My buddy Bub

It pays to have friends in high places! This is Bubba - he and Chet have know each other most of their lives. He's an Akron firefighter by trade, but he also does roofs, tiles floors and a whole host of other jobs. He's helping Chet put a new roof on the barn - or more precisely, Chet is helping him. The weather has been pretty hot - but they got a lot done this weekend. Thanks for all your help Bubba!

You Got to Have Friends!

These are two of my best friends, Cathy and Bev. Thanks for being such great buddies!

Porthouse Theater

My friend and I have been season Subsribers to Porthouse for 4 years now (Summer Theater). This year we added another friend to our group. Every production we come out saying that it was the best - we are overwhelmed - how do they keep topping themselves. This year we saw "Dames at Sea", "Our Town" - which blew us away - and last night the season finale of "Jesus Christ Superstar". Well, they did it again, because the show took our breath away. Thank you so much to all the talented people in the world that bring us beauty!

Flat Tire

On the way into work today, I started to hear the characteristic thud of a flat tire. I've never had to change a tire - though I remember Dad expaining how - and I have no intention of doing so. It's so great to have Chet around. I called him up and he came to fix the tire without ever having to take it off of the vehicle. He is so handy! On this truck he has to carry his air compressor - on the old one it was part of the truck and he only had to pull out the hose. Even if he hadn't been available - I know Carl would have come and changed it for me. I cannot begin to tell you how much I appreciate that!

You Know you are getting older

When you start taking day trips on a bus. We had a great time today in Pittsburgh on the Three Rivers Tour. The rivers are the Allegheny and Monongahela which merge to become the Ohio. The picture of the fountain is at the spot were the three come together - it is call the Golden Triangle. The Monangahela is one of only 2 rivers that flow north - but before the glaciers rearranged our world, all of the rivers east of the Mississippi flowed north (I'm not sure about the ones west of the Miss.) The top picture on the right shows one of two inclines still in the city - there used to be alot more used to move coal. Pittsburgh has 500 bridges - more that any city other than Venice. It is also within 500 miles of over 1/2 of the US population. As we watched the shores go by, we listened to a live band playing Ray Charles music. It was great. I have never been to Pittsburgh before - and I left feeling that I would like to go back and see some of the neat sites along the river banks. Next trip!

This is me with my friend and then Kathy with our driver Herb

Stuck in the mud

Yesterday Chet took down the tree whose branch had fallen on our barn, so today he and Carl were cleaning up all the branches. He was pulling a chipper with his truck and decided to circle around the back of the yard to get at some more branches. With all of the rain we have been having, the ground was so slick he couldn't get back up the hill. Well, you know they were desperate when they asked for my help. He had to chained both the H and the C to the truck to get it moving. I drove the truck while they drove the tracters. Goes to show that new doesn't necessarily mean better - both IH tractors were built in the early 50's and the truck is a "Super Duty Ford" only a couple years old. I wanted to take a picture, but he wouldn't let me!

Support your local library

As a member of the Friends of the Brimfield Library, I participated in our sidewalk sale of used books Saturday and we raised $275.00. We are just a small group supporting a small library but we have paid for kite makers and zoo programs, sponsored authors to speak, purchased shelves and are looking at locked cabinets. Some of our members have dressed up in costumes and others have made cookies (not me!) Our library serves a lot of people who might not bother to drive into town and though it may not seem like much, we try to do our part. Even little things can make the world a better place

Unless it's a dog desparate to get out, I sleep through just about everything. So last night as I was sleeping I thought it strange that what sounded like garbage cans falling over would wake me up. I groggily wondered if it was the rain, or if we had a racoon trying to get at our trash. Well, it must have been the sound of aluminum snapping as a tree branch hit it. It could have been alot worse, though. It didn't hit the house, or more of the garage roof. Shortly after we moved here Chet insisted that we have the trees limbed, and even with the company discount, it was pretty expensive. I have been grateful before that we did it - but this is the most obivius example.