Little More Family Times

Sunday, February 22 – Saturday, February 28, 2009

Sunday, February 22

After talking and dreaming about everything that happened Friday and Saturday, we both woke up this morning with the thought that the land deal we were looking at south of town just wasn’t for us after all. For what we would be getting (including a lot of personal labor and not much security for Big V, the Vibe, and the Voyager), it wasn’t going to be worth it. Besides, we were going to get information this afternoon about lots in the park we visited last night, and that looked like something that might be doable, even if it wasn’t the best place in the world.

While I was getting cleaned up to go to church, Barbara said she found another possibility for a lot in a different park, so we decided we’d hurry up and get ready, drive out to the park (about 15 miles from Mineola), and then return to attend church with the family.

The minute we drove into the main parking lot at Holiday Village Retirement Community, we were impressed with the spaciousness and layout of the place. We went into the office and met Josh, who proceeded to give us an overview tour of the area.

By the time we had finished the short tour, we had already decided that we wanted to know more, so we made arrangements with Josh to return this afternoon to look at specific lots and sections of the park. We told Josh what we were looking for and he promised he’d prepare a list of lots to show us when we came back.

One look at this park convinced us that the park we visited last night was definitely not for us, so while I was driving back to Mineola, Barbara called the realtor she had talked to last night and told her we wouldn’t need to meet with her this afternoon after all.

Back in Mineola, we attended the morning service at Harvest Acres Baptist Church with Mother, Ernie, Billee, and T.J. Harvest Acres is a small church and when the pastor introduced us, he commented that he loved it when Mother’s family visited her because we fill up an entire pew.

After a great sermon on the importance of church unity, we all went over to Mother’s house where Billee and Barbara fixed lunch (Billee taught Barbara how to make salmon croquettes) and Ernie and I visited with each other and tinkered with the motorcycle. T.J. joined us later and we enjoyed a great lunch and visit with everyone, for our part, telling them what we had found out last night and this morning.

While everyone else settled in for their Sunday naps, Barbara and I drove back up to the park to meet with Josh. True to his word, he had selected a variety of sites for us to look at. We knew we wanted some trees, but the first couple of sites we saw had large, well-established trees that would make it difficult to park Big V and have room to set in the outbuildings we thought we would need. He also showed us a lot that was very large and that will soon have a great view of Lake Fork, but it was way out of our price range.

Along the way, Josh drove us to Lot 121 on Geronimo Street, and we knew immediately it was what we were looking for. It had a kind of serpentine drive that led into a copse of trees that would be large enough to park Big V and the other vehicles, set in an outbuilding for storage and a washer/dryer set (we’re thinking large here), and nearly everything would be hidden from view.

We went ahead and looked at a couple of other lots, but soon asked Josh to take us back to 121 for another look. This time, he also showed us the community center that is within easy walking distance of the lot. With a restaurant, large gathering room, swimming pool, game room, fishing pond (Josh’s little girl hooked a 5-pound bass in the pond) and a miniature golf course, the community center looked like the perfect place to take grandkids whenever they came to visit.

We spent time asking Josh more questions about the place and then drove back to Mineola, talking all the way about the possibilities that the park could have for us.

We were so excited about the place that when we got back to Mineola, we convinced the others to come back out and look at it with us. T.J. came over and picked up the others in her car and we all drove back to the park and once again asked Josh to show us around the lot. Luckily, he was on duty until 5:00, so we had some time to spend with him before we drove back to town in time for Ernie and Billee to attend the evening church service.

Monday, February 23

Today was a whole new adventure for us. Faithful readers will remember that we have been carrying on an email correspondence with Betty Boone, a woman who became Barbara’s Mary Kay lady just before we returned to Artesia in November. Although we have never met Betty in person, we felt that we knew each other pretty well because of all the correspondence we have shared. Today, we had a chance to finally meet Betty. When Barbara told her that we would be in Mineola this week, she invited us to come to Longview to meet and have lunch. So, after visiting Mother for a few minutes and stopping by the post office, we headed east on U.S. 80 through Hawkins, Big Sandy, Gladewater, and White Oak, arriving in Longview just in time to find the Red Lobster. Betty was waiting just inside the restaurant and, even though we had never even seen a picture of her, we instantly knew who she was. She was exactly the kind of person we expected her to be, and by the time we were seated, it was almost as if we had seen each other only last week and were picking up a previous conversation.

We all shared the condensed versions of our lives, finding along the way that we had many similarities in our lives and shared quite a few common interests. In fact, we talked so much that it took much longer than we normally would to eat our meal. Luckily, there wasn’t much of a crowd today, so we never felt rushed.

After a couple of hours of eating and talking, we finished our visit, promising to return as soon as possible so we could come see Betty’s house and have lunch there. Today was just one more example of an answer to the Prayer of Jabez that we have invoked so many times since our retirement nearly three years ago. God has truly allowed us to expand our horizons and to meet His people along our journey.

After leaving Betty, we just goofed off for the rest of the day and checked in to a motel to spend a quiet night contemplating what we wanted to do about buying land.

Tuesday, February 24

We took our time getting around this morning and after having a leisurely light breakfast at the motel, started on our way back to Wood County. Along the way, we called Josh at Holiday Village to see if we could meet him again today before making a final decision about the property we were looking at.

Even though it was his day off, Josh had to meet another prospective buyer around 10:30 this morning, so he said it wouldn’t be any problem to spend some time with us. So, we drove and drove, stopping in Mineola just long enough to give the Vibe a drink of go-juice before going on up to Holiday Village.

One adventure we did have as we journeyed back to Mineola was in Big Sandy where we stopped for something for TJ…we got there just as the police had arrived…seems as though they had had a break-in robbery overnight…must say it certainly damped the attitudes of the clerks!

Josh spent all the time with us that we needed, and we eventually returned to the office where we sat down to draw up a contract and finalize a deal. By noon, we were the proud owners of Lot 121, Section E of Holiday Village in Wood County…something we never saw coming; in fact, something that we had quietly denied would happen for quite a few years. Still, we felt good, even if a little apprehensive, about our decision. We now have a plot of land to call our own…something we can develop to suit ourselves and our travel and lifestyle, and a wonderful place to keep the grandkids whenever they come to visit.
Since Holiday Village sits on the edge of Lake Fork, one of the greatest bass fishing lakes in the United States (eat your heart out, Wes Fox), we guess we’ll eventually have to get into the fishing mode. But for now, we’ll be satisfied with cleaning up the lot and making arrangements for the necessary improvements to make it our East Texas base as we continue to have a New Mexico base.

When we were finished with business, we returned to Mineola to let everyone know that the deal was done. Then, we settled in to making arrangements for a huge family dinner tonight at T.J.’s house. In addition to Ernie, Billee, Mother, and us, T.J. had invited Ladd and Angela over for a meal of brisket and all the trimmings.
Around 4:00 Ernie and Billee went back out to “our land” to help us measure a possible section for a concrete or asphalt pad for Big V. Our hope is to pour a 50’ X 20’ pad that will eventually have a cover and a storage room on it, but that will depend on how we can lay out the plot.

When we returned to Mineola, everyone went their separate ways until we finally all met up at T.J.’s house for another great meal and an evening of catching up with each other’s activities.
Wednesday, February 25

Happy Birthday to Cousin Donnie Sandley in Irondale, Alabama!!!

It was another travel day for us. We packed the car and, after a short visit with Mother, Ernie, and Billee, struck out for the drive to Cleburne, where we planned to visit with Barbara’s sister, Nancy, and her family.

We arrived at the Days Inn in Cleburne around 2:00, got checked in, and settled in to rest for a bit before beginning the evening’s activities. Nancy called and asked if Barbara wanted to ride with her to pick Keylin up at her school in Joshua. Barbara agreed, so while they went up there, I took a short nap until they returned and we all went over to Tom and Nancy’s house to visit.

Tom wasn’t feeling well today, so he was already home when we got there. We all visited for a while and eventually their daughter, Brandi, and her husband, Paul arrived, starting several more rounds of talking and catching up with each other.
After a great meal we all (except Tom) loaded up in our respective cars and made the short drive to Bethel Temple Assembly of God for the Wednesday evening prayer meeting and Bible study. We’ve visited in that church several times and have always enjoyed the services, and tonight was no exception. The preaching, prayers, and Bible study were so tightly interwoven that we couldn’t really distinguish which was which. What a fantastic way to spend an evening!

When the service was over, we said our goodbyes and returned to the Days Inn, only to find a fire truck, EMT vehicle, and police car parked in the front lot with all their lights flashing. Obviously, something important was going on, but no one was talking about it. We walked on in and went up to our room, but left the window open so we could see what was happening. Before long, six more police department vehicles arrived and the place was crawling with officers, detectives, and evidence technicians. We don’t know how long they stayed there, but it was still busy when we fell asleep around midnight. It wasn’t until we checked out the next morning that we found that two men had robbed the place and roughed up the manager and his wife just before we got back from church. It was strange, because this was the second time this week that we have been somewhere where police were present and investigation a robbery or burglary…sure hope someone isn’t taking note of the fact that our car is present at all these places!

Thursday, February 26

Happy 40th Birthday to son John Colwell in San Antonio!!! (I don’t know who was more anguished over this event…John, for turning 40, or Barbara, for having a son who turned 40).

It was another travel day for us, but since it was a relatively short journey from Cleburne to Richardson, we weren’t in any big hurry to get on the road.

