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Journal

A Golden Anniversary

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My parent’s 50th wedding anniversary is today, so wish them well. We actually celebrated it over the weekend. They didn’t want anything elaborate, so we just did all of the things that we normally do when we get together. Over the course of the weekend we: talked, ate bacon, played cards, made sandwiches, ate sandwiches, played cards, watched the Cards, went out to eat, went to Zesto’s, played Settlers of Catan (don’t tell dad, we had to wait until he went to bed to play), quoted Paint Your Wagon, [note: we did not watch Paint Your Wagon or even have it playing while we didn’t watch it. This was the only way in which the weekend was disappointing.], played cards, gathered eggs, pet chickens.

You know, the usual stuff.

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Happy Anniversary, mom and dad. We should do this again next year.

The fort was overrun.

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After spending most of the afternoon with the Royuks, we decided that it was important to check out the fort. The other Sommerers were not in town, so we recruited some Royuks. Lauren, Beth, Tara, Tim and (other) Anna came over to our house and we walked to the fort.

It was a good walk. We crossed each of the three foot bridges along the way. I suspect that might be mandatory if you’re going to actually find the fort. When we got there, things looked pretty bad. fort0

In fact, it might have been worse than when we originally found it. It might not have been though. It’s hard to remember. At any rate, it was the worse it’s been in years. Luckily, most of the sticks were still there. They were just much closer to the ground. The good news is that it had definitely seen some use. There were some plastic bottles and other assorted trash inside.

After we had everything on the inside moved to the outside we started on the reconstruction.

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As always, the roof was the hardest. Mostly because Lauren worries that it will collapse on some poor woodland animal (or maybe a wood nymph, it’s hard to say what she’s thinking some times).

After we had the roof reinforced to Lauren’s specification, it was getting late. While we put finishing touches on it, Anna climbed some trees and Tim pushed some over. Tara was especially proud of all that we had done. I hope she comes back and adds more bits to it.

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Bread (part 1)

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I shouldn’t be writing this yet, but Lauren is in bed. Walmart has stopped carrying the bread that I like. It was one of those breads where you could actually see the seeds. Not just sprinkled on top, but in the bread itself. I can’t remember the name of the bread. I never needed to. It was always there… Until it wasn’t…

So I have to find a new brand of bread. I tried what I think that they are thinking is the replacement, but it’s not as good. Not enough seeds grains in the bread. Plenty on top, but they didn’t make it inside.  Today, when we stopped at the Wal*marts for some things that Lauren needed, I threw a different loaf of bread in the cart.

I’m pretty sure that this is going to be my new favorite, because it’s the most expensive. I think it was $5.44 a loaf, and it’s not  very big loaf. My guess is that that’s going to come to about $0.35 per slice. But I had to buy it. With a name like, “Dave’s Killer Bread”, it has to be good. Right?

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Singing Saints Home Concert

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I do’t know what Lauren was doing last weekend, but I was back in Concordia Missouri on Sunday and I got to hear the Singing Saint’s home concert. It was just great. After the first song, which was my favorite, I got out my phone and recorded a few of the pieces. Sorry about the poor quality. What do you expect from a phone sitting on a church bench?

There are just a passel(sp?) of students who are sons or daughters of people I sang in the Singing Saints with 30 years ago. I didn’t get an exact count. More than a dozen and less than 2 dozen.

Fun fact: One of the soloists on Ain’t Got time to Die is Brad Roepe’s son.

They were entirely reasonable

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A few months ago, after Time Warner Cable (through some arcane rite) became Spectrum, I noticed the amount on my credit card statement was $74.99. That number didn’t seem right, so I looked at the paper bill. I don’t know why they send a paper bill, but it has come in handy. The month before it was $59.99. That amount still seemed high to me, but it’s more or less in line with what people pay for internet.

I called them up. I was all ready to give them a piece of my mind and threaten to go to some other company. Luckily, we happen to have another company that I can switch to. Pretty soon we will have two other companies, but they started in the south and are working their way north instead of starting at my house and working their way outward from here as I suggested.

When they asked why I called, I said that, “My bill is too high.” The guy I talked to, who happened to be out of Lincoln, said that he would take a look. A bit later he said that he could see that I used to be paying $59.99 per month and he would see what he could do. A little bit after that he got back on the line and said that he could lower the rate back to $59.99 and double our internet speed. I said that that would be fine.

Fast forward to yesterday. I notice a Spectrum bill in the mail (as well as yet another offer to bundle things together); I think they spend half of the money I send them on mailing things back to me. Just to keep them honest, I open the bill. They have raised my rate from $59.99 to $64.99. I’m a little bit miffed, but I know what to do.

I called and said, “My bill is too high.” The nice lady on the other end said that she would see what she could do. A minute later she came back on the line and said that she had lowered my rate to $44.99 and, without me saying anything, said that she had made sure that it would be at least a year before that rate could be raised. I thanked her and wished her a good day.

I don’t know if I’m an isolated case, or if they just raise prices every so often to see if people notice. If you notice, they make it a better deal than before. If you don’t notice, you keep paying more. Seems like a reasonable way to run a company –as long as you can sleep at night.

A change for the something

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We went to subway yesterday and while Lauren was branching out and trying new things, I had one of the two sandwiches I get every time we go to Subway.

12 inch Spicy Italian on wheat with pepper jack cheese, lettuce & onions, black olives & banana peppers, salt & pepper & vinegar, maybe a few more black olives.

The sandwich technician told me that he had worked at Subway for 3 months and I was the only person in 3 months to order a Spicy Italian and not have it toasted. I bowed gracefully to the peer pressure and had mine toasted.

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It did not taste the same. I can not decide whether it is better or worse or east.