Saw this the other day, it brought a smile...

what looks like the front of a 53 Chevy peeking out of a Garage is a front clip fastened to the Garage....

Memorial Day was a great time, scrambled to get there, but had a nice picnic...

Aunt Babe is doing well...

Maureen made the Deviled Eggs this year, they were a hit. She was still a bit sore from having her wisdom teeth removed...

Rich joined us again this year, Dylan was into playing ball, Kelsey is talking much better.

Tom taking his traditional snooze...

I managed to get Mary Ann's pic before she got mine...

Betty keeps things moving...

Kris looking very pregnant....

Curt taking a few minutes to play ball with Dylan...

Jeff and Kyle visiting while Rich catches some shade...

Kyle's swollen cheeks from his wisdom teeth removal. Fortunately neither he nor Maureen have had a hard time with it....

Kyle swinging Maureen on the swings, a nice brother/sister moment...

and of course he tries to launch her into orbit, a typical brother/sister moment...

Everyone gathered for the traditional yearly birthday photo...Curt, Kyle, Maureen, Rich, and Allen...

After picnic we went to Lafayette north of Brock, and then to Wyuka in Neb City to decorate graves. We finished the day off camping at the NRD lake south and west of Dunbar...

Maureen popping out of the camper....

Probably the last year for this Explorer, as I have a replacement lined up. This one has 220,000 miles, it's about worn out...

We wound up setting up two tents, as the camper only sleeps 4, and the table-to-bed coversions didn't work, so only the boys slept in the camper. Maureen took one tent, Rich and I the other. Next year I hope to have the D-T Bus running and enjoying that...

Well, managed to bake a birthday cake for the kids this year, been a while since I've done that...

of course, they look a bit different than they used to, soon will only have two teenagers...

but they can still manage to be goofy for a camera....

saw this nice '67 near the mower shop.....

And this 70 Ford Grand Touring Torino, all original, even has the original rims and hubcaps....

pretty sweet...

saw this nice El Camino in Pleasent Dale, thought of Allen, it is a factory Super Sport. Probably about a 68...

well, laters, kids....

Well, finally heard on the Elks contest. We placed second, beat Omaha by a fraction. Ogallala won first, no surprise. I guess Omaha was really crying about getting beat by us. I placed 4th out of the 9 Chaplains, guess I got gigged badly on "deportment" Anyone care to define "deportment"? Apparently I wasn't "inspiring" enough. Whatever. I am glad it's over, and we are taking a break from any of it til after the first of the year. Fine by me, I am so burned out on it. I have asked John and Jason several times for updates on prospective members, and information on the Elk-o-gram, and have gotten nowhere with that. So I am ready to throw in the towel with it. Not enough time for it anyway. My interests are far more geared toward helping the boys with their cars, and my own, and working on my acreage. Need to gain some significant ground on it. That and keep up with the Inspection business.  Finally got my Radon test equipment in, now to get licensed. I have to take the time to sit down and fill out all the paperwork, play their games.  I was so hoping that Tom Osbourne would get Governor, I thought that if he did, there was a real chance we could get this stupid Radon Licensing Board abolished. But with Heineman, no chance. He is a slick politician, and we will see our taxes go up and more regulation. Nebraska is already the 6th highest taxed State in the Nation, and fast heading to 4th, as we are facing a 14% tax increase now. No wonder people retire and leave. Kansas, Missouri, look real good. If I ever get to a place where I can retire, I may look elsewhere myself. I like it here, but it is expensive to live, and regressive for regulations. Well, best get after it....laters...

So we got started on the Camaro interior tonight, everything is stripped out.

you might have to look sideways, but this is a view of the headliner (or lack thereof) before we started installation

here is where the back seat is supposed to be.

More to come...

The weekend for the Elks contest finally arrived, Jeff and I drove out Thursday night, stayed at his cabin at the lake near Brady. Wonderful place, scenery right out of a Norman Rockwell painting... I could retire here, no problem...

we stayed there last night, then headed to the convention center and got into our tuxes...then tried to stay calm before showtime...

on the left, A.J Ellerby, our "Candidate", Doug Rienks, the Esteemed Leading Knight with the crew cut, and Sonny, our last year's Exalted Ruler, with the "I can't believe that!" look on his face...