We decided we’d just take U.S. 67 out of Cleburne and drive through downtown Dallas to try to locate the Dallas Convention Center, site of this weekend’s cheer competition that Randi and Jaycie will be competing in. I can’t say that it was the most pleasant adventure we’ve ever had, but we did make it through all the downtown traffic safely, mainly by following my “big city traffic rule,” which is to “stay ahead of the vehicle behind you and behind the vehicle in front of you.”

We got to Richardson a little after noon, grabbed a couple of sandwiches at McDonalds, and then found one of the local Lowe’s stores to scout out ideas for setting up our new lot. After that, we went on to Heather and Andy’s house, let ourselves in, and began unpacking the car for our visit. The kids got home from school around 6:30 this evening and w e had lunch, visited, and played with Alexander and Abby until time for them (and us) to head for bed after another busy day.

Friday, February 27

Today was “pajama day” around the Dondis household. It was pajama day at Alexander and Abby’s daycare and Alexander had some concerns about missing it, but when we convinced him that they could celebrate it at home with us, he decided that was a good idea. So, even though he came in and waked us up a little before 6:00 this morning, we all stayed in our pajamas and watched television and played while Andy and Heather went off to their respective schools.

I, of course, had to take time to figure out how to turn on the television and DVD player so we could watch the kids’ favorite shows. After 30 or so minutes of flipping switches and pushing buttons, I gave up and placed a call to Andy to ask for instructions. He didn’t answer, so I left a message telling him what I needed to know. Wouldn’t you know it, as soon as I hung up and started pushing some more buttons, I hit the secret combination, and within a couple of minutes we were watching “Igor.”

Now, I haven’t been much of a fan of animated movies, but we are learning that some of them come across a lot better than the highly touted “blockbuster” movies. It didn’t take long until we were totally engrossed in the storyline and humor of “Igor.” In fact, we didn’t even mind when it was Abby’s turn to pick the second movie and we ended up watching “Madagascar II,” another gem of animation.
Around 1:00, we convinced the kids (and it didn’t take a whole lot of convincing) to change into “regular” clothes so we could go to McDonalds to eat and spend time in the indoor playground. Both kids ate their entire meals before hooking up with other children in the area to hit the slides, tunnels, steps, and other assorted entertainment features of the playground.

After all that excitement, we went back to the house for nap time and then had more play time until Andy and Heather got home from work.

After a wonderful dinner, we had an early celebration of Abby’s birthday, complete with presents and cake. Abby won’t be 3 years old until March 7, but since we weren’t going to be able to be with her at that time, we thought we’d at least be a part of the warm-up act for the great day. Since tomorrow was going to be another big day, we called it a day relatively early and let Heather and Andy have a rare night out together while we stayed home with the kids.

Saturday, February 28

Today was one of great excitement for all of us. Around 9:00, we loaded the kids in the Vibe (in their car seats, of course) and drove to downtown Dallas to the convention center and arena to watch Jaycie and Randi perform with their cheer teams. Andy loaned us his GPS unit, another piece of technology that we’d never used, to help us negotiate our way through the maze of one-way streets and boulevards that we encountered after getting off of U.S. 75.

We were supposed to meet Jimmy, Cathey, and Jaycie at 10:00, but their plans changed, so we took advantage of the block of time we had until John and Randi arrived to walk around the inside and outside of the convention center complex.
Unfortunately, it was a cool and very breezy day, so it wasn’t as much fun being outside as it might be on a warmer day. Alexander and Abby didn’t let the cool breezes slow them down very much and enjoyed running through the old cemetery that is on the grounds and climbing on the Confederate monument.

When John and Randi arrived, we went inside with them and found a parking place for the rest of the day’s events. Both kids immediately took to John and he ended up being the surrogate babysitter for most of the day, allowing Barbara and me to get out, take some breaks, and figure out how we were going to find our car when the day was over.

While we were out trying to figure out a closer route to the car, Abby needed to go to the bathroom so John texted Cathey and asked her to come help Abby. We arrived back inside the center just as Cathey was escorting Abby so Barbara said she’d take her. Abby immediately let Grams know that Cathey was the one who was supposed to have this honor!
After watching Randi’s and Jaycie’s teams compete, we walked a few blocks down the street to a McDonalds (a very crowded McDonalds) and had some lunch. Along the way, we spied a set of sculptures of a herd of longhorn cattle crossing a river. Even though it was cold and windy, we were able to take time out for a photo opportunity with Alexander and Abby sitting on one of the steers while Randi and I stood guard.
After lunch we made our way back to the convention center to find our places and sit out the rest of the afternoon until Randi had her second performance (one of Jaycie’s teams had to cancel for this competition, so she had only one performance today). We asked Alexander and Abby if they wanted us to take them to meet their parents, but they said they wanted to stay and watch Randi. We don’t know how they did it, but both kids stayed alert and active all afternoon, fully enjoying their time with John and us.

By 7:30, Randi’s team was finished with their performance and she met all of us outside the arena. We had just enough time to give her some hugs, take a few more pictures, and then wander through the huge convention center complex to find the car. I went to the parking lot, got the Vibe, and then drove over to the pick-up area to get Barbara and the kids. Not surprisingly, Abby was fast asleep in her car seat before we had driven even a block.

Back at the house, we got the kids inside and Heather and Andy got them to bed. We visited for a short time, but Barbara and I were both beat, so we went on upstairs to read a bit before dropping off in a sound sleep…what a great day we had!

Exercise daily...walk with God. (a patch on a biker's vest)

From Heather and Andy’s house in Richardson…Jim & Barbara

Another Little Family Trip

Sunday, February 15 – Saturday, February 21, 2009

Sunday, February 15

It was wonderful to be back at the Sunday services at Liberal First Baptist Church this morning. Leah and Ryan joined us as we attended our separate Sunday school classes and then we sat together for the church service. Pastor David Bagwell was in his usual great form as he delivered a stirring message about the importance of church membership as opposed to just church attendance.

Since we mention this church and our Sunday school class whenever we write about our visits to Liberal, we decided to take a camera with us this morning to take pictures of some of the folks who have been so very important to us for so many years. Even though we have moved our membership to the church in Artesia, some of the church members in Liberal still informally consider us as active members who are doing mission work to the rest of the country as we travel around.

We had planned that Leah and Ryan would join us, along with Danny and Charlene Plett for lunch at El Amigo Chavez after church, but Ryan got called out on a job, so Leah took him home and then came to the restaurant, where we enjoyed a great Mexican meal and got caught up on the latest news about Danny, Charlene, their jobs, and their boys. It seems that whenever we are with Danny and Charlene, we just pick up where we left off in our previous conversation.
When we had finished eating, we said our goodbyes and then drove across town to visit some other friends, Mr. & Mrs. George and their son, Livesy. They are a family from India that I helped hire several years ago, and we always enjoy catching up on the latest news of their family and work. Mrs. George has promised to spend a day with us to teach us to cook some authentic Indian dishes one of these trips…now all we have to do is figure out when.

Since we have read and seen so much about some of the political situations with India and her neighbors, we were very interested in finding out where the Georges’ home was. Mr. George and Livesy got online and found maps of India and the region which they are from, and gave us a quick geography lesson. Did you know that the city of Bombay is no longer known by that name? It is now known as Mombai.

In addition to maps of India, Livesy also googled the area of Botswana in which they lived before they came to Liberal…he was even able to zoom in close house…pretty amazing stuff!

After leaving the George’s house, we made a quick trip to Wal-Mart and then returned to the house where we whiled away the afternoon and evening by napping, packing, working on the journal, visiting with Leah, watching TV, playing Scrabble, and watching a movie. Whew…it wore us out!

Monday, February 16

Happy Presidents Day!!!

The first part of the day was just travel, travel, and travel. We were up at 5:00 and out of the house and driving out of Liberal by 5:50. We got to say goodbye to Leah (didn’t feel too bad about waking her up since she didn’t have to go to work today).

The trip to Lenexa was uneventful, which is always good. Since we got there too early to check in at the motel, we just goofed off until we could get moved in for a couple of days.

We went over to Jim and Whitney’s house around 5:00 and visited with them until time to go eat. Whitney suggested that we go to Red Robin for dinner tonight. We went to one in Garland, time, but had forgotten what the experience was like.

The restaurant we went to tonight was fantastic. In addition to the great atmosphere and wonderful burgers, we were also entertained for a short time by a lady who, it seems, can make any creature out of balloons. When Jim (Whitney’s Jim) asked if she could make a dinosaur for Little Jimmy, she just smiled and told him it as no trouble; and, in just a couple of minutes, she had balloons blown up and twisted into a remarkable little dinosaur. We’re pretty sure Little Jimmy liked it, but he didn’t get to play with it very much because the rest of us were having so much fun with it.
The kids both had to work tomorrow, so we broke up the party around 8:00 to let them go back home and do the nightly routine of getting themselves and Little Jimmy ready for bed.

Tuesday, February 17

Happy 61st Birthday to Ernie Little in Mineola, Texas!!!

We just took our time getting around this morning. I woke up the first of four times at 6:00 a.m. and finally crawled out of bed around 8:30. By 10:30 we were out and about, checking out places of interest in the Kansas City area.

We came back to the motel around 3:00 and rested until Whitney and Jim got home from work and let us know that Little Jimmy was up from his nap. Little Jimmy must have been off his schedule, since he normally goes to sleep a little before noon. They said he didn’t drop off until nearly 3:00 today…must have been a really busy day for him. When we got to the house, we found that Whitney’s dinner was almost ready. She had whipped up a crock pot meal of Hungarian Goulash, along with some French bread, peas, pasta, and corn fritters…none of us walked away from the table hungry!

