Jackie, I keep thinking "think positively" and I know that's easier said than done, especially when you're in it alone.  Just know that some day this will be behind you - and the sooner the better.  That is a tragic story about your family.

Beverly, I wish our family would/could have a reunion, but other than my immediate family, they're all so far away.  And too old!  I do say when our family (Norm's descendants) gets together, we have a reunion then.  For years we got together at Norm and Dot's at Christmastime and all three boys and their families were there.  Now, only Tom is left of Norm's boys and it is too hard to schedule anything.  It isn't easy getting old!  I think I was at a big family reunion in 1951!  My mother's family.  Of course, my mother wasn't there but I saw many of her relatives; some I had met, others were new. 

Joy, I'm glad to hear you are feeling better.

I finally got started on some genealogy work for Robin, Tom's friend.  Her birth parents divorced when she was small and she was brought up by her mother and her second husband.  Robin does have a book about her birth family so nothing I give her will be a surprise.  She has little on other families.  It is fun for me because there are results and what I get for my own family are hints for people in 1500 and 1600 etc and I really don't want to get that because I may have it already.  What I am doing now is new information, even if not my family.

Mary Ann

 

Good Afternoon everyone!

I've been puttering around, doing this and that as well as doing some reading, and not getting much of anything done today except gassing up the buggy and getting a few groceries.

This afternoon, I decided to see where the tall ships are now. I found Denis Sullivan on Lake Erie heading towards Detroit or Toledo areas, can't tell yet which direction it will sail. Nina is on Erie heading to the Welland Canal. Bluenose II, Pride of Baltimore and St. Lawrence II are on the canal somewhere.  I thought there was a live cam on the canal or locks, but I could not find a link. I believe the first two are in one of the locks now.

We've had a cloudy, drizzly day, and only in the low 70's. It will heat up again tomorrow or the next day for two days, but then drop back again.

Good Afternoon, Baiters and Tacklers,

It's been a productive day after a rather wild night.  About 8:00 p.m., a severe storm from the north began to converge with another severe storm coming in from the west.  They "collided" right over the central OKC metro area. Oklahoma City covers 628.34 square miles-plus suburbs and the storms covered most of them with hurricane force winds, lots of lightning, pounding rain and some hail.  One tornado touched down and did some damage but main issue has been power outages.  Quite a few schools closed today because there was no power.

Fortunately, the wind/rain/hail went around me but my area did lose electric power.  I could listen to a t.v. station's simulcast on radio and had a huge flashlight that, when pointed toward the ceiling. illuminates the whole room well enough to move around in.  Discovered I could get my games and e-books on my Tablet without being connected to the internet so settled into the recliner and prepared to wait it out.
However, about 1 1/2 hours later, the lights came back on and All Was Well.

I was glad to discover this morning that there had been no damage in my area.  So was easily able to get to have hair done and go to the supermarket with my very long list.
Came home, put away groceries and divided meat into serving portions for freezer. 
Was happy I did so because I often pull a "Scarlett O'Hara" and decided to "think about that tomorrow".Then I miss getting the meat wrappers into the trash that's picked up on Wednesday.

(Would pat myself on the back but I'd probably end up with pulled muscles and out-of-joint elbows.  )

Good thing is that the temperature has cooled off to almost Fall temperatures and the humidity isn't as high.  I think it's supposed to be that way for several days.

And that's what's been going on in my world. 

Wow, Callie, that was enough excitement for a while.  A little too close for comfort.  I remember the two big tornadoes we had in our city.  Neither of them were in our area, so we spread a city map on the table, then listened to the police radio to see where the storm was.  Come to think of it, my dad was alive yet, so they were a long time ago - 1956 and 1965.  We have had storms since, but not major tornadoes.

MarsGal, I'll look to see where those tall ships are now.  Something was going on at Kingsville Ontario after the Picton Castle left Algonac, but I haven't heard of any other festival.

