Nice days ahead

This morning I was greeted by this wonderful sight, looking very much like a watercolor painting. It almost makes me want to get the paints out again and give it shot. But, then, the photo itself does the trick! Taken using my cell phone camera and no enhancement added, I can't do better than what God did for us!

Last year I broke every sort of record by getting into the pool in early May. People who were placing bets on me lost their money since it is usually around Memorial weekend before I break the surface of the pool. Peer pressure and having my fun noodle from Jacquie and Mark to play with when Linda J. was here visiting forced me into the drink. And yes, we did have a drink! 

A week ago I broke my standing record from 2014 by getting the pool with Nancy W. on her side of the property. She lured me over with promises of 85 degree water to go with our 88 degree temperature. Yes, sounds good to me! Their pool is more shallow than is The Club pool which means it warms up more quickly in the spring. She has been swimming laps for almost a month already, the trouper that she is.  

It is also somewhat more private which is nice too. Some of her other neighbors had come out to enjoy the pool and the sun which added to the enjoyment. I got in not only once, but twice, easing myself in. Nancy dives which spares her the shrieks and groans of going down the steps inch by inch. 

While I have been enjoying the heat, poor Justin and Ray were suffering from it. He came home tonight completely exhausted but did get himself cleaned up for going to Whitey's. Their weekly ritual (his boss and his wife, Justin, and sometimes, Jesse) of having half-price appetizers is such a good way for them to end their week. I stayed home this evening, not accepting the invitation from Nancy to join her group for happy hour around their pool. I didn't really have anything on hand to contribute to the gathering and was fine with staying in. Somehow I managed!

Love love love 4 Rivers!

This morning started by stopping---yes, I crept along the way to Victory heading for Bible study. If I had noticed the stop/go traffic on the overpass I might have changed my mind about getting onto the freeway, but I didn't, so I did! Since the terrible fiery crash a few months ago that took the life of a Navy family, I am reluctant to use the phone when driving to Bible study. This change has caused my mother a bit of upset because she scheduled her Thursday for my phone call. Now I call later in the day and she has to squeeze me into her full schedule. It stinks to be 90 and in such demand!

Once the backed-up traffic got to the first exit on the east/south end of the bridge, it cleared up for the rest of us going toward the Beach. Subconsciously I had gripped my steering wheel so tightly that I had to make the effort to let go. I really must be getting old, or else I am still somewhat shell-shocked after that terrible accident. I don't know if I mentioned this before, but my friend, Nancy, was out walking along the river and believe she heard the accident, or its after effects. The sound of metal scrapping and the explosion of the turned-over car. Makes me sick yet just thinking about it.

Class was again exceptional, as expected. What makes it so interesting is that our group is not limited in our discussions to the topic at hand. If someone has a personal story to bring up, an article to discuss, or if Pastor has something to share (he has the best experiences with people), we talk about it. And it eventually does fit into the portion of Isaiah we are presently discussing. This week is Isaiah 48 where the Savior was introduced. Pastor does not violate anyone's privacy, of course, but will share stories of phone calls he's gotten, or something a preschool parent has said to him. He is so good at his job, that's for sure.

Justin has had some long days since 'summer' began, and today was one of those, expected to have been cut short by rain that never came. He came running into the house shortly after The Five got done and stood in my door way, excited. He wanted to go to 4 Rivers for dinner so I grabbed my shoes and purse. Of course he had to shower first which he did amazingly fast. He had arranged to meet his boss/friend, William, there, who was the man who introduced Justin to 4 Rivers. When his wife and he lived in the Orlando area, they found this chain, and then took Justin with them to the store on the Southside. And now we have one of our own, just north of Wells Road. 

We arrived before Will did so waited around outside for him. I had a card for a free sandwich so I used that for my meal, a brisket sandwich. I was greeted by several of the staff members (already they know me!). Justin laughingly told William that this is normal and he was fine with it. I believe it helps to form 'relationships' with the staff to ensure quality care and this has occurred. They even go to refill my soda for me which I appreciate, when they ask if we need anything. I am a big fan of good customers and excellent customer service!  

Since I had the sandwich tonight, I managed to eat all the meat which I had dumped off the bun. The meal came with two sides, both mac 'n cheese, which allows me two meals another time. My standard order comes with three sides so I ordinarily take the green beans plus my mac 'n cheese. Justin was surprised I had eaten all the meat but he had some leftover to bring home with us, plus a part of his side order. He absolutely loves their biscuits, giant ones, so gets one of those as a 'side' dish. They provide plastic covers for the side containers, self-service, plus bags for putting everything into for the trip home. Such a good value for the money, and a lovely time spent with William this evening. Justin is blessed to work for such a nice guy. We are rarely ever without something to talk about. Seems like all day was talk talk talk!

