More about the big visit.....

We are back from our time in St. Augustine, spent with Judy's niece and my new best friend, Chrissie. We picked her up at her home near Clark's and off we went. It was not as cold, excuse me, chilly, as I thought it would be but I was dressed for it in layers, as was Chrissy. A great great day!

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But, first, back to Sunday......at the appropriate time, Judy and I drove over to Clark's to meet Justin as well as Judy's extended family for dinner. I think Judy was quite taken with the place and truly loved her stuffed flounder, Mom. Your favorite dish at Clark's! She took a really nice photo of Justin and me sitting at the table with a scarecrow over our shoulders! It's hair looks like mine does!

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When we finished our meals and headed for the door, we said "bye" to Justin before heading over to Chrissie's to see her home and such. We took the fifty cent tour and then had a lovely kitchen table visit with Chrissie. The two cooking ladies enjoyed pouring over the cookbooks, trying their very best to interest me in recipes from, get this, organic food cookbooks. I had been to the health food grocery store on San Jose with Joanne several years ago for something for me, but what it was I cannot recall. Some vitamin or other supplement available only in this emporium of nature's products. Judy took down a recipe to make for our ThanksLiving feast tomorrow night so we'll have to go shopping tomorrow at some point to get the supplies. I know there's a natural foods store on the Island and hope they can help us with the needed ingredients. Or perhaps, I'd be safer taking her over to San Jose Blvd. where I'd have less risk of being spotted by someone who knew me..........

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On a serious note, however, Chrissie has fallen into the web of scrapbooking and is joining us here on Friday night. While they looked at recipe books, I busily removed photos from her childhood picture album so that she can re-apply them in an album. Originally she was going to work on Halloween pictures but now has decided to do her own pictures instead. Yippee! The sad news is that she is taking her Auntie Judy back to her house with her on Friday night, and will drive her to the airport on Saturday morning in my stead. This way, I can still attend an Outreach Seminar in Tallahassee that day with some guys from church. It breaks my heart to even consider saying "bye, bye" to Judy, but I now have a fast friend in Chrissie which will keep Judy close even after she's gone home!

...and the morning and the evening of the first day...

.....were fantastic! As I write, the hymn which brings me extraordinary joy is playing in the background, "Jerusalem, the Golden" from the church of the same name's website. This version is from the Worship Conference a couple years ago. In case you don't remember, when we sang it for Easter, I could barely make it through the rehearsals, but on that celebratory Sunday, no tears were shed! This was possible by my not considering the words as I sang, which was incredibly difficult because of the wonderful message behind this haunting melody. I'd read through it yesterday during worship and felt the need to hear it once more. I can always re-do the eye make-up!

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For an interesting change of pace I've now rolled into "Raised on Robbery" by Joni Mitchell. I am dressed in three layers of fabric as I prepare for a day in St. Augustine. The high temp today expected to be "only" 70 above zero so I must prepare for the worst, like going to Alaska in August!

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Well, Judy's here! Funny that I didn't open with that announcement! I collected her from the airport about 8:00 pm on Saturday evening and we squeezed the stuffings out of each other before getting back in the car to head for The Palace. She told me about the great fellow travelers she'd engaged on the way down here, and reminded me of me! As soon as we got home she was given the grande tour and before long I'm certain she'll find her way around, and in fact, she's gotten much better of figuring out which direction leads her to her room.

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After yakking for a couple hours, we retired to our "cabins", to be well rested for the Sunday's adventures. I'd pre-set the coffee maker for her so all she had to do was hit the button, and for her breakfast, I'd gotten some raisin muffins. We left home in plenty of time for me to get my morning Sonic and headed toward church. At the corner of Wells and Blanding, something rare and special occurred----looking to the left for oncoming traffic, there was not one car in sight!! I told Judy how unusual this was and that she'd most likely never see this again on her visit!

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Once at church, the first person to greet Judy was Gretchen, much to my delight. All the folks who were introduced to Judy remarked, almost to the person, that finally!, they get to meet her, after hearing about her arrival for weeks! All made Judy feel at home and she amused herself as I went about my busyness pre-service. The choir sang two hymns from the CWS to be joined with the congregation after a few stanzas, and the one in particular, "When Peace Like a River" stayed with me all day long. A great time of worship and praise! My thanks to the Supplement committee for their hard work and the fruit of that effort. Love it!

