my new digs

So far this is how my new home looks. trying to get my most essential stuff in my room.

it sort of feels like a collage dorm room. the beginning of your life and the ending are sort of parallel. trying to keep it neat though. the bookcases serve as my desk storage. notice the cats fighting. they all ignored the baskets when the baskets were on the floor even though they slept in them at the old place. as soon as i put them on top of the tables, the basket wars began.

center something

friends from grade school came by last week to visit with my sister and i. since none of us had been to the center of the united states, and since belle fourche claims to be the center of all 50 states, we decided to find the markers. with directions from my sister's boss, we trecked about 15 or so miles northeast of town, slipped between the barbed wire fence and walked a few feet to the flag and the usgs marker. it is the one with the arrow on it. as we looked around we discovered another marker about 6 feet away. it is is the one with the triangle.

i can't find out exactly what the symbols mean. looked up on google but i think i will have to go to the library or to a bookstore. in order to attract more tourists they are building the monument to the center of the nation in belle. i was really distressed at all the different centers until i read an article that said the accuracy was within 10 miles. arggggggggggggggg. so i quit stressing out.

i guess there is a game? people play using their gps units called benchmarking. there are quite a few around belle, but as i don't have a gps, i guess i will go back to unpacking and hanging doors in the basement.

another tractor show

sandhills and mini

turned out there was unfinished business at pva, so i drove the 500+ miles from belle fourche to kearney through the sand hills of nebraska. since i don't think i will be making that trip to many more times, i took highway 2 from thedford to alliance. i love driving the roads....almost empty... and seeing the rolling hills covered with prairie grass and cattle. there are enough ups and downs and curves to make driving interesting. the only bad part of the trip is the lack of radio stations. this is the first car that i have had that has a cd player and i can't get used to it. so....i forget to take along cds!

sturgis at night

my nephew and his family decided i needed to see sturgis during the bike ralley. since he works during the day, my sister and i went with them one night. it was toward the end and probably 80% were gone, but there were still enough bikes to fill up the main drag and more. some of the bikes had added lights like the one to the the left center of the picture. i think those are cool, but they must look strange when you see them ahead of you at night on the highway. of course, there were a few barely dressed females. one woman who should not have been doing it, was dressed in a string bikini and leather chaps riding a harley. not a pretty sight. and i think i saw the shortest pair of shorts ever on a candy dressing for a business that modified bikes. once was enough i think.

sturgis rally

it is the week of the motorcycle rally in sturgis. this is a gas station in belle. too bad if you need gas. the bikes are everywhere. good for business, but it makes it difficult to travel. there have been several accidents, but none fatal. most of the bikers have a lot of skin showing, and are not wearing helmets.

there are a lot of interesting bikes and trikes. so a few with side cars, some had trailers. one was the front of a bike welded to the back of a ford pinto. the guy had hacked off the engine part and replaced it with the front of a bike. just too weird for me.

helpful chicken

while in maryland for pony penning, we visited my nephew. his wife has a pet chicken, still quite young. the chicken, larry, (we called it peepers) followed her all over and cried to be let out of his cage in the living room if she was in the room. my sister became addicted to hand held computer games and larry is helping her play. he did peck at the screen!

pony penning

my sister and i were able to get 200 dollar round trip tickets to pony penning at chincoteague. we had to drive to sioux falls and her son had to pick us up at the baltimore airport, but still a good deal. i think my sister got tired of riding in my mini though, or maybe it was my driving.

anyway we arrived at her son's around 2 and got up at 5 to drive out to the island to get a good spot. we found out that to really get a good spot you have to know to walk away from the park and go down the road a piece to the actual holding pens....and you need to bring a folding chair you don't care about because it is going to be in the muck. you also need to wear wellies so you can wade through the muck to get to the shore where you can really see. we did sort of see them swimming, but we got the best view of all the ponies when we went early to the auction pens and waited for them to be herded in. they came running in, mares calling for their babies and babies calling for moms. the stallions ran around the small pen challenging each other to re-establish the pecking order and to gather up their mares. pretty ponies and cute foals. the really tiny babies didn't have to swim across. they got to ride the ferry!

on the way home, we got up half and hour late and were late getting to the air port. we still might have made our flight, but the tickets were confusing and the major domo traffic director at us air didn't help us out much. we finally figured out that we need to be at the united counter. but by then our flight had gone. we shamedly admitted our ineptitude to the man at the counter and asked nicely if he could help us. he didn't say anything but typed away at the computer. and he got us on the next flight out which would allow us to make our original connections in chicago. he was so helpful, in fact, that he upgraded us to first class on both flights. that was the first time either of us had been in first class....an probably the last. he really didn't have to do that, as there were seats in the other area on both flights. we should have gotten his name and reported him for good service!

