Nice Peaceful Weekend--NOT

The high temperature on Saturday was:  72 degrees

Sunny and nice

=====================================

Dar was over quite early on Saturday morning.

"I'm depressed and I had to come over so you can make me feel better."

"I know what would take your mind off your problems.  Do you want to vacuum my rugs?"

"No...not really."

"Do you want to mop my kitchen floor?"

"No...not really."

"Well, what do you want to do?"

"I woke up at three this morning, with the kids on my mind.  It makes me sad."

"I know.  What can you do about it?"

"I told myself, 'piss on 'em!  If they are going to go back fifty years and blame me for everything bad that has happened in their lives...well...so be it.  I am NOT going to try and explain it to them.  I am NOT going to keep trying to contact them.  This is the way they want it...then so be it!' "

"Okay, but it's still going to be in your mind."

"I won't let it!"

"It will creep in during the night or when you are home just sitting there, doing nothing.  I think...you need to pray.  Ask God to forgive them and ask God to forgive YOU!  THEN, you honestly and truly....really...give it to God and put it away from your mind.  Really."

"You are going through something like me and yet...you don't get very depressed anymore."

"No...I don't...because...I did that very thing.  I pray every day that God will bring reconciliation between Jennifer and me, but a year ago...I asked for His forgiveness for my wrong doing and I asked Him to bless Jennifer and said, 'I give it all to you, God'.  and I meant it.  I rarely think about it anymore.  Nothing I can do about it.  She has to come if and when she is ready."

"Okay.  I'm going home now."

...and out the door she went.  Now---a couple of years ago, Dar was telling me that Jesus sits in the chair beside her bed and talks to her.  She has often told me that I have to become closer to God.  That I was a "baby" Christian and I had to read the Bible every day, study it and really believe.

I always thought I was doing all right.  I have become closer to God in the last two years.  But, in her superior way, she tended to ridicule me.

Now, she has told me she hates God.  She hasn't been to church in nine months and she use to practically live there.  She hasn't opened her Bible in that time and no longer even reads her short daily devotional.  I do not know what has brought this on because nine months ago--her life appeared to be wonderful.

I know this poor woman.  She isn't going to feel any better until she gets her faith back.  Because she has been so strong in her faith, for so many years---she needs to get back to it or, she's going to be miserable.
=======================
I DID mop the kitchen floor AND vacuum all the rooms.  YAY..finally.  I have a question--if any of you have the old style (20 years ago) type of vinyl flooring--what do you use to mop it with?  Mine isn't wanting to shine like it used too.  Comment your reply--please.  I need help on this.
=========================
Pammie called and we spent about 30 minutes laughing and whopping it up.  She had just come in from raking her yard and was complaining about all the "crap" the guy who lived there has left.   Junk cars--trucks--a pick-up camper--a dune buggy.  All the junk he got and was "going to work on, fix up and sell."

Pam says, "I swear that man was born in the hills of Kentucky!!  He's like some redneck--white trash--or something.  Old tires piled up.  Vehicles up on cement blocks.  He could care less what his yard and home look like.  WELL--I CARE what mine looks like!"

"Well, tell him to get his crap out of there or at least, haul it back behind the barn until he can get it out of there.  At least it wouldn't show from the house or the road."

"Momma!  I told him it had to be out of here by last August.  He said he was gonna--you know that phrase men like to use.  I'm gonna?"

"Yes, I am well aware of that phrase."

"Hey--I got the hole in the roof fixed."

"How."

"I knew I needed some tar to put in the hole, but I didn't want a whole pail of tar.  So I went to the hardware and told the guy and he said, 'Follow me', and he showed me a tube of tar that you use with a caulking gun.  Cost me ten bucks!"

"But---how did you get up on the roof?"

"I went out the front windows--just like you use to do when you decorated the peak at Christmas time.  I scrambled up to the top of the roof, walked along the peak--making sure I didn't have any other limbs sticking in it, or holes and then...I took my handy-dandy caulking gun and my putty knife and filled in that hole and put the shingle back in and.....done!"

"WAY TO GO!!!"

"It felt so good not to have some man telling me how to do it, or I wasn't doing it right.  I can fix anything all by myself!!!  Just like my Momma has always done!"

I just had to giggle.  She is so much like me.  We've had similar lives--similar struggles, but we keep going forward...ever forward!  I love that girl of mine so much!
================
 I watched the Masters--sister and her hubs are there, I saw storm warnings for counties north of here--up by Saginaw--mid-state.

Then--all heck broke loose.  I saw a warning on TV that a town west of where sister, Mark and Pammie live had a severe thunder storm warning--it was headed right their way.  Micro Bursts from wind shears along the front could touch down.

