Wandering Aimlessly Through the Weekend…Back to” Humidcity”!!

  Saturday began with our walk..and we noticed immediately..IT WAS BACK!!!!…the humidity, I mean.  So much for the 2 nice, warm and DRY days we had…Hasta la vista, baby.  Oh well, at least we do an early morning walk, usually by 7:30AM.  Walking in the hot afternoon is NOT my idea of a good time. Walking is suppose to make you healthier, NOT kill you.

  After lunch I had a few errands to do…I wanted to take some  of Pal’s sweet corn over to Terrie and her family.  I also had to stop at the WalMart and get some diesel fuel for the truck.   It was slightly difficult to get to the pump…Talk about a traffic jam!  There was a big tanker truck with 3 different hoses strung out like octopus tentacles.  People were lined up!   I finally got the GMC pulled up to the pump..Hey , when the truck is thirsty there is no stopping it!  After she got “full”,  I had to maneuver  my way out…by backing out from the pump.  Let me just say that I consider myself a pretty darn good “backer-upper”…We have a very long driveway, so I had no choice but to learn how.   However,..I have seen some people who would have easily taken out a pump or two in the process..(Not a bad looking “fuel transporter” , eh??) ..HEY, I WAS TALKIN’ ABOUT THE TANKER TRUCK!!

 

 

I got to Terrie and Tim’s house and Terrie was checking the pool temperature .  We have had a couple cooler nights lately and the temp had gone down some…

…Seems that I also happen to get to their house just as Detective Heiser was “working a case”….

…and he tries to convince me how hard he works!!!!  I think his case today consisted of checking his eyelids for holes….Actually, the man works long hours and drives 1hour and 15 minutes each way to do it…He’s very good at being a cop , but if I tell him that ,he’ll just get a big head and be unbearable to live with…(just kidding).

  On my way back home I had to make a stop at one of my favorite stores…

…yes, the Goodwill Store. Since the economy has taken a nosedive, this place is packed with people.  Personally,  I have no problem buying “gently used” clothing, furniture and stuff.  Why would you want to pay big bucks for something if you didn’t have to.???

  I just had to practice my collage making again, so bear with me…These are all results of my pursuit of a bargain.  Everything you see here is in our home, …AND I got it at a garage sale or the Goodwill Store..I kid you NOT!!….Not bad, if I do say so myself..Just think of all the money I saved!!!

OK…SO MAYBE I AM A LITTLE “OVER THE TOP”…

  Speaking of the economy being in the latrine…This next picture is what was SUPPOSE to be an indoor water park being built on the edge of Sandwich…

….Waves-Of-Fun….NOT!! It has been sitting idle since last summer.  They stopped work on it due to a NO MONEY situation..We all know what happened to those who didn’t see the recession coming…and got blindsided…I sure hope they can start up again soon…The plastic on the big windows is  getting all ripped and just” blowin in the wind”…like the “answer.”.(to those of you baby boomers, and to Peter, Paul and Mary, my humble apologies).

..We had a sort of circus that came to town this last week.  They set up out by our little shopping center/ strip mall… The circus was here for a few days, then they packed it up and moved on..I think they forgot someone…

Oops…I see there is at least ONE jackass hanging out in the background..(Sorry, I couldn’t resist). Rest assured that this guy won’t be forgotten…How could you possible forget a 1 ton elephant??

One of my Ya Ya’s and her husband stopped by with their grandson…Xavier Curran….Check out the blue eyes and curly blonde hair…. He is a real keeper, and wasn’t terribly enthralled with the silly looking camera woman…

In the second picture, I think he had me correctly figured out…a big person who acts like a 2 year old…DON’T CRY!!!……Go figure…I can be pretty scary!!

On my way home I ran into, (not literally), this spiffy little jeep.  I think that the Bayfield Bunch needs this cover for their tire on the back…Or do they already have it??… I cannot for the life of me remember….Dementia Donna strikes again!

I see that another spine tingling, ultra exciting weekend is drawing to a close.  We are having  “shrimps on the barby” tonight…and a campfire if no severe storms come along….

….”AND SO IT GOES”….

I FEEL I’M ON A MERRY-GO-ROUND…CAN I GET OFF NOW?