We spent the rest of the evening playing with Little Jimmy, watching movies, talking, laughing, and taking lots of pictures. Little Jimmy is growing so fast that we want to fully document every visit we have with him.

Everyone was winding down by 8:30, so we said our goodbyes and went back to the motel to get ready for tomorrow’s travel and get a good night’s sleep.

Wednesday, February 18

We guess that Little Jimmy must have worn us out last night, because our plan to get up early and beat the traffic rush out of the Kansas City area didn’t materialize. Instead, we slept in late and it was a little after 10:00 before we got checked out of the Days Inn, gassed up the car, and eased onto I-35 to make our way south.

The next seven or so hours were spent in the traveling mode as we drove south to Coffeyville, Kansas, and into Oklahoma, making our way through Tulsa, down to McAlester on the Indian Nation Turnpike, and then down U.S. 69 to Durant, where we decided we’d had enough driving for one day and stopped for the night.

Thursday, February 19

It was another “sleep in” morning for us, since we weren’t going to have too long a drive head of us today. After having a nice breakfast at the hotel, we got the car loaded and got away from Durant a little after 10:00.

By shortly after noon we had arrived at T.J.’s house in Mineola, where we unloaded everything from the car and moved it into the house. The first order of business was to try to make sense of all the different bags and bundles; then, Barbara made a beeline to the washing machine and started getting several days worth of travel clothes cleaned up.

Later, we drove on over to Mother’s house to let her, Ernie, and Billee know that we were back in town. We visited with them for a few minutes and then made the obligatory trip to Wal-Mart for some essentials for a meal that we were planning for tomorrow for the family.

Ernie and Billee brought Mother over to T.J.’s house around 4:30 and we had a little hamburger and hotdog cookout for our evening meal. Since we weren’t here for the February birthdays for Mother and Ernie, we took the time tonight to have a little celebration.

Tonight we just shared in a time of rest, relaxation, and visitation with T.J. before calling it a day and heading to bed.

Friday, February 20

Let’s begin by saying that today was nothing at all like we had planned. Our intent was to do some yard work around Mother’s house and go through some of the boxes we had moved down here in July to see if there was anything we might need for the summer-type weather ahead of us in Artesia.

While I was having my morning coffee, I asked T.J. if she had a Mineola newspaper that I could look at. We have talked since we moved Mother down here that someday we might need to look at a little piece of land to park Big V on whenever we came down to visit…this would be the base for our travels. In fact, T.J. found an ad right after we left during our Christmas travels that listed two acres just outside of town with necessary utilities installed; but, by the time she read it and called about the property, it was sold. I thought I’d just give a quick glance at the most recent paper to see if anything of interest might be listed.

Well, to our surprise, we found an ad for two acres just south of Mineola. T.J. called the number and found that the property was some old family property that was listed because the parents had died, the daughter was in her seventies and had moved to Kilgore, and the son has cancer and will never be able to come back and develop the land. It was, as she said, “Kind of growed up.”
We got the directions to the place and went for a drive to find it, and sure enough, it was more than “growed up.” But, it was along a tree shaded dead end county road and had obvious potential. It would take a lot of work to clean it up and put in a septic system and water lines, but it could be done. In fact, it kind of heated up our blood for a little place to call our own, the first time we’d even had that thought since selling our property in Liberal and hitting the road.

We came back to town and I called the lady again to ask some more questions about the property, but, we needed to get busy cooking the Mexican dinner we had promised the family, so we put talk of being landowners on hold.

When Mother, Ernie, and Billee came over to eat, we told them about what we had found and asked if they wanted to take a look at it after lunch. They were excited about it too, so after eating enchiladas, tacos, and heaping helpings of my world-famous refried beans, we washed the dishes, cleaned the kitchen, and drove back out to the property.

We stayed for quite a while, checking out the boundary lines and discussing what would be the best way to start clearing “our land”…we were already thinking of it as ours, before even making an offer to the lady.

We knew that we needed some more practical information (like the cost of installing a septic system), so later in the afternoon we set out to find a local septic systems installer. It turned into quite an adventure, but we eventually hooked up with a man who followed us out to the place to see what we were looking at and give us some ideas on what we could do.

Armed with that information, we returned to T.J.’s house to discuss all the possibilities of becoming land owners again, even if we still didn’t have any immediate intentions of settling down in Wood County. Saturday, February 21

We woke up still excited about the land we had been looking at, so we took an early morning drive to a local equipment rental place to see if they had the tools and equipment we would need for clearing the brush that had flourished over the last several years. Then, we drove out to the property to see what it looked like in the cold, gray light of dawn.

After looking it over and talking about the possibilities, we returned to town and went to Mother’s house to visit with them until T.J. came over. We had arranged to drive down to Edom this morning to lunch at a restaurant that purported to have “the best hamburgers in Texas.”

It was a nice drive, about 50 or so miles southwest of Mineola, and we found Edom to be a quaint little “artists haven,” but the burgers, as good as they were, failed to live up to the grandiose claim. Still, we had some great family time (and a pretty good meal).

When we got back to town, Barbara elected to stay with T.J. at her house while I drove over to visit with Ernie and try to get the motorcycle started. I had hoped to do some riding this weekend, but found that the battery was too low to start the engine…two months of cold weather and the constant drain of some of the electronic features had worn it down.

Neither of us had a battery charger at the house, but Ernie had a set of jumper cables that we attached between the Vibe and the cycle, and after a few minutes, the Voyager was roaring just like always. We disconnected the cables and I hopped on the cycle to get out on the highway and charge up the batteries the “natural” way, but when I stopped at a stop sign before even pulling onto the highway, the engine died...just not enough juice to keep it going.

I called Ernie and he came to me with the jumper cables and we got the cycle started again. This time, though, I rode it back to the house, parked it, and asked Ernie if he wanted to make a Wal-Mart run to buy a trickle charger just for the motorcycle. It’s something I’ve read about and that a number of riders have suggested, but I always held off…until now.

As we were leaving Wal-Mart, Barbara called and said that she had been reading some real estate brochures and had found a lot in a little retirement community up on Lake Fork, about 30 minutes away. So, Ernie and I rushed back to Mother’s house, installed the trickle charger on the cycle, and I drove back over to T.J.’s to pick up Barbara and head up to the lake.

We arrived at the site a little before sundown, a really good time to see the place, and we found that it, too, had some great possibilities, even though it wasn’t exactly what we wanted. We drove all over the little village, checking out the community center, the swimming pool, the boat docks, and the fishing piers. We knew we needed some more information before making any kind of decision, so Barbara called the listing realtor and made arrangements for us to see her tomorrow after church.

We left the lake, drove back to Mineola (after a quick stop at the Sonic in Quitman) and tried to get some sleep after mulling over all the things we had seen and discussed the past two v-e-r-y busy days.

“Seven days without prayer makes one weak.” – Church sign in Gladewater, Texas

With Family in Mineola (after Liberal and Lenexa),

Jim & Barbara

A Little More Time With Family and Friends

Sunday, February 8 – Saturday, February 14, 2009

Sunday, February 8

We got up early this morning and Barbara started a crock pot meal of roast and all the trimmings for lunch. Then, we began preparations for going to the morning service at First Baptist Church, where Pastor Rick Sullivan delivered a great teaching sermon from the book of Exodus, going into great detail on the preparations for and meaning of Passover. We’ve mentioned it before, but Rick is a really great teaching pastor who can share new meanings to the most familiar scriptures.

When we returned home, we grabbed the crock pot and went over to Jean’s house to share our meal with her, talk, and watch a little television. When we were finished, we split up the leftovers and then returned to Big V for a nap.

Although the day had started with the promise of rain, the promise fell through as the clouds blew away while we were in church, and the afternoon was warm and sunny. We decided after our nap to make a Wal-Mart run for a few groceries to tide us over and, if possible, get haircuts. It turned out that a lot of folks seemed to have the same idea, but since we didn’t having anything pressing on our agenda, we just waited it out until Kellie could get to us and make us a little more presentable.

While we were waiting for Kellie to get to us, I stepped outside to see what the weather was doing, and what I found was that the sky was getting darker and the winds were getting stronger. Seeing the weather change, I realized that I hadn’t closed one of the roof vents on Big V, so we made a quick run back to the place to take care of that little chore.

By the time we were headed back to town, we had a full-fledged dust storm going on around us, with visibility less than a block. It turned out to be the beginning of a two and a half day unrelenting wind and dust storm that hammered the area. In fact, it was so fierce that when we finally got back home, we had to close all the slideouts on Big V to seal out the dust and cut down on the shaking and rattling.

During the evening we made a quick trip over to Jean’s house to check on her, but for the most part we just hunkered down in Big V to ride out the storm.

Monday, February 9

Today was another rough weather day…constant 35-45 mph winds with gusts in the 50’s and periods of blowing dust. I did make one run into town to get the mail and go by the church office to buy one of the new hymnals. I’ve started practicing my trumpet again, and I was getting tired of playing just technical exercises. When they announced at church that some of the new hymnals were going to be sold for $10.00, we decided that it would be a good thing to buy one.

The afternoon was spent in just hanging around Big V; it was too windy and dusty to get outside, but we were able to take care of some pending business issues. It seems that whether in working life or retirement, the business aspects of life continue.

Tonight we put together a meal of leftovers (trying to get the refrigerator cleaned out before we leave town later this week) and went over to see Jean for a bit. After the meal, I stayed to help her cheer on the Duke women’s basketball team as they tried vainly to defeat North Carolina.

