20 thoughts on “Rants! and Raves! 5-11-13”

  1. 🙂 Spring sunshine.

    🙂 No more coughs at our house! Anywhere between one and six people (everyone but me!) were coughing at various times throughout the entire months of March and April, and hubby’s cough continued into early May. He was one of the first ones to get it, too, poor guy. I just realized sometime this week, though, that I hadn’t heard him cough in a while. Praise the Lord for restored health!

    🙂 Second Arrow is recovering well from everything she had in the last couple months, too: bronchitis, pneumonia, exudative pharyngitis, all of which she is completely over, and mono, from which she is steadily recovering.

    🙂 Two birthdays next week, 2nd Arrow and 4th Arrow. Their birthdays are the same day, and they both enjoy that fact.

    😦 This birthday is the first time in the twelve years since 4th Arrow was born that they will not be able to be together. 2nd Arrow has finals all next week.

    🙂 Last week of school for 2nd Arrow coming up, then she will be off of school until the summer session starts a few weeks after that. She’ll have to work during her school vacation, but will be able to be home some of those days. Yay!

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  2. First on a (formerly) popular thread? That’s a big 🙂 !

    🙂 Two weeks left of school!

    🙂 Though I don’t follow baseball that closely anymore, I noticed that two of my favorite teams, which are usually cellar dwellers, are in contention so far! Go D-Backs and Royals! (And may the better team in blue win today, AJ. Yeah, the Yanks won last night, but just wait…) 😉

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  5. 😦 Snow flakes on fishing opener. The lakes are still covered in ice. This does not affect us, since we seldom fish anymore and never go on the opener.

    😦 One of our lovely music jam ladies had a massive stroke. She is still living, but not expected to live long. She did manage to tell one of our other musicians that she loves us all. She is eighty-eight, but has always been strong. She came to the jam in all kinds of weather. She is a bubbly, delightful person.

    😦 MN is giving into the gay activists. Too many people are afraid to speak out on the issue. The legislators are ignoring those who do, even those who are in districts that are very pro-traditional marriage.

    🙂 Jesus is the way, the truth and the life. Truth will win out. Justice will come and all the lies and insults tossed at believers will be shown for what they are.

    🙂 Justice will come and those who are suffering much today all over the world will be vindicated.

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  6. 🙂 The tendonitis in my right arm is getting better.

    🙂 Wasn’t sure if R would make himself available to take care of Forrest today (Emily’s working a long day), but he is taking him after all.

    🙂 The house should be nice & quiet today. A rarity around here!

    🙂 But having my loud, active, sweet, adorable grandson live with us, & being a part of his everyday life, is an incredible blessing & privilege.

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  7. 🙂 Elvera is off to the mall. Belk knows how to get her in there. They sent her a $10.00 coupon if she spends $30.00. She can’t resist a coupon.
    I’m not worried.
    But the Hendersonville Belk is so small, I’m sure it’s frustrating. In Virginia, she would take the car and drive to Landmark and Tysons Corner in all that traffic. But she’s afraid of the mountains and won’t drive to Spartanburg by herself. She wouldn’t agree that she’s afraid of the mountains, but that’s what it amounts to.

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  8. 🙂 Saturday, the day I get to sleep in until 8 a.m.

    😦 Kathaleena, praying for your friend, how devastating.

    🙂 😦 I was supposed to write a regional bike lane piece yesterday for the weekend (next week is Bike Week), but instead the editor sent me out to a crime scene where I had to hang out for half the day (4 guys got into a gunfight, 3 wound up dead inside an apartment building, the 4th wounded and nabbed by cops as he was trying to flag down random motorists for a get-away; he’s now in the hospital but he isn’t talking — no motive known and/or released as the investigation was unfolding yesterday, but I’m thinking a drug deal gone very bad).

    🙂 LAPD spokesman is getting to know me as this is the 2nd scene where he and I have both been in recent weeks (happens when our cop reporter is off and something happens near where I live so I can get there easily).

    😦 It was hot out there after a while and I’d left the house with nothing to eat — so by noon I was starting to wilt.

    🙂 One of the TV guys (we went to the same college as it turned out) took pity on me and brought me a bottle of water from their news van.

    🙂 I’ll be able to get back to normal and do the bike feature on Monday, I think.

    🙂 Off to a birthday lunch today — the woman I drive to church turns 80 today. There should be about 10 of us, we’re going to a restaurant at the ocean near the pier. I’m picking a couple folks up, but lunch isn’t until 1:30 so I don’t have to rush around this morning.

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  9. 🙂 Our beloved Jo turns 95 next week. We’re finishing up this Bible study session on Tuesday and going out to lunch as usual to celebrate. I’m bringing a cake but NOT 95 candles.

    🙂 Jo is a total character. My husband and I took her out to lunch on her 90th birthday to the fanciest restaurant in town. “No, let me pay my share,” she said.

