Message Forum

Thanks, Nancy. I gave up the free upgrade to a newer (large) phone to the kids. With my luck probably tomorrow the battery will fail on my old phone or some of the apps will stop working. I really do find my phone useful for many things. It does take excellent photos andI'm even using it at the store to pay for things. I don't think I could've survived moving to Los Angeles without the GPS to get me around this very complicated city. I pretty much stay within 5-10 miles of my own little neighborhood of Mount Washington, and the GPS has taught me how to get to my doctor's appointments and shopping places without taking the freeways.

12/10/25 08:23 AM

#3658

Oh, yes, traffic in a "complicated city". Having lived many years in Chicago suburbs, we got fairly good at that. But, that was then and this is now. Eyesight and reflexes not what they were, so we also avoid cities and freeways. Unfortunately, yesterday we were messing around with a fresh snowfall to get out of Traverse City, which is across the state from us. Happily, we made it home before dark without hitting any deer, and a neighbor had ploughed our driveway so we were able to get in.

Karsten had a total shoulder replacement yesterday to replace damage done by a killer tennis serve. Unfortunately, when you chose to "get away from it all" and live in the woods near the water, you have also gotten away from all the best doctors. Almost every shoulder, hip, or knee replacement in the area has been implanted elsewhere.

Nurse Ratchett on the way out now to shovel the walk. Settling in for a quiet day and what looks like the "hard winter" that had been predicted.

12/10/25 05:41 PM

#3659

Ladies - Remember those "Mr. Yuck" stickers that we got to put on pill bottles and such to protect our kids? To me, that's what those little "scan this" stickers are now. Down here, my wife goes into a dentist office and there's a screen to "scan this" to check in. How about just walking up to the desk and saying "I'm here"? We had to get a different car a couple weeks ago. Sign here and here, and scan this - which down loads an app, and the user's manuals onto your phone. 800 pages of manuals, on my phone! Like I'm going to flip through hundreds of pages on the little phone to find out what this or that button does. Moot point though, I have no idea where they ended up amongst all those app things.

Or, it goes the other way. Today, in WalMart, they had boxes of goodies for stocking stuffers. Many of them had no bar codes or pricing info, and they weren't in the checkout clerks reference file. People would walk up with them and they couldn't check them out. No sale.

Nancy, thought of you the other day on your last post. How you handle it up there "up nort." Living in California and parts of the south have removed any ccld tolerance from my old body. I haven't worn shorts yet in Florida, and today I was freezing just walking past the open cheese and lunch meat counters in WalMart.

12/11/25 12:00 PM

#3660

Yes Jim, you might have been one of those Floridians we've seen all wrapped up in January as if it were cold. If there's little wind and no precipitation, we don't even think of a warm jacket until it's nearly freezing. Add in a little sunshine, and it feels almost balmy until we get into the 20's. Must admit, though, that we're not as hardy as we used to be.

12/11/25 03:13 PM

#3661

Talking about new tecnology. How about the Apple Watch. Hard to get use to answering phone calls on the watch and talking to my wrist. Gives me messages like you need more activity. Then be carefull your not very steady on your feet. I guess with the activity part going from the couch to the refrigerator isn't going to do it. With alll the interest in the weather just push the button on my watch and it tells me it is 84 outside of my Simi Valley home. Not going to Wisconsin for Christmas. No direct connection from LAX and too many things to. deal with that time of the year. Talking about phones. I use my I phone alot. Usually the battery needs to be charged during the day. Much of the time is on Facebook selling stuff.

12/11/25 05:52 PM

#3662

And Ron, do you feel as old as I did when I told our grand daughter that when we read Dick Tracy comics and saw them talking to someone on their watches, we thought that was unbelieveable?

