Hey Baby Bump!

We have a new grandchild on the way in April, 2010! Here’s Robin on October 11th getting ice cream for her birthday (some thing’s don’t change no matter how old they are) when Mike and I went to Texas for a visit.



We’ve all waited for a long time for this baby bump! There’s been crying, praying and praising for this one and now it’s on the way.



It’s so hard to see your child want something so bad and the Lord says “wait!” Through this infertility process that she has been going through I’ve learned a lot and realized so many couples are going through this, and my heart weeps for them.



I’ve learned that the conception of life is truly a miracle! Then she tells me some of the stuff she has learned about what’s happening to her and what she should be doing. It’s amazing! I told her it’s a miracle I even birthed any babies because of all the stuff I didn’t know.



I considered myself “in the know” for my time and still I was in the dark. I was the parent that didn’t want any drugs during delivery because it would go to the baby. I was the parent that breastfed because it was the best milk for the baby. I was the parent that made my own baby food and used cloth diapers. Hold on maybe I wasn’t “in the know” I think I was just crazy!!



The most important thing is our new baby bump will have a loving family that will make sure no need goes unmet!! That’s the most important thing! So we welcome baby bump and we can’t wait to see you.



Love from You Nana

Happy Birthday to the Greatest Wife I Have Ever Had

Did you know that Saturday, September 12th is the Cat-In-The-Hats Birithday (at least the Jones's version - Sandra1.0) ?

In honor of that, here's a short story for my favorite feline:

This cat is cute all made up and dressed
Working all day with the kiddles at Glen Iris
She has raise two kittens of her very own
Has one grand kitten and another being grown
She's a little older now, likes to lay on the couch
And yes even sometimes she's a cat grouch.
But I love how she purrs when I am around
And how she loves me even when the old dog's down
When she sneeks over to give me a kiss
Well I fedl as if I am iost in Cat Hat bliss.
She's a good mother, teacher and friend
And I will love her until this earthy life ends
She's reaching a milestone in age and beauty
But in this old dog's sight she still quite a cuty.
Happy Birthday Sandra, love of my life.
I am so bless that you are my wife.
ou've been true to your word - In Sickess and Health
And I could never repay you with all this world's wealth.
Even though my body can't do what it did,
will still try to keep my love in the open, not hid.
I love you with all my heart and soul and that will ever be,
My we have many more years and then you will see.
You can teach on old dog new tricks if your patient my dear
And keep cooking Husband's Delight at leat once a year.

Love you Mr. Cat

ADVANTAGES OF AGING

It has now been a week since my 59th birthday and I am about over my depression. I have decided that this is where I draw the line. I am not celebrating any more birthdays.

Now that I have had a few days to reflect I have come up with a few positive aspects about getting older.
• People get out of the way when you drive down the street.
• Foods you don't like taste like foods you do like
• You will probably be among the first hostages released.
• Your secrets are safe because your friends can't remember them.
• You are less and less likely to be subjected to a strip search.
• Your supply of brain cells is finally down to a manageable size.
• Kidnappers and stalkers are not very interested in you.
• Your arthritis makes it less likely that you will lose your wedding ring.
• If you wake up in the morning it's a good day regardless.
• Getting lucky means you find your car in the parking lot.
• Things you buy now are less likely to wear out.
• TV show reruns are like new shows since you can’t remember the original showing
• Senior citizen discounts are automatically applied to your bill
• You no longer have to explain why you aren’t going to ride the roller coaster
• You can enjoy reading books more than once since you can’t remember the story line
• You have more opportunity to make friends while at the doctor’s office
• You can get a good nap while at the movies
• You can finally enjoy youR oldies music at louder levels since no one is worried about you loosing your hearing

I am sure there are some more, but I have forgotten them.

IT'S MY GRANDKIDS AND I'LL CRY IF I WANT TO

At about 2:30 PM on Thursday afternoon I got a call from my daughter Robin. You all know the struggle we all, especially Robin and Chris, have been going through trying to have a family, so two things went immediately through my mind one good, one bad. I said a small prayer before I answered and then heard her voice. Now those of you who know me best will know that I do not handle emotional situations too well sometimes, especially when it involves my family. I am the one in the family that always cries at movies. I think I was traumatized by Ol’ Yeller as a kid. In this case I was able to keep my composure and carry on a conversation with Robin.

Well her news was not good news, it was great news. She is pregnant and everything is positive. My normally calm wife however, fell to pieces and Robin said she was not sure Sandra was going to be able to finish the call. After Robin and I finished, I called Sandra and she was still crying for joy.

