Sunday, April 11
What a great day this was!
To begin, it was an absolutely gorgeous morning…just a few wispy clouds in a mostly clear, blue sky and warm enough to not need a sweater or jacket.
We got ourselves and then Mother ready to go to church and then left Mother at the house until TJ came to get her to go to Harvest Acres Baptist Church here in Mineola.
Meanwhile, we pointed the Vibe north toward Yantis and enjoyed a wonderful Sunday school class and a great church service.
After church we drove back to Holiday Village, stopped at the clubhouse to order lunch to go (Barbara waited on the food while I took the car across the street to unload it and put some of our things in Big V.)
Barbara was on the phone quite a bit, so I went ahead and started on my chicken salad. It was more than I wanted at the time, so I put it in the refrigerator and then headed to bed to take a short nap.
After a few minutes Barbara called inside to say that we had visitors. Ken and Donna, the new friends we met at the POA dinner last night, dropped by to see our place and visit for a few minutes. It was so warm outside by then that we asked them to come inside and take a look at Big V while we talked.
Ken and Donna will be leaving at the end of the week to go to Idaho and won’t be returning to Holiday Village until October, so while we won’t be doing a lot of visiting in the near future, we know that we’ll be getting together in the fall and, who knows, there might even be a few motorcycle rides in our future.
When Ken and Donna left, Barbara came in to take her nap while I got my work clothes on and went outside to burn off two large piles of brush and vines that I’d collected over the last month and a half. It has either rained or snowed (or was still wet from rain or snow) when I had the time to burn before, but today was perfect for it…just enough breeze to keep the oxygen moving through the piles, and a beautiful afternoon to be outside.
Once the fire burned down, I turned my attention to cutting down the young briar vines that have started appearing after the wet winter. I found a heavy duty Round-Up solution that is supposed to kill brush and Poison Ivy and figured that if it worked on those things, surely it should have some effect on the briar vines, so after I cut the vines down to about two inches above the ground, I sprayed the remaining stems with a good dose of Round-Up…guess we’ll see in another week or so whether it will work.
When I’d drowned the fire ashes and embers and put away all the tools, I went back into Big V, took a shower, and then we loaded things back into the Vibe and drove back to Yantis to go to choir practice while Barbara discovered a small park where she could read for a few minutes.
David began a study of Philippians tonight and immediately got our attention with the first three verses and his elaborations on them. David is a tremendous Bible teacher, as well as preacher and pastor, so we are looking forward to the next several weeks of study on Sunday nights.
We came back home to find Mother and the puppies resting comfortably. Spike and Bonita both tried to convince us that they hadn’t eaten supper, but Mother said they had and that they both lied from time to time, so we just gave them their treats and let them be happy with what they had.
Monday, April 12
We started off the day with news from Jimmy Clint that he was really hurting and couldn’t move his legs. He had already called one of his doctors and was told to not try to come to the hospital, that the doctor would come to him to try to see what was wrong.
Meanwhile, Jimmy’s friends Kyle and Chris were keeping an eye on him and when the doctor didn’t show up by 11:30, the boys took Jimmy to the ER at University Medical Center where medical staff worked to get his meds stabilized.
Jimmy is still having trouble with blood clots in the arteries of his legs, so the medical staff is working to carefully adjust meds to keep the clots from doing severe damage. They have had to break some of them up with ultra-sound, but they would much rather get the meds adjusted so the clots won’t form at all.
Jimmy spent all afternoon at UMC and was finally released to return to his apartment this evening.
Meanwhile, life moved forward at a fast pace here at Mother’s house. There was the possibility that we might have to make a quick trip to Lubbock, so we made sure we could do that if necessary. Also, we had errands to run for Mother, particularly to get her prescriptions from the local pharmacy.
Gene and Michelle Young dropped by this morning to show us the plans for their new house and let us know they were back in town for a couple of days. We had seen the freshly-poured slab on Saturday, but couldn’t remember all they had told us about the layout of the structure.
Our new friends Ken and Donna came to visit this afternoon. We found out Saturday night that they are interested in setting up their own blog site, so Barbara invited them over for a demonstration lesson. They are both quick learners and within an hour or so had their blog set up and ready to use. It was obvious that Ken is going to get a lot of mileage out of their name (Good), much as we use “Little” in our blogs. Ken even set up his first posting combining the two last names to describe the “Good Little” lesson he learned from us.
In between visits and other chores, I made several trips to hardware stores to find parts to fix the lawnmower. By the end of the day I had replaced the air filter and container, found a bolt to hold the container in place so it doesn’t fly off and get chewed up by the blade again, replaced the blade that has hit about as many rocks and tree stumps as it has blades of grass, and replaced the spark plug. It doesn’t run like new, but it sure is better than it was early this morning!
Tonight I started cleaning the inside of the Vibe. The pollen and dust have infiltrated every part of the interior, so I grabbed my trusty micro-fiber cleaning rags and dusted and vacuumed every part of the interior that I could reach. I finally quit when it was just too dark to see anymore.
