Kitchens, Kitchens, and More Kitchens (Again?)

If you have the opportunity to build a new house from the ground up because you think it would be a marvelous bucket list item checked off your list, then by all means do your homework and forge ahead. I should know. I spent many years working with a group of volunteers to build a church and it was a blessing to the congregation. Just two months after the church was dedicated my dear wife had the brilliant idea to sell our completely renovated home and purchase a delightfully sad fixer-upper because I had all this building experience and she wanted a new challenge. Sadly, she caught me in a moment of weakness as I still had "build a house" on my bucket list and this was likely as close as I would get to doing that. So for the next six or seven years we toiled away in heat and cold, pulling out floors and ceilings, moving walls and windows and doors, putting all our spare time into that complete renovation. When it was all done we both agreed we would never do that again. Once was enough.

Lincoln Church Project

My father seemed to have been bitten by the building bug more times than me. Building his first small home at sixteen, it gave him the down payment for his first family home. By my count he worked on fourteen projects in his lifetime, and from what I could see he loved every minute of it. Of that list of fourteen, two of them were church projects and the rest were homes. I worked with him enough that some of that interest and desire were transferred to me, at least enough to dip my feet into the building project water. Dad was swimming out in the deep end. While I hoped to get my chance at a project or two, I never had any desire to better his record.

The Fully Renovated Mayfair House

Though dad had me putting in the electrical system of a house at fourteen years of age, I really did not get involved much in my early years. After marriage we lived in a couple apartments, then a mobile home, and then a church parsonage. Since none of those belonged to us there were no renovations allowed. I remember being told at our second apartment that we couldn't even put nails in the wall. Kathy said, "Are they insane?" and proceeded to hang up all her wall decorations with nails. When we moved out I carefully pulled out the nails and filled the holes as though the nails were never there. And yes, we got our deposit back. We did some painting and minor repairs in the parsonage but there wasn't a budget for major renovation. 

I would have to say that kitchens played a very small part in my daily life. Both of those apartment had alley kitchens where you walk into the kitchen from one end and run into a wall at the other end. Neither of them could have been over eight feet in length, with cabinets and appliances on both sides of that walkway. Everything crammed into one tiny space. The mobile home kitchen was even smaller with everything plastered against one wall and a small peninsula to guide people into it. I couldn't find even one photo of those three kitchen, hence my statement that they didn't much affect my life. Kathy, on the other hand, would probably say she's the one who spends the most time in a kitchen and therefore was greatly affected by the details of each kitchen. However, she was unable to change them in any significant way so she just did all those kitchen things in silence. That was destined to change.

Warren Kitchen (realtor.com)

We made the upgrade to an actual home when we moved to Warren, Illinos. The house was a bit run down so we did some cosmetic projects. I do remember that my wife wanted to get her hands on that kitchen, wanting to paint the dreary wood cabinets and replace the carpeted floor, maybe even get some nicer appliances. But I put the kibosh on that as neither us or the church was in a position to put much money into the house since it was the church parsonate. I liked the look of the wood and thought it a heresy to paint over it. In hindsight, anything would have been an improvement, no matter how small.

Ophir Kitchen

It was in Lincoln, Illinois, that we got the chance to purchase our own home, twelve years after we were married. I was in my mid-thirties and by this time Kathy had seen far too many HGTV home fixer-upper shows and was chomping at the bit to make this home her own. This two story house had four bedrooms, which was the main criteria for our family that time around. Every room was painted a different color. We had the house sided while I built a front porch and a side porch. We added central heat and A/C. We gutted the main bathroom and replaced everything because Kathy saw a leak and was sure the tub was going to fall into the living room. We gutted the main floor half-bath and made it cute because ... Kathy. The last thing we touched was the kitchen and it was here we disagreed. She wanted to put in an entire new kitchen and I didn't, because I'm an Andreasen and I'm cheap. So we compromised of a sort. I took out all the cabinets, rearranged them in a different layout, added a couple more to finish the new layout, and added a peninsula. This would be the first time I incorporated land masses into my kitchen renovation projects. Add a new laminate countertop, a new KitchenAid dishwasher, new sink and faucet, and new carpet and we had a new kitchen! Kathy was not amused, however, and began to plot building her dream kitchen.

