Basically Betty

I promised I would let you know how the guys made out golfing yesterday. 

Well, none of them look good in green anyway. 

James tells me Ron did best but he has been golfing for some time.  James got to try out his new golf clubs and that was the purpose of the game.  

Today was my first day out since they found that miserable infection.  We went to our favorite restaurant.  My appetite has not been normal so I brought home enough food for lunch tomorrow.

After we ate Bill and James wanted to go to the Driving Range to hit a few balls so Joann and I went along to watch.  That James sure loves this golf game.

I sort of got fancied up a bit to go out today.  Bill's Mom gave me a pair of ear rings for Christmas with a pink stone in them.  I did not have a necklace that went with them so Joann made one for me with pink stones and crystals.  I wore the watch that Bill got for opening a Charge Account at Belk's.  Everything went together really well.

Had to turn the lights on because there is a storm coming and the sky is dark.  Looked at the Thermometer and it is dropping faster than the Dow Jones Average. 

Till next time--

Love and prayers from here to there

When I opened the doors this noon I was amazed at the leaves that were covering the patio.  I thought leaves departed the trees in the fall and it's June. Maybe God decided there were too many leaves on the trees and he sent those Hail Storms two days in a row to do away with the excess leaves. 

Among those fallen leaves were two that I have salvaged and hope to frame. One is 12 inches long and almost as wide.  The other one is from the same tree (I know because it is shaped the same way) but it looks like the baby of the 12 inch one.  I thought if we could preserve them and frame them both in one frame it would make a nice gift for Bill to hang in his office, Arborist that he is.  It would make a nice late Father's Day Gift.

The Golfers. Ron, Bill and James, are suiting up   I have not heard the weather report for today but it is looking a little like rain out there.  I will let you know how they did when we meet tomorrow.

Love and prayers from here to there.

A quiet day but a happy day.  It was Bill's day.  He received nice gifts and cards.  He and James planned to play golf today but the weather was threatening so they went to the College campus track and ran till they could not run any more.  Came home and Bill went right to work cooking the steaks and ribs.  Joann was not feeling very well so instead of Potato Salad, which is her speciality along with many other dishes, we had baked potatoes.  

Good news by phone - Ron and Sue are coming over tomorrow.  Ron, Bill and James are going to play golf.  Sue and Joann are going to stay home and have a meal ready for the golfers when they get home. 

A few tears found there way to my eyes today when remembering past Father's Days with my Father and my Husband.  I don't think the others noticed.  Hope not anyway because I would not want to spoil the day for Bill.  

Everyone is tired - James and Bill from running these last two days, Joann getting meals and she did laundry yesterday and hung it out between rains. 

So, we are going to call it a day and I will say good night for now.

Love and Prayers From Here to There.

In case you have lost count this is the third day of rain.  I know we needed rain but this is enough already.  We planned to have lunch on the patio today because James is here and he loves being outdoors in the sunshine.  Also, he and his Dad planned to play golf today and tomorrow.  The weatherman said it will be sunny tomorrow (Sunday) but then he said that about today (Saturday) too. 

That's it for the weather, onto another subject. 

The menu for dinner tomorrow (Father's Day) I believe is steak and ribs on the grill, potato salad, baked beans.  Dessert is a cake Bill's Mom sent up for the occasion.   All this talk of food makes me so hungry.  While James is here he always cooks steak and macaroni and cheese for me.   Maybe that will be Mondays menu. 

Happy Father's Day to all you Dads out there.   Hope you get a really nice gift but if it happens to be a pink tie with yellow dots, wear it anyway because your young ones picked it out just for you. 

That reminds me of a story.  

I started wearing hats to Church just before we moved from Florida and there was a little lady in Church who used to comment about my hats every Sunday.  She brought me a pink straw hat that she had bought for herself but realized it was not for her.   She thought it would be perfect for me because it was too big for her, being as little as she was.  

Well, it was not what I would have bought for myself but she would ask every Sunday when I was going to wear the hat she gave me.  I finally found an outfit that went with it and I wore it one Sunday.   She was so pleased and just thought it was perfect for me.  It so happens it is one of my favorite hats of all those I have.  

Love and prayers from here to there.

This has been one of those days when you have time to  think and remember the important happenings in your life.

June 14 was my Father's birthday.  He died in 1979 but his memory is and always will be in our hearts.  He was a good Father.  I know Becky and Joann will back me on this - he was a good Grandfather.  He worked in the Steel Mill in West Virginia as a Foreman. 

He loved sports especially baseball.  He was a Yankee fan but I know if he were alive today I could convert him to be a Rays fan. 

