I’m too sick to be at school, can’t focus to write a paper, so I walked around outside a bit.

The daffodils have been blooming gloriously for over a week. The dianthus are pretty and green. A few pansies are blooming. The tulips are emerging along with two other kinds of plants in that bed but I’m not sure what they are.

I love springtime!

Shortly before the trip to Orlando:

“Well, there’s good news and there’s bad news.  Which do you want first?”

I chose the good news.  Bobby informed me that the noise the Mercury was making was neither the CV joint nor the motor about to throw a rod (both given as possible sources by young men who had driven the car).  It was a screwdriver that had fallen between the motor and the firewall.  Every time the drive shaft turned, it bumped against the screwdriver.  Whew!  A lot better than a thrown rod.  Oh … and the bad news … while the car was on the rack to get the screwdriver out, they found a leak around the oil pan.  No big deal.  They also checked the fluids and found ….. the water was low.  Oh yeah, I’d known that already.  But, we’ve had cars before where you filled the oil and water and checked the gas, so Melissa could do the same.  However, since it’s in the shop, go ahead and pressure test it.  End result: replace the head gasket, the oil pan gasket, and a thermostat something-or-nuther.  The next good news was the total bill … a good bit less than you’d pay for that much work at a number of shops in town.  We like Littlefield’s.

We should have had a clue about the month of January from that one experience.  Here’s the shorter version of Wednesday – Saturday in mid-January.

GOOD:  Chuck and I managed to get packed, the truck loaded with our things, and to work on time Wednesday morning.  The plan was to meet Susan and James in Columbia that afternoon after they’d visited a friend or two or three.  Then, James, Chuck, and I would go on toward Orlando where James was to catch a flight on Saturday morning.  Susan would return to Laurens so she could get to class on Thursday.

BAD:  James’ eye had been bothering him for a couple days.

GOOD:  Randy took time around lunch to go look at it and recommend James go to the doctor.

BAD: James didn’t go until 3:00, when he thought he’d torn something in his eye (eyelid stuck to eyeball) and the time Chuck and I were leaving Greenwood.  Change plans … go home instead of to Columbia.

GOOD: They were in and out of the Laurens ER and had dropped off the prescription and back to the house in an hour.

BAD:  They didn’t get to visit friends.  We’re late leaving, and then had to loop back up I-385 to US 221 to get his eye drops and pain meds.

GOOD:  Everybody is still in a decent or better mood.

BAD: Traffic is slow. We only drive about three hours before stopping near St. George.

GOOD:  Skynards is a wonderful Sports Bar and Grill just across the parking lot from the hotel where we stayed the night.

….  so ends Wednesday ….. and on to Thursday …..

We drive to Orlando.

BAD:  Slow traffic. We see a wheel, a nice wheel, 100 yards or so off the right side of the road.  Several hundred yards down the road is the car missing the wheel.  Then there’s the work crew removing the remains of a couple semis on the left side of the road.

GOOD:  Folks were walking around the cars involved with the missing tire.

We arrive at Cypress Point II.

GOOD:  It’s still early evening, in spite of the traffic, and the staff is pleasant.  The rooms are nice.  Susan is on her way to join us for a day; she got out of class over an hour early so she got an early start.  Chuck and I had decided to skip the “how are things going can we sell you some more vacation points” spiel.  HOWEVER … one of the gifts is tickets for two to Universal and Islands of Adventure for $45.  List price is $89 per person.  We have agreed to go with James to Universal so this sounds like a good deal.  Especially since James is old enough and has an adequate income to also qualify for the gift if he listens to the presentation.  Four peole for

BAD:  I call for directions to connect to the internet.  I need to access some websites for school.  I have an assignment due Monday and need to read online to prepare it.  We need a modem to access the internet.  There are NONE available.

GOOD:  James and I go to supper at a Japanese Steakhouse.  The food is good and the cook is entertaining.

BAD: Still no modems available.  Susan has called several times.  She is sitting on I-26.  Looks like she won’t make it by midnight.

GOOD:  She arrived safely and “the kids” were asleep by 1am.