Tery Edwards, the Esteemed Loyal Knight on the left, Doug Dessel, the Inner Guard in the center, and Jeff Sneller , the Esteemed Lecturing Knight on the right..

John Brooks, our Esquire, tuning up his camera...

from the left, Rich Todd, trainer, Terry Edwards, Doug Dessel, A.J. Ellerby, Doug Rienks, Sonny Lane, Jeff Sneller,  Randy King, John Brooks, and Steven Wirth, trainer.

Well, we snuck out of church a bit early, and headed out to Conestoga with some canoes in tow, to finish up the boy's Canoeing Merit Badge...

First, they had to swamp a canoe and paddle it back to shore...here was Allen getting to the dock...

then it was Kyle's turn....colder than ice in the water, but they were smiling, giving each other a hard time...

Next, they had to right a swamped canoe by bringing it over the bow of another canoe.. first Kyle....

then Allen, they almost drifted into shore this time, the wind was high and the current strong...

After we finished with that, we put the canoes back, and attended the Eagle ceremony for Josh Moline and Brandon Mills...

that was a good time, we came to the acreage and worked on the old Camaro, getting the center console out, and some wiring, and tried for the windshield but managed to crack it...oh well. We will get it out of here Saturday, with a little luck...

Sadly, this is what I came home to last night. Always something...

roof flew pretty good, about 400 feet from the horse barn to the trailer...

impaled a few rafters along the way...

came apart in four sections, they all cleared the lagoon...

this one made it within 100 feet of the house...

really didn't damage the walls much

if you look at the second post from the left, it pulled it about 6" up out of the ground..

yet, it didn't bother the little radio sitting on the power box..

or bother the feed cans...

sure re-arranged the deck joists, tho...

Saw a neat little Kharman Ghia today, had the "Auto-stick" which was sort of an automatic - stick shift hybrid. Never did work very well, and didn't catch on. Sort of like a stick without the clutch, or an automatic that you would manually shift gears in...pretty tho..

Wheels kind of set it off, tailpipe reminds me of a popsickle stick tho... not the exhaust I would have used.....

Went to Severe Storm training today, what a joke. They have turned it into a three ring circus. Bunch of 11 meter wanna-be's, and nerdy fat people with radios hanging all over them, shirts plastered with badges and patches, etc. Don't particularly care to be identified with that...TV stations out there, radio stations, Fire Department, etc.,etc. I just picked up my storm packet and left. Our training was supposed to start at 1, but they wouldn't get to the Ham part of it til 4 and that was to last 15 minutes. No thanks.

Went to Ashland to reset the sign for Woods they have been crying about, sign was completely down, someone filled in the post holes, sign was damaged, so left it lay. I will e-mail them and tell them to have someone else mess with it. I am tired of trying to do that nonsense for them. Drop what you are doing and run and do this, if you don't they get annoyed. Wrong answer. Don't feel like cowtowing to that anymore.

So came home to work on cars and Garage, etc. Will call Allen in a few, see if he is interested in coming out to work on his wiring. And get the pickup cleaned out so we can go to Beatrice and get the trailer, Wymore and get the car tomorrow. Kyle in Papillion today at a soccer match. Hope that goes well for him.

Spent two hours this morning brushing cats and cutting out mats from Mittens. He was not a happy camper. I know it hurts to cut them out, but it hurts to have them in too. Ringo got torn up by the tomcat, so did Mittens, nice hole in his right rear ankle. Guess I'll load the .22 and keep it handy, that tom has got to go. Hate to do that, but I'll never catch him, and I just can't have him tearing up my cats.

Best scram, do something productive while it is warm out.

Nothing like a little hail to get things started off right....hello storm season....

looked a little like snow...weird conditions, sun was shining, pouring rain, sky black as night, hailing, and warm winds...

yup, must be Nebraska in the spring...