Church

Hello,

Today we are having a special anniversary church service in the afternoon. We decided not to go to church in the morning. So I am writing to you and feeling slightly guilty for not going this morning as is my habit. I am not sure how Leroy feels about it, but we had talked seriously about going twice. First he only wanted to go once, and then when I agreed to it he and changed and wanted to go twice. It is so different when we are not the pastor and his wife. Then there would have been no question, we would have gone twice. It is nice to have the expectation lifted even if I mostly would have gone to most of the events anyway.

We are going to a spiritually class so now four of my evening are booked, two with work and two with church. Choir is one of those nights and this class is the other. I do find that a bit of a stretch for me as I do not fall asleep easily after having been out and about in the evening, but I am learning or just becoming more tired.

I have found the class to be good. One of the suggestions is to memorize some scripture verses. I have taken up that challenge, hoping to keep my brain young. Memorizing does not happen as effortlessly as it did when I was in confirmation. Now have to spend days and minutes each day in the week to get two sentences locked in. But even yet I would want to say to not put me to the test. I have found it interesting to spend so much time thinking about these ideas that I am. Certainly more learning and consideration is happening. I feel blessed by it in a way that I never realized I would. My brain and my spiritually are growing and changing. Hopefully it is all for the good.

Paula

Canning

Hello,

I have finally gotten enough tomatoes to make a batch of “Mom’s tomato soup”. Her recipe states that I needed a peck of tomatoes. Some time earlier I had written on there that a peck of tomatoes equaled 16 pounds. The tomatoes in the Ely garden have been stressed by lack of rain and much too much sun. So they limped along. In the community garden the vines have looked lush and green, but I was never there at a time when there were many ripe tomatoes on them. I saved a picking from a couple days ago and then picked again yesterday. Between the two pickings I managed to have 16 pounds. Before I could weigh them I had to go on a hunt for my household scale. Such a relief when I finally found it nestled in a box stored in the large bathroom closet.

This tomato soup has a green pepper. I felt lucky that I had picked a large one in the Ely garden. A bunch of celery, three onions, and rice were store bought.

I almost followed the recipe, but could not resist some changes.

I added one chili pepper that Leroy had brought home from the community garden as well as some cilantro. Then I splashed in some balsamic vinegar because I was a little concerned about the acid content of some of the pale tomatoes. I did put in the butter that I had in the freezer from the kids Christmas visit. I left out the flour and doubled the amount of rice.

When I was filling the jars I learned the one of them had a chip out of the outside rim. Luckily I had another that was clean so I could quickly heat it.

Just a little soup was left over so we could each eat about a ¼ cup for supper. We both thought it tasted good. I am pleased and grateful to my mother who did all of this in the past. I am not sure I realized how much work she did when I was growing up. Course I do remember helping a lot and grumbling about it.

Paula

Random Thoughts

Hello,

Another interesting thing about my job is that when I am the only person there I must not appear busy even though I am. I once had someone doing other things because they could see that I was working on something. “You should have let me know you were ready to check out,” I admonished lightly.

“I did not want to disturb you,” they said.

I have learned that I should not work at my usual desk because my back is to the library. I tried to listen for people coming in, but sometimes am so engrossed that it passes by without my notice. One of my co-workers who also does not always work the front desk told me that she reads some of the professional magazines so she can be more available. That is indeed a good practice. Before this I have read these only at home since I do not have enough time to get every other thing done at work.

Last week when I left work it was not raining from the ominous looking clouds, but about four miles later it was raining so hard that I wondered if I should get off the road. About three or four more miles and I was driving out of the rain. By the time I was home I could see that we had had no rain. That was only about another three miles. Life changes quickly.

Six year old Sophia told us that she was glad we had come to visit because she does not get to see us very much. My response was both sad and glad: sad because it is true and glad because it matters to her. I hope my other grandkids feel some of the same.  If I were richer would I let myself part with the money and time and fly to see them more times in the year? That might be a test. Where are my priorities?

Paula

My Job

Hello,

Sometimes I feel good if I know what I am doing and sometimes not.

Just last week someone wanted the movie “little brats”. They told me that we had it, but they could not find it on the shelf. I put in those words and no such movie title came to the forefront. “It seems we might not have that movie,” I told them.

