Laird's Latest

Here's the newsletter I referenced in my previous post. I kept the spelling and grammar as is. I think it's an essential aspect of Laird's voice:

March 1, 2005

Well the old groundhog saw his shadow on February 2, 2005 so it means we will have 6 weeks more of winter from that date. I went to Mount Vernon to take care of several business matters. I was getting pretty much done when I pulled the old truck up to a stop sign and stopped to wait for traffic to clear. All at once I felt something bump the truck. I looked in the rear view mirror and a lady had run into me with her bicycle. She then pulled up besided the truck and said she was sorry as it seemed the brakes had failed on her son's bike that she was riding. We didn't call the law since no damage was done.


The 3rd of February I got turned loose. Mary went back to work at Country Colors Greenhouse so I'm not being guided during the day. My grandson John called and wanted to know if there was any place around here that he and a couple of buddies could go rabbit hunting. I told him I thought so. I called around and lined up 100's of acres for him to hunt on and a short time later he called and said they were going to quit hunting that day.

The 5th we traveled north to Bellville, Ohio to the home of our daughter Terri. The purpose of this trip was to assist Terri, her husband Dennis and their son Mick celebrate all their birthdays. The three of them have all their birthdays in a week's time. Of course we were served a delicious lunch featuring turkey and lots of good things ending with birthday cake and ice cream. They decided I needed something to do since Mary has gone back to the greenhouse to work. They had several chairs that were in various needs of repair. Mostly needing to be reglued. I also brought home Terri's power drill. The chuck on it is screwed up. I may need to call on some of the wizards in the neighborhood to help me with this problem. The back of the pickup was pretty well filled with projects for me to do. On the way home we stopped at the Avalon's to deliver their last month's news letter. Deb tried to give me a pup but I said no. After we got home and got all the projects the Bensons sent home with us unloaded I went to Roger and Mary Robinson's next door to see how Mary is. Just talked to Mary Robinson's sister and Mary is back in the hospital agains and will have more lung surgery soon. Bob Berger has lung cancer. Bonnie Bittinger is to have hiatal hernia surgery. Jonathon Shaffer was to have tests run to find out why he is having migraine headaches. Anson Hare fell on the ice during military training and broke his ankle. Mary Springer had a cat scan to try and find out why she is dizzy. They think it's inner ear and not just a dizzy dame. Ted Hickerson is doing better. Maxine, Wilma Gutheil's sister has heart trouble. Edna Crowner has an infection in her eye. Barb Butterbaugh was in the hospital because of a virus and dehydration. Jackie DeLong's grandson died in a fire in Phoenix, Arizona. Elizabeth Hostetler, William Hostetler's wife. is to have heart surgery.

I did call on some of the wizards of the neighborhood about how to fix Terri's drill. The method they told me to do didn't work. I went to Lowes store in Mount Vernon. Tehy said you can't get a chuck for a drill that old. So I won't be repairing the drill. I had some more chainsaw chains brought in and I sharpened them.

The 10th the North Liberty Garden Club met at the North Liberty Church. A vigorous business meeting was held at 11 AM with 22 club memeber present. Joyce Donahue won the door prize drawing which was a Humming Bird feeder. Immediately after the meeting a delicious lunch was served by hostesses Arlene Schnebly and Mary Mack. Everyone had brought things to put in the soup pot and salads and desserts. Arlene rode to the meeting with us. When we took her home th enew snow on the ground told on Gene. The tracks were from the garage to the road in the snow. Mary Carpenter became a new member with the understanding that she is not required to plant a garden. Before we left for the meeting our grandson John Mack called about going rabbit hunting and I told him where I had reserved land for him to hunt on. I may have to take up deer hunting as the deer are leaving tracks all around our house in the snow.

