This morning was very cloudy and by church at 10:30 it was raining. It has rained the rest of the day. Part of the afternoon it rained so hard we had to turn the surround sound up louder than usual to watch our movies. Love to sleep to the rain on the roof but it was a little noisy while watching movies.
We went to Crystal River UMC contemporary service today. Several of the team members commented that it was a little funny when we looked up on stage and the contemporary band members were all about our age. However, the music was quite good. The entire service was good. The pastor was not here today because of a death in his family but the retired pastor who filled in brought us a good message on Elijah. The church is in the mist of a series “The Elijah Chronicles.” Today’s text was I Kings 18:42-44, with the message titled “What Makes A Prayer.” Per scripture, Elijah was a person just like us, who earnestly prayed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective. Glad we could be a part of the service. After worship some of us went to Denny’s for brunch. Another good time and another good meal. This afternoon was quiet and since we don’t have much of a satellite signal we watched recorded movies. It was a good time of rest although sad too, since we always talked to Mama Ruby on Sunday afternoons.
Tomorrow we will start our work week. Since we missed the first week of the project we really don’t know much about what everybody has been doing or what we will be doing tomorrow. We know some have been working on a home that was damaged by the hurricane, some installing some laminate flooring and some removing a wall. We will see what our assignment is in the morning. “Semper Gumby”, always flexible. Hope you have a great week!
Goodness! It is nice to be back in Florida with the warmer temperatures and nice sunshine. The low last night was 52 and the high today about 65. It is so much nicer than the 31-32 degree lows we were having in Tuscaloosa. Of course tomorrow is suppose to be rain but guess that means we can get a nice Sunday afternoon nap. We shall see.
We both slept better last night. Really, the first good night of sleep since Mama Ruby’s death. And there were no 4:00 am trains like in Tuscaloosa. You know when living there we never heard those trains, but we sure did this time. So today we slept in and started the day slowly. About mid-morning we went for a walk around the church campus to see if anything had changed. We noticed a few things but not too much. We didn’t see much in the way of hurricane damage at the church or the RV park. After our walk we did the remainder of our setup chores such as tire covers and outside rug. It was almost dark when we got parked last night so we did just the minimal and finished up this morning. After that we ran some errands, went to the grocery store and drove around town a little to re-familiarize ourselves with the area. This afternoon some former NOMADS came over to visit with some of our team members and then we all went to dinner together at Hardwood Smokehouse. It’s a bar-b-que restaurant and we had a sampler platter with brisket, pulled pork and ribs all of which were very good. Really good food! And we have enough leftovers for lunch tomorrow.
We said we would catch you up on some of last week. Of course, the first few days are still too painful to talk about much, but Anne and her brothers tried to assure that Mama Ruby’s Celebration of Life was all that she had wanted and requested. There were a lot of friends and a lot of family and things got a little crazy at times. Wood Manor was full with no more room at the inn and a lot of the family had to stay in hotels. However, most of the family gathered back at Wood Manor after the service Saturday. Mom’s church furnished food and we all spent the afternoon and well into the evening sharing good memories of Mama Ruby and good family times. We have been very blessed to be apart of a wonderful family.
Sunday morning we went to First Methodist for church and even though it wasn’t “our” church, it did feel good to be there. By early afternoon all the family had departed and we started the cleanup process. Unfortunately, the water heater went out. We have a 30 amp connection at Wood Manor but not sewer so we shower in the house. So no hot water heater means no hot showers, and since Mama Ruby’s house has hydronic heating, no heat for the house. So, no washing all the linens, towels, and cleaning until we got the water heater repaired. Sonny ordered the needed part Monday and Max and Sonny got the water heater working again Tuesday night. Wednesday and Thursday were spend doing laundry and cleaning. Since we couldn’t do much at Wood Manor on Monday we drove to Trussville and Pine Mountain to visit our other three LOLs.
The Bridge at Tuscaloosa First UMC
The hydronic water heater and heating system
As a result of the 2011 tornado, Tuscaloosa put in a greenway with a walking trail that starts about two blocks from Mama Ruby’s house. We walked the greenway at least once everyday the weather allowed. It just so happens that the path leads to a Cookout restaurant on 15th Street. Nasty traffic but oh so good milkshakes. After discovering the milkshakes we made two trips everyday, once for a milkshake and again to walk off some calories.
You risk your life walking across 15th Street even with the traffic light
So that is a brief synopsis of a very long and at times, very painful week. It was also a very precious time of remembering. Time and God will soothe the pain and we will be left with the memories.
Remember to be in prayer for services tomorrow. Pray for our pastors and for our hearts to receive what God has for us.
Today’s blog will be short. We may try to fill in some of the blanks from the past week over the next day or two. For now, we want you to know that we appreciate more than we can express, each card, each prayer, call, email, visit, flowers, all of you who came to Mama Ruby’s service and all the food that was provided. It was almost overwhelming. Thank you!
Tonight we are in Crystal River, Florida. God provided us a beautiful sunrise this morning as we prepared for an emotional departure from Tuscaloosa. It was hard to leave but it was the right thing to do at this time. The love and emotional and spiritual support we always receive from our fellow NOMADS makes this where we need to be for a little while. We had an uneventful drive. We planned to make it a two day trip but traffic was light and we just kept driving. We will join our team here at Crystal River UMC for the next two weeks and then we plan to return to Tuscaloosa. Hope you are having a good weekend. Be sure to let those close to you know how much you love them.
This was our longest driving day so far in Fred 2 – 484 miles.
This morning was very cloudy and by church at 10:30 it was raining. It has rained the rest of the day. Part of the afternoon it rained so hard we had to turn the surround sound up louder than usual to watch our movies. Love to sleep to the rain on the roof but it was a little noisy while watching movies.
We went to Crystal River UMC contemporary service today. Several of the team members commented that it was a little funny when we looked up on stage and the contemporary band members were all about our age. However, the music was quite good. The entire service was good. The pastor was not here today because of a death in his family but the retired pastor who filled in brought us a good message on Elijah. The church is in the mist of a series “The Elijah Chronicles.” Today’s text was I Kings 18:42-44, with the message titled “What Makes A Prayer.” Per scripture, Elijah was a person just like us, who earnestly prayed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective. Glad we could be a part of the service. After worship some of us went to Denny’s for brunch. Another good time and another good meal. This afternoon was quiet and since we don’t have much of a satellite signal we watched recorded movies. It was a good time of rest although sad too, since we always talked to Mama Ruby on Sunday afternoons.
RVing With a Purpose 