Jan is

hauling corn for Mark today. The combine broke down yesterday, and a wagon today, but they are going again. It's hard to believe that harvest season is here so soon. Seems like such a short time ago we were having the big spring rains. Where has the year gone???


The word "girl" shows up in the Bible only once.
Turtles don't have any teeth.

I had

knee replacement surgery nearly three weeks ago, and am slowly recovering at home. So far so good. It's not something I would reccommend unless really necessary. Because of this I have not spent much time at the computer.

In 60 seconds, your blood makes a complete trip through your body.
The Empire State Building contains more than 10 million bricks.

I had

Suddenly

we've gone from summer to fall. Temperature in the 40's this AM and more cold weather in the forecast. Labor day was near 90 and predicted high today in the 60's. Ain't Iowa great.

The scissors was invented by Leonardo da Vinci.
An Atlantic salmon can jump 15 feet out of the water.
A running faucet will put 3-5 gallons fo water down the drain in 1 minute.

The weather

has been really great for the last while. No storms and ideal temps. Makes one wonder how long it can last.
I also wonder now and then why Obama is called the black candidate. His mother was white so it's a fifty fifty deal. Maybe we need a new name for people like him. How about whack or blite. We were supposed to quit the old rule about one drop and you're black.

Every person has a unique tongue print.
Howdy Doody had 48 freckles.
More stuff that everyone should know.

I need

an editor to look my writing over and check it for spelling and grammar. After I have posted it I see the mistakes I overlooked.

Sweet corn

season is upon us again. Jan put up, and froze, 24 bags today. She planted a couple of tomato plants along the side of the house and they have been producing great looking and tasting tomatoes. This is a time of year that can't be beat is some ways. We have also had what seems like an awful amount of storms. So far we have been lucky and missed the bad ones. The sweet corn is courtesy of Mark by the way.
The economy is on most peoples mind these days. Food along with most everything is going up in price, in what seems like huge jumps. I've been wondering if the day may come when some people may have to give up cell phones and 150 channel cable TV, in order to have food on the table. Really a scary thought, since we have become accustomed to so many thinga that didn't even exist just a few short years ago years ago.

Ice cream was invented in 1620.
Every time Beethoven sat down to write music, he poured ice water over his head.
Many snakes can live a whole year without eating.
Everybody ought to know things like this.

Not much

going on here except the grass keeps growing and it is hotting up. I wonder if anyone even is looking at the boring stuff on Granpa Beard's Page.

Metric

It turns out that the amount of rain I said we had in the June 10 posting was not correct. Jan had been reading the metric side of the gauge at least some of the time, if not all. So, not sure of the total. Too much at any rate.

We mowed

on Friday and wonder of wonders, no rain since. It's been so long since we have had weather like this that one forgets how nice it can sometimes be in Iowa. It is cool today, so that helps also.

There's one thing about baldness, it's neat.

Some people remember jokes, others dismember them.

Children are excellent judges of character until they have received the benefits of education.

A sunny

day today for a nice change. Jan has been keeping track of the rainfall and her records say we have had nearly 23 inches in May and this far in June. That's bad enough. but the forecast is for more the next couple of days. This has to end soon or the crops will really suffer. The grass does like it though.


Money is like fat. There is plenty of each, but it always seems to be in the wrong places.
Don't throw away the old bucket until you know whether the new one holds water.

I seems that if one does not post a new entry every so often, one must almost start over. This is only to postpone that need.

A combination

of things, weather, hardware and software problems kept this posting from showing up when it should have. The 83rd Birthday ride occurred on April 23, one month late. The other problems held it up till now. Anyway, the ride took place, short as it was, and am now looking forward to number 84. The video is a little ragged, can't blame that on anything but me, darn it.

The weather seems to have settled down some, no rain for several days, and only a slight chance predicted. The grass is doing very well however. Tree leafs are filling out and we can't see some of our neighbors anymore.

Bookkeeping in one easy lesson. Never lend them.
One can observe a lot by just watching.

Here we go

again. Looks like Old Man Winter will never let go.
I ride a stationary bike in the basement every day except Sunday. It's gotten so that I watch The Price Is Right to pass the time. Eighty some years have flown by, but sometimes twenty minutes on a bike going nowhere seem to drag. I have, in the last four or five months, won a dozen or more cars, and some bedroom sets etc. When the stuff is finally delivered I will put it up for sale at pennies on the dollar. Don't miss this opportunity to cash in on some real deals. The TV selection on Saturday is slim. I do notice though, that in older shows when someone makes a phone call someone at the other end answers right away. No pressing one for English, two for Spanish and so on. No one put on hold for long times, or asked to leave a message. The old days sound really good sometimes, in more ways than one.

