All the arrows, present and accounted for

All of the children of Donna Entenman Rye and Glenn E. Rye were present to honor My Granddaughter last week. Two of her cousins,Sam & Benjamin, were present also. Summer had her final program at her school in Phoenix and was not able to attend.
I returned to Sun City a week ago today and was priveledged to has lunch with Dan on Saturday.
I attended an impressive Memorial Day ceremony in Sun City. I do this each year wherever I am to honor:
"And those we loved, the lovliest and best,
Who through the vintage time has pressed.
Have drunk their cup a time or two before,
And one by one stole silently to rest."

GRADUATIONDAY- My Granddaughter -2005

Brevity is the soul of wit. I will honor her with the motto her class has choosen.

"Oh, the places you will go!

You have brains in your head.

You have feet in your shoes.

You can steer yourself any direction you choose."

-Dr.Seuss

My heart leaps AGAIN when I behold a rainbow in the sky!

I posted this title yeterday and was advised to view it in a new window. Until I get a hold of Court I won't be able to find that window but I trust it's floating out there somewhere in cyberspace.

These are the related activities surrounding the rainbow in the sky. Indeed a bevy of rainbows. I arrived from Sun City about 3pm on 05/18/05. It was My Granddaughter 19th birthday. Randy knows all the good eating places in Fort Collins so accompanying the princess of the party,My Granddaughter , were Ramona Karen, just in from New Baltimore, Michigan where she serves as Charge Nurse for the emergency ward night shift, Court, just home from completeing his sophomore year at CU in Boulder, Randy, the giver of all good gifts, and myself. A good time was had by all. Then yesterday I attended the honors convocation for My Granddaughter , which I posted but cannot find, a noon luncheon with Dr.Greg, Samuel, who chose the eatery, and Benjamin, who will turn 7 months on the 26th, a joyous foursome indeed.

Then in the evening another rainbow appeared as we dined on some Indian cuisine. The beam of rainbows included Lisa and Greg, Samuel and Benjamin, Ramona Karen and myself.

I am, among all men, most richly blessed.

My heart leaps up when I behold a rainbow in the sky!

"my heart leaps up when I behold a rainbow in the sky
So was it when I was a boy,
So is it now I am a man!

So let it be when I grow old or let me die."

-Leigh Hunt

I live in Sun City.Arizona, a retirement community and too often I hear it said that young people are'nt up to the standards of days of old. I also hear that frequently in other sectors of society.These people don't have a clue.They are whistling Dixie.

This morning I saw a rainbow in the sky! I attended the Awards Convocation at Rocky High School in Fort Collins,Colorado.They are the Lobos. It has been a long time since I've attended an event that embodied so much enthusiasm, so much idealism, so much spirit,so many soul rendering musical reditions, so many heart warming hugs echanged between faculy and students as they were presented with their awards. My eyes welled up with tears of joy and pride. Perhaps I am not partial for I had the same joy in my heart as each award was given as the joy I received when My Granddaughter Rye received her numerous awards.

I'm telling you straight out, we're lucky that we don't have to compete with this crowd!

Their motto is a rainbow in the sky for each and every one of them and for everyone who has been fortunate enough to be touched by their lives!

"Oh the places you'll go!

You have brains in your head,

Yoou have feet in your shoes.

You can steer yourself any direction you can choose."

-Dr Suess

You are the bows.....Continued..Randy

After a year in the business world, Randy and Camille set off for Ithica, New York to reside high above Cauyaugas waters singing the praises of Cornell. Randy had early recieved newpapers from Ithica and discovered that there was a demand for horse trailers. There was no shortage of horse trailers in Colorado so Randy purchased one to haul their furnitue to their new home.By the time it was loaded and hucked up to the vintage Volvo sedan, the rear end of the Volvo and the front end of the trailer could be classified as low riders. So I insisted that we put on a load leveler trailer hitch so Donna and I would have less to worry about as the traveled to Ithica.
I was fortunate enough to visit them twice while they were at Cornell. The first time Randy took me to a home football game. It was an strange situation. All of the Cornell students were cheering for the other team.Unfortunately, it was one of the games that Cornell won. Randy explained that
Cornell wanted to be known as an accademic institutiion and not a jock shop. My second visit was the occassion of Randy's graduation and I can still visualize him throwing his mortar board high in the sky.
Camile was carrying Court so she took my place on the airline and Randy and I herded the Volvo westward to Colorado.It was nice to spend those days with our wonderful son, Randy.
He has been and is the greatest of Fathers and next Tuesday I will drive to Colordado to see his precious daughter, graduate from Rocky Mountain High School in Fort Colllins, Colorado. She is truly one of a kind. I do beleive they have thrown away the mould. Randy's son, Court, just completed his 2nd year at CU in Boulder. Court is another original
Since graduation, Randy has been employed by HP. He is one of the survivors and has served his company, his community and his family more than well. Some years ago he won their Star award and I hope that HP is wise enough to allow him to continue to shine.
From menory, I believe it's Longfellows, I share this verse in honor of Randy.

"Sail on, oh Ship of State,
Sail on , oh Union , strong and great.
Humanity with all it's fears,with all it's hope for future years,
It hanging breathless, at thy fate."