I had an eye appointment today and I took Tom along to ask any questions he might have.  Things a slightly down from last time, but not drastically so. 

Robin has been here doing some cleaning and I've been working on her genealogy.  A funny thing was in one census report, an ancestor's name came out as Mary Underwater.  It really was Mary Vandewater.  The people who have transcribed the report could not read the "taker's" handwriting.  Vandewater is a very common name in West Michigan. 

Tom and maybe Robin will go to a Bible study shortly.  Tom bought a pizza for our supper.  He and I like Papa Murphy's vegetarian pizza with a thin crust.  If there is any left after they leave, I may have another piece.

Mary Ann

MarsGal;   Physicists Just Released Step-by-Step Instructions for Building a Wormhole.

"All you need are a couple of black holes and some cosmic strings. No biggie."

"Everybody wants a wormhole. I mean, who wants to bother traveling the long-and-slow routes throughout the universe, taking tens of thousands of years just to reach yet another boring star? Not when you can pop into the nearest wormhole opening, take a short stroll, and end up in some exotic far-flung corner of the universe.

There's a small technical difficulty, though: Wormholes, which are bends in space-time so extreme that a shortcut tunnel forms are catastrophically unstable. As in, as soon as you send a single photon down the hole, it collapses faster than the speed of light.

But a recent paper, published to the preprint journal arXiv on July 29, has found a way to build an almost-steady wormhole, one that does collapse but slowly enough to send messages — and potentially even things — down it before it tears itself apart. All you need are a couple of black holes and a few infinitely long cosmic strings.

"https://www.livescience.com/building-a-wormhole-with-cosmic-strings.html

Here I am posting late again......

We had a nice surprise visit from our California DIL and Baby Jonah this afternoon.  She flew in yesterday and will return home on Friday.  Her parents live about 30 minutes south of us.  Jonah was a bit leary of us....😢. We just need to get out to his home and spend more time with him and then he will get to know us😩. Anyway it sure was great to see them.  He has grown so much.....he will turn 9 months old on the 6th of September.  She is going to try to get to Matthew's first football game tomorrow afternoon so she can see as many of us as she can....this is IF Jonah is doing OK that late in the day.

Michele is not going to be able to get her gamma knife treatment this week.  They offered her next Friday, but that is only two days after her last chemo, so that will not work.  It was a long shot for sure. 

JOY, happy to read you got your CT scan back and everything seems to be OK. 

It has cooled off a little bit here some days, but tomorrow it will be 90 degrees at Matt's football game. 

It is L A T E so I had best wish you all pleasant  dreams🙏🙏 Sleep well.

Jenny


 

Yes, I read that last evening, Patricia. I hadn't been up on the site for a while. We must get the same "vibes". I was also interested in the lava raft article. Interesting, also, is the find in Croatia of the distorted skulls. It is the first I've heard of the practice outside of Africa, but here, there is a link to an older article about a find in France, too, which indicates finds also in Germany and Eastern Europe. Well, I haven't been following much archeology or anthropology for years except for Roman excavations. I have no excuse now because I just started a subscription to Archeology Magazine.


My best wishes for a good day for everyone today.
Mary Ann, After Kingsville, the Tall Ships did a festival at Erie. I have to say that after the stops by Picton Castle and Niagara, Algonac seems even more quiet than before. The videos of the ships getting ready to both dock and undock there were rather exciting. Last evening, I got to see the Paul leave Duluth Harbor. The three StreamTime webcams seem to have been "abandoned" by their monitors for a few days. Because the cams are not following the ships, but swinging back and forth or locked onto one position, I have lost a little interest for the moment.

My best wishes for a oood day for everyone today.

I've only been up a half hour, so I'm not really "with it" yet.  Patricia and MarsGal, I think I'll pass on the worm holes.  It's amazing what scientists look for and/or find, things the average person (me?) would never think of.

MarsGal, I have noticed no monitors at the St Clair River cams but last evening there were two or three ships going past, I think in Marine City, all of a sudden a monitor took over.  It still surprises me to find a man in England and another in California are two of the monitors. 