Well after all the dust had settled, we both just praised God in Thanksgiving and Praise. Hope and Glory (our name for the embryos when implanted) will now be loved and prayed for.

Noah is the apple of our hearts and we have been blessed with him. Now we fully are trusting God to add to our joy and our family.

(Psa 35:27 KJV) Let them shout for joy, and be glad, that favour my righteous cause: yea, let them say continually, Let the LORD be magnified, which hath pleasure in the prosperity of his servant.

(Psa 9:2 KJV) I will be glad and rejoice in thee: I will sing praise to thy name, O thou most High.

Early Christmas Gift Idea

As most of you know, I am not a real big Obama supporter, but I saw something on TV a few weeks back that astounded me. I was watching Sean Hannity and a commercial came on that at a first I thought was a joke. Even after it was completed I really did not think it was real, but I later saw it run several times on other stations. It was a commercial for chiaobama. A plastic bust of President Obama's head with the chia (chia pet) plant growing on top for hair. On the side is the slogan, YES WE CAN.

The commercial encouraged you to order on-line (chiaobama.com) and be the first in your office or your school room to own one. Take it to work or school for a conversation piece. Send one to your friends.

Now I don't know what kind of corporate culture you have, but I can almost assure you the conversation that would ensue in my work place would go something like this.

My Boss: Mike I couldn't help but notice that you have a Chiaobama on your desk complete with green plants for his hair.

Me: Yes sir. The commercial said it would be a good conversation piece in the office place.

Boss: Well I would certainly agree it is a conversation piece and here is the conversation. Due to the negative connotations of this art piece being on your desk, we no longer need your services. Please take your conversation piece with you when you leave.

I am sure this would be a prize gift for your friends too. In my opinion this would be equivalent to the horses head in bed in the Godfather movie. The only friend I would send this to is one I was trying to get rid of.

So if you really want to insult nearly everyone, you can get one of these sure fire attention getters. Please don't send me one however. I still need to function in this society a while longer.

OLD FOLKS TRY TO KEEP UP

OK. From my limited knowledge about what's is going on with Robin, I think it is wait and see time to see if our new grandchild or grandchildren setttle in and she gets officially pregnant. I have limited knowledge about this sort of thing since Sandra took care of all these details when we had children, I did not have to deal with it until she told me she was pregnant. After I got up off the floor and regained consiounsess I regained my composure briefly until we started finding out about what was really invovled. There were several times that she had to calm me down. Especially when I found out she wanted to have me in the delivery room with her for the unvailing. The nurses in those days did not think much of that approach and I agreed until she told me I had no say in matter. I learned right quick not to argue with a pregnant woman.

Anyway I decided to look up pregnancy tests to find out what color we were rooting for on the home pregnancy test, blue or pink. While doing so I came across several sites that advertised "On Line Pregnancy Tests". Now I know I am not a very bright fellow but I have a few questions about this.

1. How do you apply the sample? I really don't see a port for this on my computer and I don't think my hard drive would be very accepting of this.
2. Who is interpreting the test? I know emails and web posting are pretty public information.
3. Is this a part of WebMed?
4. Since I do know how home testts are performed I wonder is this sort of the opposite of Facebook?
5. How long do you have to wait for results and does it come by email?
6. Is USB faster than a DVD?
7. How do you back this up in case the computer crashes?
8. Will the results wind up on You Tube?

I can remember when we were one of the first to have "natural childbirth" in Montomery. The nurses and others waiting in the waiting room in those days looked at us like we were crazy. And now we can have "On Line Pregnancy Testing" Grandma's and Grandpa's are having to deal with some unsetting things now days.

Anyway, I am asking now that everyone please pray that everything will go well with the next phase. For those not following Robin's blog, I will try to keep you in the loop. That is if I can figure it out myself.

Love
Nana and Puddin

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea

This will conclude the epic saga of our vacation for 2009. I will endeavor to hit the high spots of the last two days and move on to other topics for your consideration in future blogs.

Before I get started I need to set the stage a bit for what typically occurs on vacations we have planned during our anniversary which is on June 24th. Evidently every city in the United States has reserved the week of June 24th for their major event of the year. The first place it became truly evident to me was on our trip to San Francisco a couple of years back. After carefully checking every major travel web site (Priceline, Hotline, Travelocity, Expedia, AAA and Here’s Arnold.com) when we decided to go to San Francisco for our anniversary. Only after we arrived did we discover that June 24th was date of the Gay Pride Parade. After carefully debating if we wanted to take a chance of being featured on all the major news stations all over the world, we decided to get out of town and go to Napa Valley. About half way there we discovered that THE major NASCAR event for the year on the West Coast was being held the same day and was halfway between the Napa Valley and the Queen for a Day celebration. Now I don’t know what evil demented person scheduled a NASCAR event and the Gay Pride Parade for the same day, but those two events could not be more diametrically opposed, so there was no overlap at all of the people attending each event and we were caught in the middle. It’s enough to force a 50 year old Baptist to take a few sips but we did survive and in San Francisco it wasn’t even a blip on the screen.

