Enjoying cooler weather (and not being in Hurricane Idalia

 84 degrees with "feel like" of 85 degrees.  That's more like it.  At 1:15 pm Wednesday.  Nice not running the AC for a while. Window fan pulling air through the house is great.

Monday we drove the 110 miles to Harold & LaRhoda Neher's place near Hiawatha, KS for a nice visit after having lunch with them at 

in Highland, Kansas.

Caught up on all the news, settled some of the world's problems and then got down to several games of Pegs & Jokers.

They don't get away from their house often and really enjoy some company for a while.  We miss seeing them daily in the winter like we used to when they lived right next to us in Kenwood RV Park.

House to the east of us has been used for several years by Helicopter crews for the Clarinda Hospital.  One company occupied it for several years and then that company pulled out.  Was vacant for a year or so, and then another company maintained helicopter rescue and transportation for several years.  That company has now left Clarinda and the house has been cleaned out.  Not sure what use the hospital will have for that house now.

Grass keeps growing, even in the heat of this summer.  Hopefully necessity of mowing often will decrease here soon.

Heavens to Mergatroyd!

The other day a not so elderly (I say 75) lady said something to her son about driving a Jalopy; and he looked at her and said, "What the heck is a Jalopy?" He had never heard of the word jalopy! She knew she was old ...But not that old.

Well, I hope you are Hunky Dory when you read this and chuckle.

About a month ago, I illuminated some old expressions that have become obsolete because of the inexorable march of technology.

These phrases included: Don't touch that dial; Carbon copy; You sound like a broken record; and Hung out to dry.

Back in the olden days we had a lot of moxie . We'd put on our best bib and tucker, to  straighten up and fly right.

Heavens to Betsy!         Gee whillikers!          Jumping Jehoshaphat!       Holy Moley!

We were in like Flynn  and living the life of Riley ; and even a regular guy couldn't accuse us of being a knucklehead, a nincompoop or a pill. Not for all the tea in China!

Back in the olden days, life used to be swell, but when's the last time anything was swell? Swell has gone the way of beehives, pageboys and the D.A.; of spats, knickers, fedoras, poodle skirts, saddle shoes, and pedal pushers.

Oh, my aching back! Kilroy was here, but he isn't anymore.

We wake up from what surely has been just a short nap, and before we can say, "Well, I'll be a monkey's uncle!" Or, "This is a fine kettle of fish!"

We discover that the words we grew up with, the words that seemed omnipresent, as oxygen, have vanished with scarcely a notice from our tongues and our pens and our keyboards.

Poof, go the words of our youth. Where have all those great phrases gone?

Long gone: Pshaw, The milkman did it. Hey! It's your nickel. Don't forget to pull the chain. Knee high to a grasshopper.

Well, Fiddlesticks! Going like sixty. I'll see you in the funny papers. Don't take any wooden nickels. Wake up and smell the roses.

It turns out there are more of these lost words and expressions than Carter has liver pills.

This can be disturbing stuff! (Carter's Little Liver Pills are gone too!)

Leaves us to wonder where Superman will find a phone booth.

See ya later, alligator! After a while crocodile. Oki-Doki artichokey!

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Learned recently that something around 40% of marriage end in divorce.........................  The rest all end in death (Till death do we part).

Till another time, LC

AH, cooler weather

 72º with a "feel like" of 72º here in Clarinda, IA at 11:10 am Sunday.  Predicted high of 77º today.  Shut off the air conditioner last night and have windows open with window fan bringing in the fresh air.  If it stays like this for a while I won't mind.

Not much going on.  Cleaned out and buried the old financial papers I found last week in the shop.  

Received the new acrylic dome cover for the roof of the trailer that I will put on sometime in the next few weeks.  Determining if I need to put new rubber coating on the roof of the trailer.

Cam & Patty will be here this weekend for his 40th class reunion and Phyllis & I will attend several of the CHS All Class Reunion events Saturday and Sunday.

Later, LC

One last day (I hope) of hot weather

 

Several studies have discovered that mules, a hybrid of a female horse and male donkey, are considerably smarter than either of their parents. Perhaps this explains the story of the Bodie mule, “Old Tom.”

Bodie miners called Tom “the educated mule,” claiming he could count and tell time. According to the tales, Tom would be loaded up with six cars of ore and was ready to start out for the stamp mill after the sixth click. But apparently, sometimes miners tried to add one more car. If Tom heard a seventh click, he refused to move. Miners also claimed that Tom would quit working when he heard the noon and quitting time whistles.