“We know you do,” this mother and son assured me, “We have checked it out before.”

I put in just the word brats and came up with multiple titles, but no little brats DVD.

“Are you sure about the exact words of the title?” I asked them.

They were sure indeed as they walked resolutely back over to the shelf where they thought it should be to search fruitlessly once more.

I then looked at a source on the internet, but did not even find the title there. “That is crazy that you could not find it, as there is more than one title with this name,” they moaned, “We really want to watch this movie.”

I once again tried online, but watched carefully when I have put in the “bra” as in a movie. At that point I noticed a title with the word bratz in it. When I asked if that is how the name was spelled we found it in our catalogue with a different word than little in the title. I did not know whether to feel smart or stupid. Certainly I am culturally illiterate since I never thought to spell brats with a z.

Last night a boy wanted to know if we had gotten a new book that had just been published that was a fourth in a series he liked. We did not find it in our collection. Then I was sure we would want it and tried to put it on the book order spreadsheet, complete with ISBN. However there was no ISBN listed for it. It took some more serious searching to learn that it had not yet been published. Lesson learned? Approach all searches with an open mind no matter what patrons might firmly believe.

Paula

Another Afternoon Off

Hello,

Leroy and I took another afternoon off. Or sort of did. I had wanted to ride the bikes to Ely and clean out the garden some, but Leroy was not interested in that. If it had been about five miles closer we would have done it.

Instead Leroy took a nap and I started reading emails when I got a Skype call from my dear Slovak friend, Maria. We ended up talking for almost an hour. Leroy joined the conversation when he woke. Isn’t it wonderful that we can have this connection? Who would have even dreamed about it ten or fifteen years ago? Life has many surprises yet to offer. I wait in anticipation.

I had read in the paper that it was still time to do some fall planting. Trusting that word we planted radishes, Swiss chard, and some lettuce outside the house. If it comes up I like to be able to just go out side of the house and harvest these things for a nice lunch or dinner. On the way home from church we picked some basil, cilantro, one zucchini, and some small growths of broccoli. I made up a dish with those minus the zucchini and added some kale that I had brought home two days ago as well as some of the many tomatoes in the house. I figure that one kale will be producing for some time to come. It is my impression that I am the only one using it. I will just keep picking two leave at a time so I am not depriving anyone else.

I learned today that one of the applesauce jars did not seal. That is sad, but something I can get past without sadness.

The almost thrown out mum I planted last year looks glorious this year. That was fifty cents well spent. The beautiful return is so much larger than the outlay.

Paula

Update on Leroy: the other day he said, “I dreamed we were living in Africa. I think I am getting restless.”

Today on the way home from church he talked about how great it would be to get his doctorate. “In what and what goals do you have for it?” I wondered. Thinking, “How old is this guy? And he is not dead yet!”

He thought cataloging, but he did not know just what he would do with it. Stay tuned. Life could change any minute.

Leisure time?

Hello,

Leroy and I used to have leisure time. Somehow that is not the case anymore. Part of it is the gardens and the wonderful produce from it that demands attention one way or another. Now we are into getting apples from which I make applesauce or crisp. I canned seven more quarts of applesauce. The apples were from Brian or really they were from Jen’s father. I do know that when making cider these apples did not produce a lot of juice. When making the sauce I added water two or three times and still had trouble getting it to flow off the spoon and into the jars. Finally in desperation, I just forced it off with a spatula. We ate some of the extra sauce today and found that it tasted good even though it had unusual stiffness.

This morning Leroy and I took part in the neighborhood clean up along with Coe College students and their families. It was such an enjoyable morning to be out and about. Even though I do not like a trashy neighborhood it was satisfying to pick up quite a lot of things. However much of it was not lying around in the open, but tucked up in a copse of trees. I learned how to pronounce copse because even though I have read it more than once, I do not remember hearing anyone use the word before. So learning took place as well on this walk.

This afternoon Leroy and I have been just sitting around, except for a visit to the grocery store. I was happy to see that someone was putting throw away produce in a recycle container. When I commented on how good that was to compost it, he replied, “I agree, but we have to padlock it because otherwise people would come and take it out.”