I called Mark--it had already passed him.  "Mom, the barn was moving...it was twisting back and forth, but...everything is all right."

Then I called Pammie.  "Are you all right!"

"Yeah, but--I have never felt this house shake like it just did.  I was headed for the basement when it stopped.  It came up so quick..oh..you know all that crap of Gene's outside?  It's all over in the hay field.  Even the truck camper and that big truck.  Man--it was really something."

"You be careful picking debris out of that field.  Don't hurt your back and...don't get cut on the metal pieces."

"You know what, Momma?  I am going to call Gene and have HIM clean it up.  It's his stuff anyway!!!"


"Good idea!  Hey, can you do me a favor and run up to The Farm to make sure everything is all right there?"

"Sure will, Momma."

Then I jumped on Face Book to see what my friends in Byron were saying.  Middle school roof, heating/cooling system and the walkway from the Middle school to the gym, extensively damaged.  The roof went off the gym, rain soaked the floor--it is totally destroyed.  You can see the air conditioner laying on the ground here, along with other debris.

That silver hallway looking place, is the walk-way from the gym

up into the middle school--the school off to the right.

It is structurally unsafe.

The high school is way off to the left--on the other end of the gym.

Nothing damaged in the high school.

The roof on the old town hall, is off and onto the laundromat next door, and the gas station next to it was on fire!

Pammie called back.  "Everything up at The Farm is okay--lots of branches and limbs down--dead ones left over from the ice storm.  The barns are all right, but....the outhouse is gone and laying down by the road."  (The outhouse--over 150 years old, that my sister had recently "decorated" and used for rakes and shovels.)

BUT--Susan's 157 year old house, and Pammie's 94 year old house and Mark's 120 year old barn--all standing!!!

I called Chuck and Susan and let them know.  Susan said, "Maybe we will just get rid of it.  Fill in the pit and be done."

"Just think of all the DNA in that pit," I said.  "We could clone great great grandpa or even...Dad.  We could have an ancestor come back to life!"

"If we did---it wouldn't be an ancestor--it would be a baby and thus, a descendant, wouldn't it?"
==============

Lots of damage on other homes--parts of roofs gone, decks torn apart, windows broken, sheds blown away, but it wasn't a tornado--it was straight line winds--micro bursts, which I guess can produce stronger winds than a tornado.

Just glad everyone is all right!!
==============================

The high temperature on Sunday was: 76 degrees

Cloudy and thunder storms expected tonight.

Forecast--1 to 3 inches of snow Monday night.  

Now you know why I haven't raked and uncovered my gardens.

===========================================

I made it to church.  The choir had a wonderful Cantata, so I sat nearer the front so I could hear it better.  It is a weird feeling--sitting up in front.  I was totally unaware of how many people were in church, until I turned around to leave.  There was a whole bunch of people in back of me.  YIKES!!

I stopped at Taco Bell and got three soft taco's for lunch and came on home.  Haven't done a single thing except watch the Masters Golf Tournament.

I am so glad Susan and Chuck could drive on down to Augusta, GA and walk the course.  I have always wanted to--especially this hole, which is my favorite.

13th hole at Augusta Golf  Club 

I don't watch golf too much anymore--it just makes me kind of sad.  Golf was such an integral part of my life for about twenty years.  My Mother taught me how to play when I was twelve.  They put in a golf course in 1968 in Byron--just 5 miles away.  

As the kids got older, I organized a woman's league and played every Tuesday morning from April until September, subbed on the Thursday night league and played--probably three times a week, if I could.  I taught two of my best friends how to play golf and I also taught Pammie--when I moved away, she took my place on the league.

I was really quite good actually.  I love golf because it ISN'T a team sport--I didn't have to rely on anyone but me.  When I lost, it was my own fault.  I liked the competition against others, but most of all, I liked to go out alone and play against the course.  I did win the golf course woman's championship one year.  I haven't played in twenty years, but I still miss it.  Can't afford it now and couldn't walk the course, so I'd have to pay for a cart.  <sigh>

Look at those strong arms!  I could hit it a mile!!!

This is the way you are supposed to hold a crochet hook--like holding a pencil/pen tipped sideways.

This is how I hold mine.  I can't crochet holding the hook the correct way.

I just grab it and go and crochet quite fast.
My left hand holds the yarn and the row that I am working on.

I wanted to take a video so you could see, but for the life of me, Buddy will not learn how to hold the camera and take pictures for me!!!
===================
Well Ladies--tomorrow is finally my visit to the Cardiologist.  I'm kind of nervous.

I'll let you know how it all turns out.