Just to get you started....

The Word they still shall let remain nor any thanks have for it;
He’s by our side upon the plain with His good gifts and Spirit.
And take they our life, goods, fame, child and wife,
Let these all be gone, they yet have nothing won;
The Kingdom ours remaineth.

Thinking about my grandma this morning

Lily Sickles, or, Silly Lickles as one of our vicars liked to call her, was my grandma. She lived near our church and school as long as I knew her, and she was elderly as long as I knew her. Silly Lickles was in her 70’s when I grew up, and lived to be just three months shy of 100 years old! She was German but I don’t think about her being the stern and stoic–type, at least, not around me. For ten years I worked at the old folks home where she lived so I got to see her daily. Grandma’s birthday was October 9^th, the same day that my niece, Alayna, has a birthday. Lily would have been 125, and Alayna just celebrated being 20.

Grandma has been on my mind for another reason besides her birthday, though. While she was pretty subdued, feeling like she was supposed to be that way, occasionally she would come out with something to make us laugh (we loved to laugh in our house, growing up…so much was funny!). Grandma used to talk about Coffer Dam, I can’t remember the whole thing, except the punch line of ‘cough her damn head off’. I am sure someone else in the family remembers the whole thing. But as I cough here at home, I think of Coffer Dam, and Grandma Sickles!

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There are some advertisements on TV that really make me chuckle, at least the first 25 times I see it. One is run by the LaQuinta Inn chain, where the guy gets such a great night’s rest at the hotel that he can actually sell ice to an Eskimo! Another guy sleeps so well that he can go to work, kick some butt and take names, as he actually goes down the hall, kicking people and grabbing their name tags! I get it!!! On the other hand, I am tired of Susie’s lemonade machine being empty. Come on, Verizon, time for a new commercial, I grow quite weary of this one!

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It sure is nice to have the sun back on my face at the desk, it seems like a week since the rain and clouds arrived. Yesterday a home inspector came to size up the damage and such from the leaks, in order to determine the source and the fix. Connie told me they think it’s a window in the 5^th floor unit now being rented out. It’s not such a great problem when the leaks are ‘only’ in the river rooms or the now-enclosed porches, but when the water gets into the actual rooms and makes our power strips smoke, hiss, and singe, well, something must be done!

The guy noted the buckling paint on the wall and ceiling, detected moisture remaining, of course, in the floor and wall. I might have some remaining boards from this floor (2005-06), installed before I moved in, but Justin will have to check the storage closet to see if it’s there, and if it’s usable. Repairs, if made, would have to be done quickly now, or after Christmas as I am hostess for the Ladies’ Group Christmas party at the beginning of December.

*

Justin came by after work last night to shower before we headed to Johnny Angels’ Diner for our weekly humiliation and good times. With a quick push of a button or two, he managed to get my blackened laptop monitor to illuminate again. He also showed me how to click and drag my Word document from one monitor to the other so now I have two active monitors in front of me! “Ground Control to Agent Tom….” Or, “Houston, we have a problem…”

A few recent photos

Suzanne, Jeri, and at the end of the table, Rita, helping people get registered for the Mission Rally on Saturday at Victory Lutheran

Since I apparently 'got the memo' to wear the red/white/black for the Rally, Anne, Cindy, and I posed with Dawn's lovely quilt to show off our coordinating outfits. My mouth is open because a lady was just about to walk into the shot and I squawked to ward her off!

Gretchen and I were seated across from each other at lunch time so I snapped a photo of her before she could protest.

The Ladies' Group social outing last night was at Whitey's Fish Camp. We had been hoping for nicer weather for al fresco dining but eventually the staff had to lower the rain shades to keep the rain off of us. Could have used more light for this shot but here it is!

Sunday’s wild ride

All the coughing has disturbed my sleep, and I do so like to sleep! After being up a couple times in the night, somehow I got a few more hours of rest before the official start of the day. Then the dreams came---this time I was in a bathroom in a home not recognized, with a toddling Timmy. It seemed like I was packing up to go somewhere but not sure of the specifics. All of a sudden, Timmy went over backward, straight back, and smacked his head on the tile floor and the baseboard. And then quiet….

I scooped him and was saying his name over and over, as he looked at me and sort of smiled, like he knew a secret. His eyes were rolling in his head as I ran toward the kitchen with him in my arms. (excuse me a moment here…..) yelling, “Call 9-1-1!” and handed Justin my cell phone. His father was on the regular phone on a business call so Justin was calling rescue from my cell. He was talking like he had a rubber band or something in his mouth, sort of goofing around, saying he was getting advertising, and I told him to keep trying. I screamed at his father, “Hang up that phone! Call 9-1-1!!!. Justin told me that we should not cover Timmy with a sheet so I started to pull his socks off and remove his pants to keep him cool, quite frantically. And thankfully, I woke up.

