Tuesday

This morning, after Mr. Roger's Neighborhood, which Paul, Ellen and I all watched with Max, P, E and I watched the Belgium/France World Cup game. It was an exciting game between two well-matched teams. Paul was rooting for Belgium. I didn't care  who won - although the winner of this game goes on to play the winner of tomorrow's game between England and Croatia. Since England is favored to win that game, I think an England/France final championship game has sort of a classic feel to it. I'm sure if England wins the World Cup, many Brits will take it as a confirmation of Brexit. But if France wins . . .  ?? (France won today, btw).

I have just completed the digitizing of a big bag of papers I brought with me. The scanner here at the Alpine Library is very helpful in that regard. Here is one of the things I scanned - a letter I wrote my dad on February 18, 1944:

Side 1

Side 2

When I wrote this, I was almost 11 years old, just a little older than Max, living in Minneapolis, MN. My brother, Stewart,  was still at home, but a few months after  this letter was written, he graduated from Marshall High and entered the army (at age 17!) in the ASTRP - Army Specialized Training Reserve Program, in which the army sent 17-year-olds to college until they turned 18, and then sent them to basic training. My dad, at this time, was serving as a chaplain in WW 2, and was Post Chaplain at Fort Lewis, Washington. A few months later, he was sent to France.

I'm particularly interested today in the part of this letter about my brother and I seeing how many words we could make from the name Staudenmaier. (Mr. Staudenmaier was the principal of Tuttle School, where I was in sixth grade). This is very much like the puzzle Ellen and I do every Sunday now - Spelling Bee. I don't say in this letter whether there were any "rules," e.g., whether there was a minimum number of letters in a word, or whether you could use  a letter more than once in the same word. But if we came up with 150 words, there were probably not many restrictions. It's fascinating that I was interested in that kind of puzzle at age 11.

The other puzzle about linking 9 dots with 4 lines is a classic "thinking outside the box" puzzle.

Back at the condo, they are expecting delivery of a new washer and dryer. That will save us trips to the laundromat. I'll go back and see if they have arrived.

So long from the Alpine Library!

Later: the washer and dryer never arrived. This is the 2nd time delivery has been delayed.