Month: August 2018

Tuesday, August 21, 2018

Happy Anniversary to Barry and Donna and to us! Interesting that two of our best friends have the same anniversary as us. Today was 35 years for Barry and Donna and 36 years for us. All four of us are so blessed with wonderful mates. Life is definitely good.

Today we skipped our morning walk due to an early meeting with the estate attorney regarding the apartment closing. Still working on all the legal paperwork. After that appointment Anne had an appointment for a badly needed haircut and after that did a little shopping at Belk’s since it was senior day. Love those senior discounts. Max cooked 2 pounds of sausage patties and 2 pounds of bacon to freeze for future meals.

We celebrated by eating at Pyro’s Pizza, a new to us regional chain. We really enjoyed the thin crust pizza with lots of toppings of our choice. Will definitely eat there again when the pizza craving hits. We had planned to have the dessert pizza as well but drove past Freddie’s on the way and ice cream ultimately won out. We had the Signature Turtle Sundae and it was, as usual, wonderful. We then watched a movie. A nice afternoon together.

After eating all that wonderful food we didn’t dare miss our evening walk. Even though we skipped this morning we still got five miles today – so not too bad.

The celebration of a wonderful 36 years and looking forward to many more. It was a great day!

Monday, August 20, 2018

Today was a little cooler day and we had some good rain. No storms, just a good amount of rain and the grass is already looking greener. Of course, it also needs cutting.

The big event of today was the recovery of Anne’s wallet. Didn’t want to admit it. Didn’t want to publicize being dumb. But, it had been missing since last Monday. We had been checking each day and nothing had been charged on any of the credit cards. Nothing at all looked amiss on our finances. We knew the last place it was used was Bed Bath and Beyond. We called and they said it wasn’t there. After tearing FRED apart looking, and retracing every place we had been, went to BB&B and asked again and they still said no. After looking everywhere at the house Saturday and yesterday, we had pretty much given up and decided that we would start canceling everything this morning. We had been praying about someone finding the wallet all week. When we had done everything we knew to do and given up, God sent us an angel. Last night we got a phone call from Liz at BB&B. She had found the wallet in their safe. She doesn’t know when or how it got there. We knew our phone number was not in the wallet because we had given away our last business card. However, Liz did an internet search and found our phone number and gave us a call. Wow! Such a relief. Just kept saying, God is SO good!!! He takes care of us. Picked up the wallet first thing this morning but Liz wasn’t working until this afternoon. We went back so we could meet her and thank her personally. She was so sweet. She lost her wallet a few years ago and remembered what an ordeal it was and said “I just wanted to see if I could help someone not have to go through that.” We tried to give her some money which she absolutely refused. We even tried to just order pizza for the staff but that was declined too. She said taking anything but our thanks would spoil it for her. Wow again! Some days God sends some really precious people into our lives.

The rest of the day was pretty insignificant by comparison.

Sunday, August 19, 2018

It’s been a great weekend! We got up Saturday morning and did our walk and then headed back to Blount County to visit with the Aunts, get a haircut and do a little shopping. We checked on the houses and then went to Camp Sumatanga to visit with some dear NOMADS friends, Dave and Carol. They are doing some drop-in work and invited us up to eat and visit. We had a great time eating tacos under the pavilion at the camp ground and catching up on each others summer travels. Thanks so much Dave and Carol! Looking forward to working with you in Mississippi.

This morning we met Dave and Carol at Huddle House in Oneonta for a hearty breakfast and some more visiting before we all went to worship and Sunday school at Lester Memorial UMC. It was another wonderful day of worship at Lester. After another visit with the Aunts we headed back to Tuscaloosa. Anne’s brother Jim arrived late afternoon. We had a nice visit and were able to make some more decisions about the estate. Lots more work to be done next week but this evening, feeling very blessed.

Friday, August 17, 2018

Wednesday and Thursday were more hot Alabama summer days with scattered pop-up thunderstorms. We were able to spend a good deal of time outside reading, relaxing, hiking, sitting on the fishing pier and just watching the river go by. They continued to dismantle the equipment used on the gate installation at Holt dam but by Thursday there really wasn’t much left so see. Today it didn’t appear they were working on the construction site. Of course, the barges continued to lock through but at longer intervals between than when the lock first reopened.

We have really enjoyed our time back really camping rather than the driveway camping we have done all summer. On our morning walk today we saw six deer and two turkeys. This week we have also seen a young coyote at the dumpster, seen where the raccoons got into someone’s garbage but didn’t see the raccoons, and unfortunately, several wolf spiders. Fortunately they were all outside. It’s amazing how their legs look almost exactly like the pavement. It makes them hard to see unless they are moving. They are big guys – about 2.5” across. Would not want them inside the house.

Last night we had new neighbors arrive. We enjoyed the little time we had with them. They are Romanians living in California, driving their oldest son to Virginia to begin college at a Christian university. You just meet the nicest people camping.

Tonight we are back in Tuscaloosa at Mama Ruby’s, doing laundry, and enjoying our three mile walks that end with Cookout milkshakes. Hope everyone has had a good week and has an even better weekend.