TIME AND SPARE PARTS

Where has the summer gone. It is already the first week of the Fall season and I feel like I have been caught up in a whirlwind. The time has literally flown this year. Do you ever get the feeling that individual days sometimes drag to the point that you feel like you are in slow motion and then before you know what hit you, it is the end of the week and you say to yourself now how in the world did that happen?



Time has a way of playing tricks on us. When we are doing something, like work, it kicks us, punches us and just outright annoys us. It puts us through the ringer and spits us out the other side. Time can dawdle around like Prissy in Gone with the Wind.



When we are doing things that we enjoy and want to make the most of the short time available to us, time rushes past us. It leaves us standing there looking dumb struck, as it looks back at us and laughs. Then shoots us a bird as it speeds off into the past. So one way or the other we are trying to hurry time up or slow it down. One thing is for sure "Time waits for no man", it moves at its on pace and we are not in control.



So much for my yammering about time. I really am just thankful for the time I have now, have had in the past and hope to have in the future.



As I grow older, it never ceases to amaze me at the things that can go wrong with this container that we call our body. The other night John and I were sitting in the living room watching TV. I was in one recliner with myself hooked up to a portable electrode device that was sending electric waves into my shoulder and back. John was in the other recliner cleaning his hearing aids. ( Yes John finally had something fall apart). I thought he just had selective hearing , but apparently he has moderate hearing loss. So if you ask us what we have on our night stand, it will be all our spare parts. Glasses, contact lens, hearing aids, electrode device, glucose tester and a glass of water in case one of us has to take an anti acid during the night. Oh the joys of aging.



I can remember when I was a very young child of going to my Grandparent's house. My Grand daddy had lost an eye when he was a young man. When he didn't have his eye in, he would have it sitting in a glass of water by his night stand. My Grand Mother kept her teeth in another glass on the night stand. I would go into the bedroom and kneel down next to the night stand with my chin propped on the edge of the stand and stare at the eye. Now I was not to impressed with the teeth because I knew people lost teeth when they were little and they grew back. I just figured that is how old people's teeth came back. But the eye was a different story. I had never seen anyone keep their eye in a glass. As I would stare at the eye I would wonder if it could see me and in that case could Grand Daddy see me through that eye even though he was sitting the living room. ( You have to remember I was just a little kid. Not stupid.) I guess these were some of the things they kept on their night stand.



I call all these things our spare parts. I just hope things level off soon or we may have to get a bigger night stand.

BUSY, BUSY, BUSY WEEK.

Emily getting all grown up.

Andrew, Matthew and Aaron.

Motley crew

Sondra and Daniel.

Johnny and Daniel

Look how big I am

Sondra and best friend Tracy

Long time friends of the family.

4:30 A.M. Sondra and the kids heading for the airport.

Family picture after church on Sunday.

This has been a very busy week. A lot of company coming in and out to visit Sondra and the kids. Sondra, David and Daniel got in about 12:00 P.M Wednesday night. By the time we got home it was about 1:30 and I had to be up at 4:45 to get ready for work. I was a little draggy the next day to say the least.

Since the weather has been so nasty, we stayed pretty close to the house on Thursday and Friday, but on Saturday, Sondra and Tracy spent the afternoon getting manicured and pedicured for the big twenty year reunion at the Marriott later that evening. Charlie and Jen came by to see Daniel and David. Everyone was all excited to be seeing old friends.

Monica, Tim and the boys came in from Memphis and Mark came in from South Haven. We had a lot of activity going on but I guess that is always the case with a large family. After church on Sunday Donnie Rohling offered to take a family picture for us. I wish we could have all been here. It is so hard to get the whole family together. We are shooting for New Year's Eve. Hopefully everyone can make it in then.

We all went out to eat Chinese food after church. Then everyone headed out in different directions. Mark back to South Haven. Johnny and Tracy had to take JP to ball practice and Emily to a skating party. Monica and Tim left a little bit later in the afternoon after squeezing in the tiniest bit of a nap.

Before we knew it the visit was over and Sondra and the kids were ready to head home. It is hard when families are so spread out over the country. It is almost impossible to see everyone at once but we are grateful for the times we do have with our kids and grand kids.

