Happy birthday, America!!!

Another good church day!

It's nearly 10:00 pm and my eyes are weary but I must write this down before I explode. We had such a marvelous Bible Information Class again tonight at Victory. I think I figured out what makes it so special---it's personal! Yes, it is personal between Pastor and each of the "students". He knows us, and even those taking such a class for the first time and finding much of this new, he knows. Or is getting to know. He allows personal application to the subject we are discussing, which tonight was baptism. Allow me to say that more than once, tears flowed, and even Pastor's eyes appeared red-rimmed as the class ended. 

He conducts the class in a circular style so we all get a chance to answer and read. This way no one has to jump to answer and also no one can sit out and not participate. In the BIC at GS, if no one else answers, I do, which is not ideal for those who are new to it all. Pastor H. encourages questions and encourages personal application. We are learning so much about each other, with me mainly listening, unless Pastor draws me in. I don't mind, believe me. A couple weeks ago we learned about a young man's siblings being adopted from China and how one had physical problems. Pastor got the name and information from him to share with another family at Victory. Love it!

                              

When we were leaving, he said to me, "Thanks so much for being here..." and I was touched by that. We talked about how this is such a good way to get to know each other better (though he's been through SO much with me already...) and allows others to get to know each other as well, all within the scope of the lesson we are studying. 

What a good week I am having!

Never a moment's peace around here!

Finally, I get to lie down in my bed! Tonight was a busy one, besides having dinner with the church ladies. Going back to this later afternoon, I had a phone call from Hugh, on the 2nd floor, having just returned from a long weekend away. When I answered I said, "Welcome home!" and he replied, "What a welcome home it is..." I didn't get that but let it go by. He said he figured I would be the one to talk to find out what was going on, and I thought he meant the problem with the A/C on Saturday night. Nope, he had no A/C at this moment. Oh, no! 
                        

I told him that 40 minutes earlier I had been in the maintenance office with Connie where she showed me the switch and panel for the A/C pumps, with all up and running. This information was shared with Hugh, as was the word of how the pumps were down overnight on Saturday. Oh oh, again. He called his repair guy and then called me back to report that he shut off his system, waited a few minutes, and restarted it. Ta da! Cancel the repair guy...chilled air once again! Just like a computer, it needed to reboot!

So, tonight about 10:30, I got an e-mail from Herve on the 5th floor. He reported that once again the elevator was stuck with the door half way open, grinding and screeching in its efforts to move. He had also sent the notice to the BOD president and Hugh, and the maintenance chairman who is off flying. I had called Hugh, since he had not seen the e-mail at that late hour. Since I knew where the switch was, I was going down to the maintenance office with Hugh to check it out. 

As I had thrown my caftan on, I grabbed the trash bag to take down with me, not thinking that the elevator was out. Rats! Justin asked me where I was going with that garbage...oops! He said, "Just leave it until tomorrow..." 

Hugh had a flashlight to light our way, as some of the lights were out, too. Fortunately the lights in the little office worked and I could show him the switch. However, the switch was in the ON position. Hmmm....Hugh pushed a switch in the control box which seemed tripped and the pump for the A/C started up again. He tried flipping another one from OFF to On and sparks flew out. Not good! I think we will need an electrician!

Herve had come down to see what he could do to help. 5 flights up and down, poor guy! Miss Chardonnay, who is on the BOD, was serving in an advisory capacity, and she authorized Hugh to call the repair man. I believe that was the right thing to do, as the screeching and grinding going on would not be good to allow to continue overnight. We'd have to pay overtime, though. 

I climbed back up the stairs, leaving the menfolk and Miss C. to handle the situation. Once back up, I told Justin it was okay to turn the A/C back on again, as we had shut it down when the pumps quit working. Not sure why they are connected...might have been a coincidence. 

I sent out a mass e-mail explaining the elevator was disabled and help was on the way. About 10 minutes later, Herve wrote to say the BOD president forced the door the rest of the way open, and got the elevator running again. Overtime cancelled and sleep for me. One thing after another!!

Still on Cloud Nine

Today we had a 'guest' pastor, Dick S., who is serving as the retirement pastor at Keystone Heights. Between three churches, ours included, the pastors will be serving each others congregations once a month. The day he comes back will be my favorite! 