BAD:  It was around 2 when I got to sleep … and the alarm is set for 6:00.

Friday plans:  8:00 appointment with Diamond Resorts rep to last 1 ½ hours, then use those Universal tickets.  Susan to head home because she has birthday and other plans for Saturday.

What happened:  GOOD:  all four of us were up and about on time.

BAD:  Our hot water is at best lukewarm.  Instead of a shower, I wash up a bit.

GOOD:  Meeting starts about on time.

BAD: It lasts till nearly 10. We stop by the rooms and James checks on modem availability … none.

GOOD: We collect our tickets to Universal and head out.  Just inside Universal, we stop at Margaretville for lunch.  A little early for Chuck but he agrees.  I order Volcano Nachos, an appetizer.  We order three entrees; Chuck and I are going to share one.

BETTER:  The drinks were good and the nachos were excellent!  There were so many nachos that we filled up on them.  We have the entrees put in to-go boxes.  Susan and Chuck take the food to the truck while I go with James to pick up speedpasses for the rides.

Generally, our visit to the parks goes well.

GOOD: I stand by my decision to ride NO water rides.

BAD:  Susan and James get soaked on one.

GOOD:  There’s a big dryer and chuck gives Susan $5 to use it.

BAD:  It doesn’t do much good.

GOOD: James bribes Susan into riding Splash Zone by offering to buy her a pair of pants.  They ride.  He buys.  She found a pair that cost about ½ the amount James was expecting to pay.

I get to feeling icky … dunno why …. It was NOT hot, probably in the low 50’s.  Could have been lack of sleep.  Hadn’t felt hungry. But when we walked near the diner, I wanted FOOD.  We ate. Chuck and I waited by the Blues Brothers show place while Susan and James rode the Mummy.  Speedpasses are barcoded and read each time you use it; you’re only supposed to be able to use it once per ride.  Nobody checked the speedpasses on the Mummy. They rode twice and made it back by the time the Blues Brothers came onstage.  Doesn’t make much sense – it’s the same show nearly every time anyone performs it, and I still watch and enjoy it.  Susan and James talk Chuck and me into riding the Mummy. And guess what?!?!

BAD This time the lines are long AND they’re checking speedpasses and Chuck doesn’t have one.  Dangit.  We blabber about “where’s yours?” and “you didn’t get me one” and she waves us on through.

GOOD  We enjoy the ride.

James and I dashed to ride the Simpsons ride while Chuck and Susan get our things from the locker.  Remember those plans for her to drive on back to Laurens? She fell asleep standing against the wall while in line to see the Mummy.  So, she decided to take a nap before driving back to Laurens.  James planned to go back to Citiwalk but they both crashed for the evening around 9 or so.

—— Saturday ——-

I call Susan at 3am to be sure she’s up; she and Drew have lunch plans in Simpsonville.  She says to call her back at 3:30.  She left around 4.  She took a nap a couple times on the way home and arrived mid-afternoon, in time for the company party in the evening. Her birthday  lunch got rescheduled.

GOOD: In spite of little sleep, I awake and get us up and going.  James loads his things into the truck and we head for the airport.  We stop at Waffle House for breakfast.

BAD:  After ten minutes, no one has even offered to take a drink order.  We have less than an hour to get to the airport.  By the way, Chuck doesn’t like Shoney’s or Denny’s.

GOOD:  The service at Shoney’s is quick and the food acceptable even to Chuck – real fried potatoes and gravy.

GOOD: We get to the airport right on time.

BAD:  James can’t seem to check in.  The system isn’t finding his flight and ID information.

GOOD/BAD: The assistant finds it … on SUNDAY.  James and I had BOTH misread the email.  I had looked at it once, put the date on my calendar, and not looked at it again.  So … I call Chuck who was parking the truck to come back.  He’s already in the airport; we just haven’t seen him.  We meet up, walk to the truck, and

So …… James gets to follow us around for a day.  As we’re scouting out the area around a hotel for Nancy (she has a business meeting in Orlando soon), we go near Seaworld.  James decides to spend the day there and catch a cab back to the resort.

GOOD: He had a wonderful time!

