Do You Ever Just Get a Feeling...

Tonight I had just finished putting the dinner dishes in the dishwasher when I looked up at the backdoor window. Something about the way the sky looked, how bright yet dark it was, made me get this feeling that if I looked out there I would find a rainbow. Sure enough....
...if I had just looked up a bit sooner I bet it would have been brighter. Do you get those feelings? When the sky is just that particular color, or you just get a feeling like the hair standing on your arm? My daughter and I were driving into Wichita on April 26, 1991 when I made a comment to her about the color of the sky and just had "that feeling". I mentioned that we might want to turn the radio to KFDI and she said that she "didn't want to listen to no country music." So we drove on with me watching like I was being stalked. We pulled into the Quik Trip on K-15 and McArthur (no longer there) to get gas and as we were getting out of the van someone was hollering, "TORNADO!!" "Where did it go?" What do you mean, where did it go? My daughter and I went inside the store and asked the manager where they were told to go in case of a tornado. He said he "guessed" the store room. Since people coming in said they didn't know where the tornado had gone I asked the manager if I could look out the back door. He opened the door and there was the most beautiful rainbow.... with the tornado in the middle of it!!!! This was when it was tearing McConnell AFB up. What I would have given for a camera. Did they have disposables then? It was funny that my daughter insisted on putting the radio on KFDI for the rest of the trip.

I've seen many rainbows on this horizon, double and even triple rainbows. Triple rainbows have a very bright outer rainbow with the lesser rainbows being dimmer.
With the rainbow gone, I went to the other side of the house to get a shot of the clouds and sunset. If you click on the picture below you'll see a little black dot on the lower cloud to the right of middle. At first I thought I had a spot on my lens till I looked at two other shots I took at the same time. They had spots, too, but they had moved...
...so I enlarged the spot (click the picture below) and it turns out it was a bird. I was surprised at how well the bird came out for as far away as it was.
With all the rain, everything is greening up and the flowers are starting to bloom.
I need to get out tomorrow, hopefully the sun will be out, and get some more pictures.

K-5 Spring Concert

Last night was the K-5 Spring Concert. Below is a copy of their program.
I had a grandson in the first group that climbed up on the stage. The young man in the center with his hand in front of his face is the one.
He was very active and very animated all through his performance...
...and even though he looks pained in this shot, most of the time he seemed to be really enjoying himself.

Here's a wide angle of the stage...
...then they moved another grade up... not sure what's going on in the shot below...
...a nice looking group of kids...
...then the older granddaughter's class was moved on stage...
...she's not as animated as her brother, she's the one in purple flicking her hair.

Below they've moved one younger grade off and another older grade on.
Most of their songs had either hand movements, body movements or both.
After the choirs, then the band groups performed...
...this is the youngest granddaughters "comment" on the their performance...
...though later she stood in the aisle and seemed to be directing the band, arms waving broadly. All the children did a wonderful job with their performances.

Computer Issues

I had planned on posting a video slide show of the pictures I had taken in Fresno of the Mennonite Men's Chorus with audio that I'd recorded on my digital recorder. But I'm having problems with this computer. When I attempt to play back the audio it stutters, or skips, like a vinyl record did when scratched, bad enough to "click" but not bad enough to repeat. The really baffling thing about this is that it doesn't do it with ALL audio files, and the format doesn't seem to make a difference. I can find nothing consistent to try to pinpoint the problem. I've turned off the graphics acceleration and that didn't seem to make any difference. I'll probably have to access the files on another computer or my laptop to create my slide show, but not tonight. If anyone has any suggestions as to what my problem might be, I'd sure appreciate the input.

AMD Athlon 64 Processor
3400+
2.41 GHz, 1.00 GB of RAM
XP Home Edition V.2002 SP2
NVIDIA GeForce FX 5200

Tonight I have the K-5 Spring Music Program to attend. I'll probably post pictures from this when I get home.

OR - CA 2008 / Chapter 11

Last Night in Oregon
After the celebration, many of the family members went back to Uncle Gordon and Aunt Kathy's house to relax and visit.
A good time and happy gathering for all.

Sunday morning we were all up bright and early. The plane was to depart at 10:40am and we needed to be there 2 hours early to check in.
I took some shots on the way to the airport...
...to give you a little more idea of the beauty of the area.
Next are shots from inside the Portland airport. This was the view out the windows...
...on our way to our gate for our layover flight to Fresno...

