Extra Day?

What will you do with your Leap Day?  Is it really an extra day or just another one thrown in to make the calendar people happy?  I for one will go downtown and visit with a friend who is in town.  He is a teacher in Kingman and here for an event that the Kingman students are attending.  He is a licensed bus driver and they love to have him sponsor an event so he can drive the bus.  'Cides he is a really nice guy.   I  have known Ron Sawyer since I was 4 and he was 5. I remember that when he moved in he still hade a trike.  Ron was fresh off the farm in Morril, Kansas when he and his family moved to Wichita.

Ron lived across the street from me on Byrd Street.  His mother was a teacher at Minneha and his Dad was one of the custodians.  As I look back on my life, I find Ron in a lot of the stories that were fun.  Like most of us, we are lucky that some of the events we participated in didn't kill us.  I wouldn't change a thing.   Well, there was one thing I might change.   Ron had a 56 Chevy that he was really proud of.   I had a little dog that I would let out in the morning and I would tell him to go over and pee on Ron's car tires.   I swear that little dog would do that on a regular basis. I swear he understood what I was saying. 

I wish there was a way that an illness of a good friend could get published.  I would have driven to Wamego to visit Mark Jensen when he was sick.  Now I have to go visit his funeral.  65 is way too young to die.  There was a time that Mark and I would stop on the way home from work on Friday night and have a beer.  It was unfortunate that one of those Friday's he didn't go home after one or two.  That was the night that I took the pledge to stop drinking.  First and last time I ever had to bail a friend out of jail. I wish you could have been there when we got to his house.  His wife met us at the door.  She had one child hugging her leg and another in her arms and she said, "Mark, you didn't call."   It was better than any soap opera.  I think at least for a while he stopped drinking also.  I don't know if that lesson lasted to the end.

Mark lived in Wamego, Kansas.  It is my wish that everyone get to spend one 4th of July in Wamego. They have a car show in the park, a parade and that night a fire works display.   It is what America was years ago and I wish it was again.  The parade has children on bikes and tricycles.  The is always a wagon or two with a toddler in it.  The next to last thing is the tractors and then the horses.  Well, I think there is always a city worker that scoops up the road apples the horses leave. 

Oh well, I hope you all get out and take advantage of the great weather.  I think it will be in the 70's and a very light breeze.  Should be a great day.

MUD