Brrrrrrrrrrrrr!

Sunday we had a good worship service.  There were 35 worshipping with us.  We have a couple from Wisconsin and another from Minnesota.  They have quite a good time jousting with each other.  The Packer fan wore a serape with a large Packer symbol on it, and the Vikings fan wore a “cheese head” with the Vikings symbol painted on it.  Those 2 teams played later in the day.  We watched as the Vikings won and make the playoffs.  The Packers were already qualified.  We stayed home during the evening.

Monday morning we went to Mexico with John and Sue.  He needed to have a temporary crown put in, and I needed to have my teeth cleaned. We found the Senorial  hotel that served breakfast and we ate before our dentist appointments.  Sue and Evelyn shopped around while waiting and found some things for the granddaughters.  We were home around 2.  We parted ways and planned to attend our own NYE parties in our parks.  We took a short nap.  We went to the hall around 8:30 and found seats with a couple from MN that we had not met before.  The hall filled pretty well for the DJ dance.  The DJ was a performer as well and serenaded several women with Elvis songs.  We left at 11:45 following the lunch before the midnight marauders  (drunk men and women wanting to kiss and hug people) began their attack.  We have not stayed for the midnight celebration for more than 20 years.  We wanted to sleep because we had a big football party scheduled tomorrow.

We were up early Tuesday morning baking the ham, putting potato salad in bowls, placing the relish on trays, heating the boudin and cheese dip, loading beer and sodas into our coolers, etc.  The first visitors arrived right on time at 11 AM when the “game” began.  It was virtually over in 10 minutes, and Purdue went on to lose 58-15.  We had a good group of Christians attending.  Ron and Linda Town are mission builders, Norm and Deb Roesner are fellow Cursistas, Paul and Donna Zopfi, Roger and Mitzi Pederson, John and Sue Hamel function in church services.  Only Armand and Rose don’t worship at all.  We had a good time and delicious food during and after the game.  Our discussions centered around Christ and the work we were all doing.  It was really encouraging to meet and fellowship with them.  After the Purdue debacle, most people left but 2 stayed for the Rose Bowl.  Unfortunately the woman was feeling bad and had to go home.  We spent a couple of hours cleaning up the kitchen and other rooms. 

Some good news is that I think I have found a man who might replace me in preaching at Trail’s End.  He was an AALC pastor and is very personable.  I described our service to him, and he affirmed that he could work within our framework.  He even said he would substitute for me if needed.  It is great to know that I don’t have to leave the wonderful people at Trail’s End should the Lord bless my leaving and brings someone to buy our house at our price.  Praise Him.

Wednesday was a cold rainy day.  I had wanted to go to McAllen to look for some after Christmas items, especially an outdoor timer.  One of ours has stopped working, and I think we had just bought it in December.  I want to exchange it for one that works.  It was so cold and rainy that Evelyn didn’t want to go.  Instead I worked on finishing the message for Sunday.  I also needed to work on replacing one of the GFCI outlets in our main bathroom.  It had stopped working Christmas morning but had no time to work on it.  I also thought no stores would be open to offer a replacement.  We usually run our space heater in the bathroom for heat rather than operate the furnace and heat the entire house.  I thought of working on it, but, just as we had begun lunch, Ed and Nona Drews showed up for a visit or something.  I thought they needed something but never figured out what it was.  We finished lunch and then began watching a video from the Men’s Network from LHM.  That took an hour.  Then Evelyn began showing our album of pictures from Israel, taking another 45 minutes.  I took Ed to the kitchen and served left over boudin and wine.  Evelyn and Nona joined us and we finished it off.  Around 4:45 they left.  We had thought of inviting them for supper one evening but determined we had visited enough.  I watched Special Report, and then we struggled about what to do in the evening.  Finally I remembered that Purdue played Illinois in basketball, so we watched that until bedtime.  We also learned that Joe and Bonny could not go to our next community concert next Tuesday.  They have missed others and give us their tickets to sell.  We will do the same for that concert when we decide who we would like to offer them to.

Thursday Evelyn went off to Silver Sneakers while Armand and I began looking for the cause of the outlet’s malfunction.  We couldn’t pinpoint the problem and went to get Lloyd who worked with that stuff in Canada.  He found the problem: the replacement outlet I had bought yesterday was defective.  Armand and I drove to Ace Hardware to return it for another.  We came home and found that was indeed the problem.  Everything is now working.  I learned that our 2 bathrooms 60 feet apart are on the same GFCI circuit.  Who would have thunk it?  Evelyn and I had lunch before I returned to computer work.  She began reading a book by Dr. Paul Maier, a renown Lutheran historian/professor, Nona had brought to us yesterday.  I also had to empty the cooler I had served beer from on NYD.  I will have to screen the invitees more thoroughly since they didn’t drink as much beer as I thought they would.  I was also sleepy and took an afternoon nap.  We took a walk in the cold air around 6.  The wind was light so the real feel was not as cold as it could have been.  When I think about how fresh the air feels, it reminds me of the crisp days in Indiana where we lived for 60 years.  While I like the feel here after the hot days we had in mid December, I will not be disappointed when the warm weather returns.  We watched some TV during the remainder of the evening.