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After worship we had lunch with Twila at Chili's so they got to know each other a bit before Judy and I came home to watch the Jaguars whup the Detroit Lions. We visited and I computed while watching and Judy knit a scarf for her daughter as the afternoon went on.

Oh, oh!, it's time for us to head to Mandarin to pick up Judy's niece, Chrissie for our winter visit to St. Augustine for a day of bonding and making new acquaintence....more about making new friends later!

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Judy said to say "hi!" to all the readers and that she's happy to be here!

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Lord's blessings on your day, and, Linda, I hope your feet were warm this a.m.!!!!

"The immutable laws of physics contradict the entire premise of your account!"

I am watching/listening to one of Pete's favorite episodes of "Seinfeld", which I prefer to call "The Second Spitter", but officially is "The Boyfriend". Jerry made friends with Keith Hernandez, a baseball player, and is acting like he's in a dating situation instead of just being a couple guys hanging out. Keith wonders if Jerry would like to see a movie, "JFK", which is the basis for the second spitter "conspiracy" theory. Very funny, very smart. My mom doesn't get it, that I would find this program amusing. May I have a show of hands for who else in this world finds or had found this program amusing, please???

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"Vandelay Industries? No no no, you're way off!.................and you want to be my latex salesman?"

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We had a busy day today! This morning I went to the Friday Musicale downtown and heard the most amazing pianist from Poland, playing the music of Chopin and Fontana. He was young, only late 20's and had a mop of blond hair that shook when he pounded the keys. The room was packed, complete with a bus load of folks from an area assisted living facility as well as a bus load of kids from the Anderson School of the Arts. I was right in the middle!! Some of the older folks don't remember about not talking during a performance but the lady next to me took care of that in a hurry! She was a shusher!!!

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When I got home from downtown, I carried a bunch of stuff upstairs from my car so had quite the load as I walked toward the elevator. My two neighbors were just getting out of the car and Michelle said, "Look at you! You look like you're all full of.....something!" It was so funny because she is French and has the cute accent and when she said that, it just made me laugh my head off! Tracy offered to help me carry my stuff but I assured them I was "balanced", which I was!

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The rest of the afternoon was spent right here at the computer. I was busily trying to get through some of the stuff on the desk but after a couple hours, I'd made little progress. I did get some stuff handled from off the table, though, but not in the proper fashion.......how does a plastic bin strike your fancy? Out of sight, out of mind!

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Justin came by after work and knocked off a list I'd compiled for him of chores needing to be done. He works for me now too since I let him keep the plans of moving into the student suites. He'd have helped me anyway, he's told me so, but it's nice knowing he's feeling more obligated at this point. Justin made quick work of his projects and we had a great visit besides getting things taken care of before Judy arrives. Much to my surprise, he told me that Grove, his present roomie, is going to be living in the very same quad with Justin! The more things change, the more they stay the same!!!!

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The suite they are moving into needs both a table and a TV so Justin is thrilled to be able to take the game table, which used to be in our game room at The Preserve house as well as his 50" TV. The guys are going to just love him!!!

Cindy to the rescue!

This morning was good news/not so good news day for me. Not so good news first is that I must have the housekeepers return and finish the job started yesterday. I figured I'd use them one more time before my funds are reduced (so far so good in that department) and wanted a nice, clean environ for when Judy arrives. In the afternoon when Joanne was here I noticed chair marks yet in the rug in the river room which normally would have been removed by the vacuum cleaner. Oh well, no biggie, I guess.

Well. last evening when Jacqueline was up here, I noticed the dining room floor must have been missed also because there were schnibbles (sorry for the rough language, Lisa!) from scrapbooking on the floor. Okay, the first rug was an oops, but the other rug and the hardwood, not so much. And the sun shines directly into the kitchen and onto the face of my stove, my new best friend, and it looked wretched. I called their office and apologized right off the bat for being a complainer BUT this, not good.

