Ten-Finger Exercises

packing

Several people I know are packing right now, moving into new houses or new towns, new dorm rooms or apartments. A patient I visited yesterday was, according to her son and daughter, an expert at it. They said they each attended 18 diffferent schools, from New Hampshire to Washington. Their dad would "just up and say one day that it was time to go." The mom could pack everything they owned and be gone the next day. The son said that he had rented a truck a few years ago, crammed everything he could into it and still couldn't get it all to fit. His mom came over, made him unpack it all. She directed it the second time and there was room to spare when he was done.

Today I talked to Anna, who told of growing up on a farm in Oklahoma, where her dad raised "everything from pigs to peanuts." He also worked for the Hershey company and kept them all supplied in chocolate. He also had some milk cows, and she told me about churning butter and selling it to the neighbors who could afford it.

When she married, she lived in California, and they went to Kansas City one year to visit family. They thought maybe they'd move there, and they even got a cow for themselves while living with a brother. The kids didn't like the fresh milk, called it "bull cow milk" and wouldn't drink it.

One day they were out for a drive, and they were watching a storm coming up. The brother yelled at them to get out, because there was a tornado coming right at them from the other side. He knew of a cellar out in a field, so they all ran out there. The door had been blown off it, so when Anna and her children were down inside, the men pulled some railroad ties across the opening. She said they stayed there five hours and waited out four tornadoes. Her husband said the next day that his brother could have his cow. They were heading back home.

Fires are still burning out here. FLoods still happening back east. Wish we could share the water!

Gas got down to 2.99/gal today, for the first time in a couple of months.

And that's how it is here, out in the boonies.