Journal

June 23, 1907 - July 1, 2003 - Mother had an interesting life - an "up from the bootstraps" person. She was born in Ohio and grew up in California close to the ocean, one of eight children. She graduated from the University of Kansas at a time when few women went to college. She and "Doc" started out married life in southwestern Kansas in the dust bowl, then spent time in the backwoods of Minnesota (no indoor plumbing) while "Doc" was working for the CCC. They then settled in a small town in central Kansas where "Doc" was a GP. Mother had many happy memories of Sterling, Kansas where both of her children were born. We took a weekend trip to Sterling a year ago and she was able to reminisce about those days. After WWII, they lived in Kansas City while "Doc" completed a residency in Internal Medicine after which he joined the VA. They then lived in Excelsior Springs, MO for ten years before moving to Houston. Mother liked Houston and stayed there until 2001 when she moved to Lawrence, KS - full circle back to the university town where she had gone to college which had been a very happy time of her life.

Jonathan experienced his first fireworks last night at a fireworks display in Atchison. He was pretty impressed and handled the loud bangs well even chiming in by yelling "bang". Before we went, we told him we were going to a fireworks show and about halfway through the fireworks he asked when the show was going to start! It was held at the high school stadium and before the fireworks there were silly games including a water balloon toss for adults, which Elizabeth talked Pat into doing. They didn't last long; Elizabeth didn't catch the water balloon and it broke at her feet.

For a small town, Atchison did a good job and it was certainly nice not to have to battle crowds to get there. The last time I tried to attend a fireworks display, Elizabeth was a little girl and Kathleen and I were going to take her to the Memorial Park fireworks display in Houston. We inched along on the freeway and then in Memorial Park and never got in to the fireworks.

Work travel has been a bit hectic - last Tuesday to Columbus, Ohio and then the next day to Baltimore and a return home the following day. Today, it's on to California - Monday, I'll be at Stanford and then two days of meetings (yuck!) in Redwood City. I'll be glad to be home for a week after that. I did have a nice hotel upgrade in Baltimore and had a really nifty jacuzzi bath and also enjoyed some excellent crab cakes.

The number of friends and family that have extended their condolences has been very heartwarming. There was also one from Hot Springs, AR that sent an e-mail to the funeral home site (it was in the Lawrence paper) who had met Mother when her mother was at the retirement center. I have certainly appreciated everyone's kind thoughts and words and hopefully in some dimension somewhere Mother is also appreciating them.

Friends are here and P&J have been doing "Gator Rideabouts" around 11:00 PM. They encountered a horned lark in their path one night. While the horned lark range is very broad, you don't see them very often and unless you get a good look they can be mistaken for meadowlarks. We continue to watch the hummers protect their terrirtory - sometimes they whiz awfully close to one's head.

We're enjoying some spectacular weather right now - it was 57 when I got up this morning and had to put on long sleeves while I had coffee on the deck. It looks like the tomato press will have to come out today as we're getting inundated with tomatoes. They really are good.

I hate old window frames. The last major renovation project on the old house is to get the two old windows finished. I withstood entreaties to just have the window units replaced with new windows because I wanted to keep the original glass which is wavy and obviously old. I'm still glad I saved the windows, but my frustration with trying to remove the old paint is at a peak. A few weeks ago, when trying the third paint removal product, I noticed that the wood at the bottom was not part of the frame and was loose. Aha, I thought I can remove that wood and then at least I won't have to do paint removal on that. Yesterday, I got Pat's crowbar and removed the wood which left the bare limestone. Now I need to go to Home Depot and get some kind of masonry fill to plug in the holes. It was a good idea overall because those holes were a good place for bugs. After this I still need to finish the frames and then I can do the fun things like buy the braided rugs I've been thinking about.