I mentioned my eye test of yesterday, little change and no improvement.  What can I expect being so old.

Today I am going to a Retiree luncheon with three or four others.  One woman is heading for Arizona in a few days for the winter.  We probably will attend the Region Retiree meeting/lunch in November and that will be "it" for us until Spring.  Tom will go along today and eat separately. 

Mary Ann

Good morning, Mary Ann and Every One looking in.  I had lunch at the nearby retirement home yesterday and had so so cards, so didn't win any money.  The lunch was better than usual (at least because they had fresh fish--the veggies were overcooked as usual)!  I only play there once a month.  Most of the players are residents of the retirement home.

Mary Ann, I'm not "with it yet" either.  I'm still sitting here in my P.Js and thinking I need to get outside for my morning walk before I run out of time for a shower after the walk.  I have never been a morning person--I always had a tough time when I was teaching school as we needed to be at school for morning breakfast duty (lots of our students were on "free" lunch and breakfast was a big deal)!

I hope everyone looking in here is well and have a nice day planned.

Sue

Good morning everyone:

JENNY - I'll start off by saying I'm happy to hear that you're having a chance to get reacquainted with little Jonah!  I asked about him in my last post, as it had been a long time since you had mentioned him.  You have so much to do every day, and so many people in your family, that it's admirable how much you do for all of them.  Even those who live in other states, (including your Dad), get to spend time with your a couple of times a year.

MARY ANN - I got a kick out of your message in Soda Shoppe this morning, about spaghetti sauce.  I have to confess, I'm now 85 years old, and I've never made spaghetti sauce in my entire lifetime.  Neither did my mother before me.  We have at least 10 or more selections of the ready to cook jarred variety in our markets, and that's all I've ever cooked with.  Barilla, is my favorite, but I often get Ragu. (Hanging my head in shame)    The only thing I add to any of them is ground meat or sausage and sometimes a can of diced tomatoes. 

Funny thing is that we have a huge Italian community here.  The Italians emigrated to California, in the early part of the 20th Century, because the climate is much like Italy, and they settled here and purchased large plots of land, where they planted thousands of orchards filled with fruit trees, vegetable, strawberries, et al. Many opened Italian restaurants, of which we still have many.  Others went into high finance, like A.P. Giannini, who was born on a farm in San Jose, and grew up to  start the Bank of Italy,  which later became, Bank of America.

Just a little local history there!  I'll return later, after some coffee and breakfast, and say hello to others who have arrived.

Good Morning,

Marsgal,  I've noticed the same thing about the river webcams - plus some of the Duluth cams aren't working.  Hard to stay interested when there's nothing to see but water.

Jenny,  sorry to learn about Michele - but how exciting to have the California grandson popping in for a visit.  At 9 months, he's probably aware these are people he's seen - but a bit confused about why everything around him looks so different.  I'll bet he's warmed up by the time he leaves - and will recognize you from now on.

Sue, did you play at Azalea?  My friend who lives there has fractured a vertebra and is not healing very well. Doubt she'll be playing Bridge any time soon.  I won the quarters for Low score last time I played.

Marilyne, I also got a kick from Mary Ann's post.  I wholeheartedly agree. I do have a great recipe for spaghetti sauce but haven't made it for years.

  My mother was a good cook but didn't define herself by her expertise in the kitchen.  We always had a full cookie jar but I don't remember her ever baking a pie. She was an expert at "all cook at the same time" meals.
After my Dad died, she loved finding new prepared items.
My favorite story is when she was visiting us and said she had found a new drink to serve to her Bridge Club.  She was thrilled that it came in several flavors and was called "Gatorade". There happened to be some in the fridge because my athletes sometimes drank it.  So I gave her a sample and, as you would expect, her reaction was  .  Then she declared, "Well! Why do they keep it in the JUICE section???"

