Log Truck Karma

Friday, February 16, 2018

Today was another gray rainy day but with nice temperatures, lows in the low 40s to upper 50s and highs in the upper 60s to mid 70s. And it’s the same forecast for the next 10 days. Rain predicted every day. It helps replenish the water table from last summer’s drought but sure would like to see the sun. I understand it was 80 and sunny for our family in South Carolina. Lucky ducks.

Today was another catch up day. It seems we are behind on most everything. The laundry is finally all done and put away. Yea! We have clean clothes and our work clothes for NOMADS projects are ready to go again. We went to visit with Aunt Jean and purchased her supplies and paid her bills today. Both she and Aunt Helen are really grieving Juno’s death so we are trying to stay in a little closer contact with them both. Each of them are the only remaining member of their families. We can only imagine how that might feel.

With every thing that was going on when we returned to Alabama, we never told you about our trip home. On that Wednesday morning, we worked to complete the concrete pad forming work we were doing at the Chapel at Crystal River. We stayed in close contact with the hospital and it became obvious that we needed to head home ASAP. Our wonderful team members laid hands on us and prayed for Juno and for us and lovingly sent us on our journey. After sleeping a few hours at Lowe’s in Troy Wednesday night, we were back on the road by about 4:30 am. Both times we have come back to Alabama recently, we stayed at the Troy Lowe’s and both times when we went to customer service to ask permission, we were greeted by women who were obviously Christian and both said they would be praying for us.

So by now you have read this far and are wondering about the title.  It was an uneventful morning drive through Montgomery and then we took US 82 to Tuscaloosa. We were committing the unforgivable sin of driving the speed limit. Shortly, an unloaded log truck approached us from behind at a fairly high rate of speed and made the decision to pass us on a double yellow line, going up a hill, in the dark and right after passing a sign indicating passing lane ahead. He successfully passed us without hurting anyone. Sure aggravated Max who was driving at the time. Then karma kicked in. Less than ten minutes later, we saw our friend again. This time the log trailer was jackknifed off an embankment and the rig was blocking one lane of the road. The driver was rocking the truck back and forth trying to get back on the road but try as he might, he wasn’t budging. Fortunately for us and the rest of the cars, one lane was open and we could safely continue our journey to Tuscaloosa to leave Fred at Mama Ruby’s house. You know, we don’t want to wish bad things for anyone but we certainly weren’t surprised to see the truck in that predicament. Just really glad no one got hurt with the crazy driving. Be careful out there everybody! Drive safely and try to stay out of the way of the crazies.

Headed Into Uncharted Waters

Thursday, February 15, 2018

Today begins our journey toward a new normalcy. We have never walked this road before and its a little scary. Multiple times a day Anne wants to call one of our Moms. Our lives were so intertwined. We celebrate their entrance into heaven because they both had suffered pain the last months of their lives and now we know they are pain free. We are very happy for them, but we sure do miss them.

Today the last of our family returned to their homes. We thank God for safe travels for everyone. It was sad to see everyone leave. Can’t help but wonder when we will see some of them again. We all came together with Mother. Everything will be different now. We have to figure out how to do this with both families. And we have just begun to think of all we have to do to settle everything. That will have to wait a few more days.

After everyone left we started on laundry, lots of laundry. We hadn’t done any since before we left to return to Florida. We have also been doing some research on new medical alarms. We think we need to make a few changes at Helen’s to try to assure her safety, including a fall detection alarm. We are praying for guidance and wisdom as we move forward.

We did get to do something this evening from our “old normal”. We walked a few rounds on the track with Barry and Donna. It was really great to spend a little while with them getting caught up. And as we were walking toward the track we saw five deer in our pasture.  Love seeing any kind of wild life.  That’s about it for the day. Maybe things will be more interesting in a few days.

Again thank you for all your support and love.

Arrangements for Max’s Mother

Monday, February 12, 2018

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAFor those interested, the arrangements for Max’s Mother’s Celebration of Life service are as follows:

Tuesday 5:30-8:00 pm – Visitation at Lemley Funeral Home in Oneonta

Wednesday 1:00 pm – Service at Lee’s Chapel United Methodist Church on Pine Mountain. Visitation one hour before service.

In lieu of flowers the family requests donations to Lee’s Chapel United Methodist Church.

We appreciate the calls, cards, emails, prayers and every other demonstration of your love and care for Juno and our family. We have big holes in our hearts, but with God’s help are filling them with wonderful memories and thankfulness for 94 wonderful years.

More Prayers, Please

Sunday, February 11, 2018

Max’s mother, Juno Armstrong, is now enjoying exploring heaven with Anne’s mom.  She entered the gates this afternoon from a hospital in Birmingham.  She was 94 and a precious lady who will be missed by all who knew her.  We have another huge hole in our hearts today.  We will try to post the arrangements after they are made tomorrow.  Otherwise the blog may once again be silent for a few days.  Please remember us in your prayers.  We are going to have to learn how to live in this crazy world without our Moms.