Anyway with that understanding we found after planning our trip to Charleston that their premier event for the year, Harbor Fest, was the week we arrived. We should have become suspicious that something was up the first day we arrived. We got on the elevator at the hotel and we were the only ones that spoke American. There were Australian, British, Russian, Spanish and a few others I couldn’t begin to understand all trying to get somewhere in a short amount of time. Anyway, being the cosmopolitan travelers that we are, we didn’t have a clue what was going on.

Evidently Harbor Fest is the one weekof the year that everyone in the world tries to come to Charleston. Who knew? There were tall ships from almost every nation represented and I really did enjoy walking the 15 miles to and from the harbor to see them. There is really nothing quite as majestic as these beautiful ships. In addition there were exhibits of all kind and, best of all, great junk food.

The two most impressive ships were the American Eagle, now used as a training ship for the Coast Guard and the Russian Tall ship whose name I can’t pronounce because it only has consonants in the name. We found out they were both built by Germany during WW II and were originally used to train U-Boat sailors. They had the same controls as a U-Boat. Now I never did figure out how they practiced the “Dive-Dive” command on a tall ship, but the Jolly Roger did it in Pirates of the Caribbean so I am sure there is a way.

As we were waiting to get on the Russian ship I noticed that there was only one stand selling American flags and it was located immediately across from the Russian ship. I asked one of the volunteers working the event if this was a coincidence or was it planned. Her response was a vacant stare and then “Why would we do that, they are our friends aren’t they?” Now anyone in my family knows that in most cases when I hear such an absurd statement, I will respond, often before my brain is fully engaged, but in this case her response left me speechless. How do you respond to such an obtuse comment? Granted she was younger than me (most people are). Maybe she was too young to remember the Cold War. Hiding under desks during Civil Defense drills at school. Perhaps she had never read the story of the Cuban Missile crisis. Possibly she’s never seen the footage of Nikita Khrushchev beating his shoe on the UN table and shouting “We will bury you!!” I one the other hand lived through all that and I will never think of Mother Russia as a “friend” of the US.

Anyway, being completely stunned by her comment, my brain delayed long enough for me to realize we were only three steps from boarding the Russian ship and I thought it was the prudent thing not to anger the sailors until after we go off, so I shook my head, smiled at the lady, held my head up high and asked the Russian sailors at the boarding deck “How ya’ll doin’’ and waddled on board like nothing had happened.






While on ship we saw some of the sailors stocking the food bins and I finally discovered how they were able to compete with our military forces. They evidently do not purchase uniforms for everyone, thereby saving money on clothing and cleaning bills and investing that money in Cuban missiles and equipment.




OK the other cool thing about Harbor Fest is they had pirates. They were bucking their swashes, shivering their timbers and all that genuine pirate stuff; pirate women, pirate guys, parrots and all. Now my brain sometimes works in odd ways. It was 110 in the shade and these pirates all had on at least three layers of clothing, long sleeves, bandanas, long pants, a vest and knee high black boots. Now I wonder if the real pirates really dressed like that? If so, how in the world did they survive? Another thing. Have you ever owned any kind of bird? If all the stuff at the bottom of a bird cage ended up on the pirate’s shoulder were the parrot always perched is it any wonder that there were so few pirates. Their social network had to be pretty small. No wonder that had to kidnap recruits. It was a real hoot to see those nasty old pirates pulling their wheeled coolers with bottle water in them. Somehow that kinda destroyed to whole image.



We did find one other item I thought maybe Robin or Carrie might want to add to their furntiture collection.

The next day Sandra decided she would rather go to the beach than to see a plantation, so off we went. Took us about an hour to find the beach. Now you would think that all we would have to do is travel east until we hit the Atlantic Ocean, but it was not that easy. Parking places were hard to come by, but we finally found one, again having to walk another 5 miles on scorching sand to the beach. Once we established our beach head and rested for an hour or so, Sandra decided it was time to go into the water. Now in my youth that would have been exciting. Back then I had not yet I discovered that I needed glasses and I could not see what was actually in the water with me. Now, different story. I now refuse to enter a large body of water without my glasses.