Early 1900s photo of mules pulling cars out of the Bulwer Tunnel is courtesy of the Mono County Historical Society. Two women are visible, which may mean it was near quitting time for the shift as family members often would wait outside the tunnel to meet their husbands and fathers.

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Well, it is cooling, a bit.  Only 94º with "feel like" of 103º at 1:10 pm on Friday.  To be cooler tomorrow, I guess.

I mentioned in last blog about discovering a wooden chest in our work shop and wondering what was in it.  Proved out to be papers from our sign shop, personal papers, and sister Louise's papers from back to 2004 though 2008.  Since they are no longer important for tax purposes, am now in process of destroying them.

Not much going on...........till another time, LC

Yes, it is hot in SouthWest Iowa

 92º with "feel like" of 115º here in Clarinda at 1:00 pm Monday.

Depending on which weather place you look at, the temp and the "feel like" are a little different.  However, they are definitely different from the cool weather we were experiencing last week.

Picture at left was a few days ago in the shop.  Was starting to clear area to move many 1/8" plywood sheets 16" x 24" to.

This is the area those small plywood sheets were transferred to in 2009 after we had built the shop building.

At left is after I had moved many of the sheets to the shelf.  Then, I noticed it was sagging a bit, so I am now in process of moving them over to the left and back towards the wall, where the shelf is supported and also a post support under the shelf is about three feet from the wall

The shelf on west wall completely removed and most of the plywood pieces removed.  Discovered my brother Don's wooden 4-H chest underneath.  He had made it during high school in the 1950's and hadn't had a place for it so we had it for nearly 40 years on the farm and another 13 years here in town.  Am wondering what we will find inside it.

One day I washed the front of the travel trailer and waxed it

Another day I put diluted bleach into the fresh-water tank of the travel trailer and filled it, then pulled the mixture though all the water faucets in the trailer; drained it, refilled it and then again pulled the fresh water through all the water faucets.  Will let it sit a while before draining most of it just before we pull it to Marengo at the end of September.

Drained and flushed out the hot water heater.  Though the anode coating over the heating element is eaten away, it still has some life in it.

Hoping it will cool off a bit.

More another time, LC

'Nuther day in Clarinda

70º with clear sky here in Clarinda, IA at 9:30 am -- forecast high of 77º today.

 Photo of an oil painting I took in the First Monday Flea Market in Canton, TX in November of 2011.

I showed a few pictures in last blog of our week in State Center, IA with the Kenwood RV group.  If you want to look at all the things that went on Click HERE for my Google Photo Album on it.

Some photos of the flowers Phyllis has around the house.

We built the 24' x 36' shop building in 2009.  We insulated the north 16' or so, including the ceiling then when we put in some heavy-duty shelves at the front.  Since then I have worked off-and-on to insulate the rest of the building.  Couple years ago I got it down to part of the wall on the west side to insulate.  Have now finally torn down the "temporary" shelf I had put up so can finish the insulating job.

Later - LC

A bit cooler in Iowa these few days

 65º here in Clarinda, IA at 8:45 pm Monday.  Forecast to be 54º in the morning!  Unusual for August.

Last Saturday was granddaughter Emily's birthday and we ate at the Iowa River Power Restaurant in Coralville, Iowa.

Click on any photo to enlarge......

We got to Marengo Friday after lunch and spent time with Cameron & Patty.  Emily was there as well as Ashley & Heath and their "kids" Jessica & David.  Ate out with them that evening.

.

Two-year old great grandson David is always entertaining when there is a lull in the activity.

Enjoyed our visit--we left for Clarinda on Sunday morning, just as it was starting to rain.  Got home and was able to mow the 9-day old lawn before the showers came in that evening.

We had spent Sunday through Friday morning with some 26 people, mostly from our winter home at Kenwood RV in La Feria, Texas.

  At right

is Orville

Crane with

Lola Schoppe

when she

came to visit 

from her care

center.

Always a lot of food to go

with the visiting at these

summer rallys.

Dick Messer & Jerry Witt did pancakes on the griddle Friday morning -- had boiled a lot of sweet corn every day up to then.

Well, as usual, I got interrupted.  Is now 11 am on Tuesday - Clear day with 68º.

Later -- LC Miles