Tuesday, April 13
Today we celebrate the birthday of Thomas Jefferson, third President of the United States, born on this date in 1743. It was Thomas Jefferson, principal author of our Declaration of Independence, who said, “I'm a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work the more I have of it.”
I got up early this morning and started washing the car. It was just filthy from road grime and pollen. Just as the pollen had gotten all over the interior, it also covered every square inch of the exterior. As I washed and rinsed, I had a continuous stream of yellow water running down the driveway. Barbara came out and helped with the rinsing so we could finish the job before the sun started hitting the car and streaking it.
After breakfast, I put the car in the garage and then we started mowing and trimming the front yard. It was amazing to see how much the grass had grown since the last mowing, even without significant rain.
Barbara grabbed a shovel and did some more clearing in the little ditch we dug out last week. Meanwhile, I got the flathead shovel and removed several years of sand buildup at the end of the street. We mentioned in last week’s writings that all the water in the development drained to our end of the street. When that happened, it also washed down a lot of sand, resulting in a huge buildup right in front of our house and the house across the street.
John and I managed to get a good drainage system going for the water, but that left us with a large “beach” area, with sand several inches deep, and the only way to get rid of it was one shovelful at a time. Unfortunately for me, John was gone for the day and I was holding the shovel.
This afternoon we drove out to Gene and Michelle’s new house to take a picture of what had been done today. We don’t know how many men were on the job, but the house was completely framed by the time we got there. Those guys really work fast when they finally get to work!
Wednesday, April 14
Today was Barbara’s Bible study day at Yantis. I drove her to the church, visited with David for a bit, and then went to the lot to spend a couple of hours mowing and trimming. It seems there’s never enough time to do everything that needs to be done, but b y the time I left, the place was really looking good…at least, it looked like someone cared.
While we were gone, Maria came to the house to clean Mother’s room and bathroom, so we returned to a shiny clean and fresh-smelling room. Maria does wonderful work and has been a real Godsend to all of us.
Mother has been reviewing some of her recipe files and recently found a Wacky Cake recipe that she asked Barbara to make, so Barbara spent the afternoon on that.
While Barbara worked on the cake, I grabbed the lawnmower and mowed the back yard and the lot beside the house.
I practiced my trumpet tonight (as I have been doing since Sunday night when our choir director asked if I would do something for the special music next Sunday. Luckily, I wasn’t too badly out of shape, so the practice has gone pretty well.
Thursday, April 15
Happy Birthday to Aunt Glennis in Marianna, Florida!!!
Today is our national tax day. As Arthur Godfrey once said, "I’m proud to pay taxes in the United States. The only thing is, I would be just as proud for half the money."
Today was a fairly easy day for us. With nothing on the agenda for the biggest part of the day, we just took care of some basic errands. Housecleaning was tops on the list, but Mother’s house is so easy to clean that it didn’t take but a couple of hours to get it dusted, swept, and mopped.
Barbara walked to the pharmacy to pick up some prescription refills for Mother and then we drove to Walmart for a few things. I sprung for a new pair of tennis shoes and we stopped by the garden shop to buy several small pots of Impatiens that we brought back to the house to plant in the area between the driveway and the fence.
Today was also the time for the monthly administration of the puppies’ meds…not their (or our) favorite thing, but one of those necessary chores.
Ken and Donna Good came to town this evening and we had nachos and played Chickenfoot. I once again proved what a genial host I could be by being the biggest loser. Ken and Donna said they had never played the game before, but after they scalped me, I’m beginning to doubt their veracity. Anyway, it was a really fun evening. We’re just sorry that they will be leaving so soon after we met them; but, they’ll be back in five months and then we’ll let the games begin!
Friday, April 16
TJ took Mother to the optometrist in Tyler this morning and the two of them had a late birthday lunch for TJ at Red Lobster.
While Mother and TJ were off on their adventure, Barbara and I decided we’d spend the day working on the lot up at the lake. We drove up to Sulphur Springs because we thought we’d find some good plants at Lowe’s outdoor center, but were disappointed to find absolutely nothing we liked or could use.
We left Lowe’s and crossed the street to Walmart where, unlike the store in Mineola, we found some beautiful Asian Lilies that we thought would dress up the yard across from Big V. We returned to the lot, broke out the shovel and hoe, and got the lilies set in place. They were very pretty, but we both decided that the way we set them made them look like head markers in a cemetery…we’ll just have to do something about that later.
After doing a little more work around the lot, we returned to the house in Mineola and did some work in the garden area between the driveway and fence. There are a couple of small areas that we can’t seem to get just right. One thing we did that made us feel much better was to move the hummingbird feeders and stand where they can be more easily seen. The feeders aren’t attracting hummingbirds, but they sure do look nice!
Saturday, April 17
Happy Birthday to our good friend Joyce Whitaker in Houston!!!
When Heather, Andy, and the kids were here during the Easter weekend, we asked them about Alexander’s soccer schedule. We’ve never been able to attend any of the kids’ events, but when we found that Alexander had a soccer match this afternoon, we decided we’d make the drive to Richardson to see him play
Earlier this week, we learned that Jaycie would be involved in a cheer competition in Dallas, so we thought we’d ask about seeing her sometime during the morning. We already knew that we wouldn’t be able to attend the competition, but thought that if Cathey would let us, we could maybe meet Jaycie at their hotel and take her to breakfast for an hour of granddaughter/grandparent time.
