Last week I had forgotten to mention that while I was seated on the curb in my lawn chair I had a beer in one hand and an excellent hot dog in the other.  I'd like to try that during our Orland Days Festival. Anyway, Saturday Matt prepared a wonderful barbeque as he spent a good part of the day finishing the pork shoulder he had begun smoking the night before.  The pork accompanied by Matt's famous boiled salt potatoes and New York Sweet corn-on-the cob was a wonderful meal on a glorious day in the country. Mary and I left early but some kept the party going quite late. For those unfamiliar with the regional fare of upstate New York Salt potatoes are sold in 5 lb bags with 12 ounces of salt packed inside. The idea apparently goes back to Syracuse New York where salt was mined years ago. The salt is placed in the water before the potatoes are boiled giving a unique flavor.

   Sunday was a day to visit with other family members.  My sister Barb, husband Lou and their daughter and son-in-law met us at a local restaurant for a wonderful Sunday evening dinner and some catching up.  We see far too little of each other and soon it was again time to part company with invitations being extended to come see us in Florida during the winter.  From there we stopped at one more restaurant to visit with a nephew and his wife and meet their new baby Michael Timothy Hale. After some snacks or dessert and a very nice visit we headed for our nearby Motel accompanied by Dirk, who spent the night with B and Baboo.
   Dirk slept until 9 and we joined Matt, Beth and the two little ones along with Dave, Kathi and of course Dirk for a trip downtown to visit the Strong National Museum of Play, a wonderful interactive museum nationally known which includes the National Toy Hall of Fame.  For a bit of insight into the museum CLICK HERE

   Tuesday morning we were up early and on the road by 7:30 AM. Between the return trip from Florida, the trip to Rochester and a week in a local Holiday Inn Express (I am so much smarter), we had enough suitcase living and decided that based on how the driver (Mary) felt we would attempt to make it home.  The weather was good, traffic was light and the driver feeling was feeling good enough that we made it to Wauseon, Ohio (west of Toledo) by about 2PM.  At that point it is a bit early to stop and because of the above conditions we continued on arriving home between 5 and 5:30PM local time.  Considering the time difference, the trip took approximately 11 hours door to door. One thing we noticed was the small number of families with children on the road. True, summer is on the wane but you would think that there would still be time for summer trips before school started.  Many of the travelers were older, our age along with some younger couples most without kids.  Perhaps the gas prices, the lowest we paid was $3.77.9 had an effect that was more problematic for families with children.  I was able to carry out my web team duties from the Orland Park Command Headquarters.

   Wednesday was a day of recovery following the trip and Mary spent a good part of it catching up on the laundry and the finances.  The St Terrence bulletin was received and posted as well as information from the Men's Club Golf League.  I also received a "heads up" that in my fatigue and haste of Tuesday night I had a senior moment resulting in the omission of some pictures for the bulletin which had been received last week.  A corrected copy was quickly created and uploaded to the server before dinner.  After dinner I headed for our monthly Legion membership meeting which tonight was short and sweet. I was home shortly after nine from an 8PM meeting, arriving home in time to see the Cubs complete their third win in a row over the Brewers.
      Thursday afternoon I watched the  CUBS complete a sweep at Milwaukee.  After being tied for the division lead going into play on Sunday, the CUBS won 5 straight 4 at Milwaukee to grab a 5 game lead in the division. After the game I attacked the paper which had been stacking up in my office.  I could have used a shovel but I carefully surveyed each item and sorted them out.  The project although more under control is not yet completely accomplished so a return visit to my cave as Mary calls it, is called for.

    Today I went to our regular twice weekly coffee.  From there it was off to the IRS office on Humphrey Drive to inquire about our stimulus check.  According to the table on the IRS web site it should have been mailed on June 20th.  We were concerned that it might have gotten lost in the mail.  However, the young man at IRS explained that the processing was somewhat behind schedule and was able to research our return and discover that it was still being processed and that the check had apparently not yet been issued.  He asked that we be a bit more patient, and satisfied that our check had not been lost, I thanked him for his help and left. I guess  patience is a virtue I need to work on.