by jphilo | Sep 30, 2014 | Three Thoughts for Thursday
10. Gas prices are hovering around the $3.00 mark.
9. The weather’s comfortable during the day and not too cool at night, so you can turn off both the AC and heat while you’re gone.
8. You’ll be gone on those warm fall days when the Asian soy beetles and box elder bugs swarm the south side of the house. That means you won’t be letting critters in whenever you go in and out.
7. Pumpkin spice lattes are available at every pit stop.
6. You can sleep with the windows open when you arrive at your night time digs.
5. Watching farmers bring in the harvest makes for an captivating drive.
4. So does viewing the fall colors along the way, especially along the Mississippi River valley.
3. Good weather makes it possible to stop and walk around a prairie lake that’s too windy, too cold, or too hot most of the year.
2. You might be present when a two-year-old is enthralled by the first fuzzy-wuzzy caterpillar he’s ever seen.
1. Driving west on your way home, watching a magnificent sunset can move you to tears.
What do you love about fall road trips? Leave a comment.
by jphilo | Sep 25, 2014 | Three Thoughts for Thursday
- After viewing Ken Burn’s documentary about The Roosevelts, I am convinced they are national treasures…and so is Meryl Streep.
- The entire country of Italy is now celebrating Sophia Loren’s 80th birthday. I would like to inform the congressional birthday party commission and national birthday party planners at large that I will turn 80 in July of 2036. Just in case they appreciate a long lead time.
- Math problem of the day: You are down to your last homegrown tomato of the summer. If you slice it very thin, how long can you make BLT season last?
Leave your answer in the comment box!
by jphilo | Sep 18, 2014 | Three Thoughts for Thursday
- Encouragement = 1 day when 2 nieces from different sides of the family ask for advice. They have no idea how much that means to their old auntie.
- Tuesday was the last day to pick up produce through our CSA. Oh, fresh melons, tomatoes, sweet corn and much more, you will be dearly missed!
- Could there be a correlation between this year’s early frost and the early appearance of pumpkin spice lattes in coffee shops? What do you think?
Photo Source
by jphilo | Sep 11, 2014 | Three Thoughts for Thursday
- Every year on this day, my thoughts turn to a former student who was so excited about the birthday party his mom had planned for the evening of September 11, 2001. When he came to school the next morning, he was glum because his birthday celebration had been preempted by coverage of horrors at the World Trade Center. Micheal, may your birthday this year be focused on you.
- One more Facebook photo of all the socks removed from the gut of that Great Dane, and my stomach’ll turn. That means another dairy-free meal option will bite the dust.
- If one of the thousands of bands getting ready to play a 200th Anniversary rendition of Star Spangled Banner this Saturday is looking for a cymbals player, I’m available. True, it’s been 40+ years since high school marching band, but I am still a crashing fool!
Are you singing or playing our national anthem this Saturday? Leave a comment about when and where.
Photo Credit: Stuart Miles at www.freedigitalphotos.net
by jphilo | Sep 4, 2014 | Three Thoughts for Thursday
The little girl on the left is Mom’s sister, Ruth. The little girl on the right is Dorothy.
- To help Mom celebrate her 86th birthday yesterday, I treated her to lunch at Village Inn. She ordered pancakes.
- While she ate the pancakes, she told me about her sixth birthday, 80 years ago exactly. “It was my first day of first grade. My first day of school ever. The older kids–and they were all older kids–spent every recess giving me birthday spankings. It was awful.”
- As she ate she looked at me and said, “Do you know what I really want for my birthday? I want to go back to Pipestone and have Mom make pancakes for me.”
Who knew birthday pancakes could reduce the daughter of an 86-year-old woman to tears?
by jphilo | Aug 28, 2014 | Three Thoughts for Thursday
- After one of the coolest summers on record, Mother Nature proved she’s a traditionalist by sending the humidity and mercury into the 90s soon as classes commenced in our local school district. Thanks to tax payers who voted in the bond issue that finally brought air conditioning to all the district’s buildings. Our kids are worth the investment.
- Chameleons inspired the latest military technology that allows cloth to blend in with the color of its surroundings. The idea sounds dangerous for someone old enough forget, in ten seconds flat, why she left one room and entered another. Five minutes in a shirt like that, and I’ll never find myself again.
- After careful consideration, and meaning no dishonor to Shark Week, I have decided not to purchase any of the recently developed shark repellents on the market. Being an Iowan, I like to live dangerously.
What dangerous decisions have you made lately? Leave a comment.
Photo Credit: Lavoview at www.freedigitalphotos.net
