The 27th and last Saturday of February 2021

 TERRY

I would say Terry is holding her own.  Yesterday was a pretty much rest at home kind of day.  She was in good spirits but then she usually is.  It will be a quiet weekend for us.

No tennis yesterday or this weekend and we got bumped off the courts for Monday as well so I will see on Tuesday if 4 days off is good or bad!  We found out yesterday that because of one court being down there is more tennis having to be played in the afternoon so the two weeks of team tennis being played just in our club is cancelled.  I suspect there may be other reason as well but that is just a thought.  

So I think I will spent much of the day working on taxes as I think I have most of the papers I need to file with our financial people.  Our taxes will be back to normal this year after having to deal with and pay taxes on Terry's sale of her place in Minnesota.  So it will be interesting to see IF we pay or get money back.  Except for last year we have gotten money back each year so I suspect that will be the case again.  

Yesterday I picked up the prints that John had made from Henry's art picture.  He had two made and I sent one off to South Bend yesterday. I was amazed at the price.  As one could guess it seems Naples does not have a "good deal" anyplace in town but paying $40 for TWO 15X24 prints was a great price I thought.  They turned out very very nice.  Terry wanted to view the picture three times yesterday as the colors and the details are just outstanding.  It will be fun to get it matted and framed down the road.  It needs a place to hang.

I am pretty much out of news for this morning so may sit back, sip on my FP and rememberer what was long ago.

It was the summer of 1955.  We had gone to church for Sunday school and the church service and were back home for the day.  Mom had said she would have our "Sunday staple", which consisted of egg sandwiches and dill pickles, ready in about a hour so I had time to play outside.  When I did play outside it usually was in or near the barn.  After all that was where all the cats and kittens were as well as often there were small calves in the barn.  I actually could spent all day playing with the animals.  Usually I would take the calf that was in the pen by itself because it was so small when it was born and I would take it outside on a rope.  But today I was more curious about what was in the water tank on the north side of the barn.  It almost looked like some fish but I knew that could not be the case.  I also knew that Mom did not want me doing anything that would get my church sweater dirty BUT what is a person to do when you have an hour to play before lunch.  Well of course I could have and should have changed my clothes but that would have taken too much time.  Well after the fact I realized that it may have been the best route as Mom was not a happy camper when I came in for lunch with dirt on my Sunday clothes.  After I inspected the water tank I decided it would be fun to just get on the barn roof and see what I could see.  So I shimmed up the light pole and spent some time just lying on my back looking westward and thinking about the farms, the people and what may be ahead in my future.  REALLY!  I mean at the age of 8 it seemed my future forever was to be married to our antique farm but then that is another story.  After lying on the roof for some time I shimmed down again and spent some time with the  calf that was all alone in the small pen.  As I cradled the tiny kittens in my lap I heard Mom call for lunch so I headed to the house hoping Mom did not get the fried eggs TOO done!  If so an extra dill pickle would fix it.

After lunch and a change of clothes AND a promise to Mom that the next time I would change clothes right after church Dave and I played some catch, caught some fly balls and then made a couple of wooden guns for our bad guy good guy game around the farm.  

Such was a Sunday on the farm in the summer time.  Of course there were other things to do as well.  There were often walks in the pasture down to the curve in the creek where on the south side of the river bank was snake rock.  You pretty much could bet on snakes on the rock if it was a sunny afternoon.  There there were the bends in the creek where water often stayed well into the summer.  One could dig for tiny creatures OR if you were lucky enough to see a gopher go down a hole you could try to carry water and drown the poor creature!!!  That was always fun.  AND then there was the bridge at the south end of our pasture and a bridge to the north of our house so there were two places where, even in mid summer, there may be tiny fish caught in the deeper pools as the river dried up and left those pools as pens for fish that had no way out.    

So the farm had little promise as a future but it certainly had much much to give boys who were in their early years of curiosity and found exploring nature a wonderful way to spend the day.

I just took the last sip of FP so it is on to the rest of the day.

Friday, February 26th and only 3 days until March!

 TERRY

Terry had gym therapy and then water therapy yesterday.  She did well but was tired as we returned home when she was finished.  I know I have said this in the past but MAYBE we will try work in our pool today.  I think she has 2 weeks left in this 30 day session so we will see soon IF they OK her for another 30 days.  IF they do I will be thankful but also very surprised.  

I played tennis in our afternoon in club tourney yesterday and some how the computer program gave us a very unequal pairing.  My partner Ron and I were up 4-0 before our opponent even got one point.  That means at that point we had 16 points to zero.  Our match ended in about 35 minutes with us winning 6-0 and 6-1.  I think we have two weeks left and so far I have been lucky enough to have good pairings.  We will see what happens in the next two weeks.  Really it is not a big deal one way or the other but it is fun to get out and have competition that kind of counts.  One of the guys we played against yesterday has not been so lucky to have good pairings and he mentioned that IF they do this again next year he is NOT in.

I will go out today as the artwork that John ordered when he was here is ready.  So I will pick it up and send one of the copies to him. 

Here we were at the Fish House on Tuesday. We then ate out at the Turtle Club on Wednesday.  John prepared one of our mail order meals for dinner on Wednesday or as we would say on the farm supper!

Other than driving to get the pictures no other plans.  I may take a look at our tax papers to see what more we need before we file

No tennis today as two of the guys said they could not play so the court time was cancelled.  It will not hurt me to go three days off the courts.  

Not much to say today.  I woke up to help Terry about 7:00 but then rolled over in bed again until 8:00.  I do not think I had done that in a LONG time.  Maybe I have caught up with my sleep after getting to bed at 1:30 Tuesday AM and then getting up at 4:00 AM yesterday.  I do remember the days LONG LONG ago when I would bit the bullet and stay up all night to work on or finish a project.  Now that seems like only a bad dream or perhaps a nightmare!

I have my FP and still there is 3/4 of a cup so will enjoy that after I sign off.  

It was "Good-bye" to John this morning.

TERRY

As I write Terry is sleeping.  She woke up early as I got up to take John to the airport.  She was still awake when I arrived home but now she has fallen asleep again.  She does have water therapy and exercises in the gym this morning.  She is doing about the same so will see how she does at therapy this morning.

It was an early alarm this morning as John's plane departed Punta Gorda at 6:20 and it is 55 miles north of here.  I had FP ready for both of us to sip as we drove to the airport.  As I dropped him off it still looked like the flight would be on time which meant that he would be back home by about 9:00 this morning.  

His visit was very fun.  Yesterday, after my 10:30 tennis, we had lunch at the Turtle Club which has wonderful food.  Then we drove to Barefoot Beach and took a 45 minutes walk on the beach.  It was a bright sunny day and John did not have his sun glasses so he wore my hat as I did have my glasses.  There were MANY people on the beach.  John enjoyed the warm weather!  

On Tuesday we had lunch at the Fish House.  Last night John made the evening meal as we had two of the meals that come in the mail.  We have one left for this week so I will do that today.  Usually Sonia does the meals but she is not with us this Wednesday-Friday.

John and I had perhaps more time to visit than we had enjoyed in a long long time.  Fun to catch up on their family as they are growing fast as a year from now Henry will be getting ready for high school graduation and then most likely their house will seem larger AND it will be only two years after that and Liam will graduate as well.  It seems like life has a way of flying by so quickly.  I still remember the first year John went off to college.  He came home for Christmas and it was only then that Mom and I found out that Cynthia thought when he left for college she would not see him again!  When John left for college Cynthia was 7.

I opted out of 7:30 tennis today.  I felt being up at 4:00 AM and then having tennis at 1:30 this afternoon was enough for me as I of course will take Terry to WT as well.  Perhaps age is showing its head in some ways!  BUT I have no complaints.

