Tasty Pork Roast

Like many groups, our Kiwanis Club members usually set at the same place each meeting. "Our" table is directly in from of the podium where Jack, Ralph, John, Roger and Marv and I discuss wide ranging topics. John (retired preacher) is an excellent Chef among other attributes. At the meeting yesterday, he told of our local grocery store having a sale of pork shoulder roast. He had already roasted one and was most pleased with the way it turned out. I'm certain that the special spices, etc. that he basted it with helped to make it special. So when we went down to Pac n Sav to get a few things yesterday evening, I picked up a small 4.80 pound  roast that cost $4.75. (99cents/lb.) Elaine gave it her basting of oil, spices, etc and it roasted much of the afternoon. We had it for supper along with baked potato and sauerkraut. It was delicious. We will get several meals from it with Elaine's ability to use it in various ways. It makes my mouth salivate to write about it. We think the sale will end tonight so after supper we went back and bought 2 larger ones to put in our freezer. Having known "hard times", finding a bargain always makes it taste even better.

Travelogue with Sausage

Club member Louis presented  the program this noon at Kiwanis on a tour of Turkey which he went on during late 2014. Kelsey helped him with the pictures. Much of what the tour covered was the Roman ruins and restoration dating back to biblical times. Louis is a Librarian by profession and spent a major part of his career at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. He became fascinated with Czechoslovakia years ago after a visit to that Country and also leaned that he had some Czech ancestors. He is currently studying the language at UN-L,

We had an excellent meeting. It included an excellent chicken dinner with blueberry pie, the welcoming back of Brady,  and the report of a lot of "good news".  We had a special treat of several different varieties of sausage provided by Dave. They were numbered and we were asked to indicate our choice. Though they all had some pork, the full contents of 3-4 were listed as "unknown". It turned out that the "unknowns" were made from Raccoon, Possum and Canada Goose. The Raccoon got several 1st place votes. 

President Josh had to stop  questions to Louis so we could get the results of the sausage survey.

Presidential Libraries

The Parade Magazine which comes with our Sunday newspapers,  feature story today was on Presidential Libraries. While we have visited several of them, I wish we would have taken the same interest in seeing all of them that we did in the Major League Baseball Parks. The death of Nancy Reagan this morning and the coverage of the Reagan Library today made me wonder why we hadn't visited it while in California.  We have been to the following Presidential Libraries: Herbert Hoover, George H. W. Bush, Jimmy Carter, Lyndon Johnson, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Harry S. Truman, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Harry S. Truman. Most of these visits were not a "destination" but just happened to be in the area. While we enjoyed them, we didn't spend near enough time in any to do them "justice".  We didn't do much more than getting our National Parks Passport stamped, in several of them. At least, now I have found a site which will enable me to visit them online.

Tim there to see Carolina beat Duke

We watched the Duke-North Carolina basketball game tonight with particular interest since son Tim was in Cameron to see it. He and 3 special buddies from their college days try to get back occasionally to spend the weekend in Durham, visit the campus and see a game. Tim's birthday was yesterday. He called last night and told of attending an event on campus that featured Duke alums who are now noted sportscasters. Since Tim announces HS games, this event was of special interest to him.

Though Duke was able to beat North Carolina at Chapel Hill a couple weeks ago, it was not to be tonight. They fell behind early in the game by about 10 points and the score was 40-32 at the half. The Blue Devils were finally able to tie it at 49. I was somewhat surprised to see them stay with a zone defense but that's not what beat them. This was Plummer's last game in Cameron and it was nice to see Roy Williams visit with him after the game. Coach K. also visits with the team and particularily with the players that "beats them" after the game. It's a great rivalry.

Pictures and Politics

Elaine has had a bad cold and cough over the past few days with a lot of time in bed. Carolyn brought down some picture albums today for us to enjoy since we weren't able to have Jack with us this week. We got Elaine over to see Dr. Summa and to get a prescription from Mueri's. She seems to be feeling a bit better by tonight but still coughing. NET has a musical program of music from the 50's and 60's which we are watching. It is a nice break from watching the political news though it was interesting to see the long lines of young people, going to hear former president Clinton. 

I got a hair cut this morning and when Bob and I were the only ones there, asked his poll of people passing through his shop, on their opinion of Donald Trump. He confirmed what is being said in the media that people are disgusted with government and want change. After some visiting, we agreed that change isn't always positive--it also has the potential to be negative, and often is. My career in natural resource conservation taught me that significant changes are not made overnight or in a year or two. But rather by making positive, incremental change. We need politicians who are willing to think in terms of "whats good for the country" instead of their re-election, party and lobbyist position and of those that finance them.  Campaign finance change during the past few years is a prime example of negative change to our democratic form of government. Tim called this evening on his birthday, and we had a good visit.

Magazine Club Meeting

This picture is from the Andreas History of Seward and is of the John Cattle, Sr. house as it appeared well over 100 years ago. The house was recognized as one of Seward's early mansions but was sold outside the family 50-60 years ago. It has gone through several owners since then with the latest change about 3 years ago when a lady from California bought it and has "restored" it as a Bed and Breakfast. Our Magazine Club met there soon after the restoration began and then again tonight. She has done a great job of bringing the place back and even tonight she had customers in one room. Our program was presented by Anthony from the Mon-Tag family company in Iowa that produces agricultural fertilizer application carts. The group then toured the facility and had a great lunch. I left early since Elaine stayed home with a bad cold and cough. I understand from Dr. Van than she would benefit by getting a proscription, which we will plan to do tomorrow.

Big Grin of Satisfaction

Here is how Carolyn, Elaine and I looked this at 7:45am this morning down at the Eye Institute for my post-op and bandage removal. We learned the regimen for eye drops and had a favorable report from Dr. Linder. I couldn't believe the difference of color and brightness between my two eyes. The wall of the examining room was white with my right eye and looked the color of old newspaper (yellow) with my left. I get the same contrast looking at our back yard. Our white garage doors were never whiter than when I look at them with my left eye closed. We have a "score sheet" to keep track of the regimen for eye drops since it involves 2 different ones being applied 4 times a day for this first week and then tapering down to 3 times for a week, 2, and then once a day on that 4th week. I drove this afternoon as we went down for groceries and could see much better. My driver's license is due for renewal this summer and wonder what restrictions it may have had without having had this and the next surgery.