Lethargic weather

Just don't feel like doing anything with the rain and heat and humidity. The vacumn pushes so hard across the floor, the windows need washing but it rains all the time and it's too hot. I guess I need a vacation! We did indeed take a very mini-vacation Saturday if doing a whole lot of things in a short time counts as a vacation. We left here at 1:30 to get the Edsel from Mother's garage to be in Clarence at 2:00 to meet the other collectible cars; K C Syring and his hard top convertible; Ron & Kathy Robinson in their Charger and Brian & Becky Bergman in their Mustang. We drove down to Riverside Casino for their car show. Already there was Rick & Deb in their '57 Chevy and Glen & June Gadke in their car (sorry, I don't know what it is). Spent about an hour in the casino, left my money there too! Came back to Clarence for their Highway Buy-Way day car cruise which was just a drive on the Clarence Streets. We left from there, picked up Mother in the Edsel (she loves that) and went to the Lowden Park for their Park Days supper. After taking Mother and the Edsel back to their respective places, we went to Pat & Betty Blake's 50th wedding anniversary reception. Could have eaten supper in any of the places we visited--why did this have to be all on the same night? We heard the Manchester car cruise was Saturday too, missed that.

School here starts the 25th, teachers have to go on the 20th. I told Ann if she needed help before school starts to let me know. She is going to be busy; her daughter's baby is due the 26th if she goes that long and they already know the baby has some issues and will be in intensive care for a little while after she is born. Hope the best for all of them.

My lawn

My lawn is a mess! Thanks to all the rain and the water grass, grass that gets too long before I mow, and the moles, yuk! I have dead grass (if I lived in town I would have to rake) laying all over the lawn. That is except where the mole has dug and left mounds of dirt, and killing the grass wherever he traveled. We have 160 acres here, why does he like my lawn the best? In other horticultural news, I have been getting a cucumber every other day and one of the tomatoes has turned a slight orange. I have had enough green beans to eat with my little 2 foot row. A friend gave me some pole beans and Sherrie brought more cucumbers. Yum!!

Off to get a hair cut this morning; taking Mother to the chiro tomorrow, library on Wednesday and maybe a day out with Vicki on Thursday. This weekend brings a car show at Riverside Casino; Blake's 50th anniversary celebration at the Lowden Legion; Lowden Park Days, Clarence's car show and street dance and the Highway 30 ByWay garage sales. I think those are all on Saturday. Where to go, where to go.

Shopping and Cruising

Shirlee and I spent Friday quilt shop hopping. Thanks to her knowledge of Des Moines and willingness to drive, I got to see 4 very nice quilt shops. Highlight of the day was the shop in Ames and going to Laura's to see her and her beautiful children. Thanks, Shirlee. Now I still have to put my stash away.

Saturday was the benefit for Ross Butterbrodt with a bean bag toss tournament which Sue entered. There was a car show and shine in which we put the Edsel. After the supper they had the auction of many, many items and there was a silent auction also. Hopefully a lot of money was donated to a very deserving family.

Yesterday after spending the morning doing corn; we took the Edsel to Tipton for a show at the retirement home and then on a cruise through Clarence past Ross' house, Oxford Junction and Anamosa to Stone City where the majority of the cruisers ate supper. We left from there and picked up Mother to go to the Lowden Lions' pork chop sandwich/sweet corn supper. Today--back to reality!

American Pickers

Went to LeClaire Friday with 3 neighbor ladies. The first thing we did was look for American Pickers only to find they didn't open until noon. So naturally our first stop then was the quilt store. After stops at a few shops and lunch we went to the little place that held the junk/antiques I saw purchased on American Pickers on the History channel. The office gal, Danielle, is really very nice. She sure does have a lot of tats! A lot of people were there checking out the place (like us) but I didn't see anyone buying anything. Pictures were being taken. Imagine having a tv show based in a little town in Iowa! Fun day in LeClaire visiting shops. We then drove down to the Villages of East Davenport for more walking and shopping. It was hot but not as bad as last Wednesday was.

Bill & Ron R. trailered their M and MD down to the antique tractor pull at the Cedar Co. fair yesterday. Both came home with 2 trophies, (no money, darn!). Bill got a 1st & 2nd and Ron a 1st and 3rd. There are different weight classes you can enter depending on what tractor weights you add. Bill said the weights weighed more than they used to. He also had to have his nephew Ron drive in one class because of a weight issue. They had fun though and that was the main thing.

It's foggy

What a foggy day! I can barely see the road from the house; but Bill has been out and about already. We had a little rain yesterday, but not much. We are so better off than southern Iowa. The beans and corn for the most part look good around here.

We had company yesterday, Florence and Harlan came out to play cards in the afternoon. We hadn't gotten together with them for a long time so since I was sitting by Florence in church, I just asked if they would like to come out. She was surprised and pleased by the invitation. We had a good visit. Then Milan, Sherrie & Ashley came out in the evening. We let Sherrie win the rummy games and had a good visit.

We left Saturday noon to take my sewing machine to Iowa City to Shields to get it oiled and cleaned and then came back thru Nichols and Moscow. We stopped at 2 road side stands and got cucumbers, sweet corn, tomatoes and a green pepper. I think the sweet corn needed another day or two in the field, likewise the tomato, but fresh vegetables are the way to go. We will have our own sweet corn in a week or two I think. I even picked one small handfull of green beans from the 2 foot row I have planted in my flower bed! Summer is here!!!

July 4, 2010

Hope everyone had a great 4th. We did. I started by going to church. Around 11:00 we went to Lowden to get the Edsel, picked up Bob & Donna in Clarence and then to Mechanicsville for their pork sandwich dinner. Meal was good and afterwards we drove around McVille (that took 5 minutes!). From there we went to Tipton to line up for the parade. Donna & I sat and visited while the men talked farm with others waiting for the parade to begin. When you are in a parade you don't get to see much of it, but there were lots of spectators and a lot of kids just wanting candy. We decided not to throw candy because there is so much of it and a lot just winds up on the street anyway. We waved at a lot of people we knew from Clarence & Lowden watching the parade. At least no tragedy like in Bellview. We left Bob & Donna off at their house, took the Edsel back to Mother's garage and came home to get supper ready for Bob & Donna & Marilyn & Aldie. We played a few hands of cards and then grilled hamburgers. Supper was good--punctuated by the wind blowing off the screen above my kitchen sink and knocking over a piece of pottery I had on the window sill and breaking it. After supper we played some Michigan Rummy and Aggravation before company left. No fire works for these old people. It was rainy off and on and nobody was in the mood to go watch.

The Walk

I don't very often recommend a book, but you should read this one. Vicki said it was a good book, a fast read and a thought provoking book. It is. I read it in 2 hours. It is written by the author of A Christmas Box, Richard Paul Evans. Let me know what you think of it.