A Tuesday of my own

This day brings zero appointments or real deadlines. This is extremely rare and I hope I make good use of the time, although, if you read the random list posted yesterday, you can see where sometimes you reach a certain point where you know you will accomplish nothing! I pray that will not happen to me today! Friday I depart for WI being driven to the airport by my chauffeur, Justin. He has promised to get up early enough to get over here, gather my things and me, and get to the plane on time. I asked him to sleep over on Thursday to ease my mind but he has something called "Trivia Night" that he is involved in at Atlantic Beach. He has no trouble waking in the morning, he claims, and I asked him if he had an internal alarm clock like Kramer does on "Seinfeld". Just don't hit the snooze button like Kramer did!

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Justin called me in the afternoon yesterday asking, in his sad voice, if I saw the space shuttle, Atlantis, launch. YES, I did! He missed it somehow, even though he was listening to the radio when it went up. The station he listens to on podcast (I think that is the word) evidently did not break away and he totally missed it. He asked if the vapor trail was still showing but it was well over half an hour after the launch, with the wind breaking up the trail quickly. My neighbor, Karen, and I were at our rails when it went up and had a nice, clear view of the shuttle. Justin made me chuckle a bit as he lamented about the contractors who were supposedly to show up for punch work on a house, and did not. "I hate these contractors!" It is particularly worse when it is crunch time and the work must be completed prior to closing (today) and they are no-shows. I reminded Justin how I told Jimmie, in the midst of my remodeling on the lake house, that if I ever, ever again consider being a general contractor, just shoot me!!! Shoot me and have it over with!

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In the morning I attended Bible study where we concluded our study of the Psalms. No more classes now until 2010 which seems like really long off! Pastor needs to concentrate on the Advent services coming up in December, ThanksLiving yet this month, as he serves both here and in Keystone Heights. His wife may be having breast cancer surgery in December at some point and he needs a fairly clear schedule for that as well. She is responding well to the chemo treatments, her final one taking place this Thursday. In December there will be no Tuesday evening classes either so I am basically "free" except for the Art Guild party on Tuesdays. What are we supposed to do now on Monday mornings and Tuesday nights????

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Monday afternoon when I got home after lunch with the ladies at Steak 'n Shake, I worked on the newsletter a bit and then tackled the bag labels for the children's goodie bags for their reception after the preschool and kindergarten program. The fine tuning of this event will take place after I return from WI but I still wanted to get a jump on it. I am also responsible for obtaining the halos for the little angels to wear in the Sunday school CHRISTmas Eve service but have to find out how many we are talking about. I offered to lend some of mine.....te he he!

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Verizon has an advertisement on TV where Elvis is singing "Blue Christmas" in the background. The first time I heard it, I thought, "Hmmm, that's nice..." but the 50th time, I was ready to throw a shoe at the television. Is it too frequent or am I done listening to his plaintive tones???? On the radio station I listen to, they have to play a certain number of PSAs during the day. The one series really annoys me as a haunting male voice counts down the minutes left in the day before the child has to go home and face an abuser, encouraging people to volunteer to be advocates for abused child. It sets my teeth on edge but it takes too many extra keystrokes (one is playing right now!!!!!!!!! AAAHHHHH!) to mute the computer. I need an advocate, too, I think.

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Last night our Ladies' Group went to eat at Mimi's Cafe at St. Johns TCM. Twila, Jean, and Kathy rode with me, since Kelly backed out at the last minute. Kathy was going to ride out alone but didn't have to after Kelly cancelled. We were short a couple ladies but we had a marvelous time and meal in such a lovely dining room. The light fixtures are just awesome, it makes me feel right at home! Mom used to judge a restaurant by the price of the coffee and I judge it by the charm of the light fixtures! My entree was the grilled meat loaf and mashed potatoes---really! I have leftover Japanese food to eat up and must freeze the balance of the chicken noodle soup too as I leave Friday.

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Joanne's daughter was supposed to deliver her baby in early December but the ultrasounds and other tests were showing the baby to be quite large, almost too large to deliver. The decision was made, after determining the lung maturity, to have the baby on Monday. Kimberly's labor was induced and after being run over by a Mack truck, she eventually delivered the little boy this early morning at 5:00 a.m. Evidently some scar tissue was inhibiting the launch of the baby and had to be "removed" in order to facilitate the birth. Instead of the estimated 11+ pounds the tests had determined, he was, in fact, "only" just over 8 pounds. We said a prayer for Kimberly at Bible study yesterday and afterward I commented that my guess was the baby was not nearly a huge as they thought it was. I wonder, though, what exactly looked like three more pounds than was there.....They will rest all day today, for sure, after that rough delivery, and so will Joanne, as she had little sleep all night, waiting to hear the news!

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There was another chuckle yesterday---while I was at lunch with the ladies, my neighbor, Hugh, called, wondering if I was out of town. No, just having lunch.....He said he happened to be in the lobby when the mailman was putting the mail in the boxes and he asked Hugh if I had moved out or something. It seems my box was overflowing and he had to use the parcel box next to the regular boxes to store my mail. Early in the month when I am expecting my check, I go to the mailbox daily, but after that, maybe once a week or so. It is catalog season, folks, the box is filling up fast! Of the mail pieces, 11 of them were catalogs or coupon books. I promise to be more faithful with getting the mail through at least the end of the year as cards and letters may be stuck between the catalogs and junk mail. I cherish my CHRISTmas cards and look forward to sending out mine, too, so please, go to your mailboxes!!!