Here we are at July and the months is Dave's. An outstanding father, dad, woodworker and a man of God he had it all. We miss him.
Terry
People are thinking Terry should be in rehab and I could go to to St Paul.
I will make this short. My hands are not working very well. It looks like it is a ways for either of us being OK. I will try to keep you updated when I get better. Please keep Terry and I in your prayers.
TERRY
Terry is the same today. As I write she is reading the paper in bed. I do need to get her out of bed and put clean bedding on as it needed to be done a few days ago. But at this time all is good.
As I make my daily French Press coffee I was reminded of the time when I started drinking coffee. It was the fall of 1966. When going to college I worked under the Work/Study Program. I think that meant I needed to work to earn money to pay for college!!! Anyway the longer story is this. The work study program was part of my $$ package when I started college. The first year I worked as a janitor in the Churchhill dorm which was mainly for jocks at NDSU. I worked one day during the week and then on Saturday and Sunday mornings. The week day was fine as I went about sweeping floors. cleaning bathrooms etc but the weekend was a bit different. Most of my time on Saturdays and Sundays were spent cleaning up after the Friday night and Saturday night parties. I will not say what most of my time was spent doing but it was the kind of thing you wanted to make sure to not do it as a life long job!!! Well to start my sophomore year I WANTED a change and now. I landed in the barley department where two doctors worked. They were very nice and the work was mostly fun. The most fun was when I worked there in the summer of 1967. Several times a year I was asked to put a small tractor in the back of a pickup and head west to Casselton. It was there that the barley department had their experimental blots. That meant there were rows and rows and rows of different varieties of barley and it took pretty much the entire day to cultivate between the rows. But I got away from my point. Big Don was my boss. At times I would work on Saturday or Sunday and during those times I was by myself but when I worked during the week there were others working in the green houses too. The first time I worked during the week big Don came over to where I was as said "time for lunch break". When I replied I real did not need that he just said when you work here you need to take breaks. Well for the next 20 minutes or so we sat around and shot the bull so to speak. Well what is one to do when EVERYBODY has a cookie in their hand and a cup of coffee in the other hand. You want to be social so you do the same. Now I promise you they did not have FP and in fact it was far far far from that kind of coffee but it was hot, kind of tasty and I drank it to be social! That was the beginning of my coffee drinking. Later in the year I resorted to a new coffee pot to keep me awake the nights before tests. And so the story goes. To be honest I can not remember how I came to start making FP but I promise you it is a step above Folgers and maybe even two steps above Sanka which Mom and Dad drank in their later years. I did not drink coffee until that time in college BUT I tasted the coffee that Mom brought out to Dad in the field. Mom would fill a pint jar with coffee and bring it out to Dad in the field for lunch. I did taste it once and that is probably the reason I never drank coffee until later in life!
At 8:50 the temp is 84 with highs in the low 90s today so I will keep the AC on!!
TERRY
Terry is doing about the same as in the past few days. I would say that she is staying the same and that it good. We took a trip this morning but will talk about that later in the blog!
I feel like I have put in a days work and it is still not noon. Terry had an 8:15 doctor appointment this morning to have he hurt foot looked at. It was a challenge to get her into, out of, into and out of the car as we went to the Dr. He looked at it and said we should come back in a couple of weeks to have it looked at again. Not much news for a whole lot of effort. But she is again home and in bed and feeling OK. They would not give her any pain meds but said she could take Tylenol to ease the pain. Hopefully it will get better and hopefully FAST. I know, I should have had the bed rail up from the beginning BUT! I am wondering if I can take the afternoon of now that I have put in a full day in the first half??? I know, being a caregiver you are on call 24/7 and that is OK.
I am making progress on my 2023 calendar. It is slow slow work and I am not sure. I know there is no hurry but when I start working on something I like to finish it AND if you believe that I have some land in the everglades for sale😀.
With Terry's appt with the Dr. at 8:15 there was no tennis for me today. I do think I have tennis tomorrow at 9:00. With few people here now if we play we always play at 9:00. I would like to play at 7:30 but some do not like the early time and MOST do not like 10:30 as by that time the temp is pretty high. IF we had played at 10:30 we would have finished at noon. The weather here at noon had a humidity of 63% and a temp of 89. Better at 9:00 FOR SURE.
