working outside weather

Friday was a beautiful day.  We began with exercise after confronting the lady who offended Evelyn at Harrah’s.  While discussing politics the lady defended Obama’s fraternizing with the Muslim Brotherhood.  Evelyn said she was upset at special effort to get jobs for them.  The lady said, “I thought you had a brain.”  Yesterday I researched the names of Muslims in the department of Homeland Security.  I printed it out, went to her and asked her to do 3 things: research the names, make a list of reliable news sources, apologize to Evelyn.  She did, making us respect her.  We went to town and got a battery for the slap watch and a hanger for my putter.  We then went to the Bible study at church.  It is called Divine Drama.  We We did thank God that the mowing crew came to mow our 10 inch grass.  We don’t think much of the work but is probably a result of the grass’s being too tall and thick.  We went to do our ushering for the local civic theater called HART.  The play was Look Homeward Angel.  The play was confusing to me but the acting was great.  This area has many talented actors.  There was a small party after this opening night performance, but we didn’t stay because Evelyn needed to have some rest.

Saturday was beautiful again.  We slept late, and then I went under the house to get some of the pots we use to plant our garden vegetables.  There were about 6.  We want to give the soil some time to warm up.  We will have to add more soil to them before planting.  We borrowed the neighbor’s broom rake and picked up some of the grass trimmings from our yard and the neighbor’s.  I visited Gene to see what his doctor had said about his hernia.  He will have it patched next week.  We then moved our trailer to the patch of ground he allows us to park on for the summer.  He is a very generous retired military policeman.  We tried to go to the square dance, but Evelyn’s hip began to hurt too much so we came home and watched the Cubs game.  Evelyn also talked with both girls.  We were ashamed that we neglected to call Stephen on his birthday.  This is the first we have missed for years.  Earlier Frieda had brought some wine for me from Greenville, and I gave her the Kahlua and vanilla I had brought from Mexico.  She used to live in our homeowner’s area.  We look forward to the privilege of worshipping tomorrow. 

One hail of a rainstorm

We had to spend the day at home.  We slept late and had only juice for breakfast.  Evelyn went to the church to have the secretary make some copies for her upcoming Bible study.  I dusted the ceiling corners and fan blades while she was gone.  Did I mention it was raining?  We worked together at cleaning the tops of our cupboards.  It was pouring down rain all this time.  Actually it was off and on but always hard.  Then in the afternoon, it began hailing.  The stones were only half an inch or smaller but worrisome.  I think tornadoes are accompanied by hail, and there have been several of them throughout the country this year.  We were blessed that none developed.  After supper we took a walk around the loop here but not any more.  Evelyn is having some severe pains in her left hip.  I wanted to call the doctor, but she wants to try something from the drug store.  A product had been recommended by a lady at choir practice last night.  We should have gone this evening but thought of it too late.  We watched a recorded program of behind the scenes of Dancing with the Stars and retired.

Eating out

Monday it was back to exercise.  I am not pleased with the leader for the same reason as last year: he doesn’t give enough advance notice as to what the exercise will be.  He is already on #2 or 3 before many of us can get started.  I will return if Evelyn wants to.  There other exercises we can do.  We spent the rest of the day settling into home.  I am not making swift progress on rearranging our small storage shed but will keep trying.  We want to invite our neighbor, Doris, for a showing of our Israel pictures, but she was too tired tonight.

We didn’t exercise Tuesday because I had a Groupon I wanted to use before it expired.  The restaurant was in Brevard, a small mountain town.  The drive is up a curvy road that is somewhat of a challenge.  It passes the Cradle of Forestry and Sliding Rock where we have taken the grandchildren in the past.  The town is quite lovely and artsy.  We thought it more attractive than Waynesville where we live.  We meandered around several art galleries until time for lunch.  The restaurant was upscale and the food was very good.  The problem was that we had missed reading that the Groupon was good only in the evening.  We had debated last night which meal we should use it for but didn’t notice the restriction.  We didn’t want to return before the expiration date—May 1—so I went to several stores trying to sell the Groupon.  I finally did find a storekeeper that wanted the $30 meal for $15.  So I got my money back.  We were home around 2 and rested.  I finally went to Gene’s to talk with him about parking the trailer and other small talk.  He is not well and must see the doctor on Thursday about some complications from his surgery last summer.  That reminded me to call our dermatologist for an appointment.  We see him July 19.  We spent the evening as we do most: watching TV and preparing for Bible study.

