Nice day in St. Joe, Missouri

68º with bright sunshine here in Clarinda, IA at 9:50 am Friday with predicted high of 85º.

Yesterday we drove south to St. Joe, Missouri.  Did some shopping then at 1 pm we went to McAlister's Deli where we met Burl & Donna Penny from St. Joe and Harold & LaRhoda Neher from Hiawatha, KS for lunch.

After lunch we drove to Penny's place, there in St. Joe, and had an enjoyable afternoon visiting and playing Pegs & Jokers.

Had some fantastic really high clouds to the west as we were driving between Maryville, MO and Clarinda, IA.

Daughter Michelle is on the road today - got as far as Danville, IL last night from Columbus, OH and has another 450 miles to drive today to Clarinda.

Has been a seemingly long wait, but only 4 days from now I should be in the operating room in Brian East in Lincoln.

GROANER'S CORNER:((  A Dinner Blessing….. Ed, was strictly a ‘meat-and-potatoes' man. Over the years, he's learned to like more foods, but there are still two vegetables he won't eat. His family likes to tease him about it. One year at a holiday gathering, Ed got the last laugh when he gave this cute tongue-in-cheek blessing: Now we sit to eat what's here; we pray no green stuff will appear. No Brussels sprouts or any such and asparagus, Lord, would be too much. But give us meat that's white or red and potatoes, corn and lots of bread. Some good brown gravy wouldn't hurt and to top it off, some pie for dessert.
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“The cobbler's tools had a party. A good time was had by awl.”
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Son: "Dad, did you go to Church when you were little?" Dad: "Yes son, every single Sunday." Son: "I thought so. Bet it won't do me any good either."

'Nuff said, Lynn

Little sunshine today, but rivers are up

66º here in Clarinda, IA at 1:10 pm Wednesday with bright sunshine after raining again much of the early morning.

Took the travel trailer down to Champs Auto to have wheel bearings re-packed and new battery installed in the trailer this morning.

Today is the 80th birthday of my older brother Donald - shout out to him, though he ordinarily doesn't read this blog.

With all the rain over this area and to the north, the Missouri River is again flooding higher and Interstate 29 has been closed so we have heavy traffic coming up and down on Highway 71 only a few blocks from our house.

Plan on driving to St. Joe, MO tomorrow and being  with Donna & Burl Penny and LaRhoda & Harold Neher and play some Pegs & Jokers.

GROANER'S CORNER:((A biker is riding by the zoo, when he sees a little girl leaning into the lion's cage. Suddenly, the lion grabs her by the cuff of her jacket and tries to pull her inside the cage, under the eyes of her screaming parents. The biker jumps off his bike, runs to the cage and hits the lion square in the eye with a powerful punch. Whimpering from the pain the lion jumps back letting go of the girl, and the biker brings her to her terrified parents, who thank him endlessly. A New York Times reporter has watched the whole event. The reporter, addressing the biker says, "Sir, that was the bravest and most gallant thing I have ever witnessed in my whole life." The biker replies, "It was nothing, really ... the lion was behind bars. I just saw this little kid in danger, and acted as I felt right." The reporter says, "Well, I'll make sure this won't go unnoticed. I'm a journalist from the New York Times, and tomorrow's paper will have this story on the front page. So, let me get some details:"What do you do for a living?" The biker replied, "I'm a United States Marine." "And what is your political affiliation?" "I'm a Republican." The journalist leaves, again promising a front page story. The following morning the biker buys a copy of the Times to see if it indeed brings news of his actions, and reads, on front page: "U.S. MARINE ASSAULTS AFRICAN IMMIGRANT AND STEALS HIS LUNCH" 
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Seen on a bumper sticker::  Forget world peace--visualize using your turn signal!
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'Nuff said - Lynn

Rain, Rain, Rain

57º here in Clarinda, IA at 10:45 am Tuesday with rain.  Rained much of the night after midnight.  Local weather reporter showed that as of this morning we had 7.7" for the month of May up to this morning, with about an inch over-night.  The local fields are soggy with much of the beans not being planted yet and the corn that is up is very yellow with the cool and no-sunshine days we have had.