Some of my thoughts today are times with Ronald and John. John had a boat and water skis so he provided many trips around the lake and at the age of 10-16 that was a wonderful thing. The lake days are no more and they were a long time ago. Actually where we spent hours and hours swimming etc there is NO swimming now. The Wild Life has it and so to speak it is now for the "birds". I have always thought that wildlife is important BUT really is it more important than the human race as the lake was the only place to swim and boat for many miles and miles. Anyway I as so so thankful for the years we had the lake when I was in school. Now of course thee are not the number of people that lived there when I was at home. I can think of 5 farms that are now farmed by one or two families. So the people are fewer and the birds and animals are more so to speak. I think some people call it process and some would have other names for it!!!
Well at this time it is past noon so will end my writings for today. For those who read this take care and stay safe in this covid era.
TERRY
Terry is awake with her phone in her hand and the TV on but has said she does not want the paper yet. I am guessing she will be reading the paper with tennis on as the morning goes on. I would say she is same same today.
I saw this in the paper and thought it was good for a laugh.
Terry has a Dr. appointment tomorrow and I am sure we will make it but not sure how to get her into the car. With the injuries left foot she can not put any weight on it so will have to think of something to make it work. I imagine one could call for help but I am sure we can do it.
Not a lot to say today. I may just go into a "memory" and call it a day.
It was the summer of 1957. It was a Wednesday and Dave and I had been picking rocks ALL day. Picking rocks was not our favorite job but of course it had to be done as some of our land grew great crops of those ugly things! So Dave and I would make a game of it. A kind of round rock could be a shot put and we would see who could get it in the rock wagon from a certain distance. A kind of flat rock would serve as a disc and the same thing would happen, try to get it in the wagon from a ways out. Then when we got to the rock pile it was throwing rocks to see who could hit a certain one in the pile. This went on ALL day and it seemed that at the end of the day there were still a field of rocks out there. At best we could wish the crops to come up so one could not drive in the field any more.
Anyway the day was kind of uneventful and as the sun came close to setting we parked the wagon and tractor and mounted the big and little bikes and headed up to Lake Tweaukon for a bath. Dave Brough a jar along and for the life of me I could not understand WHY! It was kind of late so our swim was short as we used soap and water to get clean. When it was time to head home Dave said we should take the road that goes east of the lake. Just as a person went down a slight hill there was a bridge where the creek went into the east end of the lake. As we approached the bridge I knew for certain why the jar. There were fire flies all over the place. Dave and I caught maybe 20 or so and put them in the jar. When we got home we showed Mom what we had. After a short time and after Mom had looked at them we let them go. To this day I am impressed with fire flies and the light they make in the dark.
Well another day and not much new. I am in the middle of a 2023 calendar and I will work at the for a while. I never play tennis on Sunday and I will not play tomorrow either as I was asked to play at 9:00 but Terry's Dr. appointment is for 8:30 so I think the next time I play may be Tuesday.
So here we are close to mid July. Tomorrow is John M birthday. I am wondering if they have sold their house yet. I do think John and Jude plan to become residents of AZ after they sell in MN BUT they will keep the A frame if I remember right.
So I am finished for the morning and I think I will spend some time watching one of the Grand Slam tennis events this morning.
TERRY
Terry's left foot is bothering her a lot. It was injured when she fell out of bed about a week ago. She does have a Dr. appt. early tomorrow so we should fine out if there is more damage than we thought. She did go to the hospital after the fall and they said her little toe was broken BUT the foot remains very bruised and bothers her a lot so hopefully we find out more tomorrow. I am not sure how I will get her into the car as she can not put any weight on her foot BUT we will make it work. Her appt is early, like 8:30 so we will have to start getting ready to get into the car maybe by 7:30 or so. Another day and another adventure for sure!!!
