An update of our lives the last two weeks. As we enjoyed a foreshadowing of autumn temperatures one week and a cruel return to hot and dry temps the next, we moved from August to September just like that!
The City of Columbia has made all of their bus routes
free from August 21st until the end of September. Now that we are a one-car-family, Steve and I
thought it might be useful to check out the new bus system. It is a rather complicated arrangement and it
took me the better part of an hour the day before just to figure out which bus
to take and when/where to transfer at the correct time. And, still we had difficulties. First thing Monday morning, August 24th, we
started out walking to our initial pick-up point (Elise had the day off so she
joined us) and….. we missed the bus by less than a minute! I was still new at
reading the virtual bus locator app I had downloaded onto my phone and we also
failed to gauge how long it would take us to walk to the corner of Blue Ridge
and Oakland Gravel. SO, we walked back
home and recalculated. Forty-five
minutes later, we caught a different bus that ran closer to home and away we
went – riding and transferring our way around Columbia from 9:30 to 3:30.
We stopped at Lucky’s Market for lunch,
which
took longer than planned - thanks to the wonky ordering system at their deli - and that called for another re calibration. We ended our day of riding completely
exhausted! Who would have thought that
sitting would be so tiring???
Our
assessment of the whole venture: taking
the bus will be a last resort. So far,
after three weeks of having just the truck, it has worked out fine.
On our Tuesday morning bike ride around a nearby
neighborhood, a beautiful Golden Retriever adopted us. He followed us all the way home. He willingly went into our back yard so we
could call Animal Control. Trissy and
Bones had to check him out and he was very sweet.
He had a collar but no tags. I checked back with Animal Control later that
week to see if he had been claimed and the answer was no! No tags, no microchip, nothing. But, I am sure he will be an easy adoption
now that they have turned him over to the Humane Society. Just not by me – too much hair!!!
Also on Tuesday, we got a new couch. Well, it is used but new to us. It has a few claw scratches from it's previous owner's dogs but they are hardly noticeable and it is PERFECT for our three-dog house.
I took care of my friend’s cats a while back when she
went to visit the Iowa State Fair and, to thank me, she took me to lunch on
Wednesday, the 23rd. She has
lived in Columbia for six years and had never visited Shelter Gardens so we
went there after eating. So beautiful! She was impressed.
I went out to lunch AGAIN on Friday – back to Lucky’s (it
is centrally located) – with the members of Prairie Strings. I am retiring from the group at the end of
this year and we needed to talk business.
I have been in the group for almost thirty years and I am ready to have
my Saturdays back. Especially after this
fall where we have a wedding almost every weekend through October! I certainly won’t miss all the managerial
aspects, nor will I miss playing the Pachelbel Canon in D. But, I just can’t play for a gay wedding and,
with the Supreme Court ruling earlier this summer, that will surely happen at
some point. So, time to retire. And, I think I am done eating at Lucky’s for
a long time. Ho-hum food costing way too
much money.
We went to St. Louis two Saturdays in a row. Both times to attend the temple. Both times to visit with Emily and
family. The 29th visit was a short
visit – we didn’t even go to the house but met Emily and kids at the park next
to the temple for a picnic. Joe was at
his class.
The kids had a blast in the sand volleyball pit.
Yesterday, the 5th,
we had a nice visit all the afternoon with not only Emily and Joe and kids but
also Vicki and Joe who are here for a week.
The big excitement was the guy cutting down a dead tree in the front
yard. He gave Noah a ride in his cherry picker.
There is really not much to write about the first part of
September – buying groceries, paying bills, zzzzzzz boring.
We had to have a heat-pump repairman come look at our unit on Friday
since it was struggling to keep the house cool and it turned out to be a bad
capacitor (would that be a flux capacitor???) and, thankfully, we were still under warranty.
Steve and I have launched a new joint blog – one where we
share our discoveries from our family history work. I don’t think we will do something every week
but hopefully at least a couple times a month.
Here is the link: http://jackmanlambsonyoungfraedrich.blogspot.com/
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