He was so happy when we moved to Florida.  He attended all the spring training games at Al Lang Field.  He made friends at the Ball Park and had them out to dinner often. 

Joann remembers the big time we would have in our back yard for my Dad's birthday.  All the neighbors and friends would stop in for cake and ice cream.

Joann just reminded me of the time up north we were having cake out on our patio for my Dad's birthday and a wind came up and caught under the umbrella and the cake became an upside down cake.   Good thing we had a pan of brownies in case we ran out of cake.

And, Becky just moved her business in Seattle and she was absolutely shocked to see a bit of her Grandfather in her new building, which is really an old building.  The steel cladding encasing fire doors off the stairwells in the 80 year old industrial warehouse conversion are embossed with the words "Weirton Steel," which is where my Dad worked for over 30 years.  Every day as she walks in and out through those doors, she runs her hands over the embossing and says a prayer for her Grandfather.  He taught her to play baseball, soccer and how to throw a triple punch combination, which she used with alarming success on Paul Steadman and Al Lino, among other neighborhood boys.  I don't think she's used it recently, but then again with Becky, I can never be certain.

Love and prayers from here to there.

You did not hear from me yesterday because the storm we had knocked the computer out. 

We had warnings all day on the TV but still Joann went into town.  Bill was upstairs, he'd just come home from his Volunteer job. 

In addition to the thunder and the flash of lightning I could see around my apartment, there was a popping noise which sounded like a giant popcorn popper. 

My phone rang and even though I don't like to answer it when there is an electrical storm such as we were having, I did and it was Bill.  He wanted to know if I had looked out to see the hail that was coming down. 

Well, I don't go near the doors when there is a storm but he said "you gotta see this, the hail is as big as a quarter!" 

When I opened the door, the hail was beating against the storm doors but it no longer sounded like popcorn popping, with me standing in the doorway it sounded like a gun shot. 

As soon as I saw that the hail was in fact as big as a quarter, I closed the doors and got away from it pronto.

Then the phone rang again.  It was Bill again.  But this time he told me Joann was OK and that she would wait out the storm in the shopping center parking lot.  She finally got home about an hour later. 

After I got off the phone with Bill for the second time, the TV went blank and the power went off.  But the good news is the power came back and the TV was working in time for the game last night which my Rays won.

It has rained all day today until about an hour ago.  It is now 3:40 PM and the sun is shining brightly.  They say on TV the storm is moving south so look out my Florida friends, it's a whopper. 

Bill scooped up some of the hail and put it in the freezer to show James when he gets up here for Father's Day. 

Veronica can't make it, she has to work.  

There will be no patio sitting today - maybe tomorrow.

 Love and prayers from here to there  

This was one of the ho-hum days when you wish you had stayed in bed.  It has rained most of the day.   We need the rain so I must not complain.

No sitting on the patio today. 

So what to do - how about calling some of my friends.  I tried calling Wilma but got the answering machine so left a message. 

Let me try Adith.  She should be back from lunch by now.

She was!  We talked and talked some more.  It was like old times.  We used to talk everyday on the phone before I moved. 

Adith told me about her ailments and then I told her about mine.  Just talking to an old friend made me feel better.  It was about here that we forgot all our aches and pains and enjoyed just talking.  It was like a Therapy Session for me.   

After we hung up I opened the door to look out and the rain was still coming down but the sunshine was in my heart because I had just visited with my dear friend. 

Love and prayers from here to there.

With Memorial Day just passed and July 4th right around the corner, I've been thinking about our great country and my place in it.

As I sat on the back patio reveling in the natural beauty of
the forest and the mountains and listening to a CD of
Patriotic music, my mind drifted back to my childhood.

My first school was Stanton School, named for Edwin M.
Stanton, Secretary of War under President Lincoln. It was
two story frame building that housed grades 1 through 6. 
Everyday all six grades would meet in the downstairs
entrance which was a big open space and we would have
Music lessons. 

The music we would learn depended on the season we were
in, i.e. Christmas music in December, Patriotic around
Memorial Day, etc. 

When “America the Beautiful” came on the CD, I found
myself singing along with it and at that time I realized how
my life has been patterned after these words for instance--

 Oh beautiful for spacious skies -- living in Florida
 for 45 years we spent a lot of time at the beaches         
 and there saw spacious skies reaching to the land.

 For amber waves of grain --  being raised in a small
 town in Ohio where the grain is grown.

 For Purple Mountain Majesties --
 Now living in North Carolina where I see Purple
 Mountain Majesties every day.

