Way Back When ...

We had a mid-Winter gathering of the "volleyball" group. We started many nearly 40 YEARS ago. Playing at the church, camping and gathering in good times and bad. Rejoicing in blessings and mourning at losses. Dear friends who have reared our children together and bragged about our grandchildren. And now our children are friends as well. They are responsible for planning this event.

February 8th we met at Shipshewana, Indiana at Splash Universe. The water park features a Lazy River shown here.


It was a balmy 85 inside while outside it was 20 and snow still lay on the ground out our window.


Our room was bright and pleasant. Very comfortable.


Also featured were twin water slides, baby pools, hot tub and a snack bar.

This is the 500 gallon tip bucket in action!

It Must Be Baby Wars!

Yes! We still had our regular Logan Day on Wednesday.

Logan shows off the bristle block ring to Grandma.

Grandpa showed her how to make it and it was very pretty.

A Bonus Logan Day

Kyle and Sarah needed some extra sitting help and we won. Well it was by default; but we looked at it as winning. So miss beautiful came in all smiles on Monday!


Logan's always happy to be with her folks. But she generally has a pretty smile for any of us.


Then it is time for a Daddy-Daughter communication session. That girl doesn't want for love.

Grandma is beaming of joy, getting an extra day of sitting with Logan.

Logan plays the ever popular busy keyboard and rocks to the music with Grandma. She loves to dance.

Mom and Dad go to see "Coraline". The old folk get to watch the wee one a spell. They warned us that she has had a couple of bad days. And they "forgot" their cell phone. We loaned them one of ours and said, "Go on and have fun. She'll be fine."

Grandpa gives a finger puppet show for the real Cora.
Cora was a doll. Not quite as perky as usual, but very pleasant and I enjoyed her company very much. We marvelled over someones idea of what animal these strange crocheted finger cots might be. (Someone seems not to have been in touch with reality). But it only matters that we could play together.


Cora played music on the activity seat and encouraged Grandma to dance while seated. Grandpa was kind enough to keep those fun sights just for family. Cora did like to see it and laughed with Grandma.


Then Cora had some quite time with books (Of course. Whose daughter is she?). She did like the classic "Pinocchio".

It's Logan Day!

Oh! I like to read Cheerios. What page was I on?


Yes, here it is. Mamamama mama ma.

That formula was just right, Grandma. It makes my tummy happy.

Let me see that jar, please. I'm not sure I like it.


"Is this spaghetti?" Or maybe, "This string tastes better that lunch."

Logan was really into moving furniture today. Whether it was stools at the kitchen counter or the sofa stool, she just had to move it. Heaven forbid it gets hung up on the carpet.

If Mom and Dad were thinking they would teach her to push the car and save some money!

Cora's a Toddler!

We still have ten inches of snow! It hasn't really snowed since about the 10th of January; but, the temperature has been below freezing. Well below ZERO a lot of the time. Love this Winter weather!

Geoff and Julieanna brought Cora to our house on Sunday. They were going out while we sat for her. She is getting to be a big girl these days.

Cora is a real toddler. She enjoyed walking around and around the hallway.

Cora and Grandma played finger puppets. You know the educational crocheted ones with pink dogs, etc. I can't identify more that two.

Are You Faster Than A Toddler?

Cora was teasing Grandma after lunch. And relishing it immensely. Grandma was too slow. You may note that Cora entertained both Grandma and Grandpa. She would beat Grandma and then check to see if Grandpa enjoyed catching it in pictures. Of course I didn't get a 'picture' and switched to video. Cora was puzzled that there was no flash when I used video.

Blue Man Group

Sally dragged me to the show. Thanks to Garmin it was easy driving. Got there an hour and a half before the show started. Parked in the LAST spot in the lot next to the Briar Street Theater. As we walked out they put up a sign "Additional Parking 1/2 Block North." We went in and picked up our tickets before going to find a place to eat dinner.

