Sunday, March 1 – Saturday, March 7, 2009

Sunday, March 1

Happy Birthday to Jerry Terpening in Artesia!!!

It was another travel day today, so we were up and around fairly early. After getting dressed and packing the car, we said our thanks and good-byes to Heather, Andy, Alexander, and Abby, and left Richardson to head back home to Artesia.

While we were bringing the kids back from the cheer competition last night we got a phone call from Barbara’s sister, Carol, telling us they had taken Cal to the hospital yesterday and he was in ICU with pneumonia and a bronchitis infection. With that in mind, we chose to take I-35 north to Denton and then drive U.S. 380 to Plains, Texas, knowing that if necessary, we could either continue to Roswell on that highway or turn off at Plains and take U.S. 82 to Artesia.

The trip was uneventful…just a lot of miles and hours as we drove across Texas. We decided to stop at Dairy Queen in Aspermont for a liquid lunch. Barbara got a Blizzard and I ordered malt, but was told that they were out of milk, so they couldn’t fix malts or milkshakes, so we went back to the car and I sipped on a bottle of water while I continued driving.

When we got to Plains, I stopped at the Dairy Queen and finally got my malt while Barbara called Carol to see what the situation was in Roswell. Carol was in the room with Cal at the time and Barbara heard him ask who was calling. When she told him it was us and that we were returning from Dallas, he said to not bother coming on to the hospital today as he was tired and really didn’t want any visitors. So, we just pointed the Vibe toward Lovington and Artesia.

When we arrived in Artesia, we stopped at the post office to check our mail and found valentines from Alexander and Little Jimmy. From the looks of the postmarks, we probably received them the day after we left on this trip; ah well, timing is everything. We also received a beautiful 8 X 10 family portrait of Heather, Andy, Alexander, and Abby, a welcome addition to our rapidly growing photo collection.

When everything was unpacked and put away, we walked over to Jean’s house to let her know we had returned and were back in place. Jerry and Nancy returned from their trip to see Amanda, Zeke, and their boys while we were at Jean’s, so I went out to guide Jerry as he backed the boat into the barn.

We were beat from the long day of travel, so we said good night to everyone and returned to Big V. After 18 days on the road and 3,200 miles of driving, we were ready for the peace, quiet, and comfort of our own little home.

Monday, March 2

This may have been the most “nothing” day we have spent in a long time. Even with a good night’s sleep behind us, we were still tired from the 18 days of travel, so except for a trip to town to check the mail and buy a load of groceries, we didn’t accomplish a single thing during the day.

This evening we did go back to town to Jaycee Park to do some walking. It had been a beautiful, warm, and windless day and we just felt the need to get out in the fresh air for a while.

Tonight was no more exciting than the day…just a quiet evening by ourselves in Big V.

Tuesday, March 3

Happy 28th Birthday to Barbara Francis Yehl in Victoria, Texas!!!

We were a little more active today than we were yesterday. While Barbara was figuring out the bills, I tackled the stack of mail that we had brought with us from our Mineola post office box and added to the pile from the Artesia post office. It was time to do some sorting and filing, not my favorite job, but very necessary, since my table was covered with “stuff.”

Later we went to town to check the mail and to stop at Wal-Mart for some “necessaries.” We’ve been experiencing low water pressure for some time now, so at Barbara’s suggestion, I decided to reroute the water hose and replace the in-line water filter that I had installed in November. It was immediately apparent that the filter was the problem, as we suddenly had the pressure that we had enjoyed before. It turned out to be a bit of a messy job, but well worth the time and effort.

Later in the afternoon we went back to Jaycee Park to do some more walking. We’ve decided we like the park because it’s a really pretty place and there are smooth roads and a great walking path…much easier on our feet and legs that gravel and dirt.

Tonight we went over to Jerry and Nancy’s house to join them, Becky, Jean, and Susie for Jerry’s birthday celebration. His birthday was Sunday, but since they were traveling then, and had another obligation last night, the party was put off until tonight. Jerry decided he didn’t want a cake, instead, we had a “waffle blowout,” complete with homemade waffles, fried bacon and ham, and eggs fried in old-fashioned redeye gravy…what a feast!

After eating and cleaning up, we retired to the living room to talk and watch Jerry open his cards and presents, and then we all finally called it a night and headed to our respective homes.

Wednesday, March 4

This morning was bright and beautiful, so we decided we’d better take advantage of it and go to town to do the laundry. Contrary to the belief of some in the family, washing clothes is NOT our favorite activity, but it is a necessary one, so we bit the bullet and decided to get it over with early today.

When the clothes were washed, dried, and folded, we drove out to the John Deere place to check on Jerry’s riding mower. I had taken it out there before we left on the trip, but they hadn’t called to say whether it was ready. When we got there, we found that all the servicing was complete, so we went back to the funeral home and I got one of Jerry’s vehicles to tow with.