That is about it for now.  I may put my alarm on and try to doze a bit before I get Terry ready for therapy at about 9:15.  The FP was enjoyed and finished as I drove to Punta Gorda this morning.

Here we are on the last HUMP day of February 2021

 TERRY

Terry had water therapy yesterday and did very well.  She did 45 minutes of gym therapy and 45 minutes of water therapy.  She said she used the parallel bars and took a few steps without holding onto the bars!!!  She will probably do that again tomorrow.  As I write she is reading the paper in bed.

I have 10:30 tennis today.  After that John and I will head to the Turtle Club, which is on the beach, for lunch.  Today is John's last day here as he heads home EARLY tomorrow.

Now I am going to say some things that sound like bragging and in fact they are.  I know that everyone who has grandchildren know their's are the most talented and the best!!!  AND of course I think that about mine as well.  From South St. Paul where there are 8 Adkins to Madison where there are 2 Lees and then south a bit to South Bend where there are 4 Lees I am amazed at the talent I see in each of them.  I am going to post a picture done by Henry, the oldest, who is 17.  As a junior at Trinity at Greenlawn in South Bend this picture is a school project.  He did it in water color and I think it is pretty amazing.

I would say that takes a bit more than schooling to get something that beautiful.  I think John said he spent something like 30 hours on it.  I think IF Grandpa spent 300 hours on something like that it still would look like chicken scratching but in my mind it is pretty amazing.  As Terry spent time at WT yesterday John and I went to a photo place and John ordered a copy for Grandpa as a birthday present.  WOW, I guess having birthdays at my age is OK after all!😎

Being Henry is in my blog today here is a short story about him

Henry was about 4 or so and came over to visit Grandma and Grandpa.  We started a fire in the fire chimney in the back yard.  Henry was fascinated by it but Grandma told him it was hot so he should stay away from it.  You guessed it," curiosity killed the cat" and it also put a HUGE blister on Henry's finger as he wanted to be sure Grandma was right when she said it was hot.  Poor Henry needed a lot of love from Grandma as his finger hatched this huge blister!  The tears did not last too long but the blister stayed for a few days!

Enough for this morning.  I have my FP and John has his so it is time to wrap this up.  

One week of February left!

 TERRY

Terry had Water Therapy today and she said she did well.  She will have it again Thursday.

John arrived at the Punta Gorda Airport last night about midnight as his flight was delayed.  We arrived back here shortly before 1:00 so it was kind of a short night as I had tennis at 7:30.  

When I arrived back from tennis I thought we had a hotel here.  Our in home care giver Sonia was here, Terry's daughter Kim was visiting and John was here!  Kim is going back to Atlanta tomorrow but we will see her in a couple of weeks again.  Sonia will not be here the next 3 days so we will be going it alone and John will be here one more day as his flight leaves EARLY on Thursday.  It will seem like a quiet home again on Thursday  and I am not saying that is GOOD!

John and I had lunch at the fish house today and tomorrow we will have lunch at the Turtle Club.  Tonight and tomorrow we will be happy to eat at home.  Without Sonia it will be on me to prepare the two meals left that came on Monday.  I THINK I can do it.  They are a bit more complicated than my delicious tuna sandwiches but I will give it a try!

We have had great weather the last couple of days and it looks like it will continue for some time.  John said it is a bit of a change from South Bend as they have much snow on the ground.

Not much more to say as it is now about 5:00.  I tried to take a short nap this afternoon after getting about 4 and a half hours of sleep last night but I think I slept all of 10 minutes or so.  It may be a short evening but really can't go to bed too early as having John here is a treat so need to stay awake.  Tomorrow there is tennis at 10:30 so I may be able to sleep in a bit but really sleeping in for me is not something that I am very good at.

No stories or anything else as I will sign off for the day.  I did have FP this morning and will maybe make two pots for John and me tomorrow.

February 21, we start the last week of the month

 TERRY

No, we did not get into the pool yesterday.  We may wait with that until after her water therapy tomorrow.  It was a pleasant day with not much happening.  For some reason we spent much time talking about high school days and then checking some things out in our OLD high school annuals.  As usually when those things come up the subject of us NOT dating in high school came up with each of us having a different version of WHY not.  If the discussion really gets serious we both agree it probably was a good thing that it did not happen!

Terry's daughter Kim is in town and will come for a visit about 11:00 today.  Terry is looking forward to that.  Then tonight I will head to Punta Gorda (only 55 miles) as son John is coming in about 10:30.  He will be here Tuesday and Wednesday and head back home EARLY Thursday from the same airport.

Karl has his two courts scheduled for 10:30 this morning so that will be my tennis time.  That is fun as there are some guys that are pretty good as it is always good play against guys who are as good or better than oneself.  

We had a delicious meal last night brought over by the people who we share a wall with.  We both got full and there is enough for another meal today.  That is good as the mail order meals come today but they arrive most of the time in the afternoon so this will be our main meal today and then the mail order ones will be for the next three days--perfect.

I know I have used this picture before but I came across it this morning and just had to put it on again.  It is one of my all time favorite pictures.

Several times a year, when we lived in Devils Lake, we would drive south of town to Sully's Hill.  There was a nice picnic area by a pond and swings for the kids.  BUT the favorite of the kids was to drive through the preserve where we could usually spot buffalo or elk and if we were lucky both.  This day the elk happened to be near the road.  I decided I wanted to focus on Aaron who was in the back seat but I could view him in our rearview.  I like to think I sometimes have any eye for a good picture but I assure you that is only my opinion!  Here I think it is just so cute as Aaron is so interested in those elk that he is half way out of the car!  AND if there happens to be anybody who reads my blog kind of on a regular bases they would know that I have MANY "favorite pictures" that I use!!!

No it is kind of time to sign off as I need to do some picking up around the house before I leave for tennis later as Kim is coming and I don't want her to think I leave the house a mess---well she may guess that I am not the best housekeeper!  I still have a cup of FP so will sip and pick up for the next 30 minutes or so.

Sunday, February 21st

 TERRY

No news about Terry today.  As I write she is reading the Sunday morning paper so she will be busy for a while.  I will, again, ask if she wants to get in our pool so it will be interesting to see what she says.

We have nothing on the agenda today so most likely the garage door stays closed and we do things at home.  

JULY 8, 1962

Mom, Dad, Helen and I arrived home from church around 11:30.  I am not really looking forward to the day.  I had thought we maybe would do something for the 4th but no, we just stayed at home.  I really did not feel like going to church this morning.  It just is not the same as it used to be when we went to Bergen.  I know that things change with time but the thoughts of changes that go through my mind are not all that pleasant today.  Well I am guessing there will be one good thing and that is lunch.  Mom pretty much is like clock work on Sunday lunch---fried egg sandwich with dill pickles!  No complaints as I really like that but IS THAT THE ONLY THING TO LOOK FOWARD TO THIS SUNDAY.  Well I do know that most likely Dad will take an afternoon nap which means NO fly balls or no playing catch with Dad.  Well that really never happened all that often but when it did I really had fun.  

I am thinking I may ride up to the lake in the afternoon just to ride around.  Now that Dave is not home anymore life is very different.  Yes, he did work away from home the last two summers BUT now that he graduated he will not be coming back in the fall.  For me it was a sad day when in late May Dave loaded the back seat of his car with his belongings and headed west to Klum.  It certainly put a different perspective on the summer and the three high school years ahead of me.  Now it is up to me to generate fun things and I can do that but being alone makes it not so fun.  Well I will be doing the work that Dave AND I did but that is not a big deal.  It is a big deal to have Sundays come and I am looking at finding things to do ALONE and today that makes me sad.  