Tuesday, February 10

Today was more of the same as far as the weather was concerned, so we stayed inside most of the time. Barbara spent much of her day getting caught up on our on-line banking and business, while I started baking loaves of jalapeno bread to distribute on the trip that we were planning for later in the week.

Tonight we joined Jerry, Nancy, Becky, and Jean at Jerry and Nancy’s house for enchiladas and lots of conversation…a welcome break from being cooped up for the last 2 ½ days.

Wednesday, February 11

Happy 86th birthday to Edith Little Borsberry (Granny) in Mineola, Texas!

Finally…a decent day! The morning dawned bright, cloudless, and windless, offering us a beautiful day for getting some work done before we leave town on another trip tomorrow.

Barbara loaded up all the dirty laundry and went to town to do the wash while I stayed behind and started a deep-cleaning job on Big V. With all the wind and dust of the past few days, there was more than enough work to do to get the place clean and shiny again.

We went to town at 12:30 to join Jean, Jerry, and Susie for the weekly lunch bunch at Chaos and then returned to Big V to start packing clothes (and stuff) for a two and a half week trip in the Vibe to see kids and grandkids.

When we first found out that Randi and Jaycie would be competing at a cheer event in Dallas on February 28 and March 1, we saw it as a great opportunity to once again make the Great Circle Tour, much the same as we did for Christmas, to see all of the kids and grandkids (except Mike and Kelly) in one trip. We learned from taking too much stuff on the last adventure, so we took our time deciding what we really needed to pack for this one.

While Barbara spent most of the evening watching a couple of TV shows and doing some last minute chores, I went over to Jean’s house to watch the Duke/North Carolina basketball game.

On a sad note, we received a phone call from our friends Bob and Teresa Stevens that another good band director friend, Dick Felts, passed away in his sleep last night. I’ve known Dick for many, many years and always thought very highly of him and his work. This is the second death of a band director friend (and, coincidentally, a trombone player) in less than four months. Bob Black of Mount Holly, North Carolina, a wonderful friend and mentor, passed away in October. Both men will be sorely missed, but their work as master teachers will resound through the ages.

Thursday, February 12

We were up early and ginning around to make the final preparations for the trip. With the car loaded and Big V all shut up for a couple of weeks, we finally pulled away from Jean’s place at 7:15 a.m. and headed north.

Our first stop on this odyssey was Santa Fe, where we visited with Max and Marion Johnson. We had seen them several weeks ago while Marion was in the hospital with complications from rheumatoid arthritis and pulmonary fibrosis. In the intervening time, she was moved to the rehab unit of the hospital, where we got to visit her this afternoon. We were more than pleasantly surprised to see how much progress she has made in the last three weeks; and, while she still has a tough journey ahead of her, her spirits are high and she and Max are looking forward to getting her back home.

Friday, February 13

This was mostly just another travel day for us. We got a later start than anticipated from Santa Fe (including an unintended tour of parts of the city that are definitely NOT on the chamber of commerce tour list) and didn’t arrive in Liberal until around 4:15 p.m.

After dinner with Leah and Ryan, I went up to the high school for the homecoming basketball games between Liberal and Hays, where I got to visit with quite a few of my former co-workers. Meanwhile, Leah went with Ryan to watch him play in a city league basketball game, and Barbara stayed at the house to wash clothes and get rested up.

Saturday, February 14

Happy Valentine’s Day to All!!!

This may have been one of the most relaxing days we’ve spent in a long time. Even though we were up earlier than we thought we would be, we ended up spending a leisurely morning (very leisurely for me, since I went back to sleep for an hour or so).

While Barbara and Leah went out to do some shopping, Ryan and I stayed behind to visit and play games. It was even nice enough (although a little cool) to get outside and play a couple of games of washers. Ryan beat the dog out of me on the first game, but I was holding my own when the girls returned from their trip and we gave up the game in favor of having lunch and watching a movie.

Tonight we played a couple of more games…Farkle (a dice game) and TriBond (a board game), before settling down to watch a very compelling 48 Hours episode on TV.

“To love and be loved is to feel the sun from both sides.” – David Viscott, author of How to Live with Another Person

With Leah and Ryan in Liberal, Kansas,

Jim & Barbara

We received grandchildren pictures from Barbara’s sister, Carol, this week.

At the far left is Teresa’s family...Cousin Sammy, Tyler, Teresa, Tonya, and Tamra.


Upper right: Lynette’s kids – Marcus and Madison (front) and Dominick and Daniel (rear).

Lower right: Madison with her First Place Blue Ribbon from the science fair. She will advance to the state competition in Albuquerque.

No trip is complete without family pictures. The following are shots from our Saturday night activities at Leah and Ryan’s house.

Barbara: It's amazing to me that this daughter of mine, who once couldn't boil water, now has become a seasoned cook...Tonight's meal was chicken parmesan, green beans, and garlic toast. Displaying her creation on the plate was important to her, but Jim kept trying to sneak little samples which meant Leah had to work with one hand fending him off and one hand serving...made an interesting photo.

Little Times in Artesia

Sunday, February 1 – Saturday, February 7, 2009

Sunday, February 1

Same Sunday routines occurred until about 3ish when we wandered over to Jerry and Nancy’s for the big Super Bowl party they were hosting. About 40 or so folks showed up at the party, most of them members of First United Methodist Church where Jerry, Nancy, and Becky are members. Jerry had fried 2 ½ turkeys on Saturday and then the guests brought lots of goodies…just like a typical church covered-dish supper. Jim had roasted spicy peanuts while I chose to fix the recipe for Chocolate Éclair Cake that daughter-in-law Kelly shared with me several years ago. Also, I had made wrappers for the Hershey mini’s for the occasion…some had the Cardinals logo and some the Steelers.

Two rather interesting observations…

First…almost everyone was rooting for the Cardinals; so the Steelers candies didn’t even get eaten! And, the dessert was a great success…how do I know? One of the best cooks at First Methodist church asked for the recipe! Now, that’s success!

Next…each year at this party, the guests participate in the best deviled eggs contest. This year there were seven contestants. All I can say is that I quit judging after 3 halves of egg! Jim wasn’t much of a judge since he only ate one. However, we both did vote for the winning egg maker, Becky! Congrats, Becky! This year she even got a trophy. (Just for the record, she has won each year that we have attended! Her eggs are great!)

Such an accomplishment required photo shots, not only of Becky, but of her proud parents, too!

Monday, February 2

Don’t know why but we were liked caged animals today and decided that we were heading to the hills a day earlier than we planned.

First, though, we stopped by Carol and Cal’s so that Carol and I could do some birthday shopping for Jim’s mom…it will be that special day soon! While the girls shopped, the guys visited. We have this routine down really well!

We had an uneventful trip to Ruidoso and got there just in time to stop by KFC for a chicken bowl before heading to the motel. For some reason, the internet wasn’t working properly. However, since we had packed our broadband card, it wasn’t an issue. We even had cable TV…wow! What luxuries.

Tuesday, February 3

As crazy as this may sound, one of the things I packed for this trip was our laundry. I mean…imagine the luxury of staying in a motel and being able to walk downstairs to the machines! I was in hog heaven.

Have I mentioned before that the one thing I miss about our retirement lifestyle is my washer and dryer? Having to load the clothes in the car, drive to a Laundromat, and then wait there for them to finish gets to be quite a bore.

I admit, it’s just a minor inconvenience; but, I’ve discovered that when we’re on the road anyway, it’s just as easy for me to wash there where I can goof off in the room while the laundry is going. It’s a nice break in the routine. I told you this would all sound crazy!

Anyway, that’s how I started off this day…washing and drying clothes.

Basically, we just wasted the day until it was time to head for J Bar J Country Church. This time I had fixed (at home) Brown Apple Betty for dessert; so we didn’t have to go anywhere to get food to take for tonight’s covered dish supper.

Jim: As you’ve probably noticed from the journals this year, we have made several trips to Ruidoso for the Tuesday night service at J Bar J Country Church. In addition to fully enjoying the three hours of singing, eating, preaching, and praying, we are beginning to get acquainted with some of the “regulars” at the church. In fact, Pastor Charles told us Wednesday night that we didn’t need t sign the visitors book again because we’re “just one of them.”

Tonight we talked with a couple across the table from us. They have lived in Ruidoso for several years, having moved from Cloud Country, between Cloudcroft and Mayhill several years ago. In the course of the conversation, we found that they also ride a motorcycle and that she, like Barbara, would really like to have a trike. Barbara and Barradine spent a large part of the evening sharing and comparing the woes of riding behind their husbands, helmets that don’t fit right, and riding in the wind. Meanwhile, Harold and I discussed the joys of riding on two wheels, leaning into the curves on the highway, and accepting (if not embracing) the wind as part and parcel of the motorcycle experience. I guess it just takes all kinds…

Wednesday, February 4

Happy Birthday to son-in-law Andy Dondis in Richardson, Texas!!!

It was a real treat to sleep in this morning. We’ve found that there seem to be very few people who stay in the motels in Ruidoso on Tuesday evenings during the winter season. As a result, the place is very quiet. In fact, we rarely ever hear any sound from either the hallway or the parking lot, which make it easier to sleep in until after 8:00, something very rare for us.

While I did my morning ablutions so I could get to the breakfast room before it closed at 9:00, Barbara started another load of clothes. Then, I went on downstairs to eat while she started getting ready for the day.