Kitchen at Lincoln Church

Overlapping with some of this was the start of the church building project, which began in 1996 and concluded in the fall of 2003. It was a good thing I did more of the home projects in the early years of Lincoln before starting the church, as it would be tougher once that building project began. When it came time to plan the kitchen project of thge church, Kathy volunteered to help get that one going. She went along to the kitchen place and helped work with the plans. We called this the "Noah's Ark" kitchen because it had two of everything: two sinks, two refrigerators, two dishwashers, two ovens, and two vent hoods. The cabinets were made of hickory and had a unique look. We put it pantries, glass front cabinet doors, and crown molding. I would learn years later how she disliked builder grade cabinets, both the style and color. I did not catch on very quickly to that early tidbit of knowledge, and that would come back to haunt me in the years to come. There was also wallpaper and border to be hung on the walls, a feature that would fall out of favor within a decade. This was also something we would learn, that fads come and go but it's better to stick with the classics.

Mayfair Kitchen

When the church building was completed, we sold our completed two story house and purchased a sad little ranch on the corner of Mayfair Subdivision and so began our own spare-time project. I tried to salvage as much of the house as possible. But as time went on we saw that this would need to be a total gutting to the studs and a rebuild. Nowhere was that more evident than in the kitchen, if you could call it that. Kathy was on a euphoric high as she gleefully planned for her new kitchen. First off was moving the furnace and water heater from the kitchen to another location. Then she wanted the window moved a little to the right. Then she wanted a new door exiting to the back yard. Then she wanted a wall removed. This was going to be her dream kitchen because we'd be in this house a long time! 

If she had seen it somewhere on HGTV it found its way into our kitchen. Stained solid oak wood floors. White-washed solid maple cabinets. Different heights on the upper cabinets. Decorative crown molding at the top of the cabinets. Glass in a few doors. A tile backsplash for the first time (placed on the diagonal—grrrrrr). A baking center. Under counter lighting. A moveable island. A peninsula area for baking. Hanging pendant lights over the peninsula. Trash basket in a base cabinet. A pantry. A sink bump-out. A spice rack. A tray cabinet. A double-oven range. Wood panels surrounding the refrigerator. A wood-look laminate countertop. I'm sure I missed a few things but she had everything in there but the kitchen sink. Oh wait, she had that too, and it was a white enameled sink. But this was the first and last kitchen we would ever do, she told me. So we did it up right. She enjoyed it for few years, hosting friends and a number of Christmas parties. But this was not the last kitchen we would ever do.

Rockford Kitchen

The day we left Lincoln was the day she realized she was losing her dream kitchen forever. Either that, or it was the day she began to figure out how she could get another one. When we moved to Rockford we looked at dozens of houses but finally found one that checked off most of our boxes, and we bought it. The main criteria here was "three car garage" and this one had them. It was here I heard those dreaded words, "builder-grade kitchen," only this time she assigned a color to it. For some reason she thought it looked "orange" and she did not like the look of all the "orange" wood in the house, which included all the doors and the trim. However, this was the first time I had nice wood doors and wood trim and I liked it so I fought to keep it, because I'm an Andreasen and I'm cheap. But I felt bad for her losing her dream kitchen so I said I would give her a new kitchen. This time it was painted white cabinets, but in two colors. Creamy white on the uppers and gray on the base cabinets. HGTV of course. Glass doors again, but with burlap in the glass. Fancy door pulls of varying sizes that she just LOVED! Many of the same features as before, but the main difference being the Corian countertop and the Corian molded in sink. Same white appliances. Brazilian cherry wood floor. It was smaller but very nice. We would be in Rockford for many years and she was thrilled to have another new kitchen. And then she didn't.