So here we go. I had my ball cap to protect my bald head from infrared rays, my sun glasses to keep out the UV rays and my glasses to see the sting rays. We go out about waist deep and God began to smile. He realized that here was an opportunity to have big fun with the fat guy. Let’s send this tidal wave to take him out. Sure enough the wave took out my legs and took me under. No big deal, I have been under water before. Something today was different though. I could not get my legs back under me. The next wave doused me again and knocked off my ball cap. Sandra was close by and caught it and then began laughing, hilariously and uncontrollably while I was causing a low tide by drinking all the sea water. Still struggling, another wave took off my sunglasses and dunked me again. Sandra laughed harder as I sank beneath the wave. At this point I grabbed my glasses because I knew they were next and just decided to die with my glasses in tact so everyone would recognize me at the funeral. Finally after being dragged back to shore where little children were now laughing with Sandra, I got to my feet, declared that I had enough drowning for the day and crawled back to our spot on the beach. Finally Sandra was able to regain her composure and joined me. After I had enough strength back in my legs, we walked back to the car. Since it was low tide when we left add another ½ mile to the walk out. That plus the fact that I got lost again going west and you have the makings of a memorable outing.

This whole episode gave me some insight on the day I fell down the basement stairs at our old house. As I was lying up against the basement wall taking inventory to determine what was broken and if I was still alive, I heard this hysterical laughter. Now there was nothing funny about the situation to me and I was thinking, Lord just let me live to see another day. Meanwhile my daughter was doubled up laughing. Now I know it was not her fault. She inherited it from her mother.

We did eat in two other outstanding places, High Cottons and Hall’s Chophouse. Highly recommend the Molten Chocolate Volcano Cake at High Cottons. When Sandra bit into that I thought I was going to have to call 911. Eyes rolled back, deep throaty moans and smile all across her face. She didn’t take another bite for a few minutes and I finally had to tell her to breath.

Well that pretty well wraps up the highlights of our vacation. Oh except for driving back which was pretty much a repeat of the sleep fest I had going over. Sandra did however let (i.e. require) me to drive first so she did not have to drive the entire trip back. All in all a pretty neat trip. We will definitely consider going back to Charleston.

Maybe next time we can find the slave museum.

THE REST OF THE STORY

Prior my last blog I talked about the first day of our trip to Charleston. Here is “The Rest of the Story”.

After we got a good nights sleep we set off on day two. First breakfast at Hominy Grill. Before I can continue I must make a detour. After a few visits to internet restaurant sites to get recommendations, and also checking out the Concierge at the motel, I have come to the conclusion that the most important thing for a true Charleston restaurant is how good their shrimp and grits are. Nearly every restaurant advertised that they have the best shrimp and grits in town. It was like the quest for the Holy Grail. Where can we get the best shrimp and grits? Hominy Grill was one of those places. Now I am not real high on shrimp and grits before noon, but it was on the menu.

Anyway, thanks to the concierge we got reservations at Hominy Grill, plugged the address into Maggie and away went. I was somewhat surprised when she announced “You have arrived’. The place from the outside hardly looked like a restaurant, but we went in and were greeted by the friendly staff who had a table waiting for us that the concierge reserved. We were a few minutes late but the owner came to greet us and told us that even though we were a bit late, she would allow us to order off the breakfast menu. She made us feel very welcome. I took the menu and noticed they had county ham for some of the entrees so I asked if I could have country ham, eggs, grits and biscuits. The waitress told me they did not serve country ham. Oh well. I started to ask about green eggs, but since there was no ham, I decided I had better not press my luck. Sandra ordered the obligatory shrimp and grits. All in all a fairy good meal, but it was evident to me that Charleston’s reputation was not estabalished on breakfast. I would still recommend the restaurant. The folks were really nice even if their menu was not exactly accurate and the price was about what you would expect.

The next big item of the day was a bus tour of the city. Now we could have purchased the historic walking tour, but as I stated before why walk when there are perfectly good gasoline burning buses trolling the city with genuine tour guides that have lived in the city for over two years. I have found that bus tours are generally worth their money because they will take you places you would not normally go by yourself. This was no exception. They talked about things we would not have known otherwise and promptly forgot once we finished the tour. This was evident in that there were a few places we wanted to go back to but could not remember how we got there. We looked for the slave museum for nearly and hour and finally decided that they must have relocated after the tour. I am sure that somewhere in Charleston there is a great slave museum, but we never found it again.

