Pegs & Jokers and Manipulation

 Clarinda, IA (Current temp 73º and sunny)
Well, Monday was June 23rd, so was the time for some Kenwood RV Park people to come to our place to play Pegs & Jokers.  Harold & LaRoahda Neher from Hiawatha, KS drove in mid morning and Bob & Bobby Raab from Minneapolis, MN came in the afternoon.  Butch & Dorothy Geisking were coming, but had called Sunday night that Dorothy was suffering from a cold and they decided not to drive down from Titonka, IA.  Doris & Lyle Winter from Browerville, MN had considered coming, but weren't able to.

 We spent much time visiting, playing Pegs & Jokers, eating and laughing.  In top photo are LaRoahda, Bob; middle photo Bob, Phyllis & Harold; bottom photo Bobbi and Lynn.

Monday evening it was cool enough we fixed hamburgers & brats on the grill and ate on our deck.

After more Pegs & Jokers we ate lemon pie Phyllis made from lemons we had gotten in Texas.  (She squeezes them, puts the juice in ice-cube trays and after frozen puts them in zip-lock bags--3 or 4 cubes makes a pie just like from fresh lemons)

Tuesday morning we ate at Vaughn's Cafe uptown and then drove around the area showing them the town and where we used to live in the country west of Clarinda.  Back to the house and after visiting they went back to the motel for naps.  By 3:30 in the afternoon we were back to Pegs & Jokers after having a late lunch.  We then switched to Manipulation and by about 5:30 Patty Steckelberg from Shenandoah had joined us.

By 8 pm we were back on the deck to enjoy home-made ice cream, rhubarb pie, fresh strawberries and warm chocolate topping.

And, all too soon, it was over.  Both couples were heading back home this morning.  We sure enjoyed our time with them, and Patty.

Monday morning I had added some screening to the guttering on a very long run on the north side of our house where it turns.  Almost every storm the leaves and debris had built up at the corner and water overran the guttering.  Will see if this helps.

Sunday evening we had driven, with several other carloads of Clarinda Circle 8 Square Dancers, to dance at Savannah, Missouri.  It was the clubs regular dance night, but our club member (and theirs) Ron & Cynthia Pederson were celebrating their 35th Wedding Anniversary.

Good time was had by all.  Got back a little late (62 miles from Clarinda to Savannah).







We are heading out to the west for two weeks tomorrow.  With car only, no RV.  Will spend 4 nights in Callaway, NE where we will attend my All-School Reunion on the weekend.  Hope to visit with my brother Darrell & his family while there who are coming up from Miami, FL; and see some old childhood friends.  Will then go on to Sterling, CO to Phyllis' cousin and then to Estes Park where we will visit with our Activity Director from Kenwwod RV (she manages an RV park there in the summer) and finally on to Grand Lake, CO where we spend a week or so at Phyllis' sister's place.

Don't know how much WIFI will have, or how much data I want to use up on my Verizon Account to do much posting while traveling.  As always, you can view any of my photos at my Picasa

Later, Lynn

Mid June and the The 39th Annual Glenn Miller Festival - June 12th-15th, 2014 - Clarinda, Iowa U.S.A.

Clarinda, IA  Bit warm today (Tuesday) - almost 90 degrees, with very strong southern wind all day.
Phyllis & I both volunteered at the Glenn Miller Festival last Thursday through Sunday.   We were taking tickets, ushering, helping people as needed.  On Thursday we guarded the doors as contestants for the various scholarships did their best.  In the morning were 10 instrumentalists, and afternoon 9 voice (1 was not able to come).

Click Here for GMFestival Website

The Tamana Girls High School (玉名女子高校学校 Tamana joshi kōkōgakkō) is a girls high school in Tamana, Kumamoto, Japan.They performed Friday, Saturday and Sunday.  These young girls (some 69) perform at the level (or better) than any professional band.  We did ushering at each of the performances and they were very well received.
Click Here for a YouTube of them practicing at their school earlier this year.  Remember, these are high school aged girls.

We also ushered at the two Glenn Miller Orchestra performances.  Click Here for website   

This photo at left is off the GMO website.

On Thursday evening The Band of Mid-America SHADES OF BLUE performed a free concert to the public on the Court House Square downtown.