Hiram Kitchen

We were there in Georgia, visiting our oldest son and his wife, when we found out we would be grandparents of twins, this with a two-year-old already. Three girls in two-and-a-half years. They would need help. We decided to move to Atlanta and pick up some of the slack. Remind me of us never moving again? But here we were, moving across the country. We found a home we could afford in Hiram, but it also had the dreaded "orange" builder-grade kitchen cabinets with the additional horror of "orange" oak floors. Did we really need to do another kitchen? Was it really necessary? Not to me it wasn't. But Kathy assured me this would be the very last kitchen we would ever need to do. I was not convinced, however, so I hedged my bet. I said I would put in another kitchen if I got to make some of the choices, and they would be based on price. I found an online supplier of kitchen cabinets and discovered the style and color of the cheapest cabinets, which happened to be white painted Shaker-style cabinets. Cheapest appliances were stainless steel and I found the bargain brand and models. She said over her dead body since stainless steel showed fingerprints. I introduced her to Smudge Proof Stainless Steel and death was averted. Believe it or not, we found an inexpensive granite we both liked and it was cheaper than laminate. I always wanted to have granite. We put down tile on the floor since we were on a concrete slab and it was the cheapest option, plus we'd had so many leaks onto the wood floors in the past that we wanted the protection of tile. We got cheap cabinet handles at IKEA. Plain subway tile at Menards. She wanted a barn door and I built it myself from an old door. This was the least money we ever spent on a new kitchen and yet it was as nice as any before it. It's a good thing because we would be in this house forever, right? She was never going to move again, right? Well, not quite. Sometimes life has a way of changing when you least expect it.

I think the new kitchen will be off to the left!

Kathy and I not only felt the need to downsize when we came to Hiram, but increasingly began to think of doing so for the future. We had started downsizing even more so that our kids wouldn't have to deal with so much of our stuff after we were gone. Yes, that may seem somewhat morbid, but it's a reality we all have to deal with. Or at least our kids will have to deal with it. So me, and Kathy, and Jonathan, and Myric came up with a plan to sell both our homes and move into one large house enough for all of us. This would address some of their space needs with three girls, and give us a landing place that we hoped would keep us in one place for years to come. But, of course, it means we would be doing another kitchen when we finished off the basement as the place for us to live. 

So there's another project that awaits. According to my calculations, this will be the seventh overall project to this point. That's just half of my dad's totals, but still more than I expected there to be. Will this one really be our last? We know better than to voice that question ever again!

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New Kitchen in the Basement Apartment

Edit: Though this blog was originally posted a couple of months before closing on the new house and nine months before finishing the basement, I wanted to add in the new kitchen photo here so you could see it and compare it to those kitchens that precede it. It was most similar to the kitchen we had just left and was planned in much the same way as that one. The main difference was the addition of a large island (there's those pesky land masses again) as a place where the three little girls could gather and sit when visiting with grandma. This time she found a new material to use for the countertop, a quartzite that grabbed her attention. "Because she could" if you recall her mantra. She has had Laminate, Corian, Granite, and now Quartzite as her choice for a counter she could live with. Some of the other options were either not the best material for a kitchen counter or were very high maintenance materials. More details of this build are in the "Starting All Over Again" series on the new home build. We finished this kitchen in March of 2020 just as COVID was becoming a household name. 

Arktander

(aka David Andreasen)

Not That Impossible (You've Got To Be Kidding!)

An article this past week caught my eye because the words "Burger," "King," and "Whopper" were in the title, though I'm not sure they were in exactly that order. My memories floated back to the final year of college when Kathy and I were engaged. Since there were certain meals from the cafeteria that weren't our favorite—and we were never brave enough to actually put the "mystery meat" into our mouth—we often made a quick run to Burger King to each get a Whopper. We could get two of them for ninety-nine cents, or a dollar and five cents with tax. Now that was a cheap date. And it wouldn't be just a regular Whopper. Oh no, we ordered it up as "heavy everything" which meant they added a double helping of mayonnaise, lettuce, tomato, pickles, ketchup, and sliced onion. All of that extra goodness, at no extra charge! Since the burger patty was flame-broiled it tasted as though you just pulled it off your back yard grill. Forty years later we are still ordering up Whoppers, though the modern version is an anemic take on the ones we were served back then. And don't even try asking for "heavy everything" as the youngsters serving you will have absolutely no idea what you're talking about.

