Tales From a Corn Feed

Bryant was once dive-bombed by a Cooper's Hawk, who apparently found his "pishing" so convincing that he thought he was about to get an easy songbird meal.

I learned how to do it last night.  It's a repeated, non-voiced sound using all the consonant sounds in "pish," and it's a great way to call in birds or get them to change position if you know they're present but you can't see them.  Joseph demonstrated for me.

I also joined in the "hush and listen" on Myron's patio so that the Upland Plover and the Grasshopper Sparrow in the surrounding pasture could be heard.

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Tristan's verbal skills are developing.  I noticed a pattern last night in his latest efforts at names.  He repeats the central consonant sound at the beginning of the word, instead of the initial consonant sound. So Diana becomes Niana, and Bomani becomes Momani, and Grandma is Maamaw.

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Myron's neighbor, Mrs. Soby, was born in Germany, and was six years old when World War II started.  She remembers telling her mother the news.  It was her mother's first awareness of it.

She also reported that she keeps track of Myron's family's comings and goings.  "You get up at about 6:00 on weekdays, and on Sunday you sleep in," she said confidently.

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Linda tells about one entrance in the "Humor" profile at the Golden Rule office.  Any agent who encounters something amusing during the course of a workday gets to post an addition to the information on the "client" named "Humor."  We all hooted at one entry, taken from a communication expressing regret about something that had gone wrong.  It came from someone for whom English was probably a second language, and he or she apologized for "any incontinence the error may have caused."   An incontinence effect would have truly been something to apologize for, but I think the word they wanted was inconvenience.

Dorcas, who worked in the GRT office at one time, wasn't sure she wanted to try to imagine the effect this gem had on the office employees.  Let's just say there's a great appreciation for this kind of humor.

Even the telling of it sent Linda and me into paroxysms reminiscent of my schoolteaching days with Esther K. and Susie K.  Sisters and housemates are absolutely the best giggling partners.  

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On Sunday morning, of the four possible routes to church, only one was open to Myron's family, because of the big rain during the night, and the resultant flooding.  Last night we had to detour because of a road closed sign on Highpoint Road, between our place and theirs.  I presume the route might no longer have been dangerous, unless an officer had seen us ignore the warning.  I hear the fines for whipping around a barrier in a vehicle can tally up pretty fast--$127.00, as one person discovered--or was it $173.00?  I'm second-guessing my memory.

We had another .7 inch of rain last night, with enough wind to break off a big branch on the Kentucky Coffee tree at one bend of our "U" drive.  The same weather scenario is slated to kick in again tonight, with a 90% chance of heavy rain.

The weather watchers group moderator on Facebook explained that a high pressure area is currently centered over Oklahoma.  Within that area, the weather has stayed hot and dry for a long time.  On the periphery of that area, wind currents rotate in a clockwise direction, drawing abundant moisture from the south into this region.  When these currents intersect with a frontal boundary, the boundary functions as a trigger for instability, resulting in wind, heavy rain, and sometimes hail.  This is at least the second week we've been in this pattern, and it looks like it will extend through at least a few more days.  Field crops are thriving, but no one is trying to cut hay.  Miring down in the mud would be the first problem.

Reno County is still under a flood warning.

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Lowell's cattle have been pasturing along Salt Creek on Centennial, in Crist Y.'s pasture.  The rising creek water had Lowell a little worried, but he figured that as long as they stay in the back part of the pasture where he had last seen them, they could likely still find enough high ground.  On Sunday afternoon, Joseph walked over to check on them and found the normally ditch-width creek about 3/4 of a mile wide, and he could see the cattle in the front pasture on the far side of the water, and wasn't sure if they were on dry ground or not.  Later Dwight saw them about knee-deep in water.

Apparently the cattle took rescue operations into their own hands and struck out for distant parts.  They were seen the next morning on Partridge Road a mile away, by Shane's place (our former home), and then Dolores, on her way to work, trailed them west on Illinois Avenue.  She did a little calling around to see who the cattle belonged to, and Lowell eventually caught up with them, and made arrangements to put them into Shane's nearby pasture.  They'll stay there for the time being, since there's a lot of new growth there because of the rains, and grazing is a benefit.  Meanwhile, the water in Salt Creek will have time to slip away.

At the Salt Creek crossing on Partridge Road, some unfortunate young lady's pickup was swept off the road, and eventually got hung up somewhere, which kept the vehicle from being swept down the main channel of the creek.  As it was, the water level had risen inside the cab to seat height.  The sheriff's department rescued her.

A road closed sign was placed there.

On Monday evening, the heavy rain that was headed our way from the west split right around us, and fell instead to the north and south of us.  It was the first significant rain in SW Kansas in a long time, but it came with high winds also.  It's an unfamiliar sensation for us to feel relief when a rain misses us.  Feeling cheated when that happens is still a very familiar feeling.  I can easily imagine how those poor souls in Oklahoma are feeling right now--rain all around, and they're as hot and dry as ever.  That was us most of the time for the last 2 1/2 years.