12/12/25 01:15 PM

#3663

Ron, l When I first wore my Apple Watch, I didn't know you could get phone calls on them. I was walking down the hallway when it started buzzing. I pushed the green button And I couldn't believe it was my sister calling me! I felt like a character out of Get Smart - except he talked into his shoe, I believe. But the watch is good because it keeps me motivated to get in my steps, especially when my grandson asks me if I closed my rings today.

12/13/25 07:04 PM

#3664

Hey, I got one of those new watches last year. My old one had hands that pointed to the time, my new one actually shows the time in numbers.

12/17/25 09:21 PM

#3665

My watch has Minnie Mouse with her hands pointing to the numbers. When you press it she announces the time in her Minnie voice. My grandkids love "touching Minnie". So much that I can use it as a reward!

12/25/25 06:48 PM

#3666

And a Merry Christmas to you all!

12/26/25 12:58 PM

#3667

Thanks, Jim! I hope everyone's being warm and cozy Is having a nice relaxing Christmas!

12/26/25 01:17 PM

#3668

Garry Sellers

Wasn’t there an important birthday that some of us may have overlooked yesterday, the 25th? 🤔Oh jawohl — it vas Herr Karsten Boerger’s birthday! Our fearless trailblazer when it comes to the art of aging gracefully. How could we forget?

Nachträglich alles Gute zum Geburtstag, Karsten! 🎉
You don’t look a day older than… ummm… Methuselah. 😄

Seriously though, I’ve always felt a little sorry for people born around Christmas. You know they grew up opening gifts labeled, “This is for Christmas and your birthday.” My only remaining sibling out of nine, my sister in Eagle River, has her birthday today—the 26th. My wife’s is on the 31st, so she gets w triple whammy!

On the bright side, their birthdays are rarely forgotten… they’re just never allowed to stand alone! 😆

12/26/25 03:50 PM

#3669

I purchased a Chevy Equinox EV. It's pretty slick. Seat vibrates if in reverse and anything moving on the side or back. Brake comes on if I get to close. Pretty much the same for the front. I have solar panels on my roof. My electric meter is has three different rates . So when charging 10 pm to 6am at lowest rate. Works out to about 34 cents to 35 miles . So with solar panels can get all electric I need to charge the car. That is like buying the gas pump at gas station then getting all the gas you want for nothing. That is why a electric car makes a lot of sense to me.

12/27/25 10:51 AM

#3670

Karsten Boerger

Karsten's personal secreatary taking dictation:

Many thanks for wishing me a happy birthday, celebrating my 84th, the oldest in the '62 class. This Christmas could have been a bit better. After 65 years of tennis, I've just had a total shoulder replacement, which makes one chairbound for most of the day. We're always happy to hear from you, and thank you for maintaining this web page. Viele Gruesse, Karsten.

12/27/25 02:39 PM

#3671

Ron, I also bought an EV - a used Nisssan Leaf - a few years ago and it's been perfect! Doesn't have all your advanced technology, but it does have a backup camera. With solar panels on the roof of my house, very little cost. It is old, so doesn't have a big range, but it gets me to where I need to go, and I just plug it in when I get home. And - What's a gas station? When I was using my sister's gas-powered car, I almost had forgotten how to use the pump! I will have to replace that Very Expensive Battery soon, but around now, I might have been looking to get a new car anyway. This one will go on forever! I have to take it in once in awhile to get the brakes checked, and they kindly fill the window washer fluid for me, and take a look at the wiper blades and tire treads. I can see how the auto mechanics might be dreading an increase in EVs! AND Happy belated birthday, Karsten. Best wishes for your shoulder recovery!

12/30/25 05:56 PM

#3672

Trying to think of what to bring for the New Year Eve's party. Guess I will go with Wisconsin Sushi. A slice of deli ham sladered in cream cheese, wrapped around a dill pickle, cut into bite size pieces and held together with toothpicks. As a backup makings for a cannibal sandwich. Small slices of rye bread, sliced onions and raw ground round. To top it off a jar of pickled herring with some crackers.

