An exciting weekend

Saturday is the day our neighbors go to Sam’s Club and have been bringing some Ice drinks home for us.  They get them cheaper.  We are struggling to stay on the low carb diet to lose weight.  We enjoyed an omelet for breakfast, packed some meatloaf for lunch/supper and took off for Asheville.  I stopped at the Cadillac dealer and had our tire pressure indicator reset before going to Bed, Bath, and Beyond to buy some new pillows that we don’t need, to a shoe repair place to have Evelyn’s purse repaired (it was closed), and go to the movie.  We had plenty of time so we went to Belk where Evelyn found a couple of blouses to wear on our upcoming cruise.  While she tried them on, I found a discounted dress in her size, and she liked it.  We bought it for 40% off.  She didn’t save as much as she did last year, but it was a good buy.  Then it was off to see America the movie.  We arrived on time but had to sit through 22 minutes of commercials and previews.  I don’t mind a few of these but thought this was beyond reason.  Regardless, the movie was terrific.  I would suggest to anyone still reading this blog to see it ASAP.  You will get to see history as it really was, not the way some Hollywood liberal or college professor, etc. wants you to see it.  The immigrant writer/director documents the material and fairly presents both critics and supporters of America the nation.  I remember when we taught the truths of history and even remember my college professors doing the same.  Things are quite different now.  We met Dallas and Karen at the entrance to Biltmore and drove to a lagoon where we ate our dinner.  We were able to have a good conversation, catching up on their summer.  We haven’t been together as much as usual.  We went on to the wine tasting area before going out to hear the music.  We did dance to 3 or 4 numbers on the cobblestone walkways as others sat on the grass and ate their picnic suppers.  We were home by 10.

Sunday was my turn to read the OT and the epistle during worship.  The Scriptures were 2 of my favorites, especially Romans 8:38-42.  Before that I caused a mild uproar in expressing my interpretation of the Gospel lesson for the day.  In the parable of Jesus concerning the merchant finding “the Pearl of great price”, I said the pearl he found was each of the people in the class because He (God in the parable) sold all He had (His only Son) in order to buy the souls of each of us by dying on the Cross.  The pastor and I came to an agreement that each of us is a part of God’s creation which makes us small pearls as well as the rest of Creation that He made in Genesis 1.  We were blessed by Holy Communion and then returned home for lunch of one of the steaks I had grilled.  Evelyn rested in the afternoon until time to attend one of our neighbor’s 90th birthday party.  He is in a nearby nursing home and was grateful for the neighborhood’s attendance.  I at only nuts instead of cake.  We went to Lowe’s looking for a castor for our dining room chair but found none.  We continued to CVS to use our 30% discount coupon before going to Lake Junaluska to take tickets for the Folkmoot USA closing ceremony.  During the second half of the show, a terrible rain/thunderstorm occurred.  There was quite a bit of damage in the mountains but only twigs had blown down in our neighborhood.  We did have a deluge that wet things down pretty well.  We left before the performances were over but still didn’t retire until 11:30.

Fun without the grandkids.

We didn’t hurry to get on the road Wednesday.  We ate the breakfast at the motel and left for the south.  We had an effortless trip under a cloudy sky until we got to TN.  We had driven past Corbin, the town where KFC was founded, even though she loves to eat at “the shrine”.  While I was getting fuel for $3.199, we saw a storm coming behind us.  We left there in a pouring rain.  We drove until we found another KFC where we stopped for lunch.  We stayed inside until we finished eating but left in a heavy rain.  About a half hour later, the skies cleared.  We arrived home around 5.  On the way home we had decided to go on a high protein, low carbohydrate diet, so we went to the grocery to buy a lot of meat.  We will barbecue most of it tomorrow. 

Thursday we went back to work out at the rec center.  We spent an hour there and then went to see if we could get Evelyn’s purse fixed.  Unfortunately the man who ran the shoe repair shop has gone out of business.  We went to an upholstery shop that couldn’t do it but did recommend a place in Asheville.  We had to come home and rest up because we went to see the Asheville Tourists play baseball.  We went to the rec center and went in a van.  We had a good time, but the game had a lot of hitting and went into extra innings.  We didn’t get home until 11:30.  We wasted no time getting to bed.

