Saturday was nice. It used to be that Saturdays were the only day I had to really get housework done. Now that I am retired, it has become a day to kind of catch up and get ready for the next week. I did quite a bit of sewing too. I am almost done with the crane wall hanging. I should be able to finish it tomorrow.

I wrote a poem today also. It is still too rough to share with you but I will finish it soon and intend to send it to the poetry contest at Irishfest. I send one whenever I know about the contest. I couldn't find any notice of one last year but this year it has reappeared. Dick doesn't want to go to Irishfest. I know why - the crowds and all the walking.

I learned basic sewing from Mother when I was a teenager. I made some of my clothes. Grandma Bowser was a really excellent seamstress and make clothes for us too. I remember a dress I had when I was young that she make for me, It was made of the most beautiful silky, almost oriental, material that showed green, red and gold as the light hit it. It was not gawdy though which is difficult to understand and the dress was very elegant.

I remember an outfit I made that was a jumper type. It fitted up over the rib cage and when I put it on it fit perfectly. However, it did not allow room for expansion and I almost sufficated before I got the darn thing off because I couldn't get a deep breath in. Never could figure out how to fix it.

Tomorrow I will call both the boys. I will let you know how they are doing.

Love

Mary

When Bret and Bart were about 7 and 11, they had a hamster. They named him Spike and he was the nicest little hamster in the world. He was kept up in Bart's room and was really easy to get along with.

Every so often he would get out of his cage. I would discover him missing and just get up early the next morning and go down stairs to the kitchen. He would invariably be skirting around the edge of the room, making his way to a little hole that went under the cupboard that I used as a pantry. I just had to lean down and pick him up and return him to his cage.

One day, I purchased a new box of hamster food and left it, as I usually did, next to his cage. He picked that night to escape. However - this time - I found him in the morning sound asleep in his turret. Every possible spot in the whole cage had a pile of food neatly stacked. He had spent the entire night filling his little cheeks with food and carrying it back to the cage to store for the "future". The poor little creature was totally exhausted.

I just thought that was a funny story. We had Spike for about three years. A very long life for a hamster. I found him one morning dead in his cage looking quite peaceful. He was the best hamster we ever had.

Have a nice weekend

Mary

My daughter in law, Barbara, and I went to a quilt class together just before she and Bart left for Oklahoma. We have both finished the quilt top that we started at that class. Then we discovered that the fabric requirements given did not include the backing. We both would really like to back it with the material that we used to frame the motif. I went back to Evans to get some more and was not happy to find that they had none left.

We had several people at the class ask where I got it and I made the mistake of telling them. So. Yesterday, I looked at the edge of the piece I have left and found out the pattern and manufacturer. Jocks Rock by Hoffman International. I got on the internet and lo and behold I found some. So I bought enough to back mine and send enough to Barbara to do hers. I am so excited about that.

I've been catching as many of the speeches at the convention that I can stay awake for. I will do the same next week at the Republican convention and then try to weigh my priorities. Good Luck to me!

The mornings have been just perfect for walking and the birds sing us on our way. Chelsea likes it a lot. We walk for about 40 minutes every morning.

A verse from a poem I wrote:

The Cardinal - most blessed in soun and beauty
Sings his melody in the early morning air.
The Morning Doves coo their gentle song
From rooftop to rooftop.

Go out some morning at about 6:00AM and just listen to the choir.

Love

Mary

Are you watching the Democratic Convention? I thought it would be boring because the decision as to who is running was decided long before they got there. However, the speeches that I have been hearing have been full of information and exciting. There are wonderful orators in our country and I think they are all speaking in Boston.

I am really struggling with the issues this election. I can't just pick one issue. I hear that there is a pro life candidate and a free choice candidate. I just know that pro life should apply to ALL human life. I am definately anti abortion - but after much soul searching and much personal debate, I am also anti death penalty.

I hear that the Bush Administration has produced many many new jobs. (I forget how many.) I also hear that it has become profitable to send jobs overseas. That the good jobs are leaving and the new jobs are entry leval and/or minimum wage jobs. What good is a job for everybody if a person cannot survive unless he or she has two or three of them.

I believe that Iraq is better off without Sadaam, but I do believe that we should have waited and harassed and nagged the other big nations until they either made him back down diplomatically or agreed to go in with us. I believe that we need to stay there now until that country has a stable government. Close to 1000 of our young people have given their lives for this war. We should not be doing it alone. And why does so much of the rest of the world hate us at this point.

I need to get a lot of questions answered in the next couple of months.

Do you have any of them?

Mary

We went to Door County today and toured four lighthouses. It is fascinating. I can see how people get hung up on the history and the collecting of memorabilia of them. We have seen six in the last month now. Split Rock in Canada, the one at the Shipwreck Museum in Whitefish Point MI. and these four on the Door Penninsula. These four are still working lighthouses, though they are automated and use battery or solar power. With the new innovations in radar and sonar and the GSL systems available, the need for lighthouses is really past. A wonderful romantic part of our history - it is wonderful to see them preserved and treasured.

Have a great Wednesday. Remember to have faith and trust that prayers ARE answered.

Love

Mary

Monday, Monday. We were busy today. Bible Study at 9:30AM. Bart and Barb are back on the prayer chain. Please, keep them in your prayers too. Sunday's reading were very encouraging to me. They spoke of persistant prayer. They were Luke 11: 1-13 where he says that if you persist in asking for help even if you are at first turned down, sometimes people will help just to get rid of you. In Genesis 18:20-32 Abraham wears God down in agreeing to save Sodam and Gomorrah even if there were ONLY 10 just people in the cities. Anyway, I am going to persist and I ask that you do too.

Tomorrow we are going up to Door County on a lighthouse tour. This will be a nice cap to our Canada trip where we saw toured two lighthouses. I will have more pictures. I am working on Jim to fix my ability to import pictures to this site.

I shot tonight and I was terrible. I am going to have to go on Sundays too to see if more practice will help and if perhaps I shoot the previous day, I will do better on league nights.

Hope your week is wonderful.

Love

Mary

Do you remember summers before the polio vaccine? When I was young, the hot muggy days of summer could be very frightening because of the danger.

Nora babysat for a neighbor one evening. She came home from the job really disgusted, as young people are wont to be after cleaning up vomit and changing sheets on a bed. The daughter of the people had gotten sick. The next morning word came that the girl had been taken to the hospital as symptems persisted. Later word came that she had polio and had been transported to Milwaukee to the only hospital in the area with an iron lung and the means to treat this disease.

Well, Mother about paniced. Here it was, the middle of summer and she had eight children (I don't believe that Randy was born yet.) under the age of 13. The doctor said that she really should not have to worry about anybody but Nora. (Yea right, tell ANY mother.) Nora, however, had to get the only known possible deterant, a shot of Gamma Globulin, that was given by weight. That upset her too. She hated shots. Big surprise.

The little girl died. It was a sober summer that year with the heat and the humidity and whatever else contributing to the fear but there were no more cases in town and we all remained well.

Aunt Helen always said that she was sure that Dad had polio before they called it that. He got very sick one summer and the following year, Uncle Jack took him to school in a wagon for a while. His legs, in my memory, were alway small and skinny. However, he did everything he wanted too.
Mary