 Above the Fruited Plain--
 Those Purple Mountains overlook fruited plains with
 Corn fields.  Just yesterday passed a farm on the way
 up the mountain and I saw corn that was as high as an
 Elephant’s eye. 

God shed his Grace on thee-- this to me means God has
given me a good life, wonderful loving family, every breath
I take is God given. 

And Crown thy good with Brotherhood--this can only
mean that God has blessed me with many wonderful,
loving friends.  I have friends from my school days, friends  
I worked with, neighbors and with friends from the three
Churches I belonged to while living in Florida. 

From Sea to shining Sea--I lived on a Peninsula surrounded
on one side by Tampa Bay and the other side by the Gulf of
Mexico.  

God Bless America

Love and prayers from here to there

We were invited to the home of a couple from Church to view the gorgeous sunset.  Their home is even farther up the mountain than ours so I was concerned about the altitude.  Remember I recently moved here from the part of the country where the ant hills are the only mountains around. 

Well, since I did not go, Austin sent me a bouquet of flowers from her garden with Joann.  Now, that was in early May and the flowers are still on my dining room table. 

There are Lilies of the Valley and Lenten Roses.  Every time I thought they were ready to be throw away I would see another rose bud that I had not seen before.  They are withered except for that bud.  So, I will change the water and watch for another bud to appear.  If another bud does not appear after that one, I will press them in the Family Bible and always remember they were sent by Austin and Ed, our new friends. 

Love and prayers from here to there.

 

A visit from two friends from way back is the reason for the pleasant day.  We went to Church with Janet and Esther in the 60s.  They are up here for a couple of weeks so came on over our way.  We had a delicious lunch and then sat out on the patio till the sun chased us in.  It was so good to see them. 

Now we wait for Nancy and Tom to arrive.  That won't be until Friday.

I hope they will feel like a little sightseeing trip because there is a place I really want them to see.  It is called  "A Pretty Place" and I have written about it before.  It is an open-air Chapel where they hold weddings and special Church services.  The view is spectacular.

Another one of my Church friends from way back is getting married this Saturday.  I wish Elaine and her new love forever happiness.  Sorry I cannot make it to the wedding but I will be there in mind and spirit. 

That is it for today.  Aren't you glad you stopped by?

Love and prayers from here to there

One nice breezy but warm afternoon, we were out on the patio just relaxing and enjoying the beauty that surrounds us.  Joann was in her Hammock which was swaying ever so lightly in the breeze.  I'd hoped she was relaxing but no, you could almost hear the thoughts computing in her brain. 

She was devising a plan to relocate the Humming Bird feeder to another tree limb, one in plain sight of our patio chairs.

In its present location, Bill could reach it with a ladder but the new location Joann selected is surrounded by a steep fall away and reaching it with the ladder was impossible. 

The Annie Oakley in her came out. 

She got a 20 foot long lead ordinarily used to tie the dog to the stake.  One end has a hook the other a coiled wire and a hook; it is quite heavy but just right to throw over a branch that would hold the feeder. 

She threw and threw again.  Sometimes it missed all together, other times it snagged in surrounding branches.  One time it got stuck and after a good tug, it came free and slapped her right on the shoulder. 

Undaunted, she tried from above and below and even had Bill hold onto her around her waist while she dangled over the edge of the porch.  Once, he let go and barely caught her by the shirt tail. 

Finally she got it looped and, after tying the cord to the other end, pulled the whole of it around to tie off and attach the feeder. 

After all this, she got back into the Hammock and finally relaxed but I was worn out from watching all this excitement.  So I will say--

Love and prayers from here to there

 

This is Friday, the day after my Daughter Becky's 50th birthday.  Let me tell you how I spent this day.  

It was about 10 AM when we arrived at the Drs. office.  I was there for a PT test.  Two hours later, we finally left. 

The folks waiting to see the Dr. made waiting most pleasant.  They talked among themselves and Joann talked with them but I just listened.  The people up here are just so nice and friendly. 

When I got home I had a phone call from my dear friend Adith.  Her Daughter was calling to set up a time when her Mom could call me.  Adith will call me tomorrow evening.  This way I can keep up on all the news from Lake Seminole Presbyterian Church.  We used to get together for lunch, one month at my home and the next month at Adith's.   You can say those were the "Good Old Days" and mean it.

Well, Mr. Bill is going to cook steaks on the grill and I am cooking French Fries in my little oven so I better say bye for now. 

Don't forget to watch the Rays game.

Love and prayers from here to there. 

 

 

 

 

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