The theater had a good list of places to eat. Many have theater specials. Buy a glass of wine get one free, 15% off the entire bill, 20% off food, 10% off any day of the week, etc. We picked one we liked, not by offer. We went to Jack's on Halsted.

Interesting architecturally. I am always amazed the way places utilize old buildings and find them acceptable with second rate workmanship in fit and finish. Which is not to say that it didn't look nice and up scale. Prices were pretty middle of the pack. Sally had a cream of tomato soup, a whole wheat penne, chicken and portobello. I had steak and fries with spinach. We got out for $52.

The oddest thing about the place was that no table had salt or pepper on it. Not one in the whole place! So stop at McDonald's and pickup some packets before you go. We were done and out about a quarter 'til seven. And only five minutes North of the theater!

Our tickets were in Row K middle section. I would HIGHLY recommend Row K or L. It put us right at eye level with the performers and thirty feet away. The performers are very good at displaying emotions and feelings with their eyes. It is pretty loud but otherwise very enjoyable.

The best part was that Sally laughed a lot. It is chock full of subtle humor. At the end of the night I enjoyed it too.

They of course park Chicago style. You know when they park you like any parking lot; but then fill the aisle after you walk away. Why is it that the last one's in, the ones that block the whole lot, don't come straight back to the lot after the show? Being in the last space at the back I was able to squeeze by the putz in the aisle and go out the back alley. We were home a little after ten o'clock.

Oh Jiggers ...

Grandpa, save me from the 'NoNo'

As Cora tries to climb in my lap for protection from Grandma, who has just told her no no.

An excellent attempt to talk. She is a jabber jaws. And she CAN walk and talk at the same time!
It's great fun to sit for Cora. She interacts very well and picks up new actions easily. Maybe next time I'll teach her to drive.

Back To Christmas Day

I didn't take many pictures on Christmas. I spent more time just celebrating the company.



I think Tricia enjoys playing with the babies. Perhaps she realizes how very quickly they will be grown up .


It was a pleasure to just observe as Drew played with Alex's Nintendo DS. Alex is growing up!


A Handsome young man with a winning personality.


Ashley enjoyed her DS also. WOW! What a long way from PONG!


The much anticipated Turner Family arrived and made the day complete, as the whole family could be together.

Kyle and Sarah have a wonderful 'toy' in Logan. She is a charmer who shows that she is lavished with love.

The 'Matriarch' herself. You can tell by the look why I don't take more pictures. She is 'saying', "Why do you have to do that?"


Cora is very different than her cousin Logan; but every bit as loved and loving. She "talks" differently with much more tongue in her speech.

'End' Of An Era

Not that anyone will make note or long remember, "Oh, that was back in 2008 I think." But I have only four days remaining and my family will be cheated of nearly $400,000.00. And I can't stop that. The die is cast.

My time as an employee will come to an end. (at least for a while) And with that end is a big world wide celebration of a new year, a new world and a new beginning. I am ending my longest and last vacation.

I still don't have a plan. I have found that I won't be watching TV. I watch less now than I did before this vacation. And if they continue with this drive to 'digital TV' I won't be watching anything. I am really put-off by what I call 'digital moments'. You know the ones, where the picture has digital artifacts (those pixelated parts) and the sound goes out. It is like the television is confused for a few seconds.

And I'm put-off by the incessant advertisements telling me that, "Digital TV is so much 'better' and that is why the government has decreed that all stations 'MUST' broadcast in all digital." We should all know that the real reason is to move public broadcasting to a new band and take the current band (read channels) for 'homeland security'. Somewhere, someone will make money from the move. In theory, digital will be better. In reality we will accept a lesser experience with dropped sound or image because that is what digital does. To paraphrase the nursery rhyme, "when it was good it was very, very good; when it was bad it wasn't there at all."
And this is good! I will be spending less time in front of the TV and more time doing something else. Walking, cleaning out the basement, working in the yard?