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Last night Andrew shared a gem he had found in Job 15:27 (NIV).  He found this verse highly amusing:  "Though his face is covered with fat, and his waist bulges with flesh . . . "  It's apparently part of one of Eliphaz' discourses, and he's describing how even the very fortunate--as described above--can come to ruin--if their ways don't please God, presumably.

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Little Eric Nisly, who is a neighbor to Myron's family, told his mother reflectively after he heard about the corn feed, "Didn't she say something about us getting some of that corn?" He's very fond of corn, and his wishful thinking couldn't quite be restrained.  Although attending the corn feed was not in the plans, Rhoda saved some for him, and he and his mother came afterward to pick it up.  By then, husband and dad at their house had come home and could stay at home with the little one.

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I had to bum a ride to Myron's place since our one car is in the shop and Hiromi had the other one at work.  True, the old Caprice still runs, but it has no liability insurance and no current tag, so it really needs to stay parked.  The problem that took that car to the shop still has me feeling both smug and sorry.

I had been having trouble extracting the key after I parked it.  When I told Hiromi, I got a free tutorial in the necessity of always parking so that the wheels are straight, because the steering column can lock up otherwise, and when the ignition is on the steering column, that can create problems with the key.  This ignition's switch, of course, was conspicuously missing from the steering column, and was on the dash instead, and Hiromi didn't know if it worked the same way if it was located there, and he didn't know anything about any of this anyway, but "just park in the middle space if you can't park under the Goldenraintree and keep your wheels straight."   Hiromi also squirted some WD40 somewhere to help solve the problem.

Worst of all, on Sunday morning when we tried to leave for church, the battery was dead.  For the first time, apparently the key had actually not made it all the way into the "off" position when I turned it off the last time I drove it. More instruction on the need to keep the wheels straight.  Hiromi pushed the car out of its parking spot and we jump-started it and drove to church.  When Hiromi drove it home, he couldn't extract the key.  I'm sure those wheels were as straight as possible, but nothing worked.  So he disconnected a battery cable so it wouldn't drain the battery again.

On Monday he called Fairview, and on Tuesday we hooked the battery cable back up and took the car over there.  Steve thought it probably needed a new ignition switch, but he discovered a different problem.  It was in the gear-shift lever, and a safety device that does not allow the car to start unless it's in "Park" had malfunctioned, and the whole "gear shifter" assembly had to be replaced.  It would cost over $300.00.  Soooooo, we hope to be all fixed up before long, and I can park wherever I want, however I want again.

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A corn feed is not a regular event around here.  Usually, any extra sweet corn gets socked away in the freezer if we're lucky enough to get a good crop.  This time, Myron's family had already put enough into the freezer, and a later planting was producing more than they wanted to tackle for fresh eating.  So they invited the extended family over, along with Mrs. Soby and Delmar and Suzanne and their colorful family.  They also fired up their grill, and we were each invited to bring along any food our family wished to eat alongside the corn.  Grilling was on our own, and we could provide for ourselves any side dishes we wanted.  It was Lowell's family's night to cook for Mom and Dad and Linda, so they brought enough for them too.  I took a hamburger, an avocado, and a peach.  It was a wonderful meal.  The corn was delicious, the mosquitoes left us alone, and the evening was calm and clean-washed.  The lightening show in the west had already begun when we headed home.

I took note of this great format for a last-minute food and social event.

Thanks to Myron and Rhoda for organizing and hosting it.

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I've never googled "setting up a buffet line" and am not positive I want to, since I might find my assumptions challenged, but this is how I think it should be done:

1.  Put the plates near* the beginning of the serving line.  (I'm sure we're all agreed on this.)

2.  Put the drinks at the end of the serving line.  (Agreed?  Yes.)

3.  Put a serving spoon or fork into every dish on the buffet.  (I think this should be obvious also.)

4.  Put the napkins and flatware (aka silverware) at the end of the serving line.  (What????? Not with the plates??????  I can hear those protests.)  Here's why.  No one needs it before then because all the serving utensils are in place, and it's really in the way if you have to carry silverware while you're filling a plate.  Remember, we don't all have a shirt pocket in which to stow it, and we don't always have a tray on which to rest it.

*5.  If bread needs to be buttered in the serving line, have that happen at the beginning or end of the process and leave a space to park the plates meanwhile.  At the beginning of the serving line, the bread and butter and jam can actually precede picking up the plate.  At the end, leave a space for the full plate to be parked on one side or the other of the bread station.

At the corn feed, we sort of improvised as we went along, and it all worked out.  That's possible too, but more easily managed for two dozen people than two hundred.