A Break is Coming

It has been a long year and with Linda's Knee operation at the end of May we didn't get an opportunity to have a real vacation. We've had a couple of long weekends but that isn't quite enough to really feel like we rested like we needed.

Now I think I have written here a number of times that the beach is not exactly my favorite place to be compared to the mountains but Linda has this awesome cousin that happens to have a house at the beach and is allowing us to stay there for about a week at no charge which is a blessing. We will be taking Rocky with us and will have no agenda so we can sleep as long as we want and just relax for a change.

Well my friends, winter has finally found NC. It made it below the freezing mark Sunday and today it was in the 50's at the end of the day with cold rain for Halloween.

My Aunt Katie fell in her house last week but is OK. My sister Linda took her to the doctor today and he confirmed that she had no fractures which is great. Her legs are a little swollen so he has increased her fluid meds to take care of it and will recheck her in about a week.

Not much else going on except working and sleeping so take care my friends and I will try to post more frequently in the future. Have a great week.

The Knots Prayer

The Knots Prayer

Dear God:

Please untie the knots

that are in my mind,

my heart and my life.

Remove the have nots,

the can nots and the do nots

that I have in my mind.

Erase the will nots,

may nots,

might nots that may find

a home in my heart.

Release me from the could nots,

would nots and

should nots that obstruct my life.

And most of all,

Dear God,

I ask that you remove from my mind,

my heart and my life all the am nots'

that I have allowed to hold me back,

especially the thought

that I am not good enough.

Amen

Author known to God

Totally Amazing

Speakers up and follow him through to the end and be amazed as I was.

David Garibaldi: Jesus Painting from Thriving Churches on Vimeo.

Wordless Wednesday-18 yr old stepdaughter's bedroom

Life Goes On

It has not been a very good week but it is behind us now and life does go on. The madness started with work. My technicians have been taking their daily doses of stupid pills which ultimately ends up costing us valuable time and lots of expensive gasoline which causes my boss to rant in his 40 years of military manner.

Add to this technicians who cannot be disciplined without spending the rest of the day pouting and doing inferior work. They fall into the category of men who will "always do what they have always done". And I am the service "manager" who has an extremely hard time managing a group like that. Friday did get here praise God.

Aunt Katie was in the hospital part of the week due to an infection and dehydration. Since being home on oxygen she has not been as active and along with that has not been drinking enough fluids and eating like she should. The hospital took care of all these issues and she went home saturday feeling so much better.

Saturday morning I got up thinking I would get my hair cut while Linda cooked a baked spaghetti for us to take to my daughter Rachel's house. We were barely out of bed when she called saying my youngest grandson Matthew was sick and needed to go to the doctor so we shifted into another gear and rushed over there since we are about 40 miles away. I took them to the doctor while Linda stayed with Kaden and baked their lunch dish. Kaden thought Linda was so cool when he discovered she had a large bag of freshly sliced sharp cheddar cheese. He told her he had not had cheese like that since he was at the beach during the summer so he was in heaven. When he saw she had some left in the bag after finishing the dish he made sure she knew he wanted it left there for him.

This morning Rachel called after we had only been out of bed about an hour and had breakfast on the stove. She said Matthew got worse during the night and needed to go to the emergency room. Knowing it would be over an hour before we could get ready and be there she went to plan B and got her hubby's parents to help her get there. All this time her hubby was at my daughter Karen's home in Rockingham doing some work for them which is about 3 hours away.

So my friends it has been one of those weeks and weekends. I sure hope it went smoother for most of you and I hope to showing up more often now that I have more time. Take care and have a blessed week.

Awesome story from the Canadian Blogger Girl

Just got through reading a post from my friend, Canadian Blogger Girl that truly touched my heart so deeply I had to share it with my blog family. Go here to be touched as well.

Never Regret but Reflect

I was chatting with Lynne over in Scotland the other morning on Facebook and the question came up, how is school going? My answer to Lynne was that I had decided to end this college experience for a number of reasons.

With my current schedule working full time, getting to work hours before anyone else and feeling it by the time I get home around 6 PM or later, I was asking too much of this 64 year old body and mind. Also after examining the course material I realized that to succeed and not just do the bare minimum required many more hours of attention than I had to give. Add to that the college math which involves areas like algebra, geometry and equations I have never even seen before meant not only doing the work but learning a whole new math that this brain was not ready to tackle.

Said all that to say that I am not sorry for being unsuccessful but sure wish someone had explained more fully what I was really getting into so I could have made a better judgement call. No one likes to admit they are not capable of doing a task and where this is concerned I am happier ending it now than down the road after adding torment to my already stressful life. A really good lesson was in fact learned.

Why do they do it?

Every day as I commute back & forth from home to work I see scenes like the one above. Vehicles left for whatever reason beside a rural road or the interstate. As days go by I see the same vehicle sitting there, vulnerable to the elements and whatever someone may want to do to it.

Now a lot of the vehicles I witness are not clunkers but really nice cars or trucks. As a rule I am not a very trusting person and that goes double for my vehicle that I depend on greatly. I would not leave my car beside a busy highway for an hour, much less a day or days.

