This Past Week

I had sad news this past week that has had me sort of "off the radar" for the last several days. I found out that a friend of mine from Decorah passed away. No news yet on what happened leading up to his death, but I have been informed that the wake and funeral will be on Friday and Saturday of this week. Although I know there's not much I can do about anything, it's certainly hard to be away from the community where all of the mourning and closure are taking place. Luckily, I got the news on my day off, so I was able to hide out, listen to music, look through old photos (trying to find one of Levi, but not succeeding), and go through a couple stages of my grief.
I've had some wonderfully caring and supportive e-mails/correspondence from you loved ones. Thank you for that.In other news: I'm still waiting to hear back about how long I'll be staying at Holden. I will either be leaving at the end of September, or the second week in November so that I can stick around to help with inventory, moving into new offices, display changes, and to take over the store for two weeks while my wonderful "boss" Steph goes home to Minnesota with her beautiful husband and kids to visit family. Either way, I should be back in the Midwest before my birthday. I'm starting to get excited to be "back in the loop" with the people I love.
(Nikki, don't read the next paragraph!)
We've been having a lot of issues with bears in the last month here at Holden. There is a mother with two young cubs, an adolescent male (the pesky-est of them all), and a mature male who have been raiding garbo, the snack bar porch, and the rubbish bins on the Lodge porches late at night, during vespers, early in the morning, and sometimes in plain daylight with people around! It's becoming a problem. There's be talk of "dealing with" the adolescent male. Most of the staff has chased him at one point or another with rocks and loud noises (in fact, I did it just 10 minutes ago all by myself!) and even though it's a very bad thing that he's become so habituated with the village, he's become a bit of a silky black mascot... our little shadow. I think it would be a little sad if he stopped coming around for visits (the garbo staff would beg to disagree, I'm sure).
The last two nights, the 20-somethings on staff have been firing up the River Sauna (out in the woods with a "plunge" that's a pool of diverted spring water from up the mountain) and going out there. Last night, we had a "DP in the VC" (that's a "dance party" in the "village center" for those of you not "down with village lingo" :) that was costume optional. Of course, that means I HAD to figure out a costume. I ended up a bit flapper-ish with a big white fur coat over a little red dress with very exciting fishnets, velvet black heels, and a hat. It always makes my night better to dance for at least two hours! Costumed? Even better!
Well, that's all for now. One of these days, I'll get my external hard drive over here to upload more pictures, but that day is not today.
I love you all. Thank you for your support in rough times AND your encouragement in happier ones.



http://www.wcfcourier.com/articles/2008/08/29/obituaries/friday/doc48b82b88a6a66821073252.txt
http://www.mwnews.net/html/obituaries.html
http://www.ruralreporter.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=12428