Here we are enjoying the first Friday of July 2021

 TERRY

There is no news about Terry.  Again, and as usual, she is reading the paper in bed as I blog.  She said yesterday that she wants to get the cover shot so we may do that today.  You can now go into a drug store and get your shot with no appointment.  So that may be on our radar later in the day.

John Mouw sent a stick of many pictures that I am enjoying in a big way.  So many of the pictures a person may see in the next many days are ones that I got from John.  

I am still battling this darn itch and rash that I have.  When I went into Urgent Care she said at first she thought it was shingles but then they are no on the back so she said no.  Well I have had a shingles shot BUT I think I have a mild case of shingles.  I am putting lotion etc on each day which helps but it is not pleasant.  We will see where things go in the next few days.  I am on some pills which I take twice a day so I have hope that by the end of the weekend I will feel better.

So here is a personal note.  Over the last several months I have put on some extra pounds that I do not need AND do not want.  So with some resolve I started on a plan that I hope will get the extra pounds off and then stay off.  I put paper and pen in the unused bedroom and placed them near the scale.  Each morning, the first thing, I step on the scale to see how I did the day before.  I realize that it has only been 4 days but still it is progress.  This morning I stepped on the scale thinking that I failed yesterday BUT good news, I was down a little.  So here I am 4 days into which may be a long time and I have been down each day.  I admit the steps have been small as each day I have lost somewhere between .8 and .4 BUT progress is progress and I am happy as of today.  I am trying to eat a good breakfast, as that is my favorite meal of the day.  Then after that no big meals and if there is a snack it is small.  I am determined to get at least 20 pounds off by the end of the summer so we will see.

No tennis today and for that matter no tennis until next Tuesday.  I would like to be playing at least three times a week but as of now it is only two.  I do get into the pool at least twice a day so that is a good thing.

The pictures that John sent can easily send me into a mental state that is sometimes good and sometimes bad!  Those days of long ago were for the most part GOOD but some of the memories linger in a way that is not the best.  Still I so so enjoy old pictures so here are some today.

I really like this picture of Mom and Dad.  First of all it is on the farm.  But mostly it is because of their smiles.  With the flowers I am guessing it was their 40th anniversary but am not sure.  Often Dad had NO smile for a picture AND here Mom looks so happy.  They are standing just to the east of the house with Mom's garden plot behind them.  If it is their 40th the year would be 1975.

Here are Aunt Mable and Uncle Olaf.  They were just a fun couple.  They lived in Minneapolis and then in their later years moved to CA.  Uncle Olaf died there and Mable moved back to Minneapolis.  Gail and I visited her in her high rise apartment near downtown.  They were not able to have a family so often we were able to visit them or they would come to ND.  When they came they stayed with Obert and Bertie.  Sometime in the late 90s I got word that Mable was living in an assisted living place in south Minneapolis so I went to visit her.  It was one of the most sad things I have ever seen.  She was in a wheelchair with a belt around her so she would not fall out and the entire place was full of people who were in their last years for sure.  I am pretty sure Mable lived to the age of 103 but am not sure about that. Anyway when I think of them now I shut out the assisted living picture and choose to remember visiting them in their south Minneapolis home where we would sometimes stay when we went down to the Minnesota State Fair.  Olaf had a laugh that would almost be as loud as Dad's.  Mom was the youngest in her family by 10 years so all of her siblings were much older.

I am thinking this picture of Dave and Marlys was taken in the early 80s as it looks like Mom and Dad's house in Veblen.  Again not sure of that.  If that is the case Dave would have been about 40.  

Aaron, Travis and John and the picture was taken in our back yard as I see the trunk of the birch tree in the background.  

Back row is Bryan, Roxanne, Esther, middle row is Becky, Lisa, Quinn and Bob with John just below him and front row is Colleen, Aaron and Travis.  AND I am sure this is Mom and Dad's 40th as that would mean the picture was taken in 1975.

Well that is it for today.  I will not swear that all my years are correct but then does it really make any difference?  The last picture brings a sad feeling as that was about only 7 years before the entire farm burned.  It does bring to mind that life is a journey.  One in which there are good times, sad times, difficult times and happy times.  One can lament events of life but then I think about Ronald and Janet who had such short lives and I then become thankful for EVERYTHING.

Here it is almost 9:30 and it is time to use the day to get something done.  The FP is history.  I will sign off and get on with the day but yet I know that as the day goes by my mind will, at times, go back to loved ones who are no longer with us.