Three rather odd photos... in These titles mean nothing.

… and whatever else I can think of to put here.

You want the photos first? So you can just see how odd they are and then move on to more interesting people?

I don’t mind.

Here they are:

First is a top view of one of my sad surviving lupines in the roadside former garden.

Next is a an actual roadside dandelion in full seed.

And finally a truly odd picture of a gallon milk jug full of water in the kitchen sink. It’s one a saved from the jaws of Gracie so I could use it to water my deck flowers.

Ok, now that we have that out of the way, I can go on with more talk about me.

I had a very lazy week. I did nothing. Plus I took a lot of naps.

I pretty much did no walking. My fitbit numbers are abysmal. (Only one S in abysmal. Who knew? Not me till I googled it with two S’s and it told me there was only one. Now we all know. At least for as long as it takes me to type this line. And close the parenthesis.)

Hans spent the week with us, rusticating with the home folks. He had a good time even if I only made him go for a walk once. We went across the creek and looked at the soybeans one of the nights when I took fewer than normal naps.

Hans’ family has gone camping. But before they left we all went to a Loggers game. Monday night the Loggers played the Kalamazoo Growlers. It was a very exciting game. The Loggers were ahead the whole time. In fact it was a shut out. Toward the end the announcer announced that if it were a shut out - meaning the other teams did not score - Poor Growlers - then we would all get a coupon for a free Kwik Star Glazer doughnut. So guess what? The crowd started chanting, “Doughnuts! Doughnuts!”. loudly and repeatedly. Earlier the Loggers made a double play - getting two outs on one play - so we had two for one root beer floats for the remainder of the inning. And most exciting of all:
Will and Katie got to carry the inning announcement sign all the way across the front of the stands - from first to third base. Here’s a bad pic.

There were a lot of high fives. And Will got a new cap.

I took the Buick to a new mechanic and got it a new used water pump and a new used switch for the driver side automatic window. He charged almost nothing. It was embarrassing. He was also very good to us when we needed a car for John to drive when he was sick. His last pleasure was a daily drive. When he couldn’t do that any more, everything was over. The car he had been driving’s transmission went bad. We hated to spend much money because we didn’t know what was coming. Someone at work sent us to this guy. I said I’d like a car for around a thousand dollars. He sold me one for six fifty. It was a nice car, had good air conditioning. But.... It stranded my husband in Bluffton. I got a call at work to go get him. I had to look up Bluffton on the map to see where to go. I found them all. The little car was trucked back to the car guy. After a week I called him and asked how it was doing. He said we could come pick it up. So we did. I got home and waited. No husband. After a while someone brought him home. The car had quit again. Someone - not sure which of us - called and told the car guy to pick it up himself He did. He told us it had an obscure electrical problem that he couldn’t fix. He offered us the Bonneville - which became the Shark. We had to pay a little more money, but not a lot. My husband drove the Shark and then I drove it. And drove it. Till it was condemned for falling off wheels.

DAmn. It’s kind of hard to follow a story like that.

I’m still reading and enjoying An American Tragedy. We’ve moved from being a bell hop in a fancy hotel to the shrinking basement of a collar factory. Dreiser makes a sincere and fairly successful effort to write about work, about the society of work, the levels and satisfactions of it. I appreciate it. I’m now at about page 200 or the 700 pages. I’m enjoying every word.

Reading at work is a good thing. I have several short breaks to absorb a small amount. I look forward to each little spell of reading. I like to read books from my past. I am both the same person and a different person than when I read the book before. I found myself admiring Dreiser for living in his book, for living in my mind as well. I am grateful I can take him with me for the rest of my life. I regret that it will end. The book will end. My life will end. We only live as long as we can remember.

It’s been a gray day here. I’ve stayed in the house. I’m barefoot and still not exactly dressed. I need to do a bit of housework. I need to burn trash and clear off the table and catch up on two days of mail. I need to do laundry. And I need to sweep. I could stand to take a bath and wash my hair. I’m thinking of sloppy joes for supper. First I’ll have to find the frying pan. But I have a pretty good idea where it is.

Tomorrow we plan to take Hans to meet his family. There is a place off the interstate north of Lacrosse called Brice Prairie. It borders Great River Bluffs State Park. Maybe we can meet them all there. The last Loggers game we can go to is tomorrow too so maybe we will get there too. It’s funny when the season is almost over there is more urgency to attending. It’s always that way. Beginnings and endings. The middle doesn’t matter as much. It does of course, but it’s easier to ignore. Easier to coast through.

Have a good rest of the weekend, friends. Be good. Have fun. Don’t eat too many carbs. Take the dogs for a walk. Sure. It’s easy for me to say.