Barbara went on home and put away the clean clothes while I got the mower loaded on the trailer and towed it back to the place and put everything away in the barns.

Today was “lunch bunch” day at Chaos, so after dropping Jerry’s Suburban off at the funeral home, Barbara and I went on over to the restaurant to get a table for all of us. While we were waiting in line, an older couple wearing motorcycle garb came in behind us and we started talking about what a beautiful day it was for riding. They pointed out their cycle, a beautiful Gold Wing trike, just what Barbara has been dreaming about.

We stood there for several minutes talking about cycles and riding. The man (didn’t get his name) started telling us about a man in Portales who does a top notch job of cycle conversions, in case we were interested in pursuing that idea for the Voyager; and, in fact we had on several occasions talked about converting the cycle to a trike for Barbara and eventually getting a new cruiser for me.

Since we were waiting for a table for six, we told the couple that they should move forward to let the waitresses know they were there and maybe they could get a table a little earlier.

When we were finally seated and the family arrived, the man came back over and spoke to Jerry for a couple of minutes and then stepped around and handed me a business card with the address for the cycle person in Portales. As he left, Jerry leaned over and said, “You know who that is, don’t you?” I said I didn’t, and then he told us it was Max Johnson’s uncle. Max, of course, is our dear friend who lives in Santa Fe.

I guess I never met Max’s uncle when I was growing up here, or if I did, I don’t remember it. Anyway, while we were waiting on our orders to arrive, I went back and spoke to Mr. Johnson and introduced myself and told him how I knew Max and his family. Then he said, “You know, Max told me you were in town and said I should be looking out for you, but I didn’t know that was you.” What a small world this can sometimes be!

After lunch we returned to Big V and battled the strong winds that had come up while we were out gallivanting around. Unfortunately, we had opened the awning because of the hot sun this morning, and the wind was doing a number on it. The real unfortunate part is that once the awning starts bouncing around, we can’t get it closed very easily, so there was nothing to do but sit around and worry about it until the winds died down this evening and we could roll it back in.

Tonight we went over to Jean’s house to visit for a few minutes. Barbara came back to Big V after a while, but I stayed around to help Jean watch the Spurs and Mavericks in their NBA game. Once again, we found ourselves rooting for a lost cause as the Spurs found a way to lose in the fourth quarter.

Thursday, March 5

We were both up early this morning…Barbara at 3:00 and me at 4:00…don’t know what’s wrong with us other than our internal clocks are messed up.

Since it was supposed to be another dirty and blustery day, we decided to go to Roswell to visit family members. Since brother Jerry works nights at NMMI and sleeps during the day, we went to see Cal and Carol first.

We were both pleasantly surprised to see how well Cal is doing after being in ICU last week. Our being there gave me a chance to stay at the house and visit with Cal while Barbara and Carol went out for some shopping and “girl-talk.”

When the girls returned, we all visited a bit more and then Barbara and I made a quick visit to Wal-Mart before going to see Jerry and Jane. Jerry has a weekly officers meeting at the Institute every Thursday, so he wasn’t at the house when we arrived, but did come in before it was time for us to leave, so we got to catch up on the latest happening with them.

Since it was nearly 4:00 and we hadn’t eaten since breakfast, we stopped at Sonic for popcorn chicken and tater tots before heading back to Artesia.

I went over to let Jean know that we were back home and to watch part of a basketball game with her. Then, it was back to Big V for an early bedtime, since I needed to be up early Friday morning to join Jerry Terpening and the kitchen crew at First Methodist Church.

Friday, March 6

Jerry had asked me a couple of days ago if I would like to help in the kitchen for the Methodist Men’s Prayer Breakfast this morning. He has a regular crew that runs like clockwork, but a couple of the men were going to be gone today and he needed some extra help. Of course, I said I’d be happy to pitch in, so last night I set the alarm clock for 3:30 to give me plenty of time to wake up, get ready, and drive to town to get the kitchen running at 4:30.

As it turned out, setting the alarm was an unnecessary exercise, as once again I woke up very early (this time at 1:00 a.m.) and couldn’t get back to sleep. So, it was certainly no problem to be ready in time!

Working in someone else’s kitchen and following their routine is always a challenge, but Jerry made it a relatively minor challenge, and by 6:45 we had everything ready for the breakfast. After the 19 or 20 men arrived and had the opening prayer and blessing, we all sat down to heaping helpings of biscuits and gravy, fried eggs, bacon, grits, coffee, and orange juice…all followed by a meaningful devotional and prayer service…what a great way to start a day!

The clean-up crew was all in place today, so I left after the breakfast and returned to Big V where Barbara and I talked for a bit, I checked my email, and then I headed back to bed to try to catch up on the sleep I missed from 1:00 until 3:30.

