Looking for long term care.

We were up and off to San Antonio early in the morning.  It was an ugly, misty day spraying mud all over our black car.  It was also cold, but we had a good trip.  Yesterday at noon gas was 2.96; this morning it was 3.05 at its cheapest.  We arrived at Air Force Village 2 around 2:30 and were in our residence in time for a nap.  We met at Tom and LuAnn’s for a surprise cocktail party with 2 other couples.  Tom is an amateur cook and had made Cajun hors d’oerves for us.  One of the new couples were raised in western Indiana and the other was a chaplain.  We had a lot to talk about.  From there we went to the “big house mess hall” for a dinner.  Since we had a meal voucher, we had the most expensive items on the menu.  I think my steak rivaled the one we  had at Ruth’s Chris Steak House.  We had a great time and everyone all invited us to move into the living complex.  Tom and LuAnn are some of the best friends we have.  Tom is also planning a cruise through the Panama Canal in September and has invited us.  We will likely go.

We spent most of the day with Richard Bardon after having breakfast in the mess hall with Tom and Luann.  He was a chubby older man (younger than I) who treated us very well.  He explained the program of the living costs to us, but of course we can’t remember several of the statistics.  He also showed us many of the different styles of structures.  We learned that when someone moves out, nothing is done to the home until it is sold.  This is so that the new occupants can design it to their taste.  We saw one with the same floor plan as Tom and LuAnn’s but had been changed to the point that I could hardly recognize it.  He also showed us some homes that were bigger than ours in Indiana.  We will have no use for it.  We were finished around noon, bought lunch and took a nap before dressing for the dinner dance.  We joined Tom and LuAnn for the cocktail hour and then dinner.  It was not as good as last night’s but was very good.  The highlight was the dessert cake.  The band, ironically, was the same one that played for the same type of dinner 3 years ago.  They were excellent, but the crowd, being older, were all gone from the floor by 8:15.  We left before 8:30, but the band was still playing when we cleared the floor.  We went to Tom and LuAnn’s for a nightcap and discussion about our situation.  We explained that we were able to pay the entrance fee of $200k plus but were concerned about 2 things;  First our money is all sheltered and would require we pay all the taxes at once; Second, we are concerned about being able to maintain the $35k that we would have to pay per year.  That sounds high but doesn’t reflect the beautiful campus and many amenities. We will have to look into how we can delay paying the taxes . We went home and had a good night’s sleep.

We were up leaving for home by 9.  That was later than we had planned.  I turned in our keys and got 2 breakfast tacos for us and left.  We followed our GPS all the way home.  We listened to our Steve Brown Bible study CDs on both of our trips.  We are blessed by those teachings.  We didn’t stop for lunch but did share a blizzard.  We were home earlier than we had ever imagined.  We were able to relax before Joe And Bonny picked us up at 5 to go to dinner and our McAllen Concert series performance.  We went to a different restaurant as normal. This was almost a sports bar but had good food.  We shared a dinner as usual and used my coupons for a reduction in cost.  Winston’s seem to always want an appetizer and bought one for us.  The concert starred Hal Linden, star of the Barney Miller TV show of years back.  He was tremendous!  At 82, he had stronger lungs than men half his age.  He sang some original songs and played a clarinet. He also reminisced about his life and career.  He also had a marvelous band with him.  They played mostly big band sounds.  We all thought it was the best of the 4 we have had this season.  We were home a bit early because he had not taken an intermission.

We did our usual Friday activities: kitchen band and hospital service.  It was Valentine’s Day, but we really didn’t observe it.  We seem to be uninterested in celebrating preplanned holidays.  We came home for a simple supper, although I thought Evelyn wanted to go out.  She must have changed her mind.  We did go to Joe and Bonny’s for cake and Irish Cream.  We listened to their episodes with their Sprinter motor home and then came home.  Evelyn really likes to be home more than she used to.  She is willing to go out and enjoys those forays but is very happy to just snuggle into the couch.  We have a great thanks to God.  It has been 10 days since Evelyn has had any sciatic pain.  It always amazes us at God’s faithfulness and mercy.  We are more indebted to Him each day.  It has been nice to have a vacation from preaching, but I am humbled that God would call me back to preaching His mercy and forgiveness to even our small congregation.  I spent some of the evening preparing for my 2 engagements Sunday.  We also watched some of the Olympics as we have much of the past 2 weeks.  We haven’t watched them wall to wall but have enjoyed the parts we have seen.