Well I kind of get off my "poor me" attitude and do some fun things in the afternoon.  I did take the big bike and ride up to the lake.  There were several cars there but nobody I knew so I stopped into Ricky's farm on the way back but he was not home.  So about mid afternoon I got my 22 and headed to the back yard to sit near the hedge that Mom had planted.  There I felt there had to be some blackbirds in those trees at some time.  After about a half hour and TWO birds I headed to the barn to see if the cats were hungry.  Guess what, they were!!!  I had been working on my one hole golf course but it was not finished. Well I did have the putting surface cut out and the sand in but no oil so without asking Dad I carried a couple of gallons of old oil, which I got from the welding shed, and poured it into the sand.  That would keep the weeds from growing through the sand which was the putting surface.  I decided not to tell Dad about the oil as he may think it was a waste and get upset.  The oil was what we used to oil the chains on the combine in harvest time and I was sure we had plenty.    We carried a gallon can on the combine and maybe twice a day we would pour oil over the chains as they were running.  With that done I felt my one hole golf course was pretty much complete.  I now had my trusty 9 iron which was what I would use to hit the ball and I had my homemade putter which I fashioned out of a wooden driver.  Oh my when I made that I crushed my thumb to the point of almost blacking out but that was a couple weeks ago and it was kind of OK now.  For some reason I did not feel much like playing golf today BUT not much else to do so I spent about an hour hitting and walking.  My slice was REALLY good today which meant my game was really BAD.  TWICE I had to get the 55 gallon barrel out to roll in the tall weeds to find my ball.  That barrel saved me a lot of looking as all I did was roll and when I came to a bump I would pick up a ball.  As I have said before there were three players in the game, Arnie, Jack and Gary.  Arnie always won!  Anyway by the time I was tired of my terrible golf game it was getting late in the day and I decided I would try to see if there was any baseball on the radio.  I knew most Sunday games were played during the day but once in a while there would be a night game or late afternoon game.  

As I headed up stairs there was Dad in the stairway.  He must have had a short nap and then decided to load some shells.  Yes, his place to load was sitting on the stairs!  I stepped around him and headed to my room which was the west bedroom upstairs.  There I would spent the rest of the day kind of listening to Harry Carey and the St. Louis Cardinals game but really more than that playing with so many thoughts that went through my mind:

• I wonder what Dave is doing?
• Will Ronald and Glorine come home this summer?
• Will Janet and John come home?
• When will Joan and Ronnie come visit?
• What is the gal that I dated during my freshman year doing this summer and has she forgotten about me????????  That was stupid of me of course!
• What will I do when I finished high school?
• How many days until the start of football practice as I know I will play a lot this year.
• Is our family really as different as I often think I am?
• Why can't we have a more modern farm?
• Will I make the varsity basketball team this winter?  I was sure I could do that and it happened.
• Will Dave, Ronald and John hunt deer with us again this fall?
• HOW could I earn some money now? I did earn a little as I helped Rollof and Obert bail hay.

The thoughts went on and on with more questions than anything until finally I fell asleep shortly after Harry Carey went overboard when a Cardinal hit a homer!

At first glance what do you see?  Now look closer!!!

February 20 as we head full steam ahead towards March!

TERRY

Terry had a great day yesterday.  Two friends, Barb and Barb, stopped over in the afternoon for a visit.  They brought a beautiful bouquet of flowers which Terry is enjoying so so much.  Just  this morning she mentioned that she loves the flowers as each time she looks at them she remembers the visit that she enjoyed.  I am going to step out on a limb today and see IF she wants to get into our pool!!!  It will be interesting to see what happens IF she does it.  I have no doubt that we can do it safely but time will tell if it gets done!

Here I am at the computer and 7 is the big number!  Yesterday for dinner Terry asked for egg rolls.  We have these mini ones that are really good.  So I put 8 of them in the fry pan and put them in the 425 degree oven for 15 minutes.  When they were done I put a glove on and set the pan on the stove.  I needed to cool them for a couple of minutes so I took the glove off and put it away.  A couple of minutes later without thinking I took hold of the handle to turn the pan around on the stove BUT NO glove and my hand took a beating.  I now have 7 blisters on my right hand from the hot handle.  I can not describe how my hand felt by just using nice words so will dispense with that but after holding my hand in ice cube water for a long time the pain subsided a tiny bit!  By the time I went to sleep at 10:00 most of the pain was gone.  All is well this morning but I am wondering IF I will be able to hold a tennis racquet Monday morning??  I guess it will be like much of my life, "wait and see"!

We have nothing planned for the weekend.  I may get to the grocery store once but that is about it.  I have decided over the last month that weekend tennis is not for me now so with no tennis yesterday. My body will have a 3 day rest.  I was pleased yesterday.  I had left my towel on Thursday afternoon so went over to the club to get it yesterday.  Phil, one of our pros, complimented me on my play Thursday.  We played on court 1 which happens to be next to the pro shop and Phil was sitting and watching much of the time.  I feel I have gotten somewhat more aggressive at the net which I feel has helped my game.  Just to make sure anyone who may read this understands my game is NEVER going to be great.  I started playing in 2012 (at the age of 65 and over the hill) and then took a winter off with a broken hand and then again took a winter off with a ruptured hamstring which means I have played for about 8 winters and to be honest I never play in the summer so it takes me time in the fall to get back into tennis.  No complaints or excuses just facts of a kind of mature male!!!  

I watched Henry's BB game on the computer again.  He played last night and I watched it this morning.  That may have been the last game but I am not sure.  I don't know if it is good to bad but as I watch those games it brings me back 56 years to those high school days.  It also brings me back to the friends I had like Dan, Larry, John, Dave and others.  To this day I can tell you games that stuck out as GREAT and games that stuck out as AWFUL!  A two point win at Ellendale late in the season after an 18 point loss early stands out.  The two point loss at Britton hurt and the season ending 22 point loss at Lisbon stunk up the place.  To be fair John and Dan, two of our starters, were hurt near the end of the season and our subs were less than able fill-ins.  But it was supposed to be all fun, right??

I have been enjoying some venison that Aaron sent.  Oh my goodness I had almost forgotten how much I enjoy it.  I still have a couple of frozen packages that I will save for later.  I hope Aaron is able to go hunting again and maybe Leo next year as well.  Perhaps a hunting story soon!  

I am finished writing for the day.  I enjoyed my FP but it is gone so will try to get some paper work done this morning as I need to see what papers I need yet to file with the IRS!

Here we are at another Friday, February 19th

 TERRY

Terry did therapy in the gym yesterday and then right after that she did therapy in the pool.  The gal who did the gym therapy talked to me and said Terry did very well and was much better than on Tuesday.  She was very tired when we arrived home and spent some time in bed but later in the afternoon she wanted to be in the living room.  She used the walker to get into the living room but by early evening she wanted to go back to the bedroom and she used the wheelchair.  I am thinking I MAY suggest today that we get her into our pool.  I am not sure IF she wants that but I know she can do it.  We do have steps going into the pool and a hand rail so with my help I know it can be done but we will see.

