Everything is blooming. It was hard to believe that even in Massachusetts in late March bushes and some flowers were already in full costume. I was able to get to my group's meeting, having soup and bread with Eileen before going. We all caught up on our respective families which is always great.
Siobhan and Scott are doing well and are busy as ever. Siobhan is pulling a lot of weekend work. She is about five years away from full retirement from Verizon! Hard to believe, isn't it. She has also gone back to college and is taking two classes a semester. I am very proud that she is doing that. She already had 60 credits from classes she has taken as a Verizon employee.
A couple of years ago, the kids and I decided to have a brick installed in the wall of remembrance at Fenway Park. Siobhan was the CEO of the project, and it has been done. In addition to having a brick at Fenway Park, Siobhan was also sent a copy of the brick ...
My neighbor, Virginia, across from me here in Lemitar gave me a box to take to her daughter, Juanita, who lives in a town very near Siobhan. She invited me to come to dinner, and it was very nice to get to know her. She made enchiladas as we talked, and it was fascinating to watch her put everything together. They were soooo good!
The next night I had dinner with Edna and Mike midway between Upton and Lawrence. Of course it is always great seeing them, and they are planning to return for their third trip to Lemitar when the Sand Hill Crane Festival is going on in November.
Berthe looks great. I just can't believe how well she is doing. We had lunch at her place and just talked and talked. She was telling me that she has a hard time walking, her eyesight is bothering her, and she doesn't always remember things. I just looked at her and said, "That sounds like me! Except I am 72 and you are nearing 102!"
After leaving Berthe's house, I drove up to Beverly to deliver some things from my storage unit to Brie. One of them was a big wing-backed green velvet chair. I told Brie and her roommate Shane that the chair was very heavy - Terry and I had put in it Matilda in Elkton. They just pulled it out, picked it up like it was light as a feather...and off they went... now I could use my rear view mirror.
Youth! Thank God we have them! Brie looks wonderful and happy. She has an installation to do for one of her classes. I have heard nothing so I don't know if it has been done or just in the planning stages.
I left Upton on Saturday, headed for Youngstown, Ohio, with a stop in Kent Hollow, CT to see Cousin Nancy, who is a young 96 years of age! We had coffee and talked for about an hour, and then I was back in Matilda and headed west - go West, old woman, go West!
I reached Iowa on Sunday afternoon. All my driving has been enhanced by listening to Books on CD. So driving long distances doesn't seem to tire me at all. The weather was again perfect, warm and sunny. Dick and I had good talks and watched old NCIS shows, and Ellen Degeneres and some of the NCAA men's and women's basketball games. I went over to Starbucks in Ames and hooked up my computer, answering email, doing my banking, and looking William's Civil War letters and noting which ones I needed to look at when I went to the Archives in Des Moines.
I left Nevada on Wednesday, and drove down to Louise and Joe's in Des Moines. Joe greeted me as Louise works for a tax office during tax season, which is nearly over for her. Two more days actually.
Thursday I went to the Archives and spent about three hours there, going over the letters and my notes, and updating the letters on my computer where I needed to do so. Des Moines was in full bloom, and it was glorious. Gardens of tulips and daffodils. Fruit trees and red bud - forsythia and azaleas - all making me smile wherever I looked. There were some homes where the gardens were breathtaking. Unfortunately I didn't get pictures of them but here are some of the fruit trees we saw when we went for a drive...
Saturday we drove around the city. Louise pointed out where the flooding took place some years back. She described what happened when the Des Moines River began to overflow, preventing another river from flowing into it, thus backing up that river which also overflowed, making matters even worse. Higher levees have been built and the riverside parks have been restored. The Des Moines River area is very user friendly. The city fathers are encouraging folks to take advantage of it for fishing, boating, kayaking and picnicking. It is a beautiful area and one would never know the devastation that was once there.
While we were driving around I spotted this place and had Louise stop so I could get a picture of it...some of you may or may not understand, but I know that Phil will...
