It’s still hot and dry. We got a nice shower since I last wrote, but in spite of that everything is starting to show the signs of drought now.
VBS. Our lives have revolved around Vacation Bible School this week (Sunday through Thursday evenings). Our theme this year was SonForce Kids Special Agents which was sort of a take off from a spy “007” idea. We averaged 210 in attendance. The content focused on several old testament characters and traits they exhibited. Vicki taught third grade this year. I worked some this week so I only had time to do one video. We have posted the video on the church web site. You will need QuickTime installed to see it, and, at almost 90 MB, a faster connection than dial-up.
SETTLING IN. At work we are settling into our new office. I think I mentioned before that our building used to be the old First National Bank building where Aunt Mar worked when I was a boy. Even after all these years I can still visualize Aunt Mar working at her desk by the big windows facing Fifth Avenue. There must have been several times when Mom and I were coming to town and had to stop for the traffic light at Fifth and Main and I could look over and see her at work.
The bank built that building sometime during Aunt Mar’s 25 year tenure with them (the original building stands across Fifth Avenue from our new office building). I mention all this because the history of this site relates to me in another way. A hotel used to stand where our office building now stands. When Dad returned home from World War II he and his oldest sister, Emma, opened a restaurant, The Corner Grill, in that hotel building. I have no idea how long they operated that business, but Aunt Emma died in 1949 so I’d say Dad probably didn’t keep it long after that.
The Circuit Court Clerk formerly occupied the space that is our new office, and while I understand the public’s confusion if they haven’t heard of the move it is really quite funny just how many people come to pay their fines and don’t read the signs. On top of that, they don’t want to believe us when we tell them the clerk has moved. But then, we occupied our old office space for over ten years. It used to be the old Health Department and we still got people come in there to get shots as recently as this spring.
MY, HOW FAR WE’VE COME! While cleaning out our office for the move I ran across an old TRS-80 Model IV. Those were new when I was in high school. Being no different from kids today, our favorite things to do on those computers was to play games. So, I brought the unit home and dug out my old disks from high school to play the games I had for old time’s sake. Vicki and I had to laugh at the kids. They were all excited to see something new come into the house, but after about 30 seconds of a green and black text display and no sound they drifted back into the study to play something more up-to-date.
GETTING A BUZZ. Vicki took the boys to Mrs. Judy for haircuts and they got buzzed about as short as I keep my hair this time. Boy, do they look different! It was when Vicki went to pay that she discovered she didn’t have any money or a check so we had to run by later in the day to pay her. When we pulled back into her driveway Ben asked, “Hey, what are we doing back here?” Without missing a beat Vicki said, “Mrs. Judy didn’t take enough off the first time so we brought you back so she could finish the job.” The poor boy, realizing he didn’t have much hair left to cut, was horrified and wailed, “No, no, I don’t want to be bald!!”
REWARDED! I reported back in February that Nate was done with pull-ups and had begun sleeping in underwear. He regressed. During the day he has been fine but nighttime has been hit and miss so much that we put him back in pull-ups out of self-defense. We kept telling him that if he could be dry seven mornings in a row we would go to Chuck E. Cheese’s. I am proud to say Nate pulled that off yesterday! We are hoping the habit will stick this time and we can truly be done with diapers.
FUNERAL ARRANGEMENTS. Our trip to Chuck E. Cheese’s actually started at Ci Ci’s because we like their pizza better. Ben was so excited about the next stop that he didn’t eat much lunch. We kept telling him to eat but he wouldn’t do it so by the time we were driving home he was getting hungry again. When we told him he’d have to wait until we got home to snack he started getting dramatic on us, telling us he was so hungry he was going to die. We offered to sing at his funeral. I also asked if he wanted daisies on his grave and then Vicki gave him the option of roses. We thought we had picked a little too hard and made him mad because he didn’t answer. But about 30 seconds later, after really thinking about it, he spoke up and said, “Roses, I guess.” It’s a wonder we haven’t traumatized the poor kid. Oh, he also wants Silent Night sung at the memorial service.
LEAD TEETH. Nate came in wanting help to sharpen a pencil. After we had done this he looked at the pencil point and exclaimed, “It’s got a new tooth! It lost its other one.”
PASSED INSPECTION. Jackie called me the other day to tell me the steam engine passed its boiler inspection and is fit for operation at the Threshermen’s Show next month (July 20-21). He went on to say there would be five steam engines there this year. There have only been two engines present for the last several years so this is a great thing for the show. If you are in the area you might want to consider braving the heat and coming out to see everything they have to offer this year.
Joe