I'm "off my schedule" this morning (as if I really had a "schedule"  )  Had bought a small pork loin roast and "real" potatoes at the market yesterday and wanted to get them into the slow cooker. I have a 1 1/2 quart cooker and it's pretty full. Although I don't really care how long it takes,  I do hope everything gets done...eventually.

Also put in the first load of laundry before I ate breakfast. Washer is "yoo-hooing" that it's time to switch load to dryer. 

CUL8R

A good Wednesday Morning HELLO 💐

On this day, two years ago our dear friend Joan went to heaven to be with her savior🙏.

MARILYNE, I apologize for not answering your question about how our Cali Family is doing.  They are doing great n Rancho Cordova.  Mark loves his new position, and is very busy getting things lined up the way he wants them to be.  He is in the process of hiring a executive assistant, and will be offering her the job tomorrow.  Megan is organizing a mother's club in her community like the one that she belonged to in Paso.  Funny enough, most of the responses she has received are mother's just like her that are RN's staying at home with little ones, so they have a lot in common.  They both love R C , but will always cherish the time they were in Paso.  Thank you for asking about them.

I have to admit I, too, am a off the shelf spaghetti sauce user..  I tried a few times to make it from scratch, and found it lacking, so Pregó is the brand I usually buy.  Sadly, no Italians in my past that passed down a family recipe🙀. Years ago when the boys were home spaghetti was a popular meal at our house, now I rarely fix it🤣

JACKIE, I reread your interesting story about your family this morning. So sad this tragedy in your family occurred.  Very sad.  I hope your day has gone well for you💞

CALLIE, that was quite the storm that hit your area.  Happy you were able to get out and do your shopping and could avoid any bad stuff.  The putting things away is always an issue and I avoid it as long as I can as well.

JOY and BEVERLY, I feel much the same about FB as you two do, but I take from it the things I am interested in and just try to avoid the stuff I do not care for!  Most of my annoyance comes from political things that I find just redituando I wish it were not allowed!  I learn a lot of helpful things so I have to admit I am a FB user! 

I guess I had best get busy and do something or the day will have passed and it will be time to head out to Matt's first football game.  I want to support this young man, however I have to say I wish he was not playing tackle 🏈....he has so much going for him and I think he could have done without this experience in his life!  Shame on you grandma🤬🤬🤬 I hope you all understand that I just do not want him to get hurt....his family does not need one more issue to deal with🙏🙏

Enjoy the rest of your day. 

Jenny

We've returned from my retiree luncheon; there were five of us.  We were at the Olive Garden and I never know what to order because their Italian foods are so different from what I am used to.  It is always good, but they use different spices than what I am used to.  To the best of my knowledge, there were no Italians in my ancestry.  Oddly enough, one gr-nephew has married a Polish woman and the other gr-nephew married a Chinese woman.  Both are lovely women.

Jenny, I too hope Matt gets along well with football.  James played some for his high school and came out unscathed.  Geoff played soccer when he was young, but it didn't take, so he did not participate in sports.  We really are not a sports participating family.  Spectators - yes. 

I'm happy I'm not the only one to not make specialty sauces or foods.  If I was that particular about many foods, I wouldn't eat.  While that might be a good idea, the results would not be good.

My mother did make pies and her specialty was lemon pies or tarts.  My dad said he is the one who taught Mother to bake the lemon pie.  For suppers at church, Mother would take lemon pies and none ever came home with us.  We had a Montmorency cherry tree in our back yard and Mother made delicious cherry pies from those cherries.  When I learned to cook and bake, I was started on cakes.  When my mother died, my aunt taught me to make pie crusts; of course, this was before Pillsbury pie crusts.  I don't remember if I used lard or shortening but my crusts turned out OK. 