  Why is it that the older I get, I feel like I am caught up in a tsunami ….? I thought I was busy when I was getting up in the night, feeding babies…or car pooling 3 kids to school…or attending every little league game and track meet in the Central US..Well, as it turns out…that was just a dress rehearsal for now.  When we are at home, I feel like I rarely relax…..I guess that’s why I love getting away in the Hiker. Our life is so much more simplified when we’re “hooked on” ..You get up, take a walk, have coffee ( coffee is outside if weather permits), give dinner a thought or two…more sitting outside. Then, an attempt at a crossword puzzle, read a book,  sit in the sun, watch Dr. Phil, shower up and it’s COCKTAIL HOUR!!..And then…light a campfire, have a cocktail, watch the weather on TV, take another cocktail outside, sit by the campfire and solve the world’s problems (have another cocktail of course),….Fast forward….McGuyver lights the grill,  I set the table,  then it’s back to the campfire to let the charcoal get started (maybe with another cocktail)…..Finally eat our dinner about 8PM.  This is normal for us, even at home…Yes, I know..We are not doing it the right way…But we are not of the “early bird” dinner people..never have been , never will be.  Dennis says you can never spend too much time in the planning stages..and I am totally there!

 

This morning, our friend Jim Fritsch stopped over with some fresh picked sweet corn.  Dennis and his friends call Jim “Pal”…reason being..he is everyone’s Pal.  Pal is the nicest person you could ever meet. I have never seen him mad..or even moderately upset…

He is the farmer that  Dennis helps every fall.  Den helps Pal combine corn and soybeans, and has for the last 4 years or so.  Sometimes that keeps us from leaving  in the late fall when I would like to , but I try to contain my angst….I know Dennis is a frustrated farmer….

 

Today I was on my usual garage sale run.  Yes, I know..this kind of “busy” is self induced, but I AM the garage sale queen…and  I deem it part of my royal duties to search the area for great bargains…..I drove by the Sandwich Fire Department and they had the ladder truck out, with the bucket waaaay up in the air…

 

Firefighters have my total respect for even THINKING of climbing that thing..let alone possibly having to bring a person down from a burning building…Our fire department here is pretty “state of the art” for a small town.  It looked like they were working on the engine of the later truck, too.  The cab was pulled forward and some guys had their heads under it….That’s on BIG engine to work on!!

 

My garage sale travels took me to the little town of Somonauk, which is about 2 miles West of Sandwich.  All of these little towns that run along Rt 34 also run parallel with the railroad…So it seems everything around here has a “railroad” theme…(Sam would be in heaven and want to move here). Here is a little roadside food stand in Somonauk..

AND ITSY BITSY RAIL CAR WANNBE!

OK, I am now in danger of writing another novel.  My writing skills are very similar to my talking skills…I never know when to SHUT UP!!!  Thanks for visiting….and Y’ALL COME BACK!!

Using Your Weather Radio As An Alarm Clock…A Tutorial

    This morning at 3AM we were awakened by our Noah Weather Radio..The tone in the middle of the night would wake the dead..and I should know about that! Dennis hit the snooze bar and it changed to a computer generated monotone voice..”The National Weather Service has issued a severe thunderstorm watch for the following counties…” blah blah blah…”DeKalb County”…that would be us.  OK, just a watch…Knowing full well that neither one of us was going to “watch” at 3AM, we pulled the sheet up and tried to sleep.  Just about 4:30AM, our weather radio began it’s harassing tone again…Now we have a warning…and now I am wide awake. We had left all of our windows open last night, so both of us are now jumping up , running around in various stages of undress, shutting windows upstairs and down.  Den ran outside in his sleeping attire (which is non existent) to retrieve our umbrella from our patio table…We once had one take flight in a storm and I think it probably ended up in Lake Michigan…we never found it.  After our frantic slamming of windows, we began to hear thunder..Obviously at 5AM we were wide awake, so we started the coffee, put on some clothes and took our coffee out on the front porch.  It didn’t take long for the show to begin….

YIKES!!!!

I’m just sayin…Check out the collage..Hey Al…I figured it out all by myself!!! Will wonders never cease???

…OK, Just what we needed was some more rain.   Throw a little wind in the mix and ya got a severe storm…Isn’t is odd that “NOAH” is the name of the weather radio???..as in ARK???  The mosquitoes in our yard are already the size of a small dog.  If we get much more rain I am throwing a blow up raft in my fountain so they can catch some rays after they have dinner on us…LITERALLY!!.  The wind did come up, the rain began…and we took our “severe storm party” into the kitchen.  Our satellite TV was out…and so was our computer…We looked at each other blankly…and turned on our only means of getting the weather…our radio.  We got another 7/10” of rain..and after  yesterday’s almost 3”, the corn fields look like corn resorts, with lakefront property.

 

  We took these pics on the way to our daughter’s house this morning…We were on our way to Menards for some mosquito repellant..imagine that..And, yes, that is a water park in the pictures below….in the middle of the corn fields…

  We took our walk later this morning, after we got back from Menards, which was about noon…Just let me say it was like hiking inside a sauna.  Now I know exactly why we walk EARLY in the morning.. Our walk took us down by the Dining Train Car to check on the progress.  They closed in the West side of the house and put new windows in it.  To me ,this means that they may somehow incorporate the upstairs of the house into the restaurant.  Also, they poured some concrete footings UNDER the train car portion.

