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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!

Monday, August 31, 2015

Linda is here!

Linda came to Florida instead of TS/Hurricane Erika which is just fine with me. Better than fine---great!! Originally she was scheduled to arrive on Tuesday at 4:30 pm which was about when the storm was predicted to hit Jacksonville.  Chances are that the flight would never have landed here in FL during the height of the storm which would mean that she could end up spending the night in Atlanta (she'd rather go to jail than go to Atlanta!!). Tommy arranged for her arrival date to be Sunday instead, before the storm was expected. This plan change happened on Friday evening when the predictions for our area were more dire. Fortunately Erika broke up and basically became less of a threat, and now Linda gets an extra couple of days here with us!!!

Her flight was due to land at 10:15 pm last night and I was concerned about driving to the airport in a rainstorm. Justin offered to drive and I gratefully accepted. We had torrential downpours much of the day including one about an hour before we left which freaked me out. Thankfully the Lord heard my prayer and allowed us to drive to the airport and back again without being rained on. It was a relief to see Linda waiting for us at the pick-up point and we got her safely home. She and I sat up talking until after 1:00 am while Justin went to bed. The way the forecast looked in the afternoon, he expected to not work today at all, but once again, the weather pattern shifted which meant he was going to have to go in anyway, so needed to go right to bed.
I caught Linda mid-sentence as we waited for our waffles

Linda got up early this a.m. thinking she might see the sunrise but no such luck...She went back to bed and slept until almost 8.  When I came out of my room, she had already had some breakfast but allowed me to twist her arm a bit, pursuading her to go to Grumpy's for breakfast.  Linda treated me, that rascal. We each had the waffle, hers with fruit on top, plus crispy bacon. Loved the time there.  

We decided to go see a movie in the afternoon, "War Room, and arranged to meet Judy  at the theater. Before the movie Linda and I stopped at Target where I got 8 cases of soda which was again on sale four for ten dollars. We are going to return again during the week when we can spend a bit more time browsing instead of dashing in and out.

The movie was quite good, a real tear jerker. Made by the same people who produced the movies "Fireproof" and "Courageous", again covering the healing of interpersonal relationships using faith in the Lord and the Bible. It was powerful but a bit heavy in some of its messages. I won't give it away but it had us leaving moved and emotionally spent. At least this was true for Linda and me, not sure if Judy sobbed like the two of us did.  It was money and time well spent, especially so on a rainy day. 

This evening Justin, Linda, and I picked up Nancy W. to join us for dinner at 4Rivers. It was Linda's first time there and I talked her through the ordering process, telling her she had to order like on "The Soup Nazi" Seinfeld episode, ordering the meat and then moving along the line to get your sides and to pay. She had the brisket like Justin and I had while Nancy had the ribs. I brought home my side dishes and a biscuit, and even some of my brisket. We need more time to eat our leftovers. Good thing she came a couple days sooner to give us more time to eat our leftovers!  Early to bed tonight for these beauties, and Justin, too!