Larry & Shirley

Larry and Shirley from Beatrice entertained the residents at Brookdale at 2:30 this afternoon. They were originally from Wymore. I understand they have "played" here before, but this was the first time for us to hear them. There were indications that Shirley had been a "concert pianist" and Larry sang. Their routine was for Larry to sing "every other" piece. Some of her best numbers were the "rags" that she played. There were probably close to 25 residents in attendance but must admit that I left about 2/3rds of the way through their program and went to the exercise room. I hadn't had my afternoon nap and the music made me sleepy. This was the 2nd time this week for me to log some mileage on the Nu-Ride bike. They are the kind where you pull levers with your arms and push peddles with your feet. It is easily adjusted to accommodate people of various size and desired level of difficulty. The exercise room is near the location of the Hot Chocolate and Ice Cream machine which is a good incentive.

Word Searches

Doing Word Searches has been one of Elaine's favorite pastimes. I knew she was  pretty serious about finishing Charles Timmerman's Giant Book of Word Searches, when she moved to the table. It is Volume 8 with 327 pages and one of several that son Verlon has sent to her. As the time for "The Wheel" was approaching (where she likes to "out guess" the contestants), I set down and volunteered to help her find the last two words, "fast" and "rise". I use a very methodical system and  usually find the word, the first time through. That wasn't the case with these 2 words. It was on the 3rd time through that I found "fast". I was able to locate "rise" during the 2nd pass. She still has Volume 9 and 12 from Verlon and is already working on one that Jon and Anna brought out on their last visit. It is called "Bible", Find-A-Word, Parables, Prayers, and Prophets with Large Print. It contains about 85 puzzles, many of which she has already done. I'm sure it would be a good way for me to learn to spell many biblical words. With our low air temperature at 9 degrees below zero this morning and barely getting above zero for a high, any inside entertainment is appreciated. The "Wind Chill low was -27.

Record Cold

It was a clear, cold, windy day in Seward, NE today as it was over much of the upper Midwest. It could set "wind chill" records in many places  in Wisconsin, Minnesota and the Chicago area. Carolyn brought us supplies this morning so we don't expect to be out of the building during the next few days. It is supposed to warm up to a possible high of 50 on Sunday. Should be a good day for the Superbowl. I alerted Rosellen that she would appear on my blog page tonight. It's not a real flattering picture of her but demonstrates her energy in helping us sing "Happy Birthday" to Dennis after her having read today's scripture reading to us. She just seems to have a real feel for helping all residents to be comfortable. In fact she just knocked on our door to tell is of the Seward HS basketball games being shown in the Coffee Room. I will get over to see it as soon as this blog page is finished. While I didn't get out today, I did get down to the exercise room and rode the exercise bike for several minutes. Brandon, the Channel 10/11 Weather man, is reporting that the Wind Chill in Lincoln tomorrow morning at 7:00am could be -27 with -37 in Omaha. The air temperature is to get down to -10 during the night in Lincoln.

TeamMates

Seward HS Assistant Principal, Jill Johnson presented the program at Kiwanis this noon.  She spoke on Team Mates. The program was started back in 1991 when UN-L Football Coach, Tom Osborn and wife Nancy matched up 22 Nebraska football players and 22 Lincoln Middle School students as Team Mates. 

The program caught on with Seward having been involved for 25 years. There are 160 Chapters in schools throughout Nebraska. There are 58 Mentors with a like number of Mentees here in Seward Schools this year. There are very specific rules regarding the selection of Mentors with all weekly meetings held on school property. Typically, when the Mentor and Mentee are paired up, they continue the relationship throughout their HS years. There were several people in the audience that had been Monitors. They told of the continuing relationship that exist even after the students have graduated. While there were messages read with Mentees saying how much help they received, the Mentors felt they may have received even more.

Sunday Dessert

Our Sunday Dinner's here at Brookdale are always special. This noon we had Roast Beef with Mashed Potatoes, Gravy and Corn. We also had a tossed salad and this piece of Apple Pie for dessert. I obviously didn't eat my dessert but brought it back to the room for future consumption. It will  probably be tomorrow as I have a "snack" before going to Kiwanis. 