Being the kind, loving, and considerate person I am, I fixed an extra breakfast plate and took it back upstairs so Barbara could eat while I finished getting the clothes out of the dryer and folding them.

After packing our clothes, loading the car, and checking out, we went up to the Travel Center for a bit and then headed back out of the mountains toward Artesia, where, when we arrived at Jean’s pace, we unloaded the car, and got everything put away in Big V.

Later, Barbara whipped up a supper that we shared with Jean. While Barbara stayed in Big V to watch a couple of her TV programs, I went to Jean’s house to help her watch the Duke and Clemson basketball game. Jean and I are both Duke fans, so the uncharacteristic blowout by Clemson was a painful thing for us to watch. And, when it was officially over, I returned to Big V where we watched the news and then headed for bed.

Thursday, February 5

Today was spent organizing all of our paperwork for income taxes. While we had done some preliminary work earlier, we decided to get down to the nitty-gritty of it and see if we could set a new personal record by getting our files sent off early.

Later in the afternoon, I took out one of the two batteries that provide DC current for Big V when we aren’t plugged in to a 50 amp outlet. We discovered that Big V Wouldn’t start because of a dead battery…it seems that one of the marine batteries was completely dead, and when we tried to charge the primary battery, all the current was going into the bad battery instead of being stored as it should be.

That situation necessitated a trip to Wal-Mart to exchange the bad battery for a new one. Fortunately, the battery was still under warranty, but it took over an hour to complete the 15-minute exchange. It is a long story, but I’m sure you all have stories of your own about Wal-Mart experiences, so we’ll just conclude the story by saying it was a “Wal-Mart Experience.” All’s well that ends well though, and I soon had everything put back together and running the way it should.

Tonight was another basketball night for Jean and me…this time watching our Celtics take it on the chin from the Lakers. Some weeks there just isn’t any justice!

Friday, February 6

Barbara and I both woke up early this morning, which was good for me because I was supposed to be at the First United Methodist Church men’s prayer breakfast at 6:45. I was actually on time for once…I swear that they must have their church clock set about five minutes early!

When I returned to Big V, we both piddled around the place for a while and then I decided I’d go to town to find a trickle charger to attach to our battery series. Barbara had done some reading about causes for battery depletion and found that the primary battery is responsible for providing enough charge to keep the slide-outs and levelers at the proper tension. With all that energy being focused on those areas, and with the cold nights we’ve been having, our primary battery just can’t maintain enough charge to start the engine after a couple of weeks; seems like we’re learning something new all the time.

After I installed the trickle charger and got the compartment closed up, I turned my attention to hooking up the new digital TV converter. I had played with it before, but couldn’t figure out how to get everything set so we could watch the current analog channels and still have the box hooked up.

While I was doing that, Nancy and Benjy stopped by to see if Barbara could come out to play. Since what I was doing was basically a one-person job, Barbara went out for a walk with them. Soon after she got back, I had everything hooked up and put back together. We still don’t have the greatest TV reception with our antenna, but we hope that will change whenever the local channels go digital.

Tonight we visited Jean for a few minutes and then returned to Big V to watch a couple of episodes of Monk (our new favorite show…Susie loaned us several seasons of the show when she found out we had never heard of it).

Saturday, February 7,

Today was just another Saturday, with nothing serious accomplished except for getting all our tax records sent off to Liberal; that, and a couple of trips to Wal-Mart, just to make it an official day.

Jerry called during the afternoon to see if we wanted to attend an Artesia Arts Council concert with Nancy and him tonight. He had four tickets, but Becky and Jean opted out, so he wanted to know if we would be interested in seeing and hearing Sourdough Slim, a nationally recognized cowboy entertainer. Since our social calendar was pretty much open for the evening, we accepted the invitation and said we be ready at 7:00.

We went over to Jean’s around 6:30 to visit a bit and then Jerry and Nancy picked us up there and drove us downtown to the Ocotillo Theater. As we walked through the door, the first thing we saw was a sign letting us know that tonight’s performance had been cancelled. It seems that last night in Alamogordo, Sourdough Slim fainted, fell, and broke his wrist…a really bad thing for a guitar player.

So, Kevin, the theater manager, arranged for a local guitarist/singer to perform for about thirty minutes and then he showed an old movie, Roy Rogers and Gabby Hays in Young Buffalo Bill, one of Roy Rogers’ earliest movies.

Of course, the movie was a hit with the “mature” crowd that was there, and there was much reminiscing over attending the Ocotillo in the “old days,” when we could watch a Saturday double feature movie plus a Batman serial and a cartoon (not to mention the Movietone News) for fifteen cents. With another dime, we could get a large bag of popcorn and a Coke. Aahhhh…those were the days!

All in all, it was a great evening for entertainment and reminiscing…a wonderful and fun way to finish the week!

“Our troubles seem small when we remember the greatness of God.” …Our Daily Bread

In Artesia,

Jim & Barbara

A Little More of Nothing

Sunday, January 25 – Saturday, January 31, 2009

Sunday, January 25-Saturday, January 31

Happy Birthday on Monday, January 26, to son-in-law Jim Farnham in Lenexa, Kansas!!!

We can’t imagine that anyone would find our ordinary lives of interest this week. We did all the chores and normal activities that we always do…with Jim loving the outdoors and me loving to find computer projects to work on.

Only two endeavors this week are even worthy of mention…For Valentine treats, I designed wrappers for the mini-Hershey bars and Jim and I got them fixed and mailed off to our special grand/great-grand children. And…Jim finished up the Journal V books so we could get them to the printer’s to be bound.

However, we did receive this week some photos that we are most proud of! I downloaded them to my computer and fixed the following collages so we could share them with our family and friends.

This is Jim’s oldest daughter, Heather, her husband Andy, and their children Alexander (5) and Abby (2). Awesome, huh?
“Love is the master key that opens the gates of happiness.” …Oliver Wendell Holmes

In Artesia….

Jim & Barbara

Just A Little Late

Sunday, January 11 – Saturday, January 24, 2009

Sunday, January 11

What a beautiful morning! The sun rose bright and beautiful over the southeastern New Mexico plains and promised (and delivered) another wonderful January day. The online newspapers were full of stories about snow, ice, and other types of storms around the country, but we were blessed with bright sunshine, light breezes, and shirt-sleeve temperatures.

We attended Artesia’s First Baptist Church this morning, the first time we’ve been back there since all the moves. While we were expecting a great sermon/lesson from Pastor Rick Sullivan, we were blessed to hear instead a wonderful message by a visiting speaker, Tom Elliff, a senior staff member on the International Missions Board in Richmond.

When the service was over, we made a beeline to the vestibule to introduce ourselves and tell him that our daughter-in-law worked at the IMB. Before we could finish saying Kelly’s name, he was already responding that he knew her well. What a small world this can be!

Jean had offered last night to buy Sunday dinner if we would stop at KFC on the way home to pick it up, so we went by there first, got our order (didn’t even have to wait…one more blessing in a great day), and took it back to Jean’s house to join her for a meal as we watched the second quarter of the NFC playoff game between the Giants and Eagles.

We went back to Big V at halftime to change clothes and take care of some chores and then I returned to Jean’s to watch the rest of the game while Barbara, who wasn’t feeling well, took a nap.

We spent the rest of the afternoon and evening working on some ongoing projects…I finished writing the journal entry for the week while Barbara created collages and loaded pictures to the blog site.

We went back to Jean’s house for a short visit during the evening and then returned to Big V to eat supper and watch some television before calling it a day.

Monday-Thursday, January 12-15

Retired or not, the duties and responsibilities of real life go on. These days were taken up with the mundane chores of everyday life…paying bills, getting our tax information put together (as much as we could at this point), cleaning house, working outside when the weather was good, doing laundry, etc…nothing exciting, but all very necessary. The only thing noteworthy is that the 15th was my sister Nancy’s 58th birthday. Happy birthday, Nancy!!!

Friday, January 16

Happy Birthday to Jim’s brother, Jerry, in Roswell!!!

After finishing some chores around the house, we packed the car, and headed for Lubbock for the week-end so we could attend the 90th birthday celebration of Charlotte, Cathey’s grandmother.

Blessed with safe travel for the 3 hours, we arrived in Lubbock in time to deliver the Hershey candies with birthday wrappers that I had made for Saturday’s party. Since Jimmy and Cathey were at the airport picking up relatives and Becky was at work, Jim and I decided to visit some friends of mine.

Our first stop was to the Garrison House where my former next-door neighbor, Barbara, lives in the Alzheimer’s unit. This visit was extremely difficult as Barbara once was such a feisty lady with her Eastern accent and opinionated views. As we sat and visited, hoping against hope for a glimmer of recognition, for a word, for something…a nurse appeared to offer her some water which Barbara readily accepted. After she drank her fill, she did say, “Leave, there!” as she pointed to the table. The nurse had already told us that Barbara could still be a spitfire so we were delighted to witness even this small act and to hear her voice, even if it was just those two words.

At times as I reminisced about the past, it seemed as though she was connecting. One such time was when I talked about the time she caught Jimmy and John playing basketball out in the snow with no shirts and only shorts on. She told them to get in the house immediately, which thankfully they did. When I got home from school, they asked if they had to mind Barbara since she was a neighbor. In the past, we retold that story a zillion times and it always brought laughter. The only other time that I felt she understood what I was saying was when I talked about how much she meant to the boys and Leah and I before and after Henry’s death. Jim and I both kept telling her how much we loved her and how important she and Don had been in our lives.

