Wednesday, August 31, 2011

Class reunion

After 50 years our class was back together again. 11 of the 14 living graduates attended. One of those not attending has never attended a class reunion, one was in Alaska, and one who lives in Utah was unable to be here. The rest of us had a great time. One I wouldn't have recognized on the street; guess I hadn't seen him in 25 years. He drove by himself for 3 hours just to come and we were so glad. Our boat ride on the Mississippi was great, beautiful weather for standing outside looking at the scenery; the meal was very good. Diana hosted us in their suite (we were at the Hotel Julien in Dubuque) for a before and after dinner/boatride visiting time. A lot of talking and reminiscing was done. Most of us didn't have a car when we were in school, we actually rode the bus if we lived in the country, even in high school! Unheard of now. When we were in school the Lutheran church still had a parochial school and they joined us in our freshman year. That meant that not all of us spent 12 years together but a few of us did. All of us are still in good health, except for Leon who has had a heart attack and is battling cancer now. There was only 1 divorce in our whole group. Times sure change!

Wednesday, August 24, 2011

School starts

Today is the first day of school at North Cedar. Emily has already started her schooling; I am so impressed Laura has time to do homeschooling! I am sure it all will go well. I start school, volunteering that is, on Monday.

Not much to report this week, two search committee meetings, last night and tonight. I need to fix part of the meal for tonight's meeting when I get home from volunteering at the library today. Bill has Legion membership dinner Friday night; this weekend is my class reunion--celebrating 50 years. Doesn't seem possible. We have 10 out of 14 classmates coming. We should have lots of time to get reacquainted.

Ben finished his racing at Tipton last Friday night--and not in a good way. The B-mods only completed 2 laps before the race was called due to too many yellow flags. Ben wasn't in any of the incidents, although he did get sent to the rear for supposedly not following the flag man's directions. He still finished 9th in points; not bad for a rookie year.

Wednesday, August 17, 2011

Racing

This is the last week of racing at the Cedar County Raceway. The last few weeks haven't been good for Ben or his dad. Last week Ben won his heat; was leading the feature until a yellow flag, the clutch went out of his car and he was done. Dan had motor failures the past three weeks. We keep telling Ben that racing is expensive; but--- (I really think Grandpa likes it as well as Ben!) The car is sitting in the shop ready for the new clutch.

Have enjoyed the great weather his past week. No air conditioning needed. We could use some rain though. I watered my one tomato plant this morning and noticed something has been eating the tomatoes other than me. My cucumber plants died so only got a couple cucumbers. My gardening is better done at the farmers market.

Larry is farming full time again starting this week. He has been at work for the past couple of weeks. It just means I should make meals for lunch as he is usually here to eat. Makes me think about making good choices and think ahead (rather than at 11:00) so I can have lunch ready anytime between 11:30 and 12:30. He took a load of corn out of the bin here yesterday and put a new headliner in his tractor. So much happier than when he is working in town.

Wednesday, August 10, 2011

Branson

We had a wonderful week at Branson, seeing so many different things. Four entirely different shows--the best to my mind was SIX. I even bought CD's which is something I never do. We also saw Noah, a great theater production and we got to sit in the Ark during the second part on the show; the Baldknobbers, which to my mind is a must see in Branson; and another show featuring a ventriloquist that used dogs as his "dummies". We visited Silver Dollar City on a very hot day, 112 some said. We went to Eureka Springs, Arkansas for a day, shopping in all the neat shops and saw some very dry farm ground. We spent a lot of time in our house, sitting on the porch swing and reading, having the guys cook for us on the grill, and chilling out if that was possible in all the heat!

Yesterday, Jan, Karen, Ann and I went to Lisbon and Mt. Vernon. Lisbon has a very nice little museum that we enjoyed. Mt. Vernon has a lot of little shops and antique stores to visit. Jan took us for a little ride around town so we could see all the unique homes, both old and new. It was a time to catch up on each other's lives, Jan with her new grandbabies; Ann with her trip to the west coast, Karen with her son's new job and new granddaughter. Fun day.

As for here--my lawn needs mowing again, even if I did just mow Sunday and Monday. It was too long and now looks like we could bale. I think if I get it mowed again tomorrow it will help. Today I am off to the library to see what Vicki has for me to do.

Ben raced in Independence Monday night and took Grandpa along to the pits. Not a good night but finished the feature even if in last place. The motor wasn't running right and Grandpa found the problem this morning. Hopefully Friday night will be a good night of racing for him.

Enjoy the nice cool day!