Storm clouds overhead

Fast-moving clouds sped past the caboose where I work. They didn't look the best but nothing came from them.

I really do hate summer storms. I imagine it comes from the years on the farm when I was a little girl and trips to the cellar were not drills but to get away from the real thing - tornadoes!

My dad always watched the clouds and told us when to head for the cellar, which was maybe 150 feet from the house. The only problem was that Dad waited until the storm was there and THEN told us to head for the cave. Many times we made it just as the storm was hitting.

One night Mom and Dad yelled up the stairs for my brother and me to get downstairs immediately. As we ran down the stairs we could hear the roar of a tornado and bricks from a chicken house in the yard were slamming against the side of the house. The house wasn't damaged that much but a brick chicken house that had been described as indestructible was leveled and bricks were found more than a mile away. I don't remember what happened to the chickens, but I suspect they didn't fare very well.

I can tolerate summer storms a lot better if I am at home and in my basement. My house is old but it is built solid and it takes a tremendous storm for me to feel it.

Luckily for me, storms in this area usually happen after 7 or 8 p.m., so I've been home an hour or two before the storms hit. The other day, though, storms moved through about 3 or 4 p.m. The clouds looked threatening but I counted only 5 raindrops on the caboose window.

Much ado about nothing.

Two photos and a rant

Two volunteers outstanding in their field.

OK, dumb joke, but that's what came to mind when I saw these two corn stalks towering over a field of soybeans.

This little fellow lives somewhere around the caboose/tourist information center where I am working this summer. Every afternoon he ventures out to nibble some tender blades of grass. He blends in quite well, doesn't he? He doesn't let me get very close, so thank goodness for a camera that lets me zoom in on him.

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THE RANT: About 7:15 p.m. yesterday I was at the grocery store. According to the thermometer on my car it was 88 degrees outside.

When I came out of the store, there was a van two cars down from me and inside were two dogs. The one may have been a bulldog cross and the other was a beautiful German shepherd puppy, maybe 6 or 7 months old.

The owner had left the driver and passenger windows down about 7 inches or so. Both dogs had their noses out the open windows. Can you imagine how hot it was inside that car?

I sat and watched as people came out of the store with their packages.

Surely it was these two teenagers who had so thoughtlessly put their pets in danger. No, they walked right on by.

A disheveled man with a scruffy beard came out of the store. It had to be his dogs. No, he walked on by, too.

The well-dressed woman didn't look like she would be carrying dogs around in her car and certainly not exposing them to the heat. I was right. She walked on by.

One of my purchases had been a bag of ice cubes, so while I waited and watched, I found a pair of pliers in my car and picked up an ice cube (I wasn't sure if they were friendly or not). I tried to give it to the dog through the window. The boxer took a few licks but didn't offer to take it. The puppy would have taken it but I couldn't reach him in the back seat.

After 20 minutes I decided to drive around the store and keep returning until I could see the dogs were OK. I actually considered calling the police, but I didn't.

As I was driving off, a middle-aged woman came out with her cart full of groceries and began putting them in the back of the van. I wanted to confront her, but I also didn't want to create a scene in a public place.

I do, however, have the name of the ball team her daughter (or granddaughter) plays on and her son's name and what soccer team he is on. I'm not psychic - there were stickers on the back window.

According to an article on thefuntimesguide.com/dogs:

Leaving your dog in the car during the summer (even when it doesn't seem all that hot to you) is similar to putting your dog inside of an oven! Seriously. The temperatures heat up so quickly that your dog becomes completely helpless when trapped inside the car on a hot day.

Believe it or not, leaving the windows partially open is NOT enough. Parking in the shade WON'T keep the car cool enough either.

They sweat differently too. Dogs sweat by panting and by sweating from their paws. However, a dog trapped in a hot car cannot effectively rid its body of enough of the heat by panting and sweating -- simply because there's not enough cool, fresh air to replace the heated, stale air.

You can read the complete article here:

http://dogs.thefuntimesguide.com/2010/06/dog_hot_car.php

If you are going to be getting out of your vehicle for even a few minutes in the heat of summer, please, please leave your dogs at home.

One Bite at a Time

One Bite at a Time

by The FlyLady, Marla Cilley

It is so much easier to clean in a room without clutter.

Don't get overwhelmed by all the clutter; it only takes 15 minutes a day over what you do in your routines. I know you don't think this is going to work, but I promise that those 15 minutes of concentrated decluttering every day will make a difference in your home and your attitude. It is the consistency of eating the elephant one bite at a time that will slowly make the whole elephant disappear.

I have a story to tell you about my Sweet Darling. He is the king of the one-bite rule. Several years ago he had a British sports car, an MG. In fact, the car was always being worked on. After a minor car accident, the MG was totaled. So he bought a second car the same model for parts. He is pretty good at fixing anything. It took both cars to keep just one running. He was left with only the stripped-down parts car.