I hate those type of dreams! I am affected by them much of the day, and now I’ve done the same thing to you! They set the tone for the day sometimes as mine are quite vivid, and in some ways, are replays of actual events. Maybe it was because of yesterday being Hannah’s one year anniversary or that I was going to hear my own funeral sermon preached later. But no matter what, 5:15 a.m. was far too early for me to be up!

On the way back from Victory, I noticed the overhead sign along the freeway informing drivers to move to the right hand lane and exit. But why? It must have just happened because there was no back-up of traffic at the moment. But then there certainly was! All three lanes before the St. Augustine Road exit were blocked with rescue vehicles so everyone had to merge right, exit, and the police were directing drivers where to do a U-turn to get back on the freeway once exited. I decided to get gas right away, since I had time before the church meeting at GS. On the exit ramp, I noticed police cars and a wrecker below where the other wreck was, and there, half way up the hill toward the freeway, among the trees, was a car!

I thought at first it came over the side, but later I read that she had lost control on the ramp and drove up the hill. A fire truck was parked above her on the overpass, attempting to secure the car as the lady was afraid to get out. Pow! A pick-up truck slammed into the fire truck, injuring its three passengers, but not the firemen. So, no injuries in the first crash but three seriously in the second one.

There were so many red and blue lights, and even official vehicles, SUVs, with red lights but no other markings, going up the down ramp to the scene. It was pretty dramatic, from what I could see, and was glad to be back on the road to church.

While watching the wretched Jaguar game, my laptop shut off for no reason. Hmmmm….now what? Well, it seems the power cord is touchy and did not wish to be moved. Eventually I could get it to come back up but then it would quit again. This is not healthy for the laptop so I unplugged it. At the moment, I thought this was a just such a terrible situation----but it gets better!

Having to sit at my desk then, to use this computer, I was waiting for the Packer game to come on and watching something on TV. Suddenly, I heard this loud ‘snap’ from the hallway and went to check it out. (Oh, I should mention the torrential rains and extremely high winds we were experiencing.) As I walked into the hall, the powerful stench of hot wires met my nose. Of course, my smoke detector is on the table in the hallway, waiting for a new 9v battery, which I again forgot to pick up from the store yesterday. Okay, now what?, as I frantically went room to room, sniffing and searching for a fire. Also, I was calling Hugh, my neighbor and friend, who came up to help me figure it out. He could smell it outside, due in part to my having the door open waiting for him. I told him about the circuit breaker popping so he went to switch it back on, and was looking for where it affected.

Then I heard a hissing/sizzling sound and determined it was from the TV. I pulled it out and Hugh said, “You got smoke here, kiddo” and I grabbed that plug out of the outlet so quick. It seems water had run down the wall, or dripped down, and got into the surge protector power strip. The sizzling sound was likely the floor under the protector being singed.

I called Travis and Jessica’s house to see if they had water, and why, yes, they certainly did! They had been putting towels down all afternoon, had it coming in in buckets, figuratively speaking. I had water in the river room, backing up to the wall where the TV is located in the living room, as well as the small window where the leak was in August.

Hugh suggested I call Jeff, our maintenance chairman, thinking he was home, but actually, I reached him in Boise! I apologized for bothering him but he was glad to know what was going on and hoped I was okay.

At this point I was still quite shaky but decided to go upstairs to ask the 5^th floor family if they had a leak anywhere. They are in the process of moving in so had boxes everywhere, but she was able to check around the sliding doors and the master bedroom window. Nope, no water in the house. The permeation must happen outside and run down into our houses, as has occurred in the past. For several years now we have been free of these leaks but now, they are back!

As I came back to my place, my other neighbors were just getting home, so they checked out Jessica’s leaks first and then came to my house. They pulled my TV stand further out as I got towels to mop the water. Rosemary got behind it and laid them out for me. In the meanwhile, Tracy came upstairs to see what was going on as Jeff had called her to look for leaks. Sure enough, it was wet a bit in their unit too. Both Tracy and Rosemary offered their guest rooms to me if I was too upset to stay here, and as thankful as I was for their offers, declined. I needed to stay here to keep an eye on things, and watch the Packer game.

Have I mentioned lately what nice neighbors I have?

Rain, rain, go away!

