How to Blow a Sunday Morning

All is quiet and I have had a most pleasurable Sunday morning, doing exactly what I wanted. Nobody awake, Ron in Portal, CBS Sunday Morning is over and the Sunday morning paper is history. I settled on the couch with my trusty Dell and started a languorous Sunday surf of the Web.

These surfs are rapid during the week where time is of the essence and it seems there are 101 things to do or 101 things left undone. But Saturdays and Sundays are different. My first hit was to see if the newly acquired site New Old Age Blog had an update. I recently stumbled upon this while reading something else in the New York Times. So far it seems good. And after all I am in the business of old people, not to mention in personal pursuit of...

Seeing there were no recent updates I though I would go to the home page of the Times looking for other goodies to read. This was my find: Growing Up Buckley in the Sunday Times Magazine. It is a wonderful read by Christopher Buckley,the only child of ultra conservative columnist, essayist and opinionated William F. and Pat Buckley. In the fifties William F. founded the The National Review and later hosted television's "Firing Line" for what seemed like an eternity. This missive is taken from the younger Buckley soon to be published book.


Christopher writes of his newly acquired parent less status and the wild ride of being their child. At 55 he was "orphaned" in 2007 and 2008. Buckley the son tells of hugely witty events as well as tearful tender moments involving these two interesting people he calls Mum and Pup. Chris is a delightful humorist and writer; it is well worth the time (it is rather lengthy by Internet standards) it takes to stumble over the big words (japery - a new fave!) He comes by his verbosity rightly so, William F. was also noted for uncommon word usage.

Now the patient wait. The full course book is due out next month.

Over the Top

What is this woman thinking?? Doesn't anyone stop her at the door with a firm but friendly, "No no no no Michelle you're the First Lady now; this kind of crap was okay for the old days, but not now! You're going to get lobbed by the critics for another huge fashion faux pas."

She possibly could have flown under the radar with the sweater, blouse, and slacks. But the belt?? It doesn't even serve purpose if she were to have a hernia. I am irritated enough now just to let the stupid bow tied blouse alone.

Areial Updates

On Saturday Ron and I went for our overdue fly to check on water. The water is now causing a ruckus further downstream. Lots of these shots are downstream from Velva, in my old neighborhood and east.

Any commentary precedes the photo



Erik and Nicki's place now. Myles and I established this place in 1980 after the flood years of the 70's. It is quite high and dry!



Lawrence Nelson's place. This is where my mother-in-law Lillian grew up. Her brother is Lawrence so the place is still in the family. His son Harry set up shop and house on the dry hillsides as well.





The following two pictures are of the Espeseth home place, where Myles and I lived the first six years of our marriage. Three of those years were big floods.




We lived in the house on the right edge of the photo. It was a log house built in 1897. It was cool in the summer and cold in the winter unless you never left home and kept the fires going.




The meadow road goes straight and then makes a 90 degree turn to end up where it is dry. During the 70's floods we had steel posts marking the road and we went in and out on a tractor. (no cab in those days) We also had a speed boat parked out by the mailbox and would motor over to where we kept the vehicles.




If you double click on the photos you should see the picture in a larger format.

18 Days Old

I spent part of my Saturday afternoon holding my little granddaughter Mercedes. She is 18 days in these pictures. She doesn't much care for the world when she wants to sleep. I have yet to score an awake photo. Just means I'll have to visit more.

The Elements of Style

Fifty years ago today a teeny, weeny book hit the market that is still in use today, just not as vehemently as in years past. "The Elements of Style" or also known as "the little book," was primarily used in the college classroom as a resource for writing and composition. It was written by William Strunk, Jr. in 1918. The little book was privately printed by Mr. Strunk himself in an effort to "cut the vast tangle of English rhetoric down to size." His heralding cry was: Omit needless words!

Later in 1957 E.B. White, (yes, E.B. of Charlotte's Web fame) who was a student of Mr. Strunk's, was commissioned by Macmillan & Company to revise the homemade ditty for the college market. So henceforth (it must have taken him two years!) we have another birthday to celebrate. The Elements of Style. I myself need to invest some serious study time into this tome.

In the meantime, I will rely on my good and smart friend Karlyn to exorcise me from bad habits, bad spelling and bad grammar. She has been instructed to reprimand me repeatedly: never let up. My mother used to comment when I flubbed, "Mary Elizabeth that was a glaring error!" It usually involved the improper use go, went and gone. Both my mother and Karlyn paid attention in school. I, on the other hand, focused too much on the social element.

I found this card the other day and had to give it to Karlyn. But it needed to be shared on the blog on this momentous anniversary day. The card also keys into my style of grammar just a wee bit more.



Mary Liz, once again, relying on Karlyn for the correct answer. Thanks Karlyn! P.S. she hasn't told me yet.

