Some big days

Friday was back to the hospital.  Evelyn had exercised again while worked on the washing machine.  I gave it several spray coats of white Rustoleum.  We were busy most of the afternoon at the information desk while Evelyn stuffed bags for the hospital display for the Stock Show.  We left early so Evelyn could rest before going to the barbecue and beer bash given to the volunteer workers for the Stock Show.  It was great as usual and we went home to get some rest for tomorrow’s big day.

The big day turned out to be leisurely.  We had planned to go to Mexico to meet the student we sponsor in the Mexican Refuge project.  It was cold and rainy, causing Evelyn to not be interested in going.  For some reason rain causes a thin film of mud to coat the streets, making it difficult to do anything but shuffle along.  All of this cause her to be uninterested in going.  We sent some of the clothing items with another couple and stayed home.  John and Sue came to help me set up a sound system that allows me to hear the TV through some earphones.  This helps Evelyn to avoid excessive noises.  They stayed for lunch and then dominoes until Sue got so sleepy that she had to go home for a nap.  We welcomed the opportunity to take one ourselves.  We rested until time to go to our concert series.  We had Joe and Bonny’s tickets and gave them to a couple of widows.  One of them drove the 6 of us to a restaurant in McAllen called El Pastor.  It had moved from Reynosa, Mexico a couple of years ago because of threats from the drug cartel.  It was a wonderful restaurant and we used a coupon to pay for ourselves and the driver.  The concert, “American Spirit” was one of the best we have ever attended in all of the years we have been attending.  None of the ladies offered to pay for the tickets from Joe and Bonny.  They never really expect to be paid, but I like to give them the money anyway.  We were home late, but I wanted to watch the Purdue/Michigan basketball game I had DVRed earlier this evening.  Purdue won handily.

Sunday was a joyous return to preaching.  I began a series based on the beatitudes of Jesus.  I am excited about the series to come.  I have used it before but think it was very good and worth giving again.  We also were blessed with Holy Communion.  I didn’t say much about our trip to Israel but a few people did want to talk after worship.  We went to lunch at Denny’s with many others from our park that are here from east of the state of Illinois.  We enjoyed the lunch but really don’t have much in common with most of the people.  We have become so estranged from the activities in the park that we don’t know much about anyone any more.  Of course, they don’t know us either.  We spent the afternoon watching a strange movie based on a character in “The Catcher in the Rye”, but I couldn’t make much of the connection.  I worked on tweaking the sermon for next week, “Blessed on those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.”  Ii made plans to play golf with Armand because they will returning to Canada next week and won’t play after this week.  We will miss them as neighbors.  We stayed at home all evening getting ready for next week.  We are going to try to do something for someone special each day during this Lenten season.