Ben and Jenelle DOT COM

Our vacation up north was wonderful. We went fishing, played mini-golf, learned card games, ate homemade breakfasts, rode on bike trails, and did a whole lot more, all while taking time out to relax. I think Jenelle, Jamie, Janet, Mark, and Heather all had a great time. However, there was one little thing that happened that put a damper on things.

On Saturday evening, we were headed back from dinner at Monical’s Pizza, which was only half a mile away from our cabin. I stopped the Alero in the leftmost northbound lane of highway 51, my turn signal clicking away as I waited for oncoming traffic to clear. At about 5:15 p.m., I heard screeching tires followed by a loud and jolting SLAM.

A drunk driver rear-ended us. We estimate he skidded into us at about 35 miles per hour.

Accident Photos

The great news is that none of the four people in my car were injured. We were able to get the car off the road and call the police. The other driver did not appear to be hurt, but he was definitely impaired. His car’s air bag had deployed and wouldn’t start. A bystander in a yellow shirt waved traffic around his vehicle so that no one inadvertently crashed into him.

After what seemed like forever, the police came and processed the scene. The drunk driver was taken into custody on a stretcher — more on him later.

As you can see from the photos, there were two bicycles on the back of our car at the time. After a visit to the bike shop on Sunday and the body shop on Monday, we learned that:
1) The bikes could be repaired, suprisingly, for less than their cost.
2) The Alero, though it could be driven to the body shop, was totaled because of damage to the rear of the vehicle and the exhaust system.

Another great lesson from all of this — when waiting to turn left, DO NOT TURN YOUR WHEELS until traffic has cleared. If you do this, you will be pushed into oncoming traffic if you are rear-ended, which could make a bad accident even worse.

Back to the drunk driver — as it turns out, this guy is wanted in Michigan for allegedly burning down his estranged wife’s home while his wife was away. This article and this one have some more information. Jenelle and I find it surprising that the articles do not mention how the Vilas County authorities were able to arrest the suspect. Basically, we got in his way!

So, no more Alero for us. Jenelle and I will miss it, but not too much. We’ve already replaced the vehicle, and we’re both doing just fine.

We’ve been up to plenty of things in the past month. Nothing quite compares to our trip to Hawaii, but we’re keeping busy and having fun.

For example, we celebrated our birthdays (Jenelle on June 21, me on June 26) with dinner at our favorite places. Jenelle picked Red Robin on her birthday, and I picked Tenuta’s on mine.

With the arrival of our new deck furniture, we revived our annual July 3 party (after skipping it last year). My brother and his family were in town for the holiday, and it was great to spend time with him, Holly, Ella, and Lily. I was busy during the party, so I didn’t take a whole lot of pictures, but here’s a good one that features some of our new furniture:

After the 3rd, we took some vacation days and spent an extended weekend in Oregon to visit Jenelle’s family. We celebrated the recent wedding of her oldest brother. Congrats and best wishes to Brian and Erica!

Besides that, we’re putting in our share of time at work, and we’re doing okay. I’m sure they’ll be more summer fun in the weeks ahead!

We’ve been living in our new house for about a year now! We’ve finished several projects, and more are in progress. Here’s a summary:

Outside
The lawn was a mess when me moved in — lots of clover and other weeds. We’ve now taken care of that, and we’re proceeding to patch some of the bare areas in the weeks to come. There’s still a pile of dirt in the corner of our back yard from the post holes for the fence and deck, but we think we’ve found another home for it.
Jenelle has bought a few flowers and some other plants, so the landscaping continues to improve. There’s also a tiny pine tree that I got in Oregon last October. It almost didn’t survive the winter, but it appears to be doing okay.
The deck is wonderful, and we plan to have several gatherings on it this summer. The fence is also great, and we had it stained the same shade as the deck.

The Basement
We began cleaning efforts in the basement a few weeks ago — we need to spend some more time down there one of these days. We’ll probably get it finished sometime in the next few years.

Downstairs
We’ve painted the family room and dining room, and Jenelle recently painted the kitchen a lovely green color called “Scottish Isle”. We got a new couch, “big chair”, and ottoman in the family room several months ago, and we’re on the lookout for an accent chair to add a bit more color to the room. We still love the big screen TV that Dad helped us install.
We haven’t done much to the garage, but we have lots of ideas, including insulation, a utility sink, and a major cleaning.

Upstairs
The Bonus Room doubles as an exercise room and a guest room. We had Jenelle’s parents stay there on a couple of occasions.
The second bedroom is sometimes called “Ben’s Room”, because it has all of my running stuff, all of my music stuff, and the filing cabinet.
The third bedroom has my old college futon frame in it with a new mattress. We used to keep our laundry in there until we figured out how to keep in all in the master bedroom closet.
There’s plenty of space in the master bedroom for the nice furniture we bought back when we lived in the condo. We haven’t painted in there, and there’s one settling crack in the wall above the door (not really a big deal). So, I suppose we could do some more in there.
The bathrooms are great — Jenelle installed inexpensive but efficient shower heads in both of them. They also seem to have more pressure than the old shower heads.

So, lots of accomplishments, but plenty of work still to be done. Have a great Memorial Day weekend!

It’s finally warming up in Wisconsin, and Jenelle and I are taking advantage as best we can.

Last Saturday, I started up the mower and cut the lawn for the first time this year. Jenelle was close behind with the edger. We also tried out the blower that we got for Christmas from Andrew & Holly to clean up some of the grass clippings. It works very well.

On Sunday, we had friends over for a spontaneous barbecue. This is the first “official” party we’ve had on the deck since the one we had shortly after it was completed last September. We had plenty of food, and the grill worked perfectly in the corner of our deck.

It got chilly again this week, but the weather improved just in time for this weekend! I’ll write more about the fun activities from this weekend in a future post, and I will provide an explanation for the award currently on the BenCam. 🙂

Wednesday, April 25: Happy Birthday, Janet!

This morning, I ran another marathon in Waukesha, WI. Mom, Dad, and Jenelle came to cheer me on, and they got a few photos, and they’re already up on the photos page. It was a pretty fun race which included a climb to the top of a 40-foot tower near the midpoint of the course.

And by the way, Happy Anniversary to us! We celebrated our fourth wedding anniversary on Thursday.