Home from Tennessee

Bill's home from Tennessee and is just chock full of wonderful stories. He had a grand time with his Christian friends. Had no trouble fording the creek. Seems when the water was low, they poured a cement road bed. No gravel like I thought. It was trickier for him to try to turn the bike around on the rutted, dirt road when he realized he missed the little lane to the camp!

His ride was uneventful and down and back, met interesting people. Wearing one of his POFCI mission T shirts, he was asked questions and of course, riding a 79 Harley brought more questions! When he reached Clarks Summit the other night, he was ready for a good night's sleep and a 5 hour ride home in the AM ... but, after a good night's sleep, his bike just wouldn't go fast enough to ride the interstate ... something's wrong. Long story short: There was a Harley dealer nearby; Bill had towing/repair insurance; the Harley dealer was having an open house complete with free food and people to talk to; they thought they had his bike fixed, but it had problems again; Bill rented a car to come home and will go back to get his bike when it is fixed!

It was good to have him home, bike or no bike!

I am over my cold ... it was mean ... I took a day off from work to get my strength back.

Bill, Julie and Erika went apple picking and pumpkin patching. I was too sick to join them :-(

Chris and Kristen got to go away for the weekend to celebrate Kristen's birthday. I got sloppy kisses from Isabella!

Jeff and Amanda are moving to Northville .. we are very excited for them!

Grammy and Grampy are doing well. Grampy is getting some long needed exercise and gaining back some strength.

October

October gave a party;

The leaves by hundreds came;

The chestnut, oak and maple

and those of every name.

This was October's party

and everything was grand!

Miss Maple led the dancing;

Professor Wind, the band.

My mom taught me this poem/song when I was really little and, in fact, used it and others as lullabies. I wish I could sing it for you! Some of you already know it ... since it was sung to you when you were just babies, too! I checked online and believe the author to be George Cooper. His version is slightly different and may have additional verses.

Now that Autumn is here and I finally managed to let summer go (thanks to Ocean City NJ) I can say that I am really enjoying the season. The leaf colors are spectacular this year and I'm patiently waiting for our "October Glory" maple tree to turn. It's still pretty small as trees go .. might be a shade tree in another 10 - 15 years :-) but we'll be patient!

I mentioned Ocean City, in a previous post... it was just the ticket to say goodbye to summer! A beautiful B & B, The Scarborough Inn, recommended by our friends, Lamont and Nancy (who happen to own one) was waiting for us and not only was it beautiful, clean, comfortable and served tasty breakfasts, but they also provided cookies and beverages with access to their "Butler's Pantry" ... where I was so excited to see the chocolate chip cookies, that I laid down my camera's picture card and forgot to pick it up. Fortunately, my internal memory did not have too many pictures stored and I was able to get some sunrise pictures the next day. Happily, they found my picture card and returned it to me at breakfast!

First Peek of Sunrise

Sunset and "Moonrise"

We enjoyed walking on the Boardwalk here, as well. I like it better than Atlantic City since it is cleaner and not as crowded with rowdy people. OC is a 'dry' city ... no alcohol.

Atlantic City Sand Dunes

The ocean water was a nice 70 degrees and the air temp was about the same. My feet were SO HAPPY being in the surf, again ... until we started splashing our way down a long stretch and found one Jelly Fish after another! They were washing up on shore and we then had to be content with walking in the wet sand.

On the section of beach closest to our Inn, there were no Jellies so we were quite happy to run in and out of the water right there; no pictures of us dong that, though; thought better of bringing the camera into the water, what with my history of losing things...

We were able to spend some real quality time with dear friends, Ruth and Bill from Absecon, NJ. Morning worship and then the afternoon of talking and laughing; remembering old times and listening to Ruth's tapes of the wonderful music and preaching from our old church on Staten Island. Oh, to be just a few miles closer!

We took in a couple of quick side trips; One to Atlantic City to walk on the board walk (just to say we'd been there ;-) and to see the Absecon Light House. Another to Cape May to check out the light house and nature trails. Uncooperative Swans tried very hard not to have their pictures taken. The Snowy Egret was not exactly mugging for the camera, either.

Absecon Light

Cape May Light

So, it's back to Meco and the cooler temps that October brings ...

I realized that in an earlier post I mention the garden ... well, it ended up just being a cornfield and yielded a nice crop for us to enjoy towards the end of summer. I plan to tie up the stalks for decorating the front porch for Thanksgiving. The crows had some fun, trying to strip the husks off, damaging some of corn in the process. I may have to string up some shiny aluminum pans next year to keep them away. Such work for your own tasty veggies!

Bill is loving retirement! He works 2 - 3 days a week as a deputy and plays with motorcycles and tractors the other 3 - 4 days! Right now, he is on a "road trip" to Colby, TN to meet up with other Christian Game Wardens at "Beaver Dam" camp "somewhere" east of Colby .. in the woods ... He met up with these guys online over 10 years ago. Some of them supported us financially when we went out on our first mission trip to Venezuela:-)

I was quite nervous about him riding his Harley (1979) all that way .. alone .. but I had to use the faith God gave me and let him go! He called me several times each day to let me know of his progress and so far he has had only minor problems with the 'bike.' He called me this afternoon, not too many miles from his destination ... saying he did not think he would have cell service much longer and wanted me to know he was almost there. He still had to find two more roads and ford a creek ... FORD A CREEK??? Yep, that's what they told him. It has a gravel bed and the road ends on one side and you pick it up on the other. Not too much water flowing in it right now, they said. He should have no problem. Well, you can imagine my imagination! I have a mental picture of him 1/2 way across and realizing he's not going to make it. Stopping and getting off in just a little more water than he expected and either slogging/slopping his way pushing his 1000 lb Harley the rest of the way OR leaving it unattended on one side of the creek and walking in the rest of the way ... LEAVING IT UNATTENDED??? Isn't there a law against leaving "your baby" alone? SIGH.... I probably won't hear from him again until he starts for home when he gets back into cell service on Tuesday ... after he slogs back across the creek and finds his way back to civilization. I found pictures of this place and the people he will be meeting up with. I believe them to have been taken mostly by Ken who is now a missionary in Rwanda, Africa. http://www.flickr.com/photos/58111894@N00/1555353667/

Bill will be in this year's pictures and should be taking some, too ... he bought a new digital camera for the trip... AND .. he learned how to use it, too!

Well, it's time for me to "retire" (LOL) for the night. Tomorrow is a day off from work and if my cold is any better, I plan to get lots of work done. ZICAM ... gotta love it!

Here's one more poem/song from my mother, no author for this one. She attributed it to her teacher, Miss Ella Ruple, at the one room school house in either Rocktown or Ringoes, NJ. back in 1914 - 17 or thereabouts.

Oh, October, how we love you;

see the gay leaves fall,

and the pretty milkweed babies

fly off, one and all.

Oh, October; bright October

hear the fairies sing.

All the birds are flying southward;

Robins on the wing!

Good night everyone and may God bless you this week.