who am I

My wife was talking with her sister on the phone last night, and commented about something I was involved in. She had no idea I did that. So I thought I'd kind of put down in one place the various things I'm involved in. First of course is the family. I'm Dad of 3, grandfather of 2. Which doesn't include several third daughters. Maybe that needs a bit of explanation.

We have 2 daughters. But daughters have friends. Sometimes close friends. And some of those friends are almost like daughters. I started to include a few photos, but I'm afraid I'll not have one of someone and leave them out. But these are my third daughters. I have several. We saw one last night at a restaurant who came up and gave us a big hug. Can't get too many big hugs.

But anyway, our family is not like most. We get together every year for a big family reunion ... a multi-day reunion with campers and motorcycles and 4 wheelers. It's a little overwhelming for the potential new family member to experience the first time.

But that takes some of my time and involvement. Because even though I am a dad and granddad, I am also a son and brother and nephew and cousin.

I am also a farmer. Now, some farmers are in the enviable position of having lots of free time in the summer and winter to go do whatever. We are a cash grain farm, but between irrigation and a few other things we don't have bunches of down time.

For several years I worked off the farm in the winter delivering propane with a friend of mine. That has kind of slowed as dad has started moving toward retirement and I have taken over the farm.

I am also a Christian, and member of my local church. Well, I do a little more than that. I am currently a Sunday School teacher (I team teach 4th, 5th, and 6th graders with 2 other guys), elder, Chairman of the missions committee, and church clerk. And next week I am a group leader for VBS. I think that was the term. What it means is I'll be right in the thick of things with the kids. Visit our web site at www.wucc.us Guess who is in charge of that as well ?

I'm a member of my local volunteer Fire Department. As of last Tuesday I am the Assistant Chief. I asked for a job description and everyone laughed. I was serious! Over the past few years I have been the guy responsible for grant writing and fulfillment, and this past winter took over the online filing of reports.

Its not always fun and firetrucks.

For many years...in fact since before the beginning of it...I have been involved with our local library. I'll put West Union's library against anybodies and we'll shine. From the size of our collection versus our tax provided income, number of patrons using the library per hour it is open, per capita circulation, any standard you want to use our library is outstanding. But I became so involved in so much I had to cut something out. And my leaving would have the least impact on the library at this time.

So that is a brief description of some of the things I do. Now if you'll excuse me, I feel exhausted. I'm taking a nap.

Sometimes you just have to celebrate

Palestine, Illinois, home of the largest rodeo east of the Mississippi River, and home of the Lincoln Land AgriEnergy ethanol plant, is having its first annual Betsey Reed Festival.

Who? The only woman ever executed by hanging in Illinois (1845), who poisoned her husband with arsenic-laced sassafras tea. While at the Palestine jail Reed attempted to escape by burning down the jail. Some reports place the crowd estimate at close to 20,000 for her hanging.

From their flyer:

Like many small Midwest towns, Palestine has been trying to find something truly unique about it’s heritage that can distinguish it from the hundreds of other Midwest villages that celebrate their annual “farm harvest”. Every village has an event like the fourth of July parade. It’s not that we knock that, but we wanted to be really, truly
remembered. We noted that small towns have festivals honoring local celebrities. Abilene, KS (Pop 6543), another Midwestern small town, has Dwight D. Eisenhower who was a born and raised there. Plains, GA (Pop. 636) has Jimmy Carter. Ronald Reagan was born in Tampico, IL (pop 772). Unfortunately, Palestine has
not had any presidents born here to date. Yet we wanted a festival that would be unique; that would stand out. That’s the kind of thing that Palestine was looking for. So we put our crack tourism committee to work with the charge: “Finding us some kind of festival that makes us unique and that no other town, large or small, can claim.”

Our crack committee came back to us with the Elizabeth “Betsey” Reed Festival. Well, she’s not Eisenhower, Carter or Reagan, (although some might argue she’s only marginally below Carter just a joke, you Democrats), but she is all that Palestine has. So we have designed a twisted, dark humor, weird festival based on her life and death just for fun! We hope you can come and participate and that you are not offended.

The flyer has a photo of Jimmy Carter with the caption: "Betsey Reed is no Jimmy Carter, but she’s all we’ve got..."

Is it just me? This sounds like something Boss Hogg would come up with on Dukes of Hazzard.

See the promo at www.betseyreed.com/betsyreedflyer.pdf

Oh, and you're already to late for the diner theater:

Evening meal catered by the Palestine Preservation
Society and the Proud, Pitiful & Pathetic Palestine
Players will present their not-so-accurate show at
the Fife Opera house. It might be called; “Tea for
Two” or “All Choked Up over You”, or “Swinging in the
Breeze”. Make your reservations now to find out
the real title. Advance ticket sales are required

Just waiting

So far it has started out to be one of those weeks, and it's just Monday. Yesterday we lost a good man. Don Snyder passed away. Snyde has been a fixture in West Union for longer than most people can remember. He had an aneurysm that needed repair, and they finally got around to it late last week. Apparently it was a bigger problem than expected, because he spent a bit longer in surgery than expected. Then his blood pressure went low and his kidneys failed. Anyway, the end result is we lost him. Gonna miss that guy.

Right now I am setting around the house in the middle of the day just kind of waiting to make sure Sue doesn't have a reaction to some new meds she is taking. Don't tell her I'm doing that by the way. She thinks I am actually doing something on the computer. HA! We are getting ready for an MRI this evening. Her pain doesn't allow her to lay flat on her back. Think that might be a problem?

I'm going to try and keep this up better than I have been. Once a month isn't enough. I think I'll put a few photos in as well. Here is one that has no meaning to most anyone outside the family. In 1940 Dad's Uncle Howard painted Gramp's corn crib. Here is where he signed it. Dad wanted me to take a picture of it. I need to get it professionally printed for him.

You never know what tidbits I might pull out of nowhere.