Listening to the singing

Not my usual source of musical entertainment, but, instead, WI song birds are warbling outside in the trees of Mom’s building. They sure do put on a concert! Sometimes I wake in FL to the ducks or geese making their racket but for some reason these little, attractive-looking birds make much greater noise than the larger water birds manage. Lynn reported that they wake her up in the mornings with their songs and chirping, and she starts pretty early in the day!

We have had some fairly high winds, one day this week having gusts of over 40 miles an hour! So glad I was not wearing a dress when I went to lunch with my classmate, Dean, on Wednesday. We met at Applebee’s and never ran out of things to talk about, even though, as he said, we were not that friendly in high school. Not that we were not friends, but simply were in different circles, even in our small school.

Somehow or another our conversation wound around to church, imagine that! Dean’s wife is a Lutheran school teacher in an area school attached to their church, which he reported as being in ‘healing’ right now. They had a particularly rough run with a “progressive” pastor which took their small church for a wild ride. Now they have a solidly confessional man leading the flock, and, as he said, healing.

Speaking of healing, Dean had to give up his job of driving bus for a tour company when he was diagnosed with Kennedy’s Disease, in the family of ALS. My friend, Martie’s, brother and two nephews have this same disease so I was familiar with it. Dean says he regrets nothing in his life, has driven through or visited the 48 contiguous states and not even the disease does he look upon as a set-back. As you might guess, we had quite wonderful conversations, and don’t mind wiping an eye or two. Thank heaven for Facebook helping to bring us together after all these years! Dean told the waitress we were just talking after she cleared our dishes away, saying we had 25 years worth of catching up to do. A man sitting at the bar, eating, appeared to be a man passing through on business turned around and said to me, “Your dentist must love you! You have the most beautiful smile!” Yes, I do believe my dentists love me, I have put additions on their homes and bought them horses over the years!

Friday I had breakfast with another friend with whom I connected on Facebook, who needed a comforting word and listening ear. And a good breakfast! It was difficult for her to reach out, as normally she would be the one responding to a call, and I was glad to be able to meet with her and listen a bit. Oh, I did my share of talking, have no fear! The potato pancakes I ate at “Fork and Knife” were not the best, leave that to Perkins! I drove to the restaurant in the rain and wind, but came out to only cold wind. Tuesday we had temps in the 80’s and it was bliss, but since then we had wind and cooler temps, with peeks of sunshine. But no snow!

This weekend is an air show at the small regional airport so there is increased air traffic around here. It sounds like home to me but draws the attention of this small town. Last night I heard jets going over and some of my mom’s neighbors were on their balconies, looking for them. Hopefully the wind stays quiet enough for the show as it features wing walkers, hot air balloons, and helicopter rides, besides a visit by a stealth fighter plane. Some of the planes have to land in Green Bay as the landing strip in Manty is not quite long enough.

I have gotten a bit of shopping done, finding not denim capris, as my search was for, but rather some olive green capris, plus a couple tops which were found at Shopko. Yesterday, Linda went shopping with Lynn, Mom, and I and we caused quite a commotion at Shopko, thanks to Lynn and Linda. Mom went her own way in search of a top for an outfit while we three ladies went to the women’s sizes to shop. On the clearance rack, I pulled out this very interesting black and white top with a garish amulet gathering the front of outfit. When I remarked that I liked it, both ladies dissolved in laughter, resulting in glasses steaming up, tears running, and legs being crossed. Mom stood in the aisle and looked with dismay at the hysterical ladies. It seems that Lynn had pulled that same “ugly” top off the rack and Linda had remarked at how hideous it was…and then I came along and admired it! Other ladies around us seemed to enjoy our fun and were laughing, too, but did not know why! Linda laughed so hard, her necklace popped off! Gotta love shopping!