It is cloudy out but I think I can get in a tennis game this morning. I have played very little tennis this week and it will remain that way for the summer. There are a few guys here but they think they are too good for some of us so our numbers are reduced to maybe a hand full. It does not bother me to reduce my playing time but it would be nice to play say 3 or 4 times a week which I think it will be a challenge to get that much in.
People of Praise is having their 50 year celebration in the twin cities this weekend. I am guessing there will be much activity and many guests coming in from out of town. I think it goes through the weekend. It would be nice to be there but that is not to be.
We are now in the rainy season. I would say you could almost set your watches by when the thunder and rain come in each afternoon. Really there is much more thunder than rain. I would say in the last few days we have gotten between .2 and .5" each day. One thing it does is it gets things growing and greening really nicely.
With time on my hands now I have time to think and remember about times past.
I perhaps have written about this in the past but will do it again. Larry and I went on a Saturday evening cycling ride in July of 1966. We rode to Forman where many of the kids we knew were from but did not hook up with any. So after riding around Forman and stopping at the ice cream stand we headed back home. I would say as we arrived back at Cayuga the time was perhaps 10:00 or so. In Cayuga the main road goes right past the two liquor stores, past the implement dealer and out of town going south. Well Larry was maybe 20 feet ahead of me as we entered Cayuga. As he went past a parked car a drunk put the car in reverse and back into me. It put my cycle on the side and my left leg was burned from the exhaust. The sheriff was called and I think nothing happened to the guy. The next day Larry, JoEllen and Patty came out to the farm to see how I was. I was fine but I had a permanent scar on my upper leg from the burn. I do not know but it seemed that the drunk simply went home with no consequents of any kind. I guess the sheriff felt the young motorcycle guys were in the wrong!!! In the two years I had my Harly 250 Sprint that was the only accident I had and of course it was NOT my fault. As I remember it now I wish I had taken some action but back then I just let it go.
So here it is about 8:15. I will clean some things up in the house and then get dressed for tennis. I will be a bit rusty as I have not played for a few days but then with the state of my game a bit of rust may not be that bad!
TERRY
Terry has been up for some time and is now reading the paper. She was watching TV when I woke. I would say there is nothing new so that is good. Another day and we take life as it comes!
I received a bill from the hospital yesterday. I do not remember how long I was in but I am guessing it was less than a week. The bill was $40,500. They said I owed $300! It would be next to impossible to figure out what everything was so without going into detail I send in the $300.
Again NO tennis today but I do have a match tomorrow and that will be good. I am guessing that now with summer in full swing and maybe 90% of the players gone tennis is going to be maybe twice a week and I can live with that although I would prefer to play much more.
There is nothing on the agenda today so maybe I should get some work done. I have been doing a little work on a 2023 calendar so I may work on that some more. I also have my guitar out and maybe, just maybe, I will try to work on that this summer. I am not sure Terry can stand the noise so I may have to be kind of quiet!
I also have not talked to Joan for some time and actually have not talked to Helen for some time as well so I may give them a call. Quinn, Joan's son, is dealing with a major illness and I would like to find out how he is doing.
As I sit at my desk here I have on the wall the Certificate of Registration of my book with the library of congress # etc on it. It makes me kind of want to write another book but not sure I can come up with enough different things to write about. Maybe!!!!
I did something that was GOOD and BAD the other day. I made potato salad. It is good because it tasted so so good but it has tooooooo many calories in it. I stood on the scale this morning and the numbers were NOT good. So I have a plan and on a daily bases I will see if I can stick to it. The plan is a secret but will report on it on the 18th.
I think I am finished writing for the day. So will sign off and see what I can do for the day that is constructive IF anything. I still have some FP left so will linger on the computer for a while.
TERRY
As I write Terry has the TV on and the newspaper but I do not think she is reading it yet. She fell out of bed a few days ago and broke her toe. We now have a rail up and perhaps I should have had that up before the fall but who knew. She has an appointment to have her toe looked at in a few days. Her foot is black blue and she says it often hurts so another look will be good. She has not been out of bed for a few weeks. That is not good and I need to encourage her to get into the wheelchair and out to the living room. That is about it for now.
