HAPPY SPRING 2021!!!

 

TERRY

Really no news about Terry today.  She did use the walker a couple times yesterday and it seems that she does well walking with it.  I do stay by her side and hang onto her shirt as she walks but she has not had any "near falls" so that is good.  I am pretty sure she will be opted out of the gym therapy next week but will have two more weeks of water therapy which will be good.

I started getting the Wall Street Journal about a week ago.  It was fun to see this in the paper this morning as Terry and I were in this room on one of our National Park trips.  Of course the picture does not show the beautiful colors as much as when one can see it in person.  

I should add that it was the WSJ that I often would find something to cut out and send to Dave so reading the paper now is sometimes kind of hollow.

I had been trying to get an appointment for my FIRST covid shot for a few weeks.  I was getting concerned as starting Monday they are taking people who are 65 and up to now I think it had been 70.  Well Karl, a tennis friend, has a son-in-law who seems to have the magic touch in terms of getting appointments and he said he would ask Peter to see what he could do.  Presto, Peter somehow got an appointment for me this coming Monday at a Publix grocery store about 2 miles from us.  Not only that but it is for 11:10 and tennis is at 9:00 so I do NOT have to cancel tennis.  Somehow he not only got the first shot but also a schedule for the second as well.  It seems that MANY of the tennis guys have had their shot and I was beginning to feel as if I was the odd man out so to speak.  Well I still may be the odd man out but in a different way!!!

Not much, in fact nothing, is planned for the weekend.  Maybe a trip to the store but that is all.  I have been taking the weekend off from tennis and will continue to do so for a while.  For some reason my back is sore today and that has not happened for a long time.  Could it be old age?

SPRING IS HERE AS IT WAS IN APRIL OF 1956

Dad had been talking about the snow melt for a couple of weeks now.  It was April 20, a Friday that when I went to bed Dad said, "I would not be surprised if the creek starts running tomorrow as it seems the snow in the hills to the south is melting."  With that thought in mind Dave and I headed upstairs to bed about 9:00.  It seemed that is really was too early to go to bed but we had finished a game of "Touring" and then had a game of marbles and shells.  I was kind of "down" as Dave had destroyed me in both games.  It seemed that often we were kind of even steven but not this time.  I know Dave was two and a half years older than I but still I felt I should win half the time.  Anyway we headed up stairs with the idea that MAYBE we would see water tomorrow.  After some long talks about springs work, the closing of Wood Lake School and the frightening idea of going to Cayuga School next fall we finally fell asleep but it was closer to 10 PM.  

The first thing I thought of when I woke up was is the creek running?  I tried to look out the west window but I could not see anything so I scampered downstairs to greet Mom in the kitchen.  She smiled and said I should look out the west Kitchen windows.  As I hurried across the kitchen and looked out my eyes focused on WATER out of the creek banks and rushing like I had never seen before.  I knew it was going to be a fun fun day.  Without even asking for breakfast I raced out the east door, ran around the house and and with the legs of a gazelle ran to the pasture fence just beyond the outhouse.  There it was!  The creek which had been little more than a trickle the night before looked like an angry raging storm as it seemed to be 30 feet across and going FAST.  I followed the fence line east as that kind of followed the creek as I wanted to see what the bridge water was like.  In a normal mid summer day the water was perhaps just a couple of feet deep under the bridge and there was maybe 6 or so feet from the water to the underside of the bridge.  This morning the water was maybe only a foot from going over the bridge!  That was amazing.  I walked back and forth from the bridge to the outhouse on our farm.  That was maybe only a couple hundred feet but the sight of the raging water was unreal.  I thought about how long the water would be so wide and so deep.  It actually went beyond the fence to the north of the farm.  I knew that the water would be high like that for several days and then it would start to go down and the fun would start.  There would be fish caught in the rock dam and the later in the summer there would be fish caught in pools of water as the creek stopped running.  This was a fun day and it meant times ahead that would make the spring a fun time to be on the farm.

After an hour or so I realized that I was kind of hungry so I hurried back into the house to see what Mom had in mind for breakfast.  

As I sit at the computer and type about the past I wonder what kind of thoughts Mom had about the high water creek.  I do not remember Mom or Dad ever warning us to be careful.  Did they think we knew enough to stay clear of the raging water?  They must have because not a word of warning but then maybe my memory is not the best too!!!  

Anyway "when the creek was running" was a fun time and it kind of seemed to be the welcome mat for summer ahead.  

As I write today I think back on the farm.  The house, the barn, the granary, the chicken house, the steel bins, the corncrib, the shop, the outhouse, the gas pump and more.  Then I think about what it is today.  If you were to be driving on the road that went east and west and then turned up to go north on the road that led to our farm you would have NO idea that a farm ever was there.  All it is today is a grain field with NO hint that a farm ever existed there.  The times I have been there over the last many years always leave me in a sad state.  I know, our farm was outdated, it was old and it was not kept up in a good way.  BUT still it  was our home, our place to work and play and to have it exist with NO trace of what was is indeed a sad state of affairs.  Perhaps the rock pile east of the road remains there as a testament to what "was".

Enough for this morning.  No creek to think about, no farm to be concerned about.  Today it is enough to think about Terry's health, my tennis game, filing our taxes and keeping the house kind of picked up!!!  Well with that in mind I will sip the last drop of FP and enter into the day.