Our 65th Christmas!

OUR!  65^th!  CHRISTMAS!

Our 62 years of marriage, two years of going together, and the Christmas coming in FOUR DAYS!!  I can still do arithmetic!

For a couple of kids still “wet behind the ears” that is quite a record!  Who says God doesn’t bless weddings on a Tuesday of your Senior Year of High School done by the Justice of the PEACE in Kiowa Colorado.  When we ate our bag lunches, washed down with a can or two of Canada Dry ginger ale - The Champagne of ginger ale - that day by the side of the highway we ASKED  GOD to be the GLUE in our marriage.  He certainly did the job through thick and thin.  The “D word” was never in our vocabulary;  coping skills and wisdom were always provided.  THANK YOU GOD!

Tom’s jobs with IBM and Amdahl entailed a LOT of traveling to fix computers all over the world.  The saying used to be “join the ARMY and see the world!”  Tom was part of the army of technicians popping in and out of airports – tool bag at the ready!  Even the new computer systems required a bit of babysitting to make sure they were doing the job and the customer was completely satisfied; the bugs worked out of the hardware, the software, and the training of the customer’s operators complete!

Meanwhile, back at the home front, mom had to handle it, whatever IT was.  Thank God for telephones and good neighbors!  It seemed like when Tom was out of town Bill, the Navy P3 pilot, was available and when Bill was on assignment,  Tom was handy to help Cathy with a repair or a mechanical problem.  I kept busy with volunteering at the boy’s school, church, Christian Woman’s Club, taking care of Kathleen and some other children needing care, yard and car maintenance – only mowing and pool – and oil and water in the car!   The rest would wait for Tom if Bill deemed the problem not an emergency.

It wasn’t until Tom’s Mom died in 2003 that his Dad finally asked WHY Tom and I eloped.  We had stayed for a week or ten days at the farm in Yuma CO after Virginia died to help with the drastic change in Dad’s situation – sending out those notifications that the mortuary prints - and just providing a transition time.  Dad had been a caregiver for several years as Mom was having small strokes and her hearing was not good; her memory was drastically affected by a stroke just a month before her death.

So Tom told him what was on our minds that fateful year - 1961; he LAUGHED out loud!!  “Would you like to know the REAL STORY?”  He proceeded, for the first time, to tell us of their courtship and marriage.   THEN, we laughed!!

I said, “Is it too late to ask for an annulment?”  It seems our marriage at the ripe old ages of 17 and 18 was because of a TOTAL misunderstanding of his parent’s situation prior to THEIR marriage.  An eye-opening experience for sure as to how insufficient Tom’s knowledge of his parent’s lives as teenagers was to that very day.  I couldn’t believe it took his DAD so many years to ask about what led us to elope since I was not pregnant!!  Our son was born after OUR 5^th Anniversary  (thanks to the advent of birth control pills!)

Tom’s parents had celebrated 60 years of marriage before his Mom died.  Marriage is all about COMMITMENT and patience, LOVE and especially TRUSTING GOD.  I have often said that I “fell in LOVE” with my husband at least THREE times after we married…

Our AUTUMN TOUR - 2023

When we left the DENVER area to continue our FALL TOUR we decided to go a direction that we had not taken in a LONG TIME.  The southern Rockies over Wolf Creek Pass to Durango and Cortez.  This was our route during the nine years that we lived in Southern California as newly-weds.  The Interstate was still in its infancy; Route 66 and the Four Corner Region was the route closest to the family in the Denver are.  We could not have asked for a better Autumn route.  The leaves up north had already fallen - at least north of I-70.  The aspens in South Park near Fairplay were long gone, but the Cottonwoods along the Arkansas River were glorious!!  As were the various trees in the small towns that still exist in that part of Colorado.  The buttes and washes surprised us with golden leaves and our stops in Durango, Monticello UT, and Provo UT were also bedecked in gold, yellow, and red.

As we crossed the California border from Las Vegas, on the interstate, Tom was checking the winds on the PASS at Tehachapee and asked me to turn north just as we approached the 395 junction.   It had been a long time since we had taken that route to southern California.  We were ready for a two day stop at Lone Pine.  What a precious little town at the edge of the Owens Valley Water Project and an Indian Reservation.  We found the church we were looking for, having checked the GOOGLE listing on Saturday,  but unable to connect on Sunday!!  We arrived on the sermon, half hour late.   That is life at this age I am afraid.  Pastor was welcoming, even if we were LATE.  Spoke with him for some time after the service.  The host at the RV PARK had recommended them,  very community minded and welcoming he had said and he was correct.

Sonora Pass had reopened following the first WINTER snow so we took that route, fighting the dirty windshield by stopping with hazard lights flashing in a clear space where we could be seen from both directions in order to try to clear the inside and the outside.  One vehicle passed us in each direction by the time we got the crud and dead bugs off the glass.   We were surprised to be flagged down at a wide hunters camp area a few miles up the road by the car going in the same direction we were.  Two concerned ladies had noted our South Dakota license plates as they passed us and were concerned that we were strangers and didn't know how steep and curvy SONORA PASS was.  We explained that we were former residents of Strawberry and knew the pass well,  but thanked them for their concern.