I don't know diddly

It seems as though I know absolutely nothing sometimes. I do know stuff but just not the same stuff as asked at Trivia tonight. Sadly Justin was not able to join us since he gets home from work quite late and is exhausted when he does get here. That means The Palace had only two representatives so Nancy L. and I joined in with Nancy's team. They play much differently than does The Palace team. Everything is up for discussion, and must be done by consensus, written on a piece of paper which is passed around for all to view and agree. It was downright painful to play. Ploddingly so. We also had to vote on the point value to list with the answer. Justin would not have tolerated this. More than once I would tell the little old lady in charge that the fellow was waiting for our answer. This team often would hold up production on other Trivia nights and now I see why. Yikes!   

It is not because we didn't win that I suffered, though. The game was well run, which was nice for a change. The previous few times there was a pinch hitter who ran the game and he struggled with it. Tonight's fellow had pre-written the catagories on the page for us, and even wrote the names of the teams on the little slips we hand in showing our answers and point value. Top-shelf management of the game. But, some of the questions were simply more than trivial, if that makes any sense. One such question asked for the middle name of Arnold Palmer (it is David). What??? It happened often that not even one team would get the correct answer, when usually at least one would do so. It happens on Jeopardy!, too, when none of the players rings in to answer. I can't recall what the question was right now, but one answer was off by 100 years, and I brought this to his attention. It was a typo on the program so we got the points.  Whew!

Nancy W. and Nancy L. at my ladies' luncheon

I do like the ladies Nancy L. and I played with, including Nancy W's other neighbors. Just last week some of us enjoyed Nancy's pool together and we've gone out to eat together as well. They are such good friends to Nancy and I am glad about that, helping her to fit into their cozy neighborhood on the north end of our property. I am glad they let us sit in to play with them tonight. We didn't win but we sure were not in last place, though we easily could have been!  

A "Gold"en afternoon

Today Nancy and I had the best time, starting with an appointment at Mai's Nail Salon on Fleming Island to get our feet taken care of. My toes and feet hadn't been addressed since Mom treated me for my birthday in WI so they were looking and feeling rather rough. It's nearly pool season which means the feet take somewhat of a beating in the water. Our two techs did not speak English nor did they speak to each other. Didn't matter to us as we talked to each other. Instead of asking what services we wanted, the ladies handed us a price list and we had to point to what we wanted. I wonder how they function outside this salon? 

The two of us arrived early for our appointments and they took us right away, which allowed for extra time before the movie. We went next door to Mojo's for a quick bite, sharing a half order of onion rings and Nancy had an appetizer portion of fried shrimp. We did have to hurry a bit to get over to the theater, same parking lot but too far to walk.

Nancy and I chose to go on Tuesday because it was supposed to be a $5 movie day. Alas, we were not Frequent Viewer Card holders (now we are!) so had to pay the higher price for the movie, but were able to use our newly acquired cards for discounted concessions. We got into the theater prior to the movie starting but found ourselves facing a nearly full theater. We ended up climbing to the tippy top row in order to sit centered in the theater. The theater 'sweet spot' as Sheldon Cooper would call it. 

We saw the movie "Woman in Gold" and it was absolutely fantastic. Not wanting to give it all away or anything, this true story featuring Helen Mirren and Ryan Reynolds tells how this family's treasured portrait is sought for recovery from the country of Austria. It was confiscated by the Nazi's when the Jews were being persecuted in Vienna, and Maria is nearly tireless in her endeavors to get it back. A less than enthusiastic lawyer, the son of Maria's friend, is roped into helping her and becomes obsessed with the whole thing once he 'connects' with the horrors of what took place in his ancestor's homeland. It was a wonderful movie---allowed us to giggle and me to weep. The movie will stay with me for a while as I ponder it. A good investment of time and money today as my feet are fixed up and groomed, and my spirit fed, as well!

Developing new skills

Or refining old ones? Nancy W. and I were talking at dinner recently about some changes we are making in our day to day existence, some of them almost unnoticeable. One thing she has done is put herself on somewhat of a budget, taking out a certain amount of cash each month and making it stretch, limiting what she pays for with credit cards, and so on. She has two homes to get sold, one is her father’s and one is her own on the other side of the river. Work is going on to rejuvenate her house and has been for over a year, which is dragging out far too long. Once it’s ready for sale and sold, she will be in a better place, though she is probably doing the right thing for the long haul with her budgeting now.