Like the Cold, Reality Creeps In

I'm just starting to feel that I am no longer employed. Although I technically am on vacation until the end of the year, I am realizing that I don't have to return to the job.
I also miss the walk from the far end of the parking lot. I gained 8 POUNDS in 5 weeks! Have to cut back on food and increase walking.

Gasoline is way down! Yes, the price is, but so is my usage. I have gone from 2.5 gallons per day to .75 gallons per day. WOW! Or in economic terms, from $10.00 per day to $1.11 per day. At that rate I will have enough money to last a few additional years. Yippee!

Christmas is coming! I am done. I didn't want to go out yesterday, but I knew the weather was going to change and I needed to get shopping finished.

Crap! It really changed! It was 50 degrees when I went out at 3 pm. It was still 42 degrees and raining when we went to the grocery store at 9 pm. This morning I went out to scrape the ice off Sally's car so she could go to work. It was frozen hard, the doors were frozen shut and one tire was very low and the other three were less that full.

I started scraping her windscreen. I used the toothed side and scratched the bumps down but didn't get to the glass. I the car running while I checked her tire pressure. The front tires were down to 25 lbs. So I pumped them up. The air hose wouldn't reach the rear tires until I turned the car around. One rear was 25 psi and the other was only 12 psi. I pumped them all up to 34 lbs. and started on the windscreen. It was still icy but it yielded to the scraper. I stood in the driveway, in the 3 degree weather, in the 20 MPH wind, waving good-bye 'til she was gone from sight in her warm and ready carriage. Then I returned to the house and soaked up the warmth.

God! I am glad I retired! Now I can wrap gifts and clean house and worry about my kids and plan for the next thing to do. Which of the babies will I see next? How are those kids doing in school? Is everyone okay?

A New Avocation

I got the chance to do a project for Julieanna and Geoff. They needed child latches for the cabinets installed. And for me it was additional time with Cora.

Julie made soup and grilled cheese while I fed Cora. She is a good eater! So while I was spooning it in, I worked on teaching her to wink. Of course I knew she can't wink! That is the fun of it. She doesn't yet have the ability to wink; but she tried and it was adorable. She blinks and then smiles with pride.

By the time lunch was ready, Cora was wink response ready. Julie gave her some crackers and I would wink at Cora. Cora would 'wink' at her mom and smile. About the third time Julie said, "What's with that face?"

I said, "That's not a face, she's winking." Then I winked and Cora winked and Mom was amused. It is so much fun to experience these kids learning something; but, SO REWARDING when it is something you have taught them.

Then I put the locks on. Cora was right at my elbow, crouching down to have a better view under my arm. I think next time she will be able to install them. For a while she will be safe. No cleaners for her. But I wouldn't trust them absolutely. She is smart and her little hands can reach in easily. It won't be long before she figures it out.

Almost Retired

Well, a lot has occurred since the last post on November second. I worked until November 13, Thursday. And I use the term 'worked' very loosely. My delivery manager is great to work with and we had only two projects still active by the thirteenth. I had many people ask why I was leaving on THURSDAY. I wondered why they would ask!

I have enough vacation time (30 days) remaining to take me through year end. Why would I work one extra day? So the folks in the area took me to lunch at The Cheesecake Factory! Their meat loaf is delicious. And they gave me a very generous gift card to The Home Depot. Two people I used to work with directly took me out to lunch on separate occasions. And a couple of very special friends gave me farewell gifts also.

By the time l left on the thirteenth , it was hugs and kisses and tears. I will miss the folks intensely. They are some wonderful people who all pulled together and pitched in to help when someone had a problem with their work load.

Saturday the fifteenth Sally and I took off to Missouri by way of Prairie Du Chien, Wisconsin. I know, I know, that is not 'on the way'. Cabela's has a store there that is one of three distribution centers in the country. If I find a pair of pants that I like but they are not in my size or the color I want, the clerk will call the attached warehouse and order them down. In ten minutes or so they are ready. So away we went. We did our shopping and headed on through Iowa. We stopped for the night in the middle of Iowa.

