2022 Update
Happy Holidays Everybody! Hope you’re all doing well.
Just giving a bit of an 2022 update on my FIL (Father In Law). He turned 90 years old this year!! He is doing well with my wife’s son living with him. My wife walks down to feed and help out 2x a day. He is still not on any meds-just vitamins, supplements, and good food. My wife has FIL marching in place now (which he kinda hates and tries to finagle out of). She also helps him climb up and down the steps for practice.
FIL’s hearing is very poor at this point. There is, of course, still the repetition and broken robot moments. But he still plays solitaire and word finds a lot. Now my wife has him reading the newspaper. He worked for this newspaper as a print setter for decades and gets his daily free paper in retirement (going on 25 years). He focuses mostly on the funnies and sports. He’s pretty excited that the Minnesota Vikings are doing so well this year.
Here is our pre-Christmas celebration with my SIL (Sister In Law) in town which was very nice for all.
FIL’s attention is tightly focused on the cake and Ice cream.
It felt good to be eating ice cream with FIL again. He is rather fragile and doesn’t really go out much at this point so we can’t really go to DQ anymore.
We have a new addition to the clan (as of spring 2022). His name is "Haruki", which is a Japanese boy’s name meaning “spring child”. He is a Frenchton (French Bulldog + Boston Terrier) and he’s the step-brother of the dog “Tosh” seen with FIL in an earlier post.
Think ‘Ruki’s puppy energy gets on FIL’s nerves sometimes but when they both are tuckered out, they get along fine. (Thanks to my Step son for the great pic).
We share Ruki between us and FIL & Step Son (they live a half block away). Ruki’s a lot a fun. He’s smart, quirky and either frantically searching out the window for squirrels or snoring on the couch.
He’s very curious about that dog on the phone screen and he loves snow.
At ~ 9 month’s old now, he’s weighs 22lbs and we have to watch him a bit so he doesn’t fling himself into FIL.
We had another Christmas celebration after the deep freeze (Sheesh!!) and everybody was in good spirits.
Think FIL is either smiling or frowning because he’s waiting on the cake and ice cream. He still eats plenty of ice cream.
I’m still working on the house full time and making slow but steady progress. Lot’s of construction (and destruction) with the new 2nd BR/ Hallway and East wall siding (including massive wall/foundation repair) wrapping up. Not officially retired but got at about another year to get my “homework” done. At least the house is now more safe, sealed up, and saleable.
Still riding twice a week through all the seasons. Got out for the first snow ride a few weeks ago. It was awesome! Sorry, using multiple gears and disc brakes now. MplsDisc doesn’t flow quite as well though.
So that’s pretty much it.
FIL is in pretty good health but a bit more frail and hard of hearing but 90 years old now! Wow!
Hope all you guys are all doing well. I try to check in for the bike builds with a lot of people dreaming up even crazier, more innovative, and cooler bikes. Keep up the good work! I might try to get my last few bike projects going this year (we’ll see how the remaining house siding project goes) and I’ll post them.
Early this year, It was 10 years since we first started this thread about getting my FIL (who has dementia) riding a bike to DQ. According to the view count, people are still viewing it. My Wife and me want to want really thank everyone who has visited FIL’s thread. It wouldn’t be the same without your comradery, heartfelt comments and occasional comedy. We also want to thank Rat Rod Steve, the original creator of RRBs, for developing such a good and welcoming environment to share our story. I wish that FIL had the capacity to understand what we did here. I think he would get a big kick out of it.
Thanks for looking
Steve (MplsCoaster)
might swap out the bars here soon. But it’s for sure so smooth and fast!
