Category Archives: Monday

I Did It! – Monday ~ Driving to the Picnic

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Saturday morning, I left the house and drove into town to the village park. Sylvia had gone in earlier to hold a place for the TASYL picnic. The TASYLs are a group of female Amateur Radio Operators from Michigan. Sylvia is their Secretary/Treasurer. Most of the husbands have become associate members, and we all enjoy the August picnic. The weather is usually nice and we have a lot of fun visiting with one another. The gals get together each week on their radios, but it’s good to see friends face-to-face. I was in no hurry to get to town, so I was taking my time enjoying the ride. The radio was off. It was just me and my thoughts riding down our road. The haiku came to me in Spanish.

Por el camino,
Viajaba sin prisa,
Contentisimo.


As I thought of you, I realized it would need to be also written in English. Around the bend and a little further down the road the English words came together.

Down the road I went,
Traveling without hurry,
Feeling contentment.


It was a very good day with lots of goodies to eat and lots of friendly conversation. On days like that, one feels particularly blessed.

I Did It! – Monday ~ Music Makers

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Sylvia’s father sold band instruments at one time. He could get a tune out of any of them. In later years, he has dropped the others in favor of his favorite accordion. Sylvia has played the guitar since she was in grade school.


Sylvia has an extra guitar that she keeps at his house. On her weekly visits, they set aside plenty of time for their inevitable jam session. Even when they go on vacation, they take along their instruments. Last week they were at the family cottage on Glen Lake (that’s it in the background). Their faces tell the story — they really do enjoy it.

I Did It! ~ More on Dad’s House

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Today’s accomplishment is not something that I did. My friend, Vanilla, at String to Short to Tie saw last Friday’s post and responded with a comment. He also sent me an e-mail with the URL of a site devoted to homes that were sold by Sears (Sears, Roebuck and Company back then). I was delighted!


This model home was called the “Maytown.” It was given the reference number, 167. In later years, Sylvia’s grandfather had removed the porch and replaced it with a first-floor bedroom.

Here’s what Sears had to say in the catalog: “For $753.00 we will furnish all the material to build this eight-room house, consisting of mill work, flooring, ceiling, siding, finishing lumber, building paper, pipe, gutter, sash weights, hardware, painting material, lumber, lath and shingles. NO EXTRAS, as we guarantee enough material at the above price to build this house according to our plans.”

” By allowing a fair price for labor, cement, brick and plaster, which we do not furnish, this house can be built for about $1,573.00, including all material and labor.”

Painting material included enough paint for two coats, inside and outside plus wood filler and varnish for two coats on the woodwork.

Sears was in this business from 1908 until 1940. You can read more about this by visiting the URL given earlier.

I Did It! – Monday ~ Sibs Gathering

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My three sisters and the two spouses came to visit Sylvia and me last Thursday. That might not seem like something to get excited about, but to us it was. Barbara retired at the end of last year. We had planned to get together to celebrate this wonderful milestone in her life, but Michigan weather and health issues prevented the gathering of the siblings. Her family (8 kids + uncounted grands and great-grands — okay she knows, but I don’t) gave her a great celebration. We missed it.

A couple of weeks ago, Clara and I were on the phone alternately commiserating and boasting of our recent blogging experiences. I don’t remember how it came up, but the next thing we were talking about a family gathering.


Clara asked, “What shall we eat?” I said (not really jesting) lets grill some steaks. She knew just the place to get “the very best steaks.” And she did! Clara and Rick brought the steaks. I had to share the cost with them.


And so on Thursday, Sylvia and I looked on as Clara prepared the fire. Sylvia had prepared foil packages with potato, carrot, onion and corn-on-the-cob cut in thirds. She added a bit of butter for flavor and seasoned it lightly with adobo. (Adobo is a Puerto Rican favorite blend with garlic, oregano, salt, pepper and a little tumeric. You’ll find it with the Goya products in your supermarket.) When the fire was ready, they put the packets on the fire for twenty minutes, turning them at 10 minutes. Sylvia put the veggies in the oven to keep them warm while Clara grilled our steaks to order. She gets an A++ in my book!


Isn’t that like me? Here I go on about food and I haven’t introduced our sisters. There is Barbara and Gary. They are both recently retired and have purchased a place in Florida. They’ll spend their winters there.


Our sister, Maggie, lives close to Clara and she came with her and Rick.


When the food went on the grill, everyone came out with cameras in hand. It was a windy here, which tousled the girls hair. Maggie and I didn’t have a problem with that. I saw Maggie taking a picture of Barbara. I picked up my camera and stepped to where I could get both of them in a shot. Barbara saw this and picked up her camera to get a shot of me taking a picture of Maggie taking a picture of her.


This activity did not go unobserved. Clara took a step back from the grill and raised her camera to get a shot of — well you know the rest. Barbara took the above shot to show how goofy we can get. Okay sorry gals. But you’ll have to admit it was fun and we all had a good laugh.

After that we went into the house and had a wonderful meal and lots more interesting conversation mostly about family. It was a wonderful day.

Now go visit Clara and read her side of the story.

