Merry Christmas

On this Christmas Eve we wish all a Merry Christmas. Here on the east coast of Iowa it’s said that on average we have a 46% chance of a white Christmas on any given year. While this year we won’t be covered with white fluffy love from above we did get a dusting of snow last night, and that’s good enough for us.

This year we will have a guest today who I hope can make the wife happy. You may be thinking a singing telegram or even male stripper, but you would be wrong. In a few hours we’re supposed to be visited by the cable repair technician. Yes, our cable TV has been acting up for a while and the wife wants it fixed.

It all started out innocent enough, we couldn’t get one of the many TV channels on our plan. It was one the wife liked but with a couple hundred others to choose from, not a big deal. Then a few days ago we discovered that the only channel that came in was the Headline News channel on one TV and no channels on the other.

So, yesterday a technician came out and tried to fix the problem. He swapped out 2 different boxes and nothing happened. He put our old box back on, and nothing happened. He called the cable company to have them work from their end, and nothing happened. So this morning another technician will bring another box and hope something happens.

Not sure how this is going to turn out but am interested enough to stick around to see what happens. I still think cable is over priced and under delivers but the wife likes it. Perhaps if the problem is fixed I could watch coverage of the Barrett-Jackson auction tomorrow. Enjoy our Thursday as I need more coffee now. Comments are always welcome.

Day after

If you’re reading this you also survived the strangest Thanksgiving Day in our memory. We hope yours was enjoyable. In our case, the wife had a 12 hour shift so I dined on great holiday fare, a bacon cheeseburger pizza. And I must say it was better than usual with all the added goodies.

Today people will go out very early to stand in lines for the Black Friday deals that always attract such crowds. I’ve never been and the wife has gone once, when we got our first computer. Suffice it to say we are not fans.

That being said we will cruise over to the grocery store as it’s grocery day for us and we need a few things. It will be interesting to see if there are more people getting groceries today, or less. We’ll find out at 7 am.

We’re also preparing for a little cruise to Oklahoma next month so the wife can have some much needed time away from work. If the weather cooperates we don’t foresee a problem. It it doesn’t we’ll figure a way to get there anyway.

Funny thing about travelling in this crazy time of the virus is checking to see restrictions in in the states we have to drive through and our destination. Whatever they are I’m sure it won’t be a problem. Once on the road we’ll find out.

Do know the wife will have her GPS box and I’ll have my Road Atlas for when the GPS is wrong. I have a major dislike of those things and would rather have a map. Enjoy our Friday as another weekend is upon us and I still need some coffee. Comments are always welcome.

Happy Thanksgiving!

We hope all enjoy it in your own way. Since we learned something today
about how the holiday got started and the woman behind the push to have it, we’ll share it. Sarah Hosepha Hale is said to be the ‘Godmother of Thanksgiving’.

Who you ask? Perhaps you know her nursery ryhme “Mary Had a Little
Lamb”. She was born in 1788 on a farm in New Hampshire and was home
schooled. While growing up there were no female teachers so when she
turned 18 she just started her own private school which she ran until
she met her husband and married in 1813.

Her husband died 9 years later leaving her to care for their 5
children. She opened a woman’s hat shop and later resumed teaching and
writing. 5 years after her husbands death she published her first
novel. Around this time John Blake of Boston read her novel and asked
her to work for him at the ‘American Ladies’ Magazine as the first woman
editor of a magazine in America.

During her time as editor she wrote hundreds of letters to governors,
ministers, newspaper editors, and U.S. presidents requesting that the
last Thursday in November be set aside to “offer to God our tribute of
joy and gratitude for the blessings of the year.”

Finally, in 1863, Abraham Lincoln got a letter during the Civil War
again asking to declare the last Thursday in November a National
Thanksgiving Day. He did so on October 3rd, 1863 and also ordered all
government offices in Washington closed for the day.

Sarah Josepha Hale enjoyed over a dozen Thanksgiving days before her
death in 1879 at the age of 90. In 1939 President Franklin Roosevelt
moved the holiday to the third Thursday in November after businesses
complained they wanted more shopping days between Thanksgiving and
Christmas.

People celebrated on the last Thursday of November anyway and when
FDR realized his mistake he moved the holiday back to the last Thursday
in November. And now we know.

Enjoy our Wednesday and Thanksgiving tomorrow. Now for some coffee.
Comments are always welcome.

Veteran’s Day thoughts

Happy Belated Birthday to the Marines who celebrated their 245th birthday yesterday and Happy Veteran’s Day today. We will miss the parade today as we physically can’t make it. We’ll be there in spirit though.

While many thank veterans for their service today this veteran is thinking back to some of the amazing times had while serving. The green flash at sunset on the Pacific, the way the ‘star’ shells would light up the night like day, and many others.

And almost to a person, all who served say they would gladly do it again. At a time when people are at odds over politics, prejudice, or perceived slights, we ask you to put aside differences for the day and observe this holiday in honor of those who keep us free and have kept us free.

Take a deep breath and enjoy the day. Now this sailor needs more coffee. Comments are always welcome.

Noisy weekend

We won’t see another 4th of July until next year and the wifes’
cats are happy. During the evenings of the 3rd and 4th our little
portion of the east coast of Iowa exploded with what sounded like
a sound track from a WW II movie.

Fireworks have changed since I was a lad running around the back
yard with a sparkler in each hand. Even the occasional Black Cat or
M-80 pale when compared with what’s out there today. That said, we
did get a few pictures.