The Tamana Girls Band attended the Air Force performance -- lots of energy as they bounded around.

On Saturday morning we ate pancakes served by the local Lions Club and the band from North West Missouri in Maryville played while we were eating.

 Here is the vocal group with the GMO - the leader did not play an instrument but did many solo vocals and also with this group--can't remember what they called the group.

Our Grand-son-inlaw Heath (facing camera) is a high school band director in Eastern Iowa and he was happy to talk with the GMO director and visit with some of the band members in the hall after the concert he and wife Ashley attended.

This group of 4 guys, Tonic Sol-fa, had nothing but body sounds and vocalizing to put on a great show.

Tonic Sol-fa   Click at left to go to their web site.

When we came back from lunch at home both Saturday and Sunday, the Tamana girls were spread around the high school campus practicing.

This is Walt Pritchard with Phyllis.  Walt did all the coordinating and lining up ushers for all the events.  He has done this for many years.

One band I did not get a picture of is Glenn Miller Birthplace Society Big Band made up of local musical people, mostly from Iowa.
Also, we did not attend the dance Saturday evening where Lonny Linn Orchestra from Lincoln, NE so have no pictures.  Was told they were great.  We were pooped after long day and rested at home.

After the Sunday performance by the Tamana Girls Band there was an ice-cream social in the commons area of the school.  Phyllis got to talk with Tomoko Tanove who spoke with the band as Vice-Principal of the school.  Phyllis knew this lady had been a math teacher at Tamana school when our daughter taught English as a Second Language in the late 1990's for one school year, and we got to visit with her.

    Back at the house --  last year we had two large boxes shipped in that had a lot of sheets of Styrofoam.  This "free" insulation ended up costing about $20 for styrofoam caulking to glue it to the door, but have almost half of the door covered--in case I ever finish insulating the last half of the shop it will make it warmer in the winter; if we ever stay here in the winter.

 The hedge that goes nearly 200 feet all across the back of our level property (another 25 feet or so behind the hedge is a steeply inclined bank down to an old railroad right-of-way) grows quite well.  Here is photo of after I had started working on trimming it.  The back of the hedge can only be reached from the front and is hard to reach with the trimmer.  If you go through the hedge you are standing about 4 feet below the bottom of the hedge and can't reach the top.

 I have been continuing to catch a few hours most days (after the Festival) wielding a "manual transfer device" commonly called a paint brush.  Amazing how the brush knows when to grab the paint when you stick it into the paint can and then knows to release the paint when you rub it on the wall.  Pretty smart little device when you really think about it.

 Phyllis was given nearly a full van load of material and crafty things by daughters of Mrs. Art Greenwood, who passed away a year or so ago and they are finally going through the house to dispose of things.  She sorted and took much stuff to the sew and share group at the local Methodist Church and will take some to one of our Kenwood RV neighbors who lives near Omaha, NE; will take a bunch of stuff to the sew and share bunch at Kenwood RV and also some material she is using herself.  Here she is sorting and storing that which we will be taking to Omaha and to Texas in our small trailer in the garage.

     One of the things I had to take off the garage wall is this poster.  I had bought it for my sister Louise a while before she passed away some 6 years ago.  She had it hanging in her room for some time in  Westridge Quality Care & Rehabilitation where she lived the last several years of her life.


Well, it has only taken me most of a week to get this written.  Believe it or not, I worked on it several times, but got interrupted or diverted and not finished.



More later, Lynn

Enjoyable weekend trip

On Friday, June 6th, we drove to Des Moines, IA and got a real interesting 2-hour guided tour of the State Capitol.

Left Clarinda, IA  in the fog and took Highway 2

In the rotunda, just starting the tour.  Listening to the good sound bouncing off the walls (of screaming little kids).

Couple of many photos looking up inside the dome.

In the Supreme Court Chamber.

Still in Supreme Court Chamber.  All the carved wood at front of the Bench was done by one man. 

Very large mural - think it is over 40 feet wide.

 This is made entirely of colored small tiles.

 Paint and tiles.

None of the capitol has wall paper.  All graphics are/were hand painted.  Much of it had been painted over in years past and they are continually working on rooms to remove the paint and/or plaster down to original walls, determining the original painting and then making stencils -- such as at right -- to restore to original look.

