On The Other Hand---

---there are different fingers.

Spring in Iowa

Many of the lawns, including ours, have been mowed for the first time. There are lots of daffodils blossoming and Pat's tulips opened last week.

This past weekend, we had the first significant rain since we've been back. We certainly needed it!

And a sure sign of Spring: tornadoes. There were a few small ones sighted 10 to 25 miles north of us yesterday. They did damage a very few buildings, but no one was hurt.

Either a tornado or strong winds hit a county campground about 20 miles from us. One trailer was totally demolished and huge trees uprooted.

The leaves seem slow in coming out, possibly because of the lack of rain. Now they have no excuse.

Spring has arrived in Iowa.

Rocky and Carol Back Home Safely

I received the following email on April 19.

Hi all,
Carol and I began our 2,000 mile trek home on April 5, 2009. We took our time, driving a little over 400 miles a day until we reached Westland, Michigan, where we shared our Easter weekend with family and friends. We departed Westland the day after Easter and arrived home at around 2:00 PM that afternoon. We found very little snow on the ground "yippee", but it is still quite cold (a high of 41 degrees today).

It was really a great experience--sharing our winter with each and every one of you. Keep In Touch!

All Is Good, In His Most Holy Name

Rocky & Carol

It's good to know when our friends return home safely, especially when we remember their trip to Texas. (A car ran into the rear of their trailer and totaled it, resulting in a delay of a month waiting for the settlement and finding a new trailer.) Thanks for the report, Rocky.

Allison's Buddies

Here they are, all three of Allison's best friends in one picture!

Just about all of her other best friends have left her for a few months. But many will be back come October, November, December, etc., and glad to be there.

T.E.A. Party at Rockport 35 RV Park

Rockport 35 RV Park took the lead in the Rockport area when it came to "celebratiing" tax day (April 15) with a T.E.A. (Taxed Enough Already) party. Here's a note from Allison which describes it.

We wanted to go to a TEA party--but no one was having one...Sooooooooooo
We had an impromptu Non-partisan TEA Party at RV35.
I mean, like last minute:
put out a sign and
33 people showed up!
Think how many would have come had we prepared in advance.
We'll do it again--this time with advance notice--July 4!
I'm going to use this sign:
"200 years to build it--2 months to screw it up!"
Allison

Thanks for the report, Allison! Glad to hear that you are still interested in things political!

Woman of the World

OK, friends, my taxes are finished, Easter is past, and we have visited Molly in MN. She'll be a year old in another month.

About 50 miles further west and at the other end of the alphabetical spectrum, we visited little Zander, my great nephew. He was a year old about a week ago. As you can see, he's a pretty serious kid but will get over that.




I've been busy pruning trees. Yes, I know it's a little late but I was elsewhere when it should have been done.

Anyway, now things can get back to a more normal pace.

I went flying for the first time Thursday, and will go again Monday so that's getting back to normal, too.

Here's Why You Haven't Seen New Posts

We arrived home a bit over a week ago.

I've been working hard on two main projects:

• Income tax
• Implementing a new program on a website

And we haven't even been to see little Molly yet! We'll probably see her next week.

There is an alternative to my articles, you know:
You could write an item and email it to me for posting!

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Iowa Supreme Court Decides---

---that the law banning marriage between two people of the same sex is unconstitutional.

There was rejoicing in the streets of Des Moines and Iowa City after the announcement yesterday. Rest assured that I was not a participant.

In about three weeks, same-sex marriages will again be taking place in Iowa.

No doubt a constitutional amendment, which could not become effective until 2012 at the earliest, which would define "marriage" as being between one man and one woman will be discussed the next time the Iowa legislature meets. In nearly every state where such an amendment has been put before the voters, it has passed.

This surely isn't the Iowa in which I grew up! In the good old days, it was conservative, Republican, pro right-to-work, and with a balanced budget. Now it is none of those.

Perhaps it is time to move to Wyoming.

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