The rains are back again. In the past few weeks we seem to get rain for a week or more and then a day or two of sunshine. Friday night we had Leah and Henry over for dinner. I made lasagna and if leftovers are any indicator, the meal went over very well. Saturday was a nice day so we went out to camp and raked up our leaves. I am not sure how such a small lot can hold so many leaves. Sunday we watched the Vikings. Kind of nice to have a football team (two if you count the university) that wins on occasion. Monday no school so it was outside getting ready for winter time. I raked leaves all day. I took over five trips to the garden waste deposal area in Maple Grove. I was not the only one taking advantage of the nice weather. The line into the deposal area had to have had 50 cars in it on each of my five trips. I had one more trip today and the pile of leafs were as tall as a two story building and the line was still long in spite of the rain.

Today was a good day at school. It is amazing how smart some young people are. In my Ancient History of the West class, I was in a small group of four students discussing a letters written to Hellenistic leaders by the common folks of that time. The kids did a first rate job of analyzing documents 2000 years old. I enjoyed listening to their comments and just added one of two of my own to keep them on track. It makes me feel a lot younger associating with young people with sharp minds. The experts say that one way to ward off dementia to keep your mind active. College sure does that for me.

I am trying to get my middle son to start a blog so we can keep track of him and his family. Jess, his wife, is open to it, I think, but Mike response is as follows: "The Chicago Messersmith Family Blog - If you are wondering what we are up to, pick up the phone loser!" He has ‘forbidden” Jess to start a blog. Jess is a very independent, smart, self reliant woman who just may start a blog because her husband said she could not.