Thursday November 3, 2022

This was the first I had stayed in Las Vegas away from the Strip. And I walked out on the deck at Rosefinch Street to see the Strip from some ten miles away in Henderson. Every day the sunrise and sunsets were splendid from this surprising vantage point.

Friday Night

Another photo

The Beatles LOVE — only at The Mirage Hotel and Casino. “Set to an iconic soundtrack, The Beatles LOVE by Cirque du Soleil is a multi-sensory journey. This theatre-in-the-round technological and psychedelic spectacle continues to be one of the most celebrated shows in the world.”

Golfing at

I golfed twice with Tracy this first week of my stay. We played Stallion Mountain and then Chimera. The ‘Stallion’ was bucking my ball into the rough (very tough Bermuda grass that just won’t let go of your ball).  I finally started moving my ball to the fairway if it was in the rough!  In the end, I didn’t keep a score for many holes.  We golfed with a nice young guy who was a good golfer and had several birdies!  Tracy had someone to talk to on the T-boxes and he played pretty good.  As it turned out, Tracy was playing in a charity tournament the next day so was glad to get a preview of the course during our outing.

  
By the way, at that tournament, his foursome won first place with 16 birdies and 2 Eagles…. For a 52.  Awesome. One of the guys hit drives over 300 yards so everyone else had short shots to the green.  

As noted, Tracy and I golfed Chimera Golf course.  Big, wide fairways, decent rough and big greens.  The forecast was for winds, gusting to 60 mph with showers and they didn’t lie!  We golfed with a guy who played from the blacks.  He hit the ball well over 300 yards but not necessarily on the same fairway!  No problem putting his next shot next to the pin.  He lost a couple of balls (I think) but birdied a lot of holes also.

I played much better at this course right from the first drive.  It was really windy and into the wind added a stroke but with the wind you gained one so it evened out.  One Par 3 was only 108 yards into the wind and my 3 wood wasn’t enough to get to the green.  It went 30 yards to the right with the wind – across the water.  It was where I could chip it, so OK.  The last two holes were tough as it was sprinkling rain into the wind but it wasn’t COLD, just nasty.

Lisa and had just enjoyed lunch at the California Pizza Kitchen

More to come for week two.

Lots of laughs at an O’Shea/Way get together

As far back as I can remember my Dad loved to write his name and where he came from.  George Peter Stone, Roseau, Minnesota. This was firmly implanted in my mind and as paper was,  not in any way shape or form, in abundance when i was young. However Dad would write his name anywhere and everywhere.  On the white edge of the newspaper or the boards inside a granary. And his handwriting was beautiful.

My Dad was 15 when they moved from Minnesota and now I realize how much he missed the carefree days of his youth.Life was good back in Minnesota when they first came from Sweden and everyone had jobs lumbering. But once the forests were cleared there were more people than work. (See my post “Edgar Book and Andrew Berg” on immigration to Canada).

Of course Dad talked about all the fun he had playing baseball (of course) and all kinds of other activities.  My Dad was athletic and encouraged all of us to participate in sports.  I never did see my Dad play baseball but I did see him hit balls when my brother Jim was practicing his skills.

We were small farmers and our pick up truck was not only to haul wheat to the elevator but our ONLY mode of transportation when I was young.  Then one day my dad came home from Kyle, Saskatchewan with this Ford sedan. Now the car dealer in Kyle had a farm as well and he had driven this car in the fields.  With the windows open!  Needless to say, the inside of the car was filled with dust, especially the headliner. We vacuumed and vacuumed the inside of that car but we never could get all the dust out.  Of course we had gravel roads and if you went over a bump, down came the dust.

One of the few times I got to go with just my Dad was to take a load of grain to the Federal Elevator in Strongfield.  After we sold the grain we would go to the cafe for ICE CREAM.  Cost of $.10. And a double scoop! Then my Dad would go into the Pool Hall and play a game of snooker. Then we picked up the mail and went the 14 miles to home.

My dad had a twin brother Paul and one time we three went to see their brother Charlie at Secretan, Saskatchewan some 86 miles away. My Dad was a pretty happy guy and loved to sing. You can just imagine how the two of them could harmonize.  I remember them starting out with “The Sidewalks of New York”, then “After The Ball is Over”, then “Daisy” and of course my Dad’s favorite “Moonlight Bay”.  I’m sure they sang many more songs.  I remember Paul asked my Dad if he could recall the Swedish words to “After The Ball is Over” and they sang that in Swedish.  That was such a wonderful treat for me to listen to them sing.

I didn’t have that many trips with just Dad but one I remember was a trip to Davidson to the Dentist.  While I was in there my Dad went to the Beer Parlor (as they were called in the 1940’s) for a beer or two. My dad picked me up and said, ” Maureen do you want to drive?” I said sure and drove all the way home, about 45 miles.  I was probably 12 years old at the time.

Well that’s my story about my Dad. Loved him lots.

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