And by the way it is still raining almost every day. We did get an insurance adjuster out to look at the water damage. He said we had a lot of wind damage on the roof. I guess most of it happened when we were out in Colorado and then a wind storm shortly after we got back. I guess if it had not have come these torrential rains in the past week, we would not have realized anything was wrong until next spring. Thank God for insurance. I wonder if that is something they are going to make universal. Well that is another story, can't get into that right now.

RAIN,RAIN AND MORE RAIN.

Leak in the ceiling and yes that is a dust bunnie clinging to the corner.

In the bed room.

Our back yard.

Front side yard.

Back yard.

Between our house and the neighbors.

Between us and the neighbors.

This has been the rainiest week we have had in I don't know when. Although the whole summer has been rather wet, Mother Nature has really out done herself this week. I think we have had about six inches of rain and the weather people are predicting another six inches in the next three days.

We have lived here in our house for forty years come Janurary. We have never had a ceiling leak in all this time, but Thursday afternoon when I came in from work, there was this big water circle in our bedroom ceiling. There was a smaller spot in the corner and another in the bathroom. This really makes you feel sick. So the insurance people are coming out the first of the week to estimate the damage. Hope we can get some kind of ajustment from them. I'm sure we are looking at a new roof and I hope not to much damage to the ceiling. We will just have to wait and see.

John made pictures of the water around our yard. This was the most we had ever seen. Our house is sitting on a little rise in the subdivision and we were starting to look like an island. We have always wanted a piece of water front property and for a short while we had it.

Stuff like this always happens when you are having company. Sondra, David and Daniel got in on Thursday night. Mark is coming in this morning and Monica, Tim and the boys are coming in this evening. I hope the tarp that John put on top of the house holds or we may have a ceiling cave in on us.

Every since I looked and saw the damage to the ceiling , I have been thinking of this song that I use to listen to when I was a kid. I think Rosemary Clooney sung it in the fifties.

THIS OLD HOUSE

This ole house once knew his children

This ole house once knew his wife

This ole house was home and comfort

As they fought the storms of life

This old house once rang with laughter

This old house heard many shouts

Now he trembles in the darkness

When the lightnin' walks about

CHORUS:Ain't a-gonna need this house no longer

Ain't a-gonna need this house no more

Ain't got time to fix the shingles

Ain't got time to fix the floor

Ain't got time to oil the hinges

Nor to mend the windowpane

Ain't a-gonna need this house no longer

He's a-gettin' ready to meet the saints

This ole house is a-gettin' shaky

This ole house is a-gettin' old

This ole house lets in the rain

This ole house lets in the cold

On his knees I'm gettin' chilly

But he feel no fear nor pain'

Cause he see an angel peekin

'Through a broken windowpane

CHORUS

This ole house is afraid of thunder

This ole house is afraid of storms

This ole house just groans and trembles

When the night wind flings its arms

This ole house is gettin' feeble

This old house is needin' paint

Just like him it's tuckered out

But he's a-gettin' ready to meet the saints

CHORUS

This ole house dog lies a-sleepin

'He don't know I'm gonna leave

Else he'd wake up by the fireplace

And he'd sit there and howl and grieve

But my huntin' days are over

Ain't gonna hunt the coon no more

Gabriel done brought in my chariot

When the wind blew down the door

CHORUS

WORK, COMPUTERS, WD-40 AND ICY HOT

Here we are at another Friday evening. I am truly beat today. This has been a long week to be such a short work week. We were closed Monday for Labor Day, so I like most everyone else had a three day weekend. I don't know if I try to shove too much into the time I'm off or if I'm just getting old. I'm sure my kids would agree that it is the latter. I just hope I'm around when they get to be my age so I can see how spry they are. Of course if I'm around when my youngest is my age now, I will be 98 years old. As my father-in-law use to say, "The closer it gets, the younger it looks". Oh well I'm still beat after this work week.

We have this new system at work that we are trying to learn. I, as you know am not a computer whiz, so all these changes come really hard for me. It took me quite awhile to get comfortable with the old system, but after I did, all the ordering and inventory and keeping up with everything became second nature. Today I had to put my order in twice because somewhere in the process I lost the first one. I guess it floating somewhere in cyberspace.

