By Elaine Rassel
A lot has gone on this week! A City Council meeting was on Monday night at 5 p.m. The house on East Cedar Street was sold for $1, as is. At one time this house was beautiful but renters had destroyed it. It will take some time to get it back to what it was.
Halloween Trick or Treating will be Friday, Oct. 29 DOWNTOWN only. On Halloween night (October 31, Sunday) houses will be expecting you. If there is no light on, that usually means the person is not at home or is not participating in trick or treating. And, big kids_don’t grab a little kid’s bag of goodies and run off laughing. It has happened in the past. This act only shows how cruel you are_grow up!
When I read where the heat bill will be going up, it made me wonder “what next”? Bethany and I were in a 63 degree temperature while Zachary, in the basement was 71 degrees. It was Thursday night that I could “smell” the furnace had come on. Maybe he was cold for a change! We do have a boiler, and I understand that switching it to electricity will do no good as the electric bill is supposed to be going up.
My mini-class reunion was at the Golden Pheasant on Thursday night at 5:30 p.m. I had to miss it as I was offered to do something that I love to do_cook and bake! It isn’t very often that I can cook or bake for more than the three in our household. So for 2 nights, that is what I did. I will make it to the next mini re-union, unless the Lord blows his trumpet and calls me home! Thanks to Jerry and Sherry for getting this together. There aren’t that many of our class around here and not even that many in the Southwest. Time has taken many of our classmates. (I will try and get their picture in this week but can’t promise.)
I did make it to some of the poet program at the Library. A generous donation from the Lois Krekow Residuary trust, in memory of Lois Krekow made this program possible. Kay Krekow was present before the poet gave her presentation. I found this one of the hardest presentations to write on. She was so good that I really wanted to listen to her and not take notes. How do you write on how the poem made you feel?
There is another poetry reading by Tom Montag on November 18 at 6 p.m.
Steve and I have had Meals on Wheels for the past 2 weeks. We have them again the last of Nov. It is good to see these people we deliver to, again.
Saturday Gina and I went to Amber Rassel’s brother’s wedding at Fort Dodge. It was at 3:30, but we got there a half hour after the fact. Things do happen. Amber, Gracelyn and Bensen were in the wedding party. (Jesse was on a bee run and wasn’t there.) Bensen had a tux on and looked so grown up. Gracelyn had a flower girl’s dress almost like the bride’s complete with a train.
They served pulled pork (you could put on a bun), cubed sauce potatoes, green beans, and a corn muffin. Cupcakes, mints, and nuts were later on. We munched on popcorn, M &M’s, etc. before the 6:30 meal. Lemonade was served and Bensen took the job of filling the cups! A dance was after the meal with most of the people and lots of kids doing “single”. I only saw one couple doing a dance most people my age know! I really couldn’t see them flapping their arms, etc. like the younger ones were doing!
I am sending “Milk Sickness” that Abraham Lincoln’s mother died from, through once again. The last time there wasn’t enough room. This week the paper is up to 12 pages, and I have to scramble to find some of the articles that haven’t been printed before due to lack of space, to fill out these extra pages.
I missed out when Matt Amodio on Jeopardy lost. He had 38 wins and more than $1.5 million in prize money. Amodio failed to answer the Final Jeopardy clue correctly and came third on Monday’s show, his streak cut short by new champion Jonathan Fisher, an actor originally from Coral Gables, Florida. I really got tired of seeing him always winning and the other two competitors never seeming to have a chance. He was always going for the bottom question (the most money) and when he had gone through all five of these, then he went to the next highest number, etc. Now I wonder if he got “paid” to lose?! Maybe Jeopardy ratings went down as people were tired of seeing the same person always winning.
Amodio finished #2 on the all-time consecutive wins list behind only Ken Jennings with 74 wins. He won a total of $1,518,601, which puts him third on the all-time non-tournament cash winnings list behind James Holzhauer ($2,462,216) and Jennings with ($2,520,700).
I see where a woman, Cynthia Vest Kinkead, has rested alone beneath a white headstone in her family’s large burial plot near the east entrance to a Cemetery in Plattsmouth, NB ever since she died in 1910. Later this month, her husband, Civil War veteran, Benton Kinkead, will be laid to rest beside her. This was just a few weeks after the unlikely discovery of his cremated remains in a Seattle funeral home 105 years after his death.
Now it is thought that he will be the first Civil War soldier buried in Nebraska in almost 75 years.
He was an Army private who fought for the Union forces to save a divided country more than 150 years ago when he was wounded in battle. It will be Oct. 30 when he will finally be buried with full military honors which consist of the folded flag, the bugled taps, and the rifle salute.
The great-grandson (age 65) of Benton was stunned to get a call from Nebraska about the discovery of the remains of a great-grandfather he barely knew existed. (There will be more on this later as I have run out of time to get this sent off!)
Remember to keep in your thoughts and prayers those who have lost loved ones to death, are battling an illness, feel they are alone and no one cares, are struggling to make ends meet despite having a job, and are trying to shorten the distance that has kept them away from friends and family. Count your blessings.
I will leave you with this quote from Blaise Pascal (1623-1662), a French philosopher: “Kind words do not cost much. Yet they accomplish much.”