Another day of nearly constant rain, as we had yesterday for the Rally. Just a few moments ago I switched my TV station over to The Weather Channel to see if there was something I should know as the winds went wild, waves rolling over the breakwater, and rain slamming against my windows. But, nope, nothing to see here, move along. Suddenly it became night time and I cannot see the waves any longer, but sure can hear the wind!

As I mentioned the other day, Pastor H. was going to preach today using my selected funeral chapter from Philippians, so drove back to Victory for worship. The late service was having a baptism and we sang the hymn at early service from CWS. Always perfect! The epistle reading and sermon text were from Philippians 4. He did a good job with the text, reminding us how St. Paul was in prison, encouraging others to rejoice. The passage (4:8), posted on my Facebook page, is about thinking only of that which is right, true, noble, trustworthy, and praiseworthy. It is not simple to do but well worth the effort.

Then he went on with the other passages I love about being content in all things. Pastor mentioned those marching on Wall Street, how the‘discontent’ has been spread to other cities and towns. It isn’t as much “anti-greed” as it is “anti-contentment”! “For I know what it is to have plenty, and I know what it is to be in want…I have learned the secret of being content in all things”. One of my favorite ThanksLiving Day sermons was based on this passage. *sigh*

At the beginning of the sermon, Pastor mentioned Steve Jobs death earlier in the week. According to some, Jobs has touched and improved nearly everyone's life these days with his products. Pastor rattled them off but did not mention the only one I use, which is iTunes, but on my PC. Jobs would talk about his latest roll-out, the next product coming onto the market, what the future held, but never once did he mention his own future. He did not discuss what awaited him when he died, although he knew he was dying. The tragic thing is, the man who touched everyone else's life was not touched by His Savior. Jobs instead chose a different path, Buddhism, and we know now what his future holds. The king of communication shunned the King of all Creation….

For pre-service music, Rachel played “Jerusalem, the Golden” and when I looked up at her, she gave me a little wink. How perfect a hymn to accompany the theme of the day. Rejoicing for what awaits us and finding contentment while yet here!

My eyes! My eyes!!!

It was just an awful sight to behold…a football game easily within the realm of victory for the Jaguars when poof!, it was dashed in a rather splendid fashion. The final play of the game, where the Jags stood a chance of pulling ahead, final seconds….The ball was hiked to the quarterback, who threw it to another guy, who tossed it to another guy, who threw it back to the quarterback, who went backward down the field, and dropped it. Meanwhile, the opposing team grabbed the ball and ran it in for a touchdown. Wow! What a disaster for our team! The TV announcers were astounded and exclaimed, “That play will be reviewed!” and the other guy said, “….for years to come…” Good-bye, Jack DelRio, it’s been a real hoot!

The WI and FL Facebook friends are comforting each other with the good news about the Brewers and local high schools winning their homecoming games. Tonight we in Jacksonville are treated to watching the Packers play since they are up against another southern team, the Falcons. I hope the WI streak continues for the Packers!

Thursday at Bible study, Pastor Hoyer mentioned getting an e-mail from the wife of his dear friend from their Calgary days. Mrs. Schultz was reporting the declining health of her spouse, saying he may not be long for this world, being helped with a respirator for breathing and so on. Living now in WI, her husband expressed his dying wish from the hospital bed: “I have heard enough about the Brewers; I have heard enough about the Packers; now just give me the Word…” What a powerful testimony and sentiment he expressed. Nothing else really matters as we prepare for the wedding feast, except to have the proper robe to wear.

I shared this story with Linda J. this afternoon and she was moved by it also. We talked about how this brought to mind a portion of “The Bucket List” when Edward is trying to persuade Carter into joining the big adventure. “How do you see it playing out, Carter? You go home to some sentimental processional into death, with everyone standing around watching you die while YOU try to comfort THEM?” That is rather backward but I know that is often the way it goes. Not that I have spent much time at anyone’s death bed, not even with Hospice, but it’s easy to see how that could happen. Making small talk about sports and traffic and all that, and not really talking about the ‘one thing needful’. Pastor Schultz taught me a really good lesson with those words.

When my father-in-law was near death, the family took Sharon, my blind sister-in-law, to the hospital in Green Bay so she could say good-bye. She was asking for a Bible or a hymnal, wanting someone to read from it but no one had access to one. If Justin had been there, at least he’d been able to pull up passages on the Internet using his iPhone. (More about iPhones in a future posting…) All Sharon could do, then, was attempt to recite Luther’s Morning Prayer from her damaged memory. “Don’t tell me about the Packers; don’t tell me about the Brewers; just give me the Word!”

