FROM DONNIE RE: ABE LINCOLN QUOTE

" Apologies--this now appears to be a fake quote. Should have known it sounds too good to be true. Even we liberals can succumb to the net's deceptions. But as Colbert reminds us, it's the "truthy-ness" that counts. In this post-truth info age, truth is what you want it to be. "

A SPIFFY NEW SHOWER

My shower is working again.  They threw out the old one and put in a fancy new one with all kinds of different spray settings.  I may spend the whole morning in the shower tomorrow!

I'M SUPPOSED TO RESPECT MY ELDERS, BUT IT'S GETTING HARDER AND HARDER FOR ME TO FIND ONE NOW.

WHAT'S IN A NAME?

I've, often, wondered how long it would take to make the change.  Franciscan Skemp became Mayo Health Services a few months ago.  Only us old timers remember that facility used to be a Catholic hospital run by the Sisters of St. Francis.  Gunderson used to be a Lutheran hospital.  That was back in the days before hospitals and insurance companies became money machines first and health care providers second.

Now it look like "Gunderson Lutheran" is about to become just "GUNDERSON CLINIC" with a new logo.  The full story is in the LA CROSSE TRIBUNE this morning.

DON'T GET TOO CLOSE

I couldn't take a shower this morning.  No pressure and no cold water.  Only super hot water.  Too hot to stand under it.  Like Rosanne Rosanadana used to say, "It's always something".  I suppose Thunder and I will spend most of the day with the plumber.  Thunder won't like that and neither will I.

NO A/C TODAY

Talk about roller coaster weather!  Winds are gusting to 20 MPH, this morning, and temperatures are on the cool side.  We'll be lucky if we get to 70 this afernoon.

IT'S NO LONGER THE WORLD WE GREW UP IN

I suppose, everyone, as they grow older, has the same feeling.  Everything changes too fast and you can't keep up anymore.

Donnie wrote, "Will be very hard to get me on many travels anymore.  Way too complicated.  Trying to make a hotel reservation for one night in Maryland was a horror.  Took, at least, 20 minutes by phone.

The woman's accent was so heavy I could hardly understand her.  The phone was scratchy.  She was, probably, overseas, representing a reservations service in Dallas for a motel in Maryland.  Globalization.

I had to spell my name a dozen times and she'd keep talking over me so I'd have to start again.  I have to give personal and financial data to these people!  No such thing as "customer service" anymore.  Everything is designed to move money from customer to company."

I spent a "few" years in customer service and I can assure you, it's still there.  The difference is that it's now reserved for only the very wealthy.  Having worked for one of the most expensive hotel chains in the world, I can tell you that the most expensive cost for any company is "customer service" and those that can afford it, get it.  And, when it comes to reservations, rich people don't make reservations.  They have servants who talk to to other servants who make the reservations.

This was bound to happen when we stopped shopping at the LOCAL stores owned by LOCAL people who were our friends and neighbors and decided we'd rather save ten cents shopping at HUGE, UGLY factory type boxes who have so many millions of customers in so many countries that they could care less if you ever come back or not.

It's not any politicians fault or any company's fault.  IT'S OUR FAULT for making the choices we've made...all in the name of one of the seven deadly sins.....GREED.

The old saying is more true today than ever before.  "You get what you ask for".

SORRY TO HEAR OF THE DEATH OF SAM DRUCKER

Remember Sam?  He was the owner of the General Store in GREEN ACRES.  The Actors real name was FRANK CADY.  He was 96.

I DIDN'T KNOW THERE WAS A MAGNOLIA, ILLINOIS

There must be.  Someone from there read this blog yesterday.  I looked it up and found it southwest of Chicago, about in the middle of the state.  It's home to around 279 people.  You learn something new every day.  And, if that's a fact, I guess I'll have to resign myself to another fact that is that I'll never know everything.

DONNIE AND LINDA HAVE SOME BEAUTIFUL NEIGHBORS

DONNIE ON BRADBURY

Ray Bradbury died last week. The great writer didn't go to college and never learned to drive. Of his science fiction he said "I'm not trying to predict the future, I'm trying to prevent the future."

HOT TIPS ABOUT HEAT

Check out these HOT WEATHER TIPS from the National Weather Service.  Even though we're going to have a few cool days the first part of the week, we've got a long summer ahead and there's a lot more heat to come.

DIET

Check this out: TEN BEST FOODS FOR WEIGHT LOSS

FRIENDS



THUNDERSTORMS TONIGHT

COOLER TOMORROW

HOTEL RATES FOR BUSINESS TRAVELERS WENT UP 9.3% IN APRIL

FROM WILLARD

Used the Egg Wave Microwave egg cooker for the first time yesterday.  Poached one "test" egg.  PERFECT.

Later I set up to do 3 eggs.  About 60 seconds later I heard loud EXPLOSIONS!  If you don't secure the top to the egg cooker the top blows off and you have a MESS.  Have learned a lesson...won't happen again.

FROM DONNIE

We have at least three Great Horned Owls in the trees out back. Heard them yesterday at sun-up, very near, then again at dusk. Didn't expect to see these nocturnal creatures, but in the last shadows of the day one took flight, landed atop a tall cedar tree, and posed there for several minutes. Big bird! All we could make out was the silhouette, the "horns," and of course the whoooo-ing. But I didn't hear them this morning--maybe they were just passing through.

I SHOULD LIVE SO LONG!!

There's an interesting article in the HUFFINGTON POST about HOW TO LIVE TO BE 100.  Please note, in the article, that nearly half of the centenarians, interviewed, said that WALKING IS THEIR FAVORITE EXERCISE.

I always think about Vesta when someone talks about making it to 100.  Vesta's daughter, who was a nurse, said to Vesta, one day, "Mother, if you'd stop drinking and smoking, you could live to be 100."  Vesta's answer was "Who the hell wants to live to be 100?"

I'm with Vesta on that one.  The last thing I'd want to do is live to be 100.  I just bought a new pair of shoes but I don't think they'll last that long.

By the way, Vesta didn't quite make it to 100 but she lived into her 80's.  She was one of our neighbors in Armour and one of Mother's life-long friends.  I always thought of her as my "Auntie Mame".  She was one of a kind.  According to her will, she requested that a deck of cards and a string of Christmas tree lights be placed in her coffin.  The request was carried out.  Now, you see, why I called her my Auntie Mame.

WHILE WE'RE ON THE SUBJECT OF WALKING

It was on June 10, 1837 that Simeon Mills arrived in Madison.  He had WALKED from Chicago.  Mills figured he had walked enough and became the deputy postmaster in Madison before opening the first mercantile establishment in the city.  He was also the Dane County Justice of the Peace and was also Territorial Clerk of the Supreme Court.  That's what I would call a busy man.

ANOTHER HOT ONE

We hit a high of 91 yesterday and they're forecasting a high of 92 for today.  You know what they say, "It's so hot the trees are whistlin' for the dogs."