Wednesday we left for Cherokee in the rec center operated school bus.   We planned to have breakfast at Paula Deen’s new restaurant in the Harrah’s Casino.  Evelyn is always interested in new things in the food industry.  Just as in Paula’s restaurant in Savannah, we were unimpressed with the offerings.  What we had was good but not unusual and was overpriced.  We had a bit of a verbal scuffle with another Silver Sneakers member with us.  She is a staunch liberal Obama supporter and questioned Evelyn’s having a brain because Evelyn questioned the support for members of the Muslim Brotherhood in their search for jobs in the current administration.  Things were quiet thereafter.  The group went to the Cherokee museum, but we went to a local Cherokee Indian gem shop to look for a stone for Evelyn to put into a ring.  Shed had lost the original set.  She found one and left the ring to be repaired and shipped to us.  We were home around 2:30, and she went to bed.  She has been having severe pain in her left hip and leg.  She is tough and continues to walk but really hobbles.  She also didn’t sleep well last night.  I got our neighbor, Marty, and we went to play golf at Iron Tree.  The course is really in good shape now that the new owner has worked to improve it.  The greens are 100% better and the fairways are much improved.  My problem—aside from my skill level—is that the geezer tee boxes have been moved farther away from the greens than last year.  I jokingly complained to the owner about that.  I made it home just in time to quickly eat and go to choir practice.  We had a good rehearsal, and I was able to deliver 4 bottles of vanilla to Jo.  I told her she would have to will them to her heirs if she didn’t sell some to other people.  We had a rain shower and may have more tomorrow.  It has finally begun to warm up here.  Evelyn doesn’t like the cold weather.

We found cold weather: did we come too early?

It is cold in North Carolina.  We still managed to go to the Silver Sneakers exercise class where we were welcomed.  I had to take items to be recycled so we did that and then went to the church to see the pastor.  I had some materials he can use and some others we can likely use for an evening Bible study this summer.  He was not there because a parishioner had died and he was visiting the widow.  We met the new secretary and left the things with him.  We came home and continued unpacking for the rest of the day.  We did deliver some onions to some of the neighbors too.  We learned that there was a ballroom dance, but we were too tired to go.  I thought we might to see our friends the Norris.  They were still in Florida.  We didn’t go.  We went to bed instead.

Saturday I did something I wanted to do the day we arrived.  I went to have our oil changed because I had a groupon.  I normally like to change it myself, but this is easier and costs about the same.  The technician found that we need to change the break line seal on the back breaks.  I want to check the price with Domestic Auto where I have had work done before.  I went to the grocery to get some of the things we couldn’t find at the GO grocery.  I brought them home and had lunch.  We are trying to lose some weight and are eating differently than we did just a week ago.  The Direct TV technicians came around 12:30 for what I thought would be a half hour job but ended up staying for 3 hours.  They had to replace our receiver because it wouldn’t give them permission to leave. We then took time to walk halfway around the lake.  Evelyn’s knee and hip hurt too much to walk completely around.  We came home for the evening. 

Sunday we went to worship.  It was good to see those people we had become friends with last summer.  I sang with the choir even though we had not practiced with them.  We sang a song that we had sung before.  We recycle many songs throughout the year.  We came home and I grilled 2 steaks, 6 hamburgers, and a salmon fillet.  We spent the afternoon dozing and watching the Cubs play ball.  I guess I have to call it that.  We had invited Gary and Linda to play games in the evening, but they couldn’t.  Instead we called the Bollingers to come for popcorn.  They stayed 2 hours—more than they had intended.  They always talk about their family and the people in Geneva, IN where they and Evelyn lived and went to high school.  We shared onions with them.  I also discovered that the change of TV receivers removed all the recorded programs I had.  I will try to call them tomorrow to see what can be done.

