Shave and a Haircut

As you can see from the photos Bonz, our springer spaniel, has been to the groomers. He always looks about half his size when he returns. I'm sure he'll be a lot cooler now that the warmer weather is on it's way.

Other than that, yesterday was a quiet day as Dee went to Contours, and I went to the local par three course and worked on my short game. I'd been wanting to try the course because it's so close. It was the only one on it so I was able to hit several balls at heach hole for a nice time of practice.

Late in the afternoon I was able to sit on the decck and read my Benjamine Franklin biography. I'm up to the part where he successfully negotiates an alliance with France much to the disappointment of England. The stage is set now for the American Revolution. The author indicated that this alliance was probably the most significant international pact in American history save for the NATO alliances.

Today we leave for Kerri and Patrick's place in Bethesda. It'll be our first visit to them as a married couple. I'm looking forward to seeing their new apartment.

The Learning Continues

Yesterday was a day of happenings... Having made the decision not to be an interim, I called the chairman and told him of my decision. I also told the Area Minister. They both understood my perspective and indicated that if I ever changed my mind to let them know. Both were very affirming.

Since I knew the day was going to be a busy one, I took Bonz for a nice long walk. He's doing better when it comes to passing other dogs. (He used to yank my arm off, but now I show him the red "gentle leader" and he calms down right away 'cause he knows he doesn't like it.)

The Rotary meeting had a good program about world affairs and how much the world has changed economically and how the nations are much more inter-dependent than ever before. I sat next to a fellow who collects and sells Civil War Antiques (his place is right near where John and Sherron live). He has space in a building where about 40 other vendors have antiques for sale. He also volunteers at the Science Center. Cool. The guy on my right is new to the club, having just moved to the area at the beginning of the year. He's renting and looking for a home to buy. I enjoy meeting new people each week at Rotary.

After the meeting I met with the Golf guy at Treesdale Golf and Country Club http://www.treesdalegolf.com/ about the starter/ranger job. I filled out the paper work and I now work there! It was a fascinating process - one I've not done before. The guy in charge is very laid back and the other people I met who work there seemed nice to work with. They gave me info about Club Corp, and the various expectations of employees. Their motto is "to exceed expectations" and they use a "star fish" as their logo. It's from the story about the guy who was throwing stranded starfish back into the ocean. He was asked what good it did because there were so many starfish that it wouldn't make a difference. Of course, they guy said, "It'll make a difference to this one." The idea being that as employees we're "to make a difference everyday." I'll start next Wednesday after we get back from visiting Kerri and Patrick this weekend. I'll even get a golf shirt, slacks and hat (uniform) for working there. (Life doesn't get any better. PTL!) Should be fun and I'm looking forward to it.

In the evening we went to dance class and continued learning the West Coast Swing. It's coming along - admittedly a little rougher than the East Cost Swing - but we're getting it. But we must practice, practice, practice. Only one more class to go (the 10th lesson) and it's a review of all the dances we learned and is to be mainly a time of actually dancing and learning to tell what kind of dance to do with various songs.

A Day of Decisions

Yesterday was a day of decisions. After much conversation about where we are in our life's journey we decided that now is not the time for me to be doing interim ministry work that would obligate me to be present every weekend as well as give a minimum of two other days serving in a church. As much as I love doing that and helping others, I realize I need a break and a change. A great opportunity came along to do interim work in a church I know and think highly of, but we are not in a place right now in our lives where we want to commit to that. We both agreed that it's now time to do some things we just haven't had time to do in the past and to have some fun together or to support one another in pursuing other endeavors.

As I thought about doing interims I realized that I'd much rather be a guest speaker in local Pittsburgh churches on Sunday's that would suit our schedule, rather than having to set or adjust our schedule according to a church's schedule as we have been doing for the past 37 years.

After considering what God would have us be doing now, and talking it through together, I decided to pursue some things I've wanted to try. So during our day yesterday I went to a local golf course and filled out an application to be a ranger/starter there. However, when I got home, I found an email in my inbox from the first place I filled out an application for being a started/ranger for the summer. I was asked to meet with the person in charge today after Rotary meets. That could be fun, and I'm looking to the opportunity to do something like that on a part time basis. (God is good.)

