Sad day in the past, silly day in the present

June 5, 2002:  Hair appointment today.  Tom came for me.  Then to Merilyn's office to finish getting the card for cheaper cab rides.  Tom took me to HyVee -- I picked out groceries.  He went to Sam's Club to get me a new long distance telephone card.  Went to Book Club tonight.  Tom didn't stay -- he and Merilyn were planning an evening out for their 31st wedding anniversary.
June 6, 2002:  Had Nancy, Tom and Merilyn here for supper.  We played Rummikub -- Jeff came while we were playing.  I showered while Tom and Nancy did dishes.
June 7, 2002:  Long, lonely, dreary day.  Nancy called in late afternoon -- helped a little."

Poor Grandma.  She sure missed Grandpa a lot, even with the change in locale and routine and new friends and all that.  Hardly surprising, given how long they had been married.  June 7, 2002 was 64 years since their wedding.

On a cheerier -- albeit totally off-topic -- note, I had some fun with the sheep yesterday.

Right before I left to go to Lincoln for Mom's birthday ladies' breakfast (Mom, Nancy, Anna, Bev and myself), I was greeted by one of Frank's ewes that had escaped her confines.  Since I now have a bucket ready near the back door (I am always hauling water to one group of critters or another), I took it and rattled it like Frank told me to do, and sure enough the ewe followed me over to the pen.  Two of the ones already in there heard me and thought they needed to come out, but I managed to get everyewe where they needed to be and off I went.  I did not alert Frank since it is not uncommon for one ewe to get excited and jump the fence, so no big deal.

I came home to find 20 or so ewes out of the pen and just having a grand time all over the yard.  The last I knew we had 6 or 7 ewes with us, but obviously something was up.  My bucket was useless other than as a humorous and very momentary distraction for the ewes.  They went in the coop and tried to eat sweet feed and bird feed, but because they were closing the feed bags by standing on them, that didn't work.  They did manage to scare the life out of my one gimpy guinea and also knock over the brooder box; which is no small feat -- that thing is heavy.  They also momentarily raided the barn and left sheepberries and a couple of small piles all over the grass.  Well, I had to call in the troops (Frank) and he came over with a bucket of corn.  Our phone conversation was a bit funny; here it is paraphrased:

Me:  Frank, it's Mary.  I came home just now and there are sheep everywhere.
Frank:  I know, I opened the pasture gate. [more about the pasture gate in the next paragraph]
Me:  No, everywhere all over the yard.
Frank:  The yard?!?!?!?

Now the pasture is divided with a gate into two parts.  The 6 or 7 ewes were closed in on the one half and I would periodically put the goats out in the other half.  Well . . . Frank brought over the additional ewes while I was gone.  He eyeballed the gate to the goat half of the pasture from a distance away and thought it was closed.  I didn't know he was coming, so I didn't make a point to close it myself even though I normally do.  Because Frank had opened up the gate between the two halves (necessary since the number of ewes had gone up considerably) the ewes did a perimeter check and found the gate open and off they went.

Lesson for Frank:  Never trust the uninitiated.
Lesson for me:  Close the gate no matter what -- it can't hurt.

Now I get to collect extra fertilizer for the rhubarb from around the lawn.  Bonus!

I do not know if the photo for today was from their actual wedding day, or if there was a gathering with cake at a later date.  But a nice photo of a day Grandma surely remembered.