Sunday 23 February 2020

It is another dark, cloudy and gloomy day in Arkansas. But we did have a few days of bright sunshine, amidst the freezing night time temperatures that terminated the multitude of blossoms on my one peach tree that thought it was time to bloom.

Monday I was still at Miranda's and managed to complete a couple of home projects with them. With the boys in school, we took some time off to visit Andy's Frozen Custard on our way to Lowes. They were closed for President's Day, so we settled on Freddies; but their hot fudge sundae was not as tasty.

Tuesday I was up and gone early; Terminex wanted to inspect my house in the afternoon. I made a short stop at Deborah's and then continued on home. It always seems to take a couple of hours to get back into the 'I am home' routine and get organized for the rest of the week.

Wednesday I spent mostly at Rebecca's rent house; patching holes, purchasing needed supplies and making some minor repairs. This is also the day that Miranda texted to say that Alex suffered a concussion prior to going to school. He seems to be recovering satisfactory, but then came down with the flu.Nathan reached out to me and asked if he could spend the night prior to driving to Provo. He arrived late evening and stayed until Thursday morning. We had a short but enjoyable visit.

Thursday, after Nathan drove off, I ran some errands and then drove to Harrison. I had been invited by friends in that area; Sandy had done some book editing for the wife and he had been the bishop years ago. I was not sure what to expect, but I found myself one of six invited guests, (three men/three women) all of whom I found out later were single. We spent about two hours playing cards and have a good time together. After a slice of ice cream pie, I returned home to assist in blessing a ward member. Did not get home until 7:30pm. Had a quick dinner and made a lunch for Friday.

Was up early on Friday; it was ward temple day. We only had four of us go, so we drove my van. It was a good day to be in the temple and a lot of work was accomplished. Got home by 8 pm.

I had invited family to join me on Saturday for a work day; Miranda and Andy's families planned to come, but with sickness in Miranda's family, they were not able to come. Andy's family arrived by 10 am and set to work. There was the annual downed limbs to collect and burn, some small trees to clear so the tractor can navigate part of the forested area and some dead trees to remove. Those Fox children know how to work! They hustled to get the work done. At one time we had six different burn piles going. And we got everything cleaned up! Katie is getting quite proficient on the tractor. Matthew and Aaron headed off to Springfield for a youth dance, but were disappointed that their MO cousins were not there due to illness. And Katie spent the evening at a ward members home and learned how to cook curry. The rest of us ordered in pizza and then played a round of 5-Crowns and then Andy plus three returned home, leaving the older three.

Church was good (as always); I enjoy starting the day off with choir practice. After lunch the three remaining Foxes headed home.

This next week will keep me busy painting and flooring at Rebecca's house.

On the road...again

Monday kept me busy. Haircut in the morning, then the grief support group at 1 pm, followed by a meeting with the realtor at one of our rental homes. Because it is a duplex, the most likely buyer would be an investor, so I was happy that both tenants want to remain in place. I offered to let them sign new one year leases to ensure stability, but don't know what they will do. Hope to have a contract at the end of the month.

Tuesday I spent six hours at Adam's rent house working on a new parking spot for the tenant. They have two cars and only one parking spot and there is no legal street parking. I had the large tree, adjacent the one parking spot, removed last month. So while we had a break in the rain, I needed to level the ground, install some 4 x 6 timbers and toss in some gravel. Shoveling one ton of gravel reminded me that I still have some muscles; they constantly reminded me all evening.

Wednesday we were back to rain again. Had my monthly maintenance chiropractor appointment first thing. Then I removed the headlights from the Model A and drove out to a friends in Yellville that is restoring a 1931 Model A. Part of the innards of my headlights were rusted and broken and in need of replacement. Tom was able to spot weld the new pieces in place for me. The original idea had been for me to drive the car to his place, but since it was raining, only the headlights went. Now I need to find some wire connectors and time to install everything.  One of Rebecca's tenants moved out; this is the house that was completely painted last spring, and new vinyl planking installed in the 36 by 8 foot laundry room, kitchen and dining room. Last fall the tenant ripped up over 50% of that floor because of a water leak; it doesn't make sense to me. But he did purchase tile and mortar sufficient to do the entire floor, so it was not a total lose. But, I will need to repaint most of the walls and trim again. The husband is an Army disabled vet and the wife works at one of the nursing homes. After seeing how they lived, I have my concerns about ever going to a nursing home!