It is also our anniversary weekend as only one year ago, Pastor S. (Dick) and his wife, Ellen, came to our church for a visit. Coincidentally, Ellen had done the floral arrangements for her friends' wedding at The Club that weekend. I met them at church, became fast friends, and then they came over to my house that afternoon. Today Ellen brought me a beautiful Murano glass bowl which she knew would be perfect for me. I am so touched! But I didn't get her anything....

This bowl weighs about 5 pounds, has a pearlescent look to it. Magnificent and thoughtful!

Joanne and her associate/my friend, Christine, helped them in their house hunt, but they ended up buying in Palm Coast instead of Jax. Proximity to Disney and the beach reigned. Now I have one more reason to visit Palm Coast besides my niece's family and Christ the King Lutheran church!!

As the service began, I knew it was going to be a good one. After I took attendance and walked toward my seat, I stopped to let Cliff know our family of four visitors were WELS folks so they could join us at the Lord's table. They had been with us last week also and said they are members of a church in Fond du Lac. The ushers don't always know who is who and will stop by to ask me, just to make sure. I whispered to Cliff, "I love him!" and Cliff readily agreed. 

The service was themed around Independence Day and keeping God in our lives and in our nation. Wow! The sermon, based in Psalm 106, was quite powerful, evocative, and serves as a great reminder that if we (our nation and as individuals) turn away from God, He might turn away from us. There are so many sinful influences in society affecting  our thinking and actions. 

Pastor S. used the famous description of the frog in the pot of water. Warming it slowly, the frog eventually is boiled to death...but put it in a boiling pot, it jumps out, knowing the risks. We are slowly allowing ourselves to be boiled to death as we get accustomed to the heat. Let us not be boiled frogs! God give us strength and wisdom to know the difference!!

When he said, "Amen", and motioned us to stand, Justin leaned over and whispered, "It's hard not to clap..." At lunch later on, a young man, joining us with his grandma, reported, "I didn't fall asleep during the sermon today..." We had to chuckle because that is quite a statement to make.

The closing hymn was "God Bless Our Native Land" and Pastor invited us to sit. I whispered to Justin that we should stand for this hymn. As we began singing, all around us people were standing back up, so we did too. From where I could see, most were standing by the end of the hymn, and wow, such singing out there was! "...God save the state."

In the sermon, Pastor had mentioned the erection of a cross on the shores at Jamestown where the settlers knelt to pray in thanksgiving for their safe arrival. He also mentioned the movements to remove "In God We Trust" from the currency and "under God" from the Pledge of Allegiance. After the service, one of our members, Bill, presented Pastor and Ellen with their own handcrafted cross to plant in their yard, with "In God We Trust" stenciled on it. 

Outside, folks were going up to Ellen and reporting what a marvelous service it was, also telling Pastor this as he greeted them at the door. My friend, Carol, had tears in her eyes as she spoke with Ellen. It was a wonderful service start to finish. Kept me filled up all day, and will hopefully take this message to heart for the rest of my days!

It's a scorcher!

Today's temperature is expected to soar to 100 above zero. Whew! I am heading to Palm Coast to enjoy some time with family there. Thankfully they have a pool in which I intended to spend the bulk of my time. My two little nieces, Maya and Rayna, so cute, are reportedly looking forward to "Awntie Kim" coming down for a visit. Years ago, when Maya was learning to talk, she called me "Auntie Em" which I thought was so precious. 

                                   

Every time we got together I had presents with me but this time, only a bag of assorted salty snacks to enjoy with our fry out at lunch time. Justin and I bought it at Wal-Mart for use when the VBS kids are here next week. Snack size bags, perfect for little kids, and big ones, too!

Justin was gone last night but came home to sleep rather than staying at his friend's home. He is yet asleep so I will slip out as quietly as I can and not disturb him. When he does get up, he will be greeted by a nice list of things to accomplish before the VBS kids arrive midweek. Let's hope some of the list is tackled before he leaves again this afternoon.

Overhead I hear the racket of movers and moving, as Misty is in the process of leaving The Palace. When they moved in, her two teen-aged daughters and she, it took a couple weeks to complete the process. This time, by hiring movers, it was a more streamlined process. At least, it appears as such. They should be all wrapped up at the end of the day. 