fires and men

i haven't met a male yet that doesn't like fire. this fire was tended by every male in our camp.

my sister and her family whisked me off to a lakeside camp in the black hills as soon as i moved into town. even though the elevation is not that great...not like camping in the rockies--it was significantly cooler. had to use hefty sleeping bags inside the camper to keep warm. ...not those wimpy cheap bags you pick up for sleep overs for the kids.

it was warm enough during the day for the kids and their shepherds to swim in the lake. i found out later that the park people hauled in truckloads of sand to make the beach. just right for small groups. we were there before the fourth of july so it was not crowded. being there in the middle of the week helped too.

my nephew --in the picture-- was a cook in the coast guard. he likes to cook, so even though my sister and i were in charge of breakfast, he helped with the eggs taking special orders. lucky for the group, i would have just made scrambled.

my sister and i developed a list of things to always take on a camping/picnic trip even though other people may be in charge.

new friends

after a few weeks, sam decided that it was okay for cc to take a nap in the same space as sam was taking a nap. they chose the new bed downstairs because it was cool, quiet, new, and to be ornery i guess. trying to keep that room cat free, but it is a little difficult when you don't have a door!. will have to wash the bedding just before company comes, and hopefully, we will have doors.

we measured the opening and went to the hardware store in spearfish to get doors. gave them the size and came home with doors. had to take them back as it turns out the door size has to be two inches smaller than the opening. the clerk, though very nice, failed to ask the old ladies the right questions. hopefully we won't have to special order. the guy that framed in the downstairs should have picked a more common size of door. what did we know? he should have known though. it is all in the details.

good news bad news

good news, i have one row of boxes unpacked
bad news, what to do with the empty boxes, want to save them, but where?

good news, car average mileage is now almost 30...was 25 when i started driving
bad news, cost 43 dollars to change oil...synthetic

good news, dennis doesn't have kitty hiv
bad news, sam has kitty hiv-confirmed
good news, he has lived for 12 years, most die when very young
bad news, now have to get cynthia's kitty cc tested for hiv

fourth of july rodeo

belle has the best small town (5000) parade and rodeo on the fourth. the parade has horses and mules...ridden and driven...ponies, little kids on big horses, rodeo queens, politicians in fancy new cars, fire engines, big semis all cleaned up, military stuff, the cowboy band (made of young and old with the very old riding on a flatbed), shriners, alumni classes from the high school(there color is purple), with everybody throwing candy and other goodies at the crowds. one of the pieced of candy hit my glasses and knocked out the loose eye piece. thought i was going to have a black eye!

the city fireworks are on the evening of the third because many families have there own fire works on the evening of the fourth. my sister's sons had fireworks at their dad's place. pretty impressive. not only could we see ours, but there were at least 8 that we could see going on around us. not just roman candles.

side note: found out that my sister's ex's brother bought the old water storage tank on the hill. he is turning it into a house. the walls are like four feet thick. probably doesn't have to spend much on heating or cooling.

belle fourche

after 3 final days of agonizing packing the last of the house...garage & kitchen...and the truck, i have arrived at belle fourche. immediately my sister whisked me away to roubouix lake ( not sure of the spelling) in the black hills for 3 days of camping with her son and his in-laws. now i am working on unpacking.

the first night neither my sister or myself could get cars in the garage. she mentioned something about it would probably hail since both our relatively new cars were outside. it did. we have some little tiny dings in the cars. not sure what we will do about it yet. someone said that if if washed the cars so we could really see where the dings were and then on a really hot, hot day, put ice cubes on the dings that they would pop back out! hmmmmmmm.

well, as soon as her son picks up the washer and dryer in the garage, my sister can get her car, a blazer, in the garage. i am working box by box it get enough room to drive the mini in.

misty dawn

i have been writing names on hundreds and hundreds, and hundreds of transcript plastic holders in preparation for moving files to the conference office since our school is closing. lots of interesting names.

i have never liked my name...means bitter -- if you look now for the meaning it says something about loved, but the original hebrew is bitter.

now my son tells me he doesn't like his name.

my sister's youngest son doesn't like the spelling of his name.

my daughter has the same name as thousands of her generation.