GOOD: We had internet when we got back to the resort!! !! I started on my schoolwork.

BAD: What I thought was about five webpages to read was really 25-30 …. And an assignment that I had completely overlooked.

GOOD: The internet connection was FAST and much of the material is the same as Schools Attuned, a course I took a few years ago.

I had agreed to go to a movie,

GOOD: so I talked James into seeing The Curious Case of Benjamin Button because it started an hour earlier than Valkyrie.

BAD: Did either of us check the length of the movies?  NO.  CCBB ended all of ten minutes before Valkyrie. ….

We arrive back at the resort around 11pm. James goes to get his room key from his wallet.  What wallet?  We can’t find it anywhere.  Call the theater.  Call Citiwalk security.  Head back to Citiwalk.  If he doesn’t have his driver’s license he can’t pick up his electronic ticket so he can’t get to Baltimore so he isn’t where the Air Force told him to be when they said be there so… you get the picture … and it ain’t pretty.

We go back to the theater.  The staff is very helpful.  They let us watch the last of a movie while we wait for theater 15’s movie to end (at 0153 … geez).

GOOD: I manage to stay awake.  Neither of us is really freakin out.

GREAT: The guy working that evening went right to James’ wallet within a minute of the movie ending.

GREATER: Everything was intact.  It had slid down behind the seat and remained undiscovered.

BAD: I get to sleep about 4 and we need to leave at 6 or so to get to the airport.

Sunday

Thankfully, had its own events. I was really grumpy.  Breakfast and the airport went smoothly.  Then….about an hour up the road … I locked the keys in the truck.  Both of them.  And both phones.  Oh yeah.  Wendy’s let Chuck use their phone and AAA was there in about ½ hour.

There was more good/bad about the trip, and the trend ran though most of the following week.  However, I am tired of writing, and if you’ve read this far, you’re either tired of reading or bored to tears, so grab some Kleenex, hug your loved ones, and look for the good side of things.

Yep … that’s the question that caught my attention during this morning’s sermon.

Brett is in the midst of a series “The Names of God.”

Today’s focus was El Shaddai and Adoni.  Now, I haven’t studied up on these very much, so I learned a few things.  El Shaddai is essentially “all sufficient God” – the provider of all we need, physical needs, comfort, source of strength, etc.   Adoni is “Lord.”    Adoni is first used in Genesis 15 an El Shaddai in chapter 17.  Brett proposes that, just as Abram first knew God as Lord, then as the provider of all he needs, that we must first acknowledge and live like God is our Lord (master) before we can fully experience God has the provider of our needs.

Then he asked, “Do you know anyone who is frustrated with their Christianity?  Perhaps they have not truly experienced God as Adoni, and therefore cannot fully experience Him as the provider of all they need.”

WOW

I anticipated writing several times over the summer, telling about my trips, etc.  As you can see, it hasn’t worked out that way.

Dianne and I went to NY to visit Mary and family.  I did NOT get to France so I have a credit with Delta.  Chuck, Susan, Melissa, and I went to Williamsburg, VA for a few days.  The girls left on Wednesday; we stayed until Friday; stopped overnight in NC; then came on home on Saturday.

A dear friend’s granddaughter has been in PICU in Greenville for three weeks.  The great news is that she is now awake and eating and smiling   We’ve stopped by a few times when we were in town.

This weekend has been AWESOME.

Yesterday, Chuck and I had breakfast at Waffle House (imagine that).  We had a little free time, then met family at the Laurens Farmer’s Market.  The previous weeks a few more vendors were there, but it’s still fun to visit and see what’s available.  Hopefully the lady with the wooden lighthouses will be back soon.

