A Sad Adieu to the Lady Tarheels

Sadly for the Tarheel fans, the women's team lost tonight to the Lady LSU Tigers. They just couldn't get it going. When the Tigers began fouling out, the Tarheels pull within 4 but they just didn't have enough time left on the clock to do any better. Now the Lady Terps are getting beat by Stanford but both teams are scoring better than 50% so far...amazing! Unless there is a quick change, there will be two ACC teams joining Duke who has already gone home. For my readers who don't care for basketball, I apologize for my evident enthusiasm. I believe my enjoyment of sports at least keeps me in vicarious shape! (Now, that's a joke for sure)

Once again, I enjoyed a rainy day. For the first time in a very long time, we had a day that remained rainy and that's good for all of us! I think a day like this with the precipitation being in the form of snow would be wonderful! I miss seeing a snowfall that actually covers the ground and stays around for at least 2 or 3 days. I would love to see my grandchildren being able to really enjoy building a decent snowman, sledding with their mom and dad, and just enjoying the infrequent play days. (That has to be a dream when it's almost April 1; or, could it be an April Fools Funny?) If it had dropped several degrees the past few days, we could have experienced that coveted cover of delightful makings for snow cream!!

Now that I've had my dreams for tonight, I will retire and sleep soundly while visions of snowdrops fall on my eyelids!!

Hello Out There!

What a beautiful day this has been! As I have often mentioned, I love a rainy day, just as the once-popular song states. Everything God made was getting its much-needed bath again! The freshness just makes me want to breathe deeply, sigh, and say, "Thank you, Lord, for cleaning your world". Speaking of cleaning our world, I pray that our politicians will clean up their act. I am so tired of listening to their not-so-honest opinions, their "plans" for our country, their high opinion of themselves. I have to agree with the majority of 100 people who were surveyed for a question on "Family Feud". They were asked who were the people who would have the most difficulty getting into Heaven; the answer they most often chose was "politicians". I'm not saying that all politicians are crooked but too many of them give the honest ones a bad name. What will do in the Tarheel state in May? I just want to go outside and yell, "Hello, out there! Is there someone hearing me who would make a good president for our country? Is there someone qualified who would step up and say they will adhere to those moral qualities that were established by our forefathers? If so, Please...please, step forward now, before it's too late!

Stepping down from my soapbox, I'm happy to say that our Relay for Life team raised over $300 at its scrap-a-thon yesterday. Not only did we have a great time during our fellowship with one another, we remembered our reason for being there: to do our part in finding a cure for cancer.

We lost another dear member of our church this week. I will remember C.F. for his quickness to acknowledge everyone who entered the church doors, especially the children. He was always prepared for each one, offering them a stick of gum; if the children didn't go to him, he would go to them with his gum. C.F.'s love for others was evident in his friendliness and I shall sadly miss his Sunday morning greetings.

Tarheel Proud!

I know it's late and I'm tired after having a very busy day; however, I had to stay up and watch my Tarheels as they now advance from the "Elite Eight" to the "Final Four" in the NCAA Basketball Tournament. After winning over Louisville, they will travel to San Antonio where they will meet the winner of the Kansas/Davidson game which is to be played tomorrow. I am a very proud Tarheel and Tarheel proud!

Today, we had our Scrap-a-thon to raise money for our Relay for Life team. We made somewhere between $300 and $400 and for that, we are very happy, especially since several of our people were unable to attend due to various reasons. This was the weekend immediately following Easter break and I feel that had a bearing on those not attending. Some were at the beach or other vacation spots; some were just tired after returning from vacation; some felt they had too much to do to get ready to go back to work; and, some had a death in their family and were unable to attend. We miss all of them and hope they will be able to attend our next one. We are talking about having another one soon without as much "fanfare" (for this one, we give door prizes, feed them breakfast and lunch, and give them favors at their table). The main thing is that we remember our loved ones who have experienced that awful disease and that we do our part to help find a cure.

Go Heels!