After the tour of the city, Louise needed to go to a ... CHOCOLATE SHOP... to get some Easter candy for Joe. This was some shop, all candy made on site, and Belgian chocolate only. Not only did they have chocolates, but they had gelato. Well, I thought I had died and gone to heaven! After Louise made her purchases, and I bought five pieces of chocolate, like I do when I go to See's (personally I like See's better - but shh...don't tell anybody!), I treated Louise to a cup of gelato. And was it good, very good. We both had one scoop of lime, and one scoop of creme brulee. MMmmmmmmm! Leaving the store, I took a picture of the plantings on one side...I don't know why, but I love this photo and have it now on my desktop.
I had a wonderful visit with Louise and Joe, including lots of crossword puzzles, recommendations to watch DAMAGES (which I watched streaming on my computer, at first not understanding that there were four seasons! Which led to many very late nights, because each season has 13 episodes!!! and I watched Season 1-3 - Season 4 is not yet available but I am signed up for it when it is!) and JUSTIFIED (I have watched the first DVD sent to me from Netlix - 5 episodes - the second disc is coming tomorrow!) We also had good dinner at the Lodge sitting with L & J's good friends, Katherine and John.
I left on April 1, headed for my first stop in Guymon, Oklahoma. The weather continued to be wonderful, warm and sunny. When I got to the Best Western there, they had no reservation for me. I looked at both the women behind the desk, and asked them if this was an April Fool's Joke. I had made reservations and had received confirmation from BW, as well as an email they always send out saying, "We are looking forward to your visit." There wasn't a problem getting me a room, and after getting my things from Matilda, I came down with my computer to show them that indeed I had made a reservation, and that I had used some of my points so that it would be a free night. All was taken care, and I thanked them both. Then I went to a steak house down the road and had a wonderful steak and sweet potato fries.
Up the next morning and off to Lemitar and home. I think it had to have been about 80 degrees out in Guymon when I left. With all the storms and tornadoes that have happened this weekend, I consider myself blessed with an angel who travels with me! The skies were blue as Matilda and I picked up I40 in Tucumcari, New Mexico. I stopped for gas. When I got out, it had to be around 40 degrees, with high winds blowing. I filled up Matilda, and then went in to the restaurant and sat down and ate a sandwich. I looked out the window and it was snowing! When I left the snow had stopped but it was still cold. Then the sun came out as we drove down the road, turning on I25 in Albuquerque, and 60 miles later were back in Lemitar and I was walking in through the blue door of Serenidad, back home.
Back in Lemitar it has taken me two weeks to get myself reoriented and to unpack Matilda. I know, you might say, what? Two weeks? Yes, I didn't even take out my suitcase for five days...and my rocking chair was the last to be taken out...two days ago. But now I am back and seem to be in full swing. Lots going on around here...so here is some of what I have been doing...
Outside and across the street, on Virginia's property sits a tree right on the road. As I walked out one day, I could here a woodpecker tapping away, and my gaze fell upon her apparently widening a hole she had already made. How do I know that she was a she, you ask, because I got out my bird book, and looked up woodpeckers. And there before my very eyes, was the exact same one I was watching...a female ladder-backed woodpecker. Her mate has a touch of red on his head, and Virginia later told me that she has seen him. Well this beautiful bird is there at her hole all day long it seems, and I am beginning to think that she might be feeding her young ones...cars and trucks can go by, and she doesn't move. Dogs can bark, horsemen ride by, trains whistle, but she doesn't fly away - she is one tough broad...
I took a drive around Lemitar again, and want to share a few sights...Remember the pictures of the area where the mission church collapsed, and they had a ground breaking ceremony? Here is the site now, completely cleared and being prepared for the new construction...
Driving down the frontage road next to I 25, I finally found the school that I can see from the highway. It is called Midway Elementary School, and is part of the Socorro School System. I find its design rather unique...
This past Friday I went to lunch with the lunch bunch...since it was Friday the 13th, on NPR's Native America Calling, the discussion was about luck...and about the recent mega-millions lottery. Even I had Joe get me a ticket when I was in Des Moines. Any way this guy called in and said that if he won the lottery, the first thing he would do was hire five women and have sex with them all at the same time. GULP!!! Everything went silent on the show, and then the host very nicely, without comment, thanked him for calling in. I laughed and laughed, and at lunch shared the story with everyone, and we hooted and hollered.