Marilyn, at 95, I've never made spaghetti sauce, either.  The only sauce I remember making was a sauce to go on semi-dried cake and that was juice from fruit-cocktail, cornstarch and water - I probably could not duplicate that today.  Things we did then probably would not pass muster today - Depression ideas.  Milk with ground ginger to use with desserts, radish sandwiches (which I still like and make), mustard sandwich, sugar sandwich.  People of our mothers' generation used a lot of ingenuity to satisfy hungry kids when there wasn't much in the house to eat.  Too many things are available in the stores today.

Mary Ann

Mary Ann - I remember sugar sandwiches! Makes me laugh, because the parents of today are so health conscious, they would faint at the idea of giving their kids a sugar sandwich!   Lots of things that we ate during the Depression years, as well as during the war years, would not be acceptable in today's world.  I guess it didn't harm us, or we wouldn't still be here at this advanced age.  Sounds like you had a good time at your retiree luncheon.  As I mentioned before, I like Olive Garden, but we live far enough away from one, to make it inconvenient to get there.  I've eaten there a lot in the past, and always enjoyed a nice fresh meal.

Callie - Our mothers sound similar, as to their kitchen expertise!  My mom always had a nice meal for us, but nothing that consumed much in the way of preparation time.  She was very good at putting a meal together in about a half an hour.  She also enjoyed making cookies, and had some recipes that I remember fondly.  Peanut butter cookies with the fork criss/cross on the top, were my favorites.  I always disliked milk, except when I had a glass to drink with her p-butter cookies.

Jenny - I don't blame you for being concerned with Matt, playing tackle on the football team.  Just so much information now on long term damage from concussions.   I'm sure you saw the news story last week, about the pro-football player, who decided to retire at age 29?   Smart move, in my opinion.  I was always grateful that our son didn't want to try out for football.  He's 6'3", so was perfect for basketball, which he enjoyed throughout high school.  I'm sure I have been to Rancho Cordova, but it's been a long time.  I know it's considered to be one of the nicest of the small communities surrounding Sacramento.  it sounds like Megan, has already made friends, and Mark is happy with his new job. 

Well, guess I had better sign out again, and take a little trip to the store to stock up on groceries.  Tomorrow AJ is going to Costco, so I hope to see one of their delicious ready to eat casseroles, when he returns!  Either that, or the huge $4.99 rotisserie chicken.

how do you make a sugar sandwich

Tomereader, I'm not sure you'd classify what I had as a sandwich, but my mother would spread butter (the real thing, margarine had not come along yet) on the bread, then sprinkle sugar on it.  We did not fold the bread over, ate it open-faced, but if you folded the bread, you would have a sandwich.  I was brought up during the Depression and lots of foods available today we not available then.  No frozen foods.  Cakes made from scratch, fruits and vegetables canned. 

Mary Ann

Mary Ann - that's the standard recipe for a sugar sandwich, as far as I know?  Ours was the same - open face or folded over! ha  ha!  We also had radish or cucumber sandwiches, as well as a raisin sandwich.  That, was my least favorite.    

Peanut butter and raisins, or peanut butter and bananas, both make good sandwiches. Try  it, you might just like it.

Rick, I love peanut butter sandwiches, but don't care for anything other than mayo with them. 

Marilyn, when I get a new bunch of radishes, the first thing I do is make a radish sandwich; I have them quite often.  I like the crunch of the radishes.

Mary Ann

Thank you, now I have two more sandwiches to try..pb and mayo and pb and raisins. I also like pb and tomato. Don't forget a cucumber sandwich  .

Amy, most people like pb and grape jelly and I got sick at four years of age on grape pop so have nothing to do with grape (concord, that is).  When I was young, pb came in a different form and it stuck to roof of your mouth.  Someone suggested using mayo, which my mother did, and both Norm and I liked that version right away.  The grape jelly version came later. 

Mary Ann

Mary Ann I was never one for the pb & J as a child. Loved pb and banana though. I guess the tomato acts the same way as your mayo,helps the pb slide down. Remember we would have to stir and stir to mix the oil in on the pb?

