This and That

The construction company doing the cement work is owned by the nephew, Jerry Dean Dennhardt, of one of the awesome 4-some who I run around with in my youth, Jean B. There was me, Mickey (Sanders) Starr, Jean (Bartley) Wetzel, Valeta (McKinley) True and we had many adventures together. The Bartley clan was a large and boisterous family and attracted much attention for a variety of reasons. Fun is one of them.

I lost my brother to a fire on Christmas night of 1957. His name was Richard Francis Brock and we called him Ricky. He was 10 years old and Jerry Dean and Ricky were best buds. One of the pleasures of living in your hometown is the connections you have and the warm feelings you receive when running into your past.

Another note of the day came about because of our lot next door being "disturbed"  and revealing a surprise. My father lived with his parents on the lot until he was 12 years old. Jason happened to run across a marble and we choose to believe it was one of my fathers.  And it could have been!

We are in the middle of a heatwave and a drought. For a few years now we have noticed that rain seems to go around us. Carroll, a town 30 miles west of us, and Boone, a town 30 miles east of us both seem to get rain while we remain high and dry. We do not know why this trend is happening and I for one am reluctant to complain, for fear the rain gods will try and rectify the situation by too great a degree. Thank God I did not go overboard with too many flowers. It has kept my watering chores to a minimum.

Health update. We are both happy and healthy. I recovered from my 2nd Shingle shot, although that arm still seems to itch more. Butch is doing okay too despite overdoing it by a long shot yesterday. He skipped out on his last therapy session but is scheduled for a make-up session on Monday. He will supposedly be through with therapy then but his overdoing it may have altered that plan. He still has a hitch in his get-a-long that was not there previously but time will take care of it.