This morning I framed the photo of Timmy in a very special frame given to me by someone in my family a while back. Sadly, I only now got around to putting a suitable photo into it, choosing the one where he is sitting in the car with the sunshine across his face. It seems he is not in a car seat, likely to save some room, and in the photo one can see his uncle Harvey, at least his shirt, next to him. Justin thinks that photo might have been taken the same day that Harvey sneezed loudly in the car and made Timmy cry!

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When I printed off the one of Timmy, I remembered a similar shot of Justin taken at Alayna's graduation last month where the sun is coming across his face, even though we were in a church basement. Go figure! I wish I could place the photos side by side but do not know how to do that in my blog. You will have to use your "pictures eyes" to imagine it.

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I am off to have lunch at La Nopalera with my neighbors and MamMa again (she likes me, I am told!) so this is all for right now. The A/C is being worked on and I picked a stupid time to vacuum. Whew! A margarita will be most refreshing after all the perspiring I did already this a.m.

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I also made myself quite woozie after doing another fooling thing---I found a DVD made from a video taken of the first Mediterranean cruise in 2000 and sat down at the computer to watch it. Silly me---I know better than to watch one of our 'home movies' without first taking a Dramamine. Less than 5 minutes into it and I am quite dizzy. If I take one of those pills now, I will get too sleepy so will have to tough it out the rest of the day.

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Ellen has her daughter, Maggie, at the endodontist, whose office is in my former suite and texted me how much she loves it. I had to break her heart and tell her the decor and layout of this dentist office was not my doing. Our office, when yet there, was more homey than contemporary, like Dr. Smith's office is. The setting, however, is amazing!

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Here are my boys:

What to do, what to do?

I so want to go out to the pool and enjoy the balance of this tremendously hot day but do not want to leave my computer/radio at this point. Only another 45 minutes of 'my' live radio show to listen to, as though it's a job, and then I might go out. Suzanne is wondering if it is going to rain and I am not sure. Of course, it can always rain around here, somewhere, but whether or not it will rain here, I don't know. With the heat index at 110 degrees above zero, the pool sounds awfully enticing. My house temperature was at 83 when I came home from Bible study and lunch so I flipped the switch to the on position, having shut the system down last night. We are experiencing water pump troubles which is used to push water through our separate A/C systems, and tomorrow the repairman will be here to fix it up---again. It seems the problem has been ongoing since the 'big storm' two Thursdays ago.

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We just go from one repair or fix to another. This a.m. I still had to use the steps for getting downstairs as the elevator was not yet turned on. While the guys were finishing the grouting, etc. when I walked down for happy hour at The Club, they were not going to let us use it until the grout was dry. Good idea, of course, except for those of us not on the first floor! Miss Chardonnay's mom is staying with her for a couple weeks and had to use the stairs both ways today due to a doctor appointment. One of the other neighbors was able to help 'mom' get back upstairs when they got back.

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Somehow we still managed to get down and over to The Club, me fully expecting to be able to ride back up in the elevator (this before I knew the story of the grout...) I was not crazy about the appetizers being served this week but did enjoy a drink of the day, a mojito. A very refreshing summer drink, nice and light, with fresh mint muddled in the glass. One of the cooks grows the mint so we could see just have fresh it was. Many of my neighbors were there, and in fact, when my phone rang at 5:00 pm, I just knew it was going to be Penny on the other end, asking if I was going over. Yup, I was and we laughed because I said, "I knew it was you!" when I answered.

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At one end of the patio room was a group of tables set aside for a meeting of some folks from Brooks Rehab. As I walked up to the building, I saw a man walking outside as he talked on the phone. When I got closer, he greeted me and said, "I didn't know you lived here!" and I had no idea who he was. Hmmm....I did, however, know Will, my friend from days passed, from whom I bought the jet skis. He got up to give me a hug and said he was a guest of the man who greeted me. When their meeting was over, he came up behind my chair and gave me a smooch on my cheek and said good-bye. His mom-in-law is in Montana at their summer home and is freezing, oddly enough. He said when his wife or he talk to Joan next time, they will extend my greetings to her. It was just great to see him again!

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One of the other ladies at our table, Sharon, told me who the guy was who thought he knew me, and I do not know him. I believe he has me mistaken for someone else but I cannot imagine who that would be??!! Sharon is on summer recess from her Wednesday night activities at church where she is the bell director and choral director. We only get to see each other in the summer because we are both tied up usually on Happy Hour nights. If I decide not to go back to choir, I will still be able to enjoy HH anytime, as it is not a summer only thing.

