“Conspicuous consumption of valuable goods is a mean of reputability to the gentleman of leisure.”

— Torstein Veblen

Forgive me if I misspelled Torstein’s name. I suspect Mr. Veblen was not a resident of Austin and I refuse to look him up on line. It’s my understanding that practically anyone that lives can be found on line. Personally I prefer to know the people I know but I do appreciate quotes and I copy them down.

Sunday was the Plevka reunion. Sometime ago it was the Vilt/Plevka reunion. What matters more is the Bohemian Hall, something folks of the Czech Republic would like to see. However they would have objected to the heat. The Hall sits by itself about a quarter mile south of the Bohemian Cemetery, on the west side of the road.

Of course we were almost late and fortunately there were no detours this time as there were last year. Uncle Bill was back from California. He flew into Rochester one morning earlier in the week. He was married to Aunt Bessie (Bessie Vilt). Uncle Bill makes it a point to get back here for the reunion. At 96 he appeared to be one of the eldest persons there. There was a senior lady there who had a bunch of years behind her too.

Everyone brings food, half of it homemade and the other half I suspect store bought. My brother “Butch”/Darryl and Darla were there along with their eldest son Chris and his wife Kim and their son Dylan.

Jana, my niece, was there with her husband and kids. Jana is a daughter of our late sister Carol Francis and Pete. Jana and Brady brought Franny and the twins boys Henry and Jack with them. Our Casey, who happens to be home, chose to sleep in. They camped out at Jimmy’s last night. Brandy said it was beautiful night Saturday night unlike Sunday when the humidity and temperature weakened all of us.

This has still been one of our best years weather-wise that I can remember. We had more snow than usual but when it did fall it fell straight down. There wasn’t the blowing snow this last winter. And this summer has provided us with rain and alternating blue skies. It’s been a long summer; you can see it in the crops. Back in our hunting days there used to be rows of corn and some thick with weeds that made nice environment for pheasants. Now the pheasants don’t have to fear me and I don’t think they had to very much back then. Cousin Ed says you can’t hunt in corn anymore because there aren’t rows.

As for Mello she’s walking with a softer limp now and dividing her time in the back room of the house and the front room. She prefers to have the front window open so she can bark at people walking by. I’ve been trying to get her stop barking but someone else said there is nothing wrong with that. I never thought of it that way. She is becoming a big fan of Casey, and then Jeanne. I guess I am the third one in her order.

Mello likes to hide her rawhides or whatever they are called. She likes to bury them but in the house she tries to bury them on the couch pulling the couch cover back then sticking her rawhide in the couch corner then pushing the couch cover to bury it. I’m giving some thought to piling some dirt on the couch to bury them easier. Sometimes I pull them and give it give back to her and I wonder if she is happy to get it back or upset that I disturbed her hiding place.

I’m still finding interest in the Last Night I Dreamed of Peace, the diary of Dang Thuy Tram. One of her thoughts reads: “A day shadowed by the American bandits is a day of pain and death. Oh, this vendetta, when can it be paid?”

She was the a young medical woman who came into South Vietnam to care for Viet Cong for three years in the Duc Pho area where we were stationed. She was found three years later with two bullet holes in her forehead.

Its beginning to sound like the war in Afghanistan is gaining strength against us and now that the American soldiers in Iraq are leaving there are renewed difficulties there. Perhaps they’re intended to keep our minds off our own troubles here.