If you never lie, your friends will stop speaking to you and your enemies will think you are lying anyway.

Some people are easy to entertain. All you need to do is sit down and listen to them.

The weather

here in Iowa is the usual cloudy stuff we always seem to get this time of year. We are waiting to go from winter to summer, skipping Spring altogether.

John McCain is starting to look better every day. He is not talking about bailing everyone out who didn't pay attention to what they were getting into, with big mortgages on houses that were too big as well. If Uncle Sam can bail out Bear Sterns, he can theoretically bail out everyone, which means the tax payer is on the hook big time. It doesn't seem right that people should be rewarded for bad behavior. Being liberal is OK, but there is also a limit. One wonders what would happen if everyone decided not to pay their credit card bill, mortgage payment, car payment etc.

Every family needs two cars--ask the family that owns one.

When you need advice, everyone is ready to help you; when you need help, everyone is ready to advise you.

What a difference a day

or two makes. Thursday gave us six inches plus of wet snow. Saturday it's gone. Ain't Ioway something? I'm surprised and glad it's already melted and gone. The grass will green up soon, and then the mowing begins. We're ready, it's been a long winter.

Another good way to insure yourself against auto accidents is to take the plane.

One good turn gets most of the blanket.

March came in like a lamb, but we may get heavy rain on Monday. There surely should be enough moisture to get the grass going.

Double

Double your pleasure double your fun.

Trouble

The darn picture of the snow won't upload. Bad day all around.

The picture

Winter Ain't Over Yet

The storm that was forecast to be on the Iowa Minnesota border, came south instead, and left us with six plus inches of wet, heavy snow. We had been starting to dry out, but there is a lot of moisture in this stuff. Iowa weather stinks.

A weed is a plant that has mastered every survival skill except for learning how to grow in rows.

Easter and Birthdays

My birthday falls on Easter this year. I missed it the last time in 1913, and will surely miss the next time. It will be over 200 years before it happens again. Damn !!

I apparently hit a key I shouldn't have, hence the abbreviated posting. Lousy typing, or maybe the keyboard moved.

Since most accidents happen in the home and in traffic, the surest way to be safe is to leave home ans sell your car.

Barbecued last night in a little snow, and of course, ran out of gas too.

My birthday falls on Easter this year, first time since 1913. I missed that one by a few years and probably

Motot Bikes and Birthdays

I built motor scooter in about 1998 and a motor bike in 1999. I have ridden the bike on my birthday every year since 99. The enclosed clip is from 2007. This year's weather forecast doesn't sound very promising. I may miss this 2008. Mostly I wanted to post a clip to see how it would go. I have downloaded a program to shrink the file down to a reasonable size.

Remember, the bigger the menu, the smaller the portions.

If Obama disagreed so much with his minister, why in the world didn,t he walk out during the "God damn America" tirade?

I had a pickup just like this in the late forties. Same color, air conditioning was crank the windows up or down, power steering was a big steering wheel. I did put a radio in it with the speaker in the ceiling so it could be heard over the engine and air conditioner noise. It was a 1937 model, so it would be 70+ years old today. I'd guess it rusted away years ago, or maybe turned into a tank or something in World War II.

A city couple from the East went to Ireland to visit a distant cousin. After miles down a narrow road they came to his little farm. After small talk the farmer offered to show them around. The visitors asked if he would show them how he fed the pigs. Of course, he said and went to the back of the barn and came back carrying a pig. He went to an apple tree, held the pig up while it ate a couple of apples, then went back to get another pig and did the same thing again. The city folks asked him if this wasn't terribly time consuming. Oh, he said, what's time to a pig.

Spring ???

We're thinking spring may be just around the corner here in Iowa. The surface of the driveway is visible for the first time since December first. It has been covered by ICE and snow from that time on. The air is clear and smog free, and one can step out to the deck and take a deep breath without a cough in a carload, so to speak. Who among you remembers "cough in a carload" ???

It looks like women are their own worst enemy. The first chance that I can remember for them to prove or disprove that a woman could do a better job of running the country, and they seem to be letting that chance slip by. The glass ceiling won't disappear doing it this way. It may be years and years for this opportunity to come around again.