June 30, 2012
Charlie has decided that the above is what we are in – I
like Doug’s description of our situation: it is like we are tethered to a
cornstalk with a rope that allows for wandering around in a circle 1to 2 hours
out at the very max!!The corn is starting to look good although it has been
very dry here and can we say HOT!!! It has been in the high 90’s all week with
a heat index into the mid 100’s!!
Last weekend we went on a fun barn tour southwest of us here
put on by the Iowa Barn Foundation. There is a big effort nationwide to save
these old barns. We saw some very interesting ones – one in particular is the
round one shown.
This last week was the opening of Costco!!! Now you must
realize that soon after we got here in January we heard about this and thought,
“Too bad, we will be long gone from here!” Wrong – it is nice having it now and
I had my “hot dog” fix last week, because really, you can’t beat the $1.50 cost
of a hot dog and drink!!
We have enjoyed a couple of theater performances – one was
“Guys and Dolls” a local production which was very good and then we saw “What
the Butler Saw” at the U of IA Summer production. We did not care for that one
though.
The IA City Public Library, just steps away from us, asked
the other day how much longer we were going to be here and decided that we
could have permanent residence privileges!!! Now how about that……we didn’t know
whether to be happy or sad! It is an excellent city library and it will be nice
to be able to check out more than 2 items at a time.
We had a good laugh reading through our first blog entries
here where we were expecting a phone call any minute that a liver was here –
boy were we naïve! Because really, if a call would come today, we still are
looking at 3 months more! Football season here we come!!!! Plus, Fall is my
favorite time in Iowa!
We have had a couple of friends visit – Jim Self, Jen’s Dad,
and then Monica Carrigg from Roseville – I had 3 of her children in my class
while I was teaching. She is taking an amazing driving trip across country with
their youngest child.
We are very fortunate that Charlie is staying stable and is
exercising daily – me too! (Although, I don’t think that “stable” applies to me
anymore – I think that we are driving each other a little crazy!)