds – and my birthday! 

Of course, my day was made early when I got a picture with superstar hockey player Joe Pavelski! He went to school in Stevens Point and has played SentryWorld. And recently had a crazy amazing season for Dallas! Lucky me!

Of course it was also great to see our friend Rob from Wisconsin Golf in the media center. I think hubby owes him a round at TriCity yet this summer.

Since it was still practice today, I could take some more action pictures with my good camera. Caught a few of the legends I missed yesterday.

David Toms.

Oh and a few more stogies today, too!

Ken Tanigawa.

Finally got to see Vijay Singh in action, too!! 

Driving range was busy all day.

Got to see Colin Montgomerie again today.

You can see a bit of the hazy sky here.

Miguel Angel Jiménez briefly but down the cigar to shoot.

Not the second shot, though!

Right before my volunteer shift started, my cousin Laryn brought over our cousin Leonard Johnson, whoI had no idea lived up the road in Marshfield all these years!

And the star of the day was our friendly fox. First he was sunning himself.

Then after one group teed off, He went to investigate the ball on the fairway.

Well that's one way to move your ball further down the fairway! 

He dropped it out of his mouth.

Pondered playing soccer with it.

Then moved on.

Ted Tryba and his caddy couldn't believe what they just saw!

The picture with the ball in the mouth went a little viral today. I couldn't resist sharing it everywhere!

Kenny Perry teeing off.

And Tom Lehman!

Still didn't get pictures of a few others, but now competition starts tomorrow so my phone will have to do.

Got home and Jim took us down to The Lure to celebrate my birthday. Yummy dinner as always!

Couldn't believe with this haze that we could barely see the other side of the lake!

Stopped at Sand Valley to show Laryn and Lydell those unique courses.

Was hazy there, too. But you know what? I was OK with it. It was a pretty special birthday all around! 

Thanks for all the special wishes and heartfelt messages. Love you all!