After the tour we went downtown to Central Market. This is a market downtown where anyone in the world can sell the stuff you wouldn’t buy anywhere else. You know the genuine country trinkets made in Taiwan. This is also where the gullah baskets are sold. Sandra warned me that they were very expensive and that she was not in the market for one, so naturally we wound up buying one. Some of those baskets costs more that a small car. They are made by descendents of the slaves in the area. Or at least that what their PR firm published. They won’t let you take their picture because they said it was against their religion. Personally I think it is to keep you from documenting their true ancestry. Any way, when you come to our house you can ooh and aw at it. I am truly in awe of how I was talked into paying so much for a basket. Vacations will do that to normally sane people. Oh after the basket purchase, we had some more truly great local cuisine, pizza. Not bad, pizza and nachos already. What more great culinary delight were to follow.

That night we went to Coast’s. You remember the place that we tried to go to the night before. This time we did not trust the local desk clerk, we called ahead for reservations. Sure enough we got their precisely at the time of the reservations and only had to wait for 30 minutes before the table was ready. Needless to say, I am beginning to think that Charleston is not big on being on time. The seafood there was really good though and I would recommend it, just make sure you have reservations.

That night we purchased tickets for the Gravesite Walking Tour. Notice the name waking in the title. Come to find out that this was somewhat of a misnomer. We arrived at 9:30 PM for our appointed date with the ghouls. Now I must point out we already had to walk a mile from the parking deck to get to the place that tour started. When we arrived, along with what must have been half the population of Charleston, I noticed all the young ladies that were conducting the tours. I convinced myself that maybe this would be ok. Two perky young ladies came out and began calling the names or their group. Soon our tour guide walked out and I got really excited because this guy must have been 75 if he was a day. My first thought was that this guy probably knew half the folks in the cemetery personally and that since he was such an old codger, I might actually be able to keep up with him. Well turns out I was half right. He did seem to know a lot about the folks planted around but he was not slow. First thing he said was that we were scheduled to be in the first graveyard in 5 minutes. Did I mention the walking part of the tour? Turns out this guy walks faster than I run. But I was proud of myself after the 1 mile run. Hadn’t done that since high school. I began to wonder if I wouldn’t be the latest addition to the tour. We lost about half our group. They seemed to be expecting to meet some of the local spooks personally and got upset that some ghosts didn’t rise from the grave to welcome them to Charleston. By the time we got back from the tour, we only had five folks left. Thankfully I was one of the five. I still had some nitroglycerin tablets left too. Take that you goofy ghosts. I was elated until I remembered we were still a mile from the parking deck. I slept well that night.

I would highly recommend a thrilling run through the cemetery to end the day. Make for some interesting and exhilarating dreams that night.

Next blog will finish out our whirlwind tour.

AND NOW A WORD TO OUR SPONSOR

I guess you can tell by now I am not going to be real serious with this blog – normally. But as the Preacher said many years ago “To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven”. Today is a time to speak of things of eternal import and of present concern.

It is time for me to contrast the changes I have recently witnessed in the headstrong girl that is so much a part of Sandra and myself.

The young girl that saw no fear and climbed those monkey bars not realizing that when you fall off on cold hard concrete, bones don’t bend too well, they break. The girl that I carried in my arms to the hospital bed and who gazed into my eyes asking for her Daddy to make it better.

The young girl so driven to succeed that one bad grade at school was so devastating that she felt she had failed us so she “ran away from home” until she found that her friend she had planned to stay with was not home. She then tried to get back home before we noticed, afraid we would be disappointed in her.

The young lady who always had to be the best at what she did and was driven to prove that those who doubted her were wrong. The young girl who was determined to get a degree in English because her teacher told her she shouldn’t major in English because she couldn’t do it.

The same girl who went to take an interview test for a job she knew was impossible for her to get because of the competition but succeeded in getting the job. The girl who latter parlayed that job into a career to pay for her husband’s Doctorate degree.

The same woman that was determined to have a baby when all odds were against her and attempted to do it alone with Chris the first time they went through IVF

This same woman that this time has realized that there are times when God does a miracle, not for us, but so that He can be glorified and asked everyone to be a prayer warrior for her and Chris on this attempt.

This time my baby daughter has asked that those that love her the most bend their knees and lift up to God our petitions and prayers for Him to bless them with a miracle only He can perform – a new life for them to nurture, love and teach about our mighty God and our All Sufficient Lord.

Therefore, this blog is directed to the only One that can accomplish this.

God you hold among your names El-Shaddai -- The God Who is Sufficient for the Needs of His People, Our God who is Faithful and True, the Creator of all Life, Abba our Father, Jehovah-Jireh -- The Lord our Provider, Jehovah-Ropheka -- The Lord our Healer and Jehovah-Shammah -- The Lord who is Present.