Photo from Facebook of Phyllis'

sister's grand-kids swimming in 

Hawaii.  Their whole family is

over there for a week, celebrating

Steve & Beth's 50th Wedding

Anniversary this year.

Sunday evening we went to Deb & Phil Tornholm's place to play pegs & jokers with them and Connie & Charlie Richardson.

Enjoyed the evening with them.

Have done little to nothing other than reading books and watching TV.  Waiting on next Tuesday - 7 days.

GROANER'S CORNER:((  The farmer's son was returning from the market with the crate of chicken's his father had entrusted to him, when all of a sudden the box fell and broke open. Chickens scurried off in different directions, but the determined boy walked all over the neighborhood scooping up the wayward birds and returning them to the repaired crate. Hoping he had found them all, the boy reluctantly returned home, expecting the worst.  "Pa, the chickens got loose," the boy confessed sadly, "but I managed to find all twelve of them."  "Well, you did real good, son," the farmer beamed. "You left with seven."
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Murphy and his wife went for a stroll in the park. They sit down on a bench to rest for awhile. Soon they overhear voices coming from a secluded spot nearby. Suddenly, Mrs. Murphy realizes that a young man is about to propose. Not wanting to be eavesdropping during such an intimate moment, she gently nudges her husband and whispers, "Whistle, to let that young couple know that someone can hear them." To which Murphy replies, "Whistle? Why should I whistle? Nobody whistled to warn me?"

'Nuff said - Lynn

A good-weather Sunday....after rain last night and rain coming again tonight.

76º here in Clarinda, IA at 1:45 pm Sunday with clear skies; forecast for rain again overnight.  Received .3" of rain through last night.

9 days --

Was given a prayer shawl at church this morning. to help\
me through up-coming surgery

Yesterday we drove to the Clarinda Cemetery north of town to Phyllis' folks grave.

Steve Gregory's parents grave.

 Sister Louise's grave 

Was nice outdoors yesterday noon

Huge flag yesterday on south edge of town.

   1

Yesterday afternoon visited with Phyllis' cousin Larry
Guthrie and his wife Linda who were up from Kansas
City to visit Larry's sister Judy Heuer

Friday and Saturday I

made the replacement wheel

chocks for the travel trailer.

Finished

Built some shelves in closet in travel
trailer to replace a hanging shoe shelf..

Phyllis says she will do the mowing this summer

Went to church this morning and then ate early lunch at "The Robin's Nest" uptown.

These two pictures are from this morning

at the I-29 Intersection with Highway 2

where we need to go across to get to

Lincoln.  With all the rain the last

few days and with the Army Corp of

Engineers releasing more water upstream

the water just can't go down.

GROANER'S CORNER:((  

  Differences Between Men & Women::

NICKNAMES: If Gloria, Suzanne, Debra and Michelle go out for lunch, they will call each other Gloria, Suzanne, Debra and Michelle. But if Mike, Phil, Rob and Jack go out for a brewsky, they will affectionately refer to each other as Fat Boy, Godzilla, Peanut-Head and Useless. 

EATING OUT: And when the check comes, Mike, Phil, Rob and Jack will each throw in $20 bills, even though it's only for $22.50. None of them will have anything smaller, and none will actually admit they want change back. When the girls get their check, out come the pocket calculators. 

BATHROOMS: A man has six items in his bathroom-a toothbrush, shaving cream, razor, a bar of Dial soap, and a towel from the Holiday Inn. The average number of items in the typical woman's bathroom is 437. A man would not be able to identify most of these items. 