12/31/25 08:17 PM

#3673

Garry,

Are you now admitting (bragging) that you wear diapers? (TMI)

And Happy New Year folks.

01/01/26 09:42 AM

#3674

Garry Sellers

You know Jim, that scene was meant to be a joke on the New Year's baby but then I thought ... for some of our classmates it might not be so funny. And the last thing I want to do is make anybody feel self conscious about things they had no vote on! So the best I can do is say ... Wishing you strength for the hard days, joy where it finds you, and new adventures ahead in the year to come.

01/01/26 08:54 PM

#3675

Garry, that all Depends.

01/03/26 12:08 AM

#3676

Oh Ron! I could just taste that New Year's Eve meal from the ground beef and onions on rye to the herring on a cracker. My parents insisted that everybody eat the herring for good luck, And I gagged it down as long as I was living at home, and as soon I was on my own, I was glad to stop - especially having noted that it didn't bring me any good luck at all! But my siblings still eat the herring on New Year's Eve, and feel something horrible is going to happen to me because I don't.

01/04/26 08:20 AM

#3677

Hi Terri,

About the herring....I hear you. Karsten loves it, all year. I can't imagine how close to starvation I would have to be before eating it. He also loves to go to Hamburg in spring and eat Matches, which is "virgin" herring, raw. Blecccccch!

Raw beef and onions slightly less objectionalbe, and always available at a little butcher shop 23 miles north of us in Rogers City. Polish, as are so many in that area, which is just north of Posen (great Potato Festival there in fall). I do remember that in the 60's, a wedding reception in Milwaukee wasn't complete without raw beef and onions.

Big difference in taste to what I grew up on.....lots of peanut butter. Some Europeans seem to feel about peanut butter the way we feel about Vegemite. Another item is corn, which Karsten now loves in season. His grandfather called it "swine fudder", or pig food, which is what corn was in Germany. That's because they don't have that tender, sweet, drenched in butter, Midwest corn on the cob we look forward to every year. Sad for them.

On the other hand, go to Germany in spring for the fattest, sweetest white asparagus ( "spargel" ) you've ever tasted.

Every place has its specialty, and to everything there is a season.

01/04/26 03:42 PM

#3678

OK class gor-mets, at least none of this is making me hungry reading it.

Fortunately, herring was never a tradition in our family, so I was spared that. And you're right Nancy, I don't think you could even get a marriage license in Milwaukee then if you didn't have raw beef and onions on the menu. And, it was raw beef and onions, not "cannibal sandwiches." And Terri, did you ever try to serve raw beef and onions to anyone in California, that wasn't from Wisconsin? No matter what you called it, you were the "cannibal," in the land that has raw sushi bars on every corner.

I was spared the herring, but our family did have friends and relatives that were into Norwegian " Lutefisk." That had all the attributes of herring, plus an odor that could peel paint off the walls. It was usually, literally, given a room by itself. Fortunately, it wasn't a steeped tradition, so participation was voluntary. (And, it didn't deter my son from moving to Norway.)

Pheeew (x2).

01/05/26 02:11 PM

#3679

Nancy, speaking of corn reminds me of a funny experience. I grew up eating delicious sweet corn - in those childhood days, we had people coming to the door with things: the Fuller Brush man, the Avon lady, the ice man, and not to mention the all-important milkman. We also had Harold the egg man, who brought lovely fresh produce from his farm in season, Including sweet corn right off the stalk.. So when I moved to my first apartment on my own, it was right next to a huge cornfield. As soon as the corn was ready, I staged a nighttime raid, and came home with a bag full of corn. But after cooking my ill-gotten harvest, I realized there are two kinds of corn: Corn for people and corn for the animals. I had picked the latter.

01/06/26 01:27 AM

#3680

Terri, When I was a kid my cousin's and I use to do a little "nighttime raiding" only we called it "cooning". Usually what ever we could get out somebody's garden and apple trees.

01/06/26 12:50 PM

#3681