Little House

If your childhood bully was a fictional character named Nellie Oleson, we can be friends. And if you looked forward to 7 p.m. on Mondays to see your crush Michael Landon play "Pa Ingalls," we can be BFFs!

This blast from the past was brought to you by the South Wood County Historical Museum, which is currently presenting the traveling Laura Ingalls Wilder exhibit!

Knowing I wasn't going to be around the next two Sundays, I was glad I could squeeze it in after BINGO yesterday. 

Every picture of her and her family made me automatically compare those to the TV cast.

But having read every book from Little House in the Big Woods to These Happy Golden Years, there were parts of the exhibit that drew my mind right back to the written pages. The photo above – about the grasshoppers – I remember reading that and wanting to gag. Thanks to the Kansas State Historical Society, we can see an image are realize once again that these were true-life stories for this girl.

So, of course, now I'm inspired to re-read them all again. And we had them all! Not sure if my twin sister has them or they got old and moldy at the homestead. LOL. Talking old-time now! But the local library may have them.

If you were a fan, check it out. It's interesting reading/viewing and doesn't take too long to get through. Plus, there are some "period costumes" to accompany it. 

As for the real "Pa" Ingalls, I'm not going to let reality ruin my clean-shaven memory! If you know, you know.

Sundays in Dobberville

After a little hiatus since the BIG jackpot was won, I was wondering what my good luck (er, good duck) fox would do.

As usual with fair-weather dobbers, we had a smaller crowd today since the progressive jackpot was starting over at just shy of $600. But we did have over 100 players there so the jackpots were the larger of the two choices in each game. 

Thank goodness I sat with my group of veteran players because playing 12 cards myself, I almost missed the fact I could yell BINGO during the 4-corners game. Unfortunately, the $70 pot for this one doesn't go far when you have to split it between 4 winners. Still, they graciously rounded up from $17.50 each to an even $18. #winning

None of us at our table won the 50/50 raffle or the big coverall round. I will say being achingly close with just 2 squares to go was pretty painful. But per usual, we smile and nod and promise to be back and say it was for a great cause – this time our high school soccer team.

For me, winning was seeing an interesting exhibit at our museum after BINGO (which I'll blog about tomorrow) and catching a 2-mile walk in the "fake spring weather" with a friend. 

We'll see what other nice surprises are in store this week!

You Had Me at Feels Like 34

 

It's such a downer when Robyn's Day Out turns into "Why are you even outside today!?"

But my trusty camera – who may or may not be cursing me – set out to catch some action at the ballpark.

With the snow, we had to have our Assumption games on the turf (again) at the Lincoln High School quad plex. Both baseball and softball teams were playing today. At the same time.

The first thing I noticed was that without my husband on the coaching team this year, I didn't know all of the baseball team. Or half of it, anyway.

Just like softball yesterday, there seemed to be a lot of new faces. Especially for this old lady whose son graduated almost 9 years ago. (Say it isn't so!)

Anyway I took pictures of baseball and when it got to be a long defensive inning, I hopped over to our softball team just 20 feet away. While the boys lost their double-header, the girls turned things around from yesterday and took 2 W's in their outing.

With the wind making the temperatures cooler than normal, I didn't last the whole afternoon. Even with a winter coat on, that windchill with a real feel of 34 degrees did not agree with my camera. Or wimpy me.

But hey, spring sports in full force now. As long as Mother Nature mildly cooperates. And hubby grilled burgers tonight so that has to mean something.

Please!

Swinging Clubs and Bats

Since our golf course did open today (thank you, Mother Nature), I decided to spend my lunch hour there. Just the driving range – not an actual round – but it felt so good to get those ugly first swings out of the way. Hopefully for the season. But we'll see. 

After work, I booked it over to the turf ball fields by Lincoln High School. Apparently Assumption's "home turf" (which is not fake turf stuff) isn't ready.

While the new-ish quad complex is impressive to most people, it's a beast for photographers. Too many layers of fences and nets to shoot through and batting cages situated where I should be able to stand and shoot pictures of our stars in the outfield. Hopefully we'll be back on our home turf at Robinson Park next week.

Today was a softball double-header versus Adams-Friendship. I shot action photos of the first game, which we lost 5-4 but we did win the second game – which me and my cold camera missed.

They play again tomorrow. And so does baseball and soccer. We'll see what I can capture. My camera batteries are charging now.

Of course, if it's actually really nice, I may have to do some more swinging of my own! 🏌

Yes Spring Chicken

Usually the phrase includes "no spring chicken" but I'm changing that to "yes spring chicken" after the sun finally came out today and the neighboring farm roosters and hens were scampering about and enjoying it!

Could this be the real sign of spring? Maybe. Here's a few other clues.

Suddenly the summer vibes of Yacht Rock Radio reappeared in my Sirius favorites.

And... our golf course where Jim and I have a couple's membership is opening TOMORROW!! I may head to the TriCity driving range at lunch. I mean I really need to test out my new club somewhere beyond our livingroom carpet!

Other signs of spring include the Twins home opener. Not a win, but they had a game. 

And the sun was bright enough at 6 p.m. for me to take a walk after work.

Don't worry. I haven't drunk the Mother Nature Kool-Aid. I know we're probably going to get screwed over, er disappointed, at least one more time. But let's go with it while it's here. Even for a day!

They CAN Fly!

After a day of work that felt like a week, I was not amused on my foggy, rainy commute home when two dozen turkeys in a field decided they must cross the road in front of me. So I brake and then suddenly some of them are flying to expedite the mass movement.

I immediately thought of the famous quote from a WKRP in Cincinnati episode: "As God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly." You weren't wrong. They can! They really can!

I was thankful half of them crossed in front of my car and the other half I saw crossing in my rearview mirror. Whew. Definitely don't need a collision with a flying bowling ball!

Of course, when I got home my mood lifted – as it does anytime there's an Amazon box with my name on it sitting in my office.

The long, skinny box contained my new 4-iron – to match the rest of my new blue SMOKE clubs I got last summer. I realized I needed a "long distance" iron in the rare chance I have to shoot out of the rough. (Insert eye roll here.) 

I can see now why part of the Amazon logo is a smile. They pretty consistently deliver happiness. It would be nice, though, if Mother Nature had similar branding. The overnight snow and sleet did little to expedite my first tee time of the season. 

Because it's Lent, I'll give her some grace. But even that is in short supply.

Trifle Tuesday Has My Vote!

As a former newspaper reporter and editor, I still get a little PTSD on Election Day. I should say Election Night! Waiting, waiting, "hold the press until results come in" waiting.

With more than a decade of experience in the trenches, I was schooled to be neutral (or write neutral) on just about any type of public decisions – including elections. I mean all my reporting had to be unbiased. I still can't break that habit. I honestly have my opinions, but I just try to see both sides and don't exclaim to the masses how unjust or outrageous certain sides / candidates / campaigns, etc, are.

Even though the educated voter in me says, "Are you kidding me?"

According the machine at our town hall, my vote was "counted" today so that's what matters.

If I ran the world, though, of course I'd say Trifle Tuesday should be a national WEEKLY holiday. (See my Roll a Rolo to a Friend Trifle in Exhibit A above.) 

And really, can we NOT have a serious election on April Fool's Day? It just makes me very nervous for the coming hours. This is also why I'm blogging early. I might not be able to contain my allegedly neutral outside opinion later. 

But if you haven't voted, get out there. Our freedom to do so is not to be "trifled" with!