Busy Weekend

Vickie and Dan went to a marching band competition in Cedar Rapids on Saturday and didn't get back until 1:30 am Sunday, so Bobby and I had a busy guy day. He had a 9:00 am piano lesson. We raced down to Beaverdale, our old neighborhood, to watch the annual Beaverdale parade.

After lunch we did something different. One of Dan's contemporaries at church announced last week that he needed helpers for his Eagle Scout project at Woodland Cemetary. To my surprise, Bobby was excited by the project. We've been there on Memorial Day to see the ceremony they have at the Civil War section of the cemetery, and maybe that was the key.

The project was to clear away brush that has grown up over this neglected cemetery. It used to be the main city cemetery, but it filled up around 1970 and has been neglected since then. The city cuts the grass, but doesn't do much else, and a lot of the graves were overgrown. It remains Des Moines cemetery of choice for ritual satanic slayings, though.





Bobby especially liked rescuing graves that had fallen over. I was surprised how easy it is to replace a stone in its little plinth.



We went out for pasta and then watched a movie after our hard efforts. Unfortunately, Bobby woke up Sunday with a nasty cold and fever, so he may stay home today - he was coughing in the night. I hope he's better in time to go canoing on the Upper Iowa next weekend.