Here we are approaching mid July and the weather here in Naples will tell you that. The days high temps usually are in the low 90s every day!!! That along with the humidity makes it feel some days as if it is above 100. I think the weather said yesterday it was 103 taking into consideration the humidity. Not ideal for tennis for sure!!!
Really I have not been doing all that much. Yes, of course, I take care of Terry and actually that takes much of my time but really there is plenty of time to do things and I just kind of don't get things done. Well to be honest there is not a lot that needs to be done but I could arrange, clean or get things in order but most things remain as they are day in and day out!!!
I have make some progress on a 2023 calendar but I tell myself there is plenty of time for that. I do enjoy finding pictures etc as I must have 1000s of them in print and on the computer.
I will finish up with a story of what I really enjoyed in the summer when it happened.
A Sunday on the lake
I felt that Lake Tewaukon was MY lake. In the summer Dave and I pretty much used the lake for our bathtub daily. We had NO bathtub at home so when the days work was finished we would grab a towel, soap and washcloth and head the half mile north. Dave always had the big bike and I the small bike. If the wind was from the east the lake would be nice and clean. If it was from the west there were be a film of green near the shore. If that were the case we would need to wade out beyond the green water which would be maybe 5 feet or so and then wash up. I would say almost 100% of the time we would be the only ones there.
But on Sunday it would be different. Up until I finished high school the lake was open for swimming, fishing etc. After that the Wildlife took it over and it was for the birds, really! But during the summers of the late 50s and early 60s it was a destination for Sunday. There would be boats and many people having picnics in the afternoons. There were times that we enjoyed people we knew from Cayuga as they came to swim and enjoy the lake. The Saunders would sometimes bring their canoe with the sale on it and of course GAIL would come as well!!! We would spend many a summers swimming, boating and just having fun. It was a special time for me as it seemed like I was way way out of the loop in terms of friends. We lived 25 miles from the high school and the kids from high school who went to the lakes often went to Silver Lake which was south of Rutland. But there were time when Lake Tewaukon was a bee hive activity. I would often get my golf clubs out and play my one hole golf course from the house to the ditch by the mail box. If or when a car went by that I knew I would jump on my bike and head to the lake. I had this stretch swim suit that was blue with a while band around the top and I thought I was pretty hot!!! It is fun to remember back on those days. After I left home the Wildlife took over the lake and I am not sure if swimming is even allowed now. It is a like for the birds so to speak. The families right by the lake were bought out by the Wildlife and forced to move. It was at that time that Ricky had to move but I think it took place after he left home. Anyway, for sure, during my last three years of high school Lake Tewaukon was an oasis of fun as I felt I was alone during the week. Dave had left home after my freshman year of high school so it was up to me to find things to do when I was not doing farm work. It was then that I made my golf course, cleaned up the old hog barn, cleaned up the old shed that blew down and other things as well. Dad was into hunting. Dad was into photography. Dad was not into improving the farm in any way. I say that not to criticize but just to say that was who Dad was.
So I close today with a thankful heart for where I came from.
TERRY
I would say Terry is doing fine today as she reads the Sunday paper this morning. She has the TV on but mostly has her face in the huge Sunday paper. All is good for now.
There has been much rain in FL but not here. Well actually we did have a couple inches a few days ago but not in the last while. We have clear skies and sun so it looks like no rain at least in the early hours today.
I did get in some tennis yesterday. Usually I do not play on Saturday but I had not played for a couple of days so went over to the courts and there were 6 guys there. On Saturday it is a just show up and who comes plays. Four guys play and then after 4 points we rotated two out and two in. I am thinking I played for an hour out of the hour and a half. At this point I am not concerned who I play with as my mind is often not so much on the court as it is with home things as one could guess. So with the guys I usually play with there are NO 4 star players if you get my point but then I am not a 4 star player either so!!!
I think I am going to the grocery store to pick up some things for a meal. I will do that later in the morning.
I am tired today. I woke up several times last night to take care of things that needed to be done. The good thing is in our relaxed life style I should be able to take a nap today. I remember growing up how I absolutely hated it when Dad would take a nap Sunday afternoon. Of course I do not have any kids wanting me to hit fly balls to so it is a bit different I would say.