We slept late Friday, but hit the ground running.  I turned on the outdoor grill and cooked 2 top sirloins, 2 rib eyes, 1 round steak and hamburgers.  I was finished around 10:30.  I had to shower and dress to go to volunteer at the hospital in the afternoon.  I went to the cafeteria there for a hamburger without a bun.  The food there has deteriorated tremendously since last year.  I really worked hard today.  A week ago I had not pushed one wheelchair, but today I could hardly sit down.  When I did, I got another call to take someone out.  I was home shortly before 5, changed clothes, and ate the delicious meatloaf Evelyn had made.  We went to Gary and Linda’s for peach cobbler and conversation.  The dessert didn’t fit into our diet. but the plan had been made before we went on it.  We were home shortly after 9.  We plan to go to Asheville to see a movie tomorrow afternoon and then meet Karen and Dallas for dancing at Biltmore Village tomorrow evening.

Welcome help from our visitors.

After breakfast Monday, we all changed into old clothes and began painting the spindles on our porch rails.  The kids worked on the deck while Grandma and Grandpa worked on the front porch.  We had thought it would be raining again, but it did not rain all day.  We had the usual drips of white on the wood floors but removed by lightly sanding them.  Stephen did that because he is closer to the ground.  We had a large lunch and then relaxed in the afternoon.  Elizabeth had wanted to play hand and foot with the Tollefson’s, so we invited them for popcorn at 6.  We played 3 hands before they had to leave because Linda gets up at 4:30 each morning.  The strange thing is that we let Elizabeth and Stephen be partners.  I can’t understand how anyone partnered with Stephen wins.  They beat everyone else by 5,000 points.  We tried to retire early because we wanted to drive to Lexington but not too early.

We were up just after 8 Tuesday.  The kids had packed most of their items last night, so we had part of the car loaded.  Elizabeth wanted to do something fun before we left, so 3 of us walked up the mountain to the end of the pavement.  We then left for our drive.  We learned later that the kids had forgotten only one thing—Elizabeth’s painted cap.  On the way through Knoxville, we made a stop at the Russell Stover outlet and bought some candy for us and them.  We had breakfast in Newport but didn’t eat any lunch until we had checked into our motel, picked up Andrew for a swim, and headed for a Meijer so he could get some food for his siblings.  We had hamburgers at a local store.  We took them to where Andrew is housesitting and, after his working on my computer a bit, we left them and went to the motel to sleep.  We will miss the children’s being with us.  They are especially loving and genuinely enjoy being with us.  We got a good night’s sleep.

International fun and neighbors.

Saturday was a day we had planned to go the the Arts festival downtown Waynesville.  As the Lord would have it, it rained all  morning.  The Folkmoot dancing was cancelled, but we did get to take the kids to the area where they could make some crafts themselves.  They both made projects and enjoyed themselves.  We came home even though it stopped raining shortly after noon.  The kids watched some movies we got from the library.  They were hooked on Iron Man 2.  Due to our lack of interest, we rested.  I surprisingly got Stephen interested in watching a mystery featuring Hercule Poirot.  During the evening, we began a game of Hand and Foot after going to Gary and Linda’s for brownies and ice cream.  We couldn’t finish the game before we had to retire. 

We were off to worship after breakfast.  The kids went to the children’s class.  Elizabeth was a teacher’s assistant.  Stephen went to the children’s message before the regular sermon.  We went to take tickets at the Folkmoot performance at Stuart Auditorium at Lake Junaluska.  The children enjoyed the performance.  I had collected many complimentary tickets to these performances over the past few years and gave all of them away to friends.  We had to leave early because Andy, one of our neighbors, had invited us to a birthday at Angelo’s Pizza.  We all had a good time there and went to his home for ice cream and cake.  The children left the after party after party before we did and came home to vacuum the floors before we got there.  We had jokingly said that we had to do it.  That is just the kind of grandchildren they are.  We thank God for them every day.

