How Cool is That?

1. Years ago when we invested in our Bosch mixer we debated about buying the stainless steel bread-dough bowl since I baked our own bread, but decided not to because of the cost. Saturday I was in Halsey with two of my lovely daughters hitting as many garage sales as possible, and there I found an old but still good Bosch mixer with a blender and, yes, a stainless steel bowl with the special dough hook and all the right lids. That looked almost new. For $10. I am baking a batch of bread and feeling smug as we speak.

2. Yesterday I got an email from a guy in South Carolina. Along with his book order he wrote

I enjoy traveling as a single person and have been to 47 states and quite a number of countries. Twice I have visited in your lovely state and would like to again visit Ft. Klamath and Klamath Falls, Crater Lake etc. sometime, several towns that come to mind. A quick little story that gives testimony to the Mennonites of Oregon while in our travel with 5 other single men some years ago. We were driving through Eugene and decided it was time to buy a set of 2 tires for our motor home so we stopped at a tire center and made our negotiations. It was lunch time when we stopped and I asked the proprietor if there would be any chance our group could borrow a car to use to get some lunch while they mounted the new tires. He looked a bit quizzically at the 6 strange young men, (several bearded) in our group and seeing the South Carolina plates he inquired of my name? I told him it was Hershberger and immediately a light came on and he smiled and said you are Mennonite are you not?? I replied yes and he said I know a lot of Mennonites nearby and he quickly flipped the keys to me and recommended a number of local eateries and said, “take my personal car and enjoy your lunch!”. . . . I have often thought of someone’s testimony that we were “riding” on and how God rewards us for living lives that are honest and truthful. We left Eugene with a good taste in our mouths!

3. Emily took her SAT test on Saturday. One paragraph in the English section was a quote from a book and greatly intrigued her, but she didn't have time to jot down the title or author. Afterwards she was wishing she could remember the details so she could find the book and read it. Yesterday she flew to Denver, [headed home for a week for Ben's graduation] where Paul and Ben picked her up in the van and then went on to Canon City and picked up her houseful of stuff that has been in storage since November. She happened to see the book Paul brought along to read, and here it was The Moonstone, the exact book she had been wishing for.

4. This morning I finished my column for May. It's supposed to be 1000 words long but is usually at least 1200 and I leave it to my editor to chop if there's not enough space. Today I finished the article, clicked on the word count, and behold, exactly 1000 words.

Quote of the Day:
"Is there anything better than a Mennonite discount grocery store?"
--Ben, after I made a trip to Grocery Depot and rhapsodized about all my bargains