I sure hope we don't have rain before new tenants move in, to catch the leaks, in case that happens! I have every confidence the repairs being made on the 5th floor will rectify the situation once and for all. Or for a couple years, at least, like last time it was fixed!

Watching the fallout and cleaning it up

Talk about multi-tasking, something women excel at, it is said. Linda J. and I spent part of the day 'watching' our shared radio program together from our homes, and chatting at the same time. Once in a while, I lost my train of thought and we had to back it up. Gotta love the technology! The previous day we were on-line for several hours, watching-listening-chatting until it was time for me to leave for dinner with Judy C. We are good at this!

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Judy and I had coupons for Steak 'n Shake to use on Thursday night, before BIC. We are so close to being done and yet, Amber was absent. Now she has a couple lessons to catch up on, as these last two are rather 'difficult' to grasp, even for long time Lutherans. 

The subject of fellowship can be delicate and not readily understood, especially for someone with no church background. There just has to be a better way of covering this. Next week we have no class because of VBS canvassing, nor do we have it the following week. Some might meet this coming Tuesday to help get caught up, but I have a different BIC that night to attend. 

From last year's pyrotechnic display on the river

Justin is busily, sort of, working on getting his overflow items organized and placed into bins to make room for our four house guests coming next week. He will be bunking with me while the teen boy uses Justin's room. The three girls will be in the guest room so we need every inch of available space for them. 

The first plan was to store his extra items in my friend, Ellen's, home but she wanted to place them in her dining room,  part of her living space. Since she is entertaining at this condo for the 4th of July fireworks, I decided we would keep his stuff here. He has the bins neatly stacked in the foyer and I will learn to be fine with that. I did the bathroom cleaning already---yes, I did it myself! 

Justin is also removing collected cardboard boxes from purchases to the dumpster which frees up some space.The two of us have boxes from my bedroom TV, his new computer monitor, and such to be rid of. He will consolidate the remaining items stored in this room to make ample space.

One set of boxes is from last week when I took delivery of a table top grille for use in the house. Justin tried it out on Tuesday. Though I was stressing from the leaking, I managed to eat half a burger, some of his new recipe for baked beans, and some cole slaw. To keep the food from spitting, one puts water in an aluminum tray beneath the grille portion and no mess. The heat is thermostatically controlled so the food doesn't get away from you. It works! That means we keep the grille, and the boxes it came in can go to the trash!

Justin had long work days the last two, trying to catch up for the rain days. Thursday, they could not get to their truck on 'the farm' where they park it. Machinery was borrowed from his boss's cousin and they worked with that. 

See the cow peeking out around Justin's car?

Then, later, Justin told me his boss and he walked in from the dry road through the knee-deep water, about a half mile, to the truck. It apparently has a snorkel which allows it to be driven through standing water (okay....) so William drove the truck out, with Justin walking in front of him, along what he could see was the edge of the road, to dry land. Man, were his legs tired!!!! 

I thought that was a good idea, and Justin said, "I came up with it!" That's my boy, the problem solver. Although, it is not advised to walk through standing water....oh, just go for it! Justin had to solve a problem last week with some duct tape. It seems one of those cows that wanders around the farm where they park knocked his side view mirror lose, on the passenger side. He used duct tape to put it back on. The cow must have had an itchy shoulder or something. I can't help but laugh about that!

"What The (bleep) Just Happened?"

"Before this morning's Supreme Court decision to uphold the Affordable Care Act and calling the individual mandate a "tax", President Obama strenuously insisted it 'absolutely' was not a tax---now that 'tax' takes effect 2012, and the battle over ObamaCare enters a new chapter." FoxNews.com headline

The title of this posting is also the title of a new book out by a commentator I enjoy on the radio. She also appears regularly on various panels on Fox News, often up against her brother-in-law, Alan Colmes (ewww!). Monica Crowley, PhD. can certainly hold her own when it comes to such topics as that opening paragraph in this posting, and am anxious to hear what she has to say about all this. I am glued to the radio and TV the rest of the day to see/hear what all the pundits and reporters have to say. 

Does Costa Rico get hit with hurricanes very often???