"43rd June Together"

June 9th, 1969, right around 7:15, Kath and I started out on a long journey together, We have been fortunate to always have a roof over our heads, and food on the table. We had a lot of lean years.........back then most young people did. Most young couples lived paycheck to paycheck.

We have had our good years too, enabling us to buy 4 homes during the years together. A thing that young people now are having trouble doing.

40 years we spent living in Nebraska together. I was asked by one of children the other day, "don't you miss Omaha?" I told her that there was no way I would move back to any big city. To many things have happened to big city life that I grew to really hate. And now after moving to North Central Arkansas, I know I would not like returning to that daily life. We have come to realize a good restaurant is an hour and a half north, and shopping for good quality clothes is two hours away.  We miss family and friends a lot, but it seems we actually talk to them more now then when we all lived in the same city. 

So this month we spent a day up in Branson Missouri. Did some shopping at Branson Landings Bass Pro Shop, and up off of Highway 65 at a shopping area. Then we had a nice meal around 2 pm, then headed south towards Arkansas. We took a different route this time. You turn onto Highway 14 at "Omaha Arkansas"! It is a winding road through back country of the Ozarks, just a nice ride for something a bit different to see.

We have been spending a lot of time on our yards blank spots with seeding and watering a lot. If we can just get the Bermuda grass to start, it will spread out as it has up front. It takes 30 days to germinate, so a lot of water will be put on it due to the high temps and the breeze we have had pretty much all spring.

Kath continues to take pictures of birds and butterflies that visit her garden area. Some of them are quite good. When she zooms in on them, having them in focus can be trying. But she is persistent, and gets good shots.

We have done no river fishing from the boat. Generation is minimal, and we have a rule we set a few years ago, "the boat doesn't go on without 3 generators running". But I have been enjoying "wetting a fly" every Friday for the last few weeks. Two weeks ago, I landed a dozen. They would take anything that Friday. But this last Friday, it took four hours to get five rainbows on. I stay as long as I can when I do go. Fridays I get home from working, have a bite to eat then go when Kath goes to work. When I realize I am getting wore out, then I call it quits. I really enjoy fly fishing, and I feel I understand it more every time I go.

Last night we went out around 7 on the lake. The temperature was falling, and the wind was calming down. Kath took us for a ride around to the dam and back into a large cove where we were able to sit in calm water, and watch darkness bring in a fantastic show of the stars. When you get far enough away from the marina, viewing the dark night sky is fantastic. There was no visible moon last night. We came back in after ten. Had we not taken the dogs along, I think we would have stayed out much longer.

Today we left them home, went out after working in the yard all morning. We went to an area we usually go right by. It has a really nice cove, the water is very clear and there is a convenient buoy there we tied onto. So we got into the water for a good hour, just layed back on our "noodles".................great therapy for us. We sat and just enjoyed relaxing out in the open air of the Ozark Mountains.

So till the next time, take care.
Bob and Kathy