Weather Watch

We were cruising along through the summer and fall of this year until we came to October. To me, that is when time slowed down to a crawl. I think it was because there were Halloween Decorations out starting in September, and it just took forever to get to Halloween. Marianne doesn’t do too much decorating until Christmas, but we still enjoy driving around town to see what others have done for October 31st.

My grandson from Crofton was over on Sunday afternoon and his Mom and Grandma fixed him up to look like a NASCAR driver with all of the decals and patches on his racing coveralls. I hope he has a big bucket or two to hold all of the candy that is coming his way. That is a really nice outfit that he has.

I have to get this little joke typed up before I forget. What do they call a Spanish boy with a rubber toe? That would be Roberto, of course. There, now I feel better.

There are lots of good organizations in town, both in Scotland and Wagner, and at the top of the list are the respective Rotary Clubs. Sure, it sometimes takes some effort to attend the meetings, and sometimes you might get a job if you’re a member, but there are times when being a member is really worth it. Last Thursday was a good example. Most of you know that of the many good projects that Rotary embraces, the quest to eradicate polio from the world is a top priority. Last week was a time to stop and take stock on the progress we are making. As part of the discussion on the topic, we invited a polio survivor to speak to us at our noon meeting.

Our speaker was a lady from town named Mary Jo Halverson. What a powerful presentation she gave and life story she told. At first she apologized for not writing down a few notes, but then she started speaking, and every word came from the heart. I’m old enough to remember when there was no vaccine for polio and being diagnosed with the disease felt almost like a death sentence. Mary Jo said that the vaccine was available but that she was too young (less than a year old) to receive it. “I don’t recall ever living without polio,” she said, “so I guess you can’t miss something you’ve never had.” What a neat way of looking at things from a very neat lady.

I promised an update on the cataract surgery we talked about. Everything went just about as advertised. The preparation time was way longer than the surgery itself, and everything was non eventful. They said I was supposed to be awake for the entire procedure, then they gave me an extra pillow, piped in some soft music and the next thing I knew, they were wheeling me back to the waiting room.

I hope the next one on my right eye is also uneventful. That surgery is supposed to happen about 2 PM next Tuesday. When all is said and done, I may or may not need glasses any more. If I were a betting man, I would go with the odds that favor new and different glasses for me.

George Strait sings a song about riding in as ‘a Young Troubadour’ and riding out as ‘an Old Troubadour.’ That pretty much describes the way I feel these days. I’m going to try and stay in the saddle until the end of December. That will be time for my last onion forecast. Then I’ll let some youngster with their new fangled wooly worm or walnut shell forecast take over. In the meantime, we’ve got to get this harvest out. How will that happen? One of the ladies that reads this stuff told me, “You know, Ken, the last Friday in October was very nice, and that means November will also be nice.” Why, this stuff almost writes itself !