Christmas Eve Friday

Well the day started with egg sandwiches after our quiet times. The sun was shining and it looked like it was going to be a nice Florida day with just a touch of chill in the air. I believe the temps did reach the low 70's briefly. Nancy had made her preparations for Christmas morning breakfast when we will once again will have a full house of family and friends and then again later for dinner on Christmas evening. Oh I almost forgot to mention on Thursday evening about 6 PM we lost our water pressure due to a 48 inch water main blow out, so over 200, 000 people were without water immediately and some as I write this post still have no water. Luckily I have a well that water can be used to flush and whatever but when we awakened on Friday morning we had our pressure back to start the day.

Our house church was planning on fixing a bag lunch for the homeless and taking it to them in south St.Pete where there seems to be a large gathering of them at Straub Park. I thought it best that we should find out exactly where to distribute the lunches to them when we found out people without a permit were not allowed to feed the homeless on the street. So I called several charities and learned of a charity that sponsored the homeless. They were excited to get our donations of food and blankets and 6 of us from our Element house church delivered the goodies to the Pinellas Hope Camp.

After getting back to the 'hood we dropped off our neighbors and headed down to the local nursing home were we do church services twice a month and delivered a goodie basket to those health care workers. They seemed surprised and most appreciative that someone would recognize them for their work. We shared with several patients and gave lots of hugs to those we have gotten to know by pushing them in their wheel chairs to Sunday services. It was an uplifting time for us as well.

We just chilled after eating a frozen pizza and salad for a late lunch. We knew we had to leave around 5:30 for Tampa for the Christmas Eve service at Element. We were picking up Nancy's folks as well. The service was super and the music was awesome. There are some very talented musicians and singers in this body of believers and Bobby did a great job with the message of Anticipation. We are certainly proud of him and his endeavors to bring the message of salvation through Christ in a different way to Tampa, great job son. We stayed after the service and took some family pictures of the girls and just enjoyed Jill's extended family as we didn't do our annual domino night with food and fellowship at her parents house this year due to Susan having major surgery and her difficult road to recovery. She seems at last to be on the mend. It was a great time at the service and the grand babies where dressed to the "nines."

We headed back to Nancy's folks and picked up the 16 plus pound rib roast which we will cook for dinner on Christmas Day then headed home where we snacked on some cheese and crackers as we had skipped supper due to the late lunch. We finally were able to get into the shower as we had lost our water the night before due to a ruptured water main. We are still under a boil your drinking water even as a I write this post on Christmas morning. I will post a couple pics from last night's gathering in Tampa at Element. LATER

Thursday

Well the temps once again cooled down a little from yesterday's in the high 70's but still pleasant enough despite the north west wind. After my quiet times and the usual bowl of oatmeal with a banana and blue berries I pedalled out to the rec for some pickle ball. We were down to about 10 players for the day but had some great play with some unbelievable rallies. We actually played for about 3 hours today and had 3 sets at the end of day that were fantastic with Jim, Mitsuko, Harry and myself. Harry is nearly 80 and is quite the player as he once and still is a skilled tennis player. I was bushed as I pedalled against a strong north wind on the way home.

I watered the gardens by hand until it was time to have a lite lunch. The kids were not here today as they visited GG for lunch so it really was very quiet here. I finished once of the best true story reads I've had in many moons with the book UNBROKEN. Louis Zamperini is still alive today at 93 and the book is about his life as a Olympian runner, bombardier on B-24, cast about into the Pacfic Ocean after a crash in a 2 man life raft for 44 days with out food and water and then captured by the Jap's and interned as a POW in Japan. The brutal treatment he sustained at the hands of one exceptionally brutal guard, his quest to avenge that treatment which eventually led him to a Billy Graham tent revival in California and then to his forgiveness of those guards and finally to carry the Olympic torch through the very town where he was interned. Remarkable story!!!

I then just vegetated reading and catnapping the afternoon away except for a couple chores. Tomorrow will be another busy day as we help put food bags together for the homeless, take a basket of goodies to the nursing pavilion and then head to Tampa for a candlelight service at Element Church at 6:30. Well here's to all who are having a white Christmas at least this year I won't have to turn the a/c on as we are scheduled for some rain and cooler temps on Christmas Day. LATER

Tuesday and Wednesday

Well it been pretty much the same around here the past couple days except for the weather. After our usual quiet times and boring breakfast of oatmeal I headed out to the rec for some pickle ball each morning on the bike. I'm back to the full 2 1/2 hours of play and we have had a full gym each morning. I stopped by the library on the way home and picked up one of the best reads about WWII I have ever read. Its titled UNBROKEN by Laura Hillenbrand. Its a must true story read and should be a required read for all Americans. I have spent the better part of the day reading the book as its very difficult to put it down.

The weather has progressively gotten better with each day this week and today Wednesday I was sitting in the back yard in shorts reading with the windows open in the house after washing the windows and screens. The garden is loving this weather but there is another cold front heading our way Sunday might according to the forecast. Now today is what Florida is supposed to be in the winter time with middle 70's and lots of bright sunshine.

We spoke with our "mountain mom" Helen after supper tonight and she said it reached the 50's there today and melted much of the ice and snow and that she was waiting for her son and his girl to arrive from Florida tomorrow for Christmas. Amy and the kids came for a short visit today and that Samuel gets cuter everyday as well as Ava. We had good news that baby Gabey and Annsley are finally getting over the illness. Hooray for that bit of good news as we will be having all of the grand babies here on Christmas day. Tomorrow will be my final day at the rec until next Monday so I'm looking to workout extra to make up for all the good eatin' in the next couple days. LATER

Monday

The morning was much the usual with our quiet times and a bowl of oatmeal before pedalling out to rec on my bike for some pickle ball. The frost was heavy on the roof tops as well as on the grass around the library where there were no trees. We had about 20 plus players and the play was continuous for 2 1/2 hours. I was bushed when I got back after stopping off at the library for some reads. Nancy had taken off for more shopping so I spent the rest of the morning watering the gardens and grass plugs in the front yard.