I don’t understand this disease…how such a strong, beautiful lady can be locked up inside nothingness. It just doesn’t seem right. She looked so young, so pretty…but so lost. It broke our hearts.

After leaving Barbara, we went over to Martha’s house. Martha and I taught together for years at Wheelock. We went to the same church, took oil painting classes together, and I learned much about life from her and Edgar. Martha can no longer walk without the aid of a walker, but her mind is still as sharp as a whip! We enjoyed the visit with her immensely.

Finally, it was time to meet Becky at her house where we would move in for the week-end. We had been surprised to find that even with her broken ankle, she had returned to work, but after seeing her navigate that scooter, we understood. Being a work, even sitting and doing the boring parts of nursing, is better for her than being at home 24/7.

Between visiting, eating, and watching movies, the 3 of us finished off this day in high style!

Saturday, January 19

Happy 90th celebration to Charlotte, Cathey’s grandmother! (Her actual b-day is the 26th, but this is when all the family could get together.

Since the party wasn’t until 3, we had a leisurely morning and early afternoon with Becky before beginning today’s activities.

First on our list was another trip to visit Barbara. This time Barbara was in her room instead of in the commons area. Since I was having trouble talking today, Jim took over…reminding Barbara of his first meeting with Don and her, how Don took him out in the back yard and had a “private” talk with him, etc. At times, Barbara would move her hand towards her eyes as though she knew what he was saying…is that wishful thinking on my part? Don’t know…

We did find out from the nurse that we could hold her hand as long as we didn’t make any sudden move that scared her. That was a comfort to me…to hold her hand…to remind her of our love.

Then it was back to the car to switch gears…not understanding how we were now going to a party for a classy woman of 90 who can still walk unaided, spar and laugh with the best, who’s only sign of old age might be a little loss of memory once in a while. (And, who among us younger folks don’t have that same problem???)

The party was a delight! And, it was great to see and visit with everyone again. I’ll let the photos do the talking for this event!

Top row: Jaycie with cousin Emily, Charlotte and daughter Susan (Cathey's mom), Jimmy & niece, Morgan

Middle: Charlotte

Bottom: Susan and husband, Bill; Cat’s brother David and his daughter, Emily; Jaycie & cousins, Emily and Morgan

I just included other pics I took during the celebration of Jimmy, Cathey and Jaycie as well as other members of Cathey's family. And, of course, no visit with Jaycie is complete without at least one photo of her doing her scorpion exercise as the bottom photo shows. We were also thrilled when Cathey suggested that it’s been quite a while since we’ve had a good photo of the 5 of us. So…we found a willing soul who captured the five of us in a couple of really good shots. Good thinking, Cathey!!!
After making arrangements to see the kids tomorrow morning, Jim and I headed for Wal-Mart for a few items for tonight’s supper before returning to Becky’s.

Jim, intending to while away the hours as Becky and I watched a chick flick, settled back with his novel. Much to his surprise, he found that Calendar Girls wasn’t nearly so boring after all and soon the book was down and he was watching and laughing along with us.

Following Calendar Girls, we all watched The American President for the umpteenth time and it was still a cute movie. Then we called it a day and went to our rooms to read and then fall asleep.
Sunday, January 18

Jim and I went over to Jimmy and Cathey’s to check out some school projects that Jaycie had finished up during the week. We knew we were going to see her science fair project, but were even more delighted and amazed at her creativity when she presented her “Bottle Buddy” that her class had been assigned to do at home. Her bottle buddy, Shawn Johnson, (remember, the Olympic star) was decked out in a red exercise suit with arms raised as though she was about to begin her gymnastic routine. Both projects were superb and, of course, we aren’t at all prejudiced in our thinking!
Eventually, it was time to say good-bye and head back over to Becky’s to load up the car and head for Artesia.

Being rather bored at the end of our journey, we decided I should take photos and let each of our friends and family see what we see as we approach Artesia.

The photo on the bottom left shows the beauty of the open plains as one begins to enter into the city.

At the first red light after the refinery, a new statue greets each visitor. And, for a small town, we have our own “big city” building in the Yates Company. (It even has a glass bridge leading from one building to the other!) Impressive for a town of around 12,000 people!

Monday, January 19

Jim began working on the hot water heater today since we had bought a replacement part while we were in Lubbock. I was just taking it easy…not doing anything earth shattering…until Jim came in and said, “Guess what! I bought the wrong part. I have to go to Roswell…you want to go?” Well, since I found an empty spot on my calendar, I decided that yes, I did want to go.

On the way over there, I called sister Carol and said how about meeting me at the used book store. Jim’s going to drop me off there while he goes to the RV place. So…that’s what we did. Obviously, it was just a short visit, but…hey, any visit is better than none! Carol still seemed to be fighting the “bug” that had gotten hold of her, but overall, she said she was feeling better.

Tuesday, January 20

Since we traveled on Sunday and didn’t make it to church, we decided that a trip to the mountains of Ruidoso and the home of J Bar J Country Church was in order. As we did a couple of weeks ago, we stopped at KFC for a bucket of chicken to take to the covered dish supper, and this time we even got to eat some of it (along with some wonderful other foods). Of course, we also enjoyed the singing, prayer service, and sermon during the three hours we were there.

Wednesday, January 21

On the way home, we stopped by Roswell to check in with sister Carol and her husband Cal. Cal seemed to be feeling better and Carol was finally over her bout of flu or whatever she had had. Carol and I had photo lessons again on her computer while the guys talked about this and that!

When we returned home, Jim had an email from his longtime friend, Max, saying that his wife, Marion was in the hospital in Santa Fe. Marion has rheumatoid arthritis and it has caused some major problems for her. We discussed whether we needed to go, but after a phone call to Bob Stevens in Albuquerque to see if he knew any other details, we decided that maybe we just needed to wait for a bit on a travel decision.

Thursday, January 22

Happy Birthday to daughter Leah and daughter-in-law Kelly!

The decision was made this morning that we would go to Santa Fe to see Max and Marion. We knew that really there’s nothing we could really do, but we could be there for moral support! So…with very little packing (instead I grabbed the dirty clothes hamper…I could wash at the motel! Now, how lazy is that? I was tired of packing!) We hopped in the car and once again hit the road. Gotta love the freedom of retirement!

Before checking in at the motel, we went straight to St. Vincent’s and enjoyed a short visit with Max and Marion…think they were rather surprised to see us walk in! While I stayed and talked with Marion, Jim and Max went down the hall to find a cup of coffee.

Once checked in, washing clothes was top priority! After all, if we wanted clothes to wear tomorrow…it had to be done!

Another stop at the hospital was in the schedule, before we called it a night.

Friday, January 23

Happy Birthday to Paul in Grand Prairie!

We began the day with a visit to see Marion and Max. Marion really looked great this morning. Seems her personal hairdresser, Max, had brushed her hair and had it styled quite well. Just think, if he decides to quit giving hazardous incident workshops to government and state agencies, he can slide right in to his new career!

About 3:30 we decided to head back to the hospital since we were to meet Jim’s and Max’s friends, Bob and Teresa, at the hospital by 4:00. Well…let me tell you, from the traffic we met on the way, we thought we were in Dallas or Houston! What a crazy city! What should have been a 10 or 15 minute drive took us 35 minutes!

After visiting once again with Marion and Max, Bob, Teresa, Jim and I went to Red Lobster for supper, and then went back to the hospital to check on Max and Marion.

Saturday, January 24

Happy 80th Birthday to our good friend Jesse Fairfax!

We were unable this morning to see Marion, but after saying farewell to Max, we pointed the car to the south and headed home.

After a short nap, Jim and I began preparations for a night out on the town with Jerry, Nancy, Becky, and Jean. We all went to Eversprings for their Chinese buffet before attending a performance of The Perfect Gentlemen, a magnificent male quartet, at the Ocotillo Performing Arts Center. Tonight’s concert was one of the 26 touring shows that are on this season’s performing arts calendar in Artesia…pretty amazing for a community this size!

“Don’t worry about what people think; they don’t do it that often.” Brownfield, Texas Bank Sign

With family and friends in Lubbock, Santa Fe, and Artesia

Jim & Barbara

A New Little Year

Thursday, January 1 – Saturday, January 10, 2009

Thursday, January 1, 2009: New Year’s Day

Happy New Year to Family and Friends around the World!!!

“The object of a new year is not that we should have a new year. It is that we should have a new soul.” – G.K. Chesterton (1874-1936) English writer

If today was any indication of the way the new year is going to go, it is going to be beyond wonderful. The morning dawned bright and beautiful, easing its way into a clear, cloudless, windless, and warm day, just perfect for outdoor activities (if we had planned any). Instead, we just took our time getting around Big V, straightening here and there, reviewing and editing pictures from the Christmas Odyssey, and working on the journal.

Nancy had called yesterday to invite us to their house for New Year’s Day lunch with the family; our contribution was to be cornbread, Jerry’s favorite. We decided that we’d also bake a pan of focaccia to take along as a bonus, so each of us had a contribution to make to the meal.

We joined Jerry, Nancy, Becky, and Jean at noon, did a lot of visiting while the last parts of the meal finished cooking (we hadn’t seen any of them except Jean since we got back from our trip, so we had a lot of catching up to do), and around 12:30 we gathered around the table to feast on grilled pork loin, black-eyed peas (I should have lots of good luck this year), macaroni and cheese, fruit salad, and bread. Some conversation occurred during the meal, but since it isn’t polite to talk with one’s mouth full of food, there weren’t many moments when any two people could speak.

