Ready for grandsons’ next visit

Written by Joel Klaassen Tuesday, 26 June 2012 17:58

We just bought plane tickets to send our grandsons back to Atlanta after they have been here again for the Marion County Fair. They took home the “8 Wonders of Kansas” book last time and have been scouring it for other things to do while they are here.

They will be away from home for several weeks this summer with assorted trips for camping, to the beach and an aunt’s wedding in the Pacific Northwest before they head for Kansas.

We’re glad they still want to come, but we know this will end one of these years as the oldest is starting high school this fall. The lure of doing things in Kansas that they can’t do at home is still working, though.

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I’m not the only one who had trouble with the shuffle feature while...

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Shorten a trip with audio book

Written by Joel Klaassen Tuesday, 19 June 2012 11:30

If you do road trips by yourself and want to ease the boredom, I have just the idea for you to make the trips seem much shorter.

When I mentioned last week that I was driving to Iowa the next day and it was going to be eight hours in the car, Shelley suggested I check out a couple of audio books from the library.

I remembered the time we drove to Atlanta in 1998 and rented “Into Thin Air” at a Cracker Barrel restaurant. You could drop them off at another restaurant, which made it easy and smart on their part.

Back to my original thought. I was surprised at how many audio books our local library has available. The one that first caught my attention was the “Best Game Ever,” which was about the 1958 NFL Champion­ship game...

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We really did sell our awning

Written by Joel Klaassen Tuesday, 12 June 2012 15:52

I’ll bet a lot of people would have scoffed at the notion that we could sell the awning we replaced on the front of our business recently.

I kid you not. It sold last week from a classified ad in the Free Press. This might sound self-serving, but I will say it anyway. Classified print ads continue to work regardless of what you read about print being dead.

We have always found the help we need, sold all of the vehicles we wished to sell—I even rented, actually borrowed, a stock tank to keep pop cold at the Arts and Crafts Fair from an ad in our paper.

Another thing I should tell you is that if you see a number code at the end of a classified ad it indicates a local ad. The ads with letters at the end of them are ads from regional...

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Penner a hit at HHS reunion

Written by Hillsboro Free Press Tuesday, 05 June 2012 13:32

For a while on Thurs­day last week I thought I had established residency in Chicago O’Hare airport.

What I thought would be a routine trip ended up in a cancelled connecting flight plus one delay after another. I ended up reaching my destination 10 hours later than planned. The airline blamed it on the weather but I have a sneaking suspicion the flight wasn’t full and it served them better to herd us all onto a later flight that was full.

As it turned out, I could have driven it in less time, but then I would have to had drive home. The return trip came off without a hitch and I was home in five hours door to door. Unlike the 16 hours it took to get there.

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The biggest hit at the HHS?All-School Reunion May 26 was Lynn Penner...

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