Fun with the grandchildren

We were still a bit sluggish from yesterday and had cold serial for breakfast.  Evelyn had to do some baking and other food prep for tomorrow, so Elizabeth helped her most of the morning.  Stephen and I got out tarp out and trimmed our shrubs with our electric trimmer.  He is an eager helper but a bit too aggressive.  He took the manual hedge trimmer and worked over the azaleas while I finished a “cypress” bush.  By the time I finished and looked at him, he had nearly destroyed the 4 in the front of the house.  As we were collecting the last of our trimmings, Doris came out and asked him to trim 2 holly bushes for her.  Evelyn came out to visit and nearly wet herself when she saw the azaleas.  We know they will grow back but don’t know how long it will take.  Doris’ bushes were over 8 feet high, so we had to take our aluminum step ladder to her house.  Stephen went up and used our limb lopper to cut the thick branches growing from the top.  I didn’t want him to use the electric trimmers at all, so I had to do some of the thinner top branches while the kids steadied the ladder.  By this time it was after noon.  We had lunch and then rested while the kids watched some children’s show.  They went with us to choir practice.  We were surprised that we were to sing Sunday because this past week Rosalind had told us we would not sing this week.  I scheduled a rafting trip for tomorrow, and we played hand and foot in the evening.  For some reason, Stephen gets many good cards in whatever game we play.  Since he is my partner, we almost always win—by a large margin.

Evelyn and Elizabeth finished the preparation for the Bible study/brunch they worked on yesterday.  Stephen and I took them to church and then went to hit some balls at the local driving range.  Stephen did fairly well when he followed my instructions but had quite a bit of trouble sustaining the procedure.  We got tired as we always do at the range and came home to get the items for our rafting adventure.  We got the lunch Elizabeth had packed and went back to get her at church.  We were there at noon and took off for Hartford, TN.  I had been able to change our raft time from 3 to 2 and I couldn’t remember how long it had taken Olivia and I to get there 3 years ago.  We had plenty of time, and I learned I had scheduled a different rafting company.  They stalled around, and I think it was closer to 3 when we finally left.  The trip was shorter than the previous one.  We were put into a raft with 3 young people from Germany.  One was working at the University of TN, and the other 2 were visiting him.  They were very friendly as were we.  It was fun for the kids, even though Elizabeth was concerned at first.  Afterward the young man working in TN offered to pay for a flash drive containing more than a dozen pictures that had been taken on the trip.  I paid for part of them, and he sent them via email to us.  They were very good.  We rushed home, showered and went to Gary and Linda’s for hot fudge sundaes and brownies.  We had a nice visit.  Elizabeth talked with her mother about fixing a schedule for study next year before going to bed.

Friday was a rainy day.  I got up and mixed some pancake batter and fried about 16 pancakes for us.  We ate them all.  They had some small pieces of candy in the mix and I added chopped almonds.  They were very good.  We went to town so Elizabeth could shop at several thrift stores.  Stephen and I went to the Open Door thinking we would help clean up.  It just so happened that there were many helpers including some children.  We walked to the library instead.  It was about 10 blocks—farther than I had remembered.  Stephen was quite bored and just flipped through some books.  I tried to read some descriptions of the dance troupes that would be performing at Folkmoot, but he was not very interested.  The girls returned from shopping and took us home.  Elizabeth had found a couple of garments and some shoes.  Stephen had found a hooded jacket earlier.  Before we went home, we had lunch at Hardee’s.  By now it was after 3.  While we were there, a man we know from the Open Door came in.  He had walked to a Dollar General for some items.  He is somewhat crippled and it was still raining, so I drove him home.  Elizabeth wanted to make some egg rolls for us, so we stopped at Ingles and found some supplies she needed.  We invited Gary and Linda for popcorn instead of fixing supper.  They brought a young girl with them and we played some Phase 10 and ate popcorn until just before they left.  Evelyn made smores in the toaster oven before they left.  We had a good time with them.  Pieder called to talk with the children, and we went to bed around 11.