 After getting a bite to eat at Altoona we picked up our granddaughter Ashley at the mall on I80 and went on to West Branch, IA and went through the Herbert Hoover National Historic Site and Presidential Library and Museum (Click here for site)

Ashley and Phyllis as we came out of the birthplace home of the President.  He was President from 1928 to 1932 just as the country was going into the Depression.  He passed away in 1964 and is buried on the grounds near the Library.


Saturday afternoon Ashley & Heath came to her folks and then Cam drove us all to Ottumwa where we picked up granddaughter Emily and went to eat.at Roes Sports Bar for a delightful meal.  Afterwards we went to Bridge View Center to Bill Cosby's show.  This was a surprise to us (my birthday) and we really enjoyed this show.  We had seen Bill a few times over the years, and now, as he said, he is 76 and 11/12th years old he sat more and moved slower, but was just as sharp and witty as every.  Most of his 2 hour talk was about the differences between men and women.  He has macular degeneration, which he talked about a bit on a David Letterman show, but performed by himself including walking around the stage many times.  He responded to people from the audience, always looking their way, but when he asked what time it was and he exchanged some quips with someone he suddenly asked if  he was talking to the aisle down the center of the auditorium.

Dropping Emily off at her place in Ottumwa (she has rest of the summer there as she finishes her double major at Indian Hills Community College) we drove the nearly 2 hours back to Marengo.


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  Sunday, after eating at Cam's, the girls went to Iowa City to a movie and Cam, Heath, and I drove to Cedar Rapids Airport to view the B-17 that was there on display.  They were taking people on flights, 10 at a time, for around $475 and had so many takers of that, that instead of starting the touring of the inside of the plane at 2:00 pm they kept up the flights and it was around 5:00 pm before we got a look inside

Monday we drove from Marengo to State Center, IA and spent 45 minutes or so with Lola Schappe.

Lola spends the winters in our RV Park (Kenwood) in Texas and works with Phyllis quite a bit in the sewing stuff they have there.  Here she is showing Phyllis how she has made little girls dresses out of pillow cases.

Lola has made hundreds of these small throw rugs

from tiny pieces of scrap fabric over the years.

She hates to throw anything away and sews about anything.










We went on to Nevada, IA and visited with Earl and Deb Osmond.  For some reason I didn't take any photos.  Deb has had health issues for some time and a few weeks ago fell and injured her knee on same leg that she has had problems for years.  Is in wheel chair and not getting around well.  Had good 30-minute or so visit with them.  We stopped at Pizza Ranch in Ames (had to use up a $5 value they had put on my card for my birthday!), then stopped in Indanola, IA at Harolds RV to pick up a wheel skirt that I had ordered for the travel trailer.  (It had been broken when we blew a tire in Arkansas).  It is of lighter color than the other one on the trailer, but think some spray paint meant for plastic will take care of it.

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Home by about 4 pm and made a quick mow of the yard.  I have fertilized the yard several times, trying to get it to fill in some spotty places and, of course, that causes it to grow vertically quite a bit

On Tuesday my brother Roger and wife Carolyn Miles from Lincoln, NE came for a short visit. After visiting and eating lunch we went to the cemetery to view headstones of Phyllis' family and also our sister Louise Miles gravestone.





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Finished up the day with pie and coffee on the deck.



I don't really do birthdays, but my 71st birthday (Tuesday June 10th) was really nice with Roger and Carolyn's visit and also the weekend with Cam and family.  Besides that I got phone calls on Tuesday  from Cam, daughter Michelle, and brother Don as well as many, many greetings on Facebook.

If you want to read any of my blogs previous to this one just go to "older post" clear at the bottom of the page; or, go to the upper right side of the page and click on any of the dates for postings I have made.

I have put all 640 photos from the weekend on my Picasa page.  Haven't edited them and written descriptions, but will do so as I get time.  If you want to look at any of the photos I have taken during the month of June just  Click Here  I have separated photos of State Capitol Click Here  and of Herbert Hoover Birthplace and Library Click Here

Tomorrow we start our 3-day stint with helping usher for the Glenn Miller Birthplace Festival at the High School and will also be hosting granddaughter Ashley and her husband Heath at our place while they attend some of the concerts.
More later, Lynn