Fall Weather and a Brain on Vacation
I loved Doris M.'s Facebook post where she mused that "You might be from Kansas if you're praying for rain while hanging out laundry." The rain did indeed pass us by one more time this weekend, but we're still smiling about the weather.
Last week we had one 107 degree day and other days over 100, but today, and throughout all of this week, the high is to be around 80. Nights range from a predicted low of 49 tonight to just under 60 some nights this week. Can you imagine how welcome this change feels? The wind is from the north and sounds like a winter wind. Snuggling under the covers at night feels good.
*********************
Tonight I'm hearing a cricket in the house for the first time this season. Hiromi said, "Good. That'll save me money." He's making a playful reference to having bought a pet cricket as a child. He kept it in a tiny cricket cage and fed it little bits of cucumber.
"If you catch that cricket in the kitchen, it's fine with me if you want to keep it in a cage."
***********************
We just got home from attending a housewarming and grocery shower for Grant and Clarissa. I overheard one of the men say, "If you're too proud to have goats, and too poor to have cattle, you get Dexters instead." Shane was the only one in that crowd who owns Dexters, so I suppose the comment was for his benefit.
***********************
My brain seems to have gone on vacation during part of this weekend. I forgot to take the scale and the cash box to market on Saturday. They are the two most essential pieces of equipment in our booth. Hiromi brought them out, after a phone call which interrupted his leisurely breakfast preparations here at home. He didn't complain or scold or anything. He just did what needed doing.
The drama had begun the evening before when I got home from the staff appreciation supper the school board provided, with my flowers still unpicked. Hiromi to the rescue again. He held the flashlight and held the flowers after I picked them. We were out in the west garden when we saw a light bobbing along the fence row in the cows' grazing area. "Shane, is that you?" It was. He had built some electric fence and had only to turn it on before he went home. Except that when he turned on the fencer, it was very dead. So he walked the fence after dark, checking for problems by the light of his cell phone. While he was doing that, Dorcas called him, too tired to figure out by herself what to do with the contents of a jar of salsa that had broken when she put it into the canner.
Hiromi's misspent time occurred when he joined the staff appreciation supper after he got off work. I had told him it was at Center, which is what I was told. Just before I left home I got a phone call with the corrected location--Cedar Crest. I couldn't get word to Hiromi so I put a note on the door at Center. He never found it, but when he saw that Center was deserted, he went to Cedar Crest instead. It's a good thing they're not so very far apart.
Tonight I showed up at Grant's house without the paperware I had agreed to bring. I really thought someone else was bringing these things, but after having my memory jogged, I realized that yes, indeed, the duty was mine, and I failed to carry it out. Shane went home and got some from their house.
I also forgot about how not having our kitchen stove leveled would affect the baking of a large Texas Sheet Cake for the rescue mission. It came out of the oven very high along the one side and very low along the other. I gave Lois a heads up that the pieces might have to be adjusted when it was time to cut the cake--big pieces along the low side and smaller ones along the high side. This was not an ego boosting experience.
Perhaps it was just as well that the brain wasn't very sharp when I encountered a clogged toilet in the men's restroom while doing my bit to clean the church on Saturday evening. Being able to avoid breathing through your nose is a more useful skill in such cases than is a fertile imagination.
*********************
This early in the school year we've already seen heartwarming evidence of maturity and openness in some of our students. Despite difficult personal challenges, they're reaching out for help, without casting blame on others or being vindictive, although the temptation to do both must be very real. Someone they trust must be working and walking with them in a way that makes this kind of response possible. I love seeing people come together to help those who are hurting.
**********************
My sister-in-law Kara's mother died last week at the age of 90. She had moved a number of years ago from Fort Madison, Iowa, where they had raised their family to Pennsylvania where Caleb and Kara live. A funeral service was held today in Pennsylvania, and a second service will take place on Wednesday in Iowa, with burial there following. She was a widow, and her husband is also buried in Fort Madison.
Coming at the beginning of the school year complicates things for Caleb's family. Caleb, Sterling, and Joelle are all in college as teacher or student.
Sarah Hass was a sweet and gentle Christian lady, and an accomplished fabric artist. Her specialty was quilted wall hangings--not primarily geometric shapes, but scenes (There's probably a better way to describe this, but I lack the proper quilter's vocabulary.). Some of her work was featured in magazines and books.
Fort Madison is on the Amtrak line between here and Chicago, so going there by train from Hutchinson would be very simple. The town is on the eastern border of the state, on the Mississippi River.
**********************
Little Sabrina Miller needs another surgery this week to replace one section of the shunt that drains excess fluid from her brain. She just passed her first birthday, and has seemed to be doing well of late. Shunt failure, however, threatens to result in extra pressure on her brain, and must be avoided if her brain is to develop as normally as possible. She was born with Spina bifida and had multiple surgeries in the first few months of her life. She's a plump little girl, and is obviously thriving on the good care she's getting.
