These 🍎 apples were grown and harvested in Driftwood Township, just a mile and a half from my home in Grassy Fork Township in Jackson County by Barry Melloncamp. He delivered them to us a couple of days ago and Heidi made apple crisp tonight. Ingredients: 🍎 apples, oats, brown sugar, 🧈 butter and cinnamon. Pretty basic and delicious!!!

I thank the Lord for her every day of my life for Heidi Hackman! Maybe 17 years ago my neighbor growing up, Pam Hess Baker, gave me her number and said, “Call her.” No ifs, buts, or maybes, just “Call her.”

I did as I was told and here in 2021 I am having apple crisp and ice cream for dessert. Enough said. After dinner and apple crisp we went out together and picked some green 🫑 peppers from what is left of the garden before it freezes and Heidi said, “I guess we will have stuffed 🫑 peppers for dinner tomorrow.” I have scored the biggest basket of my life with her. Because of Heidi, I am teaching at Lutheran Central with students that I love and enjoy every day and have also just begun my 36th year of coaching basketball 🏀.

I found this quote recently from Pablo Picasso: “The meaning of life is to find your gift. The purpose of life is to give it away. “ I believe I have reached that point.

Just last week, I joked with a fifth grade student that I would probably attend her wedding. Her classmate(Morgan Wessel) grinned as big as Texas and said, “If you are still alive.” So, there is the challenge. Continue to give this gift of Reading/Language Arts/Writing/Basketball away for as long as I can and in 15 years, attend Ava Brock’s wedding.

What a woman that Heidi Wintin is. She works all day at the hospital and then comes home to cook me a meal 🥘 like this.

She diced a giant sweet potato given to us by her uncle, Barry Melloncamp. Then she melted butter 🧈 , added oil, 🇮🇹 Italian seasoning, minced 🧄 garlic and shredded Parmesan, put it all in a bag to coat the sweet potatoes and baked it on a cookie sheet for 25 minutes. It turned out tremendous!!! The dogs were crazy about it as well.

Heidi also put some Buttery Steakhouse rub on some chicken and fried it up in the skillet. I added some Kansas City BBQ sauce that Sophie had given me a while back and it was also a hit.

We both packed a container for our lunch tomorrow.

I had only eaten a handful of nuts and an ice cream drumstick all day and it was 6:30 when we got there. Every item I 👀 saw at Sam’s club appeared delicious.

With that, the peanuts 🥜 and hot rolls with cinnamon butter were incredible as I anticipated the steak. Smothered in mushrooms and onions was the way to go. And, we didn’t even spend all of the gift cards.

The best news yet, I will probably have steak and eggs for breakfast. 🥩 🍳

The consistency of Texas Roadhouse is my favorite thing about the place. However, that Ranch dressing can stand on its own as well.

Really now, how can you possibly pass up a food truck hiding behind a billboard in an alley? I have been driving by the neon “OPEN” signs for weeks now and finally had left home early enough to stop in for breakfast.

I watched the lady cook it up by pouring the eggs out on the griddle and then adding the bacon and cheese. Fresh and tasty!

This is a gem near the Ohio River in Newburgh, Indiana. They are know for there catfish, however, the Oktoberfest menu was all about the bratwurst.

My good friend , Jon Tilmon and I enjoyed a couple of fish bowls and bratwursts and the world was good.

We had a great discussion about the Daughters of the American Revolution, Sons of the Confederacy, etc. when I recalled a story from Mom and Dad’s retirement trip out west to Seattle back in 1990.

They were at Mom’s cousin Charlotte’s house with another D.A.R. lady and they went on throughout the evening about ancestry, their connections to Revolutionary War soldiers and this and that while my Dad, mild-mannered Walt Wintin, sat quietly on the sideline minding his own business when one of the hostesses asked if he had ever researched his family tree? 🌳 Without hesitation his response was, “Well, we started researching but we found so many horse thieves and loose women that we quit looking.”

Word of the Day:

Spontaneous: (adjective) performed or occurring as a result of a sudden impulse

Heidi and I were working around the the house, I was planning to mow and she was sewing, getting ready for Hen and 🐥 Chicks next weekend when Connie texted with the offer of a Jeep ride.

