Author: rvingwithapurpose

Wednesday, June 13, 2018

Today was about the same as yesterday weather-wise. cloudy, and threatening rain at times and blue skies at other times. Certainly the temperatures are continuing to be milder than a few weeks ago, upper 80’s, with typical Alabama humidity.

We had an 8:00 appointment at the long term care facility to discuss making some changes to the ladies insurance. It would be changing to skilled nursing facility medicare rather than what they have now. It was a good meeting and we will make a decision soon. There are definite advantages, but also some disadvantages. After the meeting we mailed Aunt Jean’s Alaska photo album to Denali National Park. For those of you new to our blog you can find the information about all this on our Alaska blog. We are pleased to finally be able to make the gift to the park. It was way past time for breakfast but we finally stopped before we left Oneonta for Tuscaloosa. In Tuscaloosa, we got settled into FRED again, and started to work on our to do list. We did take time to grill some steaks, corn and squash for a late lunch/early supper. Nice time. About 6:30 we decided to make a different walk, walking away from the greenway, toward the high school Anne used to attend then out to 15^th street and back to the greenway and then home. It was between 2.5 and 3 miles. A nice walk. Hopefully we can get back to walking most days. Tonight we are doing NOMADS work and planning. We have an 8:30 business appointment in the morning. Hopefully we can do some fun, more interesting things soon. But, this is life.

Tuesday, June 12, 2018

Today was another mild early summer day. Still hot if you are working outside but not nearly as bad as the last two weeks in Hattiesburg. Overcast for much of the day but we haven’t had rain here on the mountain. However, we have been hearing thunder south of us and we just got word from our friends coming home from the Philippines that they flew around Birmingham so long waiting for a break in the weather that they had to go back to Atlanta to take on more fuel and then try again. There’s a storm that has just been sitting over the Birmingham airport. We are still hearing some distant thunder. Hopefully they will get home soon.

Today we started by reviewing some of the estate paperwork and Max worked to clear some of the underbrush away from our house and Helen’s. We had so much spring rain that things are looking a little woolly. There was a mimosa tree that had grown up in one of Helen’s front flower beds. Juno would not have been happy. She would be happy about the pretty hydrangeas in the back of the house. We also spent some time visiting with Randy and Debra before they had to go back to South Carolina. It was so good to spend some time with them again.

When we came back from Helen’s, Max was going to spray some week killer and set the sprayer down close to the garage door. Unfortunately it was also too close to a big rattlesnake. It never made a sound! He had to be removed from the premises and relocated. Nine rattles and a button. Scary. So after that little escapade we took a break from the outside work and went to Oneonta for lunch and more estate business. Stops at the bank, court house, funeral home and monument office. All went well and a few more items were marked off the list. Still seems we add more than we delete but we are making progress. Thanking the Lord for a safe, productive day.

Monday, June 11, 2018

Today was a mild early summer day. It was cloudy a lot of the day and not nearly so hot as last week. The forecast is for more rain this week, 40-60% each day but only one day with a high of 90. It will be nicer to have a little cooler temperatures.

We started the day at 0800 at the dentist office. We both had cleanings scheduled this morning. Anne really doesn’t like teeth cleanings, but thankfully we both got good reports and nothing needed for 6 months. YEA! After arriving back on the mountain we worked with Randy and Debra on taking care of some of the things at Aunt Helen’s house. Years ago whenever we had a bumper crop of cucumbers and there was nothing else to do with them, Aunt Helen made pickles. Pickles, pickles and more pickles. And she kept making them. Then she stored them in the basement and never thought about them again. And each year she made more. Over the years, we all ate a lot of pickles and they were very good. Well, we discovered some liquid in the basement floor with a vinegary smell. So, sadly, today we had to discard some of the older ones – 18 gallon jars of bad pickles.

At first we thought, “How sad that the fruit of so many hours of labor were left to go to waste.” But was it really a waste if she received hours of joy making pickles?

After working in the basement for a while we all went to Oneonta to spend some more times with the ladies. They seemed to be doing well. We are sorry they can’t be at home but since they can not, they seem to be at a good place. Tomorrow there’s more business to handle. Hope your week is off to a good start.

Sunday, June 10, 2018

Today was another pretty summer-like day in north Alabama. High in the low 90’s. However, this evening we have had a couple of thunderstorms roll though and the temperature dropped rapidly and is now 72. We like to listen to and watch the storms, if they aren’t too bad.

It was Sunday and today we got to worship at our home church, Lester Memorial UMC in Oneonta. Loved being back with our church family. We had a really good worship service with almost a full house at the early contemporary service. Music was really good and then Barry brought us the message. Today’s scripture was Matthew 10:1-8. Barry shared with us that Jesus is clear; his followers are sent out to engage in God’s business. Everything we do should be filtered through our charge, to be disciples and to make disciples. We all need to live our lives remembering that truth. Today was Pastor Barry’s next to the last Sunday with us. He is retiring and we will all miss him very much. Of course, Barry is also our cousin so we will still see him, especially since this past year he built a house about 2 miles from our house.

After church we went to visit Aunt Helen and Aunt Jean again. They seemed to be doing well today. Both were in good spirits and were glad to see us again. We met Randy and Debra (Max’s brother and sister-in-law), for lunch at Zaxby’s . We had another of their grilled chicken salads and it was great to visit with family. Then we all went to the retirement reception for Barry. There we got to see more family and friends. It was a fun afternoon. We are trying to talk Barry into joining NOMADS, too. They have lots of questions about RV’s so we will be getting together in a few weeks.

After the reception, we went back to visit with Helen and Jean with Randy and Debra. Randy and Debra came back to the mountain and will be hanging out for the next few days. Good times. So glad to have time with them. It was a good day!