BUT, no one in our family is named misty dawn.

i saw it on a transcript.

kitty bathroom

my son made a practical kitty bathroom out of a toy box. very cool if you live in a small space. i like that the lid opens up for cleaning up. since i am moving into a house that will have three cats, seriously thinking about making one or two.

needs of the soul

i just finished watching a pbs show on the rebuilding of tick hall on montauk point.
in order to satisfy my soul i need to order my life, surround myself with beauty, and live with generosity.

what they did cost much money, but to have beauty and peace in life does not require money, just the right attitude & sensitivity.

loess

i tried to find a bigger map but got tired of searching. i was thinking about loess today because the wind for the last several days has been blowing between 30 and 40 miles an hour pretty constantly. which means top soil is being blown eastward and being deposited somewhere else. the desposits of this fine dust makes up loess hills. there is more in nebraska than i guessed. everyone always mentions the loess hills in iowa along the missouri river and the loess hills in china. so i was surprised to see so much in nebraska. we are probably in the dark red area here. but at the rate the wind is blowing we won't have any left. well it will take a while and at the same time more is blowing in from colorado and western nebraska. loess soil is very fertile.

it is difficult to really compare actual area covered. sorry.

treasures

while packing i keep running into treasures that i have tucked away...and forgotten

a christmas card from 2 years ago from my employer with a 100 dollar bill :) i had added some extra to it. so now i will keep adding for my trip to paris... should open a special savings account, but it is nice to feel it and see it...

a card written by my daughter for mother's day on special green paper ...:)

a little basket for potpourri decorated by my son ...: )

other observations:
like my mother i have a collection of scarves no one else will want. one is a gift from my boy friend in high school....he died from leukemia when i was a junior
i think i have a thing about time... lots of little clocks that i don't use since i now always check my cell for time and date. but i'm not going to throw them away.
i have way too many things. my advice is to think carefully what you collect. once things are in your house the items spin webs of event memories....then it is hard to get rid of them.

dilema

so... i don't whether to be happy or sad that i don't have to worry about anyone looking out for me...that i can take care of myself.

jobs

sometimes i am think that everyone should be forced to change jobs every 5 years or 6. if a person stays at a job any longer than that they start thinking they own the job if not invented it and that no one else can do it as good as they can because they know everything about the job.

long ago i decided that i would do a job or assignment to the best of my ability in the time and space allowed but that i would never OWN the job. when i left or was fired, that was it. there is always someone who can do the job...... maybe worse, maybe better, maybe a lot better. but at that point it is not your job.

i think one of the reasons the school where i am know needed to close is that too many people thought and think (those few that are still here) they own the job. once you think that, it seems that you lose your ability to think outside the box and to be flexible.

so when i leave i will try not to make comments or roll my eyes about what happens. it's not my job anymore. it is so freeing.

just by chance

i just happened to go to dannabrog ... nothing going on in shelton and i thought i should go there before i left nebraska as it is the home of roger welsch who used to be on cbs's sunday morning. so, they were having a tractor meet in the little town of 325. i took lots of pictures. there were not lots of tractors, but they were interesting. i walked around of course, and checked out a couple of stores looking for a souvenir. hopefully something made in dannebrog, or something danish.

the first store had stuff that seemed to be shipped in. but a bought a little old time replica of a wringer washing machine....one dollar. had little seed pearls for bubbles in the machine.

in the next store i found some paper danish christmas harts and stars made by the residents and some straw cones and stars made in sweden. good prices. one dollar for 4 hearts and one dollar for 4 stars . the straw ornaments were 5.

there was also a stack of books by welsch so i bought one. as i was waiting in line (one person in front of me) i spied what i thought might be roger sitting in front of the store. he was probably there when i walked by. i was busy taking pictures of tractors. i asked the store owner if it was roger, he said yes, i asked if he thought roger welsch would mined if i asked for an autograph. the owner said he wouldn't' mind at all. i rather gathered that mr. welsch would enjoy it.

i asked him, and he talked my leg off. i mentioned that my grandfather was a blacksmith....that was why i bought a book on horse trading. mr. welsch not only told me the background of the book but about other blacksmiths he knew. he also talked about helping shoe big horses. etc. he could have told tales all afternoon. but his friendliness is probably how he collects all the tales in the first place.

and he did sign the book.

