Frost?

June 28, 2007 (7:00am)
49º F, Overcast, N wind, 9 mph.

Good morning,

A bit cooler this morning than it has been for a while. In fact the weatherman is predicting a low tonight of close to the freezing point! Also patches of frost in areas away from the Great Lakes - that’s us. Well, I guess this the U.P. in June. What was I thinking. Yesterday was a relatively cool but very nice day. The sun really beat down for a time and if you were out of the wind, it was really hot. Also was a haven for deer flies too. Mosquitoes are almost nonexistent so far. Hope it stays that way.

Did some digging and metal cutting yesterday. I never knew that sand could become so hard in dry conditions. Most of what I was digging, for the LP line, felt like it was poor concrete. Also are several different colors of sand, from nearly white to a very dark bronze color. The white is the most difficult to dig. Wonder if there is some limestone in it. Then there are the tree roots I hit every once in awhile. At present I have about doubled the length of the trench of what I started with yesterday morning. Still have a bunch to do. As my back and legs got tired, I switched to cutting apart the shelving in the shop. Switched muscle groups to tire them all evenly. Dig awhile, cut awhile, dig awhile, cut awhile, ....

Margriet says she is making progress on getting things organized in the basement. At least there is a path now from one end to the other. She continues to find more and more treasures. Some of the items that are more "male" in nature are heading for the "hired hand’s room" above the shop. Guess she is running out of room and places to walk. We also now have an abundance of empty boxes. Guess the trash burner will be warm for some time. And to think, we really have not started on emptying the house at FISKLAND yet!

The ISP acted really weird last night. Don’t know what happened but the wireless system showed the signal was coming in, but the internet could not be accessed for some reason. The signal would also vary in strength from good to excellent. Not sure if it was within this machine or the service. What ever it was, it was frustrating. The problems started about 6:30 P.M. last night and continued until I finally gave up about 9:30 P.M. and went to bed. Late at that, hence the late get-up this morning.

Just opened the webcam for Enschede ( http://cms3.enschede.nl/toerisme/De_stad/eivanko/ ) and the city square is filled with people, tent boots, cars, tables and chairs, and like that. There is some kind of a shindig going on for sure. A couple of the tents went up a couple of days ago, but overnight, it really exploded. I think Margriet said there was an annual folk dance festival in town. What ever is the reason, it sure got a lot of folk’s attention. Suspect it will be active until Saturday night when everything will come down again. Being now on DSL sure do make a difference in the picture. It looks much more like a TV screen, though not totally, rather than a series of snapshots every 30-4 seconds. Much more pleasant to watch.

In one of the boxes, the items were wrapped in a newspaper from 1962 (guess I didn’t fill that box). It was interesting to read the food prices particularly. Kohl’s grocery store had these bargains - chuck roast = 49¢/#; beef chuck steak = 59¢/#; round bone chuck roast = 59¢/#; fresh broccoli = 29¢/large bunch; automobile seat safety belts = $4.98 (installed free); frozen orange juice = 2 cans for 29¢; 10 oz. frozen peas = 6 pkg./57¢; and like that. Another store, National Tea grocery had - Boson butt pork roast = 35¢/#; boneless rolled pork roast = 45¢/#; cut up chicken = 33¢/#; liver sausage = 49¢/#; large eggs = 2 dz./89¢; butter = 69¢/#; bacon = 99¢/2#; sliced brick cheese = 70¢/#; various Easter candies = 29¢/#; canned tuna = $1.00/6 cans; and the store also gave you S&H Green Stamps with every purchase! I can remember a couple years later being married and finding it almost impossible to pay those "high" prices. When the price of hamburger, about the only meat we bought, went to more than 6# for a dollar, we really struggled. Almost forgotten about the stores giving stamps. That was a big deal then and every grocery store, at least, gave some kind of stamp to attract business. Ah yes! The good old days.

We got an email from our friends in North Dakota this morning with some good news. Don has been released by his doctor and can return to "normal" activities again, including driving ambulances again after the 1st. His heart problems came out of the blue a couple months ago. If he is anything like I am, I’m sure he has been itching to get to things and probably pushed a bit.

Time to get a-going.

In Christ My Saviour,

Chris ><>