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When I started the “journalist” thing, back in 2019, I hadn’t even gotten my bearings before COVID-19 came and we were all placed in lockdown. Honestly, I wasn’t scared of the virus. I was more terrified of losing my job and not being able to pay the bills. Thankfully with some help from a few good friends and a lot of creativity, I never missed a day. Wednesday was my last day I run my route, and I was not looking forward to saying goodbye to all the friends I’ve made along the way, Shea, Josh, Rhonda, Michael, Brenda, Linda, Nancy, Allen…far...
I have four new tires on my car. It’s so nice not having to air them up every day. It even drives a little smoother now that it has the correct size tire. Knowing that the tires were rubbing on the shock, or strut (still can’t tell you which it is) was making me very nervous about driving it too far. I got the cheapest tires I could get, so I have 50,000 miles before I need to replace them. I’ll need new ones by November. LOL! The fresh paint in the pool has become quite troublesome. The floor of the pool is slippery, and when the youngsters pl...
Wednesday we closed the pool because of cooler temperatures. I took advantage of that and headed to town to purchase groceries for home and ice cream for the pool. I had all my running done early except for purchasing the ice cream, so I decided to do the responsible adult thing and put tires on my car. When we purchased the car, we were told all the tires were new, and from a glance, they all looked new. Unfortunately, I never looked more than a glance until I had to start airing them up once a week. The two front tires are 10 years old and...
I shouldn’t have said anything about not having our air conditioners running last week. The universe heard me and one-upped me. We installed the AC in our bedroom window Thursday evening and were trying to tough it out downstairs but caved on Sunday. There goes my low utility bills! This heat and humidity reminds me of summers as a kid, sneaking down to the river in the afternoon to cool off. I wasn’t supposed to be at the river, but always seemed to end up there. LOL! My friends and I had found this spot where a tree had fallen in the wat...
Well, I am failing at being a gardener. Most of my seeds did not come up. I likely planted before it was warm enough, or planted them too deep. I will replant them soon. My corn and potatoes did come up, and my pepper plants seem to be doing well, but my sweet potatoes and tomatoes don’t look so great. I have a ton of weeds growing and can’t seem to find the time or ambition to get after them. In the evenings I have tried. The mosquitos have been so bad that I gave up after just a few minutes. It doesn’t take long for them to chew you up. Thank...
Love my crazy life By Teraesa Bruce I really do love my crazy little life, but sometimes I just feel like I need a break from it. I’m sure much of my stress comes from my own “not-so-stable” crazy mind, but nonetheless, a break would be nice. I keep telling myself things will calm down, but they never seem to. I do this to myself, I know, but I don’t know any other way to live but on the edge of a nervous breakdown. I decided since Robert and Julia ran off in September and got married, we needed to do something to celebrate the two of them. R...
The lifeguards and I have worked at the pool almost daily this past week. The painting of the pool basin had me thrown off my game, but thankfully I recovered from the upset and could change direction without too much difficulty. I have a certain way of doing things, and when I am thrown a curve ball, it tends to mess me up completely. Thankfully the painting was completed on Thursday evening and the lifeguards and I painted the ladders, lines and depth markers on Saturday. We had most everything completed and I let the lifeguards go home...
I’m sorry to say I don’t have much to write about this week. With the wedding over and things back to regular business, it’s pretty quiet around here. The two younger boys were here for the weekend, which stirred things up a bit. Nicholas had a baseball game on Friday, so that made our Omaha trip 10 hours instead of the usual seven. Although it made for a long day, I’m glad we got to see him play. We don’t get too many chances to attend those types of events with the distance between us. Jack was in a mood when we picked him up. He had had a ba...
I’ve been pulling weeds in my yard for the last few weeks, and the task is never ending. I have bind weed, stinging nettles, milk week, prickly pear, wandering ivy and a whole mess of other stuff I have yet to put a name to. My hope is to get most of them before they seed even more, but I’m afraid I’m failing. Every weekend we talk about spraying, and every payday we put it off for another week. We expanded the garden this year, and since we now have Duke, who pays no attention to what he is running over and digging up, we needed a fence...
Because of scheduling conflicts and Mother Nature's lack of cooperation, the Nelson pool may open later than expected this season. For the past several years, the Nelson pool has opened on Memorial Day even though the city council set the official opening for June 15. The park board determined last fall that the pool needed a little TLC, so late last fall, Royce Schott went to work on sealing and patching the areas of the pool that required a little extra love. Once he had finished with that, a...
Holy cow! What a weekend! Two major events in two days was a little much. Jessica, now my daughter-in-law, graduated from Lawrence-Nelson High School on Saturday. I had the pleasure of helping out with her reception, and I think the turn out was a bit more than her mom, Kasey, had expected because we ran out of sloppy joes. All in all it was a good day, and I’m thankful I got a sloppy joe before it was all gone. We left Jessica’s reception early so we could congratulate Andrew Koehler, Rocky Miller and Roy Davidson. Those three are kind of lik...
What a crazy, happy, tear-jerker of a week this will be. Jacob gets home Wednesday evening, Jessica graduates on Saturday, and the two will be united in holy bliss on Sunday. I’m so excited! I can’t sleep and can’t eat. My tummy is full of crazy little flutterflies. I’ve been cleaning like a crazy woman just because I need to keep busy. I clean when I’m nervous, anxious, irritated, or just plain angry. So if my house is a mess, I’m happy and content! LOL! Robert won’t make it home for the wedding. He got orders last minute for the weekend,...