We wrote to Cathey Friday morning to tell her that we were going to be in Richardson for Alexander’s game and asked if there was any way we could see Jaycie this morning before going to the soccer match.
Around 12:30 we received a note from Cathey stating that they were getting ready to leave Lubbock for Dallas. She said that Jaycie had to be at the competition site at 9:00 this morning, but that we could come at 12:30 for the competition and then see her for a few minutes after that.
We had already promised the kids that we would be at Alexander’s soccer match at 1:00, so we wrote back and said we could leave very early and asked about meeting Jaycie at 8:00 for breakfast and a visit, but, we didn’t hear back from Cathey until 9:11 this morning when she wrote and said she just got our message, that they were on their way to the competition site and it was just too bad it didn’t work out.
So, with the possibility of seeing Jaycie, along with Alexander and Abby, out of the question, we focused on getting ourselves ready and driving to Richardson in time to visit Andy and the kids (Heather was spending the morning working on a school fundraiser) for a while before heading to the soccer fields.
After stopping at the donut shop for breakfast, the post office to check mail, and the gas station to fill an almost empty tank, we finally headed up Highway 69 toward Greenville and then across to Richardson. We had plenty of time, so there was no big hurry.
Well, we had plenty of time until we got to Greenville and I decided to take a shortcut that I knew would save us at least 15-20 minutes by cutting out the Greenville traffic; and, it would have worked if I just hadn’t guessed wrong about the next turn. Soon, we were wandering through the backwoods of East Texas, making great time (at least as far as the speedometer was concerned), but totally clueless as to where we were and what we should do next.
I even stopped and asked a highway department driver about the fastest way to get back to I-30 toward Dallas. He gave us the directions, but I must have transposed them in my mind and we made another left turn that took us even farther away from our destination.
When we saw the sign that said we were only 15 miles from Terrell, we knew that our speed had gotten us nowhere fast. Luckily (and before we actually got to Terrell), we saw a sign that directed us back toward the northwest and Caddo Mills, which is what we should have driven through about 45 minutes earlier.
Barbara texted Andy to tell him we were lost and might be late. He only replied, “Ought to get a GPS.”
Later, when we knew where we were and could set an arrival time, Barbara called and got the directions to the park where the soccer matches were being played.
Even with my blunders, we would have made it for the beginning of Alexander’s match, but I figured out that there must be some new state law that that sets the maximum speed on Saturdays at 45 MPH, but that drivers can drive much slower than that if they wish. I don’t believe I’ve ever gotten behind so many slow drivers on so many different roads!
We finally got to the park, having just missed the beginning of the game, but with plenty of time to see Alexander in action. Alexander is a very gifted athlete with a good sense of field presence and outstanding coordination. He told us at Easter that he had already scored 6 goals and that his team was “undefeatable” for the season.
Barbara and I took turns playing with Abby, watching Alexander, and visiting with Andy throughout the match. Of course, we did remember to bring the camera, so we’ll just let the pictures tell the story of the time we shared at the park.
At half time, we were even able to sneak in a few photos with Alexander…
One time during the soccer game, Abby decided that she wanted to take a picture of Grams and Gramps. So…with a few instructions and many finger holding tries (the camera just seemed to be too big for those little fingers!), Abby became a photographer in her own right. There were a couple of things that went a little wrong, but overall, we think Abby has great potential!
When the match was over, we all drove to a McDonald’s close to the house and had lunch while Alexander and Abby played in the indoor playground; then, we drove to the house to visit. It didn’t take long until we were all outside in the backyard, visiting and playing baseball with Alexander while Abby showed that she is a big girl now and didn’t need help playing on the swing set.
Andy and I alternated pitching and catching while Alexander took lots of batting practice and Barbara took lots of pictures. And again, the pictures tell the story.
Heather arrived back home in time for us to have a short visit with her before we had to leave and head back home. There were storms ahead of us and we needed to make a couple of stops in Sulphur Springs before getting back to Mineola in time for our nightly chores, so we said our goodbyes and drove away, promising to return another time.
We stopped at Walmart in Sulphur Springs and bought three Azalea bushes to plant on our lot at Holiday Village. We love all the trees we have, but there just isn’t any color other than shades of green, so we’ve been looking for some way to add at least some splashes of color to the place.
We fully intended to go ahead and set the trees in this evening (silly us…we didn’t have a clue about what we were in for), but it was raining when we got to Big V, so we just set the plants on the pad between Big V and the motorcycle and turned around and drove on to Mineola and Mother’s house.
We were pretty much in a daze by the time we got home, but did take time to fill Mother in on the adventures of the day and to find out how her day had gone. It seems that a good day was had by all, but we were all ready to end it and get some much-needed rest and sleep.
“When times are trying, don’t quit trying.” – Mineola Northside Baptist Church Sign
From Mother’s house in Mineola, Texas,
Jim/Dad/Gramps & Barbara/Mom/Grams
