Almost a week at home in Clarinda

45º here in Clarinda, IA at 9:00 am Friday with expected high of 57º.  By contrast, is 80º with expected high of 95º at our La Feria house.  I dumped .55" rain from the gauge a bit ago.  Yesterday was mostly overcast with off-and-on rain.  Is bright sunshine right now.

Long-time friend Charlie Mier passed away recently.  He had moved into Eiler Place, an assisted living facility, last year where I saw him last.

This photo from Facebook.  We stopped and spent an evening with Marti at her place in Gillespie, IL on way to Texas last October and kept in touch by phone over the winter.  She is still hoping Carl Pingleton can make it back to the St. Louis area soon where she can see him.

Things returning to normal for here with furniture back on the deck and the hot tub in operation.

Photo at right is me vacuuming up  the stuff Phyllis cut and leaves from the flower box area.  This outfit chips the stuff up and I piled them around the small trees in the front yard to keep grass from growing where the mower cant reach it.

I planted one of the Juliet tomato plants in the area right off the east side of the deck
and two more in the big pots on the north side of the deck (below).

They look pretty haggard and won't be surprised if they don't make it. 

Benches back in their summer spots and the grill where we can use it.

Big bench in it's place and the various hooks planted in the ground for the whirly thing and the dinner bell gong in place as well as the glider bench under the bedroom window.  Deck is about back to "summer normal".

The lilac bush beside deck is in full bloom 

Took nearly a day to take apart the two trikes in Texas.  Have to start re-assembling them now.

Some of the good 50 lbs of onions

Got the Teeter down in basement.

GROANER'S CORNER:((  A friend was laid up at home with the flu. His fiancee called and volunteered to come over and fix dinner and play nursemaid to him. He declined, not wanting to pass on the flu to her. "Okay honey", she told him, "We'll wait till after we get married. Then we can spend the rest of our lives making each other totally sick!" ------------------------ “When the drug dealers got divorced, they agreed to joint custody.” ------------------------ Aviator: First one wing came off and then the other.  Listener: What did you do? Aviator: I grabbed a drumstick and had a second helping.

Another time - Lynn