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This message forum is an ongoing discussion about anything and just about everything ... within reason.  One thing our class was good at was having opinions.  Almost 70 years of life experience certainly qualifies us as experts on most everything!   Ask a question ... give an opinion ... share some insights ... it's our web site, it's our forum.  That said, it's probably not a good idea to get into arguments about politics, religion, and the like.  While we're experts on everything, we also have a wide range of values and beliefs. This site belongs to all of us ... the whole range ... and we are not here to isolate, alienate, or subjugate anybody.  Of course insults, humiliation, sophomoric barraggadocio, and demented humor is expected behavior among some of us less mature people.
 

Garry Sellers

Hey Jim, we've had an alien abduction!!!  Somebody stole Mt Diablo in the East Bay!  And for good measure I notice the coastal range between here and Santa Cruz has disappeared as well!  I can't find either of them!  They replaced them with a smokey haze! I went outside last night and looked up at the moon.  I think it was mostly full but it had an unusual brownish-orange color. Aliens.  Heading up to Lake Tahoe next week but I hear you can't see across the lake.  It's all aliens, I tell you!     That's some expensive real estate they've absconded with!    

Mel, speaking of Aaron Rogers, cleaning out my sister's apartment after she passed away, I found one entire dresser drawer full of Brett Favre memorabilia!    To her dying day she thought Brett was Packer green to the core regardless of where he played his last couple years. 

Jim Cejka

Mel - I get thunderstorms here - on the radio. I've got one of those that plays different nature sounds. 

Garry - Drove into Alameda today. Going througn Altamonte Pass, there was some of that hay/smoke/smog stuff hugging the ground. You could see the top of the wind tufbines going around, but not the towers that hold them. Giant alien propellers. 

Melody Jones (Parker)

Terri-When I lived in Clearwater Florida and in Koneohe Hawaii, we had daily rainfall, too.  It rained about the time of day that the employees at the nursing home on the first shift were preparing to go home and second shift was coming in; around 3 P.M.  Really strange the way that happened.

Best thing I remember as a kid in Milwaukee was after a summer shower, going out in the backyard barefooted and squishing my toes in the grass!

Garry- I agree with your sister, I think Brett Farve was the greatest QB for all time and yes, he was also a "Packer" to me, too!

Jim, You might get the thunder on your radio, but lightning is another entirely different experience.

Have a Blessed week, all y'all!

Mitchell Heinrichs

In door County I have cut the grass once this year so far, the farmers are worried about crops and is a fire band on . Today we received rain and are expecting some for the next 3 days wish I could send you some seeing all the fires is just terable . Hang in Mitch

Kenneth Pallaske

Mitch - We were having a very dry summer here in the Michigan thumb. That is, until about two weeks ago. There is a flood watch out for most of mid-Michigan tonight. We are expecting up to 3" of rain tonight. Still, it does not compare to what is happening in Wisconsin.

Jim - Is that PGA golfer named Cejka related to you. Just curious.

Jim Cejka

Ken - You mean Alex? I'd like to say yes, he's related, and I taught him all he knows, just to make Garry jealous, but, unfortunately, he's from Czechoslovakia and Germany, and played a lot in Europe before coming to the PGA here.

One thing - the announcers at least pronounce the name correctly.

Mitchell Heinrichs

Hi Ken we now have rain also, arrived back home at about midnight from delivering a generator to my Doughter and son in-law who live in atown called Alto yesturday declaired a disaster area due to 150 mile an hour winds. Every power pole in town is laying in the street. One of their autos now has a tree comeing out of the front and side windows. Alto is near Waupun and the closset generator I could find was in Green Bay. They have quite the clean up. We still have only recieved about 2 inches in the last 2 weeks. Good luck to all out there needing more or needing less. Mitch

Jim Cejka

Hey band people, check this out - https://local.theonion.com/report-high-school-marching-band-definitely-in-shape-o-1828742061

Just substitute "Custer" for the band name. Was that what our fans really thought?

Julianne (Julie) Eron (Felts)

Yes, we DO have rain.....lots of   flooding too!  Unfortunately folks living South of us are really hurting, lots of damage to homes, businesses, and roads.  This is usually the last hurrah of the Season for the area - most are used to camping and enjoying the last fun  of the season.  It's a shame -  I give a big thank you to  the folks who operate "The Ducks" in Wisconsin Dells....they got their boats together, headed for the nearest gas station in the Dells, filled up their boats and headed to the flooded towns to help.  Also, a lot of the rental canoe operations were hit with flooding...boats came loose and headed downstream - haven't heard what happened to them...a few were sunk - don't know how far the rest floated downstream.  We haven't seen the sun for awhile....plus, tomorrow school starts....bummer for the kids!  We're all resilliant though....somehow everything works out in the end.

Melody Jones (Parker)

I visited Raleigh this week.  The capital is not as impressive as Madison; it is also very small in size.

We have bought a generator to prepare for hurricane Florence which is expected to head our way toward the end of next week.  I have had an earlier experience of going through a hurricane in Texas, so I am not a novice.  Would love to be able to send some of that rain to CA!  We will be busy battin' down the hatches here in North Carolina; glad we are so far away from the coast here in Charlotte.

