MEMORIAL SERVICE

Last night we attended the United Methodist West District memorial service and conference in the FUMC in Stephenville. I was priviledged to light the candle for the three members of our Cross Plains FUMC that died last year.

I was intrigued by the stained glass windows in the old church. On the left was a large window with Christ blessing people and on the right was a large window with what I took to be John Wesley. First time I remember seeing a stained glass window that didn't have Biblical figures on it. The ones we made at CP are all symbolic of Biblical stories.

We had a good pianist playing for the hymns. A young man who apparently ran the projector that projected the words on front walls. I personally used the hymn book to see what the music looked like.

We got to Stephenville an hour early, so we went to a restaurant and then got back a couple of minutes late and sat on the back row with our pastor and a retired minister from our church. During the business meeting I found out that having the Annual Conference Preliminary Report downloaded to my Kindle didn't let me find the pages fast enough to keep up with the discussion. It might work at the Annual Conference where we have three days to look at it. I noticed that it worked a lot better on the pastor's Ipad or whatever he has.

We got home at 10 ready for some sleep after driving most of the day. Today we looked at the morning glories climbing their trellis and the mint I put in a pot was really large and growing. Nancy's rain gauge had about 1" so that has kept everything growing while we were gone. Nancy mowed some high grass this morning. I nailed a board back on the fence and posted to my Waples waplesmethodists.blogspot.com Methodist blog.

Friday, May 18th Just a day

     Little chore day and we did little of that.  We did decide we have had too much steak and too little exercise so we walked down to the mail box.  The start was beautiful.  There was a huge field of yellow, daisy flowers we walked through.  Blue sky, white fluffy clouds and green trees made it West Texas at it's best.  But like West Texas any old time, BEWARE.  Today we are treating chigger bites. There are always, bugs, stickers, snakes (no we didn't see one this time).  Early this spring Charles and Valerie saw a pretty good sized snake on the path to the fish pond.  A little later I saw one sunning itself in the drive way.  I yelled for Charles who took care of it by stamping his feet until it slithered away; right into the open garage.  I haven't felt the same about getting into the car since.
     We haven't had as much trouble as some this wet spring.  I feel the need to practice with my revolver.  I'll try not to hit the fence.
    

Wednesday and Thursday May 16, 17 Abiliene Days

     Well, not all in Abilene.  Wednesday we started in Eastland for an eye appointment with a new doctor for me (Nancy).  She was very good and gave me a prescription for new glasses.  She also dialated my eyes and the rest of the afternoon passed in a blur.  We went directly to Abilene for Charles' appointment for his regular six month check up.  By four in the PM we had ordered prescripton glasses and were both feeling healthy and very hungry.  Charles knows all the good places and took us to the Red Lobster.  We shared two dinners and canceled work for the rest of the day and just went home.
     Thursday we were up and going to Abilene to finish our To do list.  Charles went to an Engineers' lunch meeting and I shopped and had a Subway lunch on the way home.  Charles picked up his new suit. Spiffy! Today we got a nap.
     Before we left the house this morning, I talked to a friend in Nebraska and we are signed up for my 60th reunion.  I need to get my annual out and review the names and people.  I hope my new glasses work well enough to read name tags at the reunion.  Grand daughter Jacqui and friend Amanada, (my honorary daughter)  both fresh out of school for the summer, are helping us drive north.  I am looking forward to showing Charles where I grew up along with seeing real tall corn growing, at least seven feet, and the world's largest feed lot that covers most of the whole state.  Now you know where your steak comes from.
     The feed lots provide fertilizer for the corn fields to feed the cattle.  Bradferd, my grandson, says the whole state smells. Like Texas oil, it smells like money.

