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I am having trouble figuring out just what day it is. So many things are being crammed into each day that each day seems two days long. But, yes, it's Wednesday. I'm pretty sure. Today will be no different with the added forecast of up to 45 miles per hour winds this afternoon. After seeing how wind can take down big trees, I'm not comfortable with windy forecasts.
And as an update for this week:
Mattresses 38
Ladders 32
One of each has fallen already this week.
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Our oldest grandson, Christian, is 13 today and one of the things he would like is a belt from Vineyard Vines. Yes, the teen-age years bring more style with it. I've looked on the website and youth sizes only go to belt size 30 and supposedly his waist size is 30. That means he probably need two inches more belt. So, do men's size 32 fit kids of 13? Are men's belts made differently or is he really ready for a man's size?
That's what I have to figure out and will probably drive out to Vineyard Vines and ask someone. I'd like it to be right and the best bet would be to have him be there and try one on, but that won't happen with school and after school goings on.
It is much trickier these days, kids at this age are changing into following what's popular and that's ok. It just makes it harder for us old people.
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Last night as I walked into a dinner for students who will be soon be getting their vicarage assignments for next year, one of our students handed me an envelope and asked me to give it to Dale, but wait until this morning.
So this morning he opened the envelope and inside was a very nice, and surprising, note. He wrote "On this day 30 years ago, you gave your very first sermon as the Speaker for the Lutheran Hour. I had the unique privilege of reading every single sermon you ever gave as Speaker. I enjoyed them very much. Anyway, enjoy this brief trip down memory lane!"
How nice is that? March 26, 1989!
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This past Sunday our family had a milestone in church. The two oldest grandsons acolyted together for the first time. This was Connor's debut and he was all smiles. There is something so wonderful about this.
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On his way home from Eithiopia, Dale had a stop over in Dublin Ireland since I have Irish ancestors. I was pretty excited by that, but sadly, he didn't even get to get off the plane. All they did was re-fuel. But he did get one thing, a picture.
This is one of those instances when someone takes a picture with a phone in portrait mode (vertical) and when it is posted to a website, it goes to landscape or horizontal mode. There is almost nothing that can be done to change this, I've tried everything. So here is his picture flipped on its side.
The one link I found when Googling this problem was a post with the headline: Stop taking vertical pictures already! I agree with this completely, have been through too many photo flips that I know not to do this. And, I have mentioned to Dale to stop doing vertical, but it seems to be just too obvious a way to take some photos. However if you use a real camera not a phone, the orientation will be fine in vertical or portrait mode.
He got a picture of the Dublin airport control tower in the rain.
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After yesterday's nasty snow, we woke up to temperatures in the single digits, 3 degrees when I got up at 5. It hasn't been this cold on this date since 2014. It's deceivingly cold because the sun is shining brightly under bright blue skies. But boy is it cold. The snow won't be melting anytime soon. I will say, though, that the roads are in better condition than we have a right to expect. I had to drive over to the Metro East for an 8 a.m. dentist appointment in Maryville, actually a specialist in root canals, and was worried about this most of yesterday. Should I cancel or should I take a chance on the roads?
I decided to go for it and get this tooth done. So I plotted out how I was going to do this. I didn't want to drive over to Maryville in the dark and not be able to see if the road surfaces were clear. But, learned that sunrise would be at 6:28 which meant not leaving at a time when the sun would blind me in the middle of the windshield. I left at 6:15 and that turned out to be perfect. Light enough to see, but not sun at windshield level. Roads were fine and the traffic hadn't gotten heavy.
Now all done and back on campus. Oh, and, this is a great dentist, the new technology for doing this procedure blew me away. I do have to go back in one month and get the second side of this tooth root canal-ed, but I'm not fretting about it after today.
Even better, my blood pressure is excellent.
