This month marks two significant milestones.

This past Monday (7/23) marked the 25th anniversary of the passing of my brother, Gary Lea McFarland.  I was only 27 on that day in 1987 when I received the call that he had passed away suddenly while working in Frankfort Ky.  That was one of the hardest days of my life as I then had to go tell my mom and dad the news.  We survived that tragedy in part because of the wonderful family and friends who supported us.  Gary loved history and was particularly fond of the life and legacy of Abraham Lincoln.  As I  tour Gettysburg and Washington DC this summer – I think about Gary and wish he could see what I have seen so far.

On second thought – from where he is at – he is seeing a whole lot more than me.

The other milestone is my retirement from school and I have been thinking about that this week as I know all my former co-workers at Owensboro Middle School and OPS are gearing up for another year.  I miss seeing everyone and would like to offer these words of encouragement – RETIREMENT IS GREAT!!!!!

Lisa and I are planning to attend the Hanover Dutch Festival this weekend.  We have no idea what that is but have heard it is a lot of fun with lots of food (all we can do is quote Austin Powers and those “freaky deaky Dutch”).  Food here is not too different from Owensboro.  However you will find crab cake sandwiches are a popular menu item and this past weekend I tried what is called “scrapple”.  It is similar to sausage and was really no different in taste but is apparently made with certain pork “scraps” with filler added.  I don’t want to know anymore than that.

I noticed all the Penn State t-shirts, hats and other apparel is on sale here if anyone would like me to pick some up for them.  Locals don’t seem to want to talk about the scandal and the resulting fallout.  Football is huge here and it would be likened to UK basketball being put on probation for four years (well – maybe not that bad).  I have looked high and low for Pittsburgh Pirate apparel but it is nowhere to be found.  Most people here are Baltimore Oriole and Ravens fans and don’t want anything to do with Pittsburgh or Philadelphia even though Philly is just 140 miles or so away.  There seem to be more Redskin fans than Eagle fans here.  It is really strange.  I am determined to see my Pirates play before we leave here and am holding out hope they will finally have a winning season after 19 years of losing and maybe make the playoffs.  (“Playoffs? Playoffs?  You’re talking about playoffs?)

Say hey to Goober!

Steve and Lisa