Dairy Daze...and Now Beyond

 A month after my mother passed away in December 2021, our neighbor passed away in his truck in his driveway.  That there is a long story in and of itself, but we will save that for later.  Though...well...on with the story.  After he passed we decided that we would attempt to purchase the property; not necessarily because we wanted it for ourselves per se, but because we didn't want anyone else to have it.  We wanted to be able to control who lives there.  From hence forth I shall refer to the neighbor as "Tuna" because that is what he wanted everyone to call him, something about his having been in the Navy when he was younger.  (He was in his 70s when he passed.) Gary always referred to him as Fish.  Haha..  Tuna did not have any children of his own.  And he was divorced.  He and his ex, Betty (not her real name) had moved to Missouri from Massachusetts in the mid 90s, I believe.  They bought this place together, mostly using...

  "It seems hard to believe" is the somewhat tired phrase that all parents use as their children grow up.  I remember twelve years ago driving by the high school and thinking; "Wow, someday Ellen is going to be going here." It seemed like it would be forever 'til she got there. But now for real it seems hard to believe that high school is behind her and she is rocketing along in time toward her adult life and career. This past weekend was Welcome Week at the university, so she has been there meeting people and learning the ropes, as it were, already.  She is still nervous about making friends and I know the first few days are going to be awkward. I am sure, though, that she will soon find her "place" and make plenty of friends. She was worried that she won't get the full college experience because she will be living at home, but she was reassured because this past weekend she met many other commuters who live in different communities around the uni...

 One of the great joys of summer are the melons!   On Friday a neighbor messaged me and said they had a bunch of watermelons and did we want any.  Yes!  Of course!  Ha!  Who can turn down a free watermelon? They also had a pile of cantaloupe too, so I got a couple of those.  Both Gary and I have lots of fun memories surrounding melons. Back when we were kids there was no such thing as seedless watermelon, so almost invariably as kids we ended up outside with a wedge of watermelon so we could spit the seeds out into the yard. We of course would have to listen to our parents telling us to be careful and not swallow the seeds or else we'd grow vines out of our ears! I distinctly remember that my mom would give my dad a large round slice from the center of the melon in a plate and he would sit and eat it with a spoon.  Now, cantaloupe was a different story of course. The ones we got back then weren't huge. I vaguely remember that half of one was ...

 Today I've nothing really much to say, but just wanted to start posting pictures again. For some reason my iPhone photos aren't linked to my Google account, so it won't post pictures on here when I try to blog from the phone. But here I am on the laptop, where my Google account and the accompanying photos on it, are linked to my old Android. Strange, but true.   Ellen will probably flip if she ever sees this photo, but I'm posting it anyway because it brings up many of my own childhood memories.   Where I grew up our lives in the summer centered around gardening; weeding, hoeing, tilling, harvesting, shelling peas, snapping green beans, shucking corn, and watering with garden hoses. There on the North Coast of California, in Humboldt County, it rarely got up to 80 degrees in the summer. I didn't even know what air conditioning was back then. During the summers back then it didn't rain.  Humboldt County is known for being quite wet in the fall and winter, b...

 Happenings from the House of Howard  Ellen has resumed pursuing her interest in playing drums.  Since she has been working this summer she saved up enough money and bought herself an electronic (I think that's what they call them) drum set.  She is faithful to practice every day.  I'm glad she has this outlet because I think it helps with her anxiety and general stress to get in there and whack away at the drums.  She has always loved music, it helps her deal with stress. Since I posted about it on Facebook there have been several people who have mentioned that they had always fancied playing drums, but had never followed through with it. I'm glad Ellen has followed through. It will give her something to occupy her, and something to strive for.   Gary has been super busy working on well repairs the past couple of weeks; seems like almost every day last week he went out to one job or another. I'm thankful he has Doug to help him. They enjoy going ...