We are on the brink of August and I am not finished with many summer things.  But I just keep on watching TV and playing on the computer instead of doing them. I have noticed companies  are using lots of babies and puppies in ads these days. Sure, they are cute; however I now have four grand-dogs,( two in Kansas), and I think they are probably way up there on the cute meter. I have grand-cats too, but they could care less what I think.
This was a fairly cool summer so far. Son Chris's first summer was way cooler. That was the summer we had moved to a cottage on Winona Lake . My dad had a really jazzed up raft, called "Winnie The Poo" on Center Lake. He and my brother,K, had built it from scratch and tricked it out with a tower and ladder, diving board and flying pennant . Anyway, he  thought it would be fun to put it on Winona from fourth of July through the rest of the summer , for obvious reasons. It was parked at our lakefront and we probably used it five or six times. I think it was so drizzly and windy on the fourth and most other week-ends that no one thought it was worth the trouble. We did take the kids  out on it but they had to be so bundled up they were unhappy. The next summer it was back on Center parked at the very same lot we later bought and where we built this house.

Fourth of July 2017
 As you may have, I woke up late and had only Oolong tea until noon. The reason being that I got the midnight munchies last night. 
It is a stellar day for weather. Went out to the herb garden at 11:30 while the herb oils were still up in the plants and cut the first time this year. Besides oregano    (The Golden Greek) for drying, I cut parsley and basil for cooking fresh.
Mostly watching Book T V, "tv for serious readers".
Reading family history from my aunt Anna's 1941 diary. She is seventeen and spending summer in Detroit  with her brother, Doyle's family. She is a big help to them and totally unaware that this country was on the brink of the second world war. That forth of July she was very happy that they were all going to her grandpa Rapps to see her brother Wayne who is home on furlough from the Army.

Ok ...I'm trying to get back into bloging even though my computer does not see the need.
It is the last few days of school here so things will be more active in this neighborhood shortly.
I remember those last few school days and what I felt was the useless encumbering of my time. Gazing out the open window at the blooming bush whose fragrance was wafted through   the room with each slight breeze expanded the torture of enduring the never ending period..
Miss Love,(typing), was standing there summing up the importance of what she thought she had taught us. Since I am typing this by the touch method, I'm admitting she was probably right. 


 

Today is Chuck Norris' birthday. Alexa has been issuing "Chuck Norris facts" all day.  My favorite was :" When Chuck Norris gets pulled over on the highway, he lets the officer go with just a warning."

Last Friday daughter Grace went to a nursing home to visit  her long-time friend. When she entered the place she could hear singing coming from the dining/activities area. They were singing " I got a brand new pair of roller skates; you got a brand new key". Of course! They were from that generation  that used a skate key. We all had sidewalk scabby knees back then.
This time of the year when I was in early teen years we would go to the roller skating rink. It was on rd.15  across from the Crystal Dairy Bar. The building looked like a war surplus Quonset hut with a hardwood floor installed. We used rented shoe skates and I remember I would be so excited I often went home with a sick headache. The worst was just after Christmas when I had received a bottle of "Evening in Paris" cologne and used it liberally. 
Aargh!!!
 .

This is First Friday in downtown Warsaw, In.  The Ice artists are on almost every corner with huge blocks of ice and chain-saws.  It's 25 degrees at six and going down to  9 tonight...not like when they did this last week in Niles Mi. and it was 50 degrees in Michiana.  So no big rush to see the results as they will keep. 

I'm playing a lot of memorable Christmas songs this Christmas.
When "White Christmas" by Irving Berlin first came out I was about nine years old. After going to the movies to see Bing Crosby perform it my cousins and I would act it out using the stairs as theater seats in that cold hallway of the house on Center Street. It was in that house there came a new baby sister and the next Christmas K and I got to go to sleep under the Christmas tree. 
One of those Christmases, in that rented house,  mom's niece, Betty Jean Peterson got us the new "Nutcracker" record album by Spike Jones (our introduction to the classics).  We never got over it.!