Hot and No Rain!

The summer has been hot and dry and crops are failing; sweet corn is skimpy on the cob and not very moist. It is still just as sweet and tastes as good; just looks really puny and the juice doesn’t run down your arm while eating it! Not much change expected in the weather for some time, stifling nite time temps, triple digit daytime and a very meager chance of rain. And most rain that does come to the area, don’t make it to the ground, it evaporates before it gets there.

I can’t say I’m really impressed with the A/C in the trailer – oh, it cools, but the blower just keeps blowing! I feel like I’m in a wind tunnel even when it is on low! I try to open the door and windows in the AM until I just can’t handle the heat and stuffiness (no breeze). I usually last outside with Li’lBit until about 10:30-11AM, then it is back inside, close everything up and turn on the A/C.

I can tell I’m back in Iowa and eating too much beef, pork, corn and other carbs! My feet look like cantaloupes attached to the end of my legs!

On Friday night, my sister and I took a ride out to find the small rural cemetery where the children would be buried. So sad! Their funeral was Sunday afternoon.

Monday I decided to go into town and stock up on non-salty-carb snackies! My feet still look like melons!



5 Sullivan Brothers from Waterloo, IA

 Tuesday the 10th Bea and I made a road trip to Freedom Rock over by Greenfield, then up to Casey to find the mural in the city park I couldn’t find last year. Day-tripping is not my sister’s idea of a fun way to spend the day, but since I don’t have A/C in my truck right now, she has volunteered to be my “designated driver!”

The Helicopter never changes. It includes ashes of Viet Nam Vets

We stopped for lunch at a nice little café just off the interstate. Great onion rings! The Rock was wonderful this year – one side was the Sullivan Brothers from Waterloo, Iowa that were all lost on the USS Juneau during WWII. Up to Casey and there was the mural – right in the middle of town. How could I miss a mural in the middle of town when the town has the population of 426. Down a section of the White Pole Road to Menlo and then back to the Interstate – my sister is an Interstate-kinda gal!

Memorial Park, Casey IA.  Painted by Ray Sorenson, painter of Freedom Rock

On the way back we did some shopping (more up my sister’s alley!) and then stopped at Okoboji Grill -- Groupon had a coupon for ½ price, so we had great rib-eye steak sandwiches.

Wednesday we met Gene and Vickie at Calvin Rockets, a sports bar kinda place in town. Great sandwiches. I had seen Vickie in the grocery a couple of days prior so knew they were back in town. Earlier in the day I had gone to a Town Hall Meeting at Pizza Ranch. Not much reason for me to get involved in Marshalltown politics, but the park owner, Mary, had told me about the get-together so I wandered up. Rick Santorum was the speaker along with the Republican slate of local candidates. Interesting to find that the problems here are the problems nearly everywhere.

Thursday the 12th must have been crop dusting day. I woke to sound of planes coming low, back and forth, over the fields across the road. Only in Iowa do I wake up to the rhythmic drone of the crop dusting plane!

Thursday evening, schoolmates, friends and family of the 3 children who drowned on the Fourth of July turned out at the Community Center for a gathering for those in need of comfort - in need of a way to process the terrible tragedy. Counselors from Rogers Elementary and Anson Elementary and Area Education Agency crisis teams were on hand to provide support. Counselors and teachers led children in the favorite activities of Thay Mo, Se Rae and Lee Meh. Games such as Twister, Candy Land, Chutes and Ladders and Sorry were chosen since children tend to share more when they play games. If the staff members had a feeling of Déjà Vu, this gathering was similar to the one they help for Andres Favela a couple of weeks prior.

Friday the 13th my truck went in for the A/C repair! Hope this dates isn’t an omen of things to happen!  But it means a weekend of being 'truckless!'  You have no idea how that messes with my independence!