Can you believe the mild weather we have been having? And it's August! I was talking to Shirley, one of my San Diego buddies and she was complaining of the heat out there. I got to tell her what most San Diegans are always saying to the rest of the world. "Oh, really? That's too bad. The weather here is pretty near perfect. You know, mid 80's, sunshine." It was soooo satisfying.

Guess what! Ms. Cleta Simmons turned 95 on Sunday! How about that! Happy Birthday to you, Ms. Cleta. Of course there was a celebration at the Simmons house. 24 family members gathered to help her celebrate and share barbeque from Strawberry's. Yummm! Now you just kick back this week and take it easy, Ms Cleta. You've earned it.

We said good-by to Sally Herren last week. A sweet lady that we will miss. Abide now with God, Ms. Sally.

Good news about Gaylan Cope. He came through his surgery last week with flying colors! Suzanne says he is looking good and feeling good and should be out of ICU by now.

Well, let me give you the scoop on the Malin family reunion at Kentucky Lake. 21 people ranging in age from 7 months to 79 years (that would be Jessie) spent the weekend at Steve and Mary Malin's lake house on Kentucky Lake week end before last. From Rector were Jessie Malin, Cathy and Meagan Louder and David Cohn. Seth and Misty Cohn drove from Paragould with their two children and Keit and Heidi Cohn came from Jonesboro with their three. Steve and Mary Malin of course came from their home in St. Louis as did their daughters Mika and Margo. Jessie's niece Lisa and her husband and son traveled from TN to meet everyone there.

They entertained themselves with swimming, jet ski's and harassing each other. They are family, you know. Of course there was food involved, barbeque chicken and ribs for one thing, pancakes for another. Lot's of fun and sun and family. Whoo Hoo!

On Sunday everyone left except for Mary and Jessie, and Lane Wozniak and I drove over for a quiet "girls retreat". The bulk of our time was spent on the deck communing with each other and Mother Nature. It was so peaceful! We talked ourselves hoarse.

We rented a pontoon boat Monday afternoon to cruise around Kentucky and Barclay Lakes. We packed a picnic lunch, puddled our way across the busy shipping channel and went in search of a shady cove with a sandy beach to have our lunch. There it was! The perfect cove, small, private, sandy with lots of water fowl flying around for our entertainment. We turned in. At about the same time all of us realized it was sort of shallow and Mary started to turn around. Well, pontoon boats don't exactly turn on a dime and the brakes just suck!

Did you know they make props out of plastic now? We didn't either. It's a hard vinyl, but vinyl, none the less. We decided it is a safety measure for boaters like us who get ourselves into shallow water. The blades just shear off without damaging the shaft. Isn't that clever?

Of course the absence of propeller blades severely impacts the ability to move forward. Or backward. Are you familiar with the term "dead in the water"? Here are a couple of other things we learned. Boat rental establishments often do not staff adequately on week days. They have to call in extra help before they can send someone out to rescue stranded vessels. And the plastic props cost $45.00. And other boaters will come close enough to ask how deep the water is without asking if we need help.

The good news is that we had cell phones (how DID we survived without them) so we could call for help. We had packed a picnic lunch and we had a canopy on the boat so we had tasty lunch and were able to enjoy it as if it might be our last, a great excuse for pigging out. We were able to swim and play in the water for as long as we wanted and took advantage of the all natural, all over fish spa treatment that is all the rage in top salons now. Fortunately we had gotten ourselves out of the channel before we disabled the vessel, and that is very good. The brakes on tug boats also suck.

So we enjoyed our two plus hour break and then the cutest young man came to our rescue. Zipping up on a jet ski, it took him all of about 10 minutes to replace the prop, with all of us helping, or at least watching from the comfort of the boat. And he did not once say to any of us that we reminded him of his grandmother. What a hero!

Later on Monday night while we were sitting on the deck, we caught a glimpse of large silent wings gliding among the trees, and for an hour or so, we played peek-a-boo with a large owl. It swept from tree to tree, sometimes disappearing for a while and sometimes sitting on the wood rack, less than 20 feet away, watching us watching her. Just wanted to join the party, I suppose.

It was a great trip for Lane and me and we thank you, Mary, for your hospitality and wonderful food! You just can't top visiting with good friends.

Have you seen the quilt the Woman's Club is raffling off on Labor Day? It is on display at the library. Go take a look. It is beautiful. You can buy chances from any member of the Woman's Club and they will be on sale at Harp's Friday and Saturday, the two weekends before Labor Day! Proceeds from the quilt will be divided between the library and the cemetery.

Pastor Bell and Suzy have returned from their vacation and I will get them to give me the skinny on that for next week.

I suppose it is time to get this to the paper. I hope you are looking forward to Labor Day as much as I am. Can't wait to see who comes to town. Please share your goings on with me so I can share with everyone else. My phone number is 595-3173 or you can drop me a note at 514 West 3rd St. My email address is: porchswing@newwavecomm.net. By now!