It's Sunday night and we are getting ready to go back to Des Moines in the morning, the alarm is set, the air conditioning is on in our bedroom, since it it hotter than heck with high humidity again today.  Can you believe it's October and the temp. today was 84 Degrees F?  Not that it's awful, just hot.

I tried to work outside today (actually did trim the magnolia tree and wash one of the cars by hand) but couldn't do all I wanted to, it was too hot!  The sweat was running down my face, my cloths were soaked and I had only been working for about an hour.

I got the laundry done, the trash out, the dishes done, the counters washed off, fish fed, cat fed and watered and guess I'm ready for the morning.  That is, after I pack another of my eBay sales!  Been coming in all night.  I now have 9 packages out for the postman and just got two more items paid for!

This is the time of year, football season, when the sweaters come out, the jackets are put where we can find them and the trees begin to turn the colors that make the view stunningly beautiful.  But, so far this year, it has been warmer than usual.  We see just the very beginning of the trees changing colors, there is still time to have a beautiful picnic at the lake, to take a walk without going through lots of downed leaves.

In just a couple of weeks we will be wishing we had this weather back, it will be cold at night and cool during the day.  Football fans will love it, their tailgate parties will be filled with hot food and warm drinks.  The rest of us will probably wish we were leaving for someplace warmer, say the Caymans, for the winter months.  Others will see it as a wonderful time to be out in the cold, doing whatever you do in the cold besides pay high heating bills.

Maybe next year we will be someplace else, we can only hope.  We can come back and visit the fall and then leave, sounds super to me!

The sun is shining, the temperature is in the 70's, the trees are still green although they are beginning to turn to the fall colors and life is good.

Being back in the city has it's pluses and minuses.  It's fun to have everything available, it's just a bummer that I don't take the time to go see them.  Like, I love the Art Center and yet I haven't gone there this time.  It has been years so it probably has changed dramatically.  Will need to see it when we have time. You could visit it  Learning about our state and what it has to offer has been great.  There is a lot to do here that I wasn't aware was available.  The same can be said for the other states too, such as South Dakota.  There is more to it then just the Black Hills.

My husband has gone to AZ to take care of our grandkids while I run the office.  It has been really different not having him here to talk to, ask questions of or do things with.  He has his hands full and yet seems to be enjoying it.

Our daughter and her husband are in Portugal on a business trip and normally I would go take care of the kids, but with the office being new and my hiring staff, training and working with them, my husband thought it was best if he went and watched the kids.

I have interviewed quite a few, some just couldn't cut it, some are not willing to work on commission only, some were just people I wouldn't want working with us so the process has been slow, but we do have a couple of pretty good people and will get more.  Only want 4 so have to go through a number of interviews to get the quality we want.

The fad is to go to the local coffee shop or the Starbucks and get their coffee.  Now, I do that on occasion, but in fact I prefer the coffee at home.  I buy beans and grind them myself (sounds hard but the electric grinder makes it a whole 15 second ordeal) and get the blend and type of coffee I like.

I am now drinking only de-caf so I buy the de-caf beans.  There aren't as many choices in de-caf as there is in regular coffee, but since I don't like flavored coffee it really doesn't matter. 

The aroma of fresh ground coffee brewing is a wonderful smell.  It is a true "comfort" drink for me, evenings or mornings, doesn't matter.  Coffee, fresh brewed coffee that has been freshly ground is just wonderful.

We decided that it was time to move our office to the bigger city, that there just wasn’t the help, qualified help, available in our small town.

Finding the office was interesting, I knew where I wanted it to be and my husband was comfortable with the choice.  Now, it was just a matter of finding out if there was anything available in the building.  A few phone calls, a meeting with the landlord and we rented a space, the perfect one in our opinion, on the spot.

We had to have cubicles for our workers so that meant a trip to another city to look them over, since the office supply store here didn't have any.  They were delivered and set up by a crew of really neat guys, hard workers and neat, they cleaned up after themselves, which was nice.

The wiring that had to be done was accomplished by my husband and his friend.  The phones he did himself. 

Now we are up and running, hiring more staff, have gone through a few and will continue to look for the right personalities and abilities to fit our needs and theirs.