Lord you told us through your servant Jeremiah 29:11 (NIV) "For I know the plans I have for you, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." Jesus you said in Matthew 17:20 , .”for verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed….nothing shall be impossible unto you.”. You said through James “The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much”

Therefore God, not that I am a righteous man, but because I have faith in your Word and your love for us, I pray your blessing upon Robin and Chris as they strive to seek Your will through this process. I ask that you guide the hands, minds and spirits of those attending her; Dr Robert, Dr. Glen and Michele. I also pray for Robin’s friends that are undergoing the same struggles within their spirit and marriages over this process; Amanda, Tabitha and Kelli.

I know that whatever the outcome, Your name will be exalted, Your majesty revealed and Your love manifested upon all who bind together with our daughter, Sandra, myself, Chris, Jim, Martha and our family as we seek Your face together in one spirit and one mind. Lord we know you are in control and you know what’s ahead. We seek to understand and to accept the path that lies ahead and to love and support each other though the journey.

I especially lift Robin up that you would strengthen her body, and comfort her soul and lift her spirit as she waits for your answer. Lord I ask and pray that answer to be yes for a child of their own. We lift up Chris that he would be her encourager and her strength, one in faith, one in mind and one in spirit in this struggle.

We love you God and know you have good in store for them. May your name be magnified as you perform a miracle within their lives. And God, let me ask just one more time, take care of my little girl.

I ask these things in the name of our blessed Savior and the lover of our souls, Jesus Christ our Lord
Amen.

OLD FOLKS IN CHARLESTON

On June 24th we celebrated our 37th Wedding Anniversary. Our children commemorated our Anniversary by visiting together in Dallas/Ft. Worth while we were in Charleston. Don’t exactly know how that worked out. Guess that was the only week they could get together and I am happy they did. They seemed to have a good time, and I know we did. (Well that didn’t come out right) What I meant to say is they enjoyed their time together and we enjoyed Charleston.

So here’s the 411 on our trip. First we left Birmingham and Sandra said she would drive. I said ok, I will read some and then take over in a while. I started reading and 5 minutes later was dead asleep (see my first blog). I slept until were in South Carolina, completely missed Georgia, which is fine with me. Anyway I woke up in time to program the GPS, affectionately called Maggie by Sandra (it’s a Magellan unit). Sometime Sandra carries on a conversation with her. It is truly fascinating to listen to Sandra argue with her. Maggie never raises her voice but guess what? Sandra’s never loses an argument. Doesn’t mean she was right, she just didn’t lose the argument. It’s an age old ability passed down to wives by their mother on the day of their marriage. Guys either are too stupid to understand this ability or God just never told us about the other curse on Adam – you will never from this day forth win an argument with your wife. Come to think about it that what got him into trouble in the first place.

Anyway, back to the saga. As I said, I programmed Maggie to find the Holiday Inn Motel, and sure enough after a few “take the next legal U-turns” we arrived at the Holiday Inn, Historic District. Fairly nice place with a large enough room, refrigerator and microwave and coffee pot. Yes sir this will make a great place for us to set up house for our visit. Think I will park the car. Surprise number 1, no parking spaces which I paid $11 per day for. We got to park across the street in a church parking lot. This will come into play later during the week.

By the time we got through unloading the moving van (actually a Toyota Avalon, but I can pack a lot in it when Sandra says we have to take two 100 pound suitcases, coolers, camera and assorted bags, Picture the Beverly Hillbillies in a Toyota. All we lacked was the rocking chair tied to the top of the car)

It was time for our first delicious meal in Charleston. (Oh by the way, I was actually visiting Charlotte. Every time I asked someone something about Charleston, I always said Charlotte. There must be something Freudian about that). Again I digress. Not knowing where the heck we were in relation to the eating establishments, we asked the young desk attendant where would be a good place to eat. He told us about Coast’s Seafood Restaurant that was within walking distance and that we should not have to wait long to be seated– refer to the description of the attendant as young. Well being old and naive, we set out on our trek for Coast’s restaurant. Surprise number 2 – the space time continuum is different for young attendants that for us mature, sane people that are used to riding everywhere. Coast’s was about 4 blocks away – which I estimate is about 10 miles. We finally arrived there and asked if there was a table available. Surprise number 3. There was a short one and a half hour wait. Now I have never waited over 20 minutes for food when there is perfectly good Kentucky Fried Chicken or Burger King just waiting for me to drop in. Unfortunately recall – we walked and there was not a fast food joint within site.

Based upon this information, we decided surely we could find another place we could eat. Nope, all booked up at every place we tried. Finally, on the verge of starvation, we found Juanita Greenburgs. We both looked at each other. What in the world would they serve at a Mexican-Jewish establishment? I could picture Taco-Motzah Ball Soup or maybe Gefilte Fish enchiladas. They advertised Nachos so we ordered one of their deluxe nachos. Well we weren’t surprised to find out their nachos were a bit different. More like a nacho pizza, but it was not bad at all. This was just not what we anticipated for our first night in Charleston however. Surprise 4 – remember the 10 miles we walked to get to this place. Guess what. It was15 miles back to the room.

