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No longer on the river and, again, an empty nester. Back to living on Fleming Island and making some more friends!

Thursday, September 22, 2011

What a wonderful day!

Even though it was the one year anniversary (it was a Thursday) of The Great Flood, it was a good day.

As I write this posting, I am listening to the debate and have to laugh at myself because the little tone sounded when the speakers are to be done is the same sound as when I get a Google message. I keep thinking someone is instant messaging me (now a verb!) even though I know it’s on the debate. This week’s event is sponsored in part by Google, hence the tone.

This a.m. was Bible study, our topic today being one of my favorites, “….He shall wipe away all our tears…” We read several passages from the Old Testament, many from Isaiah, which talks about the end of our tears and sorrow once we are with the Lord. Pastor Hoyer gave me the assignment to research the painting which goes with today’s lesson, The Last Judgement, to see if we can find out who is pictured in the fresco, which is located on the church walls in Munich, Germany. I told him I would do it, and then he made the remark that we sure miss having Justin in the class to speak to the art questions and such. Plus, he was quick with the iPad for looking things up for us. He will be so delighted to know he is missed!

After class, Rita and I went back to her house where I parked my car and got into hers. Together we went to have lunch and then head downtown for the quilt show. Our lunch was at the newly opened Bubba Burger on Baymeadows Road, owned by the people who are renting on the 5th floor here. It was good, the fries extraordinary! Next time, I will order the smaller burger as the regular one was too large to finish. At the quilt show, we found several quilts made and entered by our fellow Bible study friend, Dawn, including the one commemorating the Islamic terrorist attacks which won her a first prize. She has offered it to Pastor Hoyer when the show is over, and I know he will be honored to have it. Absolutely gorgeous work at the quilt show, and it reminded me of the scrapbooking conventions that I used to visit!

When we were done at the show, we drove to Rita’s sons’ school to pick him up from chess club. We encountered a detour on San Marco Blvd. and Rita felt a bit lost but by following the signs, we got there! He attends a magnet school quite a distance from his home but he is flourishing there as a ‘gifted’ student who started his education while living in China. There he attended a British-run school whose curriculum did not match up with the grades here. Jon is doing great and is absolutely loving middle school. Rita told me how excited he is at the end of the day, and today, without prompting, he expressed how much he loved school, and in particular, one math teacher. Who loves a math teacher? A gifted young man, that’s who!

One the way home from Rita’s house, I had to stop for gas, just as it began to thunder and lightning. In getting on the freeway, the radio reported a 30 to 45 minute traffic delay on I-295 due to a number of accidents which have occurred. That made my stomach come into my throat, as I recall the horrible wreck we saw when Linda and Lynn were here. The first one I came upon was a motorcyclist, fortunately standing, being strapped to the backboard. It seems he would carried or lifted over the guard rails as the rescue squad and fire truck were on the northbound side of the road. That one wasn’t too bad….for me, anyway. The next one, the radio described as ‘serious’ was just that, as the car was being loaded onto the wrecker. It was a sedan that looked like a convertible, but did not start out that way. I pray no one lost their life in that accident or suffered terrible injury. The other two accidents were fender-benders by compare, and did not hold up traffic. In fact, I was hardly delayed at all, and certainly not by a half hour. Sure glad the accidents slowed the traffic down though, as rain makes people nuts!