Uncle Harold

My mom had three brothers and one was Harold.  I remember Harold as a funny guy and whenever he would see my sister Mary, he would yell "Oh No", slap his hand to his forehead, turn in place three times, and then fall down.  I am not sure why he did that.

I knew Harold was becoming ill and had moved in with my grandparents but, what a surprise when my Dad told me he had passed.  I was in high school at the time and was sitting in my bedroom when Dad told me. I will never forget that.  I was in shock. He was the first person I had known to die in the family.  He was 57, my age now.

While my sisters and I were going through all of Mom and Dad's items when they passed, we found 20 of the same photos of Uncle Harold.  I might be exaggerating but every time we turned around, there was Uncle Harold.   I taped 25 cent tags on them for the estate sale.  Might as well sell some of those Harolds.

After Mom and Dad's estate sale, I hauled a bunch of unsold items back to Georgia to put in a three day consignment sale.  I then took those unsold items back to our house for our very own estate sale before our move to Iowa.

Last spring  I had a large garage sale that involved my sister's items and my mother in law's items, as well as things I had moved to Iowa but didn't need.  Everything that didn't sell, I hauled to our church for them to sell at their big garage sale.  I wasn't able to help or shop the church garage sale last year because it fell on the weekend Maggie graduated from Young Harris College in Georgia.


I was very excited to be a part of the church garage sale this year.  I had been gathering things throughout the year to donate.  I decided to drop off my items the Monday before the sale since I would be at church anyway for hand bell practice.

As I walked into Baxter Hall at church that Monday evening, much to my surprise I noticed Uncle Harold sitting on the kitchen counter.

I picked him up and found the price tag I had put on him for Mom and Dad's estate sale three years ago.  I had to think this through.

He had been through Mom and Dad's sale, the consignment sale, our estate sale, a garage sale, and a church sale.  Five sales!    How in the heck did he show up for this year's church sale, we all wondered. When I suggested to my sister Mary, that mom was messing with us, she said Mom wants us to buy him back.

As the story was getting around to the garage sale volunteer members, he went from the kitchen counter top to his own table. I suggested he must have been left over from last year's sale but a volunteer said they never keep anything for the next  sale.   Harold even ended up on Facebook. A church member posted him saying he needed to go to a good home.

Saturday afternoon, I noticed Harold was gone from his table.  Somebody came and bought him.

Monday at work, I received a manila envelope from the post office. Something had come to me in campus mail! 

It was Uncle Harold!!!

Uncle Harold has found his new home.  My office!

Mike, Gone for a Month

Mike made his yearly trip south for the month of April.  It is really different around here when he is gone.  The house becomes messy, I eat differently, I enjoy the first week and then start to get lonely. When he comes back, I have to get used to him being around again.  I am not complaining though.  I think it is good for him and the girls to get together.

When he left, the Mississippi river started to rise  well beyond it's banks.  I went to the Farmer's Market for breakfast on the Saturday after Mike left and found the parking lot under water.  The deli was still open and they had a pop up market in a lot on higher ground.

My friend and I decided to go up on the sky bridge to get a better view of the water.

 The trains were having trouble getting through so they built the tracks up. This caused some issues with the city because they were concerned cars would not be able to drive over the tracks when the water receded.

This is a broken panel on the sky bridge. Someone told me it looked like a Monet.  I just realized people may not know what the sky bridge is.  It is a glass bridge that goes nowhere.

Last week there was a water breach in the Hesco wall.  I have never heard this word before but it is the name of the sand wall built to hold the Mississippi back.  When it broke, downtown became flooded with cars floating and people being rescued by boat. I believe it made national news.  So the water in all of the photos above is now much higher.  Some of my favorite stores are now flooded.

I have had people ask if the flood has affected us.  Luckily it hasn't except for maybe more traffic than usual because of all of the detours.  We are five miles from the breach (breach not beach) and on much higher ground.

The day Mike left, our new vanity for the master bath was delivered while I was at work.  I had no idea it would be coming on a pallet.  They left it in the middle of the driveway and when it started raining, I called Mike to have him call his friend to go over and pull it into the garage.  It was 265 lbs.
Yes, we are finally renovating our master bath.  We decided to hire someone to do it instead of us doing the work because it involves tearing out walls, moving plumbing, and moving electrical.

One thing I did agree on was to pull the wallpaper off the walls that are staying.  It didn't take me took long because not many walls are staying.

Mike had a good time while I was home working.

Molly had a new neighbor move in while Mike was visiting her.  Late one evening the police came to her door to ask if she owned a white Ford Taurus.  Well, that is Mike's car and it turns out the new neighbor's boyfriend doesn't know how to park a U-Haul.  Not only did he hit a truck head on, then Molly's car, but he hit Mike's car at least four times.  The owner of the truck witnessed it and called the police right away.  He thought the driver was drunk but he wasn't.  You would think when you hit something, you would stop what you are doing.

And now for some Easter photos.

1) Binx helping me get Janelle's Easter Basket ready.
2) What my sister saw in the front yard of a plumbing business.
3) Binx brought me the Easter Bunny and placed it behind the couch.

I am not sure how Binx did that since he is not allowed outside.   The only thing I can think of is the bunny must have been in the basement porch where Binx is allowed to hang out.  I was in the kitchen when he brought it to me hanging in his mouth and when I squealed, he decided to put it behind the couch.  I thought it was dead but when I scooped it up in the dust pan, I realized it was just in shock.  I placed him outside and soon he was gone.

Things like this always happen when Mike is out of town. Last year I had to deal with a bat in the basement in the middle of the night. 

Anyway, I hope everyone had an eggs-ellent Easter!