*********************
Tomorrow is the annual Labor Day church picnic. Hiromi has to work, but I plan to go. First, though, I plan to go to bed without setting an alarm. For me, the labor will wait.
Last week we had one 107 degree day and other days over 100, but today, and throughout all of this week, the high is to be around 80. Nights range from a predicted low of 49 tonight to just under 60 some nights this week. Can you imagine how welcome this change feels? The wind is from the north and sounds like a winter wind. Snuggling under the covers at night feels good.
*********************
Tonight I'm hearing a cricket in the house for the first time this season. Hiromi said, "Good. That'll save me money." He's making a playful reference to having bought a pet cricket as a child. He kept it in a tiny cricket cage and fed it little bits of cucumber.
"If you catch that cricket in the kitchen, it's fine with me if you want to keep it in a cage."
***********************
We just got home from attending a housewarming and grocery shower for Grant and Clarissa. I overheard one of the men say, "If you're too proud to have goats, and too poor to have cattle, you get Dexters instead." Shane was the only one in that crowd who owns Dexters, so I suppose the comment was for his benefit.
***********************
My brain seems to have gone on vacation during part of this weekend. I forgot to take the scale and the cash box to market on Saturday. They are the two most essential pieces of equipment in our booth. Hiromi brought them out, after a phone call which interrupted his leisurely breakfast preparations here at home. He didn't complain or scold or anything. He just did what needed doing.
The drama had begun the evening before when I got home from the staff appreciation supper the school board provided, with my flowers still unpicked. Hiromi to the rescue again. He held the flashlight and held the flowers after I picked them. We were out in the west garden when we saw a light bobbing along the fence row in the cows' grazing area. "Shane, is that you?" It was. He had built some electric fence and had only to turn it on before he went home. Except that when he turned on the fencer, it was very dead. So he walked the fence after dark, checking for problems by the light of his cell phone. While he was doing that, Dorcas called him, too tired to figure out by herself what to do with the contents of a jar of salsa that had broken when she put it into the canner.
Hiromi's misspent time occurred when he joined the staff appreciation supper after he got off work. I had told him it was at Center, which is what I was told. Just before I left home I got a phone call with the corrected location--Cedar Crest. I couldn't get word to Hiromi so I put a note on the door at Center. He never found it, but when he saw that Center was deserted, he went to Cedar Crest instead. It's a good thing they're not so very far apart.
Tonight I showed up at Grant's house without the paperware I had agreed to bring. I really thought someone else was bringing these things, but after having my memory jogged, I realized that yes, indeed, the duty was mine, and I failed to carry it out. Shane went home and got some from their house.
I also forgot about how not having our kitchen stove leveled would affect the baking of a large Texas Sheet Cake for the rescue mission. It came out of the oven very high along the one side and very low along the other. I gave Lois a heads up that the pieces might have to be adjusted when it was time to cut the cake--big pieces along the low side and smaller ones along the high side. This was not an ego boosting experience.
Perhaps it was just as well that the brain wasn't very sharp when I encountered a clogged toilet in the men's restroom while doing my bit to clean the church on Saturday evening. Being able to avoid breathing through your nose is a more useful skill in such cases than is a fertile imagination.
*********************
This early in the school year we've already seen heartwarming evidence of maturity and openness in some of our students. Despite difficult personal challenges, they're reaching out for help, without casting blame on others or being vindictive, although the temptation to do both must be very real. Someone they trust must be working and walking with them in a way that makes this kind of response possible. I love seeing people come together to help those who are hurting.
**********************
My sister-in-law Kara's mother died last week at the age of 90. She had moved a number of years ago from Fort Madison, Iowa, where they had raised their family to Pennsylvania where Caleb and Kara live. A funeral service was held today in Pennsylvania, and a second service will take place on Wednesday in Iowa, with burial there following. She was a widow, and her husband is also buried in Fort Madison.
Coming at the beginning of the school year complicates things for Caleb's family. Caleb, Sterling, and Joelle are all in college as teacher or student.
Sarah Hass was a sweet and gentle Christian lady, and an accomplished fabric artist. Her specialty was quilted wall hangings--not primarily geometric shapes, but scenes (There's probably a better way to describe this, but I lack the proper quilter's vocabulary.). Some of her work was featured in magazines and books.
Fort Madison is on the Amtrak line between here and Chicago, so going there by train from Hutchinson would be very simple. The town is on the eastern border of the state, on the Mississippi River.
**********************
Little Sabrina Miller needs another surgery this week to replace one section of the shunt that drains excess fluid from her brain. She just passed her first birthday, and has seemed to be doing well of late. Shunt failure, however, threatens to result in extra pressure on her brain, and must be avoided if her brain is to develop as normally as possible. She was born with Spina bifida and had multiple surgeries in the first few months of her life. She's a plump little girl, and is obviously thriving on the good care she's getting.
*********************
Tomorrow is the annual Labor Day church picnic. Hiromi has to work, but I plan to go. First, though, I plan to go to bed without setting an alarm. For me, the labor will wait.
posted by Mrs. I at
7:56 PM
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