TOO MUCH FOR TOO LITTLE

Aren't these flowers pretty? They should be. They practically cost an arm and a leg!! (I just noticed that the flowers are sideways, but they are still pretty in a cockeyed way.)

I don't care how much gasoline has gone up. (Well, that's not at all true!) But that has become a standard answer to why everything is so expensive. Of course, corn--and lack of corn crops--will be a huge reason for price gouging this fall.

This week our academic teams will be grilling out as a money-maker. I had to go buy all of the food--I should be refunded, but it would be the first time!! We are doing hot dogs, hamburgers, and chicken; potato chips; pop and water. I must buy expensive food because in order to make much money, I guess I'll need to be doing a bit of price gouging also. It's for a good cause. It always seems like people will pay huge prices at a theater or a professional game, but when it comes to schools, they want cheap prices.

Before I forget it: One of the best sayings I've heard was told in church last week. The speaker said, "Do you know the ten most important two letter word? 'If it is to be, it is up to me.'" That saying is credited to someone I've never heard of and nothing is about him on Google. Isn't it great that common people can say profound words? Now if I can just get those common people to spend $2 for a hamburger!!

Get togethers the old-fashioned way: A FUNERAL

I was going to write about how it takes a funeral to get people together, but it took me about an hour to mess this picture up. Now I think I'll gripe about the different picture programs.

Why is it that they all can't just do the same work, using the same terms? This picture never did look just quite right, but I wanted to crop it in order to leave part of the background out. Well, on the one program there is a crop, but it must think I was talking about field crops because no matter what I did, nothing showed up in the picture. I decided to hit the cut button. Sure enough I was able to cut away some of the excess.

Next step, I saved the picture. When it saved, everyone had turned orange. Once again I went to a program. I got it to look fairly decent, saved it, voila--pure garbage. I don't think anyone would have known anybody. I went to another program. And then another one. I saved, saved, and saved some more. Now I wish I could have the original picture back, but it is long gone.

I'm tired of progress. My mind doesn't want to have to relearn different programs every few months.

Anyway, this picture is one taken at the last uncle's funeral. We, the first cousins, are all the elders now. Unfortunately, we are missing one of the surviving cousins, Peg, because she lives out West. Three of the first cousins are deceased.

My sister probably would like to shoot me. She wanted a picture of the flowers her family sent--very beautiful--but she didn't want her picture taken. I don't have many pictures of her. If she knew I was taking this one, I probably wouldn't have this one either.

The day of the funeral was beautiful, nice weather. The funeral itself was quite entertaining. The minister didn't know Uncle Chuck at all, but he knew the rest of the family, including my Aunt Marilyn who had been married to Uncle Chuck. The minister told the only story he knew about Uncle Chuck. Aunt M.S. didn't want a divorce. She just wanted Uncle C. to always take care of her. They did get a divorce, but he always paid alimony. Any time she'd go to the country club, her bill would be added to his. Several times--and this is what the minister said--Aunt M.S. would call Larry (the minister) and his wife to see what they were doing. She would tell them that Chuck wanted to treat them to dinner. All three of them would go to the country club and eat. Larry never knew if Chuck ever caught on, but Larry said the meals were good!!

The funeral was a private one, family only. And of course, someone's cell phone went off during the service. Doesn't that always seem to happen? When it went off, Larry apologized. The minister of all people!! He made some joke about it, but he didn't answer even though Marcie and Anne told him to go ahead.

It was nice to see everyone. I don't know when we'll see all of them again. Even brother Wayne showed up. Thankfully, we all know each other because we did know each other growing up. It's a shame we lived so far apart. I wish I had been a part of a big family. It gets lonely sometimes.