7-Quick Takes

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1.  Apologies for the light blogging this week.  I mentioned a while back that I was involved in a law suit – my sister and I sold part of my father’s ranch on a land contract, and a dispute arose between our buyer and one of the neighbors and because our name is still on the title, we also got sued.

I remember when I was a little girl, and my mother sued a beauty shop. She stepped on an unsecure cement block at the entrance to their shop and when mom stepped on it, it flipped and she broke her ankle. In fact, she needed to have surgery with a plate and screws to fix her ankle. Well, she did sue the beauty shop, probably to cover some of her out-of-pocket expenses, and she unbelievably lost!   Her attorney felt so bad about it, that he didn’t charge her for the case.

But I remember at that time, vowing to stay out of any kind of court cases if I could possibly avoid it. And as it turns out, even if you avoid being sued, a suit can find you.

2. Coincidentally, I was reading some of my old diaries from high school, and I came upon an entry where my mother felt very hurt because my father threatened to divorce her.  Apparently, he wanted to buy some more property “for the girls” but because he didn’t make much money as a rancher, he needed mom (the school teacher) to sign for the loan.  She was reluctant to do that and  that’s when my father threatened to divorce her.

The irony of this is not lost on me today.

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4. This suit appears to be done. It went to a jury today and the verdict was rendered, but there has to be another hearing in a few weeks.  I’ll be able to blog more about it then.

5.  On a more positive note, Noah’s financial aid package for college came in today.  We figured that if we don’t pay off any of his loans at all for 4 years, he will come away with only $15,000 in debt, which in this day and age is not too bad. But Mr. Pete and I plan to stay ahead of it so he won’t have too much debt when he’s done, especially if he still decides for the seminary.

6.  My mother’s parents paid for her college education at St. Mary’s College, across from Notre Dame.  But times were tough, and for her last year of college my grandpa told her that she would have to work at the school and quit taking piano lessons. He was going to plant an entire field of soy beans and whatever he could get for those, he would use solely to pay her tuition. Anything above that, and she would have to find a way to cover it.

That year mom worked in the dining room (and had a lot of fun stories about that); she didn’t take piano lessons, but practiced on her own anyway; and grandpa had a bumper crop of soy beans and was able to pay her entire final tuition bill!

7. I have never had so much fun watching a political debate before.  It was raunchy, and immature, and really great t.v.  If you forget that the future of the country is at stake, it was a lot easier to take. Rubio and Trump  – you couldn’t script that any better!