Arriving at home.

Tuesday was another pleasant driving day.  We arrived later than planned because we changed time zones.  Olivia was working in the yard and was glad to see us.  Tom had worked from home to be with us.  We enjoyed a beer and waited for Stacy.  We all had a supper of Cincinnati chili that Tom had made.  We talked until 10.  Stacy had the fantastic news that she had met with a producer who works for Oprah Winfrey who wants to do a piece on special needs children, and she was referred to them by one of her clients.  She has a business called “Your Respite” in which she stays with the children with special needs (autism, etc.) while the parents have some respite.  It is possible that she will be appearing on a show similar to Extreme Makeover in which some gifts will be given to a single mom that is a client of Stacy’s.  We all praised God together for the way He might use her Christian service.  We went to our bed which was their inflatable queen size mattress on the floor.  We slept well.

We heard the children leave for school and then we got up.  Tom worked at home again but Stacy took us to a Bible study she attends. She wanted to share the possible future with the other ladies and request their prayers.  She had an appointment with a potential client, so she left us at a Burger King so we could be warm while we read and stayed warm.  We waited for over an hour.  She picked us up and we met Tom for lunch at a nice grill.  We thought our salad was superb.  We went back to her house and went to the basement while she was interviewed by the executive producer of the show.  She will meet with them again  next week.  We kept out of the way.  Stacy and I went to a wine warehouse and bought some exotic wines.  We returned home thinking we would have some chicken dish that Stacy had marinated.  Instead we enjoyed delicious leftovers.  We also watched a couple of Netflix episodes after we finished watching our pictures of Israel on our computer.  Tom had hooked the computer to the TV monitor. 

We slept well again and wakened as the kids were readied themselves for school.  We said goodbye and drove toward Waynesville.  We had some errands to run on the way home.  I stopped at Verizon for help with my Myfi.  We then went to Pasquale’s for a quiche and salad for lunch.  We had to stop at the grocery for some food.  We spent just under $100.  We came home and began to put things away.  I also began unloading the trailer.  Unfortunately, some of the onions we brought from Texas had begun to spoil.  Evelyn washed and peeled them while I got some of the essentials out of the trailer.  She also washed some of the grapefruit.  We began to give some of them away because they had to be used quite soon.  I put some of the ones that were still good into some stockings we had found.  This separates them and retards the spoilage.  These onions have not kept as well as those in the past.  I took some to Ford’s, but they weren’t home.  We went to bed after the news.  I really like the central time zone because the late news comes on earlier, and we go to bed earlier. 

Exploring Acadiana

Sunday began with worship. The pastor had gone to St. Louis, so there was a lay person who read his sermon. I have told him in the past that I would help him when he might be absent. Perhaps he forgot. Regardless we were blessed with Holy Communion. We took Roland to lunch at the Piccadilly Cafeteria and enjoyed the usual crawfish etouffee. We had a nice visit with Roland but learned about all of his ailments. We realize how blessed we are to have been given the measure of health we enjoy. We left him at his home and drove to Vermillionville, an Acadian type village. We danced a bit and visited an old house before taking a boat ride on the bayou. It was not completely in the dense swamp but was close enough. We didn’t see any alligators there but did learn about the area. The guide/driver was a young man, a Cajun, who sang a bit and played his “squeeze box”. He provided some drinks but were nothing we liked—except water. The real highlight of the trip was a visit to a man made swamp built in the middle of what was the USL campus when I studied there in 1969. It had been built with cypress trees, hanging moss, algae, and small islands around 2 ½ acres. It was very impressive and contained some 5-6 foot alligators. The young guide drew them to the edge of the area and fed them marshmallows. He had trained them to come to the music. We decided we had danced enough and went to Popeye’s for a light supper before returning to the motel. There had been many predictions of storms and rain overnight, so We packed all we could into the back of the car in case we had to leave in the rain.