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The manager is having my usual cleaner, Angela, come by as soon as she comes in to make the corrections. I am glad it's her because then she can see and report that I was not being too fussy or anything. I had Angela's former partner and a new girl yesterday since Angela has a new team. In my room around my desk and such, no problem, because I make this mess prohibitive to cleaning but not those wide open spaces, as I said, should be a breeze, for them! Since it's my turn to clean at church this week, I decided to spare my back and use it at church instead of here. Wonder how much they'd charge me to clean at church??????????????????????

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The good news, the great news, is that Cindy wants to try to save the lemon tree. She has a green thumb and good chemicals, good mojo, to give it a shot. Gotta love that can do spirit!!!! Now I must find a way to haul it to her house for rehab. Cindy is opening a rehab facility for sick and dying trees! Bless you!

The lemon tree is.............

...........nothing but a stub. I am pretty sure it's dead and now I feel that way, too. A little bit anyway. One last ditch effort is to totally re-pot it and stir a systemic into the soil in hope of killing the beasties that killed my precious precious tree!

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Not being totally without hope, in my freezer, I do have two of the lemons produced by the tree which I could cut open to salvage seeds to try planting. I would risk only one of the two lemons in order to at least have something as a remembrance. Nuts! His father has a seedling I grew from a seed but only one, which I couldn't take back, that wouldn't be nice.

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Here is some good news! My friend, Joanne, is back in town!!! She's been gone over 5 months taking care of her dad and getting his house ready for sale in MI. She came over for a bit this afternoon and it was grand to have her back.

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Joanne has some properties she's trying to market about an hour south of here and is going to stay on the property there as a true site agent. She'll be there 'round the clock for a month or so to try to move some properties. I don't know what kind of Realtor she thinks she is because Joanne is NOT in favor of selling my place!!!! Joanne is of the opinion that this condo speaks my name and that I need to stick it out here until I absolutely cannot any longer. Okay then! Dee is of the same opinion, in her words, "I want you in this condo!". Not one down the street or in the next county or in WI---here!!

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This afternoon after she left, I got busy opening the huge boxes which held the purchases people made at the Southern Living party I had. Many of them would be at Pat's party tonight so I waited for today to open them. Such a mess of boxes and packing paper! At least I was able to rid myself of one box because I filled it back up with peoples' purchases to haul down to Pat's. Now Pat has to deal with it instead! Justin could probably use the box in his move in a couple weeks but that's okay, since there are two more in my family room!

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At the party I got to see many of our mutual friends, including Sharon who did Lynn's facial which was her birthday gift from me. Tracy came a bit late but it was great to see her. She lives below me but I hadn't seen or heard (hardly) from her since the last Board meeting. She asked me to breakfast on Saturday and I accepted. Justin is coming either Friday afternoon or sometime Saturday to help me with a couple things but I'll be done with breakfast before he'd get here anyway.

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After the party, one of the guests, Jacqueline, came upstairs to see my place, because I have many of the pieces from the catalog in my home. Plus she wanted to see my place. The Units are similar in size and layout yet each one has specific differences, uniquenesses. She loved my place, trying to figure out why my rooms don't match Pat's layout. I told her mine was more like the one next door to Pat's but unless you see them all, it's hard to explain. Another of the neighbors, a new lady and her daughter, also came to the Southern Living party, my first time to meet them. The daughter is in 6th grade at St. Johns and has been there since pre-k. I mentioned that I had a son who died while at St. Johns in pre-k, and the mom asked, "The drowning?", and I said, "Yes." She got visibly upset and expressed her sympathy, which I accepted, and then she said her daughter was a year after Timmy. Elaine said, "I love the little angel by the bench." I thanked her and told her the tree there is also planted in his memory, moved from behind the old pre-k building to the new middle school building, in a prominent place. It's been a while since I've been over to school to see the tree, the bench or the little angel. I think that means something, don't you?

Don't be ineffective!

"I want to be around to pick up the pieces when he breaks your heart in two........" Oh, what's the point of moaning and bemoaning what's taken place in our nation? It's a new day and life goes on. The bottom falls out of the market---again---and time marches on.