Speaking of train cars, (which I seem to do waaaaay to much), here is the “mysterious train car house” just down the street from us…When Dennis’s Great Aunt Clara lived here, it was just a train car.  No one seems to remember if the car is still underneath the house, or if someone moved it out when the house changed  hands.  One of these days I expect Aunt Neenie will march up to the front door and inquire about that.  When Neenie gets something in her mind, she is UNSTOPPABLE.  Sometimes this can be a slight problem…..

  Well, it’s another strange and rambling blog.  It was so humid here today, when I came out of the local grocery store, my glasses fogged up instantly.  I was in my own little private “fog”…Not surprised???….I thought not.

  I was a little late publishing tonight…I couldn’t find my photos that I downloaded…Some evil little bug moved them so I couldn’t put them in my blog, forcing my brain to almost collapse…UNTIL…I remembered from watching Dennis…Right click on the picture in Kodak Easy Share and click on properties…and WALLA!! It shows up like a little road map taking  you right to where your pictures are located…SUCCESS IS MINE!!!! YES!!!! DID YOU SEE ME DO A VICTORY DANCE?? NO?? PROBABLY BETTER YOU DIDN’T SEE IT..IT WAS PRETTY UGLY.

I am now sufficiently drained and in need of my Rum.and Diet Cherry Coke…Here is one more picture…

 

Me and my “Ya Ya’s”…The bestest friends a woman can have….I am blessed….

We have coffee once or twice a week…Hey, it’s cheaper than a shrink!

I’m In a Fog…Not Unusual For Me….

  First of all…an update on the train car.  They opened up the West side of the house that is attached to it and covered it with a huge tarp in case of rain. I know there was an upstairs when the Wrights lived there, and I am hoping they somehow make use of it in the new restaurant.

  Sunday morning here was a moist mess.  I felt like I was wrapped in a damp washcloth and couldn’t get out…Here is our screen windows looking out on our deck…

  I know little beads of moisture are good for the old skin, but I feel more like a damp wrinkled prune.  The grass never did dry out, so Dennis finally mowed about 4PM, clogging up the blades as he went..

Spider webs take on a life all their own when it is foggy…..

Sunday morning I was having a visit with Den’s Aunt Neenie (Jr.’s and Den’s mom’s sister..maybe I should make a spreadsheet).  She lives two houses West of us, and has lived there for 60 years.  Neenie is 91 years young..She still goes to swim exercises,  and is very active at the Senior Citizen Center in town AND…she still drives…Not so sure she should be, but that is another story. She has kept a daily journal since she was a young girl, so when anyone wants some info about something that happened years ago, we go to Aunt Neenie.  She has settled many a potential family “brawl” by resorting to her journals.

  I wanted to ask Neenie about a house down the street . Den’s Great Aunt Clara lived there at one time…As the story goes, in the early 1930’s that lot was vacant, and Aunt Clara Elliott had been recently widowed. She found out that they were selling train cars out of Aurora, IL., to be purchased and used as houses , so she bought one. Supposedly, they took the train car down the tracks from Aurora to just behind our houses here on Center St. (about 30 miles), and moved it onto the lot.  Neenie said that Grandpa Bark, (Den’s Grandpa and Neenie’s Dad), had a basement put in first, with a steam furnace, and the train car was placed on top…(Copies of the genealogy charts will be distributed later…ha ha).  No one is sure if the house that is there now was built around the train car, or if the car is still underneath the house…or what!.  According to Neenie,  this was a train car formerly used by one of the big wigs of Burlington Northern, and was set up like an apartment..It had a living area, with a pull down berth, possibly for the maid…a long hallway leading to a bedroom, bathroom and small kitchen.  Neenie remembers it  because she was in it frequently as a young girl. This was in the early 1930’s….depression time. You lived in whatever you could afford.. I’ll keep you posted on the “case of the mysterious Center Street train car”.

Left is Den’s Great Aunt Clara Elliott…..She lived in the train car….

Our grandkids stopped in Saturday afternoon.  They think this place is a “Dairy Queen” now. I bought some candy sprinkles to put on their ice cream sundaes when they come over. Secretly, I wanted them myself…Ice Cream is my downfall….

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If I can stay away from the ice cream and sprinkles it will be a miracle of epic proportions…

Welcom to the insanity blog train to our new and brave followers, Kathy and Robert…Put on your seatbelts..this blog ride can be like a rollercoaster!!!

