Happy Halloween, Everyone!!!
We went through our usual Sunday morning routine today as Sophie came over to stay with Mother for the day. TJ is still incapacitated by her wrist surgery, so since she is limited in how she can help Mother, they can’t go to church.
When Sophie arrived, we headed off to Yantis for Sunday school and church and then went to Our Little Lot to spend the afternoon. There wasn’t much in the way of rest though, as we started building the first of seven window frames to install on the south wall of the awning that covers Big V.
We have tried several different ways of covering the open spaces, but none of them held up to the wind and weather that we experience in East Texas, so I decided to build wooden frames out of 2 X4s and cover them with the material that we liked.
This was all well and good, except that I don’t have much in the way of woodworking tools, and have even less experience at it. That didn’t stop us though, and the afternoon found us on the concrete pad outside of Big V cutting away at lumber with a small hand saw.
After taking a l-o-n-g time to cut through the first piece of wood, I decided to take Barbara’s advice and go ask one of our close neighbors, both of whom have about three of every kind of tool ever invented, for some help.
Our closest neighbors are Gary and Linda, but when we walked over there, we found that they were already gone to Winnsboro where Linda’s paintings were going to be hung for a month at a museum there. We turned around and saw that Bubba, another neighbor who has been building a house for a year, was home, so I asked if he had a small power saw I could use. Bubba is a really nice guy and always ready to help a neighbor, so he got the saw and even cut the boards for me.
Along with that assistance, we got a grand tour of the new house as Bubba and Margaret took us through it. To say that we were impressed with the work Bubba and Margaret have been doing would be an understatement. The inside of their new home is both spacious and gorgeous!
After walking through Bubba and Margaret’s place, I gathered up the cut boards and the saw that Bubba said I could borrow until I finished the window project and we returned to Big V to see if my idea was going to work. It took some extra trimming on all the pieces, but after the fourth attempt to get the frame in place, it finally fit…in fact, it fit so tightly that if the rest of the building comes down, it will still be wedged between the first two steel posts on that side of the lot!
Tonight was the annual church fish fry, with the community invited to participate. About 200 people (Yantis has a population of 231) showed up to eat fried crappie and all the trimmings. Afterward, there were games for children of all ages in the gymnasium. Barbara and I pitched in and helped in different areas.
Since she is the expert on running the popcorn machine, Barbara was recruited by David to pop up a big batch of the stuff. Meanwhile, as I was busy taking pictures of all the people and activities, I saw that Lorri needed some help serving iced tea, so I worked behind the counter at that until everyone went through the serving line. Luckily, Barbara and I managed to get a few pieces of the delicious fried crappie before it was all gone. We had a great time and saw once again how Yantis First Baptist Church is impacting the community in positive ways.
The youth group was setting up in the gymnasium where Barbara and Darlene were making popcorn. While they worked hard most of the time, I seem to have caught them during their "break" time with the above shots.
When we eventually made our way back to Mother’s house, we found a pleasant surprise waiting for us. Amanda, Jerry and Nancy’s elder daughter, had sent us photos of her boys (well…Zeke’s, too), Daniel and Jonah in their Halloween costumes. We haven’t seen the boys in at least a year so the photos once again emphasized how quickly young ones grow!
Monday, November 1
Can you believe it…November is here already!
When we felt the need to get out of the house for a bit, there were errands to run and a trip to Walmart, just to make it an official day.
Later this afternoon we put together a “goodie bag” for our next door neighbor, Addie, who will be leaving with a group of church ladies tomorrow morning for several days at Branson, Missouri. No bus trip can be taken without a bag of goodies to munch on is our philosophy!
Tuesday, November 2
It’s Election Day, 2010…Hope everyone got out and voted today!
Welcome home from East Asia to Mike and Kelly, now back at their place in Virginia!
Happy Birthday to Jonah Duke in Knox City, Texas!!!
Happy Birthday to Cousin Danny Wright in Tallahassee, Florida!!!
While Barbara stayed at the house to watch after Mother, I made the trip up to Yantis for our weekly prayer group from 7:00 – 8:00. I had planned to go work around Big V this morning, but it was pouring rain when I came out of the church, so I went to Lowe’s at Sulphur Springs, got the lumber I needed for three more window frames, and then returned to Mineola for the day. I did stop at Big V along the way home to see if there was anything I could do around the lot, but it was just too soggy for outside work.
There wasn’t much excitement around the place today, which was just fine as far as we were concerned. Most of the day was taken up with just piddly stuff.
This afternoon we drove up to Quitman to vote and pay our annual property taxes on the lot at Holiday Villages. Since the tax office is next door to Sonic, we took a little extra time to get our favorite afternoon drinks, a Diet Coke for Barbara and cherry limeade for me.