When the meal was over and the dishes were attended to, Jerry and I retired to the living room to watch the end of the Georgia/Michigan State bowl game, while the girls went back to the table to play Bunko, a game that we had found for them while we were traveling. The family really likes to play board games, and since we know daughter-in-law Cathey really enjoys Bunko, we thought it would be a good addition to their collection. We guess that great minds must think alike, because Becky also brought her Bunko game for the after-dinner entertainment.

We stayed with the family through the end of the Bunko game, the first quarter of the Rose Bowl game, and a slab of pecan pie with ice cream, and then decided it was time to go home and digest the events of the day.

Back at Big V we just vegged out, watching the Rose Bowl game until it became too painful to watch any more of it (I’m not a Penn State fan, but I really don’t like USC), turned off the TV and went back to the bedroom to read.

Later in the evening we went over to Jean’s house to visit for a few minutes and then returned to Big V to watch some more TV and work on the journal and blog until it was time to call it a day and head for bed.

Friday, January 2

After all the fun of yesterday, we decided we’d better get some things accomplished around Big V today; so, after a slow start, we tackled the chores of straightening the place up and filing some of the paperwork that has piled up since we returned to Artesia. In case anyone hasn’t noticed, the paperless society that was promised with the advent of the modern computer hasn’t quite come into being. We are just able to generate more paper at a faster rate.

Once the house was straightened up, we loaded the basket of dirty clothes into the Vibe and went to town for laundry day. While Barbara stayed at the laundromat, I drove over to the funeral home to have David notarize some forms that needed to be sent off to the Texas Retirement System. Unfortunately, David and Jerry were handling a graveside service, so I returned to the Laundromat for a while and then went back later to find David.

With the forms finally notarized and sealed, I went to the post office and then back to the laundromat so we could fold clothes and load them back into the car.

We then went to a couple of places looking for something that could be used as a nice storage rack at the front of Big V so Barbara could get her “office space” organized. We finally found something that we thought would work at Wal-Mart and, while we were there, decided we’d better buy a couple of digital converters for the TV sets in Big V. Since we use out antenna system almost exclusively, we were going to need the new boxes in order to stay in touch with TV Land, not that we watch that much; but better to be prepared. Of course, the thought was a good one, however, in true Artesia Wal-Mart fashion, they didn’t have any. So…we headed back to town to check out the K-Mart where we found they had an abundant supply.

Once back at Big V, we got the clean clothes inside and, while Barbara was putting them away, I started assembling the shelving unit we bought at K-Mart. From there, I moved on to installing one of the digital converters at the front of the motor home, a task that seemed, at first, rather simple, but later proved to be daunting.

The main problem with the installation process was that the space available was very tight and I couldn’t see what I was doing. To possible speed things up and prevent me from doing unnecessary damage to the cabinet, Barbara decided to call Jack Sizemore RV in Amarillo, the place where we bought Big V, and ask for some guidance.

To our dismay (although not great surprise), the person she talked to told her in no uncertain terms that he wasn’t going to pull one of his service technicians in just to answer a question like that, but we could bring the rig in and they would install the converters for a service charge.

I couldn’t hear what he was saying, but I heard very clearly when Barbara responded somewhat sarcastically, “Well, that sure makes me glad we purchased our motor home from you,” and hung up the phone. (Barbara: In my defense, I don’t usually respond that way, but the voice on the phone was so condescending to me telling me to call Best Buy or an electronics company, that the words just slipped out of my mouth!)

She was telling me about the call when the phone rang…it was Jack Sizemore, the owner of the place, apologizing to Barbara for responding the way he had, and assuring us that they ALWAYS provided service for their customers who purchased units from them. He said that they had received many calls about installing digital converters from folks who had not bought their rigs there, and that was why he said what he did. Barbara handed the phone over to me and the next thing I knew, I was talking to Mike, a service technician who had talked me through an electronics issue last year, and who gave me some excellent advice on how to get the converter installed. Education “experts” preach that sarcasm is a terrible tool, but we’ve found over the years that sometimes gets results when nothing else works.

Within a few minutes of ending our conversation, I had the converter hooked up and we were on our way to realizing the benefits of digital television transmission. The only problem, we soon found, was that there is only one station that we receive that is sending out digital signals at this time…the others (we can receive seven channels through our antenna) are evidently waiting until the February 17 deadline to switch over.

Since the TV won’t show analog signals while the digital converter is hooked up, I had to reverse everything I had done and disconnect the converter so we could watch our regular channels. We’re no better off than we were before, but at least I’ll know what to do when the conversion takes place.

I called Sizemore later and left a message with Ray, the service department manager, to please thank Mike for us for the time and assistance he provided. For our money, Mike is the best thing the business has going for them.

After all that excitement, there wasn’t much to do except handle some of the regular maintenance chores around Big V. Luckily, it was a beautiful afternoon, although the wind was starting to get up a little, and everything went smoothly.

While Barbara took a nap, since she has been plagued lately with headaches, I went over to Jean’s house for a bit to help her take down her Christmas tree and get it and her container of Christmas decorations moved out to the big barn, and then returned to Big V where Barbara was preparing supper.

Barbara didn’t feel like leaving Big V, so I called Jean to see if she had planned her supper menu. She said she hadn’t, so I offered to bring over a meal so she and I could eat and watch the Sugar Bowl game. It turned out to be a great evening…good food and conversation, and Utah put some serious hurt on Alabama.

When I returned to Big V at 10:00, Barbara was already asleep, so I shut the place down and went to bed to read a while before dropping off.

Saturday, January 3

This was not one of those days that will be listed as “stellar” in our memoirs, but it did have its pleasant, if not memorable, moments.

As promised by the weatherman (who almost never gets it right), the morning was cooler than we’ve been having, but it was nice enough that I went outside to do a little work around the place. The garage door on the small barn had been a little cranky and difficult to lift, so I used the air compressor to blow the dirt and grime out of the tracks, rollers, and latches and then I sprayed some lubricant on all the moving parts. After opening and closing the door several times, they worked much more smoothly…Nancy and Becky shouldn’t have any problems getting the door opened so they can get the four-wheeler in and out.

After that little chore, I did a walk-around of the east lot to pick up some trash that had blown in and to free some large tumbleweeds that I thought should be let loose somewhere else in the county; they certainly didn’t need to be confined in Jean’s lot.

By the time I had finished the walk-around and oiled the hinges on all the barn doors, the wind was getting up and the working outside plan was taking a beating, so I put away the oil can, locked the barn doors, and retreated to the comfort of Big V.

Barbara: While Jim was playing Farmer Brown, I decided to pretend I was Susie Homebody and clean out drawers and cabinets, repair some loose screws in some cabinet doors, etc. etc. It’s always amazing to me when I get in these modes at how much stuff we can pack away in our closets and cabinets! The nicest part though about living in a motor home is that there aren’t so many places one has to clean so it goes fairly quickly.

Jim: We hadn’t fixed a good old-fashioned home-cooked breakfast in Big V for a while, so I decided that while Barbara was busy getting cleaned up, I would whip up a meal of bacon, eggs, and pancakes, solid fare for whatever might come along during the day.

After eating, we washed the dishes and put them away and then made a short grocery list of things we thought we might need in the next few days. With cold weather predicted for Sunday and Monday, we were thinking that a big pot of pinto beans and some cornbread would be just the things that would ward off the chill.

It took a couple of trips to town to get everything we needed, but we finally found it all (plus a few things not on the list) and got it all back and put away. After that, we just settled in for an afternoon and evening of relaxing and doing not much of anything. We visited with Jean during the Cardinals/Falcons football game and, after going back to Big V for a bit, I returned to Jean’s to help her watch the Colts and Chargers go at each other. Since I don’t have a dog in the fight this year, it was fun to enjoy the games without becoming too emotionally involved.

Sunday, January 4

It turned out to be a much nicer day than what was predicted…the winter storm tracked off to the north, so we were left with clear skies and cool temperatures.

We went with Jean to First United Methodist Church this morning. Becky sang an offertory solo and we wanted to be there to lend our support and encouragement. The church is undergoing some physical improvements and is still a way from being completed, but the improvements are really nice. Jerry was running the new sound board, so he actually got to be a part of Becky’s presentation.

After the service we all went to the Pecos Diamond for lunch. It had been quite a while since our last visit there, but the food was still excellent, and we got to visit with a few folks that happened to pass by our table on the way to the salad bar.

The afternoon was about as quiet as a Sunday afternoon could be…naps all around and then just sitting around catching up on the journal and watching TV.

Barbara: While Jim was working on the journal, I decided to clean some of the kitchen cabinets. Sounds like an easy, noble job; but I made it very difficult when I dropped an almost full canister of Quick Oatmeal. That little feat meant that everything had to be put on hold while Jim swept with the regular broom and then I went over it all with the Swiffer. Then, since I already had the Swiffer out, I decided to go on and mop, too. One thing just seemed to lead to another!

Monday, January 5

This was pretty much a nothing day…with nothing serious on the agenda; we just took our time getting around this morning, although Barbara did take time out to take this picture of the landscape just to the south of us.

During the afternoon we went to town to take care of a couple of chores and then I spent the evening at Jean’s house watching Texas beat Ohio State in the Fiesta Bowl while Barbara stayed home to work on some candy wrappers for a friend’s 90th birthday.

Tuesday, January 6

We decided that we needed to make a trip to Roswell to visit with Carol and Cal today. Cal is having trouble with his breathing…getting only 23% of the oxygen that he should be getting. I stayed at the house and Cal and I talked and swapped stories about folks we knew when we were growing up in Artesia and where they are now. Cal is a few years older than I am, but Artesia was a small enough town back then that everyone knew almost everyone else.

