Fun for the family

David and I have a busy Saturday. Right now, he is fixing the bathtub faucet, which has been dripping since yesterday when I took a shower. I almost called him at work--I had tried as hard as I could, but I couldn't get the thing to stop dripping. He told me (after he got home from work) that he had the same problem after his shower the day before--it just wouldn't stop. He would have to put washers in the faucet.

Today, being Saturday, he has a little free time on his hands (very little, actually), so he is going to work on the faucets. First, he had to find his plumbing supplies. When he went to the basement and looked on the tool bench, they weren't readily visible. So he moved a small quilted travel bag to look under the bag. "Gee, this is heavy." He opened it and found that one of our daughters (probably the one who is here more often) had assembled a small plumbing repair kit for him. Great! Of course, once he had shut off the water and disassembled the faucet, he found that the size washer he needed was missing. That and something or other else that he needed...which meant a trip to the hardware store.

He headed out the front door and casually asked me if I were interested in going with him. Gee, I really love to go to the hardware store! (Never have enjoyed it, as a matter of fact) But at least this one has the advantage of being next door to Salvation Army's thrift store. So I agreed to get dressed (it is 12:00, mind you, and I know I should have already been dressed, but...) and went with him.

When we got to the hardware store, we found the parking lot was taken up in part by a motorcycle rally of some sort! If you know David, you know that next to me and his family, he probably loves looking at motorcycles better than about anything else in the world. Hooray for him! (Next to shopping at hardware stores, looking at motorcycles is on my list of things I hate) BUT along with the motorcycles, they also had a rummage sale! Not only was there one with the motorcycles, there was one over by the storage building display and one in front of the hardware store! All right! Maybe this wouldn't be so bad after all.

I headed for the storage buildings and started looking through boxes on flatbed trailers. There were some small Hispanic children there (along with their mothers) who were also looking through things. We spent a few minutes pulling stuff out of boxes and showing it to each other and exclaiming about how wonderful it was (it really wasn't), and then we found some books. If there's anything I'm a sucker for, it's children's books. I didn't see anything that grabbed my attention right away, but one of the little girls found an I Spy book. She was really excited, since it had numbers in it. She didn't know about looking for the other little pictures, and she got even more excited when she discovered that part of the fun. We went from the beginning through the page with the 6 on it before I left her to her fun. I do hope her mom bought the book. I imagine she would, though, since she had been watching us and smiling. Even her little siblings were getting involved, trying to find things. Like I said, fun for the family.

Well, pretty soon we need to quit our morning activities and get dressed up a little. We are going to a golden wedding anniversary celebration this afternoon for Kate and Quint, good friends from church. After that, we are heading to a wedding; April, the little girl who grew up next door to us and is now 32, is getting married, and I promised Lydia I would take some pictures.

Everyone, have a good Saturday--love to all, and God bless.

He is still HOT.

Maybe you don't want to know this, but I think Indiana Jones (also known as Harrison Ford) is still about as hot as they come.

David and I had a date this afternoon, first one in quite a while where I got to pick what we did, and went to see the new Indiana Jones' flick. I LOVED it. It wasn't perfect, but boy, was it fun. I found myself easily staying awake through the whole thing and smiling through almost all of it. It was great fun, campy, good guys winning in the end...Just plain wonderful.

If anything ever happened to David and I had to pick a new man, one that looks like old Harrison Ford or old Sean Connery, either one, would suit me just fine.

If you aren't under the age of 10, treat yourself to a good time and go see that movie. Love to all, and God bless.

It's funny.

Do you feel the need to laugh? Enjoy these. Love to all, and God bless.

The Sixties

Yes, folks, I was a child of the sixties. Read more about that wonderful decade here.

Good night to all, and God bless.

Was my face red!

This morning I walked into my Sunday School class and found the teacher telling another member how nice of me to have done what I did. I didn't know what she was talking about, of course, so I asked her what she meant. She replied, "To give the flowers in the sanctuary in honor of all the mothers." What did I say then? "Crap."

Here's why. Mother's Day has always been a special day in my life, since I was little. Mother and Daddy were married on May 11, and Mother's birthday was May 13. Often, Mother's Day came in the middle of those two days. Daddy always made a big deal of Mother's Day, getting corsages for us, taking us out for a special meal...

Fast forward to Mother and Daddy's 50th anniversary. Daddy died Tuesday, May 7, four days before that anniversary. Mother had a heart attack the night Daddy died. On Saturday, May 11, she was in the hospital. David had a dozen long-stemmed roses delivered to her at the hospital, "For my million dollar baby", which is what Daddy always called Mama. The following day was Mother's Day. We took the flowers to church in honor of their almost-50 year marriage and her 75th birthday, the following day. A couple of times after that, we provided the flowers. I decided that would be our tradition.

And this year, I plum forgot. Talk about embarrassing, especially after reading in the bulletin that I had provided the flowers. Guess who is going to bring a bouquet next week! And please, please, please don't let me forget next year!

Happy Mother's Day to all you mamas out there, and God bless.

Soon, soon you will see

This was a line from a play I was in in 1962, my freshman year in high school, called "The Summons of Sariel". I played a young blind child, maybe about 10 years old. My first line was, "How much longer? How much longer before we get there?", to which my guardian angel responded, "Soon, soon you will see." I should probably go into some detail about the play, since it played a significant part in my high-school experience. It was a one-act play for competition. We competed at both the regional and state levels, and received solid superior ratings at the regional level. (We didn't do as hot at state, probably because the cast was pretty upset at the gym class, who had been sitting on our set and had dented our wonderful columns.)

Because I was a pretty good-sized freshman (5'6" or 5'7"), the main consideration for my angel was that she should be taller than me. Fortunately, she was also a good actress. Sariel, the title character, was God's angel of death. He sat on a throne with those fore-mentioned columns on either side of him. Almost off stage on either side were a good angel, one of my best friends, and an evil angel. There was a lot of banter between them concerning the fate of the other characters: me, the child; a young mother who had attempted suicide, an old woman, and a woman who had been in an accident.

And here follows a bit of the plot: each of the characters had been summoned by Sariel because of a close brush with death. Some of us (me for instance) would go on to afterlife (we assume Heaven), while others would be returned to life on Earth. Sariel was the only male in the play. He was also my best friend's brother, a fantastic actor who later went to try his fortune in Hollywood. His costume was splendid, made of the finest velvet casket lining! (One of the girls on the backstage crew was the daughter of the local funeral-home owner.) Lots and lots of the best times I had in high school involved drama, and Sariel was the start of it all.

Anyway, back to my line--I hope it is going to come true! I went to the ophthalmologist about two weeks ago and learned I needed cataract surgery. I knew my vision was getting worse, but didn't really know the cause. Today, I went to see him again as a preparatory visit for the surgery. I was in the office two hours--that's an hour and a half longer than I think I needed to be there, but at least everything is done now, including some laser surgery that he felt needed to be done as a prophylactic measure. I have the actual cataract surgery on June 9, very early in the morning, and then a follow-up the next day. This will be for my left eye. I asked the doctor today when was the soonest he could do the right eye, which also needs to be done, and he said two weeks after that. So it looks like the month of June I'll spend getting these cataracts fixed, and then I'll be able to see again! Which will mean, I hope, that I will be able to drive at night and in the rain, neither of which I want to attempt now. Hallelujah!

Well, folks, take care--I hope your vision is at least 20/20, and the prospect of cataract surgery isn't looming in YOUR futures! Good night, and God bless.