Enjoying a hamburger hot off the grill on a perfect day

(sometimes called Carol burgers)
Photo by David Andreasen

While it is completely true that my mind took this stroll down memory lane, as it does rather often, it is not the focus of this article. What is up for discussion are the actions of a particular Burger King location in Brooklyn, New York, that accidentally advertised Burger King's new meatless Impossible Whopper but actually served customers their regular beef Whopper. Those who had ordered the meatless option because of religion or health or ethics were understandably upset at the deception. The switch was only found out when others requested the new meatless Whopper and were told they were not yet available. Oops indeed.

Which got me to thinking about the "why" of such a product in the first place. I mean, this is fast food we're talking about and not all that healthy by any means. Was this replacement a chance to make fast food healthier? As it turns out, not so much. The plant-based patty has many ingredients and additives that sound like a chemistry experiment gone rogue. Rather, the main purpose for a vegetable-based burger turns out to be mitigating supposed animal cruelty or climate change. Impossible Foods, the company responsible for producing this meatless option, has discovered a niche that caters to those whose concerns include the environment. Now, lest you think I am leading you astray, I would encourage you to read up on this in much greater detail and come to your own conclusions. These are my personal thoughts and not a scientific discussion of either meatless-meat or animal cruelty or climate change, though I have rather strong personal thoughts. But I will say that there was nothing offered in the articles I read to back up any of their statements, and there are still two sides that offer explanations to the present state of climate today. Such products offer something more than a menu item, namely giving people an option as to how they wish to view their world.

If you keep reading, you will eventually discover that many other companies are scrambling to get in on this present phenomenon. McDonald's has been experimenting with the McVegan in Europe with the intention of bringing it to the U.S. White Castle is also selling a small slider version of this burger. Carl's Jr. is offering a veggie burger from another company, Beyond Meat. Even Del Taco, Wendy's, and everyone's beloved Chick-fil-A is looking for ways to meet the demand. It seems nobody wishes to be left out of this alternative meat market.

Now, this is only one person's opinion on the matter, but from a practical standpoint I would have a difficult time justifying paying a couple bucks extra for a burger that's not really a burger. Just the other day I cooked up a few burgers on the grill that came out perfectly done and tasted amazing. Even Kathy gave her approval. While I have no illusions that it is the healthiest of food options, we can choose to buy better grades of ground beef to trim the fat on a food staple that's been around for generations. At this point in time we really don't know the long-term effects of all the ingredients and additives that are part and parcel of the Impossible Burger. But as they always say, "your mileage may vary."

The somewhat expensive Vegan Burger

Photo by David Andreasen

Okay, so some of you are wondering if I even know what I'm talking about, or if I've tasted one of these burgers. I'm glad you asked, and the answer is yes, I had a Vegan Burger last year. You may have read my Facebook post about it as a thanks for delivering some items to this particular food truck location. This would have cost about $13 if I was buying it. Was it horrible? No, but it was very spicy and that masked the fake burger for me. Would I buy one? No, I only ate it because I was hungry and it was free. Could I tell it wasn't real meat? Probably not a fair question as I already knew it wasn't, but this one didn't have any beef taste at all to my taste buds. It was more of the veggie-type burger. Do some of these taste more like burgers? The Impossible Burger is said to have the texture and even taste of a burger, and even bleeds red like a real burger. Might I like it better? Perhaps, but what's the point? I like real hamburgers and they're less expensive than the imitation ones. Have you ever heard me say that I'm an Andreasen and I'm cheap?

What I really think this all comes down to is personal preference. People are free to eat all the Impossible Burgers they care to eat for whatever reason they wish to eat them. But I'll stick to the tried-and-true beef version.

Arktander

(aka David Andreasen)

The Changing Wheel (How Do You Change A Wheel?)

I have had a fascination with cars far before I was able to drive them. I put together models of cars complete with full paint jobs and all the decals, helped my dad when he was working on his car, or read about them in several of the monthly automobile publications to which I subscribed. That fascination led me to own and drive numerous interesting vehicles (to me anyway) that were not strictly efficient and utilitarian. It has also brought me to a time in my life where I spend every working day driving people from one part of town to another through the Lyft app, putting around 1500 miles on the car every week and hauling thousands of people. Unfortunately for me, doing what you normally love to do becomes monotonous and boring months after years of doing that one thing. But I digress.

