Time is running out...

With nine days left until election, everyone should have their mind made up as to who they will vote in as our next president, either John McCain or Barack Obama. I am amazed at the amount of campaign money Obama has raised, over $150 million, the most any presidential candidate has ever raised. My next question, how has he done it and who are the contributors? Election night is going to be very interesting this year. I vote for my party platform, and I am conservative so I am a republican. I have voted across party line though in my district if I feel the man has the needs of our area at the center of his convictions. I am a McCain-Palin supporter.

I have been trying several new techniques to improve my range of motion. One is to do more squats at a counter going deeper each time and moving my feet back farther each time as I bend into the squat. I also stop on each step when going down the stairs and bend down my good foot with my bad foot on the upper step. This pushes the range of motion in my knee a little farther. Icing after doing any type of exercise that really exerts the knee is the best thing I can do after as it helps relieve swelling and pain.

I finally finished reading The Host by Stephenie Meyer. I highly recommend it to anyone who is interested in life after deaf from a science fiction take. Although it was a long book, over 600 pages, I breezed through it in a week. Meyer is a Brigham Young University graduate and has several young fiction books that are very popular with the youth. I have one of them at home right now and plan to read it eventually. I have several books that I want to read right now but find that time is hard to come by without letting something else slide.

The kids were in from the shop class on Thursday and Friday and did some more work on the platforms. I think they will finish the project this coming week. I am going to contact an art teacher and see if she has some students who would be willing to assist us in paining the platforms, one for a Native American exhibit and the other for an immigration exhibit. Lots to do and think about this next month.

We have sure seen commodities drop in price the past two months. Oils is not in the upper $60 range and grains are tumbling right along with them. It was sure strange to pay only $14 for gas on Friday when I would have paid $35 about two months ago. Feels good though.

Later

After almost getting stuck five time, Ardmore decided one hopper was enough. The forecast is for showers tonight and tomorrow, then snow showers on Monday. Hopefully they aren't too bad and we can get some more soybeans off.

Back to my walk. My back has been bothering me off and on all week so today I decided to use two canes when I walked. About half way to the bridge I ditched them beside the road and walked about 1/2 a mile. When I got back to where they were, I was glad I had them, my back started to ache as well as my knee. I immediately iced it when I got in the house. I had not taken a pain pill since early morning and then only half of a 350 mg. I should have taken one about a half hour prior to going on my walk.

I am laying in bed looking at my bookcase thinking, it may be mess but it is so convenient. I roll up my shirts and they hardly wrinkle, plus I can see everyone without going through the whole stack. Same with the pants. I also have the books I am reading on the first shelf and the magazines I am reading on the bottom, with a top to decorate. Someone else may think it is a mess, but to me it is an organized mess!

We only have five more weeks and we will be opening a new exhibit. Yikes!

Autumn Days

With soup simmering on the stove and clouds loafing across and otherwise blue sky, I decided to walk to the bridge. As I walked to the car to get something I heard the overhead doors on the shop open. That meant only one thing, Ardmore was going to go out to try the soybeans. I struck out east down our driveway into a fierce wind from the west. I thought it would be warmer but the wind was harsh and cold. By the time I got back to the house it was blowing with more vengeance and was I glad to get inside.

We have been fighting the weather ever since the soybeans ripened. It seems to rain three or four days, with just enough to continue to make it too wet to try. Today looks like it might be fairly decent. The only combines running in our area to this point have been those with 4- wheel drive, tracks, or duals; we have neither.

I remember what it was like in 1985 following a seven inch rain on August 3, Minda Haugen's wedding day. We watched the rain during the reception from the windows in Minda's parents home. The drive home told of the devastating situation we were in. We owned a pull type combine at that time and literally dragged it through the field to harvest timothy grass seed. It seemed to rain every day that fall and we never did get any other crops totally off. Some of the wheat was taken off on the frost, but that didn't last long as we had snow. I remember swathing in a snowmobile suit, no cab on the swather. Ice and snow would build up on the rollers under the canvasses. We couldn't fill the combine but about 1/2 full as the grain would freeze in the auger, and in fact once it did break the auger. It was awful. I would never want to go through something like that again!

Soybean harvest

On Friday, Ardmore decided to try to combine the soybeans. He always asks me to come and get him when he takes a truck out, and it is invariably just before I am leaving for work, which always makes me late. This time was no different only... He took the truck out and drove it into the wet field and with mud flying behind the back wheels, pulled it right back out and took it home. End of trying to harvest. Saturday he asked me to drive the truck across the chisel plowed field to where he was going to try to harvest. I thought it would be better to fill the combine and drive it home and empty it in the yard for the first trip. He only combined about a 100 bushels and decided the call it quits. It is still too wet and it is scheduled to rain again tomorrow! The question is, will we ever get the soybeans off?

We had stake conference in Winnipeg this weekend. We did not go. Ardmore does not like to stay over night and we can't go through the border before 9 unless we go through the Roseau crossing which adds an additional 45 minutes to our trip making it a 3 hour trip. He and I both had meetings on Saturday but I can't take the long trip two days in a row. I think about how it would have been to cross into Canada if 9/11 hadn't happened. We live only about 5 miles from the border. It is a small crossing and the plans were to make it accessible with an id card similar to a credit card. The cameras and the machine were all in place, then September 11 happened and all that changed. Now we need to have id and a birth certificate or a passport. Hours at our crossing have changed from 8am to 10pm to 9am to 5pm. It has made things so much more complicated. Government intervention in the way of making our country safer.

Now a little update on my thr and tkr:
The swimming definitely has helped as had the rocking chair and riding the bike. There is still considerable stiffness and I have problems with range of motion. I like to go on the computer when I am in bed just before I go to sleep. My knee does not cooperate with the bend I want and then it swells and gives me pain off and on all night.

Thank goodness tomorrow is Friday!

This has been one of the busiest weeks.

The school class was in Monday and Tuesday, we didn't have school on Thursday or Friday, MEA.
Yesterday was spent tying up loose ends and working on the board meeting info for next week and preparing for today. Today we had three programs. A bag lunch program showing the documentary Riding the Rails it is about the young people who rode the rails during the depression. Well attended and enjoyed. We had the same thing this evening and although the attendance wasn't as good it the noon program, it was still pretty good. They want more documentaries.

I'm over tired now after two nights of tossing and turning, I think I will sleep like a baby!

Yesterday

First day of the week at work:

1. Get up in the morning and get out of bed (Bus Driver - Guess Who)
2. Call the school to see if a teacher and his class have time to put together museum exhibit platforms
3. Ride the bike to limber the limbs
4. Talk to Toots on way to work
5. At work now - check email, teacher comes in to check out project
6. STS bring in the items from the old jail, a bunk and a door from a cell. Heavy but exciting stuff'
7. School records paper work comes through
8. Electrician comes in to complete the final job, installs a switch for the storage room in the gallery, wonderful! We will no longer stumble on something when we try to locate the switch on the wall behind the door
9. Teacher and students arrive and begin the project
10. Work is done, swimming therapy!