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Ellen came over, and later her daughter, Maggie, showed up, who waited on us hand and foot. They were planning to come to aerobics this a.m. I wonder if they did since I have their noodles in my house since Sunday. I brought them down both days this week but neither of them came out for class so I carried the noodles back upstairs with me, literally, on the stairs yesterday. Friday Maggie will go to see my buddy, the endodontist located in my 'old' office suite on Fleming Island. I told Justin she would be there so he should go and make faces at her through the windows. Maggie is nervous about going and cannot take some of the pain meds they normally use so I hope she does okay. Boy, I do understand that being afraid of the dentist---I used to be an absolute mess before I discovered nitrous oxide plus regular check-ups to help prevent or head off problems. Usually, that helps, but not always!

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So, back to HH last night....One of the ladies, Karen, who lives next door to me, also has a gift shop she runs in Charleston and has to travel forth and back several times a month. She was asking the ladies for empty wine bottles to use in a bottle holder display in her shop. Well, that just opened the floor to enormous laughs as this group is never short of empty wine bottles. In fact, Karen could have probably taken home a bag of empty bottles from The Club last night. Some of the ladies were saying how glad they were we did not have recycling in our building because they would have so many wine bottles in a week's time. Another said they try to disguise the bottles so Connie, our maintenance lady, does not know what's in the trash when she transfers it to the dumpster. At this, Miss Chardonnay piped up, "You are hiding nothing from Connie. She knows...!" which brought big laughs. It was so funny and yet, not really. This was mentioned, too, that if a person is going around hiding the empty bottles or scattering them between wastebaskets in their home, they have a problem! I think Ellen and I were the only non-wine drinkers at the table and it is not at all unusual for folks to have a glass of wine or two with their dinners. Or use it when cooking, which should not be counted against them. But, to hear them talk, it was like these 'grandma-aged' ladies were caught doing something naughty.

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Another good chuckle we had was sort of at Maureen's expense. She is the mother hen of the group, I like to say she is in charge of arranging the chairs on the Titanic. It is her job to make sure everyone has a seat, squeezing a 13th chair around a ten-seat table. She likes the men to sit on one side and the ladies together so we can talk. Hugh, her hubby, hates to be outnumbered by the ladies all the time, or to be the only man. So, last night, after we'd been there awhile, and were engrossed in our conversations, she began the process of moving people around. "Karrie, you come here and sit, Sharon move this way, Arnie, you go over there..." Someone said, "There she goes...." and we all laughed. I told her that when they were gone to CT for a couple weeks, we all had to stand since we had no one to tell us where to sit. Everyone just laughed, especially her hubby!! A bit later she made a pronouncement and swept her hands in my direction, saying "One of you should get a boyfriend for Hugh...." and left it at that. This brought down the house, because first of all, it sounded like her hubby needed a boyfriend, and secondly, she seemed to be directing that at me. Ellen said so too, although she was right next to me. The look on Hugh's face was priceless and when Maureen realized what she said, her face turned all red. Such great laughter!

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Ellen told me that she heard me laughing in one of her dreams...she sleeps during the day and is awake at night more often than not. She had fallen asleep while reading in her front room which is on the driveway side of the house, not her bedroom. Because she was sleeping in the daytime, she actually DID hear my laughter, only not in a dream, but at the pool!!! See what you miss when you sleep all day??? This reminds me of Sunday at Victory---when Justin sat down next to me, he leaned over and said, "I was listening for your laugh...". Not in church!!! Usually...

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So more laughing, this time at something Sharon told me. When it was only the two of us at the table early on, she told me how she spent the day cooking. See, I don't get that, but she said she loves to cook and did not mind using her day this way. On PBS she had seen a recipe for a Chinese or Thai sauce made by a man named Ming (go figure!) so she went on-line to find the recipe. Sharon said she had many of the ingredients on hand like rice vinegar and sesame and other things, but did have to go buy the Chinese paste or some other unusual, to me anyway, ingredient. This brought to mind when Linda came last fall and was going to make fresh rolls for our dinner. She told me she needed flour, sugar, milk, yeast, shortening, and butter. I had the butter......but had to buy everything else!

How do you solve a problem like Marlena?

