In this issue

• Tulip Festival Prep
• Snow Snow Snow
• Disc Golf Tour
• Book Review

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Letters From Ralph

Ralph J. Mouw, a native of Orange City, Iowa, never forgot his roots - even when he was halfway across the world during World War II. In this collection of letters, you'll find a firsthand account of what life was like during the war at home and overseas. Although letters were heavily censored during the war years, the editors have added comments to place them in context.

Getting ready for the tulip festival
By Owner: Bonnie Meier

As soon as the New Year begins we start thinking about the Tulip Festival. Jubon Juweelen will again be handling the Straatwinkel right along the parade route and across from the Town Hall. We will have quite a few new things including some Dutch antiques that we've gathered since the last Festival and we hope to have some new, attractive tulip bags by Cott n Curls including a tulip cellphone sling, book bag, tote, wristlet, travel pouch, etc. We will again have plain wooden shoes, traditional wooden shoes and the red bottom ones in every size available; also slippers and clogs.

Snow Snow Snow
By Owner: Bonnie Meier

Last year Sioux City received 4 inches of snow the entire winter. We have someone scoop our driveway with heavy equipment and they came 3 times last year. This year we haven't had a full week of school since Thanksgiving because of all the snow. Sometimes they scoop our driveway several times a week. We are on the end of a long street and the city uses our yard to deposit some of their snow. We have two big piles that are at least six feet high -- probably higher. We can barely get to our mailbox, the snow is almost up to the bottom of it. We aren't complaining too much because we have been in a drought for sometime, but we are all anxious to see the ground again. The window behind me has a row of icicles along the gutter and some must be 2 - 3 feet long.

Disc Golf
By Owner: Bonnie Meier

My husband and I just purchased a smart TV so that we can watch disc golf on the big screen rather than a small computer. For those who are interested, you can go to Disc Golf Network (discgolfnetwork.com) to watch all the major tournaments. There is a small monthly charge, but we think it is well worth it. You can also watch the scoring on U Disc (udisclive.com) and the PDGA page, but if you can watch the actual action that is more interesting.

Juliana and Jim will have started the tournament season by the next newsletter. They will be on the road for almost 9 months. Juliana will be doing some broadcasting, as well. Their first tournament will start on February 10 and is called The Old Goats Challenge. It will be held in Escondido, California and Juliana will be playing in the Pro 50+. Jim will be playing in the Pro 60+. The next week they will be playing in the 45th Annual Wintertime Open in Pasadena, California. Juliana will be playing in the Women's Pro Open and Jim will again play in the Mixed Pro 60+. On February 23 Juliana will be playing in the Las Vegas Challenge. This is a pro elite series event and will be on Disc Golf Network. The next newsletter will be out before any other events.

Book Reviews
By Owner: Bonnie Meier

I finally finished the trilogy of Dante's Divine Comedy. I started reading these three books in August and just finished about a week ago. The last book went very slowly. It was hard to understand and if I hadn't been taking the online course explaining it, I wouldn't have gotten much out of it. The three books were "Inferno", "Purgatory", and "Paradise". They were written 700 years ago. It's one that I can cross off my list of classics that I should read sometime.

One reason it took so long is that I read several other books at the same time (that were more entertaining). One was called 1st Culprit. This was a series of 30 short crime stories each written by a different author. This book was copyrighted in 1992 by Crime Writers' Association. Some are only a page or two long and others quite a bit longer. What a variety. The writers come from all over the world. This is a 249 page hard cover book that sells for $3.00. I only have one copy.

This is a 501 page hard cover book that I have for sale for $5.00. It was copyrighted in 2008 and is a story about Los Angeles. It is a different sort of book, but has some good points. It is full of facts, but the first page, before the story even starts states "Nothing in this book should be considered accurate or reliable." So I suspect that none of the facts are true. I could tell that when the author talked about a man buying a Model A in 1904 and I understand they weren't made until 1928. So, I suspect that nothing I'm reading is accurate. Usually when you read a novel, even if the people are fictitious, usually the historical facts are true. So, I hope I don't hear myself telling someone something that came from this book as fact, because I suspect it was all made up. I usually look up information about the authors and James Frey is very controversial. He evidently wrote a couple of best sellers that were supposedly true and evidently weren't. That's probably why he started the book with the statement that nothing should be considered accurate in this book. He was evidently suicidal for awhile and did die very young at 61 year old of a heart attack. His sentence structure, etc. would not pass in an English class, but his book was still pretty entertaining. He has several story lines that are quite interesting.