Late this afternoon I picked up TJ’s car from the Ford place and returned it to her so she will be able to drive when the doctor clears her. Luckily for TJ, they were able to do some repair work on her air conditioner during the time that she has been out of commission.
Tonight we began going through our storage buckets to get out winter clothes and move them to the closet…looks like winter is going to come around this year, and we thought we ought to be prepared for it.
Wednesday, November 3
This morning was Bible Study time for Barbara at Yantis. I stayed at the house to watch after Mother and do some housework.
We had lunch with Mother when Barbara returned and then spent the rest of the afternoon doing uninteresting, but necessary chores…paying bills, going to the post office, etc.
Kendra, Mother’s health care nurse, came by this afternoon for her weekly visit. Mother was scheduled to go to Tyler tomorrow to have her sutures removed, but Kendra called the doctor and got permission from her to come back next week and remove them. That was a real blessing for us, because none of us wanted to make that trip to Tyler!
I went out this afternoon and got a haircut and then around 4:00 I took the Vibe to the GM place for routine service. When I got back to the house from having the car serviced, we took a little anniversary gift across the street to John and Wanda. Their 60th anniversary is really tomorrow, but we knew they would leave early in the morning for a celebration luncheon (and doctor visit) and we wouldn’t see them; so decided to spring it on them a little early.
After visiting with John and Wanda for a few minutes I drove out to Yantis to practice with Lisa for some special music we will be playing Sunday. It was dark when I returned to Mineola and Barbara and I were tired from the activities of the day, so we just relaxed for the rest of the evening.
Thursday, November 4
Happy 60th Anniversary to John and Wanda, our wonderful neighbors!!!
With our scheduled trip to Tyler cancelled, we just spent the day doing a few things around the house…nothing of any real consequence, but all things that we’d been putting off until we got around to them.
Tonight I went into full production mode with the window frames for Big V. With all the measurements carefully noted, I was sawing, gluing, stapling, and nailing away, just as if I knew what I was doing. Barbara was my head cheerleader and hung around to give a helping hand when necessary.
By the end of the evening, I had three sets of windows fully assembled and loaded into the car, ready to take to the lot tomorrow and be installed in the existing steel framework.
Friday, November 5
Today we began solidifying our plans for a trip to New Mexico for next week.
We’ve decided that every two or three months we need to get away for more than a couple of days, especially since most of our family lives so far away and we rarely get to see them. We decided that the first trip would be back to Artesia because it has been so long since we had a chance to have a real visit with the Terpenings, and because Jean hasn’t been feeling well for the last month or so. But, there was a lot of planning to be done.
We spent a large part of the day planning and preparing meals for Sophie and TJ to feed Mother next week while we are gone…just trying to keep the meal routine running smoothly.
I went out to Big V and installed the new window frames. Luckily, most of my measurements were true enough that I was able to place the frames where they belonged and get them sealed in with caulking compound. When all of the windows are finally in place, I’ll screw the sides into the steel frames of the RV cover.
Sophie came over for a while this afternoon and Barbara went over the schedule and showed her everything that we had put together. Since this will be the first time in a long time that we’ve left Mother for several days and nights, we wanted to make sure that everyone knew where everything was and what needed to be done.
Tonight it was time to clean up the mess that I made in the garage…sawdust and end pieces from the boards and trim were all over the place…plus, my tools were scattered from one end of the garage to the other. It would be very obvious to a real carpenter that I was a real novice in this particular arena!
Saturday, November 6
Today was just a continuation of yesterday’s activities. We tackled housecleaning and cooking while going over all our lists of things that had to be done before we could leave for New Mexico. And, of course, there were the lists of things that we needed to pack to take along with us. It seemed that we were alternately straightening up and messing up throughout the day as we tried to get it all together.
This afternoon we went over to John and Wanda’s house to give them their “boodle bags” for a trip to Branson. They won’t be leaving until Tuesday, but since we will be leaving early tomorrow morning, we needed to get the goodies delivered.
It seems that everyone in the neighborhood but us has either been to Branson or is going in the near future…or both. We’ve never been, but that is a place that is definitely on our wish list for a future trip.
The only other thing out of the ordinary was that I was able to work in a practice session on my trumpet. That’s more difficult than one would think because of the dogs in the house. Neither Spike nor Bonita is a lover of trumpet music, so I have to go out to the garage to do my practicing, preferably when they are occupied in Mother’s room.
Aside from the mentioned activities, it was a quiet day around the place as we spent most of our time getting ready for the upcoming trip…as short as it will be, there is still much to be done.
“Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind.” – Dr. Seuss
Finishing another quiet week in Mineola,
Jim/Dad/Gramps & Barbara/Mom/Grams