Elizabeth and Stephen arrive

We spent Monday preparing for our grandchildren’s visit.  We went out and bought many items from 2 groceries.  We also made the futon into a bed for one of them.  In order to be somewhat alert when we bring the children from GSP, I took a nap in the afternoon.  When we left here, I was feeling somewhat good.  As we drove, I noticed one of the graphics on the car dashboard warned the left rear tire was dangerously low.  I found a station that had an air pump and filled the tire.  When I started the car, I found that the tire was still low but the front rear showed to be at 45 psi.  I added some air to the front tire and found the 28 psi tire was now 31 psi.  I will have to go to the dealer to find what is wrong with the graphic.  We got fuel in SC because it is about 20 cents cheaper.  We were nearly an hour early at the airport, but the flight was on time.  I waited nearly half an hour while Evelyn went to get the kids.  We stopped at a McDonald’s to buy them something to eat.  We drove home and all stayed awake until we got here.  Stephen chose to sleep on the couch and left the futon for Elizabeth.

We slept late Tuesday because we didn’t get to bed until 2:30 this morning.  We were up around 9, but let the kids sleep until noon.  I fried up my potato, onion, sausage combination for lunch.  At around 2, I had to take a nap while the kids watched a DVD.  They wanted to have an Iron Chef competition in  the evening.  They made an appetizer and dessert because we had the entrée planned already.  Elizabeth beat Stephen with a ham roll and apple dessert.  After supper, we began a hand and foot contest but got only through the first 2 hands.  We went to bed early.  We should be more energetic in the morning.

Events of the week

After worship, we went with Szymanskis for brunch at Brigette’s Bistro.  We always have good uplifting spiritual discussions with them.  We spent the rest of the day at home.  We might have invited Gary and Linda for popcorn, but they had flown to Colorado to meet his brother.  They didn’t return until late Wednesday night.  We ran many errands on Monday because CVS keeps sending me these coupons for 25% off.  The problem is that many of the things we want are already on sale, eliminating it from the discount.  But our main purpose was to get the ingredients for making gumbo.  We spent the afternoon chopping and cooking (I do the chopping).  We made a huge pot and enjoyed it for supper.  Actually, she doesn’t like gumbo, but, like the good Christian wife she is, she makes it for me.  Nothing much happened until Wednesday when Evelyn made a hot chicken salad from the recipe of a former friend, Genny Dirken.  She needed it to serve to the other women of the Lutheran Women’s Missionary League at their salad lunch on Thursday.  She made a 9X12 pan of the item but brought most of it home.  We went to choir practice as we do most Wednesdays.  Something we didn’t do during the past weeks is volunteer at the hospital: it had to close due to a fire in the electrical room.  No one thought it would be closed so long, but the smoke had penetrated the entire AC duct system.  The patients had to be shipped to Sylva and Asheville.  After the LWML lunch, Evelyn brought the aforementioned chicken salad.  Since, Gary and Linda had returned home late last night, we invited them and Doris to our house to help us eat the leftovers.  We all loved the flavors.  I worked with 4 other men washing windows at the church all morning.  I got a bit dizzy while lying on my back washing the lower windows of the building with an A frame design.  You will have to imagine the windows almost at the level of the asphalt parking lot.  Before going to work, I had paid a bill at the hospital (now open) and was asked to help wheel patients out in the afternoon.  I agreed and changed into my volunteer work uniform, and rushed back.  I did not wheel one patient out all afternoon.  My was that boring!  I had been in such a rush that I had forgotten my tablet.  I had nothing to read and was paired with an elderly lady with little to say.  She can’t hear and neither can I.  We had a dull time.  I was able to go to the cafeteria for lunch.  I can’t believe how bad the food and décor is since we were here last autumn.  I had 3 cuts of pork that were barely edible.  I was happy to finish my tour and come home.  We just stayed in all evening instead of going downtown to the “Art after dark” feature. Saturday we went to the monthly flea market very near us but found nothing of interest.  We had a long list of places to visit including, believe it or not, CVS.  I had another coupon for 30% off.  I can’t get away from the place.  We bought items for the future, including an attachment for the sun visor that is to block the sun in the afternoon and morning.  We also donated 2 books to the library book sale coming at the end of this month.  We also looked at some vinyl to cover our fading stool covers.  When we get off the stools, we rub on the edge of the covering.  We may have to have it recovered.  about 4:30 we went to the Baptist church down the highway.  While we were watching the fireworks, the pastor gave the people along the street where we were sitting an invitation to a block party in the church parking lot.  Rain was threatening the party, so we didn’t stay long.  We came home to enjoy gumbo and relax in the evening.

