I belong to the Knights of Columbus, a Catholic men’s organization, and one of the annual drives it has is the Tootsie Roll drive for Intellectually Challenged Individuals. It is held in Iowa at this time of the year. I get an email from the council I belong to here in Des Moines and I saw where they needed someone to man a two hour slot at the Dahl’s Grocery store in Johnston on Saturday the 8th, so I volunteered Sarah & I for it. I didn’t realize the Iowa vs. Iowa State game was being played at 2:30, out shift ran 1-3. It was interesting how many people wearing the colors of the two schools and I couldn’t help adding comments to an Iowa State fan, Go Hawks, or to an Iowa fan, Go Clones, it added to the experience. I don’t know how much money Sarah & I raised but our buckets were full. I like this fund raiser because all the money raised stays in the Des Moines area. In fact there are a couple organizations who have volunteers helping with the fund raiser and they in turn share in the proceeds. The years I was involved we raised over $14,000. It is a great cause.
Saturday night we met long time friends Mike & Debbie Richmond, Mike was a service manager at Ruan when I worked there. He is now the service manager for Ryder at their Delaware shop in Des Moines. We met at Outback and had a great time. Mike has a couple more years to work but from the sounds of it he is ready to hang up his wrenches. Hang in their Mike it is worth the wait.
Sunday Carl & Merilee came over and we drove to Ames to meet Matt, Tiffany and Alexa at Sam’s Club. Alexa needed a winter coat, her old ones were to small so I wanted to get her a new one. We finally found one at Wal-Mart, coat and gloves and she is ready for the winter. I also sprung for lunch, hot dogs at Sam’s Club, I think that is one of the best values around, besides we had fun sitting around talking.
Tuesday, as I have mentioned we bought a car, well it is a suv and I needed to get it licensed and since we are South Dakota residents I called our mail forwarder, Alternative Resources in Sioux Falls, and we filled out the paperwork, I had printed it off their website. My biggest concern was the state won’t accept credit cards or personal checks and since we bank with USAA Bank and they have no facilities in this area I was concerned about how to get a money order. Luckily the post office will do money orders off cash or a debit card. So I was able to mail the paperwork to Alternative and with luck we will have our plates next week.
Later that afternoon long time friends Norma & Orren Cairo came out. Sarah has gotten Norma into beading and actually Norma is very good, she made a bracelet and ear rings that were quite nice. Anyway, we had a great afternoon talking and finished off the day with some grilled brats. We will see them again before we leave the area and maybe they will come over to Omaha in October and we will get to see them before we head south.
Today we are going in to Cynthia’s so I can get her computer sending emails again. Then tonight we are having dinner with long time friends Candi & Russ Cerniglia, Russ worked at Ruan when I did and he has developed a BBQ sauce that is very good. Go to http://www.russandfranks.com/ order some from his website, I believe you will enjoy it.
Tomorrow we go to Burlington, IA for my 50th class reunion, more on that later.
Dreams Do Come True
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