I was embarrassed yesterday.  On Thursdays we have an in house tennis league.  It is at 1:30.  I had played tennis in the morning and totally forgot about the afternoon play.  At 1:34 I got a call.  It took me about 10 minutes to get there but in the end it was fun.  My partner Charlie and I lost the first set 2-6 but came back and won the second set 6-3 so it went to a tie breaker, 10 points.  We won the tie breaker 10-7.  Not sure we should have won as one of the opponents was 6' 10" Dan Anderson who in his younger days played pro basketball for several years.  If you hit it even remotely close to him it will come back like a bullet!  So the way to play is keep it away from Dan and DO NOT TRY TO LOB OVER HIM!!!  Anyway it was fun.  The in house league was set up by one of our pros and I guess the pairings are randomly done by a computer program.  One of the guys said they go by games won and a tie breaker is counted only as one game so IF that is true we were even yesterday as we both would have gotten 9 points.  Really it makes NO difference to me as it is just fun to play with different guys.  A person can get a great pairing one week and the next week just the opposite.  I must admit that often tennis is the least important thing on my mind.

From time to time I get a picture that I think is extra ordinary in color and in story.  Here is one.  This is John at the age of 10 months.  We were living in Old Main on the campus of the North Dakota School for the Deaf and it was 1970.  He is sitting on the piano bench and as one might guess it is the end of October.  I think the dark wood grain piano with the gordes and pumpkin is a wonderful contrast.  AND then of course you get the idea that it is kind of a cute, fun, almost romantic time with the way John is leaning on the big orange pumpkin.  An entire whole other story could be how we got the piano up to the second floor as the building had 12 foot ceilings and the piano was perhaps one of the heaviest pianos I have ever seen. Well I did get kind of a tongue lashing from superintendent Hayek as I had used several of the high school boys to help and IF I had been a tad bit older and wiser I would have known that was a HUGE NO NO.  If someone had gotten hurt I may still be paying the price!  Anyway I love the picture.  I could also go into the story of how I spent many many hours refinishing the wood to a lighter color.  I would say to anyone who may be thinking of undertaking a job like that, "NO".

Here we are at 8:30 and I am about finished.  I do not have tennis today but need to go over to the club as I left my orange towel after the match yesterday.  I think I will spend some time today gathering tax things and seeing what I am missing.  My FP is almost finished so my story for the day is the same!

Here we are, it is Wednesday and it is downhill for the week!

 TERRY

Terry had a busy day at rehab yesterday.  She was in the gym for the first hour and then in the pool for the second hour.  She was tired when we arrived home and snuggled into bed with the TV on and stayed there for the remainder of the day.  As I write she is reading the paper.

We have a cloudy day here with a temp of 81 by mid afternoon.  I have tennis at 10:30 today so will be kind of a sweat ball when I get home at noon.  

Nothing planned today.  Sonia is coming to be here from 9:00-11:00.  She will make a meal from the ones we get in the mail and then as usual there may be a load of clothes to do.  I have left a few dirty dishes in the kitchen so I will do my normal thing and say, "I tried to leave the kitchen a mess just so you have something to do."  She will then laugh, turn music on her phone and get to work!

IT ALL STARTED ON SEPTEMBER 4TH, 1956

    It all started on that day.  Wood Lake School had closed in May.  According to Mom and Dad it was progress!!!  To me it was frighting as this was putting me into a whole new world.  No longer would Joan, Dave and I be walking the mile and a half to school but instead there would be a big yellow bus stopping at our mailbox.  Then it would be a long ride to Cayuga where we would disembark and go to school.  Last year we had 12 students in our 8 grades and I thought that was fine.  It was enough that we could have a good ball game during recess and I did have a classmate so why the BIG change???  Anyway as September 4th approached I started to feel anxious and sad.  I did not want to go to a school in town.  I was happy and comfortable in our tiny Wood Lake school but as of the 4th, no more.  

    So it all started.  Mom called Joan, Dave, Helen and me at about 6:15 to get out of bed and get dressed as the bus would be here in less than an hour.  I think it may have been harder on Dave and I than Joan and Helen.  Joan was going into high school so she would not have been at Wood Lake that year and Helen was in first grade so she had never gone to Wood Lake.  Anyway the morning seemed to fly by and soon it was time to walk out to the mailbox and wait.  I was sure we would be able to see the bus coming from the north as it would pick up Peggy and then Ricky before stopping at our place.  Sure enough at about 7:10 a big yellow bus appeared with a cloud of dust behind it and life would change forever.  

    As we got in to a big "hello" from the bus driver and sat down I wanted to cry but I knew I couldn't.  We then picked up Horst, Linda, Orville etc as we seemed to stop every few minutes.  Soon the bus was almost full and we were headed straight to Cayuga.  

    As we arrived at the school Ray, the bus driver, explained that he would see use at 3:30 again.  I thought to myself, "I can hardly wait"!  As we entered the huge building there were teachers there to tell us where to go.  I was told that 3rd and 4th grade were to go to the right, down the stairs and our room was there.  I think we must have arrived about the time school was to start as everyone was in the room and in their desks as I entered.  I stared as there were 23 kids looking at me as I entered the room.  I mean that was about twice the entire size of Wood Lake School and we had 8 grades there and here it was only 3rd and 4th grade.  The teacher, Mrs. Askerruth, greeted me and there started an entire new kind of education for me.  The next year I would go up a level to the 5th and 6th grade classroom where the teacher was Mrs. Fox.  Then the next year Cayuga closed the high school as Sargent Central was born and as a 7th grader we went UP to the top floor where Mrs. Odenbrett was the teacher.  

    Of course the closing of Wood Lake School and the birth of Sargent Central were necessary and good but for a young boy on the farm who was shy and bashful the beginning was painful.  In fact I became a stutterer and remember as a 5th grader getting up in front of the class and being unable to utter a word while finally Mrs. Fox asked me to have a seat.  

     That first year my eyes were opened to different kinds of students.  In Wood Lake I often got in trouble for talking and then would have to write my name 1000 times or do multiple pages of math facts so by the time I got to Cayuga I could done a page of 100 basic math facts almost with my eyes closed.  I was astonished when I finished my 100 math facts and Joe was still on the second row.  I thought what is wrong with some of those kids?  At that age I did not understand that some kids had a hard time in school.  I thought everyone would do nice work in school.  Then I found out that 3 of the kids in our class were 1 or 2 years older as they had to repeat grades.  Still I did not have an appreciation for being able to do well in school.  

    The best part was recess as we always played ball and being perhaps the biggest in my class I always did well.  It was not such a good day when my long fly ball hit the window of the second level of the school and shattered glass all over!  Another great advantage of Cayuga was they actually had indoor bathrooms!  Much much better than the "girls" and the "boys" out-houses at Wood Lake.  

    So on September 4th of 1956 my education changes forever and it also was the beginning of 1000's of miles on the yellow buses.  A conservative estimate of miles on the bus over my nine years of schooling would be 75,000 miles with bus rides to and from school and then bus rides to and form sports.  I think on the days that we played Klum in sports from the farm it was about 100 miles one way.  The only thing that made those long rides OK were the times that I had a nice companion to sit with on the way back to school after a game!!!  

    Enough for this morning.  I am on my second and last cup of FP.  Only two cups this morning as I am using the extra large cup with Liam's drawing of his dad on it!   

Water Therapy today

 TERRY

Terry has eaten a bit and we will leave for WT in about an hour.  She will have therapy in the gym for the first hour and then in the water for the second hour.  She was up early so she will be tired when we return home about 2:30.

I had tennis this morning at 7:30.  I was sure we would be rained out but that did not happen.  For some reason I was not into tennis this morning.  Don't know why.

I received an e-mail from Trinity School in South Bend about 6th, 7th and 8th grade projects during a week in January so I went to it and here is what I found.

It looks like Audrey learned about Norway during their project week.  I would say it looks like very nice work and of course that Audrey smile is the best!

Not much more to say now.  Sonia was here from 8:15-10:15 and made one of the meals that we receive in the mail.  It was tacos and they were very good BUT a bit spicy with a touch of HOT in the taste.