We arrived at son Tom's after dark, but none the worse for wear, except for the LONG DAY driving.  When we took a drive to Sonora the next week we realized that we had arrived just in time for the fall colors here!  The pistachios are THE TREE in that area of California;  they are decorative and provide an awesome display of red to offset the golds of the oak trees!   We felt so fortunate.  Also checked the "tripometer"  and realized that we had traveled 15,000 miles since the 22nd of May this year.  What a tour this year was!!  From the Olympic Peninsula to the tip of Lake Superior at Superior WI / Duluth MN.  From South Dakota to the southern part of Colorado and Utah, Nevada and the Mojave Desert!!  From Mount Shasta in California to Mount Olympus in WA, to the Rockies, the Black Hills of South Dakota, and Mount Whitney - the highest mountain in the contiguous United States. 

For mountain folks like us quite a summer.

 

SEASONS

 

The trees are colorful, the nights are chilly, time seems to be going slower!  Maybe it is just my “fall season” now that we are the senior generation in BOTH of our families.  Met a neighbor in one of our RV Parking places who said, “I knew I would get OLD, but I didn’t think it would happen so …QUICKLY!”

We were enjoying the glorious leaf display in Minnesota when we heard from our cousin Rick that his Mom, Aunt Jeri, had passed peacefully, having said her goodbyes to her four children, and an assortment of grandkids.   We had seen the lovely lady just this summer when we were in Colorado for a series of “family events.”   And LADY is the correct term;  she was always a lady and rarely said an ill word about anyone or anything.  Oh, maybe the monstrous apartment complex that was built behind her home there in Denver!  She installed a decorative wall with pretty flowers and looked out the FRONT of her house more frequently than out the back!

Tom told his cousin where we were and that we would probably not be able to attend the service if they had one.  When Rick called a few days later after reading the last wishes his mom had left,  he called again and asked if there was any way Pastor Tom could come to DO THE SERVICE?

We did the mileage numbers and called him back, left Spirit Lake, Iowa on Monday, stopped in Albion NE for just a night and got to Yuma, just two hours from Denver ( but THREE more hours since we were towing.)  It was a lovely service on Friday, followed  by a luncheon at the cemetery – in the Event Center!

Pastor Tom spoke words of comfort between the recorded music she had chosen, and the cousins seemed pleased that we had made the effort and that Tom had agreed to conduct the service.   Now we know that branch of the family quite a bit better, and all of her siblings were represented at the service BY THE NEXT GENERATION as she was the last of her generation on the family tree!  Everyone’s favorite aunt!!

So here we are still in Colorado, with appointments for car maintenance, body maintenance and a few minor repairs to the COUGAR.  Meanwhile Autumn has followed US, the trees change their colors daily!!

We need to hit the road soon though in order to get to Lane’s sixth birthday in California and THANKSGIVING.   Thankful, maybe that is the word for this season of harvest, a feast for the eyes, and soon a feast for the body as well!!   I lift up my eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help?  My help comes from the LORD who made heaven and earth.  Psalm 121 right in the middle of that dusty book on the shelf.  READ IT!!

CURIOUS

 

The saying is:  Curiosity killed the cat.

I have wondered recently what the relationship is between the FARMERS / RANCHERS and the tribes that have reservations here in northern South Dakota – two tribes of Sioux.  We traveled on Highway 20 that separates the two reservations and on either side were cattle and fields of hay, harvested crops and large ranches.   I hope to GOD that the ranchers had not sold to foreign investors like down in AZ where Saudis have purchased ranch land and proceeded to drain all their neighbor’s wells by drilling deep wells, then growing HAY in the desert!! 

I pulled up a summation of the Homestead ACT which allowed settlement of the “Louisiana Purchase” after the Civil War and found no reference to the Tribal Lands.  No instruction to respect your NATIVE NEIGHBORS as you make your way west – northwest.  I also checked on some treaties with the Native Tribes and knew of course that they were not enforced or “written in stone.” HOWEVER, there was an article about the leasing of Tribal Lands and the fact that as an autonomous “nation within the nation”  the tribes could petition the State in which they resided for a gaming license and there are some very wealthy tribes thanks to the Casinos.   Seems fair somehow, even if gambling is an addiction as powerful as alcohol, or especially when linked to alcohol consumption!  

Leasing of tribal land was also mentioned.  Leasing for ranching /farming,  mineral exploration or even for Waste Management “mountains” perhaps.  Which came first the Treaties or the Homestead Act?   Obviously the Treaties, whether enforced or not.  Are those ranches on Highway 20 leased from the tribes?

