Disasters

We are all reliving the September disasters and we only worry about what those foreign countries do to us and not what we do like the Atomic Bomb we put to Japan. I expect cities that have tornadoes like Joplin and Greensburg just lie with bad memories. I remember how shook up we were in college when Pearl Harbor happened and my personal disasters were two very sick daughters, a polio scare when I was growing up, the 1951 flood as the people now are having with too much water in their yards. The dust storms that the Midwest had when I was in about the sixth grade and we wore wet handkerchiefs over our faces so we could breath, and Oklahoma had Okies that tried to go to California to start over as most of their farms had already gotten there. When they had the polio scare our son Steve took part in their tests so the whole family got shots for free after it was approved. I am glad God lets us talk to him when bad things happen.

The Sky, The Moon , The Stars

I have always enjoyed admiring the sky and last night there was a full moon and it was gorgeous. I miss seeing the stars but have too many trees out one of the two windows from my bed. When I have been in the patio room, I have seen geese on their way to get either warmer or cooler depending on the season. I have seen the moon from Africa, Argentina, Topeka and love the book "Goodnight Moon" that the younger set get to read before they go to bed. Once in Topeka I saw a shower of stars. I love to play "Twinkle, twinkle little star" on my harmonica. I am better at "Mary had a little lamb."

A White Rock

My bird bath sits outside my patio door and I sit there and watch a chipmunk, butterflies and today a hummingbird. It is on the ground and a white rock sits in the middle for smaller birds. The white rock came from Washburn College. They built a new building on the campus and Ray was on one of their boards and they gave board members pieces of rock like the building was built out of. The little birds can reach the water easier from the rock than the sides so it is used a great deal.

Elephants

My husband loved circuses and when they came to Kansas City he got to ride the elephants from their train to the place they were kept during the circus. This morning I was watching the news and they showed the circus having a parade downtown. I wonder if they had a trash truck following it for elephants are not house broken. We never missed a circus and they even let Ray dress up as a clown bum and be in the circus. I know my granddaughter Hayden and I were startled by this clown bum who kept staring at us and it turned out to be Ray. We belonged to Circus Fans of America and went to Monte Carlo twice to attend the International Circus Meeting.

My dad's birthday

I don't remember how long ago my dad was born but it was in the 18th century. His uncle convinced him to go to school and he met my mother at Washburn and loved football and was captain in 1913. He loved his football and when I was born the house on Polk Street got too small so he worked with a builder and moved west. We lived within four blocks of Washburn and he was sure the team would get good again and he did not want to pay for parking. When my brother Allan was in Washburn he was the waterboy, He carried a bucket of water with a dipper ever so often out to the players. If the team was out of town we listened on the radio to hear the announcer say "There goes the water boy." When I was in college the women's group put on a show at half time and I was the center so my dad heard the name Burkhardt on the loud speaker. It would best be remembered that before I was born that they beat KU. That was 1913. He also got married that year.

Doors

The house in Topeka I grew up in had nice wide doors that did not matter to me growing up but now I am in a wheelchair I have narrow doors and my wheelchair is wide because I am. They are all skinned up and make my house look unloved. I wonder if they sell something you can put on doorways to protect them or will that just make the doors more narrow. One hinge has a screw missing and I thought it would be nice to replace it with a new screw but that would just make it more narrow so will learn to love them because they can't help it that I do not have good pushers and don't do well myself. I will go back to trying to see the end of shows without dropping off to sleep five minutes before the end. That is more important then beautiful doorways.

My Christmas Flower

My daughter Sally really knows how to pick flowers. She gave me a poinsetta for Christmas and now Labor Day is coming up and it is still healthy azd very pretty. It does not have red blooms but the leaves are wonderful. I had another one but it gave up early and looked sad like my Easter Lily always looks sad. It is quite a lovely green plant and my grandaughter Stacy keeps me from over watering. It sits on marbles and looks out the window on to the patio at all my marigolds. My zinnas are not as happy as they like more water than the 15 minutes my automatic watering does each morning. I wonder if it will still be great for Christmas this year..