Meanwhile, Barbara and Carol went out to do their visiting and a little shopping and shop-looking. Since Cal has reduced oxygen in his system, he also has considerably reduced energy. Because of that, Carol thought that it was time to find a wheelchair so he could have more mobility around the house. They did find a chair that they liked, but Carol had to wait until she could get a prescription for it.

While they were out, they also did some shopping at Sam’s Club, where they found a new computer mouse that I needed. Barbara and I had looked in Artesia, but couldn’t find one comparable to the one I had bought her last year for Christmas, so I was grateful that they were successful in finding one today.

When we had finished visiting with Carol and Cal, we made the executive decision for the two of us to drive up to Ruidoso, only 60 miles away, to go to the J Bar J Country Church Tuesday night service. They have their mid-week service on Tuesday, with lots of singing, a covered dish supper, and a preaching/teaching service. We had enjoyed it so much when we stayed up there in June, and thought that it would be just the thing we needed this week.

So, we left Roswell and made the drive up through the Hondo Valley and into Ruidoso, where we checked in at the Holiday Inn Express for the night and then rested a bit before church started.

Shortly after five o’clock we headed downtown to get a bucket of KFC chicken as our contribution to the supper. When we got to the church around 5:30, we saw another bucket of chicken sitting on the table, a sure sign that we would have some KFC that we had been craving.

We joined in with the singing from 5:30 until 6:30 and then visited with some of the others before lining up to get a plate of food. The crowd was smaller than it was in June, so we got to meet a few more of the regulars, some of whom had seen us before, and some who were new to us (and vice versa).

As we went through the food lines, we kept an eye on the buckets of fried chicken, but it turned out that a view was all that we got. A lot of others apparently had the same cravings that we’d been having, as both buckets disappeared before we got to them. The disappointment didn’t last long though, as we piled our plates high with delicious homemade dishes that others had prepared. Boy…those folks sure do know how to cook and eat!

The meal was followed by more singing (and playing by the J Bar J Country Band) and a wonderful lesson on marriage relationships by Pastor Charles.

After the 3-hours of singing, eating, and learning, we went down to the travel center for a while and then returned to the motel for a good night’s sleep.

Wednesday, January 7

We slept in and took our time getting cleaned up and ready to start our day. When the car was packed and ready to go, we went back inside to have some breakfast. We were pleasantly surprised to find a wide variety of both hot and cold breakfast dishes available, and everything we chose was delicious. We decided that the great lodging rates and the amenities made this Holiday Inn Express a very good bargain for the way we travel.

We went up to the Inn of the Mountain Gods for a while and then stopped back by the Apache Travel Center before retracing the highway back down to Roswell, where we visited some more with Carol and Cal and Barbara helped Carol with some problems she was having with the new computer that her kids had given her for Christmas.

When the computer glitches were corrected (mostly) and we had said about all there was to say, we went to a few places to shop for some new work boots for me (yet another unsuccessful effort) and then went to Jerry and Jane’s house to catch up on the latest news from that part of the family. Jerry works the night shift as a tactical security officer at New Mexico Military Institute, so it’s sometimes difficult to arrange visits, but this was a good one and we enjoyed being with them, even if it was a relatively short visit.

We got back to Artesia just as the sun was going down, emptied the Vibe and got squared away in Big V for another night.

Thursday, January 8

Dawn was so bright and beautiful this morning that I decided this would be a good day to spend outside. After spending an hour or so straightening up inside Big V and fixing breakfast, I went out to do some mowing and cleaning on the two acres west of Jean’s house. Meanwhile, Barbara worked inside to complete a project for an old college friend.

We got a note from her friend, Carolyn, a short time back saying that her mother-in-law would be celebrating her 90th birthday at the end of January. Carolyn and John were asking their friends to send a card to John’s mother with information about who and where they were and their memories of first meeting John.

In addition to the card and the letter from us that was included, Barbara designed some birthday wrappers to put around Hershey miniature chocolate bars, much the same as she did for Mike and Kelly’s rehearsal dinner. After printing the wrappers and getting put on the candy bars, she found a nice little container to put them in before boxing them up for the mail.

Meanwhile, I made a run to Wal-Mart to get gasoline for the mower, came back and charged the battery, and then fired up the mower and began going in circles for the next few hours. Those of you who know me well know that going in circles can be standard procedure for me sometimes, but at least this time it was productive, and by mid-afternoon, the place was looking great. Better than that, the sun was shining, the temperature was in the 70’s, and the wind wasn’t blowing…a truly amazing day for January.

When I came in to clean up and wash off a few pounds of dust and dirt, Barbara gathered up all the dirty clothes and went to the laundromat to get caught up with that chore. She also made a post office run, so by the end of the day, we had both completed the chores that we set out to do.
Since the weather was so nice, I decided to throw a couple of steaks on the charcoal grill and some potatoes in the oven, and soon we had a great meal of grilled steaks, baked potatoes with all the trimmings, and green beans…it’s been a while since we did that, and now we’re wondering why we don’t do it more often!

Jean was still in Hobbs with Susie and James, but she said we could go over to her house to watch the BCS national championship football game between Oklahoma and Florida (two teams on my “unfavorite” list. I had decided that while I’d “sooner” not cheer for Oklahoma, I would cheer for the Big XII, but in the end it was all for naught as Florida won (again) and Oklahoma lost (again).

While I was watching the game at Jean’s house, Barbara kept up with it on the computer in Big V as she was doing some multi-tasking…working on projects, playing games, and checking the football game webcast.

Friday, January 9

It was another beautiful day in Artesia. My original plan was to tackle some house-cleaning chores, but it was so warm and beautiful outside that I decided to do some trim work in the part of the property that I mowed yesterday. So, while Barbara stayed inside and worked, I raked and hoed under the cactus plants and mesquite trees that grow on the 2 acres west of Jean’s house. I found that some of the grasses and weeds were extremely tough, so I went over to Jerry and Nancy’s house to borrow their gas-powered weed eater. That made the job a lot easier (once I finally read the instruction manual and figured out how to start the weed eater), and soon I had all the trimming done and the weeds and grasses raked, loaded in the back of Little Red, and hauled off to one of the trash piles.

As I was finishing that work, we got a call from Jerry asking if we wanted to join the family at Piccolini’s for a late lunch…Susie and Karen were bringing Jean back from Hobbs and Karen had requested that we eat at Piccolini’s, a really nice family-style Italian restaurant.

So, we got cleaned up and presentable and drove to town to reserve enough tables and chairs to seat the seven of us. Everyone else arrived soon after Barbara and I were seated, and it wasn’t long before we were all sharing stories while enjoying authentic and delicious Italian dishes.

When we were finished with the meal, we drove over to Bullock’s Feed Store to get a bag of wild bird seed. We haven’t put anything in our bird feeder since we returned from Mineola in December, and with all the beautiful weather we’ve been having, I thought it was time to welcome some of our feathered friends back to our place.

Back at Big V I hauled the feed bag into the barn, opened it up and poured the feed into a large container that I keep there, filled the bird feeder, and set it out for whatever visitors it might attract.

We had been up since very early this morning and after the big meal, decided that it was nap time. It must have been a much-needed nap, as we both started reading, but fell deep asleep for a couple of hours.

With no football games on the schedule for tonight, we made a short trip over to Jean’s house to see how she was doing, and then returned to Big V where I cranked up the computer/printer combination and started printing copies of our fifth journal.

Saturday, January 10
Make no bones about it; this may have been one of the laziest days we’ve spent in a long time. With cooler temperatures and higher winds, I had no desire to get outside and work, so we both just piddled around inside Big V…reading email, playing games, checking online newspapers, and printing more copies of the journal.

Around 2:30 we decided to drive to Carlsbad, just to get out of the house. Carlsbad has a really nice Dollar Tree store that even I like to look around in, and I wanted to check at their Wal-Mart for the work boots that I’ve been looking for.

While we didn’t find very much of interest at Dollar Tree, we did find a couple of things we needed and, after paying out there, we drove across town to the Wal-Mart complex. Barbara decided that rather than go into Wal-Mart, she would look through the Cato’s store while I did my shopping.

Surprise, surprise, I finally found the pair of boots I wanted…right style, right size, and right price. I went ahead and bought them and then returned to Cato’s to see if Barbara had any luck there, and sure enough, just as I was going into the store to look for her, she was coming out with a sack full of bargains that she found…a good trip for both of us.

On the way back to Artesia, we noticed the full moon rising in the east as the sun was setting in the west. This was the largest full moon of the year, as it is at its closest point to earth in its orbit around our planet. Thankfully, I had brought my camera, so we were able to get some good shots as the moon was rising over the eastern New Mexico horizon. With both the moon and the sun above their respective horizons, we even got a good shot of the Vibe’s shadow crossing under the rising moon.We stopped at Jean’s for a few minutes when we returned to town. I stayed outside for a bit to take pictures of the moon rising above the pecan trees, Spanish Daggers, and windmill, while Barbara went in to see Jean.

We went back to Big V where Barbara finished preparing a tuna casserole. She decided to stay home this evening while I took some of the casserole over to share with Jean while we watched the Cardinals and Titans slug it out to see who would go on to the NFC finals next week.

We received some photos of great niece, Keylin in Cleburne, from her Upward basketball game. She even made a basket! Way to go, Keylin!
From Artesia with love,

Jim & Barbara