We were pleased to got a phone call tonight from Tim who had spent the weekend down in Durham, NC. He and 3 of his Duke buddies make it an annual event. They get to see a game in Cameron Arena and find something else special to do. One of the Buddies has done very well financially and flies up from Florida. For their evening meal last night, they flew down to Charleston, SC. Tim's son Tony had driven over from Raleigh and got to share in some of the activities. He was responsible for searching out the eating places for the group and enjoyed being with "Dad's Buddies".

Farm Pets

Though we basically lived in town during the '80's, Julie was always concerned about her pets out at at the farm. We kept the wood stove going to prevent any pipes from freezing so made it out there every day. This picture is from a box of slides that I came across yesterday. While Elaine was at the Beauty Shop for a Permanent this morning, I decided to scan the box. Last summer, I scanned hundreds of slides and had written detailed instructions on how it was done. I reviewed it all this morning but just couldn't make it work. After a nap this afternoon, I decided to try  again. This time I found my mistake and got it corrected. I will add a couple sentences to my instructions. It's a good lesson that even though I write computer instructions for myself. They need to be perfectly clear and should be tested by someone other that the author. Our weather was very pleasant today with sunshine and temperatures in the 40's. A lot of our snow melted and it's to be nice again tomorrow before the cold front hits again.

Lunch Time

This picture was taken in the late summer of 1980.  We had moved back in late June to the farm east of Seward, NE that we had bought earlier in the year. I had taken the picture that includes (l-r) Elaine, Mother, Dad, Carolyn holding baby Julie. We had taken lunch out to Dad who was clipping the brome grass in a little pasture east of the house. Auctioneer Brother Don had bought the Ford tractor for us at one of his auctions down in the Syracuse area and had it delivered to us. Dad and Mother both seemed to really enjoy being out there. They were both in their 80's at the time and in generally good health.  Carolyn,  her husband Victor, and Julie had moved back to Seward from the Boone, North Carolina area just a month or two before we got back. We only had the farm for 9 years during which time I worked in Lincoln with the Nebraska Natural Resources Commission most of that time. We were always pleased that the folks both so enjoyed being out there while we were gone. They always found something that needed to be done.

A Favorite Foursome.

Cleaning up old mail on my Laptop that dates back to 2012, was one of my task for this cold, windy day. This was my favorite foursome in this time frame. It brought back many happy memories when it showed up in old correspondence. I hadn't scanned the top of pictures from the "Quick Look" image before and was please to see that the "caption" shows up on the top of the picture when moved to the blog page. I'm just collecting these photos in a file on the desktop and will eventually get them on a flash drive. It's not something that I will do in the next few days, but rather more of a pleasant task that I can do on my laptop while setting with Elaine. She spends a lot of time doing "word searches" and watching TV. We enjoy each others company sitting in our matching Queen Anne chairs even if we are doing different things. When I work on my HP computer, it's necessary for me to be in another room; so will look forward to doing this new project so we can be together. She just brought in some fresh, sliced pears which make a good evening treat. We enjoyed Carolyn's visit this morning; Tim's call last night and Jon's email response today. We appreciate all the family support and realize how fortunate we are compared to many of our friends here who are living alone.

Tonys

When I came across this picture today, I thought it had to be made available to Tony Vrana up in Tomah, WI. He is the little fellow that My Dad, Tony V. is holding. My brother Jerry is to the right with Mother between Dad and Jerry. Jerry's wife Sondra is to the left holding Jim. Our son Jon is between the two little boys. This was taken when the folks lived out on the Sandusky farm east of town. We had driven back from Virginia, Jerry's had come down from Tomah with their pickup camper, for a family reunion. This may have been the time several of us were setting on the front porch and Dad walked over, opened the gate to let the cat out into the farm yard. Don commented that Dad had certainly mellowed in his old age. I remembered when he would have thrown it over and one of the older relatives said they remembered when he would have kicked it over. All jokes aside, Dad looks pretty happy and proud to have a Grandson named after him.

Reunion in Old Neighborhood

It was nearly 10 years ago that we celebrated our Wedding Anniversary  with our kids, spouses and grandchildren back in the Washington, DC area. I came across these pictures of that trip which are stored on our Lexar 8GB Flash Drive along with many others. I continue to edit the 6 FD's and add  more on them from this laptop as well as the HP computer. 

