Friday, September 26, 2025 – Day 409

Friday, September 26, 2025

Good morning Andy’s Army, and welcome to Friday—the last weekend of September.

Good news!! The Chicago Marathon shirts are done and already in our hands. Start to finish? Four days. It pays to go local…and most importantly, the shirts look sharp. If you didn’t request one, I might do a second run. No promises, but I’ll try. Don’t delay!

I owe some “thank-yous” to a few people…

First up, Terri K.—my “work wife” from IMC days. She made a breakfast casserole and dropped it off Wednesday. Yesterday I had it for lunch instead of my usual formula feeding. It was tasty, easy to eat, and didn’t require Cindy’s help with cutting. That’s what I call a triple win: Cindy got a break from cooking, I dodged a formula feed, and I could eat it all by myself like a big boy. Thanks, Terri!

Wednesday night we went to Mary and Terry’s. Beautiful evening, fire on the deck, great company. I’m always a fan of fires (the controlled kind) and the warmth they bring. Mary made pulled chicken BBQ and sent us home with enough leftovers for a couple of meals. Thank you, Mary! And safe travels to the Iowa Hawkeye homecoming. This will be Terry’s 71st consecutive homecoming. That’s not just school spirit…that’s true blue (or yellow in Iowa’s case) school loyalty.

Yesterday, Maria and Pete were heading back to Minocqua after two weeks of cross-country travel—Maine, Florida, San Francisco (side trip by plane), and back to Minocqua. They dropped off Papa Dell pizza from Champaign. More food! (Yes, it’s becoming clear that my ALS diet plan is: “Friends show up, fridge fills up.”)

Since they were here, I had a couple projects waiting for Pete. We’ve had squirrels using the pergola as a springboard to the porch roof. Pete installed spikes to take out their launch pad. Fingers crossed that ends the midnight squirrel gymnastics. If not, the next step is tree pruning—or sending Bear out to catch squirrels. There are only a couple dozen to corral, good thing his rabies shot is current!

Pete also tackled a few small jobs, and after an hour he checked his watch and said to Maria, “Sweetie pie, we should get going.” The frozen Papa Dell pizzas were in the car, and they had five more hours to drive. Honestly, that’s the best excuse to leave: “Sorry, Andy, the pizza’s thawing!”

Thanks, Pete and Maria—for the food and the squirrel defense system. I’ll let you know if it needs tweaking. 😆

Next up: the outdoor Christmas light tree. Alex is coming this weekend to see if he can get it up. It’s a full-day job, and if it’s windy, it may not get finished. Alex will be in a tangled mess. We still have good weather ahead, so there’s time. I’ve alway wanted to leave the tree up year-round and just swapping the lights…red and green for Christmas, pink for Valentine’s, green for St. Patrick’s, orange for Halloween and so on. This might be the year.

That’s it for today. Thank you all—for the food, the laughs, the help, and most of all, the love.

Have a great Friday. Love you guys! ❤️