It's getting a bit late and I'm very tired but needed to blog for a moment. My day has been quite busy. First, I cleaned the pantry because Don had gone to the commissary and I wouldn't be here when we unloaded so I wanted the pantry to be ready for his haul. I also cleaned out the fridge so that he could fill it up again. At 10:30, I had to be at church to prepare the fellowship hall for the scrap-a-thon we will be hosting on Saturday; beauty shop appointment at 2:00. Tonight, I had to work to get my things ready to scrapbook. During all of this, I sliced my fingertip and had to put one of those bandages on it. Have you ever tried to type with a fingertip bandage on the index finger? Every time I tried to hit the t, I also add a g. It has taken forever to type this and try to get all the typos out of it; have I been successful, do you tghink?

Tomorrow, I have final preparations to make for the Saturday event. We really have a lot of fun. We provide breakfast, lunch, and door prizes. I will be extremely tired when that day is over because we have to clean up after the event at 5:00 PM!

Hurray! My Tarheels won again tonight! Go Heels! They are doing mighty fine so far in the NCAA tournament but my Oklahoma Sooners have gone home. March Madness makes the day interesting and exciting in our basket ball state!

I'm shopping at Walgreen's Again

I was flipping through the tv channels when I ran across a news program which informed the public about a distribution center owned by Walgreens Drugs. I was so impressed to see that all of the employees were mentally and/or physically disabled. Some of them were autistic, some suffered from Downs Syndrome, and even one of the bosses had Cerebral Palsy and had difficulty talking. I was so touched to hear these people talk about how much they enjoyed their jobs and how they loved the people with whom they worked. One of the company's CEO's has an autistic son and he is the one responsible for this workplace. He was so kind to the employees and he indicated how wonderful their work was. When I was in Florida, I had some difficulty with one of the employees in one of their pharmacies and I declared that I wouldn't shop with them again; however, after seeing and hearing this report, I have changed my mind. I suppose every business can have some problem workers and this one was a high school student who probably didn't like working anyway. (She was rude and not helpful at all). I responded to a questionnaire that I was given with my receipt and I focused on that issue. Now, I have to focus on this center and the good that I think Walgreens is doing for these people. Maybe you will want to consider shopping at Walgreens, too!

Too Much Government

I talked with a couple of my friends down in Florida who are still there and having fun. They said they were having rain today and I know that they still need more of that. They also said that it was still windy. Most of my friends will be leaving within the next 2 weeks, some sooner than that. After they are gone, the only thing I would miss there is my bike riding. It's nice and flat there with just a few slight grades with which to contend. Here, there are tough hills to climb and that's just more than I can deal with.

One of my childhood friend's husband passed away this week with that awful cancer disease. He was in his early 60's perhaps. I spent some time with my friend today and she is doing all right so far; I know that the rough days are yet to come. She often goes with us on our church trips and I hope that she will be able to continue that tradition.

Some days, I just don't feel like blogging, mainly because I really have nothing exciting to tell. I did notice in the local papers that there was a re-run election for one of the town commissioners (the loser felt that she was cheated out of the seat so a second election was held this week). Now, I question the reasoning behind that because she lost worse this second round than she did the first. Her main complaint was that one of the solicitors outside the polls may, I emphasize "may", have crossed the line which would have brought her too close to the doors. The "culprit" indicated that she only went that close to the line to buy a hot dog at the stand. I cannot imagine wanting a political job so badly that I would require my town to spend all those extra dollars to have a re-run! I'm not satisfied with the politicians but I don't think I could do better...too much government if you ask me.

Loving March Madness!

That's right, I'm a big fan of college basketball and of course, I'm pulling for Roy Williams and those Tarheels to take it all! I feel sure they have the talent; however, they don't always play that way. Naturally, I am pulling for those Oklahoma Sooners too since both these places are my alma mater (OU isn't expected to go that far however). I'm thinking I may need to take an evening nap if I want to stay up and see those late games tonight. The main one I want to see tonight is the Duke game though.

Tomorrow, my son and his fiance will be coming in to spend the day with us. We haven't seen them since our return from the Sunshine State. We will soon be attending their wedding in May. I'm happy for him and think that he's getting a very nice young lady and that's what I have been praying for. Our daughter and her family are spending several of these Easter holidays at the nearby lake camping (I hope they will come in tomorrow to have lunch with all of us.).

