Of Mowers and Holidays

Instead of fixing the handle again, I bought a new self-propelled lawn mower from Sears and gave it a spin this morning. Pretty neat. Haven’t had a self-propelled mower since the family left Hazelwood back in 1968. Mowing the front yard was a real treat, and I started for the back but suddenly realized I’d overheated myself although it was only in the 70’s and the mower did most of the work. Got light headed and decided I better quit. Went inside, cooled off, and slept the rest of the day. Kind of disappointing. Not sure what that was all about. Medications, I hope. Got a pizza from Little Caesar’s for supper, and spent the evening with TV and computer and bills. Also disappointing. So, maybe I’ll spend part of Mother’s Day mowing the back yard. Ugh, more disappointing! 😕

Sent Jeffrey an email about Christmas, past and future. Hard to tell how the Chappells Christmas might shape up this year. It may be time to let go of some notions that, once upon a time, I took for granted. Time marches on. Things change.

Strange Days

When I came to work yesterday the first thing I noticed after locking my car in the parking garage was the fire truck in the alley. I couldn’t smell any smoke, which seemed a good thing, and as I walked by to enter the building I couldn’t see what they’d done other than spray a bunch of water in the alley. Later, I read this in the Journal-World:

Tuesday, May 4, 2004. The body of a 40-year-old Lawrence man was discovered this morning in the alley behind the city parking garage in the 900 block of New Hampshire Street. Police said the body was found about 4:45 a.m. by a 21-year-old man walking in the area. “Mr. Foster apparently jumped from the top of the parking garage to the alleyway below,” said Police Spokesman Sgt. Mike Pattrick. Police do not suspect foul play in the incident, which apparently occurred some time between 3:30 a.m. and 4:45 a.m. Pattrick said a police officer on routine patrol came across Foster sitting in a car atop the parking garage at 3:30 a.m. The officer later reported Foster did not appear despondent and gave a “reasonable explanation” that he was awaiting newspaper deliveries. “The officer left him to his business,” Pattrick said.

Eh? Waiting for newspapers on top of a parking garage at 3:30 a.m.? 🙄 And then today:

Wednesday, May 5, 2004. A deer that wandered this morning into downtown Lawrence crashed its way into a formal attire shop. “It came through our front glass window door,” said Jamie Fisher, assistant manager of Randall’s Formal Wear, 815 Mass. “It was at 8:30 this morning before we opened. Police helped to just shoo it back out the hole that it made in the door.” It was later seen running east at Seventh and New Hampshire streets.

The story didn’t mention what the deer was wearing when it escaped, and it was unclear whether charges would be filed.

p>. :jesors:

California Christmas 2003

I finally uploaded some photos of “Christmas in California 2003”:http://f1.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/johnatty@sbcglobal.net/album?.dir=/396a. These were all taken with the new Canon digital. For want of practice on my part, the pics of festivities at David and Dolores’ didn’t turn out good enough to publicize. 🙁