We were in a weather alert today with schools closed as were medical appointments. The Doctors were scheduled to come out from Lincoln and the roads were dangerous with ice. We didn't get any snow until mid afternoon but with wind gusts over 30mph, it was not a good day to be outside. 

Here are our 5 Grandchildren who helped us celebrate in the DC area. It was a great trip that included visiting our old house where the kids spent 11 years of their childhood.  We got to see Jon's office in the USDA complex, their home out in the Burke neighborhood, and even the fireworks on the Mall the night of the 4th. It was the first season for the Nationals playing in their new baseball Park where we enjoyed a game. We did quite a bit of walking during the short stay and I remember of it being the first time that I felt a shortness of breath as we walked back to our Hotel from down on 23rd St. where we ate and this picture was taken. It was a good family reunion back in our old neighborhood.

Kiwanis Meeting

President Jill Purdue called the Kiwanis meeting to order this noon and moderated a full agenda. She acknowledged Martin Luther King Day, Welcomed Guests had numerous members with "Good News" to announce and received Committee Reports. We all gave recognition to the committee that put up the US Flags downtown at 7:30 this morning, in single digit temperature for the Holiday. She then introduced Jean Kolterman with the Seward GFWC who spoke on The Seward County Historical Society and Museum at Goehner, Nebraska. As a life-long resident of Seward, she spoke on the History of the Society and facility. While early day efforts focused on finding a facility in Seward, the decision to take advantage of an opportunity to acquire the site in Goehner was what got the whole County behind the project. It has been a volunteer driven project from the beginning and continues to be. Not only with the buildings but their management and contents. At the conclusion of her presentation, Kolterman presented Erin, our Club's Secretary, with a Plaque acknowledging our Club being one of the winners of the Peoples Choice of Decorated  Christmas Trees.

Little Carolyn

When Carolyn stopped by this afternoon, I showed her how easy it was to pull-up pictures on the Flash Drives that I mentioned in the Blog page yesterday. This is from a 35mm slide that I scanned from a box of June 1957 slides.  With her beautiful long curls and pleasant smile, she  really "stood out" with her 3 brothers and the Concordia College men that we housed. Elaine doesn't remember the story on this pink dress for sure, but thinks it came from one of her relatives in Wyoming. These folks were involved in Oil Mining and had two girls that out-grew high quality clothing that they passed on to us. This went on for several years while Carolyn was growing up. Elaine and I had both worn hand-me-down clothes while growing up which was a very practical way of utilizing resources. I'm sure that the young rose bushes next to the garage and trellis in front of Carolyn, are some that I would have brought home from the Nebraska Nurseries where I did some part time work in addition to my USDA job. Carolyn's Granddaughter is older than what Carolyn was at the time of this picture. I hope Sadie gets to see this someday as well as many of the other pictures of her family that I have so enjoyed working with.

Flash Drive Indexes

I have written several times about my efforts in preparing pictures, life stories and family history to pass on to others. I have kept a Daily diary or Journal for much of my life and taken pictures since buying my first camera as a teenager. In retirement, I have written thousands of words about our travels and activities. When we got our first computer back in the early '90's, I began compiling stories, pictures, etc. and later putting it on CD's and DVD's. Then some 10 years ago bought my first Flash Drive. It is a Red Lexar Jump Drive with 256MB capacity. As time went on I added  a Red Verbatim FD on which I have stored some 2,850 blog pages of "The Crow's Nest". A black "Cruzer Glide" 8GB FD was the next addition which contains our Pictures and Activities from 2010-2018. Next came the purchase of a package of 2 Sun disk, Cruzer Glide 32GB, Flash Drives. Jon gave me some help in getting started with these. The #2 holds all of our 35mm slides that we took from 1950 through 1975 which I had scanned. #1 contains all of our scanned printed photos from 1950-2018 along with considerable other information. The latest is another Cruzer Blade 32GS which I bought with the past year on which I have placed all our scanned items from 2000-2018. The whole process is still very much a "work in progress". There is some duplication, stories still to be written and added, but reaching this point is a benchmark. I will continue to make revisions and look forward to suggestions and help.