Then we stopped by the library and the bookstore.  Went to Greenville to Books-A-Million (a book, coffee) and Lenscrafters to have my contacts checked.  I was doing great.  I’ve had them for a week.  Only …. there wasn’t one in my right eye.  I KNOW it was there earlier in the day.  Not sure where/when it popped out.  They didn’t have another like it.  The lady was very nice and looked until she found something close.  It seems to be working fine.  Went to One-Way to see if they had my contacts in stock … nope.  Into Garner’s for a few gluten-free products.  (the pretzels are yummy) Then to lunch at our favorite restaurant, India Palace.  Deanne met us there   Then on to the hospital to visit our little friend.  Stopped at WallyWorld but no they don’t have torics in stock either.  Chuck went into Lowe’s for something. We’d been home a little while and I left again … on DEZ this time … rode out Horseshoe Falls Road.  It’s a little bitty waterfall, but it’s a neat ride.  That’s why I bought a bike!  Then I worked on some church and school stuff.

This morning we were up early, had breakfast, and Chuck went to Columbia to help Susan pack up her things and get them moved to Laurens.  Several other folks were helping, too.  I got up with some sinus congestion that turned into an earache that had me dizzy for a short time.  Got aggrevated at stuff in general and thought, “There is some reason I need to be at church today, there always is when it’s this hard to get there.”  During church I butchered the offertory music.  Just after the sermon started, Linda started walking out.  I knew she’d pulled her back earlier in the week and it was knotted and painful.  She looked awful, twisted, barely moving, eyes weird.  She whispered that she was going out to the car to get some  pain medicine.  I asked if she wanted me to go and she nodded.  She let me open the door for her.  She asked me to open the trunk.  She took some medicine and I said, “It takes that 45 minutes to an hour to work.  Church’ll be over by then. Let’s pray.”  So we prayed.  It was so awesome! I mentioned my lack of faith that she could be relieved of the pain right then and she prayed the “grain of a mustard seed” verse.  I know that pain increases the liklihood of her having a migraine and light exacerbates that pain.  The sun was very bright, so I mentioned going on in.  She stood still, saying, “actually, the sun feels like a hug from my Daddy-God.” So we prayed a few more sentences and a cool breeze blew, making it very comfortable to stand there in the warm sunlight.  I felt her relaxing.  The pain went away.  Gone.  She was able to stand up straight and breathe comfortably instead of hunching over and straining to breathe.  I’ve never seen anything like it.  We talked a minute about the change she felt, and I said (rather loudly) “Oh yeah!” We went back in; Linda visibly felt better.  At the end of the service we shared what had happened.  As I said already, I’ve never seen anything quite like that, much less been directly involved.  Awesome, humbling, …. kinda strange …. But something I HAD to share.

This afternoon Melissa’s helped me catch up with some school work.  I even had time to write this!

Ya’ll have a GREAT week.

Bits of necessary background:

Some of you know that Dianne and Gerald are planning to renew their wedding vows this October, their 25th anniversary. She’s been kinda sorta looking for a dress for about a year.

This was our first trip to Western NY. Dianne and I tend to like to stop every hour or two and look at something – landscape, thrift store, something. I have a GPS that I can move between the car and the bike. Everyone who has used one knows that sometimes the path is not exactly direct.

Dianne observed that when it’s my turn to buy gas, I start looking for a station when the tank is half gone; when it’s her turn, I wait until there’s only a quarter tank left.

The story:

After a wonderful time visiting our friends and enjoying the beautiful landscapes, on Wednesday Dianne and I headed back toward SC. About five miles from Mary’s house, my cell phone rings. I answer, “What did we forget?” We’d left Dianne’s hanging bag of clothes. Sooooo back to the house, get the clothes and a bag of other minor things we’d left. Stop for breakfast at a local restaurant and fill our bellies. About an hour down the road, the gas guage is registering about half so I start looking for signs.

You know those information signs on the side of the interstate? Near an exit there’s info about gas, food, lodging, entertainment? Well, there’s a sign with a gas pump and no store name, but that’s good enough for me. Exit onto a divided four-lane road with no businesses in sight. But wait! That’s a traffic light in sight. With that same gas info sign with an arrow pointing to the left. That’s okay. Turn left.