the train crew

the first picture shows all the crawlers on the track that seem to be checking bolts, fluffing gravel, checking plumb, etc. all i know is that in the spaces you can see the sky through the machines there are men sitting and doing something. behind one of the crawlers another crawler with a magnet was sweeping the gravel for metal something and putting it in a cart.

the other three pictures show a 10 or 12 car set with yellow cars on either end. the cleaner cars seem to be the beginning. but most interesting were the 4 or 5 blackened cars in the middle with strange looking mechanics. you can see through the sets to the sky on the other side. i saw men walk through the openings. there seemed to be two cars where men could work or live and 2 or 3 fuel cars. non of the cars really look like engines but i am sure it moves up and down the track doing something. it must be important because i am guessing the whole thing is very expensive. it reeks money.

graduation

what i learned this year

1. never wear high rise undies with low rise jeans.....sigh (not me!!!! someone else)
2. don't sponsor the senior or junior class at the same time as being registrar
3. triple check everything
4. running away to town with your new fun car doesn't make work go away.....sigh
5. true colors of students rise quickly to the surface when grades are final
6. even though you are graduating...ie four years and retiring .... you are not the star or even a twinkle
7. sticking it out in a dying organization is not always the best choice for everyone, if your young get on your horse and ride out of dodge
8. we are all dysfunctional, some a lot more than others
9. if you can affect someone's future, they are very nice to your face, can't really be friends with those who are dependent on your evaluations
10. young people take technology and many other things for granted ( i learned to type on a manual typewriter and cranked the telephone to make it ring three short and a long instead of speaking a name)

gender bias

as i drive my mini

i can see men mouth the word .....mini .... with a kind of 'that's cool' look as i drive

women say "cute car!" when i pull up to the take out window

old age bias....why won't my telephone work to unlock the doors and change channels on the TV....kirk's communicator did everything!

awards

i hereby award myself an award for having award certificate supplies for teachers available and for making last minute awards for staff without technical finesse.

GOOD JOB!

new and old auto

it was sad to say goodbye to my old friend muffy. we have had all 4 wheels off the ground at once, been on mountain tops, curvy roads, flat plains roads, and through water pot holes. but finally i needed air conditioning for summer--the heat is just to much for me. in colorado i could get by. and i was starting to trip on the lip when i got out. sigh..... so something different.

i was thinking about a yaris or honda... then thinking i will just keep the jeep and get a new top, radio/cd player, get the dent fixed. etc. and buy a golf cart to use around town for groceries and errands.

but then my nephew called and said he had found a mini for me. i had mentioned that what i really wanted was a mini, but didn't have the money for it. but he found a used one...2005 S.

it was more than i wanted to pay, but .............it had air, leather seats, heated seats, cd/radio, sun roof, fog lights, cruise control, .......... it was love at first sight.

my sister and i went shopping with the mini and were able to get our groceries and 4 big flower planters in the back with no problem. for most of our little shopping trips it will be fine. when it is snowy and slippery we will take the blazer. when we go cross country we will take the mini.

now i have bert in the garage. i took bert out today thinking i would drive to gi with it but decided to take the school car since my new insurance isn't quite the right kind for providing taxi service for kids needing to go to town. so what happens!. it hails. but i think it is okay.

trains old and new

On my way to Belle to pick up my "new" car i passed a train with these strange cars. I don't know what was in them, but suspect the contents maybe were parts for the planes that were on the two flatbeds following.

I had not ever seen planes on trains before. Of course, there were no wings!

Earlier that week I had gone with the students to North Platte where we saw an old steam engine. It was so large that it had two separate sets of drive wheels and was articulated. When you look at it from the front it is off center. I don't know exactly how it works. Guess I would have to see a model that actually worked. I have ridden on articulated buses, but it looks like the top part of the train does not bend, only the two bottom parts are articulated.

They had a mail car attached. it was interesting to see all the mail bags and slots.

There was also an old rail bicycle. Instead of two men powering the wheels by pushing a bar up and down, you could ride the rails by "bicycling." I am not sure you can see it all in the picture.

old lady river riding

sabbath afternoon i loaded up 5 of the 6 junior girls and headed to valentine nebraksa. we went through overcast skies, rain, mist, hail, and finally when we close, it lightened up. the weather is so fickle. we thought it was smooth sailing. however, but the time we were driving up a steep road to the top of a bluff over the niobrara it was sprinkling again. you have to picture a big truck....you know the double seats etc, with a horse trailer behind with horse.(trailer could hold at least 3 or 4) plus the obligatory dog in the truck plus the cowboy brother, the girls and the old lady sponsor. the trailer wasn't going to make it up so it was unhitched and the cowboy and his sister(one of the junior girls) alternately drove and rode the horse--dudley.
by the time we were on time we had only a few minutes to enjoy the view before it rained heavy duty. the cowboy road is horse down lickety split leaving the sister drive everyone else down on the slickery up and down road. got stuck on a little rise and had to figure out that it was not in 4 wheel . backed up several times to get a running start but it was no go until it was put in 4 wheel low and then it was no problem. it was right at sunset. the view was pretty while it lasted. we made it safely back to the cabin on the gumbo/sand road.