You are the bows...Randy, continued

Randy woriked for a while as an usher at the old Rialto theatre.He had to be agile to avoid being hit by debris that kept falling from the ceiling. Later, for a brief period we owned the theatre. Not a good move.Randy then moved to to the all American job of those years, working at McDonalds.Using the old Ford Courier pickup he also cleaned up many properties that Donna managed. One notable cleanup was at a four-plex on Butternut Drive. It had a small patio area enclosed by a 6 foot board fence.While cleaning up the trash he stumbled into a hornet's nest. Needless to say, Randy was able to clear that fence in one jump or less..
Randy also liked to hike up to Carter Lake where he was able to observe the abundant wild life in the area. In later years he tooked off from a guided tour of the Great Wall of China to explore the surrounding mountains. There was no wild life there to observe.
When he attended CU at Boulder his wheels were his Model A Ford. After developing a pain in his upper leg and thigh, he went to a doctor. The diagnosis was that the extreme force he had to use in applying the mechanical brakes on the Model A was the culprit. No pain,no gain!
When I took Randy and Kevin Christensen to Boulder to look for housing the best deal dollars wise was a room on the 3rd floor of an old home with kitchen facilitiles in the basement. I looked around and found a 3 bedroom unit in a planned unit development. It featured a pool, tennis courts, squash ball courts and other amenities.I purchased it and Randy rented out the other two bedrooms. The next year, when Dan appeared on the scene, they shard a bedroom and continued to rent out the other bedrooms. In latter years, Donna & I sold the unit to one of the students who Randy and Dan had rented to.
After graduation from CU,Randy was accepted for the MBA program at Cornell. One of the requirements was that he work a year in the real business world before entering the program. I believe Randy already had a real estate broker's license so he choose to work a year with Donna and I at Estate Builders Realty. He had suggested the name when we opened a few years earlier. I believe it was that summer or the summer before that my friend at the Reporter Hearld, Merritt Lewis, did a story and a picture of Randy, Dan and thier father huddled around a desk at Estate Builder. I suppose it is retrieveable. Randy did a great professional job and made many notable sales, including a liquor store. It was there that Randy met the Mother of his children, Camile. I had a rent to own add in the paper and had made an evening appointment with her but then I decided to take Greg and Ramona to the auction to get some furniture for the rentals. Randy had to make good on my appointment for me and he did. Greg and Ramona looked forward to going to the acution because there were so many characters there, notably, old SPECS. It was there that Greg got the instrument panel for a
B-24 bomber. It still sits in the garage at the Columbine.

Bows from which arrows...Randy, Continued

When Randy was in college at CU he and his friend,Calvin?, traveled to Europe over Chirstmas vacation. He friend was on standby and every thing went well until they got to New York City where his friend got bumped. On the plane he met a lady who lived in London. Randy told her that he would have to wait in London until his friend arrived. She said that she was going to the country for a week so she gave him the keys to her apartment.
Randy stayed there seven days checking the arrivals at Heathrow daily. On the seventh day he couldn't wait any
longer so he dropped the key inside, locked the door and went to Heathrow. His friend did arrive and they traveled by rail to France, Italy,Germany and ended up in Sweden where he called my relatives in Norway who I has visited the year before. ;lHe visited them and the next year we got a call to the effect that they were going to visit their relataives in Minnesota and wanted to come to Colorado. I said that we would meet them in the Black Hills , but Donna said they want to come to Colorado, so they did. The had an extended Dodge van that held 20 people and it was full. We owned the Pine motel so we put them up there for a week. At the first dinner at the Coachhouse the atmosphere was rather gaurded for in addition to the language barrier we didn't know if they
would imbibe in a glass of wine or two.In Norway the law of premogentiure holds that the farm or inheritance goes to the oldest son who is always named after his father. So here was the eldest son, Nels, age 27? or so
waiting around for the inheritance and he reached to the middle of the table for some goodies and Randy slapped his hand. You could have heard a pin drop but then everone burst into laughter. Our Randy had broken the ice.
At lunch the other day in Phoenix with Dan, we both agreed that Randy was the most congenial and outgoing of our clan. A hale fellow, well met. Could it be the Uncle Tommy syndrome?

"you are the bows...."Randy, continued.

When we Moved to Loveland, Colordado Randy had saved up enough money from the sale of his lambs on Gramercy Place in Riverside, California to start a business. He was in 8th grade. We visited the Gambles store in Loveland and in Fort Collins where he dickered for a tractor lawnmower. We went back and forth enough times for Randy to ascertain that the Loveland spokesperson had given up as much as humanly possible to make the deal. He must have been a tough negotiater for years later when Randy was in a superivisory position at the Greeley HP plant an employee came up to him and said something to the effect that aren't you the kid that beat me out of my full commission those many years ago. Randy was one of three HP employees that put together the digital camera and he was the numbers cruncher.He visited a Chinese factory where over 7000 people sat around on little stools maybe not unlike the old milk stools I got to sit on while milking the four cows before I went to school. Embarrissing enough was the fact that my Mother, Emma Thompson Rye, milked five cows to my four.
One of the difficulties Randy faced in his new business that I had to hook up the trailer to haul him around from job to jobs that weren't in the neighborhood.

Today, I am a guest teacher at Westview High School in Avondale, Arizona. I have a free period and thanks to Randy"s son, Court, I am able to stumble my way on to this blog site and sing praises to the skills that Court and Randy have managed to spoon feed me with. On the 17th of May I will drive to Colorado for Cassie's birthday on the 18th and her high school graduation on the 22nd of May.
It is indeed a small world. I was at the Sun City Singles dance last Friday evening and I was introduced to a lady and her name was Opal. I said I had a sister named Opal, Opal Rye Nelson.
She mentioned Fort Collins and I told her that I was going there to my Grandaughter's graduation on th 22nd. Strangely enough, her grandaughter, Lacey Smith, will be at the same ceremony as will her grandmother.
In high school Randy had a major part to Ms Roberta Price's production of HELLO DOLLY.
He was also on the swim team and was in meets at the Air Force Accademy. He drove the push button transmission 62 Chrysler Newport to school and once when Dan tried to give him advice he made Dan get out and walk home.(to be continued)