Quack, quack, quack!

It’s been raining nearly all day, off and on, complete with occasional wind and not even a peek of the sun. In fact, I believe it rained half the night, too, as it seemed I was awake much of that time.

Part of the reason for my unsound sleep was from my cough and the other part was likely because I had set my alarm on the phone, a sure thing for losing sleep. After I got home from lunch with Judy C. yesterday and sat at my desk, a cramp of some sort shot through my upper leg. Immediately I leapt back to my feet, thinking I sat wrong or something, but periodically the jolt would return. During the night it signaled me more than once, not as severe as the first one and as of now, seems to have subsided. That was a bit scary!

Janet arrived on schedule this a.m. and I led her to Victory, driving most of the time in the rain. At times it was very heavy downpours and we were quite glad to arrive there safely. She hopped into my car to wait for a break in the storm, and then Cary, my Trivia partner, came out with the umbrella to walk us in. We felt badly for those LWMS participants coming from long distances in that wretched weather.

It was great to see many familiar faces, and the Ladies of Victory did a fabulous job preparing for the Rally. Our speaker was the pastor’s wife from Tallahassee, who had served with Kingdom Workers in Taiwan after graduating from Wisconsin Lutheran College. After the business meeting, we had a genuine ‘first’ for an LWMS Rally---we were able to Skype with the missionaries serving now in Taiwan! It was a full 12 hours later there than here so they stayed up late to talk with us.

Our lunch was nice but I had to chuckle about it---Gretchen and I got in line together, dished up our salad, a roll, and she took fruit, and then went to the dessert table. Where’s the beef? I was not aware what was on the menu since it didn’t matter really, so only took a small taste of the salad. Later, Anne H. sought me out to see if I had enough to eat, saying, “I know you are a bit of a picky eater…” I showed her where the chicken salad had been on the plate and the ladies sitting with me confirmed that I had some chicken salad. Thanks, Anne, for looking out for me!

The ladies served us on plastic plates which looked just like your mom’s fine china (lower case ‘c’ there…) and the eating tools were also plastic. Sure fooled me! The plates were being kept but the artillery was being disposed of. I had read a few months ago how Stephanie had taken the plates home with her after a function, washed them all, and then brought them back to church for the next event. One could sure see why she did that, they are so nice!

After lunch we had a hymn sing where we could pick a favorite, and Anne asked me to request “In Christ Alone”, stanza 4, if we had to pick. She said I was her plant in the audience! We did that hymn, then “Beautiful Savior”. Judy C. requested “Go, My Children” which took me out. Having no tissues, I walked across the aisle where I saw a clean napkin on the table to mop up with. It was very nice and I am thankful Rachel can play on the fly like she does.

Before the event actually got underway, though, I had some tears. Bonnie, from Palm Coast, came up to me and said she had something for me in her car. It was a small box of books. Evidently, after the memorial service last week, some of the family had brought in a couple boxes of books to donate to the church. Marian’s confirmation hymnal with the name inscribed on the cover, a catechism from MLHS days, and her Bible. Bonnie knew that I would like to have those items, if no one else did, and I was blown away getting these mementos. How I would have loved getting the Small Catechism, the little brown one from my school days, but am pleased to have the Large Catechism from Marian’s school days! Thanks, Bonnie!

After the Rally, a lady came up to me and asked, “Are you the lady who had the leak?” I remembered sitting near her a year ago at the Rally and we had compared notes on condo floods. She reported having had her neighbor’s toilet overflow (fresh water) not long ago. I told her about hearing my neighbor’s toilet running last week one day and having to wait until the baby woke up for feeding before they made it stop. I told her I am sensitive to the sound of water dripping and she admitted being the same way. It can happen in a private home too, having a leak, but for some reason, it’s worse in a multi-family building. Or that might be why it’s worse, it affects more than one family!

On the way home from Victory, I stopped at my friend, Chrissie’s house. She is recovering from her surgeries and, with me having this stupid cold, we did not hug and such. We waved across the room, basically. I gave her the bracelet and earring set I had made at craft night at Victory last year to commemorate breast cancer awareness. She loved it, and showed me the book about jewelry making on her side table. Chrissie is all about the hand-crafted items and her hubby helped her get the bracelet on before I left. Her friends and church family are bringing them prepared meals regularly and someone was coming after I left with dinner for the family. What a great gift that is for her family, under the circumstances. Thank the Lord for good friends and for excellent surgeons, taking care of Chrissie this way!