Next weekend, our Relay for Life Team will be sponsoring our annual Scrap-a-thon, and I must say that wears me out! I love to scrapbook and the special event makes me get some done. I am so far that I will never catch up I think. (I am still on the year 1958!) I am constantly adding more photos to my collection, especially for my travel books which I keep separately; there, again, I am far, far behind, I think around 1970. And, then I want to re-d0 my wedding photos. If I would just stay with it, I could accomplish a very wonderful feat and have something for my children and grandchildren to perhaps enjoy in the future.

I went to have my eyes checked today and everything that I type is in Blue for some reason! Maybe the drops he used to dilate my pupils had an effect on them (at the time, the drops were yellow but I saw purple, but now blue!) My cataracts have grown significantly and rather quickly too; however, they are still not ready to be removed so that Medicare will pay for them. I was told that they cannot be better than 20/50 with glasses in order for them to pay. I hate to wait that long because they are really beginning to bother me. So much so, that I must get off here now and see if I can change colors!

St Patty's Day

I wonder if all the Irish enjoyed an eventful day on this St Patrick's Day. I'm not Irish but I always enjoyed participating in all the hoopla when I was still employed. Once, when I was returning from a conference in Orlando, FL, my co-worker and I decided to take a little detour off of I-95 and visit the city of Savannah, GA. Talk about "green"! Everything was. As you may know, Savannah has many little city squares, most of which have pools with fountains in the center of them. I have never seen such green water pouring from those beautiful old fountains! Then, walking down the river street, we noted that all the drinks they were selling were also green! (The ones that weren't green were in green cups). There were bands of all descriptions along the walk playing any kind of music one could desire, and, unfortunately, drunks everywhere. I must say that all of them were very polite and kind, however. Then the parade began, another demonstration of green. I saw on TV this past weekend where the river around Chicago was turned green and that was a beauty too. But, nothing about St. Patrick's Day stands out in my memory like Savannah, Georgia, a very old, rare, Southern and beautiful Emerald city.

Relay Time is Here Again

I cannot believe that I have been ignoring my computer almost since the day we arrived. I really don't have a good reason for that; I just guess that I have been having withdrawals from a long vacation with friends that I won't see again for another year. Yet, it is so good to be back home with all my other very good friends. Yesterday, I went to church and was so pleased to see everyone again. Our choir director jumped up and gave me a big hug which I did my heart so much good! Of course, best of all was seeing my two little grandchildren come running through the door with sparkle in their eyes and smiles to light up any grandparents' life! They just left a few minutes ago. Children grow up so fast it seems; both of them are so much taller than when we left. Livvy turned 5 she informed me while Clay won't turn 5 for awhile longer. It was such a pleasure to announce that she was the elder of the two!

The choir performed its Easter cantata last night and it was wonderful. The director asked me to critique since I wasn't planning on singing in it (I had missed every single practice and thought it best to avoid any negative comments about my singing but not practicing; maybe there would have been none but I thought it best to refrain. I did so miss singing though). I was impressed with our small church choir, especially the ladies who were outnumbered but who really did an awesome job. The men did fine too. The cantata they chose to do was really quite difficult and the range was extremely high but they did great. One of the ladies has a beautiful, very high soprano and she can hit those unaccessible notes for many with splendor.

We are now gearing up for our local Relay for Life Cancer program. For the past few years, our county has won first place (per capita) in the nation. I am so proud of everyone here who fights so hard to help us reach our goals. There are so many people who have lost loved ones from this dreaded disease and many who will eventually lose a dear one. We all need to pull together and do our part in the battle to overcome this. Our team will soon have a scrap-a-thon to try to earn money for our church team. My sister and I are co-captains and everything we do (much of the food provided, door prizes presented to participants, etc), we donate to the team. We just feel that we cannot give enough to support the cause. We have friends with cancer, a minister who is a survivor, and we have former school sweethearts and a very dear brother-in-law who lost the battle. I hope that you will join in the fight against cancer.

Home Again

Yes, we are finally back home again. I'm glad to be here but right now, I'm still having "Florida Friends Withdrawals". Actually, I have this twice during this time of the year: in January when I leave my family and friends back home; and again, when we leave all our friends in Florida. We didn't arrive until last night about 7:00 PM and since then, I have received 5 different phone calls from friends left behind. Their reasons for calling were two-fold: first, I had to contract the flu bug just before we left the park, ran a low-grade fever, began taking antibiotics, drinking fluids, and just feeling awful!, so friends called to see how I was and to see if Don had actually caught it (the truth be known, Don had it first and that's more than likely where I came up with the awful mess. I hope no one else gets this); and, second, they just called to see where we were and if we were having a safe trip (they are very good friends!). I am somewhat better today and hope with a few more days, I will be up and running full throttle (for me, that's a very slow throttle). Today, I'm trying to catch up on washing, putting thin gs away and getting things from the RV to the house. It's days like this that I think I could stand to be a full-time RVer as many of our friends are.