Finally we arrived back at the motel. I was thirsty and decided to go to the vending machine. Surprise 5 – the vending machines on our floor were empty. As always, the next floor I went to was empty too. I searched several floors before I found one with something to drink in it. So when you now go to the Holiday Inn Historic District in Charleston, you will probably hear of sighting of the ghost in the building that wanders aimlessly in search of his spirit. In reality it was a fat, pale, dehydrated old white guy just looking for a diet coke.

Well I know most of you don’t have time for the rest of the novel today. I will post the next chapter later. That is where the pictures kick in.

Keep the Son in your eyes

I AM BECOMING MY MOTHER

My mother loved her family and she adored our children. I loved being with her, just talking. I still miss her. She was human and did have some faults, like me!
She had a hard life. Some things happened because of the choices she made and other things happened that only God knows the reason.
She passed on some of her faults (or quirks) to me.

As a small child I can still see my mother waxing the hardwood floors on her hands and knees. As a teenager I told her the house would look cleaner if she would just put up the cleaning supplies. She was a little OCD about cleaning. Now my children don’t remember this about her because the last season of her life she gave up OCD cleaning for surviving.

She passed this OCD cleaning quirk to me. Just one example is first time Mike saw me clean a stove. He said, “I’ve never seen anyone clean a stove like that!” Now I’m not sure that was a complement, but let me just say if I can’t get to it with a cloth I will find something to get to the gunk that’s under there even though I can’t see it.

Mother had a way of looking at life while I was growing up. She was a doer. Whatever the circumstance she was actively doing something within that situation. If there were things she had no power over those were left in God’s hands and she prayed.

She passed this doer personality quirk on to me. This is not always good. Over the years I’ve learned that prayer should come first. Still I have the Holy Spirit within me and a sound mind, OK an old mind, but I know there are some things I can do while I wait on the Lord. I have my lazy days, but mostly I’m a doer.

In the last season of mother’s life she stopped everything but waiting on the Lord and reading. Her life was so hard she escaped through books. Everywhere she went she had a book. When we closed down their home we discovered boxes and boxes of books that she had read.

So now within 4 weeks of my summer I’ve read 14 BOOKS!! I have a blessed life! I can’t think of a reason I need to escape from my reality. I have a loving husband I adore. We have great children-better than I deserve. We have a precious grandbaby, good jobs, a nice home, dear friends, and I have heaven too!! So why do I need to escape? I’m not sure but those books stacked on the floor by my bed make me feel like I’m becoming my mother.

I need to get up and do something!

BASEBALL’S BEEN BERRY BERRY GOOD TO ME

Today we spent the day with my Adam, Carrie and Noah. We traveled the 40 or so miles to the place where they have been called as missionaries – Tuscaloosa. Actually they live in Northport but they both work in town and have to travel to the dark place every day.

We had a nice lunch of (as the Coneheads would say – seared, ground bovine flesh (hamburger). Adam was unsure about how well they were cooked but they were done and tasted wonderful – since I did not have to cook. Carrie made a potato dish that was tasty and Sandra made some deviled eggs.

After putting Noah to bed, Carrie helped me to finish designing my blog page. Actually she did it I just watched. Sandra asked me Carrie taught me how to manipulate the site. I told her that Carrie was teaching, but I was not sure I was learning. After going over it with me several times, I think I got enough to do a few more things on the site.

After this it was time to go to watch the Birmingham Barons play the Mobile Baycats at Regions Park. I had two ticket that allowed 5 people for each ticket to see the game. The tickets said the game was to start at 7:05 PM. That should have tipped me off. Who starts at five minutes after the hour. I told everyone if we got there by 6:00 we should be able to park and get settled before the first pitch. Great plan and we timed it just right. I thought.

We arrived at the park at 5:45 and I immediately suspected something was wrong. Cars were already parked at the end of the parking lot and people were cheering inside. Now I have not been to too many baseball games, but I have been to enough games to know that when people are cheering, something is happening. Well as it turns out, the game start time was moved up one hour

Well good thing that missing the first inning of a baseball game is no big deal. No pregame show, no big exciting introduction videos for the team, not even any girls dressed in skimpy uniforms urging you to cheer. (That seems strange to me. During football season, in temperatures hovering around 0 degrees in some cities, we always have girls dressed in skimpy uniforms, yet in the summer when it would be much more comfortable for the girls, not a one to be seen.) Go figure.