Nowadays I get much of my interesting car news through the internet and just recently read an article that included the thoughts of Michelin and GM regarding the wheel. It's an update on that round conveyance device from Fred Flintstone's vehicle (or however it was utilized!) through the wagon wheel of horse and buggy days, to the wheels with the installed tires we used today that provide a bit more comfort. In this case it's a wheel and "tire" combined into one unit that has been affectionately called the tweel, for tire and wheel of course. That term rolls off the tongue a little easier than Michelin Uptis, the brand name that Michelin and GM are using that stands for Unique Puncture-Proof Tire System. Don't believe me? Take a gander over to the Michelin website and check out this page. It will give you the all the technical information you need, or possibly even more: 

https://michelinmedia.com/michelin-uptis/

I remember seeing these tires in brief articles from time to time over the past few years, but always thought it was some kind of April Fool's joke. Yet here it is in all its plastic splendor with an expected production date of sometime in 2024. Five years from now we might all be oohing and aahing over the strange looking contraption.

Michelin Uptis "Tweel"
Photo copyright by Overdrive

You can see from this angle that the outer layer of the tweel is rubber, much like today's tires. The goal is to get tires to last longer and who doesn't want that? The inner wheel hub is made of aluminum and also similar to the hub of a tire we see today. It's the part in between that is the puncture-proof part of Uptis and is made of composite plastic. Three different materials mated together into one tweel.

That finned area between rubber surface and the outside end of the spokes allows for compression when going over bumps or running into potholes. If you've ever blown a tire or bent a wheel going into a pothole you'll appreciate the sturdiness of this setup. And I used "sturdy" intentionally as there is little to none of the squirminess that tires go through when pushed hard around corners. Have you seen those low-profile tires on certain sports cars that look like rubber bands on a metal wheel? The idea of those low profile tires is that they are stiffer and perform better at speed and in emergency maneuvers. The down side is that they are no longer comfortable, even on the highway, and might cause you to think you are driving on a wagon wheel. This tire/wheel combination might give a car both performance and comfort, two things that are not often seen together.

When Jared was looking to upgrade his Ford Focus, he checked out the new-generation Ford Focus ST, a fast and fun compact car that had a manual transmission. That was a must for him. But in driving this car with the "skinny little tires" as he described them, he said it was so uncomfortable that he could feel every defect in the road. It was a fun car but since he was looking for better comfort instead of worse comfort, this car was now off his list.

2013 Ford Focus ST in Tangerine Scream
Photo by David Andreasen
Taken in the showroom of Rock River Ford in Rockford Illinois

Just to be clear, you won't be seeing this on any car tomorrow. Well, I suppose you may, but only because it is now being tested out in the real world on Chevrolet Bolts. The goal for production cars is said to be five years away and the technology still has to be proven and tested and safe. If they can make it similar to your driving experience now in performance, handling, and cost then we will see them incorporated into production vehicles in time.

I'm not really sure how I feel about them as they are rather goofy looking to me, but no doubt I will warm up to them in time if they make it to production. I'll probably just be happy that I'm still able to drive a car instead of an autonomous car driving me. But that's another story for another day.

Until next time,

Arktander

(aka David Andreasen)

Who In The World Is Arktander? (That's An Unusual Name)

That's a fair question, since I doubt any of you or your friends have named their new baby by that name. Funny story though, Jonathan thought that would be a great name if they had a son for their second child. Instead two girls' names were needed. Well, Arktander Elekiam Andreasen was my grandfather on my dad's side. He was a carpenter but died when I was a baby so I never knew him. But his name came up in conversation every so often as I was growing up so it made an impression on me. You know how hard it was to come up with usernames in the early days of the internet? Many of us didn't get in quite as early as others and had our usernames rejected as someone had already snagged it. That's why we were usually offered our main choice with a bunch of numbers after it. So as I wrestled with finding an unusual name that nobody had it struck me that I had the perfect solution in "Arktander" with it being unlikely to be used elsewhere. Now we are asked for our email address instead but every once in a while I'll be asked for a username and I know what to answer.