It was easy to know where the next burst was going to be as the
flash of bright light foretold of another display. And when said
pyrotechnics went off it would shake the ground, rocket into the air,
explode again, and fill the sky with light.

Our city didn’t have its own display while people all around us
decided to stock up and try to light all they bought in one night.
So many fireworks were shot off that our air quality plummeted to
a dangerous level and a haze filled the air.

The economy must be doing alright with so many people buying so
much fireworks and it was good that so many could forget about
the virus to just have a good time. We can wait until next year
for a repeat.

We have at least 4 neighbors who are veterans, two with PTSD
so we’ll check with this morning to make sure they’re ok.

Enjoy our Monday as it’s 5 o’clock somewhere. Now for some coffee
and leftover pizza.
Comments are always welcome.

Early nickle tour

Well it’s a beautiful, albeit hot, day here on the east coast of
Iowa and it looks like it will stay that way through the weekend.
With the 4th of July coming up Saturday we hear the nightly song of
those who set off fireworks.

Some of these fireworks aren’t bad while others sound like something
fired from a cannon and even shake the ground. But soon these will
be a thing of the past and forgotten until New Year’s Eve. And even
though the city sponsored fireworks has been cancelled we should
have some pictures of some near our place.

Independence Day is an annual celebration commemorating the
Declaration of Independence even though the declaration was signed
on July 2, 1776, it was not declared until July 4, 1776.

Usually the holiday is celebrated with fireworks, parades, barbecues,
carnivals, fairs, concerts, baseball games, and family reunions; we
feel 2020 may look slightly different. Many events are cancelled yet
we’ll still celebrate.

In 1777, 13 gunshots were fired in salute, once in the morning and
once again as night fell.

In 1779, July 4 fell on a Sunday so was celebrated on Monday, July
5.

In 1870, Congress made Independence Day an unpaid federal holiday,
and in 1938 Congress changed it to a paid federal holiday.

And that ends the nickle tour of our Independence Day. Enjoy our
Thursday as that means the weekend is only a dream away. Now for
more coffee and leftover pizza.
Comments are always welcome.

Memorial Day 2020

This Memorial Day is different from others we’ve seen with the Covid-19 virus going around, states still on lock down, and politicians who can’t agree on anything except raises for themselves. Yet today we observe a holiday for those who gave all in defense of our freedom. Some of us observe a moment of silence at 3 pm today to remember those who are no longer with us. We can never forget that freedom isn’t free.

Just to clarify…

Memorial Day is a day set aside to honor those who died in the
service to our country. It is not correct to tell a veteran “Happy
Memorial Day”. We veterans have our own day and we hope everyone
remembers those who gave their all on their day.

Memorial Day is also the unofficial start of summer here in our
country. We hope the National cemeteries are filled with flags on
the day we mourn the fallen.

Once called Decoration Day, the observance began being called
Memorial Day in the late 1800s. After World War I the name Memorial
Day was more common. And in May, 1968, Congress passed the Uniform Monday Holiday Act, which moved 4 holidays from their traditional dates to a specified Monday.

Memorial Day was moved from May 30th to the last Monday in May. It
became a federal holiday in 1971. And that is our nickel tour of
this remembrance day. We can never forget that freedom isn’t free.

Tomorrow we’ll have a snicker that might be considered funny by
some, or at least a few. We try.
Comments are always welcome.

Still at it

As an unemployed squirrel watcher old habits die hard and the little
critter above caught my attention. Just appeared to be in hurry but
got near the big oak tree and sat in the snow. He put on a good show
while it lasted.

And this one had a ball running all around the oak tree before
coming to rest right above where a limb had been cut off a few years
ago. This was either a small squirrel or a very young one and I got
wore out watching run around.

This morning I went over to Dads and he’d already had his breakfast
so I got him another cup of coffee and we talked. He talked again of
the winter of 1936 and how the county didn’t plow the gravel roads
so the farmers went out with scoop shovels and cleared the road.

He then talked of the summer of 1937 and how it was so hot they had
to work the horses at night as it was cooler. He said horses don’t
sweat and if you worked them during hot days they’d just keel over
and die. And he talked about sleeping on the porch because the house
stayed to hot to sleep in.

The old Johnny Popper John Deeres came up again and we both
admitted we like the sound they make. We talked of other things but
we’ll save them for a later post.

Enjoy our Tuesday as we will. Now for more coffee.
Comments are always welcome.

Finally….

You may have noticed I haven’t been here since the start of the week
and I apologize. While the bug on the computer is gone I caught one
myself and am just now getting over it. Sometimes things just hit
us when we aren’t expecting them.

This was a strange experience as I went from sleeping around four
hours a night to sleeping twenty! Hope the old sleeping schedule comes back soon. Posts haven’t been written, chores haven’t been done, and snow hasn’t been shoveled.

But being on the mend feels pretty good. And I’d like to thank the
wife, who I know worries about me, for putting up with me when I am
sick. I am not a cheerful person to be around during such times. So
thank you dear.

Between yesterday and today we got around 5 inches of white fluffy
love from above, some sleet, and topped it off with freezing rain. I
did manage to get outside and get a path to car shoveled and the car
cleared last night before the wife went to work.

Today went out and tried to do some more but that didn’t end well. Have you ever tried to shovel ice? Felt like the shovel was full of car batteries. On that happy note I’ll end this and wish everyone well. Now for some more coffee before I get to the chores.
Comments are always welcome.