Thanks to all who expressed concern about my sister, Darlene..She has a battle ahead of her…Breast Cancer, and… Bone Cancer in her hip. She is now getting chemo and radiation…and I will be seeing her again soon .  Her spirits are good (she is a bit of a jokester,  imagine that)… We are praying for her to come through this…

Living Amongst the Dead…I Never Saw Even ONE Ghost!!

“  I finally got my act together and put my cemetery pictures together..I was disappointed I couldn’t find one of the house…Maybe I’ll come across one later…

….Yep..that was my Dad..The sexton of Oak Ridge Cemetery….He used to call himself the “sexy sexton”, or ..the “Mayor of Marble City”…He had quite a strange sense of humor..I didn’t fall too far from that tree, now did I?  Below, left, is the entrance as it is now..There used to be a large arched gate that said “Oak Ridge Cemetery” down by the house……

On the right is where the house we lived in USED to be.  What you see as a white building on the right, is the garage and workshop, which were there when we lived there…

Left is my Dad, working at keeping his “fleet” of trimmers in working order..I took the picture on the right in almost the same view as the old one.  I kept talking to my Dad while I was wandering around the grounds, and though he never “appeared”,  I felt he was there with me.

I had a really classy 1966 yellow Chevelle Convertible when I turned 20…I was going to Jr. College in Elgin, and coming home on the weekends to work at the Sandwich Hospital as a Nurse’s Aide to make the payments..Hey, can you say “angel of mercy”????

She’s a beauty, eh?? Right is the same view today….without my pretty yellow convertible..The summer before we were married, (or even engaged), Dennis and I went to Texas in that car in the middle of July.  We drove all around Dallas in 103 degree heat with the top down..and BLACK vinyl interior.Talk about sweat!!!.Everyone else was driving around in their air conditioned cars, looking at us like we were nuts…We were..and In Love!

The left photo was taken from my bedroom balcony in about 1963..See the large gate and arched sign I mentioned at the beginning of the blog??  On the right, notice how different it looks now... and how much bigger the trees are now!  I parked my truck out approximately where I figured the cars would have been…AND..that is Dad’s 1955 Chevy, two toned turquoise and white  sitting out there…Wish I still had THAT one , too!

This is my brother and myself…He is 4 years younger than I am..and he never lets me forget it! This pic was taken in front of our house out by the gate..I have no idea what he was so dressed up for…Whatever it was, I was not going..I don’t even have on shoes!!!

There was a long drive going down into the cemetery and the house was just inside the gate on the left. Here is the huge old Oak tree that was just across from where the house sat…. We had a swing ..and Mom and Dad used to sit out there in the evenings…

Above, left is the dreaded crypt I was talking about.  It looks pretty sad now.  When we lived there, it had huge brass doors, and all of the brick was in still there. This is where they used to store the bodies when there was too much snow and frost to hand dig a grave. (And where Patsy was laid out to scare kids at my Halloween party). There were 3 layers of shelves made of metal rods on the back wall to slide the caskets into.  It was underground and over the hillside from the cemetery..Believe it or not, it used to be really beautiful. The middle picture is the cannon, placed in a circular drive with the original cannon balls and a flagpole.  The bench wasn’t there when we lived there. I’m sure you are wondering about the tombstone on the right… Fern and Tytus Pasalski… I learned to drive on the roads out there..and backing up to turn around took me treacherously close to this stone..I believe I bumped it once or twice..I apologized many times to Fern and Tytus…I’m sure they hated to see me get in the car and start it up…

I could go on and on…

….Left,  this man died at Vicksburg, in the Civil War…Middle,  Peter Hummel…notice the date of death as 1850, “Died and Buried in the city of Mexico”…If I remember how my Dad told it (help me out here, Dad), these are all children from the same family that died in a plague in Mexico City…On the right is John Monroe..He is , as far as I know, the only African American buried  in Oak Ridge Cemetery..He was a character around Sandwich who was a transient, did odd jobs, for people in town. Everbody knew him… I have no idea how or where he lived in town..They called  him “N_---r Jack”..I know..that is sooo politically incorrect, but things were very different then. When he died , in 1912, the people of Sandwich took up a collection and paid for this burial and this tombstone..His real name was John Monroe…and he was much loved in this town.  Soooo much history in cemeteries!!

  By now you are either nodding off, or turned off, by this very long blog. I have to say that I enjoyed sharing some of my best memories with you. My kids used to love to go see Grandma Cora and Grandpa Don at the cemetery. Mom and Dad would babysit them there many times…so you see…my kids don’t see anything strange about me growing up in one..Thanks for reading…I was like a catharsis for me…OH…a shout out to our new followers,  Thelma and Skip.  I hope I didn't scare you away..Hey..NO, YOU CANNOT UN- FOLLOW !!! (JUST KIDDING, REALLY).