Here it is the end of October. The heat and drought of the summer seems so far away now that the days are cooler. It rained most of last week, enough to make a dent in the rainfall deficit for the year. It still amazes me how quickly the ground soaks up the water. Normally when the fall rains start we don’t dare drive across the yard to Pauline’s. Even with several inches of rain the ground has been solid enough not to worry about miring up.
LISTENING TO A HERO. This year East Robertson High School offered Military History as an elective course. Their assistant principal and I had talked about the class, and I told him about Mr. Krantz. The school invited him to speak to a couple of classes on Tuesday. His wife, Vicki, and Mom joined us for lunch before he spoke. He had never before talked to high school students, but I believe he captivated his audience. I have heard pieces of his story, but I had never heard everything from start to finish in one sitting. What is sad to me is that my kids will probably never hear first-hand accounts from him or other World War II vets. By the time they’re old enough to appreciate the sacrifices and heroism the opportunity will be gone.
TOO BAD IT WASN’T APRIL 1. My mom is one of those women who has a standing weekly appointment with the hair dresser. Every so often she’ll tell us some “interesting tip” she has read in a magazine while sitting under the hair dryer. Thursday she read that insufficient iron might contribute to thinning hair.
Now at the age of 41, I do not have a serious balding problem, but I am thinner at the crown of my head than I was 20 years ago. (Now gray hair is a whole other issue but mixed with red I just look kind of blonde now.) With this in mind, Mom called the house. Vicki happened to answer and in their conversation she mentioned this and suggested that I get some iron pills and pop one every so often.(She said a daily dose might be too much.) If you are reading this in stunned disbelief then you are having the same reaction Vicki and I did.
Knowing we really didn’t need to let this one go without getting a little mileage on it, I called Kenny (whose hair is much thinner than mine). I told him what Mom had said and suggested he do whatever he imagined with it. Well, he played it to the hilt and called Mom, groaning as if he was feeling terrible. He said to her he had heard that iron was a cure for balding and that he had licked an iron bar all day and now his stomach was hurting. He wondered if she had anything he could take for it. Mom immediately (after she and Aunt Mar had lifted him up in prayer) called us telling all about Kenny, even wondering if he had lead poisoning now, and frantic to tell me not to get any iron pills as they could make me sick. Never suspecting anything between us and Kenny, she had fallen for it hook, line and (iron) sinker. We have been laughing about this all weekend.
In the interest of trying to keep the score even, I must admit that this morning as I was getting dressed for church I absent-mindedly clipped my ID badge from work on my belt. I wore it around church for quite a while. Kenny (of all people) was the one who called my attention to it.
A GOOD LAUGH AT WORK. I have said before that I am blessed to work with the people I do, people I think of as friends. While we take our jobs seriously we don’t take ourselves that way. Our new office situation, while nice to have a place to call home, is not ideal. For example, the only route to one of the bathrooms is through my office. Because this is the only facility on that end of the building we have labeled it for both genders with a sign that reads “Knock First.”
Jeff, the biggest cut up of the crew, makes a big production of knocking when he needs to answer nature’s call. One day I was at my desk watching the show and as he opened the door I screamed to make him think someone was inside which startled him. It has become a running joke.
We have a new colleague, Nicole, who started with us right after Fall Break. Sherri was giving her the tour of the office. I happened to be in the bathroom as she was showing her where the facility was located. I could hear her approaching the door telling about knocking first and the joke Jeff and I have started, even mimicking my scream. That’s when she opened the door WITHOUT KNOCKING and I screamed from inside. The sound of them squealing and their feet scurrying away was humorous. Their faces which were still red when I came out.
FASHION SENSE. Vicki and Jenna went shopping yesterday. Vicki bought Jenna some new shoes. Showing the shoes to the rest of us when she got home she told her brothers, “These are fashion shoes.” Perplexed Nate observed, “But they don’t light up.”
Joe