A part of me wonders if some of the neighbors are hungry enough to eat what they can find in bins. If that is the case it is too bad that they cannot have access to it when it has just been put there. I suspect it is not at that point really unsafe for human consumption

Paula

Traveling

Hello,

We traveled to Brian’s house this weekend to participate in the celebration for Sophia’s sixth birthday. Can we have three granddaughters who are six? How did that happen?

The drive up was mostly uneventful in spite of me needing to use the restroom when we were not ready to stop for gas. But we were still making good time until we got to some road construction south of the split of 35W and 35E where a sign declared use both lanes in back up. Ok, so there were not many cars and we just stayed in our lane. By the time we saw another such sign both lanes seemed to be full. Sometimes we crept along at 3 mph and at others we were stopped. An electronic sign informed us that it would 45 minutes until those Interstates went their separate ways. We did not look at the time but later it said it would be 30 minutes. Not sure but we believe it had been much longer than 15 minutes to make that much progress.

I looked at the map of the Twin Cities searching for that alternate route. The map did not go that far out. Unfortunately, on the Minnesota map, there was not enough detail for the place where we were currently residing. I have to confess that I did not consider using Leroy’s phone as I do not know much about it. We do not have GPS in our car.

I called Brian to let him know where we were moving at a snail’s pace. He wanted to know the mile marker, but it was not instantly handy. He was able to use the information when I did give it to him to create that alternate route for us and save us seven minutes. So we do have a GPS named Brian. We did use technology just in a different way. He used his computer at home, talked me through the close intersections and then sent a text of the rest. It worked quite well. I like maps, but at times the paper is a bit limiting.

Paula

Sunglasses

Hello,

A few days ago when I left for work it seemed overcast enough that I might not want sunglasses. However that changed in an instant just as I was driving up the ramp on the Interstate. The sun was blazing and I was squinting. My sunglasses are the type that has magnets on the ends so they attach to my regular glasses. That makes them much easier for me to put on when I am driving. My first task was to pull the sunglasses case out of my purse. I am rather dictatorial about how I put things away so they were exactly in the side pocket where I expected them to be. Because of traffic I took a little break from extracting my squint preventer and concentrated on the cars around me. In a little bit I managed to open the case and get out the cloth bag that they are in closed in. I suppose I could just store them in the case, but they are too small for all my glasses cases and I believe that cloth bag which they came in protects them from scratching.

So then I got them out of the cloth bag, but again traffic demanded full concentration of my senses. I laid the sunglasses down in the console between the front seats. Gratefully I was able to pick them up in a short while and touch them to my glasses where they clung magnetically. But wait what is that thing I see out of the corner of my eye? I tried to adjust the glasses but they refused to move securely into the magnetic slot and wobbled a little. All this time I am going 55 or 60 mph with numerous cars zooming on all sides changing lanes and otherwise adjusting their positions.

I finally gave up because they were staying on my face and I could drive without squinting and blocking the sun with my hand. When I stopped the car at work it was a relief to look at my glasses to find a paper clip stuck between the glasses and the sunglasses. While on the road, I had thought my brains or hairs were falling out or my vision was really going.

Paula

Service

Hello,

On Sunday, our church, along with others in the denomination, celebrated our 25^th anniversary by working in our neighborhoods. Leroy had signed up to help also, but was feeling too tired from just walking to church. Home and a nap helped him recuperate.

A sack lunch was provided. I will have to say it scares me a little to see the contents because the only thing in there that I eat on a regular basis was a banana. I suppose I could say I also eat the bread, but it did not seem like very good bread to me. There was, between the pieces of bread, cheese but not a kind I normally buy this was soft maybe like American or something that was fake, as well as slices of turkey. This meat had been processed to make it appear much like ham. A bag of some type of cheesy snack food was included along with two homemade cookies. I ate everything except the cookies because I was hungry and worried about getting done two hours later and not having the energy to make it home. The reason I find this scary is the thought, what it will be like if I have to go to a nursing home. Surely they will serve more veggies!

I spent some time pulling weeds in the community garden. That was interesting because I would say the set up is quite different from the garden in my neighborhood. Then it was on to deliver the neighborhood newsletters. At least that was close to my home or on the way there. The heat was close and clinging, besides I do not think that lunch helped me much. I had to eat when I got home, but it was just an hour before snack time.