Around the neighborhood

We have not gone many places this summer.  It is a custom for the neighborhood to go out to eat once a month.  I wrote about June’s trip before but neglected to post the pictures.

This is the group of neighbors who wanted to eat with us a Sid’s on Main.  There was a guitarist who played Karaoke.  He persuaded me to sing with him.

We are awaiting the hostess to show us to our table.  I had made reservations by telephone answer machine, but they hadn’t got it.  They made accommodations regardless.  We  were a large group.

Here I perform for my fan club.

Independence Day

The next event was Independence Day.  We were blessed to have Tom, Stacy and Olivia come to visit for that holiday.  We were surprised that Olivia was as cooperative as she was.  We don’t blame her for not wanting to visit because there is no real private place for her to sleep.  She does watch movies with the family but spends most of her time texting.  This is probably not much different from other teenage girls.  We planned to go to the parade at Lake Junaluska, but no one was able to get ready in time to make it.  We made it for the exact end.  We did make the barbecue and music picnic.  When we came home, Tom and Stacy had a birthday cake for me.  We enjoyed it and went to a site from which we can watch the fireworks over the lake.  This year, unlike the past, we didn’t go to the lake itself.  Instead we parked along Crabtree Road in front of the the LDS church.  We had a good view even though it was the coolest evening we have experienced in the many years of watching the fireworks.

Enjoying the barbecue and bluegrass music entertainment.

Relaxing at the party for Independence.

Cutting the 76 year cake from the Georges.

Gospel river cruise

I had signed us up for this dinner cruise about 2 weeks before we left for our trip.  Evelyn tried to make this out as a birthday trip for me even though I had ordered it back in March.  I guess we did use it on the 29th-July 1.. That was only 1 day after the actual date.  Here are some pictures.

When we boarded, many of the choir were awaiting us.  I talked with some of them, telling them we had heard them before.  They looked like they could have been the same ones we had seen years before.  Many of them were.

The leader was the same man who had me sing, Welcome to My World seven years ago.  When I told him that after the performance, he said he remembered me.  I remember that it was somewhat out of sinc with the rhythms of a black Gospel group. I seriously doubt that, but so what?  As he went around some of the crowd asking them to sing a verse of When the Saints Go Marching In, he came to me first.  I got several compliments as we were leaving.  I guess this group has been doing this for 34 years and still love it.

This lady had a powerful voice and rocked the place with her songs.

This was a moving prayer to close the singing.  They had 2 portions and ate the buffet lunch between them.  The paying customers had eaten during the first half.  We really enjoyed the evening.  We walked home afterward.  Evelyn’s feet were rebelling.  Thankfully she got to sit in our car all the next day.  On the way we stopped at the Tuskegee monument.

These were black pilots who served our country in WWII.  The movie, Red Tails was based on their story.  They trained here –segregated, of course.  We met a married army couple from St. Thomas and exchanged taking pictures with them.

Where was I?

Our month began in Savannah.  Evelyn wanted to go on the trip I had found before it got hot.  Fat chance.  It was hot an humid all the time we were there.  We walked to the river twice and back to our apartment 4 times.  We finished our evening activities after the Dot bus stopped running.  We never saw a pedicab when we needed one.  We had a great time on the Gospel river cruise Monday evening.  We had taken the same cruise 7 years ago for Evelyn’s 67th birthday; now my 76th.  I will try to post some pictures below.  We also took a bus tour that we had 7 years ago.  It was good to do it again for the commentaries.  I lost my camera on the bus that took us to the tour bus but found it when the same bus took us back home.  We drove home on Tuesday and stopped at the Tuskegee pilots monument on the way.

Evelyn taking a break on one of the benches in one of the 24 beautiful squares in the city that Oglethorpe planned before he left England.  It is a beautiful city.

Evelyn is almost trapped into attending a “seminar” that would have focused on selling her a time share or something.  The kid was quite friendly and offered many enticing side gifts.  The Lord blessed her with the will to walk away.