Immediate Family

I came across this picture of Verlon and Tim in their new overalls from the Seward Dry Goods store where Grandma Flowerday worked and bought for them. They were proud as can be because they were just like Grandpa Albert's. There was just 19 months difference in the boys age and Carolyn was born 17 months after Tim. Jon came along 15 months after Carolyn and we decided that 4 was enough. My Grandfather Walked used to say that he wouldn't take a million dollars for any one of his and Grandma's 9 children, but he wouldn't give a dollar for another one. So we had our family  of 4 before Verlon had his 5th birthday and Elaine had her 25th. We were fortunate in getting a lot of family help in many different ways. We had our own little home and I picked up extra work whenever possible to supplement our income from my USDA Soil Conservation Service job. We talked with Verlon on the phone this morning to thank him for having sent Elaine another package of books which she will so enjoy. There is seldom a day when we don't see or hear from Carolyn. Our contacts with Tim and Jon are also frequent. Maybe there was some "Devine Intervention" in having our family and during the intervening years, but in spite of some of the trials and tribulation, they have been and continue to be, our greatest source of pride and pleasure. Our immediate family has expanded to 4 spouses, 5 grandchildren and 2 Great Grandchildren so we are now a family of 17.

Thumb Hook

This picture appears in the January 18, 2019, issue of the "Midwest Messenger" with the challenge of "What's this".  I hadn't seen a copy of the publication recently until today when a neighbor dropped it off for us. It is a division of Lee Enterprises, with weekly publications located in Tekamah, NE.  Here is my response.

      Terry: Your picture in the January 18, 2019, Midwest Messenger brought back memories of my youth and husking corn with a "Thumb hook" like the picture of "What's This"?.  A Palm Hook was more common but I tried the Thumb hook once and liked it. I grew up on a farm in the Bohemian Alps north of Garland. Our neighbors to the west and north both included young men who were good corn huskers and we could often hear each others "speed" on a quiet morning as we heard the ears hit the backboard. We were good friends and played on the Garland Town Team Baseball team. We thought of "picking corn" as an athletic event and worked at perfecting our skills. My record was 135 bushels in one day. Getting 100 was a standard for each of us. The Thumb hook helped but I also learned to never look at the ear I was working on but look at the next one and program your mind as to how to approach it. A lesson that I carried forward in my career in management with the USDA Soil Conservation Service.

Waiting for a Ride

This is the way Elaine looked as she waited for the Seward Transit Bus to take her down to the Beauty shop in below freezing temperature this afternoon. (She came home looking even better). She even brought home some information on the renovation of the old "Kolterman store" which is across the street from the beauty shop. It seems that it will be remodeled to accommodate 3 offices on the street level with  apartments up stairs. It will certainly improve the looks of our downtown area. I have reached the point of having scanned nearly all of the pictures that we have taken since 1949 (some earlier) and have many of them on Flash Drives. I'm now making listings in an organized manner as to what is on each FD. It sounds simple but is really rather confusing. My thoughts are to pass it all on to Jon.  Hopefully, he may be able to set it up so that individual "topics" could be called for and brought up out of the maize of pictures. Google has a system like that which lets me search through my 2,855 blog pages and find what I'm looking for. It will even bring of pages with the words in the Narrative. Asking the right search question is key.

Western Day at Brookdale

It was "Celebrating Western Days at Brookdale today. We were asked to put on our cowboy hats, bandanas & "ya'll come out for Dinner". I must admit to forgetting about it but did have on my red plaid wool shirt. I had just sat down when Rosellen put a big red Cowboy hat on me. Director, Terry Schoen got things started by reading a "Cowboy's Prayer". She was dressed very well and "kicked up her heels to show off her spurs". She had inherited them from her Dad and had quite a time getting them on. We had a Bratwurst sandwich and Pork n Bean Dinner. The Dining room had been decorated with barbed wire and wagon wheels. Country Western music was played in the background. Several of the men were "decked out" with beautiful Stetson hats, vest, cowboy boots, and the whole bit. Some of the ladies were "dolled up" with fancy western ware as well. It's just another example of the Leadership and staff helping us to enjoy living here.