Only, there is no problem! Marlena, who works for The Club, is the most amazing woman I have met in a long, long time. Not sure where to begin but I can work backward in today alone. Marlena is about two years older than I am and thin as a rail. When I was leaving to come up after water aerobics and lunch poolside, Marlena was consolidating the trash from the outside cans and wheeling one toward the dumpster on the north end of The Club. This was after she had taken our lunch orders, plus those of others poolside, served us, and then sat for a minute to show us her photo album of when she taught baton and 'color guard' and synchronized swimming to Pioneer kids back in the day. She wants to do baton twirling with fire at The Club but cannot get insurance for so "dangerous" a sport. Funny, she said it was not dangerous when she learned it as a child and never had an incident when teaching other little ones...

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Prior to our water class she was cleaning the pools using the long poles and nets, and swept the area surrounding the pools, of which there are three. She does more before breakfast than most do in the course of a day (me!). She has the permission of the managers to institute just about anything at The Club to help stimulate involvement, except for playing with fire, I guess. While we were eating our meals, she asked Randy if he had an electric keyboard. Randy, age 75, does, in fact, have such a thing so she proposed to him that he bring it out to the cabana on Friday and Saturday nights. Not only would he play, but she, being a classically trained soprano, would sing the standards and Broadway tunes. Holy cow! What else can she do??? My question is, 'Who will wait on us?' but I should not be so short-sighted, or selfish! As long as they are not too loud, this could be an excellent draw. Randy will finally have someone to sing while he plays, but Marlena cannot sit up on the keyboard!

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Marlena, believe it or not (remember, she is rail thin....), is also a health-food nut and used to run/work for a health food store in the plaza where the 'old' Wal*Mart used to be on Blanding and Filmore. I never knew there was such a shop over there, but then, why would I? She was going to buy it when it came up for sale but when she found out Wal*Mart was moving further south, there was no way she would buy in, losing the anchor store like that. Wise move.

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Let's see, what else about Marlena? Oh, yes, she is retired from the Navy after 20+ years. She was in the aviator sector of the service, part of the team that transported people and things from point A to point B. I do not believe she was a pilot but I would not be surprised if she was! She did actually fly though, so was perhaps a navigator or similar. So add world traveler to her list of accomplishments. She also home schooled her son, who she considers her 'opera partner' as he is musically inclined as well. Her son is training to be a Navy Seal. She adopts injured and displaced animals, having a mess of dogs and cats in her home at all times.

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When Marlena is not working outside caring for the pools and serving us on the weekends from the cabana, she works inside The Club as lead waitress. Actually Lead Server, to be politically correct. It is also her responsibility to dress the tables with the fresh flowers ordered weekly and to see to it they remain fresh looking throughout the week. It is not unusual at all for her to have 12 hours a day or more, depending upon the event or function.

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In case you think this is a high paying place to work, it is not, according to her (shhh.....) so she supplements her income by working two times a week at the Golden Corral on Blanding. She shares her home with her mom, and takes her to church on Sunday to Advent Lutheran. Marlena, I believe, does not attend but likely cannot due to her schedule of serving at the cabana which opens at 11:00 a.m. Danny, the cook out there, is usually unloading supplies and getting set up when I leave for church around 9:00 a.m. Whew!

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Are you tired yet???? And she never, ever complains...what a treasure she is to The Club!

The floor is being replaced in the elevator as well as the tile surround at the opening to the car. This blue tile is evidently 'original' to the building, as the former tile was beige with blue. I learned at the pool on Sunday night that flocked wallpaper is coming back into style. What??? The lady owns a wallpaper and fabric shop in San Marco and said she has some beautiful flocked paper coming in. Oh, if I had only known it would come back into style, we would have had to only strip four layers of wallpaper from my family room walls!!! I think we did the right thing....

Such a lovely moon tonight!

The moon lit my path through the house when I got home tonight after Bible study and grocery shopping. The primary purpose of my late night shopping was to get a case of soda as tomorrow the elevator is going to be out of service for the new floor going in. I must be properly stocked for the down time! Last week they tore out the old floor and prepped it for the new tile. Tomorrow, the new goes in and then it will have to set for a while before we can walk on it, which means, stairs are the order of the day! Perhaps I can at least ride down one way tomorrow when I go out for water aerobics and only have to walk up once!

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Being it is full moon time, I got my hair cut today. I do not know how I stood my itchy shirt this long but it sure felt good getting my clothes off and into my nightie. Those tiny hairs are so aggravating, even though Barb shampooed it after the cut. Since the other night, I have been careful about undressing in my room, even by moonlight, as a passing vessel flashed a spot light on our building from the river. Between boats and helicopters, it seems there are always 'eyes' on the water!