Pictures from our Savannah visit.

This is the entrance to the office of our bed and breakfast.  The breakfast nook was inside this door.

The living area in our B&B.

Our living area from the fireplace.

An outdoor breakfast area.

This is the ballast street that leads to River Street.

Having hors d’oerves at Rocks on the Roof on the roof of the Bohemian Hotel.  The Savannah River in the background

Lunch at the Olympia Café

This is the front of the Ships of the Sea Museum.  It was closed on Mondays.

Looking across the Savannah River at night.

Catching up with June

June has gone quickly too.  We had some much needed rain early in the month.  It did not interfere with my neighbor and my playing golf.  We went to Reems Creek once and played the local Iron Tree twice.  One time we went with our neighbor, Gary.  We have also had a popcorn/card party with him and his wife.  We hosted a Memorial Day party for our small neighborhood party but decided some of the others could host one for Independence Day.  We doubted anyone would do it.  We also went to 2 baseball games.  One was with the Rec Center on a bus.  I have convinced the man who schedules the outings to make the trips on Thirsty Thursdays because of the cheap beer and his providing a designated driver.  We have to ride in an old school bus, but that beats having to drive—drinking or not.  We went another time with our friends Dallas and Karen.  She has been ill and is awaiting a date for some surgery but still manages to be active.  We will likely meet them for another game or 2 this season.  The group where we live also tries to go out to dinner each month.  This month we went to Sid’s on Main in Canton.  They had very good food and live music.  It was a Karaoke performer who played a guitar with the songs.  He convinced me to sing a couple of songs.  The one I always like to sing is Welcome to My World.  I try to make it a Christian witness by asking the audience to imagine Jesus welcoming each of them to Heaven.  Evelyn didn’t think many heard the introduction due to the noise.  I also sang one of my favorites, Sweet Caroline.  Both seemed to go well.  This month also featured something new at the local Lutheran Church.  We are beginning to use women to assist with serving Holy Communion.  Both Evelyn and I signed up to participate.  She was assigned 2 Sundays in June.  I will wait until July.  At the end of the month, we took a 2 night trip to Savannah, GA.  I had bought a deal for a bed and breakfast through Groupon months ago, so we used it as a birthday trip.  The Lord has blessed me with 76 years of life.  I will try to post some pictures of these events and will elaborate on Savannah during the July catch up.

Catching up

During the first part of May we flew to Utah to visit Emily and her family.  She picks us up in Salt Lake City and drives us to her home in Syracuse. We stayed there only a few days and picked up Andrew who flew in from UK and drove him and most of the family to Park City where Emily and Pieder have a time share in a Westgate Resort.  It is in a beautiful area of Utah where Olympic athletes train.  The time share was also beautiful and luxurious.  We visited where ski jumpers trained and learned that they jump into a pool of water when there is no snow.  It snowed on our way up.  The resort had a pool the kids loved to swim in.  We were there about a week before returning to Syracuse.  We flew back to NC and attended Peter Georges’ high school graduation.  We were delighted to meet with Tom’s mom Sue and her husband Merle.  We drove back to our home for the rest of the month.  Of course much more happened, but I don’t want to take time to write it.  It was a great visit.

I think I am back! Sorry.

One of my wonderful sons-in-law has successfully reset my blog account.  They, Tom, Stacy, and Olivia, came to visit for Independence Day and left the house better than when they arrived. 

We had a good couple of days in which Tom tried to help me decide about getting a Smart phone, made a correction so I could use my tablet, and reset the password to open my Live Writer so I can post once again.  We missed the parade yesterday but did enjoy the barbecue lunch afterward and the fireworks last night.  I was concerned that we would end up at the Lake to watch the fireworks but parked in front of the LDS worship center jus around the corner from our house.  We were home within 5 minutes after it was over.  Once it took us 30 minutes when we went to the lake.  The weather here has been fantastic albeit a bit cool last evening.

In a way I am sorry my Live Writer is working.  I have enjoyed my time away from this.  If anyone has ever read it, perhaps they are sorry too. 

Repair?

This is a test posting for my information.