Home Town

I graduated with 32 classmates in Western Minnesota 24 years ago. A few years after I graduated, my mother moved and my family ties to the area were severed. I went to my five year class reunion but haven't been to my home town since.

This Saturday my sisters, our mother and I went to our home town. When we lived on the farm we had the most wonderful neighbors. Our families have a lot of fine memories together. This Saturday their seven children held a reception to celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary.

It was fun to see everyone. The strange thing was that they all got 20 years older. How did that happen? There were a few that are now in their 40's that I no longer recognized. The older people that I hadn't seen since they were in their 50's hadn't changed that much other than a few more gray hairs and a few more wrinkles.

Growing up in such a small town meant you not only knew your classmates but all their brothers and sisters and parents and the classmates of your own brothers and sisters. It was a great place to grow up and going back to see these people felt like visiting family.

Muffins

Sunday Art

"PRAIRIESCAPE: Prairie sky-scraper #3"
by Sandra Schroeder of Alberta, Canada
Media: water color

Morcheeba: Rome Wasn't Built In A Day

Rico: 5 months

This look was in response to my sniffing my nose. Priceless.

Voting Day

Today is Voting Day. Be sure to exercise your right.

You know what I think the best part of voting day is? As of 8:00AM the campaign advertisements stop. Trees can grow again, the phone calls from "unknown" will stop and we won't have to watch bad acting and trash talking on TV by politicians.

Old Cowboys and We Be Jammin'

Brother J2, the Old Cowboy in the family, learned all about gravity this weekend. He fell off a horse and did a number on the knee. Old Cowboys never get old, they just make more visits to the Orthopeadic Surgeon. Truly hope it's a fast recovery for you. I'll bring puzzles for you next weekend.

Last night hubbie walked into my office and iTunes had landed on "Mack the Knife" by Bobby Darin. This began an hour long session of paging through music on iTunes with him bobbing along and saying, "I want that one!" and the occassional unrepressed urge to get up and dance. The list is so far about 4 CD's worth of songs and he is in awe of my library of music. It was a fun evening.

Sunday Art

"Hand" by Gloria J. de los Santos of Washington state
Media: Oils on X-ray print

My Left Hand (not a sequel)

It was twelve years ago today that I fought with a woodsplitter and it won. A group of us were cutting and splitting wood to stock up for the winter. We had quite a system - two were cutting the logs with chainsaws, one guy was working the lever on the splitter and hubby and I were loading the splitter. We had been hard at it all morning. It happened so quick I'm not sure exactly what happened. What I remember was keeping my hand on the log until the wedge met the log - we had been doing that to keep it steady. The wedge hit a gnarly piece of red elm and the log popped up placing my hand between the splitter and the wood. I realized what was happening and I yelled. I yelled not because I was in pain, but rather to get the operator to pull back the wedge. I didn't really feel anything - just numb. I grabbed my hand and looked at John and said "Hospital, now!"

Long story short, ended up amputating the middle finger on my left hand. Rather than leaving a big gap, they also removed the knuckle and bone for the finger down to my wrist. It is not very noticable and most people can know me for quite a while before they realize I can only count to 9 with my fingers. I was typing 60 wpm again within a couple of months. Mom jokingly said "I raised my kids and sent them out into the world all in one piece and they come back missin' parts." :-)

MC Honky: Like a Duck

"MC Honky" is an alter ego from Eels' Marc Oliver Everett (E)