Monday, July 28, 2008, 05:54
The Last Lecture
If you get an opportunity to read the book, "The Last Lecture" by Randy Pausch, a former computer science professor at Carnegie Mellon University, I highly recommend it.
Pausch was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer last year. He died on Friday at the age of 47 and left behind a wife and three small children.
LeAnn R. Ralph
Saturday, July 26, 2008, 18:30
The Week in Pictures
Since the old saying is that one picture is worth a thousand words, I decided to post a few pictures from around Rural Route 2.
Last weekend, we had some storms roll through. Randy took pictures of spectacular, towering thunderheads.
He also got some pictures of another ominous-looking storm with a dark sky.
And I could not resist taking pictures of the daylilies. Last year, a lady sent me some daylilies as a way to say "thank you" for giving her advice about taking care of orphaned kittens. She has a yard filled with daylilies that she has cross-pollinated herself to make new varieties. She didn't know if they would survive the cold winters here in Wisconsin, but I covered them up with hay last fall.
Two of the daylilies are a deep, dark red. One has a yellow center. The other has kind of a greenish center. And the third is a ruffly peach and pink color.
While I was at it, I got a shot of my Grandmother Inga's old-fashioned daylilies. And I took a picture of the rose that's blooming. The old rose bush used to be by the basement door, but it got too shady there for it, so I moved it last year. I really did not expect it to survive the winter, but it did. It hasn't grown very much this year, but it does have a nice rose on it.
And then too, one day during the week, my sister-in-law stopped by with my great-nephew, Eli, when they were out for a walk.
Eli loves tractors. One time a while back Randy was over at my brother's with the 460 Farmall, and Eli saw him there. Now whenever he sees the 460, he says, "Randy's tractor. Randy's tractor."
So, I took a couple of pictures of Eli sitting on "Randy's tractor." Eli doesn't know it yet -- he's too young to understand -- but the 460 was the pride and joy of his Great-grandpa Roy Ralph, for whom Eli is named (Eli Roy Ralph). I bought the tractor at my brother's auction when he sold some of the farm equipment he no longer needed. I was the only woman who bought a tractor, and after that, people kept giving me these strange, sidelong looks, as if they had never before seen a woman who had bought a tractor at an auction. I drove the 460 home, of course.
I'm really sorry my mom and dad never got a chance to see their great-grandchildren. They'd get such a kick out of them. We had an opportunity to see my little great-niece a week ago Friday. She is a cutie-pie, let me tell you. She was born in January, so she's six months old. Unfortunately, Randy and I forgot to take the camera with us, so we didn't get current pictures of little Evelyn Rose. . .
LeAnn R. Ralph