Jim Cejka

Melody - Looks like Florence has NC in it's sights. Of course, living out here put you through earthquakes, fires, and droughts, so a little wind and rain should be a breeze. I've got about a dozen sandbags if you need them. Good luck.

Melody Jones (Parker)

Thanks Jim, we will need prayers!  Although downgraded to a cat 2, Florence has slowed and may turn left after hitting landfall.  She is still 195 miles wide and we are 129 miles from Wilmington beach.  If she turns left, that puts us on the northern side and that is not where we want to be!  Outer bands are more destructive on the northern side.  We are in an area where loss of power is "likely" and with a slower motion, the time frame is extended.  I may not have power to send any more messages until it is over. One question for everyone to think about.  If you knew your house was about to be flooded, what would you rescue? (Beside your PC)

Jim Cejka

Melody,

I have a cousin who just moved from CA to a same distance place in South Carolina, and they're sweating too. As West siders, it's hard to imagine 20 inches of rain in a year, let alone at one time. My thought would have been - life jacket or generator? Being without power for so long, I'd miss all my Hogan's Heros reruns. 

What to protect? Besides the obvious papers, numbers, etc., there are the memories that can't be replaced, the special pics, baby shoes, this, or that, and, of course, your Custer yearbooks. 

Hang in there. You've got a bunch of classmates pulling for you.

Jim Cejka

Melody, the current maps don't look so good for your area. We're praying for ya.

Melody Jones (Parker)

Thanks for all the prayers!  We are "all clear" here in the Charlotte area.  Not so good on the coasts.  Death toll is 32 as of noon today.  1,200 roads are still closed and 17-22 Billion dollar damage.  People in Wilmington have food and water supplies handed out by FEMA and thousands of homes have been completely destroyed.  There are still 10,000 refugees in shelters through the SC-NC area.  We did not lose our power, although 800.000 people did lose theirs.

This disaster has united many neighborhoods with people helping people.  Donations are pouring in from all over the country as well as electrical linemen from other states.  Florida send a rescue crew with water boats for our rescue operations, which are ongoing.  Some rivers have not crested yet and floods are projected to continue all week.  Fayetteville is under flood watch due to its two rivers flooding now and tomorrow.  Some of the closed roads are interstate freeways that are causing a probloem for interstate commerce.  I-40 is closed near Wilmington; which is its terminus.

How is your sister doing in SC?
 

Jim Cejka

Glad to hear you're OK and what's around you was spared the worst. Janet in SC only ended up with some rian and not too bad winds - no flooding or trees down, etc. 

There are even swift water rescue teams from around here and Sacremento that went out to NC even before the storms hit. People helping people. 

Jim Cejka

Melody Jones (Parker)

Jim,  Glad your sister weathered the storm.  We are still in a flood watch in a few counties due to rising rivers, creeks, and one failed dam.  Humidity is 91% today...waiting for less.

Jim Cejka

CONGRATS BREWERS!

Jeanne Zinser (Gottschalk)

Melody Jones (Parker)

So, now we have been through 2 hurricanes...probably not going to have anymore because the temperature has decreased from a high of 91 last week to a low of 54 this morning on my way to church, wearing a jacket for the first time this season.  My son stays glued to the TV to watch the Brewers!  Way to go team!  And hoping the Packers kick the pants off the 49ers today!  Go Pack!!!

Jim Cejka

Hello, I'm hoping that someone out there in Custer land can maybe explain what God was thinking when he invented pomegranates. My wife likes to make jam, and she'll try most anything. So, when someone offered her a bag of pomegranates - of course, we'll try it. We spent a whole afternoon, and two football games, getting the 8 million seedy things, glued in to as many little niches inside those things, pried out. And that was step one. I don't want to believe he had such a perverse sense of humor to pull tricks like that on his people, or maybe they were just for the birds and he never imagined anyone trying to make jam out of them. I will look forward to seeing if the product was worth the effort. Amen. 

Garry Sellers

Here we are again, fires in California.  An area larger than Milwaukee.  The smoke is so thick down here in Silicon Valley, 200 miles away, that the sun is red, eyes water and you can feel it in your throat.  As I told one classmate, a whole town of 27,000 gone in a matter of hours.  I'm breathing in somebody's family photo album going back 5 generations, a teen's first car that he earned on his own, a favorite pair of jeans, a group of grannies-owned quilting shop, an award from the 6th grade spelling bee, the new nursery for the coming baby and a family of deer ... all gone forever.  .

Karsten Boerger

Gary

It's time to move to Michigan, beautiful lakes, no earth quakes, no fires, no drought, just great four seasons.

Went to Chicago recently to investigate moving there, impossible, the traffic is killing, give me peace and quiet and great scenery

Karsten

Terri Levenhagen (Hoornstra)

Garry, thanks for telling the story of our fires so well. L.A. is also full of smoky air from the Woolsey Fire near Thousand Oaks and Malibu. When I drove home into the sun from shopping yesterday, on what would have been a brilliant, blue-sky day with the sun glaring into my eyes, it was a big orange disk in a brown/gray sky. But having to stay inside or wear a mask to go out, not exercise, and run the house fan 24/7 are small inconveniences compared to the losses suffered by those in the fires. It is hard to comprehend: a "fire nightmare" from which these folks will not wake up.