Days behind

Thursday was foggy! Fancy that. We did walk again and finished at the Terrace for a short stop. We have had another acceptance of our invitation to visit. One of Evelyn’s former colleagues will visit for two days in early October. It is almost crushing that everyone will be coming in October after having all summer to visit. Actually, it is probably just as well because we were buying and waiting for furniture. At least now we have virtually everything that we will furnish the house with. Had they come much earlier, we might have had more confusion. One of the visitors is coming from the Rio Grande Valley and may have much trouble getting out of the state and across Louisiana. Quite likely they will have to take a more northerly route which is ok because their destinations are North Carolina and Maryland. We had hamburgers for lunch. I fired up the grill and cooked six of them. We could eat only one but it was a delight. We covered it with a large slice of onion and tomato on a wheat bun. We had some stir fry vegetables and a sweet potato for dessert. I also had a beer. This means nothing to you unless you have been on a diet. This was a feast. Of course we used up a majority of our allotted points but who cares. We planted the Cannas around the porch and then came in to clean ourselves for the day. We went to the Pisgah High School football game tonight because the pastor’s son plays on the team. The Bears were far superior and won going away.

Friday was foggy. We walked in the morning but did not go to the hotel. We came home and prepared to go to the Open Door to serve. We began to work but a group of difficult kids from a local middle school showed up to help as well. Once again, there were more people there to serve than there were being served. We went to the thrift store next door and bought a cute door hanging for fall. We left and went to the library to do the computer work. After an hour or so we came home, stopping at Lowes to buy some hooks for hanging the door hanging. They have a sticky back but don’t stick well to glass. Down came the hanging so we will have to find another method. We mostly laid around in the afternoon. We tried to watch a movie Evelyn checked out from the library. It was based on James Joyce’s The Dead. Even though there was a summary of the plot, neither of us understood much of the dialogue. Joyce is hard for me to read and the script writer must have followed his prose too closely. We had not eaten anything but “no nothing” soup for lunch, so we had many points left for dinner. We chose to have a Lean Cuisine pizza, costing only six points. That was so we could have some of the snacks at the dance we attended. The dance was Cds, recorded by one of the dance club members. He mixes the style of dances in the selections and even prints an outline so everyone knows well in advance what the selections will be. We met more nice people and had a great time. I had a piece of cake because we are supposed to eat all of our points each day. We came home and watched some of the hurricane coverage. Things are not looking good for the Texas/Louisiana coast. We are praying for them and thanking God for moving in the hearts and minds of the people to evacuate.

I didn’t sleep well. Each time I awakened it seemed that someone was working in the house behind us. They are trying to finish because the owner is moving in today. They were still working there at 2 AM and began again at 5. The workers at 5 sounded like they were laying carpet, but I couldn’t see what they were doing. I just know that they made a lot of noise. So much that I finally got up at 6 and watched some more hurricane coverage. Things were looking better than last night. The hit near Sulpher, LA which has fewer people than Houston. You can see all this on the TV. I went in to shower and go to the men’s breakfast at church. Surprisingly, Evelyn didn’t waken. The breakfast was good but there were only five of us there. Perhaps the dense fog was a deterrent. I went to Wal-Mart to get an over-the-door wreath hook, twist pins for the arm covers, and some band aids. I came home, got Evelyn and went to the lake to walk. It was very pleasant even at 10:30. It has been hot by that time most days. We rushed home to watch the Purdue game on ESPN. There are mixed predictions on the game. Purdue lost in two overtimes. It was sad to see because they had come back to lead with less than six minutes to go. So goes sports. I still can’t find six victories for them. It takes six to get a bowl bid. We prepared to go to Maggie Valley for the Western North Carolina Barbecue Festival featuring barbecue from “Bareknuckles Cooking Team”, “Cooking Dawgs”, “Hog Wild”, “Late Night Whiskey Smokers”, “Silence of the Hams”, and “The Smokin’ Butts of NC”. Some groups were from as far as Denton, TX but most were from North Carolina. There were many performing groups including the bluegrass/gospel group we saw. It got colder than we had planned for so we came home and watched football, and I practiced again for tomorrow.
Sunday it was up an off to Franklin so I could lead worship for Barry Conover. He was gone to Nashville for a short vacation. One of the elders and his wife were there to meet us. It is a blessing to experience the love of the Christian fellowship. Just before the service our friends Tom and LuAnn Jones walked into the church. I had invited them but thought they were likely still on their trip to the Maritime Provinces. The people were appreciative and kind after the service. They seemed interested in inviting me back next season. Tom and LuAnn invited us for dinner. We followed them home and enjoyed wine and shrimp cocktail for an appetizer. Tom prepared a tenderloin on the barbecue while we viewed the pictures of their trip accompanied by Newfoundland music. It was a real blessing to be reunited with them. We will miss them in Texas. We hope we can have them for dinner this coming week because we don’t have much time left here in NC before we leave, and we have two for sure and one more possible group of visitors during October. I must confess that I consumed far too much wine and let Evelyn drive home. Since we had totally blown our diet we went for broke and stopped to buy some chocolate fudge and candy. We will resume the diet tomorrow. We had popcorn and watched Desperate Housewives and snatches of the Chargers football game with Drew Brees. It has been fun to eat many things today. We don’t think one binge will ruin us.