Then Sunday we got on the road and drove and drove and drove. We went through a lot of country I've never been through before. It was nice to see; but a very long drive to Kimberling City, MO. We got there about five or six o'clock. We had dinner at my sister and brother in-law's home. We visited and planned our activities.

We went to see the Roy Rogers and Dale Evans museum. It had a lot of memorabilia and the story of their lives. Then we saw Yakov Smirnoff. That was a first class show. He is very funny and the whole production was very entertaining. The theater was full of folks. I think they said 1600. We saw the 'New Shanghai Circus'. It was very good acrobatics and adagio. However there weren't that many people there, less than one hundred. I picked a real looser.

The Jim Reeves Tribute show. Jim Reeves was a country ballad singer in the fifties and sixties. He was a phenomenal talent who had a fear of loosing his voice. This drove him to record many songs and save them in a vault. Although he died in 1964, since 2003, the US based VoiceMasters has issued over 80 previously unreleased recordings by Jim, including new songs that fans have not heard. The show was his 60+ year old nephew doing a few songs and telling his story between breaks. The warm up act was a big fellow from east Texas and a blond 'contest winner' from east Texas who had 'won' the chance to perform in Branson, MO. She did three gospel numbers one at a time and he did three sets. Her family came with her. There was her mom and dad, husband, two kids and sister and brother in-law. Then there were six people in the front row and I think three other couples. I bet it is hard to perform for such a small audience.

And we saw the Osmond's Christmas Show also. It was Jay, Jimmy and Wayne. It was a real first class show and it too was a full theater. The troop was an excellent group of dancers. They did some of my favorite holiday songs like Santa Baby.

We spent Thursday at Silver Dollar City. When I was a kid of eleven or twelve I took a trip with my grandmother's neighbor to Albuquerque. Down historic Route 66. As we went by Silver Dollar City it was a small outfit in what seemed like nowhere. But like everywhere in this country, it has built up and developed. There are an unbelievable number of holiday lights on every wall, tree and shrub. The shops in the park are craft shops of high quality furniture and articles made by hand. It was really very nice but my leg was killing me.

Friday the twenty-first we got up and hit the road for home. We bought gasoline for $1.55 in Missouri. It was a long drive but wasn't bad after we got into Illinois. Actually none of it was bad; it just seems like we are almost home once we cross into Illinois.

That is the end of week one of semi-retirement.

HALLOWEEN

Halloween came again, much to our excitement. We have fallen in step and decorate a bunch. Sally has a talent for building these little vignette in the corner of the front porch. A bale of straw, a string of ghost lights and a string of pumpkin lights draped on a home made chair. Some knick-knacks and a cauldron of smoking brew.



Tinker Bell was first to arrive. I took several pictures of Logan and she is making so many different expressions. It was hard to choose. She was so non-plused being set in a pile of leaves.



The Cephalopod was very good at maneuvering around her tentacles. Cora is very cute and good natured about it all. These little ones didn't go Trick or Treating.


Alex is next to the oldest. He was a Hobo carrying his jack o'lantern on a stick. Alex also did not last too long door to door. He got his fill of candy and came in.

Ashley was a NU Wildcat fan. That's not a stretch! They all are. She stayed out the longest and came home with not a lot more than her brother.

Here you can see a bit of all four. The older kids enjoy the babies.

And Tinker Bell was a darling of the trick or treaters coming up on the right. The ten or eleven year old girl was really smitten.

The girl whom you hear off camera and her sister of about eight came up the stairs and Kyle went in the door to get the candy. He dropped a Snickers bar in her bag and she handed him a religious pamphlet and said, "Jesus loves you."

Kyle took it and said, "Thank you." Then gave a candy bar to her little sister.

She said, "I'm all out of God!"