Denise, Suzanne and myself have hunted and pecked to figure out what we are supposed to do. The guys at the other unit were more lost than we were, so we have to pretend that we know more than we do. I guess this is the ideal "Fake it til you make it" situation.

I guess John and I will go to an auction tomorrow. The last couple we have gone to were very unimpressive. We need to find an auction with some really good stuff. Some really inexpensive good stuff:). Sarah bought us a plaque that reads, "We buy junk and sell antiques". You know, this is not an untrue statement. People get rid of things that other people are willing to pay for. We are kind of like the middle man. We try to find the things that people are getting rid of and place these things with people who don't have the time or the inclination to go out and find them for themselves and we have fun doing this.
I guess that makes everyone happy.

Now back to the fact that I'm beat. I have had to do a lot of lifting at work this week and my frozen shoulder that has not completely healed has really bothered me for the last few days. My question is, "Has anyone every used WD-40 on hurting joints"?http://www.wd40.com/ I know that my dad used it for awhile when he had something wrong with his back, but I can't remember if he said it worked or not. Well I had John rub some on by shoulder a little while ago. I guess I'll see for myself if it does any good. I just hope I don't get asphyxiated from the fumes during the night. I'll let you know if it is the miracle cure I'm looking for. If it is I will head to the patent office.

By the way that is one of my biggest regrets. I used Icy Hot for years to cure a sick headache. (migraine) I told everyone I knew, that said they had a headache, to rub a little on their temples, forehead and the back of their neck and the headache would go away. Well guess what came on the market awhile back. "Head On".http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HeadOn I should have headed to the patent office sooner. As always "I'm a day late and a dollar short". The story of my life.

Everyone have a great week end.

CELEBRATING BIRTHDAY'S AND FRIENDSHIIP

This labor day weekend was a nonstop three day marathon. It was filled with celebrating birthday's, meeting new friends and appreciating old friends.

I got off work about 2:00 on Friday. I knew that Mark was coming home and bringing a new girlfriend with him. I wasn't sure what time they would be arriving, but wanted to make sure that I had dinner fixed for them when they got here. As it turned out they arrived around 9:00 pm. I know it is hard for a person you are meeting for the first time to come in and immediately sit down for a meal, but that is what we did. Paige proved to be a trooper and did not seem intimidated by the situation. Afterward we sat around and talked for a couple of hours then I had to go to bed. I had been up since 4:45 that morning so I was worn out.

Saturday was filled with working on our booth, watching parts of football games and working around the house. Sunday we all met at church and then had lunch at the Chinese Restaurant. I had to squeeze in a short nap in the afternoon.

On Sunday evening we went out to Freeman's lake house for a birthday dinner for Sandra. It was just a small group with Sandra, Charles, Suzanne and her husband and three kids, John and I, Mark and Paige, Johnny, Tracy, John Pearson and Emily and two other couples that are friends of Sandra and Charles.

The meal was great. Suzanne had made a Broccoli casserole, potato casserole, salad and Todd had smoked some really great chicken. I had made a chicken stew and carried it. We had plenty to eat and we ate plenty. Including a wonderful orange pineapple cake also made by Suzanne and watermelon.

The thing that I would really like to post about is the friendship that our two families have shared over the last 60 years. Sandra and I first met when her mom and dad moved into our small town when I was four years old and she was two. Our families would get together and make homemade ice cream on lots of Saturday nights. The kids would take turns sitting on the old wooden hand cranked ice cream freezer. Our Dad's would take turns turning the crank. They would turn until the handle just wouldn't turn anymore. Then they would wrap towels around the freezer and let the ice cream sit for a few minutes so it would get harder. In the mean time all of us kids would be standing with our bowls in our hands trying to rush the process. I can still remember how you would get the brain freeze after eating the first couple of bites too fast.

Sandra and I had always gone to the same church and was involved in church activities together. I was close friends with her sister who was my age and we graduated the same year. As I have said in and earlier post, we both met a couple of Catholic boys. She met Charles in high school and I met John at Kmart. Charles was a barber and John would go down to the shop and get his hair cut. John and Charles hit it off really well and the four of us started hanging out. Sandra and Charles got married in Nov. and John and I got married in Jan.