I am finished for now and I have NOT had my FP this morning and maybe that is the reason my tennis game was just a tad off!!!

President's Day with no mail today

 TERRY

It is almost noon as I write and Terry is on the couch sleeping.  She wanted to walk a bit today so she went from the bedroom to the living room.  I am guessing she will want to get back to the bedroom shortly.  She does not have any therapy today but has two sessions tomorrow.

I had tennis at 9:00 this morning.  Karl puts together  two courts on Monday and  it is fun as some of the players are perhaps a bit better than I am used to playing with.  We play a set and then switch to a different partner.  I was lucky enough to win both sets today 6-4 and 5-3 as we ran out of time.  

Nothing is planned for today.  I would like to start having Terry in the pool here at home but not sure today is a good day to start.  I will talk to her when she wakes up.  

Not much else to say today.  I had planned to write more but for some reason I am kind of blank for the day.  I usually look at the stock market a few times during the day but that is closed today as they take it as a holiday.  Even though the money have in stocks is very very minimal it still is fun to guess what is going to go up or down each day.

That is all.  I did finish my FP before tennis so I am good to go.

HAPPY Valentine's Day TO ALL

 TERRY

In some ways Terry had kind of a busy day.  Using the walker she walked back and forth from the front to the back of the house about 3 times.  We also had friends, Jean and Del, come to visit for a short time.  We will try to do the walker thing again several times today as Terry tries to get those legs and her balance back again.  As I write it is 7:20 and Terry was awake at 6:20 but she wanted to close her eyes again for a while so I have not heard her again.  

I will not complain but will state some things about the Naples Newspaper what is interesting to sat the least:

• There were 5 NBA games yesterday but there are NO scores as it says "late" game.
• There were 10  NHL games and again NO score as it said, "late" game!
• No president has ever been impeached twice as has Trump.  He was acquitted by the senate yesterday and where was the story in the paper?  page 4!!!

I say I am not complaining because IF I dislike the paper so much we could cancel but just wanted to say what is in the paper and how they report is pretty pathetic at best.  It is part of USA Today so I am thinking that explains it all.

There is an article in the paper today about an entertainment park that is opening in FL in 2023.  Their rollercoaster goes 655 feet high, drops 525 feet and hits a speed of 156 MPH!  How about that for a thrill!

Here we are it is Valentine's Day and the paper is full of fun stories to read.  

I watched much of Henry's game last night.  It was a blow out to match any blow out ever with a final score of 60-8 in favor of Trinity.  It certainly is fun watching the games.  Henry said they are 9-8 and need to win one of the last games to finish with a winning record but he said the coach thinks they can win all of the remaining games.  Henry is a very good player and at, I think 6' 4" he is a force to be reckoned with on the court!  He is a junior so has one more year of playing.

Here it is Monday and I forgot to post this yesterday.  

Today we will start!

 TERRY

Terry agreed to start walking with the walker several times a day starting NOW.  She said she wanted to do it on odd hours so I have an alarm set for 11:00, 1:00, 3:00 and 5:00.  We NEED to start somewhere and I am hopeful that today is a good start.  As I blog she is watching Hallmark on TV!

No tennis today and tomorrow so I will use this time to clean up this place.  It is not dirty BUT it has papers from here to there and everywhere in-between!  By the end of today this place will look very nice--maybe!!!

On to mid-October of 1969

In May of 1969 I had accepted a teaching contract from Mr. Hayek at the North Dakota School for the Deaf.  The salary was a nice round number, $6,000.  I, in no way, had any idea what I signed up for!!!  As the summer flew by and August came I was ready but really was I?  The first day of in house meetings I found out that my teaching assignment was 4th grade.  BUT in other words my teaching assignment was one where I had better be battle ready.  The class consisted of only 7 students which would be contained all day with me but the range of personalities and abilities were as wide as the ocean!

• I had Jim who would challenge any teacher with his lack of ANY knowledge.  
• There was Cheryl who could go head to head with Jim in terms of NOT knowing the answer
• Dianna was in the mix and one had to feel sorry for her.  She was just a happy sweet girl with a BUNCH of physical issues which made her life difficult.  She was born with no ears so had plastic ones which she needed to hold her glasses on.  She also had a cleft plate and her eyesight was terrible without her glasses
• Going down the line there was Mary Ann who came to the school from the reservation.  She was a sweet girl with gorgeous looks and often thought she was in high school!!  IF you know what I mean!
• Then there was Dick who came from a family of deaf parents and several deaf siblings.  Dick was sharp as a tack which set him apart from the others.
• Next in line was Loren G.  He had the demeanor and character to match his flaming red hair.  In the end he was a favorite.
• Lastly there were Loren C.  He came into the world with pitch black hair and had a personality to match in MANY ways.  

As one can guess these kids knew Mr. Lee was a first year teacher and even at the age of 11 or so they tried to play the part of "Get under Mr. Lee's skin and bug him!"  Well I would say that I pretty much met them head on and most of the time came out on top.  But one afternoon on a Friday I almost lost it.  I had been going back and forth with Loren C. as he seemed to think he was at times the boss and at times the smart one and of course neither was ever true.  It was early afternoon and for some reason the kids came back to school from their lunch hour and time outside and they were all in a mood that was not very conducive to learning.  We were about to begin a math lesson where they all needed rulers and compasses.  About the time we begin Loren C. raised his hand and asked to go to the bathroom.  Now class had only been in session after the lunch hour for about 15 minutes and I could not believe Loren C needed to go now.  I politely told him that he could wait until after math class.  I turned my back on the class to write something on the board and as I did that I heard one of the girls scream.  As I turned to see what it was all about I caught a glimpse of Loren C charging out of his desk and charging towards me with the point of his compass in his raised hand.  Back then I was 22 and not 74 like today so I did a quick side step and caught his hand as it came towards me.  With a squeeze of his wrist the compass dropped to the floor and it seemed like time stood still.  Still grabbing his right wrist I looked around and all I saw was six kids with their eyes bugged out looking at what just happened.  As Loren twisted I held tight and led him back to his desk.  As I tried to continue the lesson I had scrambled ideas in my head as to what to do.  Do I leave things as they are?  Do I take Loren to the superintendent?  Do I go the the principal?  I felt that this was perhaps a defining moment in my room in terms of what the kids thought of Mr. Lee so with a firm grip on Loren's right wrist I walked him outside the classroom and we had a long talk.  After a time we both entered the classroom again and carried on as if all was well.  As the day ended I found myself tired and drenched in sweat but I felt I had made myself heard and the class would be mine the rest of the year.  That actually turned out to be true BUT there would be more adventures with Loren which "for sure" made the year memorable.  

OK I THINK I am on the right page one as it is February 12th today!

 TERRY

Here it is mid-afternoon and once again I am late with my blog.  Terry is doing OK today.  She was a bit tired after her WT yesterday.  BUT the news is they scheduled her for another thirty days which I am most thankful for as I did not expect they would.  I do think that next week we need to get more serious and get in our pool.  I do not think it will be too difficult for Terry to do that.  We will see.  As for now we will enjoy the weekend coming up.

I had tennis this morning and perhaps had the most fun in a match for a LONG time.  I played with 3 guys I often play with and they are great but the back and forth play was outstanding I felt and a lot of fun.  I was on the winning side in the first match and the losing side in the second match but really it made little difference as it was back and forth with mostly good shots and just just a lot of fun.