For years Linda and I have had the service of AAA. It's really not expensive and when an unfortunate event happens all I have to is call their toll free number and within an hour help will be there to get me to safety. Whether it be a flat tire, out of gas, locked out or mechanical problems requiring the vehicle to be towed to a repair facility they are there without fail.

I have had a battery blow up and was taken on a roll back to an auto store when a new battery was installed. On three occasions I have had a flat or blowout and they came to change the flat tire with the little spare so I could be on my way.

Even if I didn't have car trouble AAA also supplies me with information regarding trips I plan to take like driving directions, books on the area I plan to visit and more. Yes folks, I ride down the interstate and see a really nice and expensive car sitting there all by itself and I say to myself, why?

Conservator's Center Through Odie's Eyes

Happy Sunday everyone. I want to first thank my friend Kathiey who introduced Linda & I to the Conservators' Center north of Mebane, NC. If you haven't visited Kathiey please do and I promise you will be glad you did.

It was a picture perfect day to visit the center and we had a 3 PM appointment for a guided tour. The only negative to this tour if there could be one was that some of the animals they really wanted us to see were taking a nap but there are so many to see that we were not so disappointed.

Not only do they have beautiful animals but also have gorgeous flowers as well.

These are their wolves that were also cooling it in the shade.

Such a magnificent animal and surly one of my favorites.

Partner to the Tiger you just saw is this lioness who is very special to the people at the center. When she was very young her father sat on her injuring her hip so she walks with a little difficulty but otherwise is doing quite well.

One of the animals that I wish you could see better is the wonderful white tiger that has his on label on a wine at the Iron Gate Winery near Burlington, has his own facebook page with many friends and actually has an owner that comes to visit bringing him turkey legs as a treat. Speaking about food, the center uses about 500 lbs of meat a day to feed all the animals. Fortunately they have made friends with hunters in the area that bring them many deer and farmers help them with chickens as well.

Learned a great lesson from our tour guide, Adeline. If you are near a lion that is backed up to a fence and raises his tail, beware, he can spray a stream about 12 to 15 feet. I saw this beautiful gentleman do it from a distance.

One of the snoozing tigers

This tiger never stopped pacing back and forth. He actually has his own large metal pool to get in and cool off. Tigers love water.

A lioness perched high on one of the many high points they love to rest on.

Isn't she pretty?

Along the trail and by the way that is Linda in the golf cart being driven around by one of the very nice center staff. She didn't want to press her luck trying to walk for 2 hours with her knee still healing.

This girl love guests and stayed near us rubbing against the fence.

This is one of my favorite animals at the center. A "Singing Dog" from New Guinea. They seem so friendly and look just like dogs you see all the time but there is a big difference. Their vocal cords have a split that allows them to make sounds like singing especially when they hear lions roar. Another difference is that if they were free to run and encountered a domesticated dog and a fight started the local dog would submit but the Singing Dog would never give up and would eventually kill the local dog.

Probably the cutest creature there is the ringtail lemur. Oddly, the boss of these two lemurs is the female and the male does exactly like she wants. If she wants something he has, he give it up with no complaint.

My first experience seeing a Serval which is a very cute cat.

Of course they have some items to take take home as a memory of the adventure and these are some of the stuffed toys.

Tee shirts were available in a variety of colors and sizes.

Also available were books and lovely pictures. We opted for a picture of the beautiful tiger to go on our wall to remind us of the wonderful center.
This shot was taken before our tour and is the meeting spot for right now. Just to the right is a nice building that is in the final stages of construction that will give visitors an air conditioned place to start the adventure, use restrooms and purchase treasures. For the present there is a porta pottie that you can see on the extreme left of the picture. This is a place to return to and we will.
Help support the center by booking a guided tour. Call 336-421-0065 for reservations. Go on google to check them out "Convervators' Center of NC". I plugged the address into my Garmin and it did say we were arriving on the left which was wrong but we continued a short distance down the road and saw the sign on the left so getting there will be so easy.

There is a reason

Aunt Katie (9 lives "Kitty") doing great

My sister Linda reported this morning that they did the procedure yesterday placing the netting in the femural artery to catch any clots and she was back in her room by 1 PM eating a taco salad doing wonderful. They want to send her home today and the only thing to be decided is whether or not to send her home with oxygen. She is such a trooper my sister said we need to start calling her Kitty since she seems to have 9 or more lives. Thanks for all the prayers.

Report on Aunt Katie

For a few days Aunt Katie has been having trouble breathing and would get tired very quickly. Yesterday it got severe enough that she called the rescue squad that took her to Nash General Hospital in Rocky Mount. Better known as "Trash General". They detected blood clots, one in her lung and more in her legs and gave her options for other area hospital that were more capable of handing this type of situation so she opted for Wake Med in our capital of Raleigh.

They will be doing a procedure similar to a heart cath. that will insert a type of mesh that will act as a filter to catch any clots that try to get to her heart, which would kill her instantly. She is in one of the very best facilities we know of so we are confident she is getting the best care possible.

I will keep you updated as I learn more and ask that you lift her up in your prayers.