For a number of years we would go to both the Methodist Church and the Catholic Church on Sunday morning. We would go to early mass, leave church stop at the quick mart and get a pack of Cameo cookies and a carton of milk and eat these while driving from Florence back out to Killen to the Methodist Church. ( Sandra and I say this is where we went wrong. We ate too many Cameo cookies:(.

We spent many a evenings playing cards and making dinners for each other. We took picnics and hit every park and roadside area that we could find. We didn't have much money for going out so we made our own entertainment. We always had fun just enjoying each others company.

As we started having our own families we continued to do things together. We took a number of vacation to Gulf Shores and to Myrtle Beach. Our kids have always been friends so it has been easy to continue our friendship. It has been like a huge family.

We were laughing at some of the crazy things we had done over the years. Back in the 70's people claimed to have sighted UFO's up at the Lexington dump. One night Sandra, Charles and their three kids pulled up in front of the house and honked the horn. John was working late that night, so when they asked if me and the kids wanted to ride up to the dump with them, I said sure. I got my four (at the time) and we loaded into their car. Now that was nine people in one car. Oh I forgot to mention they were driving a little Vega. That was before you had to have a seat belt for everyone in the car. We were packed in like sardines.

Then there was the time that we were going to Myrtle Beach. John, Charles and three of the kids had to go to a band competition in Birmingham. Sandra and I with the other five kids went in our car. We were planing on stopping in Atlanta and staying over night, but as usual we got a late start and didn't get going until about 9:00. it is a five hour drive from here to Atlanta. We made it into Atlanta around 2:00, but I decided we should drive to the other side of Atlanta so we could miss the morning traffic. We got to the far side of Atlanta when the alternator went out on the car and their we sat. There were no lights on the side of the road, no traffic to speak of and just a massive wooded area off the side of the road. I was scared to death.

John had made me carry his 357 Magnum pistol with us, but I didn't have a clue how to use it. Sandra had a great big old purse with her so she told me to give her the gun and she put the gun inside. I guess her dad had taught them how to shoot. She and I got out of the car and made Johnny lock the door behind us. We got the hood up and I was looking under the hood while she held the gun . Out of nowhere up drove a State Trooper. I whispered to Sandra, "Put that D*** gun up before me and you both get arrested".
He ask if he could help and we ask if he could take us to the nearest place open. He said he would take us up to the La Quinta Inn that we could see down the road. When me and Sandra and then the five kids piled out car he looked a little surprised and told us he didn't think he could get us all in the car. After a little shifting around we were able to get into the police car. He dropped us off at the Inn and just as we drove up the No Vacancy sign came on. There happened to be a Waffle House open next to the Inn and we spent the night sitting there with a drunk man hitting on the waitresses and throwing money all over the place. The next morning we had a tow truck tow the car and had a new alternator put on. Finally we were on our way. It took us over twenty four hours to make the trip. When we got to Myrtle Beach, the house that we had rented had been sold and we were without a place to stay. We got to the real estate office and Sandra went in. I'm not sure what she told them but when she came out she had the keys to two condos. The vacation turned out to be one of the last vacations that we took together to Myrtle Beach. But it sure is one we will never forget.

One more tale and then I really need to head off to bed. One day Sandra and I went down to East Florence to a little variety-floral store. We we looking around and I noticed this floral arrangement. It had a little plastic telephone with the words "God called" written on it. I picked up the receiver and said "Hello, just a minute. Sandra I think it's for you". Well Sandra and I got to laughing so hard that we had to leave the store. We walked down the street to another similar store. The lady that ran the store said."Well you girls are sure having a good time. What's so funny". I told her we just saw the funniest thing and described the floral arrangement. She looked at me without cracking the slightest smile and said "Well that's my best seller". I looked at Sandra and she looked at me and we both burst out laughing again and headed for the door. I don't think I every went back to either store again.

My mother celebrated her 89th birthday on Sept. 2nd. She was born on Labor Day in 1920.

GRANDMA'S APRON

Monica sent me this email and it brought back lots of memories of when I was a kid.