    “Jo, how often do I get to take someone out to lunch on her 90th birthday?”

    (As in, had I ever done it before?)

    “Well, when you put it like that, alright.”

    🙂 She worked for the OSS during WWII and met a young PT boat captain in the office one day: JFK.

    🙂 She’s the friend who met Calvin Coolidge at the White House as a young girl!

    🙂 A native of Charlottesville, VA, Jo’s family had lived them for many generations. When a genealogy colleague of mine sent me an article about a woman from the same neighborhood who had just turned 100, I gave it to Jo, several weeks ago.

    She adjusted her brand new glasses, “it’s hard to get used to wearing glasses.” (We try not to roll our eyes when we laugh. She’s never had to wear glasses before).

    Jo shook her head. “No. I don’t recognize the name. Maybe my parents would, but they’ve been gone a long time.”

    I pointed to the article. “She’s only five years older than you are.”

    “Oh. Maybe I should read it again.” 🙂

    🙂 In my Bible study you are excused from doing your homework if you’re over 85 years old. “Not me,” Jo said. “I like to do my homework.”

    🙂 Sharp as a whip and very clever.

    😦 She’s physically fading and it’s breaking my heart.

    🙂 But we’ll be celebrating on Tuesday with two candles: a 9 and a 5!

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  10. How sweet. Michelle!

    I was once part of a birthday celebration for a woman who had lost her 97-year-old husband of 69 years a few months before. I forget exactly which birthday it was for her; she herself made it to 94, so I think it might have been 93. She chose the resturant because she and her late husband had had their first date there (in a different building, since the restuarant had moved). The management loved that story, and got a photo of all of us. Every bit as rare as going back to a restaurant more than 70 years later was that our small group of ladies included three white women (the host, the birthday girl, and me, who was kind of an “adopted daughter” of the birthday girl) and either two or three black women, all the guests chosen by the birthday girl. I have such sweet memories of that lunch, and of that lady.

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  11. 😦 R brought Forrest back home around 4:00, soaking wet from pee. Emily is working till closing tonight, so she won’t be home until a bit after 10:00.

    Knowing how R is, I had prepared myself for the eventuality of him dropping off Forrest before the night was up. (I just didn’t think it would be so soon.)

    🙂 I love my little guy so much. So even though it would have been nice to have some more quiet time, & rest this achy arm of mine, I am glad he is home with us, where I know he is safe & secure & happy.

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  14. Good to hear, Kare. One of the sons of my friends also went through a broken engagement — now, a couple years later, I see he’s engaged to a beautiful young girl. 🙂

    God has his reasons, but broken hearts can hurt for a while. All part of life, but no one wants to see their kids go through it.

    🙂 Nice birthday lunch out on the ocean today — where it was foggy and 68 (compared to just a couple miles inland where it was sunny and 81). We had 14 show up, and we had lots of fun. 🙂

    🙂 Came home from the dog park to find a surprise gift bag & case of cat food. I thought either someone thinks I’m an indigent (mumsee’s word) journalist or … ?? Turns out a neighbor across the street who just lost her dad had left them for me; we’d chatted earlier today, she’s just a very sweet gal and I’d helped her a bit with the obit she ran in the paper. The gift bag contained a vanilla scented candle and an indoor/outdoor motion light w/battery. What a sweetie.

    😦 Gas is up to over $4 here again. As I was filling up on the way home from the dog park a guy approached me for extra cash and I said no. But as I drove out of the station, I spotted him, slowed down & called him over to give him some money. It was one of those times when you get that inexplainable tug, real or imagined I guess. Who knows.

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  17. That’s a great way to think about situations like that. Up here in northern Saskatchewan it is a common sight to see homeless people everywhere in the city. It was a bit of culture shock when we moved here. Our young people went to work at an inner city mission and someone there described a homeless person/drug addict/downandouter as a potato. Potatoes are sort of ugly, covered in dirt and not very appetizing, but they can be transformed into: scalloped potatoes, french fries, dill creamed potatoes, mashed potatoes, oven fries, potato skins (with bacon!), etc. Now I try to see these people for their potential with God rather than just being scared of them. Now I’m going to think about their mothers too! 🙂

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  19. 😦 We’re getting our first too-hot (in my book) day of the year. After a morning socked in with harbor fog, temps climbed to at least 90. I’ve had the fans running and am finally opening up some windows now that the sun is sinking a bit.

    🙂 Found “As Good as it Gets” (1997) is on TV (AMC) right now; I’d seen it before, but not in a long time. Jack Nicholson & Helen Hunt. 🙂 Funny together. And there’s a cute dog.

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  20. 😦 Wow, can’t believe the gas prices back then as seen in one of the movie scenes where they’re at a gas station. Like $1.29????

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