Opinions

“Samples!” I said out loud, to no one in particular, as I rolled my cart through the grocery store.
Getting excited and going for a free sample is something I always do, and it’s one of those times I always think of Dad.
The old man could never pass up something offered at no charge, sometimes to the point of being weird. As a kid, for example, I remember purposely parking the car on the far side of the Woodfield Mall so we would walk through Marshall Fields on our way to Sears.

A snake resided in Grandma Sickler’s garden.
We’d visit her at the farm at least twice a year. Even though Wittenberg was only a five-hour drive it was a world apart from our life in the suburbs of Chicago. There was a real barn complete with a hayloft, an outhouse, farm animals, live trout in the watering tank (Grandpa put them there) and cousins galore more than willing to show their “city slicker” relatives the ropes of the rural life.
Grandma said she liked the snake because it kept out rodents and birds. She also noted that if you didn’t mess with it, it wouldn’t mess with you.

My grandmother used to take great delight in quoting snippets of Tennyson’s poetry– especially bits about spring and love. She often had her own version of his famous lines, however. “In the spring a young man’s fancy lightly turns to thoughts of love,” morphed into, “...a young man’s fancy, and an old one’s not too bad.” And she warned us about what could happen once the headiness of new love wore off by saying, “He will hold thee, when its passion will have spent its novel force, / something better than his dog, a little dearer than his horse.”

North Liberty Leader
TIFFIN– Clear Creek Amana’s (CCA) varsity boys soccer team picked up a pair of wins Tuesday, April 18, and Thursday, April 20, against Benton Community and Center Point-Urbana (CP-U).
The action started in Van Horne with a 1-0 win over the Bobcats. A scoreless first half led to a Wyatt Sedlacek ball connecting with Mitch Evans. Evans blew past the Benton Community keeper for the goal.

When Pearl and I walk we have an understanding.
As long as she stays by my side with the leash slack, I’ll let her take a few breaks so she can stop and smell... well, anything and everything including... the roses.