So back to the Homestead Act.  One of our siblings mentioned that Great Grandpa’s homestead in Montana DID NOT INCLUDE THE MINERAL RIGHTS.    I found that interesting and curious, which prompted this small bit of research.   I had had a coworker out in California who told of her family’s oil wells being summarily capped with concrete by the Federal Government – I do not remember the year - forcing her family into bankruptcy and a subsequent move to California.  I wonder if their family “homestead” had had the same omission as Great Grandpa’s piece of Montana.  The coworkers family land was in the North Dakota, I believe.

Perhaps I should just stop being curious since I try to be a positive person and these questions, and MORE, make me cynical and suspicious.   “Turn your eyes upon JESUS… and the things of Earth will grow strangely dim, in the light of HIS GLORY and GRACE.”

BUT, pray for our COUNTRY and do a bit of research once you receive your ballot, and as a citizen VOTE!!

MILO and Road Repair

 

Miles and Miles of Milo and Road Repair!!

I first met Milo when Tom’s Dad bought a farmstead in Eastern Colorado.  I believe this was before he drilled wells and installed pivot sprinklers.  It must be a great dry land crop as there are literally miles and miles of milo in Kansas, and not many sprinklers to be seen.  Of course the humidity in Kansas is higher than eastern Colorado.  Milo is also know as sorghum, broomcorn, great millet,  depending on where in the world you are trying to grow this grass – which is used as feed in its grain form.  According to Wikipedia,  Sorghum is the world’s  5^th most important crop AFTER  rice, wheat, maize, and barley.   Sweet sorghums are cultivars that are primarily grown for forage, syrup production, and ethanol and are taller than those grown for grain.  Miles and miles of milo here in rural Kansas!

 

Since we travel local roads rather than the high speed interstates,  we see a lot of road work being done this summer.   Road work requires diverting traffic to protect the workers and also the HEAVY EQUIPMENT putting down new asphalt, building new bridges, widening existing roads,  utility workers,  or even the crews filling potholes and resealing the cracks.   Some of the many TRAFFIC CONTROL measures we have noted to keep traffic moving while road or utility improvements are made:

               1 – Narrow the traffic to a single lane (minus the two feet where the cones are IN YOUR LANE forcing you to straddle the thump thump strips.)   Fortunately, in this one instance on the interstate,  they had paved the shoulder!

               2 – “Follow me” vehicle  - works well if you realize the long wait is allowing that vehicle to return with the long line of vehicles who were waiting at the other end of the one lane roadway.

               3  -- a portable stoplight seems to be gaining in popularity.  These seem to be either set on a timer or controlled by the traffic flow.

               4 – DETOUR – we had to have our trailer roof replaced when a “NOT HELPFUL” person removed the turn sign meant to signal the completion of the detour.  Since this was in a strange-to-us city we ended up using a residential street with low hanging trees!!  NOT enough UPS trucks delivering in that two block stretch.  We are now VERY aware of low hanging trees, especially those trees with any dead branches!

               5 – the single person standing in the hot sun with the STOP / SLOW sign depending on the radio or phone in his/her ear to the turn the sign once they get the word from their counterpart at the other end of the project.  They cannot be paying them enough to stand in the hot sun all day THIS SUMMER!!

You all be safe on our roads;  enjoy each day, and pray for all the FARMERS and LONG HAUL TRUCKERS who provide the food, meds, and household goods which we all need and enjoy.

GOD's Rewrites

 

We read and meditate on a couple of devotional tomes each morning.  This morning one was referring to Luke 12:22-34 where Jesus speaks about the crows and the crops of Daffodils, with the gist being “WHY WORRY?!”

The writer of the devotional was a puzzler and she and her husband were enjoying piecing a large puzzle UNTIL they got to the all green section!  After hours, or days, of frustration, she went on line to a puzzle group ( I would never have considered that there WAS such a thing as a “puzzle group!”) and asked for suggestions as to the best way to get past this frustration.   The advice that stuck with her was “one piece at a time!”

That thought just couldn’t have come at a better time – we were putting our floor repair PUZZLE back together that day!!  We had noticed a spongy spot in the bathroom of our HOME on WHEELS and knowing that the sewer tanks were directly below that area, we knew that it needed replaced, renovated, or strengthened.  We had cut the vinyl next to the edges of the room and the length - plus several inches - of the strip of stainless steel that we had obtained.  Prepared the steel by sanding the burrs off the edges to avoid damaging the vinyl, feathered the steel to wood space as much as possible under the conditions!   So next step was somehow FITTING THE PIECES OF THE PUZZLE back together in the confining space – a one butt area between the toilet hole and the shower, and without damaging the existing vinyl OR the pieces.  Sure enough the advice of the puzzler and the scripture – one piece at a time, or one day at a time, was the Word for our day!   

I thanked GOD for the advice we needed by asking how many ANGELS He needed to rewrite devotional messages to fit the needs of so many readers in so many places?  That particular publication is printed in 34 different languages and read by millions of people - all puzzling over THEIR situations in countries all over this globe!  Mind boggling or thought provoking?!

I am happy to tell you that the project of our day went really well;  it did require two sets of eyes, four hands, and GOD’s peace and provision even in a small space on a hot day!  One piece of vinyl at a time!