I have been in kind of a "down" mood the last few days.  Don't know why but it is what it is.  I have had many many flash backs of Dave and I.  As time goes by I more and more realize that growing up with little money did not mean our growing up was not fun.  The farm was fun (WELL OUT DATED BUT STILL A FUN PLACE TO GROW UP) and provided a foundation for life.  Perfect, far from it but really I am so thankful for it and appreciate it to this day.  As I sat on the couch today thinking about life then and life now I had some of these thoughts:

• I admit that there were times Mom said she thought Dave and I would kill each other but really I think those were few and far between.
• Town kids had their play areas and we had Lake Tewaukon.  Town kids had their ball fields and we had our corncrib as a back stop for our ball field.  Town kids had Bud's store to buy candy and we had Mom's cookies to enjoy.  Town kids had free time to do whatever and we could play as we picked rocks.  Town kids went up town to buy milk and we had Betsy and several other cows who gave us thick cream for cream and bread with chokecherry jelly on.  Well we did have something that most town kids did not---work much of the time.
• Of course any time I think about the farm I remember playing cowboys and Indians with guns we made out of scrap wood using the saw and vise.
• AND yes the days of walking to Lake Tewaukon to skate in the cold North Dakota winters.
• There were the days in 53-56  when we walked to Wood Lake School most of the time.  A time to race, kick stones, throw at fence posts, try to hit a gopher with a rock and often in the winter a time to run and jump into the ditch filled with snow!
• There were ball games with Dave and Ricky who lived a half mile to the north.
• There were days of shooting black birds in the trees by the shop and outhouse and then carrying them to feed to the cats
• On sunny summer days we could bet on at least one snake sunny itselve on "snake rock" which was on the north side of the bend in the creek
• One can not forget walking to the bridge just east of the lake and jumping off into the water again and again.
• I remember driving the Ford tractor pretty much all day as Joan and Dave stacked the hay.  My job was to drive around gathering up loose hay and dumping it on a pile that Dad would pick up with the Jayhawk stacker.
• AND one can not forget shooting buckets on the hoop Ronald helped us put up on the electric pole near the barn.
• Yes one of my favorite things to do was shimmy up the pole by the barn door and lie on the west side of the barn roof and dream.  Dream of things far away in terms of miles and years.
• OK so I could go on and on but perhaps enough memories for today.  I

I drained the FP pot before tennis this morning so I have had energy all day, well kind of!!!

I WILL END BY POSTING A PICTURE OF A WATERFALL NEAR THE HOUSE IN St. Paul

                     Pretty fun to see in the COLD winter.  As I write St. Paul has a temp of -4 with night time temps in the double digit minus figures forecast for the next SEVEN night.  On Sunday night it should get to -20, yikes!!!  One thing I want to erase from my mind is delivering papers at 4:00 AM when it was -20.  I am hoping people can keep warm and still enjoy Mother Nature.

Update on Terry

 TERRY

I must be getting old or forgetful or something else as I did not realize I had not blogged for two days.  Actually I was not doing all that great yesterday so maybe I can give myself a pass on Wednesday but not Tuesday!  Here goes and it is nothing new.  Terry has an in water therapy session at 2:00 today and then an in gym evaluation at 3:00 at the same place.  She is doing about the same I would say.  Her daughter, Kim, had planned to come tomorrow but she can not make it so maybe next week.  

Even tho I have not blogged for two days there is pretty much not much to say.  We do have the return of warm weather here as for a few days now we have had in the 80s which is very different than the last month or so.  

I am hanging in there one day at a time.  Pretty much have tennis Monday-Friday and take Saturday and Sunday off.  I would say my game over the last few days has not been at it's best.  But better days are ahead I think!

I have been pretty much vanilla lately as there is work to do around here and it just seems to NOT get done.  Well I did get the leaves blown out of the garage yesterday.  If one does not blow them out a couple times a week they settle in the garage and then stick to shoes as one comes into the house.  NOW YOU KNOW WHEN I BLOG ABOUT LEAVES IN THE GARAGE I HAVE NOT MUCH TO SAY!!!

I will leave things as they are and sign off.  Maybe more another day.

OK so here we are February 8th!!!

 Terry

Terry is doing about the same.  She will be walking with the walker in the house more this week as we try to ramp up her physical activity.  I THINK this may be the last week of WT but we will see.  

We watched the first half of the Super Bowl last night and then wanted to watch the half time show as well.  In my opinion the half time show was a dud!  BUT I admit I know little to nothing about entertainment.  I did not even catch the name of the person who was singing.  Anyway as half time came to an end we moved into the other room and I decided to sleep.  Terry did watch TV and I was awake when she let me know the final score.  She did NOT watch it but at times would turn to the game to see the score just for my sake.  I am not sure but I wanted Tampa to win.  I think it may be because for some reason I have a negative view of KC Mahomes BUT in reading about him yesterday he came across as a pretty special guy.  I may just be jealous because he makes $50,000,000 a year for playing!!!  Regardless as I read on the computer this morning KC just did not have the line play they needed to deal with Brady.  It seems unreal that a 6th round draft pick from 20+ years ago could now own 7 Super Bowl wins and 5  Super Bowl MVPs.  Enough

I am not sure what time I play tennis today.  I think it actually is mid afternoon.  Karl puts together two courts each Monday and we got put on "over-flow" today so it pushed it to afternoon.  

Not much of anything planned today.  Now that I am finished with my cards what next?  Maybe I could start on the 2022 calendar!  Wait I actually did start it as I forgot one of the birthdays in Joan's family but I could do more work on it yet it just seems a bit early to be thinking about 2022 as we just started that darn 2021 which is full of the virus.  Terry and I have been staying safe from it.  I am starting to think that maybe I should look into a shot as they are getting a bit easier to get it done.  I just do not want to drive 100 miles to get one.  

Well it is kind of a football day as the Super Bowl was last night so here is my short "hero" football story.  It was a chilly October evening in 1963 and we were playing a night football game at Enderlin.  We had won all of our game so far but our offense was OK at best.  We had started out by shutting out Oaks 10-0 and had won at Ashley, LaMoure and Kulm but most of the games had been close.  At Enderlin we scored a touchdown in the first quarter and held that lead until early in the 4th when we gave up a touchdown and an extra point to make it a 7-7 game.  There were few if any good kickers so most teams would run for the extra point.  We had Todd who was an OK kicker and he usually kicked our extra points.  Enderlin had the ball late in the 4th quarter and had short yardage for a first down BUT they ran an end around to their right side which was where Jack was the outside linebacker and I was the end.  We stopped them for a loss and took over the ball with just a few minutes to play.  We drove down the field and got the ball to the 15 yard line with almost no time left.  Our coach decided to let Todd try a field goal.  I mean a field goal in high school ball for us was unheard of.  Well Todd split the uprights and we won 10-7.  Now I had the tackle on the end around so I am thinking I was a hero but of course the real hero was Todd.😁.  It was a fun trip back to Forman but for some reason I never was able to sign on for millions of dollars!!!  The not so good ending was we went into our last game undefeated but I had to sit out the last game as I had a bad cut on my leg from a spike that happened during practice.  To this day I KNOW coach Hanson should have allowed me to play but NO and we lost 12-13 so we had to settle for co-champions of the league.  

THAT IS MY STORY AND I AM STICKING TO IT AND OF COURSE NO MONEY FOR PLAYING FOR ME!!!  To this day I feel I was a hero for the tackle on the end around!!!!!!!  I am not sure my defensive play even made up for my lack of offense but then I always felt that it was more fun to smash a runner to the ground than to catch a pass!!!

FP is gone and I am on the the rest of the day.

YES YES way to go Carmen!!!