Our church is having its EAster cantata on Sunday evening; however, I have missed every single practice this year plus I have this cold so I probably won't pursue it even though I have the tape and have been able to practice along with that. Meetings are already beginning. Tomorrow night, the Relay for Life Team Captains meeting takes place so I must get up and get back into the groove of things at home.

A Wet Floor in the Coach

We were surprised late this afternoon when we received an unannounced storm, so surprised that we had left two overhead vents open! And, rain it did, so hard that our floor got wet in the den area and in the bathroom. I just heard that there are tornado warnings in Mississippi and Louisiana. I hate that for those folks. I hope that don't come this way because I don't like the thoughts of being in a motorcoach during that type of weather.

Just before we left to go out to dinner with some of our friends, we learned that Don's brother has been hospitalized. We don't know much except that they are adjusting his medications. Unless we hear different, we will be leaving here on Sunday and heading North.

I learned that my internet will be stopped sometime tomorrow. Occasionally, I am able to get a wireless signal; therefore, I will keep a close eye on it and if it shows up again, I will get on my blog. Hopefully, I will be able to get on tomorrow before they shut this off. If not, I'll should be back on the air by next Friday I think.

Prices are Rising Everywhere

My internet hasn't been shut off yet so I'm getting another chance to blog. Perhaps I will get another chance after this one. Rose and I just returned from our last shopping trip before we leave for home (she will have an additional 3 weeks to shop, however, since they stay longer than we do).

I didn't go out on March 1 and sit in the cold 5:00 AM darkness to reserve our site for 2 months this year. (I understand there were only about 10 people who did endure the cold for various reasons). I decided to go ahead and sign up for 3 months and give my deposit. I was told that I would have until Nov. 15 to change our minds. Now, we know that we won't be staying that long, maybe 10 weeks instead of 8 (I would like to). Once we get here and get with all of our friends, it's very hard to leave and know that they will be here for 2 to 4 weeks longer than we are. I always wonder what they are doing in fair Florida that I would like to be doing. Of course, I am anxious to see my other family that we left behind so once we get on the road I get very excited about heading north. Quite a few people have told us that they don't plan to return next year, mostly because of the fuel prices; also, they are raising the rates quite a bit and adding meters to each site, adding a 22 cents charge plus the electric bill and a $50 deposit. It's always something to make the prices go up.

The Exodus

Yesterday was March 1 and we were expecting to witness a great exodus from the rv park; however, we only counted 9 leaving. Today, there were only 3 vacant sites in the entire park and now there is only one. Usually, there are at least a dozen vacant no and at least 2 or 3 more each day. I don't know why people are staying later unless they are hoping that fuel prices will drop again before they head north for the summer. I do understand, however, that another cold front is hitting the north again with more snow. Also, some of the folks say they will be unable to return next year due to the high prices of fuel. We have friends here from Prince Edward Island, Canada who say they probably won't be able to return due to the expense of travel. In addition, the RV park is trying to make too much money off of us by raising the prices but not providing anything new. Meters are being added to the sites which is costing the people much more in the long run. There is a lot of mumbling going on. The only reason most of us return to this park is because of the good friends we have here.

We will be here only one more week, then we, too will become part of the Exodus.

Fun with Flight Tracker

I spent part of yesterday tracking my daughter's flight from Germany. The computer/internet is quite an amazing invention. Who puts all of that stuff on there anyway? As I was tracking her flight, this little airplane would actually move along the route, noting the speed and altitude, minutes left of the flight and arrival time. I made sure that I was online when the plane landed. A message appeared stating the exact time the plane touched down. Now, I can relax again. My daughter and grandchildren are back at home and I will be seeing them again in less than two weeks.

If you are interested in following a flight, you need only to know the airline and the flight number. Just call up Flight Tracker and look to the skies!