GROCERIES: A woman makes a list of things she needs and then goes out to the store and buys these things. A man waits till the only items left in his fridge are half a lime and a soda. Then he goes grocery shopping. He buys everything that looks good. By the time a man reaches the checkout counter, his cart is packed tighter than the Clampett's car on Beverly Hillbillies. Of course, this will not stop him from going to the 10-items-or-less lane. 

SHOES: When preparing for work, a woman will put on a Mondi wool suit, then slip on Reebok sneakers. She will carry her dress shoes in a plastic bag from Saks. When a woman gets to work, she will put on her dress shoes. Five minutes later, she will kick them off because her feet are under the desk. A man will wear the same pair of shoes all day. CATS: Women love cats. Men say they love cats, but when women aren't looking, men kick cats. 

DRESSING UP: A woman will dress up to: go shopping, water the plants, empty the garbage, answer the phone, read a book, get the mail. A man will dress up for: weddings, funerals. 

LAUNDRY: Women do laundry every couple of days. A man will wear every article of clothing he owns, including his surgical pants that were hip about eight years ago, before he will do his laundry. When he is finally out of clothes, he will wear a dirty sweatshirt inside out, rent a U-Haul and take his mountain of clothes to the Laundromat. Men always expect to meet beautiful women at the Laundromat. This is a myth perpetuated by re-runs of old episodes of "Love, American Style." 

OFFSPRING: Ah, children. A woman knows all about her children. She knows about dentist appointments and soccer games and romances and best friends and favorite foods and secret fears and hopes and dreams. A man is vaguely aware of some short people living in the house. 
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'Nuff said - Lynn

Open-Heart Surgery

Looked back and found that my first post to Blog was Tuesday, October 11, 2011.  It was at 2 Miles to Travel   That was 2783 days -- Or 7 years, 7 months, 14 days ago.  In February of 2015 I switched to this blog.  

In all that time I have never, to my remembrance, said anything about my health other than the short hospitalization in September of 2017 for  Pancreatitis.  That being said, I will go into some detail now about an up-coming event.  

This is a letter I sent a couple days ago to my 3 brothers:

"For several months I have been experiencing some shortness of breath and heart pounding when exerting.  Finally went to emergency at hospital one evening a couple weeks ago during an incident when I took my blood pressure and it was extremely high. 

They did several tests that night and kept me over night, setting up a stress test for me a few days later.  With the results of the test I was set up for a heart catheterization at Bryan East in Lincoln two days ago.

It was thought that possibly some stints may be called for, from the earlier tests.

During the catheterization test they determined that one was 98 percent blocked with two others over 50 percent blocked and questionable on some more.  It was the position of the blocked vessels and the number that made the doctor say surgery is necessary, rather than stints.

He was hesitant to do it today, Friday, as he will be gone all next week, so open-heart surgery is scheduled for Tuesday, June 4th at 8 am with my arrival time at 5 am.

I'm to take it easy, not stress anything for the 12 days between the catheterization test and the 4th.   Will go over to Lincoln Monday evening and will be in a hotel with Cam's and can report to Bryan East by 5am Tuesday morning.

Will expect 6 to 8 weeks for recovery, so we are scrubbing many of the short trips with the trailer for June and July. And, of course, our involvement with the Glenn Miller Festival the first weekend of June.   Hoping to still be able to do the August trip, but will see how it goes.

Understand the risks and odds of something going wrong, but am assuming all will go well."

Since then have found that our son and daughter-in-law, Cam and Patty Miles from Marengo, IA, as well as daughter, Michelle Miles, from Columbus, OH will be here; Michelle coming next weekend and Cam's will meet us in Lincoln the night before my surgery.  By getting a hotel in Lincoln we won't have to get up quite so early for what would have been the 2 hour drive and be at the hospital by 5 am on Tuesday morning.  Brother Roger, who lives in Lincoln, called to say he would stop by the hospital that day.

Not especially looking forward to this; however, am told it is quite necessary to avoid an impending heart attack.

Will do some more blogging before June 4th and see what comes then.

