Birthdays

 August is a big birthday month in our family with 4 of them on two consecutive days.  Josh and Alexa are on the 12th, Pat and Cyrus on the 13th, with Toni to follow later in the month.

I'm not sure where the time has gone but Josh turned 40! We moved our Tues. dinner to Weds. to celebrate.  No power here, and both phone and internet weren't good.  We drove till we hit 5 bars, which happened to be at a winery.  We sat in the parking lot while they had dinner and then they opened presents.  Wish we could have been there!!

This was a most unusual week. The derecho is still causing problems in Cedar Rapids.  Chris got his power back on Sat.  Cedar Rapids still has areas without power.  There are utility crews there from many places, including Canada, but there is just so much to do.  They have placed as many telephone poles this past week as they normally do in 8 months.  We were in Cedar Rapids today (Sunday) and there's still power lines down, trees on houses (displacing many people), phones still not working and too many trees to clean up.

Chris' neighbors showed up Sat. and made short work of the two large trees that fell on 4 properties.  They will still need someone to come cut and get rid of the large trunks.  One was a hickory tree and I picked up a lot of nuts today.  He has neighbors to cherish!

All that's left of the two trees

No power meant no work last week.  Chris and his friend were busy every day helping friends cut up tree's, repair roof holes, etc.  We shared meals with Amber and Tyler, enjoying Amber's culinary skills, and played Phase 10 by candlelight many evenings.  That was, of course, accompanied with a little wine and beer.

Our RV does not appear to be completed in the two weeks.  Chris was gracious enough to allow us to extend our stay.  Hoping it's completed this coming week.

Krikkit enjoys the breeze on Chris' deck.