It's interesting to drive in to the city on Mondays and go home on Thursday nights.  All the house work has to be done on the weekend, but since we aren't there to make a mess it's not bad at all.  The one that misses us is our cat.  She even thinks I'm ok when we get home.  Bless her heart.  We thought about bringing her with us, but that would be more stressful than having her home by herself for the three nights.  She actually seems to handle it pretty well.  As long as there is food and a clean litter box she is ok.

The "new" civic center and library in our town has some major issues.  First off, let me tell you about how it was constructed, it was a refurbishment of the art deco era high school when the new high school was built.  With a construction cost of over Seven Million dollars it should be excellent.  Now, the appearance and the intent are great.  The problem is with the roof.

The roof leaks.  Therefore, the new library is fighting water damage all the time.  The theater area is so moldy smelling that I could not stay to watch the movie that I had paid for, it was dinner and a movie.  Well, did get the dinner, but not the movie.  The dining area was dry, the ceiling ok and no smell.  Then, walk out into the hallway and the ceiling tiles are about to fall down with moisture.  Go down to the next level to the theater area and the ceiling is all stained with mold and it smells terrible!

I asked the librarian why it wasn't fixed.  She said that she has no authority and when she notified the city manager nothing got done.  She then told them again and still nothing is getting done.  Is it because the contractor on the project is a local guy with lots of local clout?  Is it for fear that admitting that it was a halfway done job (on the roof) would not set well with those of us that put money into the project?  Well, as one that donated money to the project I, for one, would rather have it done right, even if it does mean getting the powerful local contractor to fix the problem than to risk having the seven million dollar investment become unhealthy and unusable!

The housing market in our community is on the upswing, the cost of houses has risen dramatically since we bought our house 12 years ago.  Similar to the rest of the nation, the equity in the houses of our town have gone way up. 

Part of the reason for that is a healthy local economy.  Another part is due to the fact that we live in a community that is neat and well taken care of for the most part.  The increase in the value of our homes is important to us, the area surrounding our house impacts the value just as it does in any other community.

We have the bad luck to have a real dump, vacant house, to the north of us.  The house has been "remodeled" in a manner that is a disgrace to the whole community and most certainly our house.  Then, next door to the west is a house that has a lovely family in it that comes from Latin America.  They are nice, they are polite and so it's a delight to have them…..except…..they are apparently used to the no zoning regulations that they lived with in whatever country they immigrated from so they have put this horrid sign in their front yard about transporting something.  It's just flat ugly!

I normally would let it go, but it is just too awful to ignore.  I am calling the city and requesting that they do something about both houses.  Get the sign out of the yard and get the dump next door torn down, the place has animals running in and out, the back walls are falling off and it is an eye sore. 

Since we no longer own a business in the town I don't care if I stir up some heat, it's our house that is being impacted and it has to be fixed.

Our community hosts the Old Thresher Reunion every year at this time.  It is amazing the number of people that come from all over the USA to see old tractors and threshing machines.  Most actually do care about that stuff, others come to see the friends they have made over the years. 

The laughter, the complaining and the "I would do this differently" continues through the whole 5 days.  The volunteers that work this event are dedicated, hard working and super people.  The number of hours they dedicate aren't just during the celebration but for weeks and months before it begins. 

The Midwest Railroad crews work to make sure the engines are in the best possible condition, that the cars are clean and in good repair to haul people around the grounds.  The shuttle drivers haul people from downtown to the grounds over and over from 7 am to after 11 pm, that's a lot of people and a lot of trips.

The grounds are maintained, the trash picked up numerous times a day by the trash collectors.  It is amazing the quantity of garbage that a celebration like this creates.

The gates are manned by volunteers for the local food bank.  The food bank receives pay from the Old Threshers for taking care of this so it benefits a huge amount of people.  The head of the Fellowship Cup (food bank) puts in around 55 hours in those 5 days, running change, water, listening to complaints, lining up workers, answering the phone and still taking care of the emergency needs that come up at the office.  Amazing.

The Rotary club act as ushers for the country western shows that are held 4 nights of the celebration.  They receive $400 for doing this, it goes into our activity fund to be used for things like helping to fund our share of the Boy Scouts program or the exchange program.  It's wonderful to have the opportunity to see to many people and still raise funds for Rotary programs.