Thursday I left early to drive to visit Miranda and family. Deborah is about 2.5 hours on the way, so I stopped to visit with her and Hailey before continuing on to Tulsa. With Dan's pending move to the Bentonville, AR area around summertime, they need to complete some work on their current home so they can put it on the market later this spring. About 200 square feet of masonite lap siding needed to be replace on the north side of the house. How do you paint the siding that is 16 feet long when it is raining?

Miranda demonstrates the indoor painting booth!

I didn't get a photo once we removed the old siding, but here it is one half way through.

And here is the finished product:

There were some other items that needed attention as well. Replace a broken window, replace a bath sink p-trap, repair a kitchen drawer glide.

Dan was released as elder's quorum president today. Good sacrament meeting talks. Excellent lesson in Sunday School about the need for the Atonement of Jesus Christ.

Exciting Adventures in Arkansas 9 February 2020

Does not seem that long ago that I was sitting at this computer composing last week's letter; time does move on in spite of my efforts to try to slow down.

The first Monday of the month the grief support group gets together at a local restaurant for lunch, prior to our meeting. I attended for my first time this week and enjoyed a good breakfast for lunch and got to know some of the group members better. I also set up for Empty Nesters for that evening since I was in charge. We had our usual potluck meal and then a program. I had invited everyone to share a short, but faith inspiring story about how windows had been opened in their search for family names; how they had overcome roadblocks in their searches. When you have some members that go back to the Restoration era, it can be challenging to get everyone to stay on topic; but even with about 25 of us, we heard from a majority of them within an hour.. And they all had good stories and testimonies to share.

Tuesday it rained, again. The pond is as full as it has been in the past year. I spent time scanning. Most of the photos are done, so I retrieved a container that had a couple of notebooks of letters. So I spent some time going down memory lane (I can't scan them without reading them first!), reading Sandy's 1968 letter commenting about my letter to her wherein I told her we would probably be nothing more than just friends (glad that wasn't true!), to her letters while I attended OCS and then during 1980 when I returned to Okinawa for another 6 months. In the latter, she shared insights into the children, the difficulty some had with their homework, the challenges of attending church with five young children and the support she received from ward members, of obtaining fruit from Sally and canning - a lot. But there are a lot more letters to go. I also had a closing in the afternoon of one of our rent homes (two down,more to go). By the time I got my check, it was about 8% less than what we had paid for it 13 years ago. But it did provide us a good monthly income during that time.

Wednesday I spent a couple of hours at the family history center; with drizzle weather, we had no patrons, but I was able to print off some names for me to take to the temple. Then more scanning in the afternoon.

Thursday I woke up to a light dusting of snow on the ground. Within 24 hours it was gone. I inspected the elder's apartment, a task that is to be done every six weeks. The last time I inspected we still had sisters. Not much changed. I connected with two of our tenants in a duplex; I want to put it on the market and would prefer that they stay.  Having renters will be more appealing to a potential buyer. Both were agreeable to my proposal and the realtor and I will do a walk through on Monday so he can price it and we can get a contract written.

Friday I was up a little earlier and headed off to the St Louis Temple. I arrived in time to visit with a member of the temple presidency who then set me apart as an ordinance worker. I scheduled to work three shifts, Tuesday morning and evening and Wednesday morning the first week of each month. This will require my driving up Monday afternoon, and returning Wednesday afternoon. I am looking forward to this new phase in my life. I spent the afternoon completing work on the names I had taken and then headed off to the Comfort Inn. But I stopped at the distribution center to obtain the appropriate 'uniform' for the temple.