Jeep Easter Egg

The idea for starting a blog (short from weblog, for personal commentary on the web) came to me mostly as a way to remember past experiences while I still can. I didn't imagine others would find it that interesting but then I read my aunt's stories written out in decades and I found it fascinating. It's the kind of thing that keeps reality television interesting and YouTube videos compelling. So what kind of things might show up on this blog? Well, I will answer that question with the things that come to mind now but I would expect that everything is fair game if it interests me. If you know me at all you should already have an idea.

I have had a list in my mind for the better part of my entire life and you tend to work these thoughts out in your mind before committing them to the spoken or written word. I would say I am organized to the point of annoyance (just ask my wife) but that's the way I am. That's part of the charm of David Andreasen. Where some find their stride in no organization at all, I find mine when there's a place for everything and everything is in its place. I'm the one who will look at a random pile of M&M's and methodically eat all the surplus colors until there is an even number of all the colors, then I'll eat one of each color until they are evenly eaten. Say what you will but we all have our foibles. Somewhere along the way I recognized that there were certain significant and recurring events that demanded my attention, and stood above the lesser happenings of life.

GOD

God is the one constant that is over all and in all of the events of every day of every month of every year of my life and He is the One who makes all the others possible. With God in your life you will make choices that honor Him, and without God in your life you will choose other paths that ignore Him. I've often said that one ignores God at their own peril. I believe that God is the One who has placed these desires and interests in me and that is why they have risen to the top. Going to church was important in our family growing up. We were there for every service and every special speaker or occasion. I played in the church orchestra, cleaned the church as I got older, and even worked on a church building project with my dad as I reached my teens. Such a background gave me the impetus to go to Bible School and enter a life of church ministry.

PHOTOGRAPHY

Do you remember the Kodak Disc camera? The Polaroid? We had both of those in my family and I remember mom being the family photographer. When you see a camera or cell phone in her hand taking pictures today, just remember that she has been taking pictures for most of her life. My first "good" camera was given to me by my uncle Paul Nelson. It was a Yashica 35mm camera that was a full manual—manual focus, manual aperture, and manual shutter speed. I took photography classes in high school to learn how to use a camera and how to develop film and print photos.

TIMEPIECES

I can't be sure of whether I had a watch before my teen years, but the first I remember was the one I got for my high school graduation. I was seventeen and it was a gold watch with a round dial and brightly lit LED red numbers. You had to press a button for it to light up with the time because those LEDs wore the batteries down quickly. But it was the coolest thing I had ever seen and was the first of many watches to come. Not only do I have an interest in watches and clocks, but my youngest son went to watchmaker's school and is now a watchmaker. It's one of the many subjects we share in during our conversations.

AUTOMOBILES

Who doesn't remember anticipating turning sixteen so you could get your license and drive? A car represented freedom and the ability to go where you wanted when you wanted. I suppose I should say the full realization of that dream normally came a few years later when you headed off to college and you had the freedom to go where you wanted. For the time being I had to haul my brothers and sisters to school and church and probably other places as well. I tried to learn all I could about cars and how to work on them and I enjoyed it.

COMPUTERS

Near the end of college I became aware that corporate computers were shrinking in size and were being manufactured in a smaller "personal" size for individuals, hence the personal computer or PC. I got in on the ground floor of that breakthrough and was in the right place at the right time to receive old computers from friends who were upgrading to new machines. Back then, such technology was an amazing thing and I was fascinated with them. Computers would end up winding themselves through every part of life and work and became a great tool for both.

ARCHITECTURE

A number of these subjects started for me in high school as I was given the chance to select several elective courses that broadened a students horizons and gave them a leg up in areas outside reading, writing, and arithmetic. Photography and Woodworking were two of those classes and the third was architectural drafting. I found it fascinating to put designs to paper although nothing really came of those. But since I had been planning to attend Bible School following High School, I figured it wouldn't hurt to learn a little in case it was needed for ministry. Little did I know how true that would be!