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Sunday morning as I was coming down the stairs to get ready for church, Dale stopped me and told me "We won't be going to church today." My first reaction was, "What?!" Did it ice up or snow during the night? But no. A huge evergreen tree in our neighbor's yard fell during the night's strong winds, crashed down the fence and landed on our cars. We could barely see the cars there was so much tree on them. We waited until it was a little later to call some seminary staff who would have some idea of what to do. Ray, our head of environmental services drove over, looked it over in some variation of awe, and then conferred with Gayle, our landscape director. They decide the first order of business was to get some of the brush off the cars and the back part of the driveway so that Dale's car could be towed to a repair shop today. His car took the brunt of the hit, the windshield is smashed as well as front hood damage. We also had a couple of house windows broken.
Gayle got in touch with some of her sem students who work for her part time on grounds and after lunch 3 of them showed up with the tools necessary to free up some of the mess. They did some excellent, efficient, and hard work for a good part of the afternoon. This morning Dale's car will be put on a flatbed and taken to a dealer to be repaired. My truck has exterior damage, scratches, dents, and the tarp which covers the back bed has a big hole. We'll worry about that vehicle later.
Our tree mess became quite a tourist stop yesterday for the many local people out taking walks. But, again, it was such a blessing to have those students willing to give up their Sunday afternoon to do a hard day's work. Today a tree company is coming to take apart the enormous truck and other limbs.
As an update, the car is now off to be repaired.
As you can see, this area is still a sight seeing stop for neighbors.
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I came across a news story on how cleaning out your closet can help manage your look. Now, managing my look is not why I'd clean out my closet. I believe the headline to the story is a misprint and the writer meant to say, "manage your life."
Actually as it happens, we've been using part of this miserable winter to go through stuff in closets and elsewhere. I love a closet that is not packed to the gills with hanging clothes and shelves overflowing. We've separated things neither we or anyone else would want and have pitched those. Things we are sentimental about or view as historically collectable, we set aside. Funny how we come across things we haven't seen or used in years and stop to take a memory lane trip.
How many florist shop clear glass vases do we need? Not as many as we have. I'd be willing to bet most re-sell-it, second hand stores, don't want to deal with anymore of those either. They aren't easy to re-purpose. So what to do? Guiltily, I say...pitch.
I even found a big old box of folders and papers from my high school and college days. The paper was yellowed and brittle. I went through a bunch of those things, had a "those were the good old days" moment, and then headed for the recycling bin. I don't want to read anymore of my old essays from English and history class. Or be reminded how bad I was in math and chemistry. Oh the days of handwritten essays or done with a portable typewriter.
I also came across a skirt I wore on my first date with Dale. It was a mini skirt befitting those days. I've kept that.
It's such a good feeling to be out from under stuff.
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For a few weeks our local Schnucks has had a display of giant bears in their seasonal aisle. This has struck me funny each time I'm in the store and see these huge cuddly stuffed bears. One week they were seated on tiny chairs in a circle as if they were having a good time together. Another time they were tossed into a huge box. This week they were back on display among the chairs. All to tempt us to bring one home as a Valentine's gift.
Valentine's Day was yesterday and that day is also our grandson Connor's birthday. For 3 years Connor has been in love with these big bears and since he was turning 11 we all figured that phase was over. But no. When I asked Lizzie what he wanted for his birthday, one thing was a giant bear. Another giant bear. I'm pretty sure his parents tried to dissuade him about this. His mother even told him not to get his hopes up for a bear. She even sent me a picture of his face after she told him this.
So, what else could I do? I love these bears, they are so soft and really cuddly. So I got one for Connor and we brought it over to the birthday boy's house last night. Pure joy!
He then went to his room and brought down his past bear gifts and we sat and laughed and laughed.
They really are comforting.
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I have a case of the "don't want to do anything" today. I think it's because I watched the entire State of the Union last night and woke up to lots of comments and stories about it on social media. Most of the comments are terrible coming from every area of political thought and it kind of depresses me. Partisans can be absolutely vile and thoughtless. So can elected people adding their own input. People can't seem to add their point of view without being crude. Then the weather is chilly and rainy and we have a couple of places we have to be today and tonight.
But, also last night, the Illini beat Michigan State in basketball, quite a shocker in a good way. Then the Collinsville Kahoks beat Belleville West, last year's Illinois state champions and this year's number one ranked team in the state. So those are good things.
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