All the 5 AM breakfasts, all the Iroquois County Fair demo derbies we went to, all the Old Settlers tractor pulls I drug you to, all the early mornings when I was detasseling. All the memories I have are good, you were always there, with a smile, never really angry with anyone. Here’s to hoping there’s a cold PBR, a dirt floor in a machine shed and a rusty stool for you to sit on, you’ll be happy forever back with Grandma Max.

Rest in Peace, you will be missed.
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Rest in peace, you are and will be missed.

HOOPESTON – Florence E. “Floss” (Nelson) Betka, 89, of Hoopeston passed away at 6:05 a.m. Tuesday, Dec. 21, 2010, at Carle Foundation Hospital in Urbana.

Mrs. Betka was born on Dec. 6, 1921, in Granite City, the daughter of James E. and Florence (Story) Nelson. On Sept. 20, 1946, she married Kenneth Betka. Her husband preceded her in death on April 4, 2006.

Floss is survived by two daughters, Sue Betka of Washington, D.C., and Jean (Tom) Skoza of Champaign; one son, Bill (Melva) Betka of Cissna Park; three grandchildren, Corey (Alisha) Betka of Champaign and Rachel and Warren Skoza of Champaign; two great-grandsons, Robin and Jonathan Betka of Champaign; and two sisters-in-law, Kathryn Nelson of St. Louis and Margaret Hurliman of Martinton.

She was preceded in death by her parents; her husband; a son, Robert; a daughter, Lois; three brothers, Willie, Clyde and Harold Nelson; and a sister, Selma Nelson.

Mrs. Betka graduated from Eastern Illinois University and taught at the East Lynn High School for several years. She and her husband lived on the centennial family farm for nearly 46 years.

Floss also taught Sunday school for the high school children at the East Lynn United Methodist Church. She was also a homemaker who especially enjoyed tatting, sewing, crocheting, quilting, reading and sports.

Funeral services will be held at 1 p.m. Monday, Dec. 27, 2010, at the Anderson Funeral Home, 427 E. Main St., Hoopeston, with the Rev. Janet Eggleston officiating. Burial will be at East Lynn Cemetery, East Lynn.

Visitation will be from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Monday, Dec. 27, 2010, at the Anderson Funeral Home in Hoopeston.

It’s too early to be losing college friends. In random happenstance, Doug moved into the dorm room next door and fit right in with the group. I have fond memories of late nights of pizza, pepperoni rolls, WarCraft II, Ski and all kinds of other silly things.

I don’t know what else to say, I’m just going to post links to the obituary and the note that got posted to procrastinators.org.

So that I remember this if it happens again, if you can’t get an email account on your iPhone to delete, put it in “airplane mode” and try again.

I hope that my packets aren’t going to Los Angeles and Texas to get from my house in Champaign back to campus, but if the router labels below are accurate…

C:>tracert www.uiuc.edu

Tracing route to swan28.admin.uiuc.edu [128.174.254.28]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

  1     1 ms     1 ms     1 ms  gateway.private.betka.net [192.168.1.1]
  2     *        *        *     Request timed out.
  3   113 ms    10 ms    12 ms  ge-1-4-ur01.champaign.il.chicago.comcast.net [68.85.178.81]
  4    19 ms    19 ms    20 ms  pos-0-11-0-0-ar01.indianapolis.in.indiana.comcast.net [68.86.90.170]
  5    42 ms    53 ms    45 ms  pos-0-1-0-0-cr01.nashville.tn.ibone.comcast.net [68.86.90.169]
  6    57 ms    45 ms    56 ms  pos-1-8-0-0-cr01.dallas.tx.ibone.comcast.net [68.86.85.17]
  7   176 ms   101 ms   102 ms  pos-0-15-0-0-cr01.losangeles.ca.ibone.comcast.net [68.86.85.137]
  8    95 ms   130 ms   101 ms  68.86.89.158
  9   175 ms   100 ms   102 ms  vl3493.mpd01.lax01.atlas.cogentco.com [154.54.6.229]
 10   130 ms   102 ms   102 ms  te4-2.ccr01.sna02.atlas.cogentco.com [154.54.3.37]
 11   117 ms   101 ms   102 ms  te4-2.ccr01.san01.atlas.cogentco.com [154.54.25.126]
 12   120 ms   101 ms   102 ms  te4-2.ccr01.phx02.atlas.cogentco.com [154.54.7.85]
 13   123 ms   204 ms   111 ms  te4-2.ccr01.aus01.atlas.cogentco.com [154.54.1.165]
 14   135 ms   103 ms   203 ms  te8-2.mpd01.iah01.atlas.cogentco.com [154.54.1.66]
 15   123 ms   175 ms   130 ms  te3-4.mpd01.dfw01.atlas.cogentco.com [154.54.25.93]
 16   152 ms   203 ms   124 ms  te4-3.mpd01.mci01.atlas.cogentco.com [154.54.5.158]
 17   155 ms   123 ms   146 ms  te9-3.mpd01.ord01.atlas.cogentco.com [154.54.25.82]
 18   166 ms   123 ms   183 ms  vl3605.na31.b002329-4.ord01.atlas.cogentco.com [38.20.36.178]
 19    92 ms   128 ms   177 ms  university-of-illinios-urbana.demarc.cogentco.com [38.104.99.42]
 20    99 ms    98 ms   102 ms  t-ur2rtr.ix.ui-iccn.org [72.36.126.101]
 21    91 ms    98 ms   112 ms  iccn-ur2rtr-uiuc2.gw.uiuc.edu [72.36.127.6]
 22   132 ms   102 ms   101 ms  t-exiteb.gw.uiuc.edu [130.126.0.73]

Saw it at the Virginia Thursday night, not a bad movie, as long as you set your expectation accordingly for a Coen brothers film.

House

More pictures of the (soon to be our) new house are up over at the gallery.

So, the University is now releasing details on the outcome of the competitive bidding process for the endowment farms. Hopefully, someone else will publish the details somewhere and I won’t have to put in my own FOIA request to read the bids.

This article makes one wonder if the University is forgetting it’s roots. Endowment farms may have been given to provide scholarships for students, but I also assume the donors thought the University would continue to allow local farmers to earn a living from the land. Switching to open bids and cash rent agreements may make the process more agreeable with State procurement laws and maximizes the income from the endowment, but it sure hurts the small family farmer. And it raises cash rents on surrounding land.