BUILDING

Early in my adult life I started a few little projects for my wife, like making a shelf or installing a door, or even moving up to a pie safe. I didn't have more than cheap tools and mostly hand tools. Finally, much later to the party, came a serious interest in construction. It began with my dad who brought me to his work projects but expanded and came full circle to the point of heading up the church building project with volunteers in Lincoln, Illinois. That major project became the impetus for numerous personal projects over the years following. Though most of these projects were born of financial necessity it became an integral part of my life and my interests.

TRAVELLING

This one came much later in life, after the boys had left home and gone on with their lives. Our family trips were normally centered around family and holidays as we travelled across the country especially during Thanksgiving and Christmas. In 1999 I was asked to join a District Home Missions trip to Copenhagen, Denmark, and Kathy was not amused when wives could not participate. She had always wanted to go overseas and now couldn't, while I never wanted to go overseas but was the one going. So the very next year I took our missionary friends up on their offer to visit them in Belgium. This time we were able to go together to see Ken and Marianne Barickman and visit some of the sites. When we had the opportunity to take a cruise back in 2004 my wife got the bug to travel to interesting and new places. You might say I'm making up for lost time with her as she said I always promised we'd travel "someday" so I guess I need to live in the "someday" right now.

So there you have it, a little overview of how the list began. We'll fill in some of the missing pieces as time goes on but it's always good to have a little background.

Until next time,

Arktander

(aka David Andreasen)

.....Or So I Thought. (Where Did I Put That?)

Apparently that thought back in July 2012 died on the vine, as it were. Or I simply needed nearly seven more years to "think about it."

What are the chance of getting those letters?

Looking back I remember what was going on in my life. That was to be the final year of a career in ministry, though I didn't know it then. As the year wore on I was looking for a new place of ministry but having no success. In the end I got an offer to help a Christian businessman in Rockford and we made the move to the Rockford, Illinois, area at the very end of 2012 and started work January 1, 2013. By this time, I suppose, I was far more concerned about adjusting to the new job than strolling down memory lane and blogging was put off indefinitely. We ended up leaving Rockford and moving to Atlanta, Georgia, at the end of 2016. Upheaval once again. Looking for a job once again. Trying to fit in once again.

Yet this era of upheaval is different in many ways. I'm older now, and a grandpa, and such circumstances cause one to reflect on life and how it eventually unfolded. And so I had the brilliant idea of starting a blog to document some of these recurring subjects of life. Only it wasn't a new idea, as I would soon find out. In trying to figure out where to host the blog, I ended up at Blogger and—BAM!—just like that up pops my old account. And that first blog post, miniscule as it was.

My Aunt Elaine Nelson took it upon herself years ago to do much the same thing, except she put all the chapters together into a book and published the various decades of her life with her family. Since I am an extended part of her family I found those volumes most interesting and made sure I collected each one. There's something about knowing where you came from that resonates within. Perhaps my efforts will resonate with my immediate and extended family in much the same way. No doubt some of them will remember some of these events in much different ways but at least my thoughts will be put to the page.

I doubt that I will start at the beginning and work my way through these subjects methodically. What fun would that be? Neither will I take these subject one by one and cover them exhaustively till you're sick of it. No, I think I will take the random approach, weaving all of the subjects into place as would seem appropriate and building them upon each other. Every so often you hear of an individual who changes gears several times in their life, moving from one pursuit to another and focusing on just that one until the next great pursuit comes along. That is also an admirable way of living life, it's just not the way mine unfurled. Each of these have been intertwined with all the others so that it's much more like a tapestry is put together.

Anyway, that's the plan.

Arktander
(aka David Andreasen)

And So It Begins..... (I Had An Idea)

What's all the fuss about blogging? That's what I ask myself as this one and that one tells me to "check out their blog" or something along those lines. It all seems to come down to writing, which I've been doing for more years than I care to remember. It's just that it hasn't been put up on the web, so it's just an article or a letter or random musings.

So we'll see what we can come up with. Hey, I just wrote a book, I could put that up here page by page or chapter by chapter. Or I can put up my Christmas letters written over the years, not your average Christmas letters. Or what about twenty years of newsletter articles?

Or maybe I'll just wing it from time to time.

I'll have to think about it.

Arktander
(aka David Andreasen)

This is your brain on an art poster