Last day of May 2024

 Is 9:22 pm as I start this on Thursday evening and it is raining here in Clarinda, IA.

Yesterday was my older brother Don's 85th birthday.  I spoke with him on the phone but he didn't have much to say.  Not sure he really grasped it was his birthday.

For more than a year now I have been reading this 785 page book about the editor and his newspaper that he started in 1890 when the city of Bloomfield, Nebraska was platted and up through the 1930's.  It is written by the editor's son-in-law and he copies much from the newspaper through the years.  There are many obituaries included which, as he explained, gives a lot of information on the population of that town.  One obituary describes a man who never married and

he finishes the obit with this:  "He bought a small piece of ground about 13 miles north of Bloomfield, where he lived in single blessedness until his death."  Never heard of being unmarried as "living in single blessedness".  Interesting.  By the way, I am within 25 pages of finishing it. after only a year a so.  I looked up to see if this book is available on the internet---found one used one for $95.00. 

Well, it is now 10:30 am on Friday.  63 degrees--had .7" of rain overnight.  Cloudy now and to rain off and on the rest of the day.  I failed to mention that on the Monday before we drove to Callaway we were finally released from a week of boiling any water we drank or cooked with, due to a construction outfit digging into one of the water mains uptown.

These two photos are taken from our back deck of a tree that has had dead branches break off in about every wind storm.  It shows a large branch that is now resting on the crown of a smaller tree.  Too high to reach.  Hope if it ever is blown from that smaller tree it happens with a wind from the south.  If it is a north wind it will land on the hedge for sure and maybe on our wooden deck.

See the small tree split in one
of it's upper branches.

  Some photos below of the flowers around our house.

A year ago we had a crack in the bubble over the shower in our travel trailer.  Replaced it and got some caulk to seal it in.  When started using the trailer this spring found some water leakage again in the shower area.  When I examined it I found all the caulking was lifting up and curling and not sealing anything.  On reading up on what I had bought last, I found it was not for EPDM or TPO rubber roofs.  Got a roll of tape that is good for either and spent a few hours cleaning off the old caulking and putting down this tape to seal it.  Hope this is the last time I need to go up there.

In June of 2015 when getting our pickkup topper on, I had them install a vinyl "protectant" on the front of the pickup hood.  It has gotten quite pock-marked in the last 160,000 miles of driving so decided to remove it.  With it facing the sun to warm up the vinyl and its adhesive, it took several days to peel it off.  Have now worked several more days removing the adhesive.

A robins nest has some babies in it on downspout at back of the garage.

Phyllis has worked the last couple weeks arranging for people to help with ushering at the Glenn Miller Birthplace Festival which starts next Thursday.  Met with several people at the Museum Wednesday and I am to accompany another gentleman to Kansas City, MO this next Wednesday to pick up three girls coming in for the Music Scholarship Competition on Thursday.  Two of the girls will be staying at our place Wednesday night and Thursday night and they will be returned to Kansas City airport to return home.  One is from near Dallas and the other is from Connecticut.   You can view what will happen by clicking HERE

"I started with nothing and I still have most of it left."   All for now, Lynn