DOES A BEAR SLEEP IN THE WOODS?

I received an email from PEGGY BRANHAM KRUMLINDE over the weekend with the following:

"Our visitor last night at 11:30. We had another one night before last at 9:30."

When I spoke of seniors living an exciting life, this is not exactly what I had in mind, Peg! She went on to tell me the following:

"We are in our RV on our lot in Pendaries (Pan-da-ray), 22 miles north and east of Las Vegas, NM - 80 miles from Santa Fe. We are at 8,000 feet, and have a lot of pine and oak here. The bears are hungry this year due to the drought, although we have had our annual monsoon season - it was a little late in August this year. We have to have all our bird feeders brought inside by around 5:00 every afternoon so the bears won't get them.

We will be winterizing on the 16th and return home to Albuquerque for the winter. It is already down in the 40s in the mornings here, and we have to use heat for an hour or so every day. It is warm during the afternoons, but drops back down by about 5:00 every afternoon and continues to get colder as the night wears on. It is truly beautiful here - we love to fish and are 20 minutes from Morphy Lake State Park north of us at 10,000 feet. Lot of rainbow trout - yummm."


What I'd like to know is do the bears ever go fishing, too? Seems I've seen a lot of videos of them doing just that -- and in the daytime!

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JERRY EOFF dropped me a note as well. "Of interest to some. The old Troop 42 scout hut/Catholic hall - the barracks building across from the water tower, was destroyed by fire this morning (Sunday, 9/8)."

I remember the building. Sorry I don't have a picture. I was there for a family reunion for someone a few years back and it was showing its age then. If I remember correctly, it was a frame building. With people using the kitchen facilities, I'm surprised it lasted this long. 

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I still don't have any details of TERRY COTHRAN'S passing. I hope the family will have an obituary placed in the local paper - or the online Ballinger News. If/when they do, I will post it here.

I would like to do some kind of memorial for TER. If any of you would like to share a story or two - either from high school or recent years, I will be happy to publish that as well. In the meantime, to TER, a big fan of John Wayne movies, "Happy Trails to You".

Take care out there, and 

Peace,

Marilyn

I have been so busy with my dad's affairs as well as moving to my new home in Austin that I got behind and thought it was about time to do an update or two. I recently wrote JAMES HAYS to inquire about NYDAH ELLET's condition. This is his reply:

"NYDAH has actually dictated two letters or rather notes to me.  The writer on the first one didn't spell her name correctly, so she printed her name correctly, very shakily, but legible, barely.  The second was written by a feminine hand.. She said she enjoyed getting letters and notes from friends, and she is still at the Aurora, Ohio address.  She can dictate letters for someone else to write.  I think her daughter Donna helps her write. Her address is the same:

NYDAH ELLET
Kensington Care Center
Room 11
849 N. Aurora Rd.
Aurora, OH
44202

Saw JERRY PIEL STEEL today.  She has changed very little over the years.

I am still working 30 hours a week, still help out in the State Guard, and I am the County Health Officer (cockroach counter)."

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Back in October I inquired about TERRY COTHRAN's son Kelly. This was his reply then:

"Kelly has had two surgeries to correct one of his problems, the first one didn't work for him but the second one seems to be working so far. He is still trying to get The VA to reschedule the surgery on his right ankle. He is at the point now where he has a really tough time walking on that right foot. We are still waiting for the VA and Social Security to come through with some money." (Kelly has been unable to work due to his medical condition.)

 About a month later, TER wrote:

"Kelly is doing better since the last operation to correct (some of) his problems.. He is now functioning fairly normally.. He is still waiting for the VA to come through with the surgery on his ankle. It is very painful for him to walk and he uses a cane. He still has no income."

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About a week ago, when the big blizzard hit the east coast, I saw where over 8,000 people on Long Island were without power. I emailed DENNY HILL in hopes he wasn't one of them. This is his reply:

"Actually I am snug as a bug, holed up in my house. For me there was no problem, because on Thursday I bought food for a few days and put my car in the garage. I did not lose power, internet or cable TV. The only mild thing is that the snow drifted up to my *** against my back door, so I had to dig it out just to exit from my house. (I got almost 3 ft of snow in  my back yard.) I am not even going to attempt to dig out my driveway, I'll just leave my car in the garage for a while. (I can take a bus to the university and back on those days when I have to teach..) Probably in a week or so the snow will have melted down to where you don't have to shovel it. I am a lazy dude."

We don't have to rub it in to DENNY the fact that we have had so many days (like today) of temperatures in the 70s and even 80s here in Texas!

I have some really neat photos of DENNY's flat (we call them apartments) he lives in during his summer stay in Poland. I'll try to get them posted before long. Here is the street where he lives while there:

I mistakenly posted the wrong photo of the street where DENNY lives when he is in Poland. He corrected me and sent the following: 

"This is my street. My place is way down at the end on the left, where you can barely see some umbrellas. So the shot is taken about one block from my place, looking down the street. But it is OK, because at least you can see how the buildings, etc. look.

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Last October PEGGY BRANHAM KRUMLINDE and her husband Guenter took a Mediterranean cruise. One of their stops was Rome, Italy. Here they are at St. Peter's Basilica in Rome. She sent me a link to her photos of the whole trip, and it appears they had a wonderful time visiting many interesting places. A trip of a lifetime.

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Speaking of cruises, I'm sure all of you heard about the recent nightmare Carnival cruise. I kept thinking the ship's name sounded familiar. Sure enough, it was the Triumph! That's the same ship I cruised on with my daughter Carajean and her family in 2006! When I told her about it, her response was "Timing is everything!"

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I have a couple of requests before I close. There are two of our classmates that I have been wondering about. One is PAUL MOTA. The other is CHARLES FIKES. PAUL's emails were returned and I just haven't had a joke sent to me by CHARLES in a long while. If anyone of you knows the whereabouts of them lately, as well as BARBARA SHARPES BROOKS, I would like to hear from you.

Until next time...

May all of the "stuff" happening in your life be "good"!

Peace and love,
Marilyn