Today is the 12th and I have been working on the chairs the Bensons sent home with me. There were parts from 7 chairs. I have 3 chairs done so you can sit on them. They said if I could get 2 or 3 chairs out of the pile of chair parts they would be happy. I need to get a couple of dowel rods and I will be able to make a 4th chair. Oh yes before I forget. Our grandson Mick Benson participates in Special Olympics. He entered the State Cross Country Skiing Contest. He won a Gold Metal in the 3K race and a 4th place in the 1K race. The only thing about him winning these metals is grandpa has to make more picture frames to display his metals. They have all his metals from skiing, golf, and I don't remember what else hanging on one wall of their houes and I told Mick they are going to have to put some of them on the other side of the front room as I think the house is starting to lean from the weight of all of his metals. The 13th we took the 3 chairs I had done and the picture fram and broken drill home to the Bensons in Bellville. No one was home so we parked everything on the back porch. Since they weren't home we traveled on north to our son Mike's house. They were having a meeting of decide if they are going to build a new church now or wait awhile. We got transferred to our grandson Guy's house since Ky and Tiffy were there. Oh yes Guy's lovely wife Jackies was also there along with their dog and 2 cats. We visited for awhile and then Mike an Laura joined us. Oh my gosh I almost forgot that when we got to Mike's a fancy red car was sitting in the driveway. Ky has bought this car for her to drive although I noticed that it was what Mike and Laura drove to Guy and Jackie's house. On way back home we passed through the alley at the Benson's and the garage was still empty so we came home.

I have all kind of talented grandchildren. Tiffy is a track star. She runs relay races and hurdles. Her specialty is the broad jump. Her latest record is 16 feet 5 1/2 inches. She is not only a track star she is a beautiful young lady. Of course all my grandchildren are very attractive including the in-laws. I guess they get it from their grandma as I still have my good looks.

THere was more and mroe traffic past this farm and it seemd to run faster every day. This farmer had free range chickens that were bring hit and killed by all this traffic. The farmer called the local sheriff about putting up a sign to slow the traffic down. After being bothered for a while with these calls from this farmer the sheriff finally had a slow down sign put up. This didn't slow the traffic down. The farmer finally called the sheriff and ask if he could put up his own sign. The sheriff said go ahead. The sheriff hadn't got a call for some time so he drove out past the farmer's place to see what kind of sign the farmer had put up that had evidently slowed traffic. Whe he got there he saw this sign. NUDIST COLONY SLOW DOWN AND WATCH FOR CHICKS.

The 14th and 15th of February I thought the old ground hog was wrong this year since it was into the sixty degrees both days. THEN The morning of the 17th got up to Snow on the ground again. It ought to warm up by the first of June.

I have been informed that i should probably call the humane society or cruelty to animals society. I have information that some people that live on Viering Lake (formerly known as Jelloway Lake) have removed parsnips from their garden that were being eaten by the local Muskrats. Both of the persons that live on this property are employed so I would think they could afford to share with the Muskrats.

Vaughn and Bonnie Taylor left on a trip the 31st of January. They got back the 19th of February. They had bought a Hi-Low trailer to take this trip. First they went to Louisiana to visit some of Bonnie's relation. Then they went on west to Texas. We had gotten a card from them and they said Texas was awful. After they got back I ask what was wrong with Texas and they said there is nothing there. They also visited Arkansas and said it was trashy. They continued on to Arizona and visited several people they knew there. One of the tireson the trailer disintegrated on them and the truck radiator hose had to be replaced. They traveled 5257 miles on the trip. I think they had a great time. When they got home their freezer was acting up so the next day they went to Mount Vernon and bought a new freezer. They brought some stuff up and put in our freezer until their new one was delivered.

The Clearfork FFA Chapter along with the Crestview Chapter went on a trip in a charter bus to Denver, Colorado. Sam Bechley, a member of the chapter at Clearfork said they had a great trip. She said the temperature in Denver was 65 when they were there. They also made several other stops related to agriculture on the way. Chris Bailey has doen well in wrestling tournaments. He barely missed qualifying for the State Tournament.

Mary got a call from the greenhouse the evening of the 22nd that they wouldn't need her at the greenhouse the 23rd. So since it wasn't raining or snowing we decided to finally start cleaning up the yard of branches that the ice storm in January had put down. No need getting in a rush. I got the tractor out and we hitched it to the traler and started houling debrie to the burn pile. After 3 loads we thought maybe we should try to burn this pile. Couldn't get it started to burn so I went to Doup's and after a (s h o r t) visit with Rosalie I got a bale of straw to try and start this huge pile burning. By the time I got back it was almost lunch time so we ate and after resting a short while to let lunch settle we went out to burn the pile. Well I burned up the whole bale and had a slight flicker. So we went out and hauled in some of the debrie from the pine tree. It didn't burn either. Still several loads to clean up yet.

The 20th we had visitors at church. I have mentioned Admiral Laura McClelland Dabney before. Laura and her son Ian were visiting her parents while in transit to Virginia. She and her husband are moving there from California where she and her husband have been in the navy. She said she is retiring from the navy in March. Her kid brother Chris had flown to California to drive one of their vehicles back for them.