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We had an excellent group of people at aerobics this a.m. with Maggie O. able to come. Her leg is still giving her a fit but she recently spoke with someone who had great success seeing a sports medicine guy, so she is optimistic to have good results when she goes to see him. Right now, Maggie can do about 3/4 of the routines but even being in the water is a great relief. We splashed around a little bit after class with me being the last of the gang to leave. Randy brought me a video this a.m. from his wife, Carol, called "Tea with Mussolini" with an all-star cast, filmed in Florence. I cannot wait to see it. It is so nice of folks to be sharing all these movies and books with me, and I had better watch the tapes and write a report when I am done with the books!

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That was the most delicious sandwich I just finished....Publix had Johnsonville Summer Sausage this time, and even though I already have sliced summer sausage in the fridge, I bought some more and had the nice young man slice it for me. And bought a pack of fresh dinner rolls to serve as the delivery system for the sausage. While waiting at the deli counter for the slicing, I met up with a former beautician from Hair Cuttery, named, of all things, Kim! Many years ago she had cut Timmy's hair and because he was so wiggly, ended up snipping herself in the finger. Ouch! We never forgot that, me especially, because I felt so badly about it. We made a date to meet again when we can sit down and talk without having to rush around since she has little kids at home waiting for her. We should go to Whitey's and then she can visit her old co-workers at my salon, as she used to cut hair with both Barb and Susan.

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When I came upstairs after aerobics, I was just dripping the sweat off my face onto my body. Whew, I was so hot. Normally I put on my nightie after taking off my suit before getting dressed but since I was going to the booty shop, got dressed right away. It took a long time before I stopped dripping. My air conditioning keeps running, too, even though it's set on 81 degrees which means it really needs to run. Even though it read 82 when I came in, I turned it down a degree to move the air around a bit before bed. We are expecting high temps of 99 tomorrow so the A/C will likely be running again.

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Besides the lovely moon I am also enjoying a wonderful light show behind the clouds with lightning. I know it is not really heat lightning but am not sure what else it is called, besides lovely. Last week we had some sudsy substance floating on the river but this week it seems to have subsided. Perhaps it was a product used to fight the algae which is flourishing due to the heat. At Jax Beach a young surfer was bitten on the foot Saturday and needed to have over 400 stitches in his foot. Supposedly the sharks are drawn to the warmer water as are people which is not going to be a good mix. The surfer is anxious to heal enough to get back on his board, so it's all fine at the beach!

Photos from July (click the photos to enlarge them)

Friday night I went to Great Hang Ups to see the Dueling Demos of Dee and Donna, Part Deux! This is the piece Dee was working on, started at their first Dueling Demo. This flamingo was photographed at the zoo.

Donna is sketching something and was not the most talkative of the two duelists. Donna's forte is wildlife art, animals and scenery, but shines at horses!

Martie posed for me in the kitchen before we went to lunch with Ellen P. at Beach Diner last Wednesday. What an awesome day we had!

At Victory yesterday, I got a healthy dose of hugs and greetings with some Facebook friends from 'up north'. In this photo are Becca Vance and her little ones, Sarah Joy and Nathan. They are talking with Brent's wife, Kristin. Duane was in town but had to stay home from church because of a tummy ache. My guess--too much sun from the day before! Becca was sporting quite a sunburn. Those folks from IL burn rather easily now, I am afraid and too much sun can make one ill.

I was so surprised and delighted to see the Gmuca's, formerly of Good Shepherd, and now residing in NC. They moved up there years ago, when Sam was a toddler. From left to right is Marc, Sam, Ed, and Elise. Elise went to school in MI with Rachel Huebner Cochran, and Rachel's dad was their pastor for years in Sarasota. It's a small world in the WELS! Ed's parents still reside in Orange Park so he gets here regularly, and he also runs in the River Run each March.

Elise's parents, Mary and Dave Hotvedt, were also at Victory yesterday. I was totally blown away to see them, it has been years and years, as they also moved to NC at least a decade or more ago, I believe before Pete came to Good Shepherd. Mary looks exactly the same, as does Dave, but oh, my, I was so happy to see them! Dave and Mary were among the first people we knew at GS, and very helpful in finding contractors and suppliers as we were getting our business started here in 1988. Justin remembers Dave and Mary, sharing hugs with Mary, which warmed my heart!