Another thing Nancy is working on is based upon something she saw on-line, from an unusual source. I am not sure that Willie Nelson is the father of this or if he is simply associated with it now, but the statement was basically thus: “From now on I will focus on what my friend is saying rather than planning what I will say in response.”  This seems simple enough but it is certainly not. Often we can’t wait for our friend to finish their sentence to jump in with what we have to say. Try it sometime---or pay attention to your conversations with others and see how frequently you jump over someone else’s words. Talk about exercise! People like me have trouble with voids so it will take dedicated practice to get better about this, especially when I get so excited when talking with others. Years ago I mentored a young lady who often did not have her listening ears on. My counsel to her would usually be to: “Listen with your mouth closed”. Willie Nelson’s got nothin’ on me! And, I must take my own counsel to heart!

The old switcheroo

A while back my friend, Nancy, was here for dinner, eating in what we call the dinette. As we ate, Nancy was telling us a story and became animated, sort of throwing herself back in the chair. Crack! We heard wood in the back of the chair snap and immediately she jumped up. Oh, she was so embarrassed!

Justin gave her another chair (there are 4) while she was apologizing. It is an upholstered chair so we could not readily determine the damage.  She insisted that she would pay for the repair. She 'has a guy', as the expression goes, but I said no to that. This was a set I bought from a client of Joanne's who was ridding her home of extra furniture. It was used when we got it about eight years ago, and not very expensive. Since Justin and I are both people of some size, the chairs were getting a bit creaky. 

I have another set in the river room which is rarely used for dining so Justin and I talked about swapping the two. Those chairs are iron and will certainly stand up to our sitting down. Justin said he would ask Jesse to help him since he's helped Jesse recently with moving a bunch of stuff. So yesterday, that happened. 

 Here is the river room set now in the dinette/living room. Blends well with the iron pieces in the room, but much smaller table top. These iron chairs can hold us!

The river room is now smaller with this larger topped table in place but the glass doesn't make it seem so. 

The task was somewhat simple, the worst part being the big glass top from the dinette, because it's heavy. I started carrying the chairs but found myself underfoot. Justin knew I would like to polish the underside of the glass-topped table while it was off so I did that, and took care of the rest of the prints afterward. He knows me so well! I also had the guys rotate the rug in the river room before putting the table in place to even the 'wear' from the sun and traffic on it. Jesse was a good sport with my being finicky about placement and such. 

I had considered simply swapping the chairs but each set has different colored iron, plus the floral pattern on the upholstered chairs would not look good with the tiled top on the river room table. Initially I was not going to get the 4th chair repaired since it didn't cost me much in the first place but have since re-thought that. Still won't let Nancy pay for it though. Connie, our maintenance lady, told me of a place to take it for repair, saying she has used this lady as have others in the building. That is good enough for me! My concern is that the sun will be unkind to the upholstered chairs in the river room, as it has been to the end table which is shedding its varnished finish. We shall see....I might need to either replace them or have them reupholstered in the future. 

My mom, now 90, came to visit me in 2012. When she saw that glass-topped table she remarked, "I thought you said you would never have a glass table again..." Oh, what a memory that woman has! Likes to remind of things I have said or that Justin has said, does her little 'I so busted you!' chuckle. I very likely DID say that when I had a 4 year old eating at the table but that is no longer the case. I have since bought stock in Windex and have let the chips (or crumbs) fall where they may. Never say never!

Getting mixed up

The other day I wrote a Facebook status update which stimulated many fun comments from others. I wrote: "How sad is it that Connie (maintenance lady) carried in a delivery from UPS and knew it was for Justin?" It was clearly marked as a Kitchen Aid mixer so it most assuredly is NOT mine. For a long time he's been hankering for one of these fancy kitchen items and my argument about it was that I have a perfectly good stand mixer which serves us well when needed. Yes, it is older than Justin is but still does the trick. The cooking shows on TV and stuff made on Pinterest use this Kitchen Aid product and he badly wanted one. Fortunately he had a coupon to use plus got an additional discount which made it cost about $100 less than usual. He took the second from the bottom choice of machine which came with extra accessories which he will use. I simply shake my head...

But, here's the deal---we have had this discussion more than once, how I don't care for anything being on the kitchen counters, no clutter, zero. And he was determined that his mixer needed to be kept out, even ordering it to color coordinate with my tile back splash. Yes, he was pandering to me! It weighs a ton so it's really too heavy to carry to the pantry and back again on a regular basis. Our shared joke is that he is going to end my days on earth some way or another to get his inheritance (we are so funny!), using a reference from Seinfeld as part of our shtick. "Elaine, what are YOU doing here...?" as Jerry mockingly pretends to suffocate George in his hospital bed. Now our joke is that Justin having this giant mixer out on my counter is going to be the death of me, but I'll fool him and get over it. Or, will try to!  I've already tolerated the coffee maker being out full time now as he likes iced coffee, and now this! Ugh! I wonder if coffee makers come in cobalt blue?