Today I picked up trash in our front yard. I had been noticing it for a while. Instead of spending any more energy complaining in my mind, I decided it would be a lot less expenditure if I just went out and picked it up. I now feel satisfied. My head is saved from negative thoughts for a time to come. Hopefully trash will not come back too soon. There are a group of young men who hang around cars in the shade of the wonderful tree out there. I think they are friends with a guy across the street. Somehow they do not notice how much stuff they put down or know what that looks like to me.

Paula

Money Spent

Hello,

When Leroy came home last night, I told him that I had to go to the store and spend my points of over $40 or lose them. He said, “I would like to go too.”

Because he seemed tired, I tried to tell him that I could handle it alone, but I am glad that he was there. He suggested that we look at a bike light for me as well as a  bike helmet. I had not thought of those things. They were not on sale so we kept them in mind, but went across the street to ferret out what we could.

I found a blouse for me that I really liked. Leroy wanted some light colored shorts and after some searching we found a pair that fit. I also found a long sleeved shirt for him that we both liked. All of these items were on sale so we only spent about half the money/points. We are learning that we can indeed spend on demand.

That meant a trip back to the original store where I declared, “I almost never ride in the dark; therefore I will just get the bike helmet now. If the lights go on sale I might get one then.”

At the checkout we were pleasantly surprised to learn that we only owed 2 cents. The clerk even exclaimed the second time, “Two cents is your entire bill.” I was happy to have two pennies to give her. Life is full of little pleasures.

This morning I enjoyed the cooler weather as I walked to church. It was also great to have my TV receiving neighbor see me, and call out, “Hello, Paula.”

I feel like I belong. However you should know that the grant for Leroy’s job was denied. The future is God’s and the now is ours.

Paula

More Forgetting

Hello,

I called Sarah and Stephen this morning, partly because it is their anniversary. Sarah was at the library and could not speak with me. Somehow when she called back it never crossed my mind. That seems like a true sign of aging.

The other thing forgotten is that I have some rewards points to spend at Sears that are expiring today. It is over $40 so I do not want to lose them. Part of me did not believe that they were expiring so soon, but I forgot to call to check on it until this afternoon. So I will go to the store tonight and spend “money” even though I cannot think of anything I need. I seldom, if ever, just spend money on something that is quite unnecessary. Maybe Leroy needs a tool or some such deal. If I had children at home I suspect it could be gone in a minute or two.

Leroy did go to work this afternoon. He is not at 100% health, but much better than he was. He is out of vitamins; maybe I should get some vitamins while I am out.

I am excited because one of the mums, I got on clearance last year, survived the winter and is now blooming beautifully. I have started to water it on a schedule because of the lack of rain.

This morning at the garden I picked two large zucchini, two cucumbers (one so big I do not like it), and some tomatoes. Most of the tomatoes will be consumed in short order. Leroy never used to eat raw tomatoes and now he can eat and seems to enjoy more of them than I do. Who knew that such a taste change could happen? I had given up on it long ago.

Paula

Forgetting

Hello,

I keep forgetting to announce that Leroy has a job until the end of December. The grant has not yet been addressed, but they found the money to keep him and a coworker if it is denied. So we do not have to think about the job future and moving for a time. Neither of us were surprised that this money came. Somehow we do not expect to have to move for some time. I guess we believe the grant will be awarded. We are just trusting to be helped when needed.

The smart TV has yielded a secret. I figured out how to get the keypad to come up so we can put in web addresses. All I had to do was accept/return a few more times. I did want to get into my Google account because of the webcam as well as photos and I cannot yet do that as, in my password, I have some symbols that are not readily available on this on screen keypad. I keep forgetting to change my password. Really I am avoiding that because I like the current password. It stays in my memory and that is good.

Leroy is home today fighting a seriously running nose, sneezing, and congestion. He tells me that several people at work have been sneezing. He never likes to be left out of the circle so he gathered it up. I am going to try to avoid that. We will see if he goes to work tomorrow. If not, then I get to enjoy his sick company once again.

I have apples that must be taken care of or thrown out because they fell off the tree and cooked in the hot sun. We had some cool days so I thought hot was gone, but not so. I also have some pears that are suffering from the heat. We ate two this morning and they were quite tasty. Now what to do with the others? I do not really have enough to can and too many to eat.