Monday ~ I Did It! ~ an update

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I had to save this image from my blog to this back-up computer to start today’s post. I resize images before uploading to the blog, which results in smaller graphics files and faster uploads and (for you) downloads. (I did make an exception on Sylvia’s painting, and captioned it accordingly.)

I could report on my ongoing problems with the main computer, but that’s not fun and way too tedious to share with friends like you. Instead, I’ll report on Sunday early afternoon.

After Worship Service and Sunday School, I took Sylvia to our favorite steak-house restaurant in Grand Rapids. I’ve been wanting (needing) to go there (bad) since one of my blogger buds reported going to a steak house and eating sweet potato fries. Reckon she knows what she started by doing that? I’ve had this terrible craving for sweet-potato fries ever since reading her post. (You know who you are pally.)

So we had an excellent steak with onions and mushrooms, steamed broccoli, but the hit of the meal was the sweet-potato fries. It was a great meal!

I think Sylvia even forgave me for ducking out on her aunt’s 90th B-Day celebration so I could stay home the day before and work on reviving the main computer. She really is the world’s best!

Again, I invite you to join Clara (and me) and participate in “I Did It! – Monday.

I Did It! – Monday & Contest Announcement

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Once again it’s Monday and time to celebrate our accomplishments. I invite you to join your friends who participate in I Did It! – Monday. Find more details at My Meme Mania, which is a product of the fertile mind of my sister, Clara.

Last week I was hit with Antivirus System PRO. This rendered my system useless until it was disabled. Spybot-Search and Destroy took care of most of the problem. Uniblue Registrybooster cleaned up the last fragments of the pesky infection.

The lesson from last week’s experience is that a good antivirus program is not enough. Malware protection and registry protection is also necessary to maintain your computer’s health.

Contest Announcement

Here’s your chance to win fame, 1000 ECs and a lovely award that you can display on your blog. Enter Secondary Road’s contest, Blogosphere’s Got Talent I. Here’s how you enter: Just leave a comment here on this post or send me e-mail to chuck@k8ch.net. If you’ve documented your talent online, send a link to your post. You don’t have to do that. All you need to do is describe your talent. You’re going to be trying to impress Secondary Roads readers.

On Thursday, I’ll post the list of entries. Readers will then vote by leaving comments on Thursday’s post. The winner will be announced next Monday. I know you have talent. Today, I read a story that Rita T had posted on line. That gal has talent. Justine has a Facebook farm that she’s proud of. What can you do? Stack BBs on a light bulb? How many? Don’t tell me you can lick your elbow. I don’t believe it.

Remember, the winner receives fame, noteriety, 1000 ECs and the Tommy Toe Award.

The Tommy Toe gets its name from what my mother used to call this wonderful fruit that makes such wonderful sandwiches with bacon and lettuce. The BLT was one of my mother’s favorites. Every year when fresh tomatoes were available in the garden, she would get together with a friend and they would make BLTs for lunch. I remember those days well, and I still consider the BLT to be one of my favorite sandwiches.

There’s your challenge this week. What can you do? I want to hear from you.

I Did It! ~ Monday

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Please join us for I Did It! – Monday. Details at Clara’s blog, My Meme Mania. Celebrate accomplishments. They can be your deeds or those of someone else.Tell us about it.

Have you noticed the change I’ve made to my layout? I’ve added navigation tabs and that allowed me to take some items out of the sidebar.

Dewey Fox and me.


Yesterday, Sunday, I attended a church where I was the pastor for one year. It was their final service before closing the doors after 129 years. The meeting was upbeat, and the message was brought by a fellow I’ve known since we were in High School. His one word to the congregation was, “Continue!” I also had the chance to see some friends from 32 years ago. One of them was Dewey, who is now retired from dairy farming. Our children had been friends, and his wife had given my older son, Bryant, piano lessons. It was very good to talk with this dear fellow. They had a nice dinner afterward, which really hit the spot.


After coming home, I accepted his invitation and called the Crotchety Old Man. He’s in the hospital with failed kidneys. We had a very nice chat, and it was good to put a voice to Da Old Man.

Truth be told, he doesn’t sound very crotchety to me. Could it be he’s just putting on a front trying to make us think he’s mean? That would be my guess. But your mileage may vary.

Best wishes to you Old Man. You blogger buds out here are praying that you’ll soon be back on your feet.

My World ~ Our Meadow

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Today I want to take you down to our meadow. Where we’ll be looking at grasses.


Looking at the neighbor’s house.


And barn.

Looking at our house.


Grasses growing.


And if you lay down and look up . . . ahhh.

I Did it Monday ~ Father’s Day

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Yesterday, Sunday, Sylvia and I spent the afternoon with Bryant, Barbara and Briana. We enjoyed a wonderful relaxed family time with our son and his family.


We had come to celebrate Briana’s 17th birthday. Yeah! So we did that with good food and pleasant conversation. Barbara had baked a strawberry-rhubarb birthday pie. It looks good in the picture. Trust me, it tasted even better.

Chuck, Briana and Bryant on Father’s Day 2009.


I wanted to post a picture with Barbara in it, but that shot didn’t come out. I can see it in the camera, but I can’t download the image. Sorry about that.

Later that evening, we called Scott (our other son) and talked with him for quite a while. I spent a little time online before going to bed. It had been a great day.