We were up and found that it had not rained and was not raining now. We had breakfast and finished packing in the dry. We had an uneventful trip to Hattiesburg where we split a Subway 6 inch sandwich. We had driven through several rainstorms on the way but no violent ones. We arrived in Meridian early and were disappointed to find that I couldn’t log on to the free WiFi at the hotel. I was even more disappointed that my Verizon Myfi wouldn’t work either. I am going to complain when we encounter a Verizon store. We walked to an Applebee’s for a light supper. Actually it was for Evelyn since I had eaten my leftover gumbo. I had taken an umbrella from the car and was very glad because it began to rain quite hard. We didn’t get nearly as wet as we could have. We returned to watch the ever attractive Dancing with the Stars. We called Stacy to reminder her that we would be arriving tomorrow. I had misinformed Evelyn when she told her we would arrive Wednesday evening.

dancing all over Louisiana

We were up early waiting for Simon, but he had called saying he couldn’t go with us.  We drove to Mamou alone to dance in Fred’s lounge.  I thought there were fewer people there at 9, but the place was packed by 11.  We drove back to the motel for a nap, skipping lunch.  Evelyn wanted to go somewhere so we went to walk around in the warm afternoon.  We returned for a short nap and then searched for things to do in the evening.  We went to Breaux Bridge for dinner and then to La Pussiere, a dance hall Simon had taken me to in 1969.  We had a great time and met some people from El Campo, TX to dance with.  We were able to talk with the girls for a short while and learned that Andrew will likely go to the University of Kentucky. 

Beautiful days to drive

We left Weslaco at 8:20 after breakfast at Jack-in-the-Box.  We had a very dull drive—the best kind.  We ate our turkey sandwiches for lunch at a Stripes truck stop.  We arrived at our LaQuinta Inn about 4.  We had some trouble getting off the Interstate as usual but checked in and unpacked.  We went to a local Italian restaurant recommended by the front desk lady.  We shared a tortellini dish and came right back to take a walk around the neighborhood for exercise. 

We were up late because we had less than 140 miles to drive to Lafayette.  The Lord was with us again.  I had checked gas prices and found a better price in Orange.  We were low on gas but weren’t too far from the station I had found.  Unfortunately, we didn’t find the station where I thought it would be.  I was on the red empty line when I had to turn around and desperately look for any station.  Thanks be to God, we found one.  I got 2 gallons before driving to a Kroger where we even got 3 cent discount and a good price.  We continued to Lafayette and checked in at 2:30.  We had stopped for gumbo at the Rice Palace in Crowley.  I called Simon who shocked us by accepting our invitation to go with us to Mamau tomorrow morning.  We met Jimmy and Betty for dinner at Fezzo’s.  We had a good visit with them and their grandaughter.  Evelyn had made some nut bars for them using the they  had given to us last fall.  We left them and drove to Randol’s to dance for half an hour. 

Here we go.

We spent the next 3 days packing, loading and visiting.  Our neighbor across the street is deathly ill.  She has been in and out of the hospital and living in agony in both places.  We have washed her dishes and cleaned her house as best we could.  It has been too hot to play golf, but I probably wouldn’t have had time.  I have greased the wheels on the trailer and Inflated all the tires that we own.  We have cleaned most of the interior of the house.  I paid our lot rent for the next season. and made minor trailer repairs.  We have spent this part of the week trying to eat up what is in the larder.  We haven’t eaten out one time but still failed.  We had to give many items to the neighbors to the east and the west of us.  This is Wednesday and we plan to leave at 8 tomorrow morning, heading for Beaumont.  I worry about driving in the afternoon because we have developed the habit of taking an afternoon nap.  It is hard to do that and drive as well.

The thrill of being saved by God.

Saturday was another hot day.  Most have been for the past week.  We decided to check on Judy again.  She is not strong and can barely make it to the door from her bedroom.  I had to help hold her up for her to get back to her bed.  We pray for her often.  I took our begonias to the Winston’s to care for during the summer.  They also wanted me to take some grapefruit from their orchard, and I did.  Evelyn worked on cleaning the oven.  She learned of a new version of Easy-off that doesn’t give off such a tepid odor.  She had applied the product last night.  We continued light packing until time for a nap.  I then hit some golf balls into our driving net while Evelyn got some books to read on our trip.  During the late afternoon we went to Walgreen’s to get some tanning lotion for Evelyn.  We got it for almost half price.  Stacy had called at 7 in the morning from Tybee Island, GA.  Among other items, she asked me to get some “Easter eggs” from the Valley.  These are eggs filled with some sort of confetti.  We looked around but couldn’t find any for sale.  We must have been too late.  We will try to look later but the sales might be over because Easter is tomorrow.  Today is Holy Saturday when Jesus spent time in Hell in our place and to bring ancient believers into Heaven from Shoal.   We praise Him and His Father for forgiving us. 