Over an entire summer, he systematically cut that car (with a hack saw) into dinner-plate-sized parts and sent it to the landfill one plate at a time. It was his goal to do something to dismantle this car each day. At the end of the summer he was finished. It was almost therapy for my sweetie: the car had betrayed him. That car was a pain and he got rid of it one bite at a time. Beware of the anger of a patient man.

The reason I mentioned this story, is because in our impatience to see our homes clean, we overdo. Then we get overwhelmed and we QUIT.

I want you to do a little every day and not crash and burn. BabySteps, 15 minutes of decluttering and consistency will be the keys to your clean home and your peace. If you are not being consistent with your routines, even small ones, then you are not going to have your goal of a clean and peaceful home.

This hit-and-miss attitude is what got your home in a mess to start with. You clean like a banshee for two days because of guests, and then when they leave, you let things go to pot because you are worn to a frazzle.

This has got to stop. I want you to enjoy your home, your family and your guests. You can't do this if you are exhausted. I want your pledge to stop "crisis cleaning"; that you will commit to doing your routines DAILY, and that you will spend 15 minutes decluttering each day.

I am not the drill sergeant that many of you think I am. I don't spend all day cleaning. Even when I was decluttering I only did 15 minutes a day. I used the 27 Fling Boogie to declutter our home. It was almost as if I didn't clean at all. After three months of decluttering every day and doing my routines, our home became a paradise, instead of the pig sty that is was.

Every morning I walk into a clean and shining home and it is still a big shock and a GO ME moment for me. I walk into my clean kitchen and just smile. Some of you know what I am talking about. It is a pleasure to not be greeted by mystery water and yesterday's dirty dishes that make you feel like you are behind before you even make your coffee.

I want you to smile when you walk into your kitchen each morning. Visualize your clean and peaceful home. Let go of your perfectionism and impatience and take babysteps. You can do this if you will just eat this elephant one bite at a time.

For more help getting rid of your CHAOS, check out her website and join her free mentoring group at http://www.flylady.net/ or her book, Sink Reflections published by Bantam and her New York Times Best Selling book, Body Clutter published by Fireside. Copyright 2010 Marla Cilley

20th Century Veterans' Memorial

The entrance to the 20th Century Veterans' Memorial looks interesting, perhaps it could be described as impressive.

But it is through the words and raw emotions of the veterans who stop to tour the memorial that you finally see the true heart of the memorial.

The memorial is the highlight of the little park where I spend several afternoons a week, visiting with travelers in the caboose tourist information center. It is directly across the dirt road in front of the caboose.

People from all over come and go all day into the evening hours. Some will stop at the caboose to tell of their delight in finding such a beautiful memorial tucked away in North Platte.

Others express their joy at finding memorial bricks of loved ones, while others share their pain and sorrow in finding the brick honoring a fallen comrade or relative.

Whatever emotion is released, their heartfelt message is always the same: "Thank you for building this memorial."


As tourists get out of their cars, the first thing they see is the larger-than-life sculpture "Defenders of Liberty," by North Platte artist Ted Long. The six bronze statues on either side of the walkway depict the military service of men and women during the Twentieth Century. Most of the statues are by North Platte artist, Ted Long, a Korean War veteran, North Platte. Following Long's death, Sandra L. Johnson of Cambridge made the last two or three sculptures.

A closer view of the bronze group statue, "Defenders of Liberty."

The south wall of the memorial is a remarkable brick bas-relief mural by Images in Brick of Denton, Nebraska. It measures 15 by 40 feet and represents the five major conflicts of the Twentieth Century. There are two side panels (not pictured) that honor five major ethnic groups and the women who served in the military during the Twentieth Century. It is amazing when you consider that this wall was made of separate bricks in Denton, shipped to North Platte and then built on the site.

If you are headed down Interstate 80 through Nebraska, please stop at Iron Horse Park in North Platte and walk through the memorial. When you see the thousands of names etched on "bricks" lining the walkway, you'll be so thankful for their service to our country.

(Photos are continued in the next four files)

20th Century Veterans' Memorial

The Canteen lady's basket of goodies.

This is Rae Wilson, founder of the North Platte Canteen. This is worthy of a blog post all its own so I'll just introduce her here and will tell you more about her and the canteen in another post.

20th Century Veterans' Memorial

(Continued)World War II Army Air Corps

U. S. Navy

Nebraska Army Medical Corps

(continued in next file)

Veterans' Memorial in North Platte

(continued)

Three more of the individual sculptures at the Veterans' Memorial

Marine Corps

Coast Guard

Army