Sandi Chats

Memorial Day weekend is once again upon us. Memorial Day was originally observed on May 30 each year. In 1971 it was changed to the 4th Monday in May to create a 3-day weekend out of it (to facilitate travel plans and so that it didn't break into the work week, I would presume). It was originally called Decoration Day but was officially changed to Memorial Day in 1967. It unofficially begins the summer season which ends with Labor Day in early September. Avenue of Flags at Mount Hope Cemetery The purpose of celebrating Memorial Day is to honor service men and women who gave their lives for their country. Our current culture has expanded this idea to include honoring all deceased family members by placing flowers on their graves. The cemeteries takes on a new look with all the flowers.. Locally there is a service hosted by the American Legion that honors those who gave their lives in service to their country. The Avenue of Flags displays flags that were donated in honor of t...

The words of the song made famous by the Carpenters, probably 40+ years ago, says, "Rainy days and Mondays always get me down." Well today is Monday, and it is a rainy day, and it is not getting me down. I may somewhat frustrated that I am not home to steam up the house with some delicious baking or working on a sewing project, but the rain is absolutely beautiful! When you live in the Sandhills of Nebraska, you learn to appreciate rain. Old timers are heard to say, "We are never more than two weeks from a drought!" Things dry out so fast in this sandy soil, and where the mud was standing a week before, the dust is now blowing. So we learn to appreciate however much rain we get for however many days we might get it. When I think of rain, I have some memories of rainy times. Almost without exception, the rains are good memories. The most recent memorable rain was Christmas Day 2016. On a day when snow would be much more the norm, we received a rainy downpour...

You may have seen the movie from about 2000 called "The Perfect Storm". It is the story of a fishing crew who got caught out on the ocean in the convergence of three catastrophic storms. In the movie, the ship went down and the crew perished. Not the happy ending we wanted to see, but since it was based on a true story, this is how it had to end. Since then the term "perfect storm" has become commonly used to describe a time when unrelated things were piling up on someone, creating a set of adverse circumstances to work through, in other words a worst case scenario. Happily we usually survive, but it gets tough to ride out the storm in the meantime. This past few weeks has been my perfect storm....office remodel in progress, tax deadline along with the accompanying work load, family events that have taken us out of town on weekends, and a health crisis that was likely caused from the lack of sleep and too much stress but also added to the lack of sleep and s...

I would presume that anyone who has been trying to keep up with me through my blog has now written me off as dead. I see it has been three weeks since I last posted. Sorry, I promised myself I wouldn't let this lapse as I have! In my last post you will remember that we were in the midst of an office remodel. I finally moved back into the office, then spent the rest of the week trying to find everything we had strung all through the courthouse. Then the tax rush hit, and I felt myself going down for the last time about a week ago. But we have finally ridden out the storm of taxes and we are back to business as usual. The newly remodeled office of the Keya Paha County Treasurer Then, right in the midst of all this chaos, my laptop fell ill and had to be hospitalized. So, no computer at home, no time for anything else at work....and typing an entire blog post on my cell phone just seemed like too much work--if it could even be done.  I didn't try it. Then, just beca...