Bluestem Fiber and Spectrum

Marv Taylor is shown here announcing at today's Kiwanis meeting that Barry Fisher will be moving on with Bluestem Fiber and will be replaced by Derek Dibbern. Derek will continue to represent Bluestem Fiber with their Corporate Membership. Marv also announced that their firm had sponsored a beautiful Drinking Fountain down at the Parade of Flags. There were some pictures taken with the 3 of them down at the site following the meeting. In our conversation  I mentioned having finished reading Senator Ben Sasse's book on "The Vanishing American Adult" in regard to a possible Kiwanis project. Derek spoke up and said that he had gone to High School in Fremont with the Senator and even as a HS student, he was very interested in politics. Even at that time, he indicated an intention of being President someday. I had the impression that Ben wasn't "one of the boys" in High School.

We have been limited to one television in our house since spectrum went totally digital on August 1st. The "box" that we got through Time Warner a couple years ago has enabled us to continue to receive TV programs. Spectrum has made one "box" available to customers at no charge for the first 12 months. Additional boxes are $4.99/mo. We ordered our one box which was delivered this morning.  It took me out to the extreme edge of  my ability, but after a phone call where all I needed to say was "activate", and told by the recorded voice that it would be activated in an hour; I was pleased to be able to see Ken Siemek give the local weather. 

Milestones

We helped Sadie celebrate her 5th birthday today. After blowing out the regular candles and our singing Happy Birthday, her Daddy lite a number 5 at the top of a wire, it flashed like a 4th of July Sparkler. It was a big hit but didn't last more than about 15-20 seconds. It was long enough to get some good pictures. She received several nice presents. The most outstanding one being a knit Mermaid "sock" that she can pull on with the top being a "blanket" with which to cover. 

Carolyn took us up to our unit in Brookdale where the painting is all done. Everything looks good. With the temperature in the low 70's, I wore my windbreaker and took along a hanger to leave it there, so could say that we were starting to move in. Elaine took up a few things too. Carolyn and Ben have already put together a new couch that was delivered there as well as setting up the Coffee Maker and a few other things. Our moving date is set for September 1 but that date is flexible. The more time that we spend up there, the more convinced we are that we will like it. We continue to be very favorably impressed with all of the staff and with all the people we have met there in addition to old friends.

Things are Shaping Up

It may be difficult to understand what I did this afternoon, (with our upcoming move) but it was to "shuffle" old magazines out and put newer ones in the rack.  We have utilized it for the past 25 years on the wall of our Family Room in our Lower Level.  Over the years, we have received many more than we really got read.  We have not subscribed to any new ones in the past couple years but felt it important to take several to keep up with whats going on, particularly, the Ag magazines where technology has brought about such rapid changes. Nebraska Life is a comparatively new magazine published here in-state and an excellent magazine with slick paper and many pictures. It like National Geographics are hard to "throw-away".  I believe we have taken National Geographic's more years than any others. While in HS, and for a few years after, I hardly ever missed an article in the Readers Digest but haven't seen one lately. 

Our Naked Ladies (Amaryllis Belladonna) are in full bloom at the edge of our deck. Mother had them after they retired and moved to town. That was where I saw them for the first time. Mother was a very pious person with a little Irish ornery streak and she always had a "twinkle" in her voice while showing off her "Naked Ladies". I don't think she ever knew their scientific name and when the Methodist Preacher came to call, they were "Surprise Lilies". They do pop up from bulbs early in the spring, producing long, narrow leaves which die-back in late June. Then, in late July, the bloom heads pop-up on 18 inch stems and they are in full bloom within a few days.