Great Grandkids & Pip

Duke got beat 95-91 by Syracuse at Cameron in overtime so instead of writing about that, I decided to write about our Great Grandchildren. Sadie is in 1st grade and being exposed to the Spanish Language. She demonstrated how she could count to 10 in Spanish and proceded to demonstrate her newly learned knowledge. She clearly went through uno, dos, tres, cuatro, troh, cinco, seis, siere, ocho, nueve, diez while little broth Jack listened. Her Mother asked her which number she liked best and she promptly said "seis". Jack spoke up and said he liked "cuatro" best. When asked why, he said: "because I'm 4 years old". His mother was quite surprised as was Sadie. She and Jack get along very well and we have no idea how much Spanish discussion they may have had earlier. Her being 6 may have had something to do with that being her favorite number. I hope they help each other through school as much as my older sister helped me.

Over the Years

I completed updating my "Over the Years" file today including this index. It is something we have maintained for a number of years to provide a simple, easy to find, record of how we celebrated birthdays, wedding anniversaries, Christmases, Christmas letters and Thanksgivings. We've also included "Dates to Remember", and listings of items that we no longer have reason to update such as: My Guns, Travel, some Vrana Ancestry, Seward Roller-Rink history, and State Capitol Buildings. Many of the recurring items that are updated go back to 1940, the year I started keeping a diary. Some of the updated items require only 1 line and I now have it set up on the computer so updating will be simple. (How's that for being optimistic). Now that I have this project completed, finishing the 2018 Narrative is next on the agenda. When that is finished, getting the remaining pictures on Flash Drives, will be my computer priority. It's really pretty good entertainment, doesn't require much physical effort and is inexpensive.

Light Snow in Seward

This was the scene out our Patio doors this morning and changed very little throughout the day. (note the flag indicating a north wind) We had a few more flurries but no more accumulation. We were on the outer edge of the storm with Lincoln getting some 7 inches in parts of the city. It was heavier than that in the southeast corner of the State. Needless to say, we didn't leave the building today and ate well. I spent time on the computer bringing up to date my "Over-the Years" listing of memories of what we did on birthdays, anniversaries, Christmas and Thanksgiving during the past year. While my Daily Journal is the source of information, it was more difficult this year with the new computer. I now have files set up like I had on my old one and could just pull up files and add to them.

The Duke-Florida State basketball game was a lengthy event with Duke winning 80-78. Zion Williamson played less than half of the game because of an eye injury. An out of bounds decision in the final seconds largely determined the winner. The officials spent considerable amount of time looking at replays from different angles. I believe they got it right but one has to wonder how many wrong decisions were made before the days of reviews. Hopefully not many affected who won. 

Jack

Here is what happened to some of Elaine's Cherry Pie when Julie brought Sadie and Jack over to visit on her birthday yesterday. Sadie enjoyed some too but didn't want to be in the picture. Jack seems to enjoy getting his picture taken. If having an inquisitive mind is any indication of intelligence, he should score pretty high because he is certainly full of questions. I noted on Facebook this afternoon a posting of 5-year olds asking something like 444 questions in a day. Jack's Grandpa Hughes responded that he knew a 4-year old that asked 744. Elaine and I had some of the pie this afternoon and will finish it off tonight. Elaine really has a knack for baking Cherry Pies that are the best. While we certainly can't complain about the food that we get here at Brookdale, we do miss many of the dishes that Elaine spoiled me with over the years. It may be that we learn to like some foods based on the memories they invoke. I never remember anything but pleasant comments when Elaine's Cherry Pie was served.

Kolterman's Store

We were pleased today to see work being done on these old buildings in downtown Seward. They have been vacant since Dollar General moved to the south edge of town along the Highway. For many years the Kolterman's had the Ben Franklin store at this location. For many years the building to the left was the Rupp Hardware and Kolterman's had the east part of this complex. The Kolterman family has been involved in the east part for many years. Back in the 30's it was known as the "Racket Store". My sister and I walked past it on our way to school when I was in 1st grade. After moving to the farm north of Garland and becoming teenagers, Fred Kolterman (the founder) paid my sister and I, one dollar for delivering sale bills to each of the houses in Bee and Garland. We shared those $2.00 and probably spent most of it back in the store. Our Dad sold wood to Mr. Kolterman to heat the store. On at least one occasion, I remember of him tieing one team behind the lead farm wagon and taking two loads on one trip. As I recall, he got either four or five dollars per load, depending on it being the regular wagon box or it being a "triple" box. Delivering the wood was just the final step in the process that involved cutting down the trees, trimming the branches off,  sawing up the limbs and splitting the blocks. This experience had some influence on my taking  a Civil Service job when provided the opportunity.