Here comes the rain across the river! This photo was taken the day the cable men were here, so a week ago today. It sure looks nasty and the wind is tossing this palm tree right outside my patio doors. Fortunately the rain never made it to my house so the cable guys did not get wet!

(Please click this photo to see it better)

This same day, a boater was trying to outrun the rain storm chasing it down the river, actually, up the river as the St. Johns flows north. I love the zoom on my new little purse camera, can see clearly the homes on the opposite side of the river, or at least, their boat houses.

Here is a shot taken while dangling off my balcony (well, not me, but the camera!) of the cable tech's assistant standing behind the building. My guess is that he is also watching that rain coming down the river and wondering if he has to run for rain gear. Nothing must interfere with my repairs! And nothing did!!!

The birthday boy and his mama!

I am at this moment listening to a podcast based on faith, hope and charity, hearing at this moment the little ditty called "Simple Gifts" that Justin learned how to play on the piano during his lessons, back in the day. Today is Justin's birthday and many have commented on my Facebook page about his special day, due in part to the photo I posted there, the same one shown here. It seems that Justin somehow became taller than me, but I cannot remember when that happened....My friend, Dee, claims he was my height when we first met the ladies of Great Hang Ups, but in watching the funeral video, he is already taller than me. I officially met Dee and Julia after the funeral, when I commissioned Dee to paint Timmy's portrait. They kept a growth chart on their doorway at Hang Ups, tracking Justin's leaps and spurts of height. After moving to the new store on Fleming Island, they marked it once or twice, but then, he got so tall, it was no fun anymore!

Justin and me posing after Jamie's wedding in June of 2009

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Some of the comments are about the height difference, and thanks that he did not inherit the vertically challenged gene from me. It is my hope that other traits and characteristics are passed along, however, since the world already has enough short people. We do share a smile, and for that I rejoice! This photo does not show it as obviously as unposed photos do. Our eyes are the same, too, and his biggest wish (he has many many many wishes) is to some day have LASIK so he no longer has to wear glasses. A couple years ago I bought him contacts which lasted one whole day, as he could never get them back again after taking them out. At this time, he remains in the faith and is a believer in the saving work our Savior did for us, and it is my prayer that this never fades. A mom can be weepy on her son's birthday, right?

Making an ash of myself

A little play on words there...I just sat here on my bed, scratching at my legs which are itchy like being freshly shaved, but were not. Wherever my nails touched, white streaks remain, as do my arms if I scratch them. The ash on my skin is from the chemicals in the pool and the cruddlies coming off on my bedspread are messy. 'Tis a small price to pay for the great enjoyment I experience being out there most of the afternoon. I did not get out to the pool until about 2:00 pm and came up again right around 6:00, eating my dinner el fresco in the company of Ellen. This evening's fare was eaten earlier than usual, but since we ate somewhat early at church, it was time to eat again!

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The intentions this morning were to attend Bible study at Victory since they are studying Galations but I somehow slept too late to get up and dressed to make it over in time. Rats! Thursday Lucy had invited to stay for lunch today so I had pretty well made up my mind to do that. Justin and I sat together for worship, as expected, on the piano side of the church so we could be close to Rachel. He can hear better up there. The service today resembled the Morning Praise used at First German, using many of the songs which were first introduced to us many years ago by Pete Prange. I whispered at one point to Justin, "I miss Pete..." with my sad face on, and he said, "I was thinking the same thing!" The Te Deum and You Are God We Praise You...echoing through my head much of the afternoon. The 'songs' used today came not from Christian Worship, but I loved those printed in the service folder. The sermon was excellent, where St. Paul reminded us not to get caught up with enticements of this world and its philosophies, that we are buried with Christ through our baptisms and raised again through faith in Him.

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Yesterday when I was cleaning at church, Robbie was there practicing the organ, actually, the keyboard. He makes the most joyful noise using the MIDI keyboard instead of the actual organ, changing up the sounds and tones according to the hymn or part of the liturgy. What a great way to vacuum, with the hymns booming out in the background. I shared with Robbie how moved Justin used to be, and I still am, the first time I hear the big pipe organ at First German when we go 'home'. He used to say when he won the lottery (many years ago...) he would buy a pipe organ for Good Shepherd. Pete told him he would also have to find someone to play it, since it is not that easy. Robbie and I guessed that Janet B. might be the only one in our congregation who might know how to play such a thing, but until that time, we make do with our keyboard, piano, or MIDI, and the occasional viola!