I’m so excited! Jacob will be home in a little over a week. I’m not sure if he will stay at the house this visit, but it will be nice to see him in person and give him a big long hug. I do hope that he and his wifey will stay a night or two, but if not, I will do my best to keep my mommy feelers hidden. It doesn’t do anyone any good to have me throwing a toddler sized tantrum just because they don’t want to sleep here. LOL! I got the go ahead to help decorate for my daughter-in-law to-be’s graduation. I love, love, love party planning,...
It’s a nice warm blustery Monday and I’m waiting for the weather radio to tell me we are in one type of severe weather watch or the other for it feels like that kind of day. I was hoping for more spring-like weather, like 60 degrees during the day and 40 at night, with a few soaking rainy days but I suppose Mother Nature has other plans for us. It’s now Tuesday morning. I got sidetracked and didn’t get back to my ramblings, but I was correct, it was definitely that kind of day. Early this morning, around 2:45, my phone woke me with a weather...
I completely overdid this weekend and have myself feeling like crud again. We were hosting Easter dinner, and the dust bunnies were beginning to get somewhat aggressive. The last thing I wanted was to serve mashed potatoes a’la’cat hair, so I started cleaning the floors. Then I thought I should dust first. The next thing I knew we were moving furniture. Since the house was now clean, of course, I had to put out the spring decorations. That meant a trip to the loft above the garage, and of course, nothing is labeled, so after opening every box...
A total solar eclipse will occur on Monday, April 8. It will be the last total solar eclipse visible from the United States until 2044. While the path of totality will be south of our local area, we should still experience 70 to 85 percent of the eclipse in eastern Nebraska. The Nelson Library has free viewing glasses, especially for adults, available at no cost. Stop in during business hours to pick up a pair....
I was hoping to avoid the spring crud that I typically get this time of year, but unfortunately, it found me. I was feeling tired and run down for several days. Then over the weekend into Monday, I was having dizzy spells and had an upset tummy. I’m feeling a little better today, and hope that it’s over with. I’m tired of chicken broth, and toast! I had hoped the weatherman was lying about the snow, but sure enough, we got some white stuff on Monday. I haven’t been out in it but it looks like maybe an inch or so, It blew around quite a bit so i...
On Feb. 20, members of the Nelson Community Club went before the Nelson City Council during a special meeting to propose a half-a-cent sales tax increase, over a period of ten years, to fund an economic development plan. The group has been working with Kelly Gewicke of Nebraska Economic Development. She suggested the community should pursue the LB840 or Local Option Municipal Economic Development Act. LB840 authorizes incorporated cities and villages, when approved by local voters, to collect and appropriate local tax dollars for use in...
Jacob and Jessica are getting married in a little more than six weeks. I don’t know much about the wedding plans, as I’m the mother of the bridegroom, and the boys don’t tell me anything… unless there is a problem. So for now I am resting easy, knowing that “no news, is good news.” I am however having problems finding something to wear to the event. Unfortunately, I won’t be able to wear sweatpants. That’s a bummer, and dresses aren’t really my thing. I’m shaped like an upside-down pear, wide at the top and skinny at the bottom, so shopping for...
Is it just me or does everyone get tired of trying to figure out what’s for supper every night of the week? Why is it such a daunting task? Sometimes I think to myself, do we really need to eat? I mean I have at least two weeks stored up around my waist. I wish I was more like my step-mom. She had it together when it came to meals. She planned them ahead of time and made shopping lists that reflected the menu. She clipped coupons and knew where all the sales were, just like a magical meal planning Jeanie. I wish I was that organized. I’ve tri...
The goal of keeping the house clean has failed. The boys were here over the weekend. Between the trip to Omaha on Friday and the trip on Sunday, not a thing was accomplished over the weekend. It’s not bad from the outside looking in, but I have a pile of dishes and several little piles of pet hair floating around. I’m not sure where the pile of dishes came from. A sink full just magically appeared overnight. It’s nothing an hour of my attention won’t take care of but still, housework is never ending and I find that annoying. We stopped at a de...
Bob, our cat, is a horrible influence on Duke. Besides taunting him and getting him in trouble, he has introduced him to the “water fountain” in the bathroom. So now instead of fighting with the kids over bathroom time, I fight with the cat and dog over the toilet! It wouldn’t be that big of a deal, except the bathroom door refuses to close properly now, and the two of them know it and can get it open. So anytime I use the toilet, I have a cat trying to get in my lap and a giant dog attempting to do the same. I have my first bug bite of the s...
I took advantage of the weather Monday, and sat out on the porch with my computer. I sat my computer on an old cast iron stove frame that I normally use as a plant stand. I wish I could find an outdoor table that is about desk height, but small enough to sit on our skinny porch, and light enough to be moved around. I’m typically just hunched over whatever I can find that my laptop will fit on. I’m okay with being a hunch-back, as long as I can be outdoors when the weather is nice. I’m trying to teach Duke to play fetch, but he is more inter...
On Feb. 20, Nuckolls County Commissioners met with the public twice, once after the regular meeting and again in the evening, to answer questions concerning the rehab of the current building or the possibility of a new building. A handful of folks turned up for the morning meeting and around 20 residents made it in the evening. The only new news to report is that a guesstimate of $10 million was made for the renovation of the current building. I say guesstimate because without opening up the walls to see what horrors they may or may not...
Monday was such a nice day that I walked down to the office to check the drop box instead of driving. I’m not loving my crazy life here lately. I’ve been gloomy and negative so often that George has started calling me Eeyore, you know the gloomy donkey from Winnie-the-Pooh. Anyway, the sunshine and fresh air made me feel a lot better and thankfully spring is near, so maybe this wintertime gloominess will clear from my head soon. I’m just so hyper-focused on all that I can’t do, or do anything about, that I can’t keep up with what I can do. I...