Cherry Pie

Elaine baked a Cherry Pie today. It is the first one she has done in some time. I don't know the plan for it but can say from experience that it will be special. Our first Grandchild  (Julie) has a birthday tomorrow which might present an opportunity to check out the pie. Elaine has a Beauty Shop appointment for tomorrow afternoon. I plan to take her down for it and will do a bit of shopping down at Walmart. We continue to afford ourselves the luxury of having breakfast in our unit which requires a little grocery shopping as well as the need for personal items.  We had an enjoyable telephone conversation with son Verlon in Richmond, VA this morning and Carolyn stopped by this afternoon. While Elaine was doing her baking, I wrote captions for the picture collages that I put together yesterday. Each collage has over 50 pictures which gives an "overview" of our years activities. We are fortunate in having our Great Grandchildren, Sadie and Jack, living here as part of our Seward Family. They appeared frequently in our year's pictures. We live a pretty simple life here but a homemade Cherry Pie is still pretty special.

Change

This is page 2 of Collages of our 2018 pictures. I have built these for several years but this was the first year for doing it with the Microsoft Power Point program. Jon got me started on it when he and Anna were here last week. I had used the Excel program with my old computer but it had changed with Windows 10.  I was able to get help from Deb who is on the staff here, to solve the problem of getting a full size sheet, on which to transfer pictures. Most all of our pictures this year were taken with the cell  phone and transferred to a folder on the desktop of this laptop. I moved them on a Flash Drive and plugged that into the HP computer where Jon had installed the Power Point program. The whole process isn't as handy as it was on the old computer, but what's new. Us old people get along pretty good doing things like we had learned to use, but as changes come along, we recognize that the learning process declines comparable to our physical ability. Elaine would love to have a word processor like she had 15 years ago but it's just not to be found. There might be an opportunity for developing some "simple technology" for older customers.

'48 Ford Pickup

This is one of the few models that I moved up here to Brookdale. Many were sold on our Auction a year ago and some were given away. This one was special for a couple reasons. While ours didn't have the white side-wall tires, it is the truck that I drove as an SCS employee when I started with the Agency in 1948 here in Seward County, NE. "My truck" had the USDA emblem on the door along with the "Soil Conservation Service". Some 50 years ago when I was working out of the Washington office, we got new decals for placement on our Government vehicles. About that time, four of us from Headquarters were conducting Management Training sessions for representatives from the State Offices. I had just bought a new personal, hard-sided, black, brief case and one of the fellows asked if he could paste the decal on it to show the group how it looked. I agreed, it looked sharp, and used the brief case for a number of years. I was able to take a picture of it and past in on my model truck as shown. Now the "rest of the story" is that Son Jon who has worked for the agency for many years, visited us last week and took the old black briefcase with the decal still in tact, home with him to Washington DC.

Appalachian Mountains

Tim called this evening after getting home from being down in North Carolina during the week. They visited their son Tony in Raleigh and daughter Maggie who had driven up from Atlanta. Then they drove over to the Appalachian mountains in the western part of the state. They drove through the Great Smokey National Park that straddles the NC/TN border. Tim says it's a drive that you never forget. While I don't remember ever having driven it, Elaine and I have traveled many miles in that area. Carolyn lived in Boone where she graduated from Appalachian State University, married and had Julie. Jon worked as a Soil Scientist in 2 or 3 locations in this area as well as in the eastern part of the state. On one occasion, Elaine and I went to the Worlds Fair in Knoxville, TN and went over into NC to visit Jon and family. It's beautiful country and pleased that Tim and Laura were able to enjoy it.

