Friday, June 1, 2012

May 2012: Mostly Missouri

The lovely month of May was rushed and mostly away from home for the Henkels.  The  first part of the month, Mark
Douglas County Courthouse, Ava MO
Beautiful Mo Sunset
was in the usual pre-trial intense focus, getting things set up and copied and prepared.  Hilde had extra meetings and three public hearings to run, trying to get everything done before the departure.  It was bittersweet for Hilde to attend the staff recognition luncheon for the McMillan Library as her last activity.  After ten great years including time as the board president, it is hard to step down, but one person can’t do everything.  The farewells and plaque were lovely.

The early warmth tricked many fruit trees into flowering early, but frosts were hard on them.  However, the little peach tree waited until mid-May and was just beautiful.  Part of the prep for leaving was trying to get lawn all tidied and failing to get in the gardens as Rudolph got over 3 inches of rain and in the heavy soil, things were too wet to disk things.

On Saturday, May 12th, Mark and Hilde completely filled the car with four document boxes ( the other 8 boxes were already in Missouri!), a dolly, and all the clothes and books needed for up to three weeks in trial.  Mark’s case was venued in AVA MO, a small town on the edge of the Ozarks.  The cell reception there was poor outside and non-existent in the only motel, meaning if either phone rang, Hilde or Mark would grab it and rush outside to try to make contact.  Even the land line in the room cut off a couple times.  Hilde did find that the park on the hill was good for phone reception and spent a couple afternoons keeping in touch while getting some sun.

The trial was very intense with court running until 6 pm most evenings, and the plaintiff s attorney spending several days READING depositions of persons not at the trial…tough for the jury.  He also called Mark once at nearly midnight—the only discourteous action of the entire stay in the very polite South.  The dining choices were very limited, but eating salad and pizza many evenings worked out, and the views around the area were so very lovely.  On Saturday afternoon, Mark and Hilde drove along a scenic Ozarks road, Glade Top, enjoying flowers and views.  Then Sunday they drove to Mountain Home AR for church and enjoyed those vistas before a nice hot hike along a lake.  The jury came back late on the 24th with a win for Mark, so it was all worth it.  By getting up very early on Friday, most of the holiday traffic was avoided on the 13 hours driving back.  It was very good to be back in Wisconsin.

The final week of May was spent at HOME with Mark and Hilde working hard to catch up on mowing, and planting.  Both gardens are now fully planted, including the 30 tomato and 18 pepper plants which the office gals watered and cared for during the trial.  It was a real joy to be working together out there and relaxing from the long hours of the trial.  Better yet is knowing that no out-of-state trials are scheduled for the rest of the year!

Family news is mixed for the month:  John and Evie are doing great; but with the time for Jim and Kayme’s return approaching (mid July) they have been frustrated in several attempts to buy a house.  However, they now know they are adding another daughter to the family in October and have named her Rowan Emilie.  Hilde’s father had another nasty fall and broke a bone in his right wrist.  The extended family celebrated four graduations (all nephews:  Curt Orchard in pharmacy, Joel Henkel in business management, and Adam Henkel and Erich Bormann from high school) as that next generation continues to grow up and make us proud.  May has been a very full month!
          Note that formatting this blog has changed and I apologize for the lack of order.!!

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