by Elaine Rassel Have you ever hoped for some time off and when it happened, you didn’t know what to do with it?! Articles were sent Thursday night which meant I had two days with nothing to do. Getting back into the groove for the next week is something else!
Karen J. was coming from Sioux City to go to Max’s funeral. She was to meet me at 1:15 on Friday. A half hour before, she called to say she had stopped off at Wal-Mart to get a card and when she went back to the car found the front tire was very flat! I told her I would send Zachary over and she could take his car back and still make it to the funeral. I thought she was in Le Mars_no, she was still in Sioux City. Well, that suggestion wouldn’t work!
She went to Tire & Lube and told them her problem. (She said she didn’t know how to change the tire to the “donut” one.) They said they were really booked up but would put her on their list and she could do some shopping while waiting. Well, after walking around for what seemed forever, she went to the car to wait. We called her at 5 o’clock and no one had come yet. She called me later and said they called her phone just after 5 o’clock and said they could put her on the list for Saturday or sell her a new tire! She informed them she would like to have the tire fixed at this time. Then they said that she should drive the car around to the back to which she replied that she couldn’t drive on a very flat tire. Finally a young guy came walking to the car carrying a jack (he wasn’t sure if she had one in the trunk!). The tire had two nails in it and a bad valve stem. (She was charged for putting on the donut!) It was 7:30 p.m. when she was ready to go back to the house. She asked me to tell the Drefke family that she had planned on coming, but had trouble!
In the S.C. Journal (Sun. Feb. 27) in the Living Section, there is a write-up of Karen’s sister, Tammie Atchison getting an award for being Sioux City Community School District’s Teacher of the Year! She was one of 20 other teachers that were nominated for this award. She did not know that she was the reason the West Middle School was having an assembly on Thursday morning. She came to Sioux City in 1991 and started teaching science to 8th graders and recently 6th graders at West Middle School.
The Principal of West Middle School said “Tammie is a scientist by trade and at heart and that her love for learning is contagious to those who explore with her in the classroom.” Supt. Gausman said, “There are over 1,100 teachers in the district and Tammie was chosen for her ability to build relationships and support others.”
I went to write up the Police Report that the News didn’t have room for last week and found that the computer wouldn’t let me get anywhere but “Recent Files”. Bethany came later on and did get to something of which I told her it wasn’t going to be saved to. After I had the entire article done, I went to the file it was supposed to be saved to and found it wasn’t even there. I tried to tell her, but of course she has had more computer experience than I have and let me know this. (I just lose it when something like this happens as I am afraid all my work will be lost.) On Saturday, Zachary did get me my USB back so I could get into the files.
The early evening of Monday February 21 brought icy conditions to our area. By midnight going into Tuesday, February 22 there were 50 schools delaying for two hours with one closed. There were as many businesses, health centers, government businesses also coming across the bottom of television screens as to being delayed for two hours. Roads were reported as being “icy” and if you had to travel on them, start out earlier.
There was a day that week when there were some schools that were late because of the cold weather.
Storm Lake St. Mary girls lost to MMCRU at Cherokee gym that enabled MMCRU girls to advance to State. To go to Cherokee, you had to have a ticket. They were expecting that many people and they were right! Everywhere a person looked in that gym, there were people wearing “blue” sitting! (I wonder how far away a person had to park?!) MMCRU (24-1) will play Exira-EHK (22-1) on Wednesday afternoon. They lost to this team last year so they want to win this one! I hope we can see the game at home, but it could be doubtful.
Watching some of the other basketball teams play hoping to get to go to State, the ones that lost were only by a point or so. It will be interesting to see if the winners (by a small margin) will do as well at State.
Bethany received the news from our neighbors, the Hanson’s, that their dog, Amber, had passed away. When they went away for a day or so, Bethany was in charge of Amber. She will miss this dog and the exercise she got when she walked her!
Friday there was a front Sports page that featured “We Made History” about the MMCRU basketball girls. The article was done after the game against Storm Lake St. Mary’s in Cherokee where MMCRU won 49-31.
One of the oldest of the three liberals on Supreme Court dominated by conservatives, Justice Stephen (83) made his announcement of retiring this summer. President Biden vowed that his replacement would be a Black woman. President Bill Clinton appointed him to the Supreme Court in 1994. Biden called it “a bittersweet day for me” as he and Breyer go back a long way and praised him as “an exemplary justice” and “model public servant at a time of great division in this country.” Now there are several female candidates that are up for Biden to choose from. One news article reported that Biden should choose his Vice President as she was very qualified, but later stated that he should keep her around just in case he can’t fulfill his job as President.
Saturday’s paper stated that Biden had chosen Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to the U.S. Supreme Court, making her the first Black woman selected to serve on a court that once declared her race unworthy of citizenship and endorsed segregation. Biden called her a “proven consensus builder” who has “a pragmatic understanding that the law must work for the American people.” Jackson would be the current court’s second Black justice, Justice Clarence Thomas, a conservative, and just the third in history. Jackson, 51, attended Harvard as an undergraduate and for law school, and became a federal judge in 2013. There still has to be a “confirmation” to Biden’s choice.
Keep in your thoughts and prayers those who have lost loved ones to death, have had to change their lives, are having health problems some of which are terminal, are struggling to make ends meet even though they have a job, encourage others to get back to work, and help those who are trying to build a bridge rather than a wall to regain a friend or families. Count your blessings.
I will close with this quote from Herbert Hoover (1874-1964) American president: “Blessed are the young for they shall inherit the national debt.”