Jackie, what would you do with Richard's golf equipment now?  You can't play golf.  Having given them to the Age UK Charity, someone now is enjoying the use of them.  I know how it is because I hate to get rid of family things, but I manage occasionally.

Mary Ann

Good morning, Town Talk friends.  I've had breakfast, read the morning paper, and cleaned up the kitchen, but am not dressed yet.  I need to get dressed and get outside for my walk before the temperature gets up in to the high 90's.  I live in a hilly neighborhood and go up the long hill first and come back down the shorter one.  Afterwards I do a few household chores and spend most of the afternoon reading. 

I hope everyone looking in this morning is feeling well and that the weather is comfortable where you live!

Sue

Good morning, Sue.  Your walk sounds ambitious.  I used to walk a mile or two and Tom thinks the walks are responsible for my being here now.  I'd be hard pressed to walk far now, but I can get to the car from our front door.

Last night before I went to bed, I looked at the Port Huron cam.  Port Huron is always better lighted at that time.  I saw the sailboats - Appledore IV and V.  Both had sails up, but not many.  The sails made them visible in the dark and they were heading north out of PH.  The chart said they were headed for Toledo, which is south of Michigan.  I thought I'd check on them this morning and I found both of them off the coast of the thumb at Port Austin MI, still heading for Toledo and still headed north.  It makes one wonder where the mistake is. 

We have a nice day started and it will not be necessary to use the a/c as far as I know.  It was 70 in my bedroom when I got up at 8:30 and that's a bit chilly. 

Mary Ann

Jackie - My father died in 1991, and I was sentimental about his set of golf clubs, because he loved the game so much.  So instead of selling them or giving them away, I kept them, and now, thirty eight years later, they are still in my basement, unused and gathering dust. Now outdated and probably worthless, I realize I should have given them to someone who would have appreciated them.  My dad, was not one for sentiment, and I know he would have wanted me to donate or sell.  Try not to fret about Richard's clubs.  Like most men, he would most likely have been pleased that you give them to Age UK.

Rick - Raisins sprinkled on P-butter, were a staple in our house, but raisins  alone, on butter, between two slices of bread, were not so tasty!  I guess that was a last resort, when we ran out of P-butter!   Another one that I still make occasionally, is P-butter and dill pickle.  There is something about the dill, that works really well with the P-butter. 

Mary Ann - That's quite coincidental, about the grape pop!  When I was 9 or 10 years old, I had Scarlett Fever, and a sore throat that was beyond description, it was so bad, I couldn't swallow food or water. My mother and grandmother crushed ice, and added Welch's grape juice to it. They would prop me up in bed, and feed me the ice chips. They were easy for me to just let them melt in my mouth, I guess.  Anyway, I ate nothing but grape juice/ice chips for a long time, until I was finally well.  I never could stand the taste of grape juice after that, and to this day, I wouldn't touch the stuff!   I'm not crazy over grape jelly either, but will eat it if there is nothing else.   

Marilyn, interesting about the grape pop idea.  Now that I'm older - much older - I realize the pop was not the problem.  I also had a hot dog with mustard and ketchup and who knows what else.  It's just that I remembered the pop and for years I had nothing to do with the pop, grape juice, grape jelly, the colors lavender OR purple!  It wasn't until my hair turned white that I saw I should wear pastel lavender along with other pastels.  So, while I think my thinking is foolish, I still will not have anything to do with grape foods, although I do remember being at a shower where the only beverage was grape juice so it was the juice or nothing; I drank the juice - one glass and I nursed it but otherwise, almost anything but!  I can see why you avoid grape juice too. 

I checked a while ago and saw the Appledore ships were still near Port Austin MI - the top of the thumb of Michigan.

Time to look for something to eat.

Mary Ann

Mary Ann, I was delighted to see the Appledores coming up river at Marine City yesterday. IV was leading the way with two sails and V behind with one sail. There was an actual operator there, Dale Ty, I think, who followed them the whole way. I wonder where they are heading.