Less than a tenth of mile, a stopsign and we must turn left or right. No sign of a gas station. No info sign. Turn right. Houses. The back side of a sports-vehicle retailer (motorcycles – no we didn’t shop-, four-wheelers, jet-skis, etc). No other businesses. Back to that four-lane. U-turn time. Back past where we’d turned into this road. More houses. Is that a gas tanker parked in that driveway? No other businesses. Ben’s calling asking something about his laptop. I’m ready to stretch my legs. I’m thirsty. I have no idea about the laptop. I’d told the GPS not to recalculate. No businesses in sight. Back to the fourlane. Oh yeah, there was a Pop’s Something-or-Another with one pump back there on the four-lane but we couldn’t get to it when we passed it — barrier in the middle of the road. On a good day, I would have known which direction to turn. But this was not the best of days, so I hit “home” on the GPS. We turned left on the four-lane. The route was different from the original one, but the time to get home was about the same and shoot! we like going new places anyway. We eventually arrive at a small town, get gas, order a snack at Burger King (that’s breaded and tastes nasty so it gets trashed), and go on down the road.

Fastforward to Thursday:

We’ve been driving for about an hour through beautiful country. I’m about ready to stretch my knee out straight. Gas tank is half empty. Dianne is sleeping. Info signs for gas, food, lodging. As I approach the exit, I see NO tall signs, the ones they usually have so you can see them for miles from the interstate. I’m not ready for another gas chase, so I go on by. Just as I pass the exit, I can see the signs. Oh well, too late. A few more miles and I thought I saw a sign for a rest area, but not sure because the semi was blocking my view. Yep… there it was … saw it as I passed it. Miles down the road, another exit. This time, I’m exiting, even if all I do is park on the side of the road and walk a little bit. Exit. Turn right at stopsign. Still can’t see stores. But there it is! Scenic Outlet. Don’t know what it is, still go toward it.

Turned out to be a neat little shopping center. We browsed through clothes, bought a drink at a restaurant selling Mayberry Cookbooks, looked at some unique furniture. I could harldy believe that Dianne didn’t buy one of those cookbooks for Gerald. The one item of clothing purchased: a wedding dress for Dianne. No, it’s not white with a train half a mile long, but it’s very pretty. About a foot too long, but that’s easy to fix

If I can ever get this to work, there will be a slideshow of a few pictures from our trip to NY.

If you put your cursor over the NY below, you’ll get to the pictures.

NY

Dianne and I had a wonderful time visiting our friends in upstate NY.

The picture at the top of the blog is from our visit to Niagara Falls on Monday.  If you look closely at the boat, you’ll see blue dots.  Those are people.  That gives you a hint of the size of the falls.  Pictures really cannot do them justice.

  I hope to have some other pictures and stories uploaded soon.

No … not really … but it felt like it for a while. It has been a long, long time since I have felt SO stuffed for SO long after a meal.

The monthly Gray Family Feast was held today at Debbie and Coy’s house. We feasted on barbequed chicken and ribs, potato salad, cole slaw, rolls, macaroni and cheese, roasted corn, sweet potato caserole, pound cake, brownies, strawberries, and homemade ice cream. Debbie had made lemonade with freshly-squeezed lemons.

Our ice cream churn may have churned its last. The motor sounded sluggish way too soon so I pushed the container a bit. Then, Chuck babysat it while it finished. Most of the time he just sat there. We figured the churn was lonely; we do tend to leave it outside by itself.

The dozen or so of us had a grand time. Mr. Brown visited with folks for a while.

Chuck and I returned home and piddled in the yard for a little while, preparing for rain that it looks like will …. again …. go around us.

Garden Update

My tomato plants that were so gorgeous are dying. They have plenty of water but one just wilted to nothing. Ben pulled up that one and another two that were showing signs of the same problem. Now a couple others are looking droopy. The peppers are bearing and the squash is looking good I may have a small mess to cook before I leave town again.

(I was interrupted writing this li’l story of 5 June 2008, so it’s being posted quite a bit later.)

Thursday was going to be one of those get-things-done-so-I-can-be-gone-a-week days. Pleasantly busy, all day, but with time to get things done. Just no extra time.

Thursday morning I was at school. Had a hitch in the plans (computer program didn’t cooperate with me … imagine that). I did enjoy visiting with the Gravleys and we accomplished some other work. Now those report cards needed to be printed and the program wouldn’t cooperate on that computer. So … I plan to finish them at home. Remember that bit about no time to spare?

