The power of the written word

no, I didn't do this one.....

Great story and illustrations, Peter and Maria! I have been famous for my flat tires in bad weather and bad locations, but now I see there are worse things than flat tires.

One in the hubcap is worth two in the bush....

Today Maria put a slightly different twist on this old saying....

Maria was driving back to work after going home for lunch. While driving she heard a THUMP THUMP THUMP sound coming from her tire. Thinking that her tire was going flat, she was concerned, but decided to drive the rest of the way to work since the tire didn't seem to be completely flat. She got to work and discovered the source of the thumping sound. It appeared to be a rope of some sort dangling out of a hole in the hubcap on her tire. She went to pull the rope out of the hubcap when she realized, horror stricken, what the "rope" actually was. It was a SNAKE!

Maria was too horrified to actually remove the snake herself (understandably), and so she drove all the way home with that sickening THUMP THUMP THUMP noise in the background. When I got home I jacked up the car, took the wheel off, and surgically extracted the snake.. Wow, that sure gave me the willies.. ewww.

pictures of our slithering friend to follow - >

Letter from Bloomington

Hi Andersons,
It's great reading what everyone is up to! I've been having a fun summer in Bloomington, doing my research and taking some time off for fun activities:



(Minnesota isn't the only state with lakes)

I'm also moving to a new apartment at the end of July and will have a new address:

809 S. Henderson, Apartment #2
Bloomington, IN 47401

I'm having fun with my new Apple iBook and its wireless connection that I bought off the remnants of my grant. The future is now!
Happy rest of the summer! It's great hearing about everyone's trips--
Ingrid

Thanks for the pictures and report of the trip, John and Lynda. It looks fabulous! And, Mae, we certainly hope you can come and visit in August. We always have an extra bed.

Norris worked until 3:30 am this morning, helping to rearrange the store. Local people might have read about Marshall Field's reinventing itself in the Saturday Mpls. paper. They are adding a lot more trendy brands, even to the extent of leasing space within a store to other companies.

Liv worked at another car show this weekend, but it was not nearly as popular as the "Back to the 50s" one, so they closed up shop early on Sunday. They had lots of breakfast biscuits 'n gravy left over.

Liv and I are leaving on Friday for Pine Ridge Reservation. Three adults, seven girls, two minivans, Wall Drug, Mt. Rushmore, and the poorest county in the United States!

Hi everyone,
Thanks again to Ingrid for posting our photos. Well, it was the most complicated vacation I ever organized, but it was worth it. A really beautiful area as you can see, and we had outstanding weather (sunny in the 70's) which is not the norm. The islands are great, and you can ride those ferries for free if you walk on or bike. We had an afternoon in Seattle on Fri. visiting the Dusty Strings music store where I got to try th Fluke ukulele, and the Pike Place public market. Then it was flying back to Atlanta on Sat. arriving home about 10 pm. If anyone has a chance to visit the San Juan Islands I recommend it.

John

Wow
I was just gearing up to say something about summer doldrums and how little there was of late on the blog, and then those pictures were added! Beautiful!

Three Pictures from John & Lynda's trip to Washington




"The first picture is a beach area we stopped on Lopez Island while biking."



"The view of the ferry boats shows one leaving Orcas (where we stayed) and one arriving early in the a.m."



"The final one shows us on top Mt. Constitution the highest
point on Orcas. We drove up and walked the last mile to the top."