We went to bed early last night because we wanted to rise at 6 so we could attend a Sunrise service at the local golf course.  It was a moving service outdoors.  There were a few mosquitoes that drove Evelyn away but I was not affected.  We had to leave early after our Silver Sneaker leader gave his portion of the service.  We drove to where I led the worship.  We had 14 in attendance instead of the expected 10.  The service was a real blessing and was quite emotional for all of us.  This was my last service for the season and I received my bonus for the year.  It was $210.  They also decided to increase my weekly salary from $65 to $70 per week.  I thank God for His generosity.  We were all blessed to feel how much God cares for us through this Resurrection celebration.  We feel quite humble to be included in His Kingdom and assured about our own resurrection in the future.  We have so many friends who don’t seem to know of God’s free gift waiting for them.  It grieves our hearts to love them but not be assured of their salvation.  We left our worship and went with Paul and Donna Zopfi to Denny’s for breakfast.  They had come to worship with us since Llano Grande is no longer having services this season.  We had a bigger breakfast than we needed because about 2 hours late we had our carry-in Easter dinner in the park.   The ham was provided but the ladies carried in some delicious dishes.  We were finished about 2:00 and came home for a nap.  At 4 John and Sue came to play dominoes until 7.  They are leaving for Wisconsin tomorrow morning before dawn.  We had a good time with them this winter.  We had our usual popcorn and watched a movie, I do (but I don’t).  It was somewhat confusing.  We were blessed to talk with some of the family in Utah.  We have some final things to do before we leave Thursday.

Preparing to leave for the north.

Monday Glen Combs came to get me for a game of golf.  It was very breezy, keeping the mosquitos away from us.  We played with another man who was very good, but we played only average.  Glen brought me home and we settled a difference we had had.  Evelyn and I had lunch and then rested until the evening. 

Tuesday I worked on the message for Easter.  I also went to get the trailer so we could begin packing it.  I took everything out so we could remember what we had left over the winter.  We also began to pack some of the things we had in the house.  This took most of the day.  In the evening we went to Harlingen to visit Ken and Debbie Eilers.  Ken has been in the hospital with some disease that attacked his replaced knees that had swollen.  He said his insurance coverage had been used up, and he had to go home tomorrow.  Debbie has been sleeping on a single size fold out chair in his room.  He seemed in good spirit.  We prayed with them before leaving.

Wednesday we went to Joe and Bonny’s for dinner.  We thought we were just going for dessert, but she had dinner ready.  I had continued working on arranging things in the trailer while Evelyn packed things in plastic tubs and suitcases.  We had some chicken we wanted to eat and invited Judy for lunch.  She seemed much better and we thought she was improving because she had been diagnosed with a damaged spleen.   We had worked all day and were ready for a break in the evening.  I had left a couple of cans of beer at the Winston’s a week ago, and we were going to get together just to drink it.  We were home just in time to watch the news. 

Maundy Thursday we went to worship at Immanuel.  I thought it was the best sermon this pastor had ever given in my presence.  We were also blessed to have the Lord’s Supper.  It is a special night in which our Lord was betrayed.  It is right to participate in this blessed meal on this night in which we remember our Lord’s Last Supper.  During the afternoon we watched a movie, The Big Lebowski.  It had some funny parts but was for the most part rather vulgar. 