I had lunch at my favorite eating-out-place in Laurens … the Hub. Good food; good company; good service.

The real time-eater was ….. I arrived home just after lunch. The animals (five of them) were supposed to be ready to go to the vet (some at 2:30 and some at 4:00) and Ben was going with me. Ben wasn’t home. The cat carrier was ????%^&????. The dog leashes were ???^&*@???. After about 30 minutes I decide the heck with these animals, just take Gizmo and pick up the cat that’s already at the vet’s office. I can handle Giz without a leash and then borrow one at the vet’s. Only ….. Giz is nowhere to be found. Not in the house. Not outside. Didn’t come when I called. Oh well, it’s a hot day maybe he went to the creek.

So ….. I went to the vet’s office. I picked up Li’l One and borrowed a leash. At home, I deposited her near some food and water. At this point, we still haven’t seen her kittens; not sure how many there are.

I found the other cat carrier. Put it together. Nabbed a black cat, not sure if it was Shadow (who had been to the vet a couple weeks ago …. injured back leg and they caught up her shots) or Midnight (who needed to go to the vet on this day for shots). Giz had appeared; he easily went into the car.

Ben arrived home. After a not-very-calm discussion he found one leash and started getting Icy and Casper (the outside dogs) into his car. That suited me better anyway. Dianne and I had plans to leave Friday for NC; Icy has been known to pee in a car; I really didn’t want to risk that.

Ben identified the caged cat as Midnight (yeah!). Into the other carrier, held together with twist ties, I put Mac …. the cat that weighs about 15 pounds. Carried it to the car. More correctly, I carried it toward the car. Just before I got the carrier into the car, it fell apart. That’s okay, Mac will behave. Toss Mac in the car and put the carrier on the seat. So we leave … Ben and his friend with the two dogs; I am taking two cats and a dog. Ben and friend walk Icy and Casper. I put the cat carrier back together and carry it by the bottom this time. Needless to say, it took a few minutes for the receptionist to get straight which animals were there and what they needed (mostly rabies vaccines). It looked like a small petting zoo in the lobby of the vet’s office. We were finally seen at about 4, which was when I had an appointment for the second group of animals. (I had planned to take two or three and then the others, not all of them at once.) Susan later joins us so we have three dogs, two cats, and four people at the vet’s office. Maybe I should have had the four of us vaccinated, too.

Back at home, Susan helped me with the report cards. I packed for the weekend in NC and a week in Westminister (Chuck and I got away for a few days alone). Seems like we had some other things to do, but now I have no clue what they were.

Friday Susan and a family friend carried flags to a PGR mission near Columbia so I could ride Dez . That poor ride captain. It was the first mission where he was in charge. He saw three of us riding down I-26, recognized me, and thought, “Oh no. My first mission and we won’t have any flags.” He learned soon after we arrived at Ft Jackson that when I say, “I’ll get the flags there” it means the flags will be there; not necessarily that I will bring them. How he saw the three of us on bikes but not Susan’s red truck with flags in it right behind us ??? It cost me breakfast, lunch, and gas money, but hey … I got to ride I had expected to arrive home around 3. It was closer to 4:30. I cooled off a bit, picked up Dianne, went to Simpsonville and picked up Carla’s birthday cake, and on to Raleigh. We had a good weekend. Chuck had gone on to “The Fox” on Saturday. I got home mid-afternoon Sunday. I rested a bit, saw the four new kittens scamper about, put my bag on Dez and took off up the backroads to Westminster.

Ahhh… the joys of having no schedule for days

I spent most of today in Greenville with my favorite aunt.  We stopped at bookstores and thrift stores, bought books and coffee.  Maybe it’s genetic …. both of us look at a book and say, “I wonder if I already have this?”

We tried to eat lunch at a Chinese place she remembered being on Haywood Road.  It isn’t there anymore.  Then we saw the O’Charley’s sign.  It isn’t there anymore.  So pppffhhhyyyy.  We went to India Palace where we dined on meat samosas, chicken saag, and cheese naan.  yum yum  

James called Susan today!  He’s tired but fine.