Saturday This and That.

These are pictures I "borrowed off the Internet.

It is snowing in Washington DC

The Masonic Week is about to start there and I have a couple of friends from Iowa who will be attending.

With the bottom picture came these words
from Jeff Ballou included below]

The morning after in DC... 30 degrees Fahrenheit

Check on your folks in DC, MD, VA, WVA, PA, NY, DE

Snow is still falling..power outages widespread.

Some highways shut down (66), postal delivery suspended and very limited below ground public subway..



























Then we have a couple of pictures I took earlier this week of Miles and Cassie.
















Miles looks so very innocent in this picture but if you could see the chair leg of the chair that Cassie is sitting on you would see that he likes to chew. The chair was from Jon's grandparents and they have been refinished and re glued and recovered but one of the legs has now been marked with Miles' teeth. The joys of a puppy. And yes folks, he is still a puppy, Just a little over 6 months old. I already have to keep things up high as he loves to get paper plates or anything he can get his mouth on to chew. He likes to untie my shoe laces and tries to jump up to greet me.

Speaking of jumping up I got a call on my cell phone the other day while I was working in the Consistory Office. It was Jon. He wanted to let me know that he now agrees with me about training Miles not to jump up. Seems Bailey had an "accident" in the kennel and Miles stepped in it and then jumped up on Jon and got his sweater dirty. From now on when we come in we are to strongly keep him from jumping up. Once again the wisdom of the old man outweighs the exuberance of the young.

Speaking of the Consistory - I am working there because the regular Assistant Registrar and Master of Kadosh (same guy) is out after having gall bladder surgery. Don is a really nice guy and I think he will be back on Monday but I will go in to answer the phone so he can catch up on some of the things which he has not been able to do. Usually he is the first one in the building and opens the place up. This week I was the first one there and I got to unlock the big bronze doors on the front of the building and to be able to turn on the lights, etc. When you walk in at 7:55 AM the noises that the boiler and steam pipes are making are a symphony of cacophony and I think that there is someone else in the building but it is just the water going through the pipes to warm the place up. I really have enjoyed having someplace to go and real people to interact with - face to face time as someone called it.

The drive to Des Moines is not bad - It takes about 30 minutes from my house to the Scottish Rite building and the road is pretty straight. There is one stretch I am cautious about. Just north of Ankeny there is a curve where I have seen a lot of cars in the ditch so I generally take it out of cruise and slow down just a little when I pass that spot.

One of the jobs I got to do yesterday was to write letters to go along with the checks which go out to various charities. The picture is of me presenting the check to Youth and Shelter Services and I was pleased to be able to do that. I was the Masonic Representative when George Belitisos came to Ames to set this program up and he has done a terrific job serving the Youth of Iowa. I also gave a personal check in memory of my mother who would have celebrated her 98th birthday on February 22. I offered to buy her a brick in the Plaza of Heroines at Iowa State University as she had worked there when I was growing up. She told me that she would rather have something given for her that would help people.

So one year when the lovely flowers I put on her grave at Memorial Day were stolen I decided to stop throwing money away on dead flowers and give to YSS in her memory instead. I think she would have been pleased.

Other Charities to which money was given were:
Food Bank of Iowa
Good Brotherhood Fund of Scottish Rite Park
and the World Food Prize.

Today I am off to the Opera - Simon Boccanegra. I am looking forward to seeing this opera by Giuseppi Verdi.

That is all my news for now. Thanks for stopping by. Hugs j