We hit the shower and are on the road within 40 minutes and on the way to the Overlook Restaurant in Leavenworth on the Ohio River. It was a great adventure with the Early Stahls. (Jeff and Connie). Early because if you have plans with them you will be home by 9:00. Late Stahls however, (Bruce and Mendy) you are lucky to get home by midnight.)

It was a wonderful impromptu afternoon that even included a stop at The Drifters biker bar on the way home. Lots of spontaneity today.

P.S. There was a 3% chance of rain on our Jeep ride. We made it back to Jackson County when we had a few sprinkles that turned into a shower. Jeff accelerated through the 🌧 rain cloud, turned East and returned home from the north. With no doors, we were even dry again by the time we made it home! Thanks Jeff and Connie!

I had a free pass tonight. Heidi is at a barn market somewhere and I had all kinds of options. Never ever did I think I would eat dinner at Immanuel during the volleyball Lutheran Invitational Tournament. However, having not had dinner and when Wyatt Lutes sat next to me with Nachos Supreme, they smelled wonderful and I could not resist.

The Saints won three matches in the round robin and will play in the seeded tournament Saturday. The highlight of my night was in match one. It was a close game early when Olivia “The Big O” Fritz, the setter, played a “drop” shot that landed right in front of three White Creek girls. The momentum changed right there and they never looked back. This is a talented team that listens to their coaches and works well together. And how about a shout out to the LC boys that earned the spirit stick tonight in the cheer block. Good job, fellas!

They announced today at Lutheran Central that it was National Cheeseburger Day and I felt obliged to follow their lead.

After an IXL tutoring session from Andrea McKinley, I headed to Mom’s where I met my brother David and we got the trash out. While we were out front a couple came walking by and the guy paused as we spoke and said he recognized me. I probably had not seen Mark Haskett in 40 some years. It took me a moment or two of scrolling, but I did find a baseball team picture of us when we played for the Seymour Pharmacy 🐻 Bears back in about 1973. From our memory, we had one heck of a good team.

When Mom and I got to South Poplar Street Manny Valverde and Curt Nichols were sitting nearby and we again relived some Little League and Teen League baseball days at Shields Park.

Seymour Pharmacy Bears

Front Row: Bat Boy: Dan Weaver, Dick Durham, Scott Ude, Bob Brock, Mark Haskett, Bill Bohall, David Weaver, and Walt Wintin

Back Row: Coach Walt Wintin, Tracy Diggs, Assistant Coach Scott Brown, Rick Stickles, Ron Zike, Shawn Sunbury, and Assistant Coach Bill Weaver

Classic story about this team. We tied for the League Championship with the Jackson County Bank Rockets. We then met them in the Championship game of the tourney. We lost in a close game. Maybe we didn’t think some close calls went our way and some of the players were a bit emotional when the trophies were passed out.

We received two 🏆 trophies. League Champion and tourney second place. Jim Heyne was passing out the trophies at home plate of the little diamond at Shields Park and I was right behind Shawn Sunbury. Jim handed the runner-up trophy to Shawn, he looked at it, paused, and threw it as far as he could down the right field line. I was in awe of that move as I had never witnessed such a rebellious, yet justified act. As dry as drought, Jim Heyne said, “Nice throw, son.”

Shawn has been a hero to me ever since.

People! People! People! ( a line from a John Wayne 🎥 movie. Andy Devine I believe in McClintock)

This was a wonderful evening of family, friends and fried food.(Alliteration) Thanks to Pastor Jeremy Yeadon, who supplied the blue gill 🐟, and our gracious hosts, Richard and Nina Hackman, The Late Stahls (Bruce and Mendy), the Early Stahls (Jeff and Connie), Barry and Linda Melloncamp and Ed and Carson Farmer and all of our kids attended and helped fry it up. We had 🏈 football on the outside tv and brewskies from the beer fridge while the camaraderie was outstanding!

Nothing healthy here tonight. But with the Saints/Packers game on at Brother Bo’s Bar (Richard’s Garage) and Bruce and Richard frying, there were about 20 people enjoying Sunday Supper and getting ready for the work week ahead.