BUSY DAYS

Monday started early. Nancy went to prayer group meeting at church while I attended my first Library board meeting in a year. I am still on a couple of committees. Our Meet The Author committee was asked to get Bill Neal for our next session in July. I told the board that Sue found Ike Neal's reel-to-reel tapes and found one labeled Fos Bond. We will send it to Texas Tech Southwest Collection where they have the technology to copy it to a CD for us, hopefully. It is an old tape and may have lost some of the sound.

This morning I attended Kiwanis breakfast meeting, voted in the primary, and picked up some more bird feed at Lawrence's store.

After the steak and lobster Sunday in the afternoon we had a fox in the back yard. I was wondering if the mouse I caught and threw out attracted him. We have been missing having a fox family in the back yard.

Sunday, May 13, 2012 MOTHERS' DAY

     Good, good day!
     I got to talk to all my kids and they are doing well.  Charles cooked as promised and it was a feast.  Victoria's care package had lobster tails, asparagus, cheese biscuits mix, clam chowder ingrediants, and strawberry cheese cake.  We already had steaks to grill and added wine.  We came home from church and he put on his apron.  I knew having all that chemistry in school would come in handy.  The picture of the grinning cook is below.

The lobster tails are grilled.

Final platter of steak and lobster with heated butter.

     I was allowed to make a salad and keep him company.  The lobster tail curled up and started smoking.  Small panic and it didn't hurt anything.  He even had melted butter to dip the treat.  We ate and ate and couldn't do it all, so we saved the cheese cake for after our nap. 
    And, get this, he even did the dishes.  Wow! love that man.
    I need an elaborate something for Father's Day.  It will be hard to top this Mother's Day.

Home Day

Saturday, May 12, 2012

     Home chore day only we never got around to many chores.  Charles read Bob Green's book "History as it Lingers".  I worked on some things for our Writer's Bloc meeting in May, but didn't find what I wanted so didn't write a word except notes to research To Do.  I'm better at writing To Do lists than doing To Do lists.  Somewhere in the Bible it says that we shouldn't plan for tomorrow for the Lord has his own plans.  Obviously, that is a bad quote since I can't find it in the Bible.  Jim, Charles' grandson, asked me once what Charles had taught me.  Well!  I said, "to be more organized"  I guess I need a few more lessons on actually doing and less on lists are in order  I'll add it to my current To Do list.
     Charles also organized his Mother's Day present for me which was cooking dinner for me Sunday.  He made a pot of Clam Chowder and we sampled it at 'tea time'  Very good, but very salty for our usual fare.  Sue dropped by but we couldn't persuade her to help us eat all that chowder.  We did have our tea.  We have added a break after nap time to help us wake up;  a little tea, a little conversation and a little visit with Sue this Saturday.
     Sue is doing well and has been working way too hard to make up for the time she was not feeling well.  She is amazing.
    Victoria called Friday and told us a package was coming for Mom's Day and to put it in the freezer right away.  She and Charles conspired.  The clam chowder was part of the package.  We are going to have a feast!

CELEBRATING THE RAIN

My big rain gauge had exactly one inch of rain this morning from the rain last night. We walked to get the mail and the road was clear of any water so the rain came steadily and soaked in. We watched hundreds of butterflies work on the flowers. There are a lot of yellow butterflies on the yellow flowers plus lots of other black, brown and yellow ones everywhere. I made some more hummingbird water and put my new feeder from Fredericksburg on the front porch. Someone sent me a video on email showing a hummingbird doing back flips chasing a bug while eating. They are amazing aviators. They are also mean to others who want to feed.

Bob Green's book is a great historical book about the Albany area. He has a first chapter on the history of the Comanches and their relation with the Texans during and after the Civil War. It is graphic in the description of the torture of captives by the Comanches. I had read the story about the meeting of the six chiefs with Texans in San Antonio but not the aftermath back in the camps later. As Green points out the Comanches never had a main chief. Each tribe had peace and war chiefs but they only served as long as the people accepted them. This caused problems with the US who wanted to make treaties with leaders. There were four different Comanche organizations, or nations, each with several tribes. Another point Green makes is that the Colt revolver was a turning point in the "war". Before the revolver the Texans had to defend themselves by firing rifles and while they were reloading the Indians would be able to launch multiple arrow attacks. After the revolver the Texans were able to attack the Indians with effective fire that caused the Indians to call for a peace meeting. That meeting went bad due to what Green calls arrogance on the part of the Comanches.

