BACK IN BUSINESS

The surgery went very well, and I am back at nearly full capacity. The hospital staff treated us extremely well--giving us a private room with a cot so Marie could look after the patient. It was no fun to be tethered to a lifeline for two days with nothing at all to eat or drink, but otherwise I have no serious complaints. I had the first non-clear liquid food today at lunch, with some long-time friends from Spokane giving me moral support as I ate blended bean with bacon soup and a chocolate brownie milkshake. Um um good!

I talked to Lana, Mavis and Dad on Sunday. Lana and Mavis had attended a sewing event, and had gone on a local tour with Dad to see 150 new calves (including a twin set!) and the new oil well going in on the Berry place in the Yellowstone Valley. Ron and Luke were getting ready to start planting the fields this week. Will is due back from South America April 2 to join them.

Dad sounded great on the phone, and clearly had enjoyed the tour around the valley. He is looking forward to watching the crops go in, and always enjoys this time of year when the farming is underway and the new calves come.

We are making plans for summer travel beginning in May. If all goes as preferred we'll drive the motorhome to several California national parks, up the west coast to Washington for visits with Dara and Madelyn in Bremerton, Sherry and Wes in Pullman, several friends along the way, and arrive in Missoula on July 5 to see Dione, Saul, and Mollie (they will be in Montana for a memorial to Dione's step father who died earlier this year) before they leave for Yellow Springs. We'll see Maureen and Mat in Helena and then go to North Dakota for a few days.

Cheers,

Bill and Marie

EDITOR INTERLUDE

Throat surgery on Thursday, March 22, will cause your editor to pause a bit from posting interesting new messages like the one from Will and Trista that came in today! I'll be in the hospital a couple of days and am told I'll have to take it easy for about a week.

In the meantime feel free to post your own stuff by going to blogger.com and logging in with LasseyW@comcast. net, and WRL85728 as the password!

Cheers,

Bill

FROM WILL AND TRISTA: Hola de Bolivia!

Date: Mon, 19 Mar 2007 18:16:30 +0000

Hello again everyone,

Traveling seems to going quite well, I again am not sure where I was when I wrote last... somewhere in Brazil I think. Maybe Iguassu Falls; the falls were quite a spectacular sight with over 270 separate cataracts all falling at once. It was awesome. From there Trista and I separated from our tour group for a couple of days due to some trouble with our Brazilian visas. If you are ever traveling to Brazil be sure to ask for the full amount of days you can get your visa for!

Anyway, from there we went to Bonito, Braz and did a little fresh water snorkeling, the water was amazingly clear and we were hoping to see a camen (small crocodile) but no luck. A few days later we made our way to the Pantenal Wetlands where we were able to go horseback riding through the swamp lands. It was pretty cool but the water was very deep on the whole ride. The next day we were a little tired and decided to go swimming....with paranas! The guide failed to mention that until we were already in the water! I guess they don`t bother humans unless they have fresh blood on them.

From the wetlands we made our way into Bolivia which has been pretty interesting. Bolivia is exactly what I pictured when I pictured South America. We have been having a blast so far! Everything is very cheap, which is refreshing after Brazil. We have hit several towns down here and did a 3 day 4x4 excursion into the Andes! They warned us of basic accomodation and they were not kidding! We traveled across the salt flats of Solar de Uyuni where we were able to get some awesome photos and then proceeded on to some little village where we stayed for the night. They allowed us to have electricity from 7 to 9 o`clock and from then on it was flashlights and candles.

From there we proceeded further in to nowheresville. We made it to over 5000 meters in elevation(16,500feet). We had similiar rooms that night but just no village surrounding us. We got up to watch the sunrise over a bunch of geysers coming out of an active volcano! Very cool sight.

After a full day of travel by 4-wheel drive over the desert, an overnight train ride to Oruru and then a 5 hour bus ride we finally made it to La Paz, Bolivia, where we are right now. It seems to be a very cool city still very high in the mountains (13,000ft). We are going to stay here for a couple nights to rest up and then its off to Lake Titicaca, Peru!

Hope all is well,

Will

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EXCITEMENT AT THE KLYMS!

Hi All,

Just wanted to drop a note to say hi to everyone and express appreciation for all the notes on the blog.

The girls and I are catching a ride to Miles City this weekend with someone I know. I figured we better get up to visit before it gets crazy this spring. Don and Christopher are heading to Grand Forks for our last hockey game of the season.

We just sold our house last night, and the gentleman who is buying it will let us stay in it until we get into our new house--which will be the beginning of June. We are SO EXCITED!

Mom seems to be doing fine. She enjoys the warmer weather so she can get outside and go walking. Last week we got about six inches of snow, and they shoved all the snow from the street in front of her place in a large pile. So, the kids and I went over and played in the snow and did some sledding. We all had a great time. I think that half of the residents were out watching us have so much fun!

Better get back to work.

Take care,

Cindy

ICE COLD IN YELLOW SPRINGS

It has been a rough late winter in Ohio, to the point of closing schools in Yellow Springs for nearly two weeks straight in February. The roads were so icy it was dangerous to run the school buses, Dione says. It is better now, but still cold, icy and snowy--interrupting their move to a different house, which sounds like a really great place,. It is at the edge of town next to a conservation farm (cannot be sub-divided into housing), with an extra lot where Saul, Dione, and Mollie hope to build a brand new energy efficient and healthy house.

Mollie is in a school play with 250 other kids, and all in costumes. Each of the students gets to participate in some role, with performances last night and today (Sunday). Dione says it turned out really well, with hundreds of parents, other farmily, and local townspeople in attendance. Sounds like real community spirit!

Saul and Dione will jointly teach a course this spring on "Global Ecology," at Antioch College. The text book (called "Collapse") was written by a guy who lives part of the year in western Montana, and is concerned about the damage being done to the environment and the economy in the state because of too much inappropriate development.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD!

Dad says he is "still a'goin" at age 93, and he sounded like it yesterday on the phone. He had a cold and hoarse throat but seemed to feel good otherwise. He said he was missing the calves that had been shipped on the weekend but some of the cows were still roaming around in the fields, so he wasn't too lonely! He had been over to check the old house next door because nobody is living there now, and it was in pretty good shape. He said he wished that he had put a better foundation under the old log house so that it would still be sitting where my sisters and I were born! (I wish the same thing! I still miss seeing that historic place.)

Mavis, Ron, Luke, Tara, Shawn and Tracy were taking him to Sidney for dinner, and were inviting Bill Dobias as well, since they have birthdays close together, are the same age, and have been friends all their lives. My guess is that Dad really liked that event.

Mavis Doing Better!

Mavis said she is feeling considerably better a few days after her trip to Bismarck and two days in the hospital. The doctors found no blockage in her blood flow, and gave her medication to relieve the pain. She was feeling tired the earlier part of the week but had her energy back yesterday. GOOD NEWS!

How about some English lessons ,

I feel I should take back to English lessons.

Maybe then I would remember the I have to write 93rd instead of 93th !!!!

Hedwig

93TH BIRTDHDAY !

We most gratefully take advantage of the Lassey Clan Blog to send our well meant congratulations to William Lassey, Sr. at the occasion of his 93th birthday.

It is fine to know "Bill" as an exceptional man and head of such a nice and big family.

We carry Bill and all of you, both known and still unknown, in the warmest place of our hearts.

Way to go, Bill.

Hedwig and Herna in Flanders-Belgium