Lucy stopped eating again and she was due for her followup checkup, so I got her in this morning. Her thyroid level is close to what the vet wants it, so he is happy with the results. I can keep her on just one pill a day. Her kidneys are showing healthy results too. What she does have is a respiratory infection, so she got an antibiotic shot, and another one of those appetite boosters. The critters got gifts on Monday - a new pad for the old carrier, a cat grass kit (which I need to start yet) and some of those chew sticks cats are supposed to like. I thought Shan might go for it since he likes to chew on hard plastic. No go, on the last. Oscar isn't interested either.

I think I will go find more stuff to pitch. The trash pickup here is tomorrow.

Good morning from the Interior where our unseasonably colder weather continues. The trees are turning yellow, and the ravens have returned from their summer mountain getaways. We have October in August, and I'm wondering after this unusual summer, what winter will be like.

Farrah is enjoying the increasingly visible birds who've yet to gather into winter's huge multispecies flocks. However, many of the geese, ducks, and others haven't started their migrations, so it's hard to gauge where we are.

My parents were both farmers,(Kansas and Missouri); so we never had convenience food growing up. Our home garden was over an acre, and my dad hunted. Soda was a summer treat while driving to the boat launch to travel upriver to our summer cabin and then one again on the way home. In the fifties, in Alaska, that was the norm.

I left home at seventeen and foolishly dove into all that unallowed junk food. And it wasn't until six or seven years ago that I ended up in the emergency with analeptic shock over an extended food shelf life preservative and now eat as I did when I was a child. I will make a nut butter sandwich with local raw honey on two thick slices of homemade nonwhite bread filled with nuts and seeds. Or I will have homemade Greek yougart with frozen pineapple slices. Both are comfort foods. I do miss certain foods but its not worth the pain or cash.

Yesterday I did two loads of wash only to find three of the washers and all five dryers not working. I ended up bringing the washing home and hanging it all over my house.

MarsGal, I am very interested in history and especially the period when hunter-gathers began forming city-states so my interests in archeology stem from that.  I'm very curious as to the why and how of most historical periods as my own life was affected by events such as the Norwegian DNA in my Celtic roots was undoubtedly Vikings while my family came to Charleston in 1744 due to English forced transportation.

Jackie, mention of golf reminded me it is Thursday and the golfers are on the Golf Channel, so I turned the TV on and got the European PGA Tour.  I don't know what is going on yet, so have nothing to report.

Patricia, when I was young, even into my teens, there were no frozen foods and if there were, we did not have the facilities to keep any.  My mother made everything, almost everything, from scratch.  To the best of my knowledge I am only allergic to corn and melon.  I love and eat sweet corn and eat only watermelon at times.  My diet is much different with Tom doing the cooking and there is little variety.  He tries hard and likes to experiment, but really doesn't know how to cook. 

MarsGal, I looked a while ago and the Appledores were north of Michigan's thumb near Port Austin.  The schedule said they are traveling to Toledo Ohio, but they've been going in the wrong direction.  I'll try to keep tabs on them.

Tom's son will be here soon and I wonder if he'll stay for supper and if so, what will we eat.  Alicia, his wife, is an athletic trainer and the hospital has taken over her job.  They may already have an athletic trainer so Alicia was looking in Indianapolis.  It would be nice, in a way, if they could locate in Indy because it is a very nice city - and we have relatives there.  Not only the Hartons but Erin, Terry's daughter is there and she is James' cousin.  The bad thing is the distance.  Holland is only 40 miles from here but Indy is 250 miles+ depending on where you live.  There is a lot of culture to be had in Indy.  James' work is flexible, something he can do anywhere.

PS MarsGal, I just looked for the Appledores and they both are still by the thumb - have been for over 8 hours.  Are you familiar with the shape of Michigan's lower peninsula?  We are shaped like a mitten on the left hand.  The thumb is on the east side of the state and juts into Lake Huron, the start of the St Clair River.  On the chart, both of them are very faint small shapes; you can hardly see them.

Mary Ann