Class of '63-Good times

Growing up in a small rural town has it's dis- advantages, but those small towns are dis- appearing and with our ever increasing technology, so disappears the close-knit relationships that were formed in small communities. Our world has become smaller and our circle of friends becomes "larger" with the introduction of sites like "Facebook, Twitter, and even these blogs." But are these old connections really "friends"?

Two days ago, the Mr. and I had the most wonderful day reconnecting with old friends. Actually, for the most part, these were my classmates, most of whom had gone to school together for all twelve of the first years of our education. Since our town was so small, our school was small. We were also the last graduating class and of the few who actually graduated together, it has been impossible to get us all together at any one time. Going in different directions... college, the armed forces, marriages, divorces, deaths, we scattered. However, now that most of us have reached the age of retirement, it was amazing to see that except for one of us now living in the state of Alaska, we are all within an hour or so of our little town.

We grew up as family...slumber parties, birthday parties, dances, roller skating, movies--always together..usually 4 boys and 4 girls, sometimes more, sometimes less. Our Senior Sneak trip took us to Colorado Springs with our sponsor and his wife. During the night, we coasted down the hill where our motel was, with one of the cars and went for a "drive", but couldn't resist telling our sponsor the next morning. Times were different back then...perhaps not. At any rate...it is unusual for a class of our small size to be able to gather as we did, all still in pretty great shape and not to have lost anyone. One of the guys, was unable to make it as he was on a cruise, but it was relatively short notice. Most of us had not seen each other for years and some not since 1963. I normally do not post pictures, but this is a great bunch..a motley crew of sorts, but the Class of '63. I treasure these old friendships.

"A friend is a present you give yourself." ~ Robert Louis Stevenson

Little white dove

Again, I find that as a retiree, there are not enough hours in the day and not enough days in the week and not enough weeks in the month. I do know that I am lucky to be so busy and for the life of me don't know understand those who find retirement boring. What do they do with themselves? We spent part of last weekend in Casper where the Mr. played on a team pool tournament and the weekend before we had a good friend stay with us. Because it has been a while since I posted, I have been too busy to get to the blog. Forgive me. I make no other excuses!

The Mr. has been feeding the banded doves all winter and we have gone through lots of cracked corn. As spring arrived so did "Little White Dove". The doves we feed are grey with a dark band around their neck. Exactly what they are is debatable. Different sources claim a variety of explanations as to where they originated, but most do agree that they are escapees from domestic birds. So we were surprised to see this white lady arrive and after some amorous males tried to attract and woo her, she picked a mate. They feed in our front yard away from the other flock in back and he stands guard while she feeds. Hopefully they will nest nearby and with luck, perhaps another generation of white doves will survive. "Running Bear and Little White Dove".

Teacup

Here is the little teacup pincushion now that it is finished ...just a little mushroom, home for the ladybug perched atop who must be a gardener at heart as her little flower garden is bursting in bloom. Is it spring there? Not here although we did not get the amount of snow predicted.

I was able to attend the Cheyenne Heritage Quilt guild meeting last evening and Kelly Gallagher-Abbott was the guest speaker. She and her husband are now representative of long arm quilting machines and she brought a wonderful slide show and a trunk show of quilts. She is such an accomplished quilter and so personable! The quilts were spectacular and some were funny and they ranged from traditional to modern and came in all sizes. Such a motivator and they brought some of their patterns and other quilting items in addition to providing the door prizes. I am so glad I was able to be in attendance. I also took a class on Saturday and completed a "Spinning Stars" table topper...picture to follow in a later post.

The grout job in the main bath (which we did last spring) was showing signs of crumbling. Yuck!
So I scraped and cleaned and mixed a new batch of grout for the small area affected so I have been on my knees again tonight and my poor hands are now like sandpaper. I sure hope being on my knees will do some good on this grout job..even I wasn't really praying.

"Life's trials may be hard to bear, but patience can outlive them." ~ Martin Tupper