Wet Walk

Hello,

A gentle rain started early Sunday morning. When it was time to start for church it was still falling, however not so much that we could tell inside and had to check outdoors to learn the status. With umbrellas we should be well covered.

Leroy had his blue and white and I had my ancient pink flowered umbrella. It was wonderful to be out in the pattering rain with no breeze behind it. With my dress I wore some dressier leather sandals, shunning my outdoor waterproof walking pair. We had covered less than half the distance when the rain started coming down much harder, but not yet buckets. I complained that my feet and legs were getting quite wet. Leroy suggested we go back and get the car, but I said, “I want to keep going, I will just complain.”

“I wish I had a larger umbrella,” Leroy noted, “I am getting a little wet on the edges.”

As we walked past the Methodist church, I suggested, “Let’s convert.”

I stepped on what I thought was asphalt only to slip and learn it was dark mud. Luckily I did not go down, but it certainly startled me and brought some of the muck between my foot and the sandal. By the time we got to church I had water spots on the bottom skirt of my dress and my arms were tired from carrying the umbrella. Would larger have been better?

It was certainly an adventure. The homeward trip was much easier as the rain had considerably slackened, making it much more fun. I do like walking in the rain, but it is more enjoyable when I am not going somewhere special. My sandals took most of the day to dry. They will be worn many more times as I could clean them easily. I thanked them for good service.

Paula

Phone

Hello,

I was all set to brag about how great our non land line, land line phone is, but it is not working now. I tried various things including calling the number with my cell phone. I was able to leave a message, but not talk to myself. Now I tried to use the Internet and learned that internet is down. Since we have been here from the middle of March I think it has been down three times, once for at least three or four days. Otherwise the phone has worked quite well. I personally have found it to be freeing.

On a totally different note, last evening Leroy and I walked to the local grocery story for watermelon and toilet paper. Leroy packed the watermelon in the backpack and I carried the toilet paper since it was 12 rolls and too large for a bag. Both items were on sale, of course. On the way home Leroy claimed to be tired so we rested in a small park where he could sit on the table bench and rest his backpack on the table top without taking the bag off. While sitting there, a small girl came along on a bike that had seats in the back that were filled with two kids who appeared to larger than she was. She stopped and could not get going again. As we went past I told her, “Put your feet on the pedals, and I will give a push.”

She did that and made quite a lot of progress. We went past the house that was close and I said to the four people sitting on the porch, “I hope that was alright that I pushed her since she seemed to need help.”

After an affirmative response, one of them said, “We could use some of that paper you are carrying.”

“Really?” I asked.

“Yes,” was the reply, so I opened the package, took out a roll and threw it to them.

We all had a good laugh about it. I wondered should I go around the neighborhood spreading goodwill by throwing around toilet paper.

At home we weighed the watermelon and it clocked in at 18.4 pounds. Guess Leroy had every right to be tired.

Paula

Tent Sleeping

Hello,

The plan to go camping at the state park did not materialize. The two biggest drivers were that Miriam did not want to sleep in a tent as she has some problems with her back and she was feeling it a bit at this time. Leroy and I did not want to go without her and we were feeling a bit weary. Miriam declared the girls would enjoy the backyard just as much. In retrospect I was a little sorry that we did not go to the park as we could have walked in the woods and these girls would have gotten that experience. Also it would probably have been quieter.

On this lovely Tuesday evening we got to bed by 9:00 on an air mattress and a cot mattress. What would we do without our generous landlords? Leroy was on the cot mattress by himself and I was in between the two girls. These girls could not seem to settle down and at 10:00 Olivia decided to sleep inside. I am not sure why Tuesday was party night, but that seemed to be the case at the tavern that is about two blocks away. They were quite generous with their talk and music. Nora and Leroy both managed to go to sleep in spite of noise. But then some lone speaker was declaiming loudly so that all in the area could hear. After a brief silence a car alarm went off waking up both Nora and Leroy. At times there were a number of sirens blaring even if they did not come here. We are close to a fire station as well as a hospital. Nice for safety, but hard on the ears.

I dozed off, but needed to use the toilet at about 3:30am. Lights blazed at the neighbors two doors away. The man I saw outside seemed to be carrying buckets that could have had paint in them. About 4:30 I woke again to hear two females talking. When I got up and checked it was again at that house. It was normal volume talking, but in the morning quietness it seemed that they were just next to us.

It was a tough night to experience. Next time I vote for the park.

Paula

sleeping

Hello,

When the girls were here they slept on an air mattress in Granny and Grandpa’s room. They felt more secure with us and we enjoyed having them in the room. It made for a little more excitement than our lives usually hold.