He then tells about the early Indian commissioners who built trading posts near what is now Albany and worked with the Indians, but with tragic results later when one was murdered by Indians who wanted his team of horses. The post was located in a fertile farming area where the commissioner raised corn to sell to the Army troops. That area later became Watt Matthews ranch and there are still arrow heads and other items to be found in the area.

Pecan Cookies

We had a great day!  Charles is good company, full of stories and local history.  Just for us girls, I found a framed recipe in the historial junk area.  Like a magnet I read it and had to laugh.  It looked early 20th century, but the first ingredient was Bisquick.

PECAN COOKIES
2 cups Bisquick
1 pound brown sugar
1 1/2 cups pecans

Stir together the Bisquick, pecans and brown sugar
Add: 
5 eggs slightly beaten

spread in a greased and floured pan and bake at 350 degrees for 10 to 15 minutes.
Cut into bar cookies

OLD JAIL ART CENTER

Today Nancy and I took a trip to Albany, TX to look at the art museum. Nancy first commented on all of the sculptures in the entry way. Did you know that elbows are supposed to end at waists? Not many or any were correct, but the sculptures were not very correct in other aspects either. I am not a lover of modern art. I like Remington's sculptures better. The art center has very interesting permanent art from China and Pre-Columbian art that I always enjoy. We went upstairs to the "junk" art room that has an eclectic assortment of stuff they sell. We didn't find anything to buy there. I did buy the latest Bob Green book, History As It Lingers, that was published by his widow, Nancy Green. I also paid my membership. I have been a member for years but Nancy hadn't seen it so I hadn't renewed. We enjoyed the temporary exhibit of art from other Texas museums. One painting of a child waking up in bed was intriguing. One explanation was it was the child Samuel saying I am here, Lord. Nancy liked the wall size oil of a man feeding one of two horses.

We ate lunch at the famous Beehive restaurant in Albany run by Lebanese emigrants who have opened another in Abilene. I had the special that was meatloaf with green bean casserole and mashed potatoes with the skin on them. Nancy had a half-pound hamburger with fries. We both took a take-home box. I found it delicious. Nancy liked hers also. We drove up thru Baird but came back thru Moran. Coming back we turned a corner and saw cows resting in a pasture. Nancy saw a black cow under a tree and insisted that it was caught in the tree. She wanted to let someone know. We drove a mile of so, turned around, went back and found that the cow was just smarter than the others and was standing in the shade of a mesquite tree. She looked as us as if saying "what is the problem?". We also observed several pastures where white and red cows were all gathered together close to each other. In another large pasture black cows were scattered all over the place.

We also took a side trip from 880 to go look at the old Scranton Academy ruins and read the historical marker. It was started in 1907 grew to 325 students and closed in WWI. Nancy looked at the walls standing and decided it could be rebuilt into a great home or bed and breakfast.

We had rain yesterday and looking for more tomorrow night. The Lord is good.

RAINY TUESDAY

I drove to Kiwanis in light rain. It had quit by 8:30 but stayed cloudy and cool all day. Had a total of 0.7" in my rain gauge. Connie Kirkham, chair of the Chamber of Commerce told the Kiwanians about the new Farmer's Market that will start this Saturday from 8 to noon in Cross Plains at the corner of the highways using the old Taste of Texas location. They hope it will attract the thru town traffic going in both directions. The wet weather let me burn my trash and since I couldn't mow my wet lawn we worked indoors, Nancy doing laundry and I have been on the computer and trying to read some of the stack of magazines that came in the three weeks of mail when we got home.

