April is here

 52º and dark at 8:45 pm in Clarinda, IA Saturday,; but had bright sunshine during much of the day after a low of 37º early this morning.

Thursday we drove the two hours south and west to Hiawatha, KS to visit our dear friends Harold and LaRhoda Neher.  The were in Kenwood RV Park in La Feria, TX for many years and in 2011, after Harold gave us a heads-up, we bought the mobile home beside their unit there in the park.  So, we were next-door neighbors from 2011 to spring of 2020.  Because of Covid-19 they did not come to the Valley in fall of 2020 so missed the 2020-2021 season.  

In the fall of 2021 they decided, due to their age and health issues, to sell their unit.  We cleaned out their unit, advertised it in the Valley Park papers and put the buyer in touch with them to make the sale.  We watched their unit being moved from the park--and now use what was their drive and area under carport for our parking.   We brought several boxes of stuff from their unit to them at their farm near Hiawatha, KS.

As has been the custom of our visiting them in the summer months over the years,   LaRhoda fixed a great lunch, as she usually does, with spare ribs, baked potatoes, green beans from their garden, a cranberry salad, and - later - home-made peach pie made with peaches from their own tree.   All delicious and with good visiting.

After lunch we played many games of pegs & jokers, Harold's favorite game; allowing the women to win a few games.

We do enjoy our time with Harold & LaRhoda and will try to get down to their place several more times this summer.

I started this yesterday---but, it is now 11:30 am on Sunday - was 37º again this morning and is now 57º, overcast with 20% chance of sprinkles this afternoon.

Yesterday, early, had just a skiff of snow on the deck.  Phyllis said she had been up earlier and could see a bit of white on the grass, but this on the deck was all that was visible.

Construction had been going on all last summer at the hospital where they are adding a surgery room.  Thought it would be finished by the time we got home this spring.............but it is still not complete.  Drove around it coming back from Hiawatha and they haven't finished the outside wall on the south side, let alone finishing the inside.  This photo was taken from our kitchen window.

They had the cement poured by the time we left last October on the Therapy building just east of the hospital.  Some work has been done, but appears they are at a stand-still now on that construction.  This photo was taken from in front of our garage.

Had several trash items blown into our yard over the winter.  This 15 foot, or so, piece of Tyvec was up against our hedge at the back.

Quite a lot of small limbs and large twigs in the front yard, both on the east side, shown here, and on the west side.  Got the most of it picked up Friday and Saturday; will cut them up into small pieces and put on the steep slope behind our ledge.

Saturday I fixed an omelet for breakfast with some sausage patties, onion, green pepper, eggs & cheese.

Some Iowa clouds.  Guess these could be some Missouri clouds as I am looking south and the border is only 9 miles from us!  This was taken through the picture window in our living room.

Just so you know!

Patty had taken a posed picture of our Men of A-Chord Barbershop Chorus early in February, but not all of the chorus was present at that time.  The last performance of the year we had all 15 members present at a performance in San Juan, TX.  The lady I had running the video camera didn't get a still photo of the group with our director not in front of the group.  So, I ran a program where I could get still's off the video, but still couldn't get full view of all, including the director.  Then I used three of those photos to make the shot above, by using Photoshop.  This will be our 2021-2022 photo.  I brought my barbershop music home and intend to work on memorizing the music and words over the summer.  I coordinated the work of contacting each park before we sang this spring and worked with three of the parks to change dates when our director and several members came down with Covid-19 in February and we had to re-arrange our schedule.  We did end up with 8 performances--one park cancelled as they were having such poor turnout to any of their entertainment; but they have scheduled a performance in 2023.  I coordinated the members of the chorus who booked programs for next year and, so far, have 7 lined up.  With our dwindling numbers, and our director being 86 this next year as well as several members in their 80's it might be doubtful that we can continue.  Hoping for the best.

He really loved her but he was just too shy to propose to her. Now he was up in his years and neither of them had ever been married. Of course, they dated about once a week for the past six years but he was so timid he just never got around to suggesting marriage, much less living together.  But one day, he became determined to ask her the question. So he calls her on the phone, "Judith?"
"Yes, this is Judith."
"Will you marry me?"
"Of course. Who's speaking?"

Later, Lynn