Almost a Month

has passed since my visit to the Vietnam Wall replica that visited Des Moines. The reason? Homecoming for one.....packing for Two...nuff said. AND, on Monday I will start "Rolling down that Blue Highway" again, for the Rio Grande Valley. There is a bunch of little stuff that needs to be done, not much, but I keep finding more stuff that needs to take a ride. I brought home all of my clothes last spring, hopefully a new wardrobe for this season. I am also hauling south a large number of items for the Susan B Komen golf event that I host. This will be year #4. I am hoping the headquarters are actually using the money I raise for the cause, not against the cause. Seems like someone has stirred the pot and is reporting they are less than truthful about where the money goes.........Same crap, new story........I am looking forward to working at the golf course again, only two days a week compared to 5 days a week in housekeeping.. Hawkeyes are looking great tonight, 17-7, over NW. Big highlight was a 98 yard return on an interception, which tied the Iowa record of longest TD on an interception. Once again I am taking along some IOWA beef, sorry Texas, you don't come even close to the corn fed Iowa Beef......as I enjoyed a martini in the lanai this afternoon, what did I see? A mouse casually walking across the floor. It hid good, since I did not scare it out. Tomorrow, glue traps. I just purchased mouse bait today and put it out. Can't understand how the critter got inside. We sealed everything this summer when we put on new wood. It must have crawled in under the door, or waited for someone to leave the house and walked right in....The mouse shall DIE a slow DEATH soon........... I will try to do better this winter, with more timely posts on the blog.....Carry on my friends.

Vietnam Wall Replica in West Des Moines

This was the week end for the event. Talk about memories flowing through the crowd and me. I was in college, late 60's. My brother was in the Army, home by 67, spent his military time at Fort Riley, Kansas, thank goodness. Cousin Mark won the draw and spent his two years in Hawaii. I don't know where cousin Pat spent his time in the Army. Two friends lost their brothers, Paul Hamilton and Howard Cox. Every night we watched the news, the war was on TV. A boy/man sat next to me in class with a tee shirt that said #1 letter #1 birthday. He was going to be the first drafted, I don't know what ever happened to him. Protests all over the USA. Would that work today to bring our troops home from Iraq and Afghanistan? It all ends with Mary Travers singing "Leaving on a Jet Plane" for whom the bell tolls...............

It is so nice

to have a nice cool day to sit outdoors, play golf and be able to walk....Oklahoma set a record, hottest month on record for one state, for all time that records have been kept. Texas needs rain for crops and animals. Iowa sweet corn is good, beans in the field look good......carry on

Kalkwarf Family Reunion 2011

This scrapbooking design made with Smilebox

If you are reading tonight MARLA

Let the games begin.....OH MY.......family reunion. do you want another swimming pool? I have one for the adults.
After golf, we might want to get cool with a dunking. The non golfers can fill it up for us while we golf. keep the kids out of our pool....hahahaha, it is about two feet high and 7 feet long.........no diving......bon fire for sure. Does Jan have
the makings for s'mores? Will Sue make a visit with a bottle of Templetons? OH MY......some memories.....

See y'all soon.....back at the blog with photos, I hope I remember.........carry on

When it's HOT

it's HOT....Mom used to say "oh heavens", and now it is OH MY.....how hot is it? will we break the record highs of the 1936 era?We do not like the heat, so we go inside to a/c. How did my parents/grandparents/aunts/uncles make it thru the 1936 heatwave with NO a/c? We can't imagine life w/o air conditioning. Sounds like we are spoiled, but loving it.
Life in Kirksville over the week end wasn't any cooler than home in Iowa and Texas is also HOT. BUT, Texas always has some nice wind to keep down the humidity and make it comfortable. We need rain in Texas, a long drought.
We buried another Iowa soldier today, the 2nd or 3rd soldier to die this month. I am still wondering when our leaders will get off their dead butts and bring home our troops.
I played golf today with my foursome, this is about year 23 that we have been golfing together. Of course, we picked today out, in late June. But, we played a scramble, that takes less time, spent a lot of time in the shade, drank several gallons of water and were happy when the 4 1/2 hour event was over. We shot 4 under par, we are getting ready for the Nellie Open in October...I think it is 3 months until I hit the road to go back south to those Llano Yahoos.....carry on

PS, don't forget your mail carrier, watch for your delivery and surprise them with a cold drink

I don't know

what is going on, I just downloaded a ton of photos on a new post, now it will NOT publish......what's going on?

Every year Ankeny has a big

Summerfest celebration, which is really a big party for my birthday. Once again, I started the slide show backwards, oh well.Notice the little girl in pink, on the bridge on the float? She was hot, tired, overheated and looked like she was going to fall off the float. Where is the adult supervisor? Two youth were injured in this years parade. One injury was a broken arm to a skateboarder. She fell, looked at her arm, it was really bent. She went to the side of the street, sat down, called her mom, cool calm and collected. Obviously, this has happened before. Enjoy the typical IOWA parade, with all those green giants, the sprayer is made here in Ankeny. Carry on.......