Weather Watch

My pickup is thirteen years old and answers to the name of Lizzie. When we brought her home, I figured for sure that this was the last new Chevy, or for that matter, new anything I would own. Now I’m not so sure. Just for kicks I sat in one of those new Dodge Rams and they are pretty nice. As a side note, my Dad used to call every vehicle he drove ‘Lizzie’, so I do too. Anyway, Marianne and I are still a long way from agreeing on whether or not we even need a new or different vehicle, let alone deciding what kind to get and what we can afford.

This talk about pickups reminds me of a couple of jokes I saw on the internet. The first one was about two tow truck drivers who were discussing the aerodynamic styling on the new Chevys. “Yeah,” one of them said, “I get much better gas mileage when I’m towing one of those sleek new Chevys.”

Then there was the meeting of the county commissioners where they decided to raise the speed limit. The new signs said: “SPEED LIMIT 60 MPH. Fords, Do The Best You Can.” Hey, I don’t care what your favorite kind of truck is, that second joke is pretty darn funny.

I’m happy and excited about the eye surgery that I went through. They removed cataracts on both eyes, the first eye on October 23rd and the second eye on October 30th. Everything went according to the plan. I felt good and I stopped staring at the sun. Then late last week, I turned on the computer to check on my email. My eyes felt okay, but everything on the computer was blurry and just hard to read through my old $5 drug store glasses. I took them off and was going to give them a good cleaning when I glanced at the computer screen. Wow! For just an instant, I could identify with the blind people in the Bible who had their sight restored by Jesus. I could see every word and every individual letter. It’s pretty early in the game but I think I may become one of those strange people who take their glasses off so they can read the small print.

Did everyone make the transition back to CST (Central Standard Time) okay? That’s the one Saturday night of the year when I am able to plan to stay up late and still regain the hour of sleep I lost last spring (at least in theory). The reality is that my right hand doesn’t seem to know what my left hand is doing. Not only did I purchase the fireman’s tickets for their annual fund raiser, about a week later I also bought tickets to see country star Joe Diffie up in Mitchell at the Corn Palace. Of course, both events took place on the same night. We opted to go to the Corn Palace. The Firemen always have a nice party, but I really am a big Joe Diffie fan, and he didn’t disappoint. If there was one thing I would complain about, it would be that the music was way too loud or maybe I’m just getting old.

We went down to Crofton to see how Riley made out on Halloween with his NASCAR costume. He did alright. His Mom has sorted things out so that he has to eat some of the older candy from the parades this summer before he gets a piece or two of the fresh stuff. Usually Grandpa would be glad to pitch in and help him eat his candy, but we have a problem of our own. On Wednesday night, I was at the table working and Marianne was reading. About 7:30 it hit me that our door bell hadn’t rung once. We forgot to turn on the porch light, and now we have lots of candy of our own. I can’t believe we had no kids at all that came to our door, especially since our neighbor had 13.

Slowly, very slowly the bean harvest is getting done and quite a bit of corn also, but there is a long way to go. We are going to have some of the coldest weather of the fall this week, with highs in the upper thirties, and lows around 20, give or take. For precip, maybe some snow flurries on Thursday.