Saturday I returned to the temple to complete more ordinances and then started home about noon. My normal routine is to stop at a St Louis Bread Co for lunch. They have some food I have become fond of. Enroute, I stopped at Costco and resisted the urge to buy some delicious food that appealed to me. Some things would spoil before I could consume them (or I would get fat eating just so it didn't go to waste); some come in such large quantities, that even if I froze them, it would take a couple of  months to eat them. I did have a list of three items, and walked out with about 12. I returned home safely and just as the full moon was peeking up over the horizon; a beautiful sight.

It had been over a month since I last ran, so I broke out the treadmill and managed to run four days this past week. I am taking it slow and building up. 

Today we had good talks on why we need to pray, found out prayer is a form of work. Then we heard about the importance of temple work. I was invited to dinner by a ward family and enjoyed the food and the visit. Then dashed over to another member home for a Come Follow Me discussion. The Maples had invited two other couples and myself; it was a fun evening discussing 2 Nephi 6-10; lots of different perspectives. And we scheduled to rotate between homes meeting once a month.

February has arrived

Busy week.  I was invited to a church member's home for dinner Monday night and I asked if I could bring a desert, thinking I would make a chocolate cherry cake; as I prepared to make it Sunday afternoon, I discovered, much to my embarrassment, that I was out of cherries! So the first thing Monday I was at the market buying the needed cherries so I could come home and make a cake. Then I went over to the neighbors to haul off some wood to my burn pile.  Attended my grief support group in the afternoon; I am learning more names to go with the faces which is helping me to feel more comfortable with these people and create a good feeling about attending. Then it was off to a wonderful dinner; the elders were invited so there was a total of 10 around the table. Good food, fun conversation and an uplifting FHE. And the cake was great.

Tuesday I kept busy. I had taken the used truck hood and tailgate to get painted and the guy texted me first thing that they were ready and could I drop the truck off so he could install them. Argh! how do I get the truck into town and back home again? I was impressed to call a couple in town and they were willing to help. They met me at the place where the truck was and brought me home. And they suggested someone else who could probably bring me back in the afternoon. And he was able to do so! And the truck looks much better.

Wednesday I was gone by 6 am to go to the St Louis Temple with a good friend. He had not been to the temple for around 40 years (his admission) and felt it was time to go back. I was honored that of all the people he could ask, he invited me to take him. We only did one session and returned home. Due to his medical issues, we did not stay to do more.

Thursday I was on the road again; this time to Russellville and a visit to Andy's family. I arrived in time for lunch. Kera had started tiling the kid's bathroom and so I was able to assist her and we got it done before bedtime. They had previously ripped out the old shower and cabinet, installed a new tub and gotten things ready to tile.

Friday we cleaned the tile, Andy textured areas to match the original walls, we made a trip to Lowes and got the vinyl flooring installed. But that last process involved removing the vanity, which required disconnecting the p-trap and water lines, removing the sink top and finding temporary places to store all those items. These jobs always take longer than anticipated!

Saturday, Kera and Andy grouted the tile and Aaron primed the walls. Once they were dry, Kera and I painted the walls. Then we installed the new toilet, only to find out that the replacement shut off valve purchased previous day, was not correct. That entailed a trip to the local hardware store. Once the correct valve was install, Andy and I got the toilet installed in the afternoon. So now the bathroom has a usable toilet. After a couple of trips to Lowes, the decision was made to stain the old vanity and reinstall it. So Kera was busy staining it that evening. Still some work to do before the tub is operational.

Aaron and I took a couple of hours off during the afternoon to go watch the latest 'Starwar' movie, which neither of us had seen. I was duly impressed. I always like it when the good guys/gals win. That evening we played the obligatory game of 5-Crowns; I was not the high scorer. Charlotte joined us; she does not have a good poker face.

Today in church we heard some good testimonies on the Savior and His love for us. Sunday School was good. It is interesting as I visit different wards to see the dynamics of the members and their actions with other members. Everything is not perfect, but the people are mostly loving, caring and understanding of those who uniquely different.

Today was a day sandwiched between two landmark dates for me: Saturday was the 4th month since Sandy's passing and tomorrow will mark the 49th anniversary of our baptism into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. No regrets there at all! One of the top three decisions Sandy and I ever made (getting married, joining the church, sealed in the temple - in no particular order).