Updates

Just a few updates:

The Doug and Emily Johnston's have evacuated their home. They may not have floodwater on the main floor but without power and septic it is tough to live there. When we moved out in '76 and '79 it was because we didn't have power or water - they came from my in laws across the yard. They had to leave when their basement filled.

Hildre's have lost their first dike around their farmyard. Today they were adding to the house dike to save their home.

Minot is to crest today and it will be about 2 days for the crest to arrive in Velva.

They have downgraded the weather, not the precipt anticipated, but still rainy weather.


The road to Karlsruhe (local vernacular: "The Lake Hester Road") has been sandbagged shut. That is needed to complete the diking system on the east side of Velva. Our champion nurse Connie will have to swim to work. I don't doubt for a minute that she would if it meant getting to work! We should all be that devoted.

A Little Fly

Today the weather was really nice, with highs in the 50's and no wind. The wind item is what makes and breaks this state. Our wind is like the little girl with the little curl in the middle of her forehead... When she is good she is very very good and when she is bad, she is horrid.

With a beautiful day underway Ron and I decided to go for a little fly. I had wanted to go up with my camera and see the water that is starting to develop into quite a problem around these here parts. And Ron always is eager for me to go flying with him.

So we have some area flooding photos. The crest isn't until about Friday - after we have three days of rain showers now in the forecast.

Remember if you want to have a closer look, double click on the photo and it will fill your screen. Arrow back to return to blog. You can really see some detail when you do this.

Meet your flight crew:







Heading East along the Mouse River:













Two places along Highway 52, near Velva










East of Velva where Carsten and his buddies were sandbagging.

Happy Easter

The Strife is O'er, the battle done;
Now is the victor's triumph won!
Now be the song praise begun.
Alleluia! Alleluia!

Lutheran Book of Worship
Palestrina/Koln

Easter Blessings to all. We have two special grandchildren who will be celebrating their first Easter.

Beau Davis Reid



Mercedes Anna Peterson-Espeseth



May they have many many Easters to celebrate the miracle of our risen Lord, and know that because of Him they have eternal life.

Happy Easter to all, and especially to these new babies.

Hair

Yes indeed it is all about hair!

My Take on Facebook

I jumped on the Facebook concept last week and I am still a little mystified at myself as well as the entire setup, for lack of a better description. Is it something I truly need in my over crowed, underachieved, anarchic world?

I am a known collector of crapola: stuff, projects, weight, ideas - some rather grandiose I might add. You name it and I have touched on it, or at least in thought. Now another venue to suck up my time. (Bear with me, this is almost cathartic and I may stumble upon an answer)

The first few days were pretty exciting as I was exploring the way it worked. The techie girl was surfacing: how much can I figure out without reading directions, random clicking and double clicking. I think I have it down now. But still wonder if the whole world can read certain entries or do some things go directly to the intended viewer/"friend." Given my opinionated comments, I should find out before too long. Somebody will get a splash of me not intended. This could result in friend revocation, is there such a thing?

Late Breaking New: This am (4-9)Facebook welcomed its 200 millionth user. Maybe I should have waited, there could have been a noteworthy prize in my future.

Now this deal about "friends." You need to invite/ask someone to be your friend, or they request you as a friend. What happens if they fail to respond, for whatever reason? Will I need a therapist on speed dial? I feel I have finally put my grade school years behind me. The years of one week you're cool and the next week you're snake venom with crooked bangs and corrective shoes. This could set me up for a relapse. Maybe I am the only one on the planet who took those tender years to heart.




I guess I will have to see if I can tough out the Facebook lifestyle. If I just fade away from the royal blue site, you can be sure I took it too much to heart.

OOh

I know a potential train train wreck when I see one, and Michelle Obama is running on loose track. What is is with this getup? This smacks of getting chilly and grabbing the only sweater available, carelessly flung on the back of a chair. You know the look, your mother did it and now you have done it once or twice. This argyle ribboned up nightmare doesn't even fit well. Color, I'll give her a 5, it matches the dress.



I knew the dress on the night of victory was trouble and (remember the Halloween remake?)set the stage for the next four years, now I have backup. Bonnie Fuller, a noteable blogger of the Huffingtonpost couldn't agree more. She spoke of the "meet the queen" outfit looking more like a PTA mom outfit. Had it been in a light color I would have thought of June Cleaver.

I am not smart enough to follow Obama politics but I do like to jump on an occasional fashion band wagon. So for the next four years I will be focusing more on Michelle. I am what I am.

Another Prom

Karlie went to the Velva Prom last night with Michael Bonn. It was unbelievably crowed with spectators. In a small town everyone comes out to see the festive prom goers. And besides almost everyone is related to someone so there is a family connection as well.





Girls having fun.







Velva tradition is the initial formal grand march, then the second time around it is bedlam. Clothes get swapped, out come the goofy glasses, and the fun takes over. Each year it gets a little whackier.









The End!

Photo Montage