Biscuit Day #669

Plus a fond look back at a few Midwestern signs

I got a little ahead of myself. I had planned a half day mini-wander for this weekend. However when I got up on Saturday, between mental fatigue, back pain and everything else I realized it just wasn’t in the cards. So it was a day of rest, a nap, some episodes of My Kitchen Rules UK, some other mindless tv and a tiny bit of reading. One of the ways I know how sick I’ve been is that I haven’t been reading. At ALL. I’ve always been a reader and normally have a couple of books going and read before bed every night. I haven’t touched a book since the beginning of April. So the fact that I did read a little bit yesterday felt like a victory. Yes, it was a fluffy romance and I have a sneaking suspicion that I have either read it before or one much like it, but I’ll take that as a victory anyway. I still collapsed by 8 pm and slept for twelve hours. This has just been a weird and unexpected ride and I guess I have a ways to go. It’s been a bit of a perfect storm between pneumonia, starting a new job (after only working at home for in several years), back pain from sitting in a straight chair for hours, the workplace going through some major computer/sharing/IT changes, AND working on a PC instead of a Mac for the first time in about twenty years. It’s been….a lot.

This week we head to St. Louis for some fancy schmancy full body scans for Ernie. Then we come back and the following day Ernie gets his Keytruda infusion, etc., etc. HOPEFULLY I will finish my training somewhere in there, both for my sake and that of the poor woman training me. At some point I need to also somehow get some help with my yard. Ay yi yi. Our beloved Susan does a ton but she can’t do everything. Oh GOOD GOD I’m just winding myself up. Deep breath. Breathe in, breathe out. Breathe in, breathe out. Breathe in, breathe out.

Ok, since I can’t report on a mini wander, I dug out some old photos from a couple of years ago to look back on.

How could you NOT like the Paducah Beauty School? Sadly, I read recently that it is no more.

You have to like any sign that has musical notes. Well, YOU don’t, but I do. Damn, I just looked this up and it is now closed.

I’m happy to report that Marco’s, in Dubuque, is still open and serving!

A sign from my beloved Tama, Iowa. Once a landmark along the Lincoln Highway. The sign was repainted not long before the restaurant closed. We did enjoy a particularly good bowl of chicken and dumpling soup there before it closed.

It once looked like this. I first saw this maybe thirty years after this, somewhat bedraggled but still glowing.

This is what it looked last time we went through.

I was sad to read recently that this sign went down in a storm and is no more.

The neon is gone but look at that jaunty yellow and white trim…and the shadow of the Christmas decorations.

We were in Omaha a few years back for a steam engine (the 844, known as the Living Legend) and Ernie and I took a quick jaunt around town while Leo hung out at the hotel. This car repair place had a neon sign that blinked back and forth between a crisp newly repaired beautiful car and its earlier crumpled version. I believe the business moved and the sign is now in storage.

Happily, this restaurant, the Main Cafe in New Harmony, Indiana, is still there. It’s been gussied up a bit (which is probably good but you know how I am) and sadly, the Kiwanis banners are gone. BUT it’s still got that incredible ceiling and walls. Happy to see it has a new life.

Gosh, I didn’t mean for this to be a diatribe on how signs are disappearing but we took these shots several years ago and that’s just the reality. This hardware sign from Rantoul is long gone.

THESE two signs are holding strong in Toluca, Illinois however. The two restaurants are now both owned by the same people so they each are open a couple of different days during the week and then both open for the weekend. Mona’s is kinda my favorite and I like this shot because you can see the other sign in the background. I really need to get back there on a blue sky day.

Ok, that’s my little round up for the day. Biscuits were lovely. Hans made them. And evidently Bertrand went to the Farmer’s Market with Ernie yesterday. I was still asleep so Ernie left a note.

Onward.

Love,
Cynthia