...here's a piece of the artistry on one of the walls.
Our gate was 'B', to the left in the picture below. Up the ramp to the center is a large central opening...
...not having checked out a map of the airport, I'm not sure if this is the main part, but it appears to be.

A musician, Bill Keale, was performing and selling his CDs here also. My mom and I had walked down here to see what was available to eat and so I could get some pictures. We were standing in front of the musicians table with CDs on it when his wife(?) came walking back, probably from the restroom. As soon as she came back, two children popped out from under the cloth covered table and started running around. She smiled and said they had their own little world set up under the table and then she laughed.

Next post will be our arrival in Fresno and the Mennonites Men's Chorus.

Sandplums

Anita of Prairie Dreams mentioned that her grandma used to make sandplum jam all the time, but I can't seem to find that post at the moment. I wanted to take a break from my OR - CA post to share pictures that I took April 18 this year. Below is a shot of the sandplum thicket in my backyard...
Many years ago my neighbor/friend and I decided that we wanted to make some homegrown jam. I had picked sandplums with my ex's grandmother as a newlywed so had a brief encounter with the thickets in the wild. My friend and I found out that there was a large thicket on the property of a mutual friend that lived on the river in the country north of us. We asked and were given permission to pick all the sandplums that we desired. She and I spent an afternoon filling plastic buckets with nice, ripe, juicy sandplums. For those of you that are not familiar with sandplums, it appears that technically they are called Sand Hill plums.
One thing unique about sandplums is that they are a natural for jelly making. By that I mean, the only thing you need to add to make a marvelous jelly is sugar. A lot of juices require pectin to properly thicken, but sandplums have enough naturally. Here's one woman's recipe for wild sand plum jelly. My friend and I cleaned and cooked and set up jelly in every jelly jar, large and small, we could get our hands on...
...and everyone we knew wanted some. The kids ate all we had in no time flat. Mention sandplum jelly/jam to native Kansans and you will see people perk up and pay attention, if not flat out start to drool. After all our work, the peels and pits were tossed in the compost bin in my back yard and not thought about till around three years later when bushes began sprouting. This is how I came by having a sandplum thicket in my back yard. Maybe this year I'll have enough sandplums to make some jelly.

OR - CA 2008 / Chapter 10

The Celebration Continues...
First a nice shot of the happy couple. They were, of course, looking at the professional photographer and not me.
Below we have Uncle Gordon's brother and wife, the celebrated couple, Uncle Gordon's sister and husband, and my parents, Aunt Kathy's brother and wife.
Finally a nice shot of Uncle Gordon, Aunt Kathy, their 5 son's and wives. FYI, the wives are not all really short... Aunt Kathy is 6' and Uncle Gordon and the boys are all taller than she is.

The boys and their wives did a wonderful job preparing the meal for friends and family afterward.
Meats, potatoes, gravy...
...salad and beverages.
Plenty of food for everyone. A wonderful celebration for some Wonderful People! I'm so glad we were able to be there.
Happy Anniversary Aunt Kathy & Uncle Gordon!

OR - CA 2008 / Chapter 9

Finally the post about why we went to Oregon to begin with, to celebrate Aunt Kathy and Uncle Gordon's 50th Anniversary. At the church hall we were greeted with a lovely reception table where guests were invited to to sign not only the guest book but to leave a personal message in around the pictures in the gold frame.
We were entertained by a wonderful boys choir.
This choir director began the boys choir 40 years ago and several of the Fahlgren boys over the years have sung in it, one is currently a member.

The boys below played some lively Celtic music, the boy on the right is playing a Celtic drum.
Everyone thoroughly enjoyed the entertainment...
...especially this rendition of the "Soggy Bottom Boys".
I just wish I had either my tape recorder or my camcorder with me for this, but I didn't.
For the last few songs, Aunt Kathy and Uncle Gordon's boys joined the choir...

...and sang along with the boys.
The cakes were beautiful, the kids did a wonderful job on everything.
The cake cutting...
...and cake feeding went off without a hitch.
After everyone had cake and visited the family went to another area of the church for family pictures, I'll share these with you tomorrow.