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Saturday, June 23, 2018

Scorching Summer Saturday

The first Saturday of the summer . . . yesterday in our town it was reported to be 99°, today it is forecast to be at least 101° and probably more . . .

We have had the a/c on continually for the last two days -- we slept fairly well last night for a change.
We know that we are having severe weather and we do have a "red-flag" warning for Northern California this weekend. Our thoughts return to October of last year when the conditions were similar and shortly afterward -- over 6,000 homes were lost.


But the reality is that so much of the country is going through severe weather conditions as well. The Midwest and storms, tornadoes, flooding. Other parts of the country have hail storms -- unbelievable.

And of course Hawaii with the volcano -- where does one plan to vacation this year . . . for us, the family room is going to be just fine.

I am saddened to report the passing of Bruce A Hiles:

Bruce is a second cousin of mine, one that I never had the opportunity to meet in person, but for the last ten years or so we communicated via email quite a bit about current things going on and about our family.

Bruce's grandfather, Otto, was a brother to my grandfather Lloyd and that is how we are related. Growing up every once in a while I heard tales about Otto -- especially when he was working in the "lumber" business.

But, I do not recall ever hearing anything about Otto's family. I found out about that family while doing family searches. And I always was so glad to link up with Bruce. He was born in Wisconsin and actually lived in Arlington Heights, Illinois for a time -- (he shopped at the J C Penney's in Woodfield when my brother-in-law, Bill was the manager)

He lived in Indianapolis and enjoyed the Indy 500. He worked for the FAA and eventually retired and lived in New Jersey. I will miss our communication and sharing of family lore.

We send our best to his wife, Rosa and to his children and grandchildren.


Strangely enough just last week I received a message from the website, 23 & Me, informing me of several "new" cousins that recently had tested DNA with them and one of those was Bruce.

I had just sent Bruce a note congratulating him on getting the DNA results back just before finding out about his passing. I was looking forward to sharing a discussion with him about the results.

Earlier last week, just after finishing the post last Saturday, Gail and I actually went out for a break:


This was the first time in many months that we broke our routine of "staying home" other than for certain appointments and required grocery shopping . . .

A new ice cream & slushy business opened up by the river (The Russian River) about five minutes from our home. We drove by it and always noticed a crowd -- we thought maybe last week would not be too crowded to enjoy a treat.

We were wrong about not being crowded -- but we sure did enjoy the treat. There was a constant stream of people waiting in line and the help kept bringing out samples for everyone as we waited.
Even Dino enjoyed the atmosphere but he did not get a cone like the one that we each got.

So we vowed to return every once-in-awhile and we will.

Lately, I've been enjoying an afternoon nap. When I do take a nap, Dino does as well.

His favorite place is right next to the bed waiting for me to wake up. It usually is in the late part of the day and the sun streams in just where he likes to lay.

He never makes a sound and is so patient even if it gets near to his feeding time -- which he knows to be exactly 6 pm.

When we retire for the night, he sleeps on the other side of the bed (in his bed) on Gail's side. He stays there until I get up in time for his 7 am feeding time.


Lastly, if things keep heating up around here we'll have to check out the "springwear" as depicted in the comic.

"Herman" has been a favorite comic for many years and I swear I recognize many of the folks.

I met Felix Unger, the creator of Herman several years ago -- who has since passed away and is continued via others -- and he told me that it was universally what people commented to him about, the fact that his depictions of folks were recognizable to so many.

That is a bit of our week, see you all "in a few"! 👨👩


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