April 13-30

From a gorgeous, spring day in MO,

- However in MO - you just need to wait 24 hours and the weather can change and we are due to get storms on Thursday!!

I tried doing this blog yesterday, but goofed somewhere and it didn't go - then was too tired to try again --

The past couple of weeks - and more - have been somewhat busy. We have been to large track meets at Cameron - quite windy - and Excelsior Springs - cool and wet. I wimped out at the second track meet and since Jim had lucked upon a parking spot overlooking the pole vault area and the track - I just stayed in the truck and watched - while others were cold and wet!

We went to Pomme de Terre last week - left on the 21st and returned on the 27th. It was a rather bitter sweet trip as we are going to put the camper trailer up for sale - Jim is finding it more and more of a chore to do the set up -- of course he also insists on doing it himself as he says my presence makes him rush and make errors.

Jim fished most of Tuesday and Wednesday while I finished one book and made great progress in a second book. Then at about noon on Thursday, I felt as if I had reached the 8th or 9th month of pregnancy - quite bloated and quite nauseous. I never actually became ill, but certainly didn't want to see or smell food. I tried to get oatmeal down for breakfast as I knew that taking pills needed some food to go along with it and managed a banana in the evening - for the same purpose. Jim began to feel queasy on Sunday a.m. - so both of us had a long morning of putting the trailer away and then heading back to Chillicothe - about 160 miles.

I have finally regained some sense of appetite this afternoon and Jim thought he was probably ready for some potato soup - so that became supper.

We have been watching the recent Tudor series on tv and missed the final night of the John Adams series (while we were at Pomme) so we are going to see it this evening. Actually Jim watched the Tudor series this past Sunday evening and I listened to it as I had gone to bed.

The conference track meet is this coming Saturday and we plan on attending. Jim went over and watched pole vault practice this afternoon and also watched one of the high school boys work on his long jump - he just needed someone to watch his steps and take-off - and Jim was quite rewarded with a "Thank you Coach French" when the boy left.

I have a five year colonoscopy coming up next week and certainly miscalucated when I scheduled it as it is the day after the Cardinal Relays in St. Joseph. The prep needed the evening before will keep me home, but Jim is planning on going to St. Joseph. I thought the relays would be the following week as I scheduled this before a track schedule had been released - oh, well. I always enjoy these relays as the spectators can be seated just across the 8 lane track from the pole vault area.

Keep us in your thoughts if storms develop in this area tomorrow afternoon and evening.

Be safe.
B.

April 6-12

From a coolish MO,

The weather can't decide what it wants to do, but the past week has basically been cool until Friday afternoon - when it was almost balmy - then the winds shifted and the storms arrived. We actually escaped the worst with just a lot of wind and rain. I may be wrong that it was Friday afternoon - may have been Thursday.

We opted not to brave the cold in Maryville on Wednesday (track meet had been shifted from Tuesday until Wednesday because of the cold) and instead we made a quick trip to the North Kansas City area for a few items. I've now been able to mark a few "to do" things off my list so that makes me feel better.

We really haven't done a great deal this week. I had a full day on Tuesday - breakfast at Nick's while Jim was with some of the guys having breakfast, joined Helen at noon for lunch, then met Sandy about 1:30 for dessert, and then had coffee with Pat at 4:00. Amid all of this I had fixed a good pasta casserole for supper - not knowing that anything was going to happen other than breakfast.

I think I had mentioned that the breakfast group was going to get together on Monday for ZipLock omelets. This changed and I have still to hear from the Ziploc folks as to whether the comments on the web sites were true or false. We had probably nine or ten for breakfast.

We have a couple of track meets coming up this week - Cameron Relays on Tuesday and Excelsior Springs relays on Friday. At some point we want to make a quick trip to Pomme de Terre to pull the trailer out and get it dewinterized.

Be safe.
B.

April 5 - part 2

I forgot to mention a fun thing that is coming up on Monday morning. The breakfast ladies are gathering at Margaret's to have a Ziploc omelet brunch. We have signed up for necessary ingredients and should have a lot of fun personalizing our individual omelets. I think so far maybe 10 are signed up so we should have quite a diversity of ingredients.

B.

March 24-April 5

From what should become a beautiful spring day in MO --

We have had a busy two weeks - or at least busy two old geezers/ I can't remember if the last blog indicated going to a library community forum on the late afternoon/early evening of March 24. We didn't have very many people show up, but those who did had excellent questions and were invited to tour the library afterwards.

I did the computer work for Mobile Meals on the 31st and have done envelopes each Friday - the latter doesn't take long to do - I just need to remember to do them.

We've had our Retired Teachers' scholarship meeting and the recipient has been selected. I've written the appropriate notes (after initially getting the 1st alternate and 2nd alternate reported wrong even though I had written them down correctly - old age and poor sleeping habits). All of I have to do now is to get Mr. Meek's signature and get the certificate delivered to the high school. This would have been done, but Mr. Meek fell in Colorado last week and ended up breaking an arm just above the wrist - needed a metal plate, etc.

Jim had a good examination from Dr. Kozminski and had good reports on both the PSA and bone scan.

We had a triangular track meet on the 25th (here), hosted Marshall (here) on the 1st and had a full afternoon at the local Joe Shy relays on the 4th. At least the temperature was tolerable yesterday as we were quite uncomfortably cold on the first two track meets just mentioned. Yesterday it was cool when the sun was behind the cloud, but at least a winter coat (with hood) wasn't required.

Jim has been puttering with getting the riding lawn mower started - so far has failed - so will need to take it out to be serviced this coming week. He usually takes it to be checked after the last fall mowing, but didn't get it done this past fall. It doesn't seem possible, but the grass is growing in spite of the cool spring that we have experienced.

We were quite disappointed at the Texas loss last weekend so we will watch the Final Four with not quite as much excitement.

We have three track meets coming up in the next couple of weeks - this Tuesday at Maryville, next Tuesday at Cameron and the following Friday at Excelsior Springs. Rain is being discussed for this Tuesday so we may do a second thought about driving to Maryville and sitting out in the rain - I'm going to have to feel a lot better than I do today to want to go.

Our election is this Tuesday. Various school districts in our county will be electing board members and we have an issue on the ballot to renovate the county libary. It was built in the 19teens as a post office and a Federal court house. The library moved into the building in the 1960s. You can imagine the condition of the operating system of the building - electrical, plumbing, heating, a/c, climate control for old records, needing of a new elevator, ADA compliance - and the list continues. It is really a marvelous building with the basic framework in very good shape, just needs to come into the modern world. The sad thing is that if a new library was built, about the same amount of money would be needed if the existing building was brought up to date for other public uses - so it is cheaper in the long run to keep the library where it is - just modernize.

I have potato soup going in the crockpot for supper tonight. I resent being in the kitchen cooking when something good is on tv. I seldom find much on tv that I enjoy so don't want to lose an opportunity when it comes around.

Be safe.