Sundays are a good time to relax and think about what was way back so here is a story about that.
There were cats looking for a treat
It was sometime in the winter of 1958. There was much snow on the ground and the temp seemed to be close to zero or below but as was the everyday happening we needed to milk the cows in the evening. I kind of liked to in some ways. By milking time which was 5:30 or so it was dark. So before going out to milk the 5 cows I would take the kerosene lantern off of the nail in the entrance and light it before going out to milk. Tramping through the snow the crunch of my overshoes in the snow almost sounded like music as I made my way out to the barn. When I opened the barn door the warmth of the cattle and hay made it seem like not so much work. Before I got down to milking the cows I opened the door to the hay barn which was the north third of the barn. Our barn was one story as opposed to most farms that had two story barns. I took a big fork full of hay and threw it over the pen to the calves in the first pen. They were calves that I had played with in the summer after they were born but I knew they were headed for the sale barn in the spring. It almost made me sad as I looked at each one and felt I was kind of responsible for where they were headed. After feeding the calves I gave each cow some hay and a hand full of oats that I had in the pail. We had a steel bin full of oats that would be sold in the spring but for now a handful of oats for each cow was their treat. Finally after feeding the calves, feeding the cows and checking the water tank to make sure it was full of water I begin to get to my main chore, milking. I hung the lantern on a nail on the west wall and settled in to milk the cows. I started with Betsy and I knew she was not all that good for much milk so it went pretty fast. They I milked lumpy as she had a lump on her jaw so our name for here was not all that creative. Of course with the first two cows I had to fill the dish for the cats. I did not see them until I filled the bowl with milk and then they seemed to come out of the wall but of course they were in the shadows waiting for their treat. My last cow was my least favorite as she often tried to fuss and kick. So I would put the kickers on. The kickers were a short chain with a cup on each end. You would put one end on the leg and then bring the chain around and put the other end on the other leg. If she tried to kick she could only move her leg a short ways and I make sure I keep the milk pail far enough from her legs so the kick would not reach the pail. We had Shorthorn cattle and they were beef cattle so by the time I finished milking I probably had a pail and a half only. Well I would have had more if there were not cats around! So with the lantern and half a pail of milk in one hand and the other pail in the other hand I headed to the house. I would leave the milk in the entrance as that was where our milk separator was. I knew Mom would have things ready so all I had to do was pour the milk into the separator and turn it on. The cream would come out of one spout and the milk would come out of the other. The cream was used for cooking and for breakfast food and we would sell the milk in 5 gallon cans as we would bring it into Cayuga to Benny Flash. We also brought our eggs to sell to Benny Flash.
As the years went by there were major changes. Dave went off to work in the summer and then off for good when he graduated. There came a time when we did not milk any more. I remember Mom would go over to a neighbor and buy cream that actually was thicker and better than the cream we got. I know because when I ate cream and bread it was so so good.
I suppose one could call those days "the good old days" and really they pretty much were. I know we did not have much money BUT we seemed to get by and for the most part us kids did not go without anything we needed. Oh of course we could have had newer clothes but that was not so bad. We could have had fancy meals but we had good meals. I am sure when I was in high school I felt I could have been a better person with more things but actually that probably was not true. Really the only thing that I really wanted and never got was a nicer car! OK so our car was old but it was pretty well kept up and only failed me once when I was dating. I perhaps have written about that and it was not a great story. But still I was aware that driving a 1952 or 53 Ford in the early or mid 60s did not impress the girls in the lest way! As us kids grew and left home Mom and Dad were able to have better cars and that was good.
So I close a chapter of my life that in many ways was a good chapter. Of course at the time I felt I had less than most kids but really back then there were many with less for sure.
I close today with somewhat of an anxious spirit. I am not sure. Maybe it is health but I do not think so. I think it may be just the fact that our family of 8 is now down to 3 and that is sad. But what is one to expect? Time marches on, we all get old, right! I am hoping all the grandkids have a fun holiday as we celebrate July 4th and give thanks for the wonderful country we life in. May the month of July bring good things to all.