Around 10:00 I woke up and we started our day all over again. We had planned to go back to Roswell today to help Carol get Cal to a doctor’s appointment, but she called and said they were going to reschedule. So, we just settled in for a day of doing very little of significance. The wind and dirt were really cranking, so we resigned ourselves to staying inside.

The low point of the day occurred around noon when I called our accountant to check on the progress of our tax return, We assumed (correctly) that they wouldn’t be ready, but because of our planned travels, we needed ballpark figures of when they would be ready and what the potential damages might be.

What we found out rocked the rest of the day for us…seems that a cursory glance at everything we had turned in indicated that we would owe much more than we would have ever guessed…a staggering amount for us at this time. We immediately started praying over how we were going to handle this setback in our plans, and looked for ways that we could rectify the withholding problem for next year and still be able to do some of the things we wanted to do.

Around 3:00, we just put everything aside and went to town to check the mail and then go to Jaycee Park to do some walking, since the wind had eased up a bit and it wasn’t too dusty.

From the park we returned to our place, intending to go in, fix an early supper (we hadn’t eaten since breakfast), and just put the evening on cruise. We stopped first at Jean’s house to see how her day had gone and she asked if I would mind grilling some chicken and we could all eat over there; it wasn’t what we had planned, but it sounded like fun.

While the chicken was thawing, Barbara and I went across the lot to Big V to check email and grab a couple of things for dinner. As soon as I opened the door, my cell phone started ringing. The caller ID showed a number I didn’t recognize, but when I answered, I heard the cheerful voice of our accountant, informing me that she obviously hadn’t read all of the material associated with our return, and that after figuring everything carefully, our federal tax bill was $1,900 less than what she had guestimated earlier in the day.

After thanking her profusely for making our weekend a much happier one, we said a prayer of thanks and then returned to Jean’s house for a dinner of salad, baked potatoes, and grilled chicken breasts.

We stayed for a while after dinner to help clean up and visit for a while…watched part of the Celtics and Cavaliers basketball game, and then the adrenalin rush from the bad new/good news situation of the day gave out and Barbara and I both started drooping.

At that point we said thanks and goodbye to Jean and returned to Big V to watch an episode of Monk and then go to bed to read for a while and get some much-needed sleep.

Saturday, March 7

Happy Third Birthday to granddaughter Abby Dondis in Richardson, Texas!!!

Our goofy sleep pattern for the week has been broken, if only for the day. Barbara was up by 6:00 and I woke up around 7:30, so we both got a good night’s sleep for once.

When I finally got out of the bedroom, Barbara was fixing breakfast…hot biscuits toasted just the way I like them.

While the biscuits were toasting, we both checked email and I read the morning edition of the Boston Globe, finding that the Celtics had, indeed, defeated Cleveland last night, and that things seemed to be ok, if not great, in the Red Sox training camp.

By the time I had done that, breakfast was ready, so I turned on the TV and the DVD player and we watched another episode of Monk and we enjoyed a leisurely meal. We’re down to the end of the Monk collection that Susie loaned us…disc 4 of Season 3, so we’re going to have to start looking for more seasons of the show.

By 10:30 it was evident that the weatherman, who had promised high winds (30-40 miles per hour with gusts to 50) and blowing dust for the day, was right on the money with his forecast…too bad that rarely happens when he says that there will be rain. The wind was shaking Big V enough that we decided to roll in the bedroom and kitchen slideouts on the south side. The predominant winds around here are from the southwest, and on days like this, we can take quite a beating.

After playing a few computer games and checking online newspapers, I got my trumpet down off its stand and practiced for about a half hour, doing some warm-up exercises and then moving on to the new Baptist Hymnal that we bought a month or so ago. Not to toot my own horn (pun very much intended), the old chops are getting back into pretty good shape and I’m starting to feel better about what’s coming out. Who knows what I could do if I got really serious about this thing!

A good practice session requires a cup of hot tea to relax the muscles, and while I enjoyed the warm brew, Barbara fixed lunch, heating up the remains of a wonderful Mexican casserole recipe that sister Nancy had shared with her.

With plates in hand, we ate lunch while watching yet another episode of Monk (only two left, and then we’ll have to switch gears). By the time the show was over, it was time to go to bed, read, and take a short nap…what an exciting day!

Around 5:30 the wind died down a few miles an hour, allowing us to open the slideouts again. Barbara suggested that we take advantage of the “break” in the weather to go to town and walk the track at Jaycee Park, which we did, even though it was still pretty breezy.

After walking around the track, we went to Wal-Mart to buy a few things for the next couple of days and then came back to Big V to put them away. We went across the yard for a short visit with Jean to see how she had handled the day and then returned to Big V where Barbara fixed a light supper and we settled in for the evening. Not very exciting, but sometimes life is just…life.

After hearing from friends old and new this week, we felt the following was very appropriate:

“A friend may well be reckoned the masterpiece of Nature.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

From our Little House on the prairie,

Jim and Barbara