The morning of the 25th We took our tax papers to Jill Burch so she could keep us in good standing with the IRS. I then went to the Springers and visited with them. Their new dog Susie is in training to be an obedient dog and is really growing. On the way home from there I stopped at John and Esther Daniels and watched John crack Hickory nuts. He was working on a 5 gallon bucket and I believe he said he had at least another 5 gallon bucket full to do. That ott to keep him out of trouble for a little while. They told me Bob Reese is moving to his son's house in Danville, Ohio. I called Bob the next morning and he said today is the day I'm moving.

The 26th the women at the North Liberty Church had their annual Lunch to which the men of the neighborhood are invited in for lunch. The crowd was rather sparse this year. There was more than ample food. Of course I went. Food was involved. They also pack boxes to send to college students and shut in's of the church family. I delivered the goodies box to Dave and Marge Kelly at Fredericktown. Had a real good visit with Dave and Marge. Mary and I also delivered to the Chaluts in Butler. Also on to Earl Smithhisler at Country Court in Mount Vernon. Came home and enjoyed the tummy ache from too much food. Well really never too much food.

Went to church the 27th and found out that LaDonna Swendal is going to move to China Grove, North Carolina with her family. I looked it up on the map and a large lake isn't very far from China Grove. I told LaDonna she is probably going to turn into a Beach Bunny and she should buy her bikinis now as they should be cheaper this time of year but then maybe it's a nude beach. If that's the case she won't eve need bikinis. Another lady at church said the another reason LaDonna is moving to this new house is that a elder man lives in a trailer nearby. I hate to see LaDonna go but as long as she is happy that's good.

The 28th I deliver a couple of goodies bags to a couple of shut-ins. First I went to Mount Vernon to the Country Court rest home to deliver one bag to Earl "Tiny" Smithhisler who is a resident there. I had to wake him up in the middle of the morning. I ask him if that's all he had to do and he yes. From there I went to Danville and delivered another goodies bag to Bob Reese who had just moved there last Sunday from Country Club retirement center. He is living with his son there. It started raining while I was on this excursion. The old weatherman said the rain will turn to snow later in the day. After I got home Reda Robinson called and ask if I would type up the church council minutes for her. I said yes and she brought the rough copy over. I got them typed and took them back to her.

The 27th Dean Robinson got married again.

Well I think that's about enough news for one time. So just remember the I'm still your


Editor-in-Chief
Laird Mack





Copyright 2005 Seasmoke All rights reserved

Richness = Life + Connections

One of the best things about my current life situation is the focus on making contact, connecting, Seeing people and being Seen by them. For me, these are essential components of living authentically and they were key motivations for my career change. Getting from that Was to the current Is included a long period of soul-searching, brain-storming, and vision work. All I knew was that I needed to have my personal values and core beliefs at center stage, that my days of squeezing the Me of me in around the edges of my daily life were running short.

As seems to be consistently the case when I respond to the Callings that occur within my life, I have been blessed by the appearance of people who reflect elements of current exposition. Today included one such person, Laird M___. Laird distributes a monthly newsletter to a list of 200+ people. The subject? The goings on in his life for the previous month. Yep. That's it.

The newsletter began as a monthly letter to his daughter after she began college. He missed her and she was homesick, so he started writing to her every month, including the small details that make the difference between feeling close and merely being related. Her roommate asked to read the letters, saying that she didn't know anyone else whose father wrote letters. Word spread about the gentle humor and warmth of the letters and soon most of the women in her dorm gathered every month to listen to and/or read the latest installment themselves. As the years ticked by, some of the graduated--but before they did, several asked Laird's daughter to ask her father if he would be willing to send them each a copy of his letter each month.

And so he did. They shared the letters with other people who wrote to Laird themselves and asked to be included in the distribution. Ultimately, the list grew to more than 200 recipients and a local newspaper asked for permission to print each month's installment.

There's nothing special in the letters and everything precious is contained within their pages. I'm put in mind of Jan Karon's popular Mitford series. They aren't mysteries. There is no central plot event around which each book revolves. Each is simply a slice of life; the goings on in a small town over a given period of time. They are captivating. Laird's letters, though written without benefit of professional authoring or editing, are similarly captivating.

To prove it, the current letter follows. Enjoy!

~M

Copyright 2005 Seasmoke All rights reserved


March 1, 2005