I enjoyed reading Judy Alter's blog today about her new book and the problem of cluttering up your head while writing. I have the same problem. I think all the time but am not getting it written down.

Cowboy pilot

Did anyone notice in the picture of Charles and his P-51 that the pilot was wearing a cowboy hat?

     Today was catch up day with an added trip to town for prayer meeting.  Cherry was there with several quilts they are doing for our graduating seniors and for community requests.  They were so beautiful.
     We traveled on to Abilene to do our shop and drop trip.  Charles found a beautiful dark gray suit and a light suede sport coat in a soft shade of gray.  We went to the Abilene Mall, so I visited my favorite shop and got several tops for the summer.  We didn't drop ourselves but our bank account did, so, we opted to have a chicken lunch and quit shopping for the day, almost. 
     Charles' Kindle bombed last week.  Their service department worked hours with him and finally offered him a new one (reloaded with all his original data).  We dropped the old one at the UPS store to mail back and made a quick swing by the grocery store.
     The sky was very dark and it was chilly when we came out of the store.  After we got home it rained.  We sat on the front porch and put his last wind toy together, a nervous bird.
     It is early to bed since Charles has to be up and in town by seven in the morning for Kawanis.  I am not going.  You did get the part about seven in the morning?
     Charles has started a new book titled "Assume"  He has come to the conclusion that nothing can be proved without some assumption in the proof. He said scientists assume their conclusions are accurate.  I said accountants write budget assumptions and we assume they will change.  This should be interesting.

P-51 IN FRONT YARD

While at Port Aransas I visited the wind sock shop and bought several wind devices for the house. One I couldn't resist was a WWII P-51 model. Nancy had to help me put it together using her crochet hook to help insert the plastic rods that held the shape. Nancy took this photo of the final installation:

Sunday, Communion, Jeremiah, politicians

     Sunday is the best day of the week, and one of the busiest.  It is always a temptation to skip our devotionals on busy Sunday mornings, but it just doesn't seem to be a good day to do that. We still were not late to church.  I wonder if Jesus ever felt pressure to hurry, hurry, hurry.
     It was good to see everyone after being gone two weeks.  Bless the good people here.  Our church sponsored a family dinner before a funeral for a member.  Methodists seem to have very good cooks.  We took a salad. 
     Sunday school study has continued to be in the book of Jeremiah .  People didn't listen to Jeremiah then and people don't seem to listen now to admonitions to change our ways or face gloom and doom.  We had a lively discussion about the similarities of Biblical prophets and today's politicians.  Funerals and politics!  We were refreshed by a great sermon, as usual, and communion.  We needed both to restore our joy in worship and fellowship.
   We had a fast trip home for dinner and back for the funeral.  It was so well attended we could only get in the door to sign the register.  So leaving our best wishes we were back home in time for a short nap.  Testing our aches and pains we have decided we are recovered enough to shop till we drop tomorrow as planned yesterday.

Cinco de Mayo

After months of being able to add to this blog, we finally learned to actually post my thoughts. I think. We had a good day today after a slow start. We both woke up slow and had to get up as we had big plans to shop till we dropped in Abilene. It turned out that we dropped before we got to the shopping. After our busy week last week we decided that this was a better take-it-easy day. It was a work day at Admiral Cemetary, also on our to do list. We took a check over to the workers and admired their work. They were repainting the front entrance and had mowed. Everything looked very nice. We did have to make a quick, or as fast as we felt like moving, trip to Cross Plains for a few groceries. The day began to look up as we celebrated Cinco de Mayo with lunch at Mexico City. It was busy. The people who work there are always so nice. Back to the house for a nap to continue our take-it-easy day. Charles said it was a MAJOR day since there was no mail in the box. The first time he remembered that happening. We haven't gotten any more ambitious since then. I proofed a short thing and Charles studied his Sunday School lesson. It was a very GOOD day.