| Volume 14 Issue 8 |
8/24/2022 |
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In this issue
Store Hours
Follow Us
Contact Us
Letters From Ralph
San Diego Vacation Rental
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Personal Concern Personally I have enjoyed playing pickle ball the last couple of years. Earlier this summer I played fairly strenuously in very hot weather. That evening I had discomfort in my chest. I thought I better not play anymore until I get that checked out. After checking with a cardiologist, she said that I should take a stress test. I had taken a stress test 20 months ago and everything was fine. However, this time I didn't pass the stress test and so on August 24 (the day the newsletter goes out), I will be getting a left heart catheterization at UnityPoint Health St. Luke's Hospital in Sioux City, Iowa. The doctor said there was 1 in a thousand chances something could go very wrong and 1 in 100 chances that I could have a reaction to the dye they use. So the odds are that everything will go fine. My husband had a similar procedure about six years ago. He had three stents put in and has been in better shape than before ever since. But I wouldn't mind having a few extra prayers this morning. Thank you.
Summer Sales Our main sales all year occur during the Tulip Festival, but we have sold some wooden shoes, disc golf discs, books, white peppermints and thread this summer. Our web site brings some really interesting people to our little home store, especially readers who love to browse through our older books. One of our last book customers was the City Manager of Marshalltown, a gal who could have been my granddaughter. The world has come a long ways in offering opportunities to women. When I was first certified to be a superintendent, there were only a few women superintendents in Iowa. In fact, one professor wouldn't approve me to enter the doctoral program in educational administration because he said, women can't be superintendents. I wonder if he is still around to see what has happened in the field.
Disc Golf 2022 Tour My husband and I had the privilege of actually watching Juliana play this past weekend at the TruBank Des Moines Challenge presented by Discraft. This took place in Indianola, Iowa and Juliana is credited with designing and instagating this course many years ago. It is now one of the nicest courses in Iowa and one of the better courses in the nation. There was a lot of participation by girls from other countries as the top winner was a gal from Estonia and the 2nd place winner was from Finland. Disc golf is truly a world wide sport. It was wonderful spending some time with Juliana and her fiancé, Jim Oates. There were also several Iowa friends and disc golf enthusiasts there. In fact a young man who had been raised in Orange City was the scorekeeper on Juliana's last round (his grandfather was the subject of the book Lee and I wrote entitled "Letters from Ralph"). The next big tournament is the 2022 PDGA Professional Disc Golf World Championships Presented by Dynamic Discs in Emporia, Kansas. Currently there are 218 men registered in the open class and 77 open women. The tournament will run from August 30 to September 3. There are only 3 women who have won the World Championship five times and Juliana is one of those. The other two are Elaine King and Paige Pierce. Paige is also in this tournament, but is about 20 years younger than Juliana. Most of the women are from the United States, but there are three from Finland, two from Estonia, one from Japan, one from Slovakia, one from Norway and two from Canada. It will be some of the best competition of the year. Then on September 8, Juliana will take part in the 2022 PDGA Tim Selinske US Masters Championships in which Juliana will enter the age protected category of FP50 which is for women 50 years and older. Her fiancé, Jim Oates, is entered in MP60 which is for men 60 and older, however, it will probably depend on his health at the time whether he actually participates. He has recovered pretty well from his heart surgery, but in the middle of the summer he went through a bout with Lyme's Disease, which other disc golfers have gotten too, as the result of a small tick bite. So the disc golf season is coming to a close with the coming of fall, but Juliana and Jim plan on participating again next year and, if neither have any health problems, they can get an earlier start on the season.
Book Reviews
The Monkey House by John Fullerton.
This is a hard cover book in very good shape copyrighted in 1996. John Fullerton is a journalist who has covered wars in Africa, Asia, the Middle East and Bosnia. He lives in London. This is a mystery book that takes place in Sarajevo, which in the book, is in the midst of a war. It gives one a first hand look at what might be going on in Ukraine right now. This was kind of a heavy book, but a good read. This is a first edition book and sells for $4.00.
The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien.
This is the first part of the The Lord of the Rings. It was first published in 1954 and has been republished several times after that. Talk about variety in reading. I usually don't pick science fiction books to read, but this one has been quite interesting. I like to read everything in a book, but I just about didn't get through the Notes on the Text, the foreword and the Prologue before I actually got into the story. It appears that Tolkien has almost invented another language and the Notes tell about all the troubles that proof readers had with the text because no one knew what the words were supposed to look like. This particular book contains books I and II of the story. I haven't finished book II yet, but I think there may be more to the story than is contained in this book alone. On the front of the book it says Being the First Part of The Lord of the Rings. J.R. Tolkien lived from 1892 - 1973. He is one of the best-loved writers in the world. His books have been translated into more than thirty languages and have sold many millions of copies worldwide. This story has also been made into a motion picture. Ten of Tolkien's works have been published posthumously. One of his sons has managed his works after Tolkien's death. This is a softcover book and sells for $3.00. It isn't in quite as good a shape as some of our other books because it looks like it has been well read. It is the story of Frodo Baggins and the journey's he takes to deal with a ring his cousin had given him that has great powers. Really imaginative.
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