Here is a picture of Dee's progress on decorating our bedroom. She's working on the curtains for the upstairs bedrooms next. I took this picture (which is actually two pictures stitched together by the software that came with the camera.)

During the early evening we went to a "Color Seminar" sponsored by the Pittsburgh Paints and Westmoreland Supply paint store. There was a "color expert" who explained about how paints are designed and the various families of colors and how they work together. They had free appetizers including about 12 kinds of cheeses, crackers,fruit, and desserts in addition to coffee, tea and red and white wines. About 125 people showed up (they'd originally expected about 25-50, but had to expand their offering to two days of very large groups. It was well done with lots of free products, two free gallons of paint (coupons), and a wealth of info for future use. We'll go back there again as they really seem to understand how colors work. you could get consulting after the lecture if you wanted to, but we passed on that. All in all it was a good day.

A Busy Couple of Days

Here are two pictures of the progress being made on the homes behind us. As you can see, the super structure is going up now.

It's been a busy couple of days. On Sunday we went to church and then out to lunch with Earl and Marilyn and then picked up the extra items Dee needed for the curtains. She came up with some nice ideas for how she wanted to hang them and decided to make her own for one of the bedrooms on the second floor. They'll bring some color into our home. They look great!

Monday was busy with golf in the morning with Earl at Lake Vue North - 9 holes. We had a great time and though it was cool in the first part of the morning it warmed up nicely into the 60s. I shot a 51 which is not great, but good for me. I hit a couple of real nice shots and had two pars. I'm confident that as I get to play more my scores will improve. Dee went to Contours while I golfed. She worked some more on her curtains and then toward evening we went to Monroeville. She met Kathy Nelson at the mall while I met with an interim committee to talk about their church, it's needs and hopes. We had a good conversation. There are parts of the situation that could be fun to work with and there seems to be good leadership willing to do what's needed to grow, but it is a 35 mile ride one way, and with our cars being leased, that would chew up our mileage quickly. I'm going to check and see if there is a way to extend the mileage on the leases. Still, I have to pray on this matter as it's not an easy decision as it would require 3 days per week and I'm not sure I want to do that just yet. The decision will likely have more to do with me than with them.

In the bigger picture, Kansas won the NCAA championship in overtime and the Pirates lost the home opener in 12 innings. In both situations, it took the winners more than the regulation time to win the game. Life is sometimes like that, in that you can't accomplish all you want to in the time allotted to you so you have to make the extra effort needed to accocmplish your goals.

FORE !!!

Yesterday, Saturday, week took the curtains back that didn't work for Dee, and picked up others that will, then, we headed to town to see how Station Square had changed over the years. Navigating the streets of Pittsburgh is a challenge when you haven't been there for a long time. Plus the various construction detours add to the fun. We asked a traffic policeman for directions. He started to tell us, but traffic backed up behind us, so he had us pull over. Then he told us the route to take and had us make a u-turn right there in downtown, so it would be easier for him to explain. It worked and we found our way across the Smithfield Street Bridge.

We noted the many changes in the mall. A newer section was built along the river so you could see the city skyline better. We noticed that several of the store spaces in the mall were vacant. That disappointed us because we thought it was a really nice place before. It seemed dead inside. Although lunch at the Sesame Inn was superb and quite reasonable. We also found two really good maps of downtown that I'll study so I have a better grasp of which roads go where. Later when we got home I took Bonz for a nice long walk.

Since the weather was so nice (mid50s) I decided to go play golf. PTL ! (First time since moving.) I went to Lake Vue North. A nice little course along Route 8. It was "cartpath only" for the rental carts, so I decided to use my new pull cart. Tht proved to be a good decision as it was soggy in many places. I've only played golf in Western Pennsylvania 3 times before and each time I rode a cart. Yesterday I walked! Whew! Now I know what they mean when they talk about the HILLS of Western Pennsylvania. Walking them is quite different than riding them. Often, after arriving at the site of the ball, I had to pause to catch my breath before hitting the ball. I had a great time (even wore my pedometer and put on about 6,000 steps) and scored 45. That's bogey golf and I was happy. I actually had one birdie and two pars during the day. Which is great for me.

Here's a picture I took while down at Station Square.