Celebrating Dad's 90th Birthday in 1986

 Dad's 90th birthday was celebrated over a 3-day period with the October 18th event in 1986 held out at our farm. Us 5 siblings sang "The Lost Cord" among other old favorites. The 42 people in attendance included Dad's brother Joe & Ruth, Mother's sisters Dorothy and Ethel with John. We made the VCR tape from which these pictures were taken this afternoon. While we were able to show part of one old tape at the recent reunion that Carolyn had moved to a DVD, we hope to make more and give them to family. It has been over 30 years since this tape and others were recorded and it is amazing how well they have aged. (We never did get very "professional" with our camcorder but it's interesting to get the sound and see the motion.)

Jerry skipped out of the singing as it "drug-on" and was replaced by little Julie who led us in singing Kum-by-Ya. We went on to have a Family picture taken which has been framed and on the wall for all these years by here is a picture from the tape. The next day, Sunday, the folks had an open house at their home here in Seward. Don and I served as greeters at their front door where over 100 people came to wish Dad a Happy Birthday, which he certainly had. 

Out with the Old, In with the New

Our new Queen sized Spring and Mattress arrived today from Slumberland in Lincoln. While we expect to move it up to our new "digs" early next month, it seemed appropriate to have it delivered here. We have really enjoyed Tim and Laura being here this week. After the bed was made up, we all went up to Brookdale where most of the painting has been done in our unit. Carolyn was able to get my laptop connected to their Internet signal.   The mattress is higher than our old one so we are hoping we don't fall out of bed tonight. We will miss Tim at coffee tomorrow morning since they will be heading back to Indiana.

Kenneth L. Ferguson 10 18 24 - 7 30 17

We were shocked this evening to learn of the death of Kenneth Ferguson. He died on Sunday and a Memorial Service will be held on Saturday, August 5, 2017 at St. Paul Methodist Church in Lincoln. 

Kenny, Marion and daughters Kay and Dianne were our next door neighbors while we lived in Lincoln from 1958-'62.  We were close neighbors, and were more than that. I had know Marion from Sunday School when we were 5 & 6 years old and played basketball against Kenny in High School. Our daughter Carolyn was 5 years old when we moved to Lincoln and Dianne the same age. They were in school together and best friends for those 4 years. During the years we lived in Virginia, we kept our voting registration in Lincoln, partially so we could continue to vote for Kenny as Lancaster County Registrar of Deeds, a position he held for six four-year terms. They even came back to Arlington to visit us on one occasion.

After returning to Nebraska in 1980, we got together occasionally. Kenny had many friends out here in Seward and would come out for coffee. Carolyn and Dianne got to see each other once in a while. I remember going down to Crete where Dianne was involved in a piano concert at Doane College. 

While our lives took us in different directions, The 4 years as close friends and neighbors was a mighty significant chapter in our lives which we fondly recall. When going to east Lincoln, we frequently went past the old neighborhood near 66th and Hartley street and within the past few months, wondered how Kenny was getting along as we drove by. Why didn't we stop to visit visit??

Family Visits

Janice, Larry and Benji stopped by yesterday as they were leaving town after the big family reunion at Mahoney that Janice has worked on for over the past year. In cleaning out things recently, Elaine came across a large crystal bowl that Jerry had won pitching pennies many years ago, and gave to Elaine. He was a teenager at the time and kept pitching pennies until he had one for Vivian and Gladys as well. It seemed to be a very appropriate time to pass it on to Janice who will appreciate it's having come from her late twin brother. They were heading for western Nebraska to visit some of Larry's family. 

We also got Maggie and Adam on their way this morning. We had never met Adam before but were very impressed with him. There were no votes taken on but he's accepted by acclimation.

I got Tim set up down in my office to watch Duke beat Michigan in the 1992 NCAA Basketball Finals. We had recorded in on  a VCR taken at the time in was played and it hadn't lost a bit of it's color. The game has changed considerably during the past 25 years. While Tim was watching basketball, I went through my 2 shelves of books on Baseball. I have already given Tim a 2-volume set on Joe DiMaggio who was my model as a Kid for getting hits in 56 straight games in 1941. I must have bought the books off a discount table several years ago because I would never have paid the suggest price.