Friday night, there was a poetry reading at El Bistro, set up by the President of the State of New Mexico Poetry Society, with our little poetry group obstensively hosting it. It was a great deal of fun, and yours truly even got up and read one of her poems, getting just a little shaky at the end.
Yesterday, there was a huge meeting at the Macey Center at Tech. The Socorro Electric Cooperative Annual Member's Meeting was taking place. The unhappiness of the crowd assembled was palpable. The Coop has been in the local papers ever since I moved here because of a number of issues/actions involving them and the membership. The Coop encompasses several NM counties, and over 10,000 residences. I first went in and registered, and got my voting card. Then I went outside and talked with friends and new friends about what the issues were and how I should vote, knowing nothing about what was going on. Well it was quite clear that the Board of Trustees, made up of eleven people, have made a lot of decisions and spent a lot of money, and even voted at one time to sue the membership! In doing so, they have made no friends. When bylaws were passed by the membership a few years back, they were ignored by the majority of the trustees. Trips were taken and money spent ... well you know the rest. The membership wanted the Coop to be redistricted, with only five districts, which would mean five trustees rather than eleven. So I marched back in, got my ballot, and voted against everything on the ballot except for the very last one, which was the redistricting. The other items on the ballot came from the trustees.
It was definitely a hostile environment for those trustees. Outside, even the geese were hissing at people, and marching around, full of themselves...
Registration ended at 3PM, and there were lines still out the door when I went in to sit down at 2:30. A quorum was needed, and there was no problem in getting that. Macey Hall was needed because there was no other place in the area which could hold up to 600 + people. Here is the trustee's table on the stage, before the meeting started...
The auditorium filled up rapidly, and then clapping began because it was now way after 3PM. The trustees began to enter the stage amid boos and fists in the air, and inappropriate shouting.
The guy on the far right, in the gray jacket is the president, and every time he opened his mouth to say something, he would get booed. It was quite a meeting. I stayed until the bitter end, even getting up to call for the previous question to end discussion on some minor matter so we could adjourn. There were 600 + people registered (one per household or business) and after repeated requests for the outcome of the votes, they were finally announced ... all but the last proposal were soundly defeated and the last proposal - redistricting - was won. Everyone cheered, or should I say nearly everyone. There were between 125 to 140 voters, who voted for the status quo. The whole process reminded me of going to town meetings in Sudbury, with one exception. The moderator would never have allowed the outbursts that took place here. The meeting adjourned well after 6PM.
I have to admit that I was so pumped up at all the energy, negative or positive, that I completely had a melt down, and went to McD's and got an angus burger and fries, and wolfed it down when I got home. I have been really watching what I have been eating after watching FORKS OVER KNIVES. And I have been feeling really good as a result. I am back to my food plan today, needless to say. I don't think I even knew what I was eating, or how fast I ate it!!!!
Watching the American Bald Eagles live cam in Decorah, Iowa has been a joy. I have watched the parents take turns sitting on the three eggs, then watched as all the eggs hatched, and now I am watching them being fed. One parent (probably dad)is the hunter/gather brings back his catch of the hour, after which the other (mom, of course) tears apart the fish, bird, rodent, and feeds her eaglets. It is quite a show and I could watch them all day...here are a few shots of mom feeding after dad has just brought home a new catch - a fish - most probably from the fish hatchery nearby...
I took these pictures of the eagles just before I started the blog.
In my bedroom, still emptying out the plastic bins that I brought with me last fall, I found Brooks Bear, handmade for me by a well-known artisan of Iowa. All my brother's kids have one of his bears, made years ago. Brooks was made for me years ago also, and is made from old damaged homespun coverlets. Along with Brooks is the pillow my sister Marty gave to me when we were on our adventure through North Carolina, Kentucky and Tennesee. It too is homemade, and is embroidered with these words, "Bestest Friends are we." Now both are in my bedroom where I can see them all the time and smile...
I end this rather long blog, with the following photograph I took...
Can anybody explain to me what exactly a WIPER SNAPPER is?????
Life is good!
I love you all,
Sally
1 comment:
Little whipper snappers are babies. Thanks for finally taking the time to let everyone know what you have been up to.
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