Amy and the grand babies came for lunch and we had a super time playing with them until it was time for their afternoon naps. We took off for Sam's after they left to pick up some goodies we were taking to feed the homeless on Christmas Eve. We then stopped by Sweet Bay's and picked up a ham they had on sale for Nancy egg and ham casserole she was making for our usual Christmas breakfast with her folks, Amy and her family and neighbors Dan and Carol and her mother, Jesse. Looks like it will be another day for great eating with a rib roast Nancy is making for later in the evening and then Bob and his family along with Nancy's folks, sister Betsy and her family will gather to eat and exchange gifts.

Well Monday was supposed to be the lunar eclipse not seen for 372 years and not to be seen again for 475 years. Not sure what the significance of that is but what I saw was nothing out of the ordinary except for a very bright moon when I awakened at 6:30. Well not much else happened on Monday except it did warm up a little to the high 60's and Tuesday is supposed to be even warmer near 70. Our mountain friends are having once again a very cold winter with snow on the ground as I write with more in the forecast for later this week. LATER

Sunday

Well here it is Monday and I'm just getting around to writing this post. We had a great time of worship at Element then headed over to Bobby's for the afternoon. We stopped at Publix and picked up a couple rotissere chickens and some salad for lunch then spent the afternoon eating, watching the Bucs lose a game they should won and playing with Annsley and Gabriel. We didn't get back to Seminole until nearly 6:30 so we just spent the rest of the evening watching T.V. and playing on the computer. We watched the final segment of Survivor then called it a night. LATER

Saturday

Well we finally got some much needed rain during the night and for much of the day and then again over night into Sunday morning. Its been a soft soaking rain with not a lot of run off. My gardens and new grass plugs will like this plus the temps have stayed relatively warm when compared to last weeks bone chilling 30's. I'm writing this on Sunday morning as we get ready to head to Tampa for worship at Element Church with son Bobby.

There wasn't a whole lot happening with me on Saturday as I pretty much stayed in an read after our quiet times and Nancy's mountain breakfast of buckwheat cakes and eggs. She played on Face book until it was time to get ready to head out to Largo for the Nutcracker Ballet with her mom, GG and Amy and Ava and Jill and Annsley. The girls were all dressed to the nines' in their dark clothing and fancy shoes. It was after 5'o clock before they got back to the house as the ballet was over 2 hours in length, of course after getting home the little ones had to dance the Nutcracker with Nancy and Jill after a snack. They are so funny and serious when it comes to this music and dancing.

It was a fun time for them and the girls seemed interested the whole time and knew so much about what was happening. I think each of them have a movie that depicts the ballet to some degree in a child's thoughts. Oh well these girls are going to be so educated by the time they start their formal education. Jill and Annsley headed about just before dark for Riverview. Tomorrow after church we will head down to spend some time with them and get to see little Gabriel and have lunch as well.

Well its still cold up in the mountains and in Winchester as well, actually it was colder in Va than in the mountains which is usually not the case. We wish all of our family in both places some relief from the cold and snow. Last week was one of the coldest weeks we have had in Florida in years, luckily we are surrounded by water which kept our temps just about the hard freeze and so my garden made it for now. Even after covering most of the plants I still had some leaf damage and may have lost the cuke's for good. LATER

Friday

Well the cold weather has abated and left our area as the afternoon reached the warm 70's with lots of bright sunshine, finally. After my quiet time and a bowl of oatmeal with a banana I once again pedalled out to the rec on my bike for some pickle ball. We has a low count today with a total of about 8 for the morning. There was some great play and once again I managed to stick out the full 2 1/2 hours of play. Boy was I whipped when I finally got back to the house.

Nancy was gone to her Friday morning bible study at SFBC so I hand watered the gardens and the grass plugs in the front yard until Amy, Ava and Sam arrived about noon for lunch. We baked up a frozen pizza with the left over salad from last nights supper for lunch. We played around with the kids until it was time for their afternoon naps and when they left I stretched out in the computer room for a siesta as well. I had the window open and the clean warm air was wonderful after having the heat on for nearly a week. I then opened up the rest of the house for a couple hours to air the place out as Nancy took off shopping.

I had pulled our neighbor Jim some fresh collards early in the afternoon and decided we should have some as well so I pulled enough for a good pot and put them on about 3:30 and slow cooked them until about 6 o'clock when I put a couple rib eye steaks on the grille. We had some leftover turnip casserole so that rounded out the supper. The steaks were a perfect medium rare and that was the last of them we had in the freezer.

The forecast is for rain tomorrow which is much needed after the farmers in the middle of the state drained lots of water from the aquifer to cover their crops in a sheet of ice the last couple of days thus resulting in lots of dry wells and a few sink holes. The area will cool down a little but over night lows will stay in the 40's and 50's. Now I can handle that with daytime in the 60's and 70's. I think the temps hit 80 plus in Bobby's neighbor hood today. Well Nancy bought tickets for GG, Jill, Amy, Ava and Annsley to the Nutcracker Ballet tomorrow at the Largo Cultural Center so the girls will have fun doing that. On Sunday after church Nancy and I will spend the afternoon with Bob, Jill and the grand babies there in Riverview. Well that's about it for today and what we have planned for the week end. LATER