The next day it was sunny enough and warm enough to go kayaking. we stopped on the way down the river to see the step falls pictured above. it is the perfect river for a beginner and old ladies like myself. most of the time you can touch the bottom with your paddle. there were a few wavy places and one place where there was a whirlpool, but you just had to go around the island on the left and you were home free.

the girls all got sunburned. they wanted to. they were in swimsuits and shorts.

half way back home we ran into rain again. girls didn't care. they were all asleep in the back of the van. no wonder. they slept on the hard deck outside the night before. they only had their sleeping bags. there were soft beds inside. but... well, we were there for the adventure. i didn't need that much adventure. i slept on the bed. inside my sleeping bag. i have done my duty sleeping on hard floors over the years.

muzzle day

started out to work in office, but because of uncertainty went home to do some packing but remembered i need some cortisone so went to town. after returning and having lunch went back to the office and copied some discs, and printed the church bulletin. the people who are in charge are all off campus so had to do calling for information. in the process discovered the maintenance man had already disconnected his phone. talk about checking out early! couldn't reach the cook because there phone is misbehaving. but the bulletin is done. then remembered i needed a waterproof camera for my trip with the juniors to valentine to run down the niobrara. so back to town. principal called. didn't understand that he wanted the cook to call him. i just thought i needed to tell her they were coming back tonight and she didn't need to feed them. so he had to call someone else as i was already in kearney. then i called my sister and found out that we had water on the basement floor. somehow when you water the back yard now, water finds it way in. didn't do it last summer. so it has to do with the remolding that went on downstairs. sigh. did i get any packing done. no. sigh.

bible study dangerous

i usually try to avoid the local bible study. life is calmer if i don't go. but this weekend for some reason i wound up in class. they were studying prophecy. the discussions wandered wildly away from the subject even though the teacher --politely tried to return to the topic again and again. a lot was said about those "californians" and those people who didn't study the prophecies and instead emphasized relationship with GOD. i kept my mouth shut as much as possible. discussion what people wear or not wear to church is a non issue and a waste of time. (not even close to any one of the commandments) but my body paid the price. it kept getting stiffer and stiffer and when i went to get up i twisted weirdly and wound up with a pulled or strained muscle. i have been trying to get rid of the pain since then. so finally, wednesday afternoon i went to the doctor and got some muscle relaxer. i am subbing for a teacher this week besides doing my own classes and it is alumni weekend. i can't be out of commission. i plan to stay away from adult bible study and stay with the youth bible study.

new favorite author

this author has been around for awhile, but i just discovered him. many of his books have 'book" in the title, hence the interest. also, he lives in denver and since i once lived in boulder, i know the places he talks about.

but the best part is his ability to keep me off the the computer, away from the tv and up at night to finish the book!

great mystery writer.

waiting

i hope i don't have to wait too long to pick up my car! anticipation always grows larger the longer the wait and the greater the chance for let down. i thought i might pick it up this weekend, but no such luck. cyn is coming down next weekend for alumni, so maybe if it is in belle she will drive it down although i don't know how the money will get transfered that way or the plates done. i want to get sd plates.

one good thing about waiting is my money gets to make some more interest ...puny as it is.

i keep looking up on the internet to see pictures.

i saw one in kearney the other day and actually saw one in omaha in front of the barnes and noble store. there were 3 jeeps in the parking lot also. real jeeps not those liberty pretend things.

in the hot seat

i cannot seem to cut and past or copy a picture of a mini so i just put a link in (click on the lighthouse). i went and did it. bought a used mini with low mileage. traded my jeep, muffy. i think i will call the mini bertie. it will be the first car i have owned with air conditioning and with an automatic transmission . it gets good mileage and the repair rate is good and it gets a high rating from the 'green' guys. i had to climb in the jeep....now i will have to climb out of the mini. and it has heated seats..... leather. wow!