Anyway when we got in it was the top of the second inning. Just enough time to have run on the concession stand. Both Sandra and I have decided that the only reason people attend a baseball game is to eat. We noticed that some left after consuming their hot dog, popcorn, corndog, ice cream, soda, French fries, cotton candy and big salty pretzel. Don’t know if the game was that uninteresting to them or just all have a stomach ache and had to go home or the local Doc-In-the-Box. To have their stomach pumped.

I told Adam and Sandra that in my whole time of seeing the Barons play I had never seen them win a game. The Barons won the first half season. In our minor leagues there is two halves of the season. The team that wins the fist part of the season makes the play off games. The Barons had recently completed a seven game winning streak, but I was not fooled. I knew that this steak would end the minute I stepped into the park. Turns out I was wrong. The steak actually came to an end before we got into the stadium. As we walked to our seats, I noticed the scoreboard read Bay Bear – 1, Barons -0. They never overcame this deficient and I got to see another masterful loss. Ho Hum, been there done that.

That not withstanding, we got into the spirit of the baseball game – we made two trips to the concession stand. That in itself is a hoot. I love my wife with all my heart, but she cannot make up her mind when it comes to ordering food. We stood in line for at least 20 minutes and she was still debating when it came time for us to order.

I also don’t understand how I can always seem to order the thing they just ran out off. Thank you sir there will be short wait for the corndog. Short wait evidently equals 20 minutes. But I will say one thing, they were hot. Picked mine up a burned my hand. And I waited 20 minutes so I could get a second degree burn from my food. We won’t even talk about that wonderful, flesh searing first bite. What a joyous occasion. Good thing I was not in a restaurant where a blood curdling scream actually draws attention. At the baseball game no one even notices.

After the game we stayed for the real reason we went, the fireworks. They were pretty good, but again I don’t understand how a stadium who invests hundreds of thousands of dollars in sound equipment can’t seem to play music through their system during the fireworks show. It keep cutting out on the music. Same things happens at every sports event I have ever been to. Sooner or later that sound will screw up or the scoreboard does not work.

Anyway good show, awful but fun food, people I love with me, Noah looking in wonderment at the game and fireworks, Sandra holding my arm and a pleasant night that caused the insects to take the night off. Only one thing I missed, having my daughter Robin and son-in-law Chris with us for the night.

So the Old Folks had a good time on the day before the fourth of July.

Next blog will have some pictures of our vacation time in Charleston. I will tell you the real story behind almost drowning while my wonderful wife looked on laughing hysterically. I now know why my daughter seems to find my nearly killing myself on the steps so funny. It evidently runs in the family.

Till next time – Keep the Son in you eyes.

The First Post

On line and waiting for inspiration.
I don't know what possesed me to do this, but here goes.
The busy odd day of an old guy.
1. Wake up, promptly go back to sleep. (Who set that stupid clock anyway)
2. Wake up again and check to see if all body parts are still where they were when I went to bed.
3. Roll out, stomp toe, fall back into bed.
4. After throbbing stops, turn on shower and jump around in cold water until it heats up 1/2 hour later.
5. Look into mirror after shower. Who is that old guy looking back?
6. Breakfast - such an exciting meal. Nowadays all cereal tastes alike, eggs and bacon clog my arteries, bread and jelly causes my blood sugar to go sky high. Settle for an apple, that is if we had any.
7. Go to drug store. My drug store now has a special Puddin wing that was built from my purchases. Pharmacits not only know me by first name, I suspect they know by bank account and social security number also.
9. Come back home and take a much deserved nap. Get up 5 minutes later since once I laid down I was wide awake.
10. Began to read my latest Star Trek book, fell fast asleep.
11. Woke up for lunch. Still no apples. Lipton soup sounds good - nope salt content too high. Settled for a grilled cheese (just ignored fat content)
12. Went outside to water my tomato plants. Changed clothes after hose broke.
13. Decided to repair hose. Cut hand with knife.
14. Bandaged hand and went to store to by another hose.
15. Finally got tomatoes watered.
16. Decided to cook supper. Discovered I forgot to put something out.
17. Mac and Cheese for supper.
18. Watched my favorite TV show
19. Fall asleep five minutes into show.
20. Got up and got ready for bed.
21. Not sleepy since I slept for two hours in front of TV.
22. Decided to read some more of my Star Trek book.
23. Fell asleep five minutes into book (I have read the same page 10 times now)
And there you have the exciting life of a old guy. All in all a pretty good day.
Well folks there you have the first installment. Hopefully they will be like me and get better with time.
Puddin.