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At Bible study this morning we talked about the situation a bit, all of us like-minded on more than only our doctrine, and I was able to brag on Justin a bit for his facebook posting Wednesday morning. He wrote that he's looking forward to 2012 and that it's a new day. Of course, as a politically involved young man, he's quite ticked off, being more libertarian than I am. But he didn't go out and flip any cars or riot in the streets like was expected if things went the other way. Anyone else see something interesting in that?

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I had a bunch of stuff written here, much of it quite profound, but I didn't feel like posting it. 'Nuff said............

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Well, today is the day---------------I finished The Shack!!! Finally, worked my way to the end. Wow! Judy, I can't believe it, what a trip! Thank you sooooo much, I can't wait to talk to you in person about it. As soon as I finished, I called my friend, Diane, the financial counselor and absolutely insisted she read this book. While my car was being lubed and tires rotated, I sat at a picnic table in the sun and finished it up, with tears soaking my shirt, again. Wow!

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48 more hours, Judy!!!!

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My sister wrote the other morning to report what she saw on election day at her polling place, the fire station in the neighborhood. Kerry wrote: "There were about 80 people ahead of me at 6:25 a.m. As the time passed, I watched the line increase, with cars parking on both of sides of Snell Road (barely a cow path.) The sun was just coming up over the buildings and all I could see were people walking through a corn field across the street, walking across part of the lawn of the prison, and pushing strollers and/or carrying young children with them. It was almost 7:00 a.m. and people were calling their work places to advise they may be a little late (me included), when a small group of men (firemen) came carrying a little, old man on their crossed arms to the front of the line.

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He was a WWII Veteran and had pushed himself up Jackson Street (I don't know how) in his wheelchair. He is a resident of Nova House which is a residential treatment center for drug and alcohol addiction. He was the first one to vote! I was still in line when he came out and the firemen helped him back to his wheelchair. Several people offered to give him a lift back to the center. He declined.

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When I came out, he was wheeling himself just a little bit ahead of where my car was parked. I stopped and chatted a little while with him. He proceeded to tell me that we were lucky; we still had enough of our senses (vs. others that don't) to be able to cast a vote for the president of the United States of America. He parted with, "God Bless You."

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Need I say anything else? I was sobbing when I got in my car and when I got to work, people asked me if I was okay. I replied, "Never better." I don't have much money, but I have my senses, my faith, my family, my nation and my right to vote. I have never been so moved in my entire life."

Laughing my fool head off!

Just when I thought I'd never laugh again..........

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Okay, that's a bit of a stretch but here I am in my home, laughing my fool head off at "Seinfeld"! Poor George went to get a massage and totally freaks out. Now he thinks he's gay and is really paranoid. The look on the peoples' faces is just priceless. Joe DiMaggio was spotted in doughnut shop and Kramer tries to get his attention by banging and yelping. I can't stand it! Elaine asks him, "Why didn't you just call his name?" and Kramer just looked at her with this 'look' on his face.....

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It's a weird episode because there is some sort of singing or music going on behind parts of the dialog or during his stand-up routine. I never heard that before. I hope it doesn't last, I have no idea what season this is as it's showing on tbs.com. Just looked it up on-line and it's Seaon Three. Man, what a hoot!

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I've noticed my windows look pretty yukky again, has it been 6 months already? The reason this came to my attention is yesterday two birds flew dangerouly close to the window, perhaps in search of insects. It might be okay to let them be dirty for a little longer, or maybe we'll have a nice rain to wash them for me.

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Justin and I met to have lunch at Koko's today, as we wanted some comfort food. I love it there, and we get at least four meals from less than $20. He ate all of his meal but I ordered double rice, for which they didn't charge me, and I have at least two more meals leftover!

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I was premature in hitting the Publish button so excuse me for that. Justin came by for a minute or two to open the ceiling registers in my room for me. I'd closed them when my family was here in August because I knew they'd want the A/C running and in order for me not to be frozen out, I simply used the broom handle to close the vents. That system, however, does not work to re-open them. He also bagged up the remains of Timmy's tree and took it to the trash. I don't want to talk about that right now because I am pretty upset it, okay?