'Nuff said, Lynn

Nice weekend

43º outside at 9:30 am Monday here in Clarinda - high to be 58º with chance of rain later this evening and pretty sure rain overnight.

Saturday morning we drove to Omaha via Highway 2 and I-29.  Lot of water.  I-29 just opened a week or so ago after being closed some 6 weeks from flooding.  Was one lane for a ways, some places, but traffic moved well.  We had been getting I-29 Detour traffic on Highway 71 just a couple blocks from our house for some time.

Phyllis' oldest niece, Ann Gregory, graduated from High School Sunday night and had a party at her parent's , Chris & Becky Gregory, house near Boys Town in Omaha.

After leaving Gregory's we stopped at Costco in Omaha and Aldi's in Council Bluffs.  Just got in the pickup after Aldi's and it started to rain; rained on us all the way home.

Practicing before service at the Methodist Church.

This was joint Westminster Presbyterian and First
United Methodist choirs singing.

After the 8:45 am service at the Methodist Church we went to the Westminster Presbyterian church for their 10:45 am service.

After singing at the second service we went to the local Runza Restaurant with many from the Methodist Church for lunch.  Then we went to local mortuary for visitation of mother of friend Steve Miller.

Well, only 150 days and we will be back in our Kenwood home.  With the temps in the 40's here wondering if should have stayed in Texas; but, the temps there all this week will be in the upper 90's so maybe that is too far the other way!

73 days until we leave for our extended trip in July including Indianola and State Center, IA; Columbus, OH; West Branch, MI; Door County, WI; Pine River, MN with many stops during the trip.                                                                                                                                              GROANER'S CORNER:(( Laws::                                                                                                            

Gold's Law: If the shoe fits, it's ugly                                                                                        

Goldenstern's Rules: 1. Always hire a rich attorney. 2. Never buy from a rich salesman.

Golden Rule Of Arts And Sciences: Whoever has the gold makes the rules.

Gordian Maxim: If a string has one end, it has another.

Gordon's First Law: If a research project is not worth doing at all, it is not worth doing well.

Gordon's Object Lifespan Theorem: No matter the amount of care given the purchased object, it will fuse/explode/disassemble within three days of warranty expiration.

Gordon's Warranty Law: All warranty clauses expire upon bill payment.
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A distraught senior citizen phoned her doctor's office.

"Is it true," she wanted to know,   "that the medication you prescribed has to be taken

for the rest of my life?"

"'Yes, I'm afraid so,"' the doctor told her.

There was a moment of silence before the senior lady replied,  "I'm wondering, then,

just how serious is my condition because this prescription is marked 'NO REFILLS'.."

"Nuff said, Lynn

Busy week

85º with a "feel like" OF 88º here in Clarinda, IA at 3:00 pm Friday afternoon.

It has looked like snow almost on the ground the last couple days.  Maple seeds are fluttering down everywhere and if we quit mowing the lawn we would have a maple forest.

Wednesday afternoon LaDonna Cabbage and Joyce Tornholm came to visit while Phyllis' sister Beth and husband Steve were here.

Lillys of the Valley from the yard

Chives by the back deck

 Wednesday morning had breakfast uptown at the Garrison House with the Gregory's, the C. E. and Carol Hornbuckle from Shenandoah and Patty Steckelberg from Shenandoah.  CE is related to Steve and Carol grew up with Patty.  It was also Patty's birthday so we celebrated that.

Wednesday, at 6 PM we went to Choir Practice at the Methodist Church.  The Westminster Presbyterian Choir practiced with us and we will both sing at both churches this Sunday.

After Choir practice we ate supper at J Bruners in Clarinda with Beth & Steve.  Also got to visit with several of their friends who stopped to visit.

Cussed grass keeps growing so got to mow Wednesday again.

Few iris bloomed near the deck.
Used to have irises on the east side of the
front yard, but they seem to have disappeared.

'Nuff for now - Lynn