 TERRY

There really is nothing new with Terry.  She has been walking a bit more with the walker in the house and that is good.  Besides that nothing.  She has WT again this week on Tuesday and Thursday and then I think she gets evaluated after that.  I am guessing it will be the end of Medicare paying for it so it will be home exercise in the pool.  We will see how things go.

OK I admit I would not know what it spelled either if I had not done it!  It is supposed to spell 2021!  Those are the 40 cards that are ALL ready to go for special days of people in the family.  I finished them this morning and I actually feel pretty darn good!  It is so nice to just go to the stack and pick out the card when it is time to send it as the difference is going to the computer, finding a picture and then making sure it gets printed and in the mail on time.  Now it is just a matter of stamping, addressing and sending it.  This is the second year that I have been able to finish the cards early in the year and I have found that it is certainly a good thing.

Not much happening today.  Terry and I will at least watch the first part of the Super Bowl.  I think it begins at 6:30 and I will not watch the shows leading up to the kick off.  KC is favored to win by 3 and I would not be surprised to see them win by more.  There has been a lot of hype about 25 year old Patrick M and 43 year old Tom B.  Patrick M signed a 10 year contract last year for $500,000,000!  How in the world can one player be worth that???  Those guys work about 6 months of the year so that means he is getting about 834,000 each month he works!  Lets see if a person is making a good salary of $75,000 a year they earn $6,250 per month that they work.  I think if I were in high school I may want to play football in the NFL!!!

Our neighbors to the south said they will be bringing a plate of food over before the game.  That is what we get for promising to cheer for KC.  Well not really as they brought food over anyway!

I WROTE THIS YESTERDAY AND DID NOT PUBLISH IT SO HERE IT IS!

Here we are at Saturday, February 6th!

 TERRY

It is now past 10 AM and Terry is finished with the paper and doing fairly well today.  Not any news on Terry as we are here at home enjoying the day.  She did say that she WANTS to start walking with the walker more in the house and that is a very good thing.  She has had a couple of evenings now where she is throwing up and I do not know what that is about but will keep a log of what is happening and will see if that continues.  As for now "one day at a time".

Grandson Henry had a BB game last night and John sent the link so I could watch it.  I spent at least 30+ minutes on the computer with NO luck so finally gave up.  I tried this morning and presto it came up right away!  I watched the entire game and Trinity had a great game as Henry was pretty much the link that made things happen.  I did not keep track of stats but I am guessing he had 15+ points, double digit rebounds and some steals.  They won going away with a score of something like 52-22.  He was way more aggressive last night which for him is very good.  At 6"4" and muscle to spare he used his body to go to the basket which was really fun to see.  I do not know if the most fun is watching him play or as he plays it brings back wonderful memories of my playing days a LONG time ago.  Oh but then with that I also get into the memories of the cheerleaders!!!  I still can hear the cheer, "Carmen Carmen he's our man, if he can't do it nobody can"!!!!  Well it is not a terrible thing for OLD men to have memories!!!!!  I may add the there were games when Carmen could do it but then there were games when he could NOT!

I have been on kind of a roll.  I now have 20 cards finished with only 20 to go.  The difficult part is finding pictures that are good enough for the cards.  I will hopefully get another 5+ done today.  I have kind of taken care of the ones where the pictures were easy to find.  Now it is on to the ones where I may have to search for a bit for the picture.  It will get finished by the end of this month.

Sargent Central High School

Sargent Central was THE item in my life from August 25, 1961 to May 27 of 1965.  The beginning was the first day of football practice as a freshman and the ending was graduation as a senior.  In those about 1200 days my mind was often on Sargent Central.  Now most of that was GOOD but I admit that there were times and events that I was not that crazy about!  Perhaps a few of the highlights were:

• Just being able to join football as a freshman
• Our undefeated freshman basketball team
• Our co-championship football team of the fall of 1963 and then our trip to watch the Vikings play.  Well the school bus ride to and from in the same day was not so great!
• Our basketball trip to the state tourney in the winter of 1964.
• Our band trip in May of 1964 when we marched in the Indy 500 raceway.
• Our 12 or so band trips in the fall to take in homecomings at colleges were always fun
• It was fun to be a class officer all 4 years.
• I would say my desire to have a special friend during those years was not the best thing in the world but then I always have wanted/needed someone to be with.  One can say that is good or one can say that is not so good but one takes what is there and does the best one can!
• Of ALL the things that I did during high school there is NO doubt that football was the most fun during the 4 years.  I would say that I am NOT one to like a fight but the tackling in football was just so much fun!  

BUT as I sit here in Naples 2300 miles from Sargent Central I am thankful for high school.  I know many kids graduate and say high school was not a good time but for me it was a grand time, most of the time!!  Brother Ronald died during the fall of my senior year and that did put a damper on much of that year but then as we all know family comes and goes, friends come and go and life moves on without a hitch.  As devastating as Ronald's death was it kind of brought me into the adult world of "life is NOT all fun and games and one just has to make the best of what comes".  It perhaps gave me some insight and grace to deal with adversity when it happened as life evolved.

Well I think I have said enough for today.  My FP is long gone and now there are cards to make and a wonderful wife to care for.

Water Therapy today and NO tennis

 TERRY

As I write Terry is awake with paper in hand.  I would say she is the same today.  She had not felt all that great the last couple of days but nothing serious.  We will see how she does in WT today.

Terry's grandson Sam spent about 3 hours with us yesterday.  He is down in Naples for a few days.  I do not think we will see him again as he may fly back today or tomorrow.

No tennis this morning as the guys cancelled.  Last night one of them said he thought it would be too cold this morning!  What the heck, it is 39 this morning!!!  Well I guess that is a tad chilly for us old guys to play!  I would have been happy to play but I do admit 39 makes it kind of hard on the hands as you hold the racquet.

Not much planned today except taking Terry to WT.  She will be there about an hour and a half so I will get to Costco and have them look at one of my hearing aids.  It is not working and I have no idea if they can make it work or if it has to be sent in.  I guess I will find out this morning.

I did not work on my cards yesterday but plan to do some more today.  It is so nice to have them all done and then just be able to send them at the correct time.  

I do have a story of long ago today but it may be one that I have shared before!

Maybe the summer of 1960 or so

I was all excited because Ronald and Glorine were going to spend the summer at our place.  There really could be nothing better than to have Ronald with us as he always had something in mind to do with us.  He and Glorine were free for the summer as they both were teachers so Ronald had gotten a job on the Wild Life Refuge for the summer.  They would stay with us ALL summer as he worked.  What is one to do with NO indoor shower or bath?  Well Dave and I had been and were planning again to just jump on our bikes in the evening and head to the lake.  Well Ronald thought there was a better way to do showers.  He got Dave and I working with him and we built a shower stall on the north end of the clothes line that was west of the the house.  We then got a 55 gallon barrel and cut it in half the long way so it was kind of like a tub!  Ronald then took the side that had a spigot.  We then built a platform kind of at the top of the shower stall and placed the half barrel on that.  Ronald then explained that each morning we should be sure the half barrel was full of water and then with the warm temps and sun the water would be nice and warm for a shower by the end of the day.  It worked great.  BUT I think Dave and I still preferred to bike to the lake for our bath.  

I would say that Ronald ,being who he was, a guy who always had an idea and always had in mind something to do was a huge influence on me.  Now I would never say that I could do so many things like him but it certainly has been an influence as I have lived life.  I don't think Ronald ever said this to me but because of who he was my motto has always been, "Never say, "That can't be done!" but rather say, "How can I do that".  Many times, as I headed Servant Camp, I used that motto to get things done where often others said, "I don't think that will work"!

I think that is about it for today.  Darn, I so got into my writing that my FP is now almost cold!  On to the pictures and cards that need to be done.