Good Friday morning we invited John and Sue to come for omelets early in the morning.  We wanted to use more of our supplies before leaving and had some eggs to use.  They stayed until 10, but I had to mow the grass.  I had once again waited too long to do my mowing, making it difficult to push the mower.  We both took showers and then went to McAllen to shop at Kmart.  We tried to us some coupons for ice cream at the Marble Slab.  They had expired and could not be honored.  We had planned to worship in the afternoon but couldn’t make it back to be on time.  We just came home and waited until 7 and went to Immanuel again.  Both last night’s and tonight’s services were very good.  We went to Long John Silvers with Joe and Bonny for dinner after the service.  It is quite devastating to consider what Jesus went through to relieve of us of the burden of our sin.  We thank God for His mercy and giving us His Grace.

Hot, hot, hot

It has been hot for several days but Thursday morning was cool early.  I went on a ride to the Fiesta TexMex restaurant with the bike club.  I wanted a small lunch and was going to have a bowl of charro beans but ordered some beef nachos with charro beans instead of refried ones.  The serving was so big that I ate the beans and took most of the nachos home.  I had to have it taken home by our club leader who was in a car.  Evelyn had gone with Sue to look for some blue sandals for herself and who knows what for Sue.  They walked all over the mall in Harlingen and the outlet mall in Mercedes.  She was exhausted when she returned.  After she rested we went to the Rotel packing plant and bought 4 cases.  They were only $4 per case and we brought them home.  We have some for us, Bonny, Tom Jones and Hamels.  We were surprised that the factory was still open.  We came home for the evening.  It got hotter during the day, and we stayed in our air conditioned house. 

Friday morning I went to exercise with Evelyn and then to the hospital to served as volunteers.  It was our final day for the season.  Lionel’s was last Friday.  I had thought We could go to Lionel’s to wish him goodbye, but Paul didn’t want to.  So we just said goodbye and came home.  We spent the evening cleaning the screened porch.  Evelyn wanted to wash it too so we did.  We walked around the park in the evening when it was cool.  It had been very hot during the day. 

Saturday I went to Mexico with John. He wanted to have his tooth filling completed because he had been in misery for most of the week.  We went over the international bridge into Nuevo Progreso.  He went to the dentist while I went to get some vanilla and Kahlua for some friends in NC.  When I returned, John decided to have his teeth cleaned too.  We were both surprised as to how soon we were ready to return home.  We weren’t hungry or thirsty for a beer and were home by 11:30.  I had made myself an omelet in the morning and John had assembled our new door chime before we had left in the morning. He had also told us that their bicycles had been stolen during the night.  Some thieves had cut the fence around their park.  Evelyn fixed lunch for me, and we finished preparation for the crawfish etouffee dinner we wanted to serve to Don and Janice Waters.  After we ate, we showed them our pictures of our trip to Israel.  They are committed Christians and loved to hear about our going to walk where Jesus had walked.  Janice is especially vocal about her faith and love for Israel.  We cleaned to kitchen before going to bed.  I had practiced the message and service in the afternoon and was ready to sleep. 

I learned this morning that Evelyn had been unable to sleep until 3 AM.  We were still up at 6:30 and off to worship.  I took a message about our service to a local RV park hoping someone would come to worship with us.  We had put the announcement in several other parks before today.  The Lord didn’t bless our efforts.  Even Paul and Donna, friends we work with at the hospital didn’t come even though they had virtually promised they would.  We had a blessed worship anyway with only 12.  We celebrated the Lord’s Supper.  2 of the 12 are leaving this week and we won’t have many at our Easter service.  We came home, changed clothes and drove back to get John and Sue to go to the Remington Steak House for the Sunday brunch.  We really enjoyed the meal.  We left there and went to Big Lots and Kmart to look for a DVD player to replace ours.  We will wait until there is a sale on one.  We also bought some storage tubs that Evelyn wanted but we don’t need.  We came home and Evelyn went to bed for about 3 hours.  She recovered nicely.  I did some preparation for tomorrow’s party while she slept.  We continued when she wakened and took a bike ride.  It was too hot during the mid and early afternoon but did cool off a bit. We laid our onions back out in the sun to dry.  Some of them are getting soft.  This is quite unusual because they usually last until at least August.  We watched the Country Music Awards show in the evening.  Our neighbor Judy is not better and is very disgusted with her doctors.  She thinks they are covering each other and may file a malpractice suit.