They often had a bit of a tussle when getting to sleep, but then Leroy and I were not bothered as we were still awake. In the night there would still be a certain amount of talking and sparing. “Olivia, you are crowding me,” Nora whined. When I looked over and down, I saw that Olivia was clinging to the edge of the bed and Nora was pushing on her. Nora seemed to be especially active chattering in the night. I believe that she was talking in her sleep. I do not know if I still do that, but I know that I did when I was growing up. One night my mother related that she came to our room, my sister and I slept together, to tell us to be quiet and found it was just me talking away.

One other night when the girls went to sleep or bed at the same did we did, Leroy immediately started snoring gently, or I thought it was gentle. Olivia asked, “Is there a bear in here?”

“No that is Grandpa,” I chuckled.

“Oh,” Nora said, “we thought it was a live bear, and it is just Grandpa.”

We all laughed as quietly as we could as I told Grandpa to, “roll over.”

We have gone back to much quieter nights now that we are alone.

Paula

Wildlife

Hello,

Those little girls left on Thursday, but we thought of them several times today as we rode down to Ely on our bikes. We attended the Polka service, lunch and almost the dance too. The sky was getting cloudy so we headed back to Cedar Rapids as it takes us about an hour to make the 12 mile trip.

The first time we thought of the girls was when we saw two wild turkeys trotting off towards the woods. We were pleased to see them as we have not seen turkeys for some time. After that we saw squirrels scampering across the trail along with some gold finches flittering. One of the most exciting things was the spotted fawn that almost walked in front of us, saw us, twirled around, and dashed back into the woods. When I looked over I could see another deer, but was unable to tell if it was young or not. Seems like the wrong time of year for spots, but I guess some late births occur in the animal kingdom.  Many geese were resting by the pond in Ely.

As we were going home something I found quite interesting was a guy walking with a fully loaded pack on his back accompanied by a dog with packs on each side of its back. He wanted to know where the trail was. It was easy for us to show him. He wanted to know how far it was to Cedar Rapids and the eleven plus miles did not seem to faze him. We learned that he was hiking to Colorado and had come from Chicago. He especially liked walking the trails because they provide some shade, however, in Iowa he was mostly using back roads as there are not many trails going east and west.

Both of us are so happy to see so many people out using the trail especially the large number of families. What a good example for these kids.

Paula

Iowa or Utah

Hello,

Sometimes it takes children to point out differences especially when viewing or hearing something that they have not experienced before.

What does Iowa have that Utah does not?

Crickets
Cicadas
Toads
Insects that we cannot name even though I have often seen them
Strange spiders
Forests or woods with many trees clumped together
Cornfields, so many of them
No irrigation for the corn
Gravel roads (at least not that they had ever seen)
Robins
Squirrels
Bunnies
Night noises that insects produce
Thunderstorms
Humidity, humidity, humidity (so their mother says)
All houses look alike?

What does Utah have that Iowa does not?
Few flies
Arid air
Mountains
Comfortable air with no humidity (according to their mother)

Sweets in the house
Bathtub

So there it is straight from the children’s perspective.

Paula

Ride Like the Wind

Hello,

“Go faster,” Olivia shouted as we headed off down the alley with the wind blowing our hair. Because this was my first time controlling this blue two seated bike I was a bit cautious. It was great so on the way back I did indeed go a little bit faster. The girls are too small to help pedal or steer so the adult on board had to do all of the work.

“Don’t stop now,” Nora begged. So we went to the other end of the alley. It is a great paved space and almost private so we could check out this bike of our landlord with carefree abandon.

Leroy and Miriam also had a turn riding on this great invention. It is a tandem recumbent where the seats are side by side. At first the girls sat on a cushion giving Nora a seat between the seats. Later they tried it without the cushion and found that they could both fit on one seat.

The next day, Leroy and Miriam rode that bike about a mile to the lake while I came in the car with the girls and our two adult bikes. When we connected once again, Leroy confided, “Miriam got a little scared on the street.”

About five minutes later Miriam declared, “Dad tried to kill us on the road.” The bike does take up a bit more room on the street than a regular bike, but we figured that was the easiest way to get to the lake even though our landlord had offered to drive it over in his van.

Leroy, because he is the strongest bike rider now, chauffeured the girls up the bike path and around the lake. There are some hills, but not so many, however, later the girls observed that some panting noise sounded like grandpa when he was going uphill. In Leroy’s defense, it is different muscles being engaged because you sit differently. We all thought it was great even hard working Leroy. The girls got to see two ducks, several geese, a great blue heron, and a goldfinch along with many wildflowers.

A friend rode over on his bike and chatted around the lake with Miriam. He also joined us for lunch. So all in all it was a great experience.

Paula