It's been a busy 10 days !

Today is Sunday. It really has been a busy 10 days since a week ago last Thursday. We left Thursday and drove to St. Louis. Upon arriving we stopped and visited with Marsha and Jerry Buterin. We had lunch and a really nice visit. Some of you may not know that Jerry was best man at our marriage, We have kept up with each other for the last 30 years or so. While waiting for them to get home (we were early getting there) I decided to drive to Pagedale, the old home place. Several years ago I vowed to never go back as the area had turned very run down with many homes not being kept up and the area just became very depressed. I was quite surprised as there were many homes that had been remodeled or rebuilt with some new one also. I wanted to go back at a later date which we did on Saturday. We took picture of the four houses I had lived in growing up. The kindergarten and first grade school I attended still stands and is for sale.. My grade school, original parish church and school and high school have all been torn down. We visited with the man who owns the garage that Dad used to have. He let us inside and it was very nostalgic.

On Friday afternoon we went with Joan's class to a casino for a little play and lunch. This was the main reason for our trip. The class now gets together once a year for a picnic. This is a very close nit group of people. Even though I was not a member of the class I really feel like one. It is a time of much reminiscing and fun with this group.

On Saturday morning I decided I would try to look up John Guittar. John was the chauffeur for our wedding driving my 1937 Lincoln Zepher. I have not seen John for 54 years. I found his address and drove to his house and parked in front. I then called him and asked if this was the same John Guittar that used to live in Pagedale. He said it was and I told him that this was someone out of his past and before I could finish he said " is this Frank Collier?" I said it was and how did he know. He replied "caller ID". So much for my surprise. Thanks modern day technology ! I then told hom waht he did'nt know was I was parked outside. He and his lovely wife came out to meet us and we had a very nice visit for a few minutes. They both had something else they had to do and we had to get to the casino. We promised to get together at a later date with Marsha and Jerry. Little did we know we would see them on Sunday at Mass. Sunday after Mass we had lunch with Judy, Rich and Sue and then drove back to Indianapolis.

Mon Tue Wed were pretty normal. Thur. I was out in the yard working pulling weeds etc. and I felt like I had exerted myself quite a bit. I thought I would go inside for a rest and take my vitals to see if I had worked hard enough to qualify for cardiac exercise. My pulse was 161. I did not feel bad but called the Dr. office and told the nurse what it was. She said I was having Tachycardia and I should get to the emergency room right away. To make a long story short ( but not tjis missive) I spent the next two days in the hospital while they got my heart back to normal rhythm and now am back home.

It's now 11 am and time for church. Dan is the acolyte at Mass this morning. This is his current office in his study for the Lay Diaconate.

Happy birthday to Mike and Kris coming up this week. Two of the six greatest kids in the world

Peace, Happiness and Joy to all. Live well, Love much and Laugh Often