Paula

More about the neighbor

Hello,

The TV recycling neighbor had on a rather ratty cowboy hat. He talked about how he loved to ride horses. “Where’s the horse?” I wanted to know.

“Kentucky,” he replied.

“Well that is not next door,” I commented.

He agreed, but hoped to get there sometime. Then these two guys started talking about riding the bulls. I was a little skeptical, “You have done that? And did you fall off.”

“Yes, but it isn’t really falling off, it is being forced off,” and they laughed. They both had broken bones because of experiencing that in just a matter of seconds or minutes.  The friend showed us the scars on his arm. They were lengthy strips among the tattoos. They both agreed it was a great adrenalin rush because of the power and the risks. At that point our neighbor pulled up his shirt and I gasped at the length and breathe of the dark curved scar coming down from his armpit to the lower portion of his ribs.  It certainly looked like a steer horn. Leroy did not say anything until when we were alone, but he also was shocked at the angry flesh. Certainly the worst scar I have ever seen or hope to see.

Our rabbit ears have developed a broken wire that Leroy cannot fix. Our landlord has a habit of keeping things that might have a use so I asked about rabbit ears. The response was, “No we threw all of them away.”

Just now they called and said, “We found another box of junk and we think there are two rabbit ears in it. You are welcome to have them.”

They are much newer than the ones we had and they work. How cool is that. Give something away and get just what you need back.

Paula

Moving things

Hello,

Yesterday Leroy and I moved some stuff out of our lives and space. The first thing to go was the old TV. Earlier, I had talked briefly to a neighbor across the street who had said when we were ready to eliminate our TV he knew someone who would take it. His door was ajar so I felt comfortable knocking. In the past he has been sitting outside quite a lot so it makes him easier to approach even though I do not really know him. He came to the door immediately and when he learned my mission his brown face creased into the smile lines already in residence. He was excited and pleased because he had a friend visiting who wanted the TV.

We had set the TV by the curb earlier in the day, but planned to move it on if no one wanted it that day. Our neighbor had not noticed the TV because it was sitting so low and behind a car.

Since we were going out to shop we knew that we could take it to Best Buy where it would be recycled, but I prefer that someone use it.

As we were talking I mentioned that we had had a converter box, but it no longer worked. “We also have a thing that takes different types of cables so you can use more things with it.”

“Do you mean so you could play a DVD player?” the friend wanted to know.

“Yes that thing,” I replied. Earlier I had told Leroy we should try to sell it, but ready disposal trumped any yearning for more money.

When I went to get it, Leroy wanted to know if they needed anymore cables. Since I did not know Leroy came along. Sure enough they took the cable too. They were excited, we were excited; what could be better? Perhaps going to Best Buy and getting rid of our external hard drive that no longer works as well as the signal converter box.

Paula

Time Flies

Hello,

Just today we woke up, walked a little, washed kitchen towels and hung them out before we got on our bikes and rode four miles to join in the mayor’s eight mile bike ride. It was great to see so many people; nearly four hundred is the official count. All ages were included so that is great too. The weather was perfect and the route was easy. The only thing that slowed us down was that the one person we knew there rides slower than we ride. She was alone so we hung back with her. Cedar Rapids is moving up the ladder of bike friendly cities with an increase in trails, bike lanes, and riders.

We were going to visit a museum this afternoon, but we had run out of steam. This museum is about a half hour or more away from us. Instead we did a little shopping during which I bought a dress that was really a swim cover up. I did wonder what it was, but it was navy blue had a scoop neck and looked like it could be a jumper. The clerk agreed that I could rededicate it. Besides it had pockets. That was the real selling point. She made the comment that they only have about two dresses with pockets. I love pockets. Why are pockets such an endangered species on women’s clothing?

This evening Leroy and I headed off to the community garden. Someone had been there ahead of us. That is fine although we did want to try one of the watermelons. We have had nice melons from our other garden so we cannot complain. However, two of them had to be thrown away as one was not ripe and the squash bugs were attacking and the other was too ripe or cooked in the rind.

We did find lots of cucumbers that we passed out to neighbors on the way home. One of those neighbors gave us some beautiful peaches. That was so great. She even remembered us from the last time we handed out produce. It is such a pleasant way to meet neighbors.

Paula