Cherry Kolache

Rosellen treated us to some Czech Kolaches this afternoon that she had just baked. We even had a choice of Cherry or Peach. Elaine and I both had the Cherry. We sat at a table with 3 ladies from the assisted living side along with another fellow from our independent side. It is nice that we are able to inter-mingle for these special events. One of the ladies who was new to us was interested in the location of the Lehigh Elevator and Mill  after I mentioned it. As a girl, she remembered her Dad taking wheat to "Lehigh" and bringing home flour. She had always wondered where it was located. The other ladies quickly told of their having dresses and other items of clothing, made from the 50 lb. bags that the flour came in. Elaine and I were both well aware of the elevator and mill from our childhood days. It was located between Seward and Garland next to the Burlington RR track. There was also a Country School near by known by the same name. My mother had gone to school there as had some of Elaine's aunts. I'm not sure if it was always spelled as I have and would appreciate any suggestions

Great Visit

We had another enjoyable day with Jon and Anna here. They will be leaving tomorrow morning to fly from Omaha directly to Reagan National in Washington, DC. Jon was able to pick up copies of ancestry information and pictures. Anna learns more about our family every time she is around us. She might have even heard some new things about her Dad. I continue to learn computer programs and skills with Jon's instruction and assistance. We brought many records up to date with year-end information. It was also great to have "taxi" service at the front door. While Brookdale is real good about getting people to where they need to go, it's nice to have the private service. It is also a good time for conversation. We worked in the Microsoft Windows 10 programs of Word, Excel and Power Point. While I made notes, I told Jon that when they call tomorrow to say they got home safely, I will probably have a couple computer questions.

Sharing Across the Generations

Son Jon and Granddaughter Anna are visiting us this week. We have had a great time and I ask Jon to do the blog page this evening. He had taken the picture earlier in their visit.

Taking the time to share stories and pictures with the younger generation is an opportunity that you never want to miss. Pictures of places and times and individuals may seem not that interesting to the person that took the pictures, but to that other generation, these pictures can hold the key to stories of a bygone era.
This week Anna and her Grandmother have had time to share photo albums and share stories, even a game of dominoes. Both seemed to enjoy the experience. I recall similar one-on-one times with my maternal grandfather, who would take me fishing. One of my favorite stories from years ago was that of my grandfather and I on one of those fishing adventures. He would reach into his pocket, take out his pocket knife and cut up an earthworm and bait his and my hooks. Then he would reach into his pocket, take out a chunk of cheddar cheese and slice a piece for me to eat! Yum!

I'll never forget those times and I suspect that my daughter will never forget her times with her grandparents.

Doing Chores

Elaine got the New Year started off right doing a washing this afternoon. While she misses her old machine and the freedom of using it whenever she wished, she has adapted to the facilities and schedules here at Brookdale. I have helped a few times when she didn't feel up to par, but she takes a lot of pride in being able to do it by herself. I have written before about how easy it it to take it for granted that there will be clean shorts, shirts, socks and handkerchiefs in the dresser drawer every morning  and clean shirts  and khaki pants hanging in the closet for me to choose from. Our "chores" are a big part of our exercise program since we've been here. I'm afraid that I get more mental exercise with my work on the computer but I do fix breakfast every morning.

Family Visit

Brother Don and Gladys with daughters Kathy and Becky were up to visit us this afternoon. They brought along Becky's little 2-month old, Jovee Antes. Son Jon and Anna are visiting here this week so we had a great visit. Jon's were here yesterday and we have already made quite a bit of computer and family genealogy progress. Don and Gladys were up in October to eat with us on our Dad's birth date, October 18, 1896. Gladys told me that their family of 4 daughters has grown to 37 after their nearly 50 years of marriage. They have a Great-Granddaughter graduating from University this spring. It's just a great family. Don is 4 1/2 years younger than I am, and he and Gladys were married a year after us. Our 3-boys and one daughter have contributed to our family growing to 19 with the last 2 being Great-Grandchildren. While our families vary in size, there is a lot of camaraderie between all of them. Jon delighted in carrying Jovee as they toured our Brookdade facility this afternoon. Don and I always have a lot to talk about. We have stayed very close over the years despite our being separated by distance during certain periods. With the arrival of the New Year, we recognize more clearly that nothing is more important than Family..