Baker's heartbeat

Steve and I on the Mississippi riverfront, July 25. Steve, with Hailey Hansen, after her senior dance recital, July 11. We got in our pontoon boat on July 4 and then hosted neighbors in the backyard of our home.. When the City of Davenport cancelled its July 4 fireworks, and our neighborhood association cancelled its annual picnic, I'd had enough. Wasn't there some way to be patriotic and safe at the same time? On Saturday, July 4, the Bakers invited several neighbors over. I cleaned off the patio and added an umbrella, but it was a broiling hot day and night. We ended up on lawn chairs, in the shade by our nearby lake. This was one of those events that was pretty magical; we talked about it weeks later. It was so nice to catch up in a comfortable, safe setting! A week later, I met up with my high school girlfriends, again in the outdoor area of a restaurant/bar in Clarence, Iowa. The next day we attended granddaughter Hailey's senior dance recital with Dav...

  Weather.gov is the best way to learn about the weather, bar none. Most of the storm damage at our home Aug. 10 came from broken branches. We had quite a storm in Scott County, Iowa on Monday, Aug. 10. This storm contained winds of up to 80 miles-per-hour, and a downpour of rain. We live in rural Scott County and our television weather cast was often not available so I used my favorite website: weather.gov. This online approach to weather is second to none. Weather scientists are located in Mount Joy, Iowa, less than 10 miles south of our home and these folks are spot-on when it comes to weather. Oh, we also listen to the television forecasts, and look in the newspaper as well. But the best information comes from scientists, folks who have spent their lives studying weather and ways it can and does change in the Midwest. It is the first thing I check, every day. This is not to diss the television community. Weather is a broadcast station's bread-and-butter topic, ...

Photos: At top, we are alone by the historic Levee Inn, Davenport; middle: dock with boats at Lake of the Ozarks, Missouri; above, window coverings, installed carefully amid the COVID crisis. The news of July 30 that the national economy had shrunk at a record-breaking 33 percent rate in the second quarter came as no surprise to the Bakers. The April-June plunge was by far the worst in decades, the Associated Press reported. This news was published after two events in July that to me, illustrate how middle-class Iowa retirees actually behave in current economic times: 1. On July 11, we carefully attended the senior dance recital for Steve's grand-daughter, Hailey. We had gone to this event for many years and had been looking forward to it. The Danceworks event was at the Galvin Fine Arts Center on the St. Ambrose University campus in Davenport. We attended in masks and our temperatures were taken at the entrance. We were seated by people we didn't know, but we kept...

Above, and top, me doing the virtual 'Quick Bix' in early July Today is the first day in about 33 years that we haven't been in downtown Davenport well before 8 a.m. The Quad-City Times Bix 7 has been a part of the Baker family since the late 1980s. I walked/ran it for eight years, and then reported on it as part of the Times' news team. The last two years I've done the Prairie Farms two-mile "Quick Bix." On this Saturday, we Bakers would normally shop at the crafts fair, eat at the food booths (sandwiches from the Scott County Pork Producers), enjoy popcorn, beer and listening to live music. The Bix 7 race and street festival is a place to gather with family and friends. It is the best weekend of the summer and it would have continued this year except for COVID-19. I did the virtual "Quick Bix" on the hottest day of the year, in early July. Last year I ran 13-minute miles; this year it was 15-minute miles on a treadmill.  I did e...

Haircut !   Father's Day and social distancing on the patio. More than 12 wagon-loads of weeds were pulled out of lake by our dock. The neighborhood signs were cleaned, repainted and waxed. Both Bakers started June by getting a hair cut. It was such a relief! Here's the blog I wrote about the experience (https://bakersheartbeat.blogspot.com/2020/06/june-3-was-red-letter-day-for-hair.html). As the president of the neighborhood association, I organized an effort to get the main signs cleaned, repainted to an extent, and waxed. That continued with volunteer help for the first three weeks of June. We launched two home improvement projects: New window blinds, and new gutters, covered from falling leaves. I was in charge of the blinds project and met with a salesperson; she came to the house fully protected ... with boots, a face mask and gloves. Family members visited on Father's Day; we had seen most everyone repeatedly during Carol Baker's funeral an...

Carol Baker photo tribute In May, almost all activities were affected by COVID-19. I'm the current president of the Lake Huntington Neighborhood Association and our quarterly meeting was limited to the executive team. Four of us met in chairs, placed six feet apart in the driveway. We discussed neighborhood business and then sent out the meeting minutes to residents.  The next week Steve's mother, Carol Baker, had a stroke at her nursing home in West Liberty, Iowa. Her children, Steve and Cindy, were allowed to see their mom in her last hours. The next week was full of activity related to the funeral. See the blog I wrote, here (https://bakersheartbeat.blogspot.com/2020/05/saying-good-bye-in-covid-19-era.html) Daughter Kirstin returned home for several days; keeping baby Myla entertained was a full-time activity. We also got a visit from Tipton (Iowa) friends who arrived with a pie. We talked to them outdoors on our deck and felt safe doing that. More Tipton friends...

  Gage, Kirstin and Myla Rodewald, with Buffy. Chalk drawings helps us, maybe neighbors too! Daughter, Kirstin, and baby granddaughter, Myla, greeted us at home the first of the April. We see the extended family once a month so certainly felt safe in this visit. Son-in-law Gage, a police officer in suburban Des Moines, eventually joined us and we four played card games after the baby went to bed. Palm Sunday arrived, and we painted the driveway to reflect the spiritual season as well as to share goodwill with the neighbors. Gage also helped Steve fetch our pontoon boat from storage and get it in the lake. By the time the Rodewald family left, however, we were faced with purely home duty the next few months. A first concern, of all things, was toilet paper. Steve's daughter, Jill, came to the rescue: She'd found some at Sam's Club and drove it out to our rural Scott County home. Daughter Teiah arrived with an Easter basket. Both girls dropped the items on the ...