The History of 'APRONS'

I don't think our kids know what an apron is.The principal use of Grandma's apron was to protect the dress underneath,because she only had a few,it was easier to wash aprons than dresses and they used less material, but along with that, it served as a potholder for
removing hot pans from the oven.
It was wonderful for drying children's tears, and on occasion was even used for cleaning out dirty ears.

From the chicken coop, the apron was used for carrying eggs, fussy chicks, and sometimes half-hatched eggs to be finished in the warming oven.

When company came, those aprons were ideal hiding places for shy kids.
And when the weather was cold, grandma wrapped it around her arms.
Those big old aprons wiped many a perspiring brow, bent over the hot wood stove.
Chips and kindling wood were brought into the kitchen in that apron.
From the garden, it carried all sorts of vegetables. After the peas had been shelled, it carried out the hulls.
In the fall, the apron was used to bring in apples that had fallen from the trees.

When unexpected company drove up the road, it was surprising how much furniture that old apron could dust in a matter of seconds.
When dinner was ready, Grandma walked out onto the porch, waved her apron, and the men knew it was time to come in from the fields to dinner.
It will be a long time before someone invents something that will replace that ' old-time apron' that served so many purposes.
Send this to those who would know (and love) the story about Grandma's aprons.

REMEMBER:
Grandma used to set her hot baked apple pies on the window sill to cool.
Her granddaughters set theirs on the window sill to thaw.
They would go crazy now trying to figure out how many germs were on that apron.
I don't think I ever caught anything from an apron.

YOU'RE GONNA MISS THIS

I guess I am at the age where when I listen to the radio, some of the songs makes me laugh my a** off, or I get real melancholy listening to the lyrics. I usually listen to the country station going to and from work each day. Most of these songs have a message that I can understand, both verbally and mentally.This morning I was listening to the song by Trace Atkins," You're Gonna Miss This". It kind of made me get a little misty eyed. All of the things in the song brought back times in my life when we were raising our family. The times that we tried to rush past. The times we wanted too much to soon. The times we wished our children to be a little older so they could do things for themselves. No more diapers or bottles. Hurry up and feed yourself, dress yourself, tie your own shoes. You know all the things that seem to be such a drag when you are actually living the whole experience.

I hope my kids right now will try to slow down the process of raising their kids. Let the children be children. Give them some responsibility, but let the be kids. Don't try to make them sandlot stars when they would rather be playing in a sandbox. Let them make a mess sometime, just make them help clean it up. Let them run and squeal and laugh, they can't be quiet all the time, but teach them to respect your quiet/reading/nap time.

Discourage them from thinking they have to have a boy/girl friend from the time they start pre-k. It is impossible for two little kids to be going with each other unless mom and dad are taking them. There is time for dating when they get to be teenagers.

Some of the things I miss is the way little children smell when they have just had their baths and are all snuggled into their jammies and ready to say their prayers. Listening to them playing pretend, when they don't know you're listening, and the funny things they will say. How kids will fight with their siblings like wild cats but don't let another person try to pick on their brother/sister. The claws will really come out then. That is sometimes the only way you would know that they really love each other.

John and I have been in the house with just the two of us now for the last eight or nine years. We had a lot of years of raising children. Our oldest is 42 and our youngest is 28 or will be soon. It has been a little hard sometime adjusting. I go into the girls bedroom and it is halfway neat. The bed is made. No clothes strewn all over the floor. In the closet is a tub of toys that only get pulled out when the grand kids come in. Usually a doll propped on the pillows. I look out the kitchen window and the tree where all the kids and grand kids played looks deserted with the leaves having fallen off and a lone baby swing dangling from one of the lower limbs. (In my mind I call this our empty tree). Then there is the basketball goal that we put up when the kids were home and no one uses it anymore, as a matter of fact , we use it now as parking space and the basket balls are lying under lawn tables and the fig tree. To top it all off the dog that Mark left here when he moved to Memphis lives down the street at the neighbors house. Waylon only comes home if he sees some of the grand kids here and he barks at us as though we are a couple of strangers if we decide to take a walk in the neighborhood. Can you believe that?

Enjoy the time you are in, at any given time. Before you know it you will be looking back and saying, "Where in the world did the time go".