First midweek day in February!

 TERRY

As I write Terry is still sleeping.  She had a tough night as we were up a couple of times and needed to change the bedding once.  I am hoping she sleeps for a while as it is now 7:50 AM.  She did NOT go to WT yesterday.  She felt sick and thought she may throw so I called and cancelled.  She is scheduled for WT again tomorrow.  

Terry's grandson Sam will visit today for a time.  He came down from Atlanta yesterday.  Terry is excited to see him.  She was so looking forward to having him stay a night but that will not happen.  Not sure how long he will be here.  I think Sam has not been here the last 10 years as those young people keep so busy.

I started my yearly cards yesterday.  I was able to get 11 printed so I only have 29 left!  Doing the cards is pretty easy but it is finding the pictures and editing them that takes time.  I guess I just admitted that my pictures on the computer are ALL over the play!  By the way it is out of focus by design.  No need, if anyone looks, for them to see their birthday card early!  Not sure if I will continue today as I have tennis at 10:30 and when I get back Sam should be here.

We have chilly weather today again.  I know, I am NOT complaining but for Naples it is chilly when it is 46 at 8:00 AM.  Supposed to be only 63 today and I am guessing that is maybe at least 10 degrees below normal and maybe 15+.

I watched grandson Henry live on U Tube last night playing basketball.  I was happy as they do not show the scoreboard in the setting but at the beginning of the 4th quarter they panned over so one could see.  I then wrote the score down and kept track of it.  They were behind by 4 in the 3rd quarter but came back to win by 6.  Henry, at 6' 4", is a force to be reckoned with on the boards.  Last night was not a good night for him on the score board BUT he certainly was a HUGE influence in the final score with his rebounding and defense.  At one point in the fourth quarter there was a scramble for the ball but the camera angle was poor so I could not see what happened.  All I knew was Henry was involved and the refs stopped play.  They went over to the score table and at one time it almost looked like Henry and another player may be in trouble but nothing happened.  As I have said in the past those games sometimes bring me back 50 some years ago to Sargent Central.  I cringed as their guard, who played a great game, missed several free throws down the stretch and I said to myself I hope that does not come back to bite them!  It did not.  It is kind of crazy as I still remember in my senior year I took pride in my free throw shooting.  At one time I had 17 without a miss and when I finally missed one I was so so disappointed.  

Travis is going back to some REAL winter weather.  My phone shows that starting Saturday the night time temps will be well below zero for 6 days and for 4 of those days the day time temps will not be above zero!!!

Well Terry just woke up a few minutes ago and is now reading the paper.  She did not feel all that great yesterday but she is fine today.

It is already 8:30 and I am out of words and out of stories for the day.  I will finish my FP as I look at what the stock market did yesterday.  I want to see if my couple of Tesla shares went up or down!  I need that money for my old age.  Oh, wait a second, I guess one needs more than a couple of Tesla stocks to help in old age!!!

February 2nd and NO tennis today!

 TERRY

It is 5:40 AM as I write and I think Terry is still sleeping.  I woke up 3 minutes before my alarm was set to go off at 4:45.  Terry has water therapy at 1:00 today and I would say she is same as same as.  

I woke early to see Travis off.  By 4:55 sandwiches were packed, Coke was on ice, TWO cups of FP were ready and chips were in the bag.  He motored out of the driveway before 5:00 with about 1700 miles ahead of him.  I think and am hoping that he stops someplace this evening before he gets too tired.  He does want to get home before late tomorrow as the forecast is for snow in Minnesota after midnight tomorrow.  He drove 26 straight hours coming down BUT hopefully not going home.  After taking 5 weeks of vacation he will be back to work Sunday night when the temp is supposed to get to some minus number!

I did make Tater Tot hot dish yesterday but I doubt it was on the same plane as what he makes.  I went by a recipe and it called for cut green beans which were only OK, not great.  IF I end up making it again something else will be put in.  The other thing is it is NOT a slimming item so I may skip it for some time.

Well modern tech is not always good.  Travis left some time ago and I decided NOT to go back to bed so what does one do at 6:00 AM.  Well you get on the computer and then of course you use your phone for whatever. NO phone anywhere!!!  My first thought was did I somehow put it in a sack that is in Travis' car?  My phone is connected to my hearing aids so I put them on and dialed.  The ring was loud and clear so there was proof that the phone was NOT on its way to MN.  Well for the last 25 minutes I searched pretty much every corner of the house with NO luck.  I was hesitant to dial it much because I did not want to wake Terry.  I went from the garage to the pool area to see if the ring was louder or softer but NO phone.  Finally as I checked the laundry area for maybe the 5th time I opened the door to the bathroom that is attached to the bedroom and there it was on the vanity.  As one would know it was in the last place I looked!!!

I became sad as I said good-bye to Travis as he drove off down the driveway.  It was certainly fun and nice to have him here for a couple of days.  Just a great time to catch up on news and enjoy each others company. I really should say enjoy his company as I am not so sure I am good company to anyone these days.  

No tennis this morning and I am not sure I understand WHY.  I got a call last night from one of the guys and he said it would be too cold this morning so they cancelled.  Well I looked at the temp this morning and it is cool but still in the mid 50s!  I certainly have played tennis in much colder temps than that.  It is still windy but really TOO COLD.  Well I do play enough so it is not the worst thing in the world but still "too cold" is a bit of a stretch.  Well it frees me up to get some things done today.

I think this is about it for this morning.  Here it is getting close to 7:00 AM.  I am guessing Travis is perhaps going past Tampa now as he has been on the road almost two hours and it is 150 miles away.  I would think when you get on the road at 5:00 AM traffic is a non issue.  

Travis did take two cups of coffee so I went ahead and made myself another pot of FP.  Will enjoy it for the next hour or so.  That is it for now.

Tennis at 10:30???????

 TERRY

Nothing new about Terry.  As usual she is reading the paper as I write.  She does have WT tomorrow for 90 minutes and as I have said in the past next week may be the last!

7:30 and 9:00 tennis is cancelled and we will see about 10:30.  I am scheduled to play at 10:30 so I may get it in.  I did just drive over to the courts and they still have standing rain on them so I would say MAYBE 10:30.  As I write the sun is peaking through and that would make a difference if it stays out.  Wait and see I guess.

Well Travis and I went to the beach yesterday and there were big crowds.  As we left the parking lot which holds maybe 100 cars or so, was totally full.  It was a warm sunny day and we walked along the water for maybe 3/4 of a mile or so.  The houses along the beach are just so over the top in terms of size.  AND I know that most of them may be used just a short time during the year!  Yesterday I did not keep track but an estimate would be 25% were open with the rest having shutters drawn.  Many of them are 3 or 4 stories tall as the bottom store can NOT be a living space but only a garage as during a hurricane the bottom would be flooded.

As one parked and walked the short distance to the beach there were a lot of people in both directions with most sitting out getting the sun.  Oh my but some of those people look like they live on the beach as they are so so tan.  As I see that I wonder if there is skin cancer in their future!!

Travis is keeping track of the weather and it looks like he is set to leave tomorrow.  I am hoping he takes a break and stays some place over night rather than drive straight through.  He is set to finish his month long vacation next weekend so he needs to get back.  It has been fun having him here for a couple of days.  

No it is almost 9:00 AM and time for me to get off the computer.  Not sure if tennis will happen but Travis and I will have to find something to do if tennis does not happen.  Our wall sharing neighbor brought over a meal last night and we had enjoyed a "CRUST" pizza (name of the store) so we the chicken etc. into the fridge and will enjoy it today.  It looks delicious.  

Enough for now.  I am finished with the FP and time to shut down.