Tuesday, February 18, 2020

Good morning from the hills of North Dakota

Well I am NOT in North Dakota now but this picture is of the land about 5 miles west of where our farm used to be.  Almost makes one want to put a jacket on and take a walk in the early morning.  In case someone does not know what term people used who lived around here it simply was "The hills" and they ran west to east in North Dakota but very near the South Dakota border.  It was in the "hills' that we would head to have a picnic at Red Iron Springs.  The most enjoyable picnic I every had there was in the summer of 1966 when Larry and Patty and JoEllen and I had a picnic.  No details are necessary but it was a fun time at a very beautiful place.  There was "The Rock" in a pasture near the top of the hills and it seemed to have Indian signs carved into it.  One summer it just disappeared.  "The hills" were right behind Grandma and Grandpa Lee's farm.  Often when we would visit in the summer we would walk back into the hills.  There was an old old abandon building that we would always stop and look at.  It was right at the foot of the hills that their well for their cattle was.

Today and tomorrow will be interesting for my tennis game.  Today I will play court #2 on the 70+ team and my partner will be 6" 10" Dan Anderson.  I hope our opponent tries to lob over Dan because if they do they will find it almost impossible!  I am sure I will play Deuce and Dan will play Ad.  He, of course, has the better reach and I can move better.  I was beginning to think the captain, Al, did not like my play as I have not been paired with a guy who is a good partner.  I did win a couple of courts BUT today it will be fun to play with Dan.  We will see how we do.  

Tomorrow is really the BIG test.  Ron and I will play court #1.  Two weeks ago we played together and stunk up the court big time.  Tomorrow we play perhaps the best team in the league so it will be "show time" for sure.   Win or lose I am expecting it to be fun.  Well I say that but actually it is seldom fun to lose, right?  AND to make things even more interesting and fun tomorrow starts the second half of the season so it may tell how the rest of the season goes!

I was pretty happy when I looked at my rash this morning.  On my left hip it is not noticeable.  On my right hip there is a trace of rash but almost gone.  My right thigh rash is almost gone as well.  Now I say all that is good but when I look at those things I also realize that I MUST lose some weight!  I think the day should be gone when one can look at themselves and just say, "so what I am old now!"  Well one can say that but really Carmen eat less, exercise more and do your body good!

I looked at the weather this morning and was not all that happy to see a temp of 86 when we take to the courts.  I guess I should not complain as I see this morning Dave is at 9, Glorine is at 22, Joan is at 20 and Helen is at 41!  Son John and grandson Liam are coming out of the Boundary Waters today.  One night they had -13 but then yesterday it was all the way up to +14.  They will come out this afternoon, stay in a friends cabin and drive to St. Paul tomorrow.  Henry could not go as he had basketball.
A friend from the Twin Cities was in South Bend and sent a couple of pictures of Henry at his basketball game.  Here he is reading a speech honoring a senior on the team on senior night.  It seems that Henry and Liam have inherited the Lee side of height.  Liam has shot up and is getting tall and Henry is now 6' 3".  It is hard for me to believe that I have grandchildren who are now bigger than I.  Liam and Henry both would dwarf Great Grandpa Chic and Grandpa Ed.  Well ME too I guess!!!
Liam is #21 third from the right.  
Those guys are just getting way way too tall!  Here his team won first place in a tournament.  Liam, as an 8th grader is on the 8th grade team and Henry is on the varsity.

Enough for this morning.  I may wander over to the courts to see what is happening at 7:30.  Our match is a home match at 1:30.  Breakfast of scrambled eggs with olives and bacon in is long gone and the Kona FP is about history too so will sign off.


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