Of Movies and Books

Here's another photo from the Butler County Farm Show...

Yesterday the LG refrigerator guy came to check out freezer. Dee thought maybe it wasn't sealing correctly. As it turned out, it was just that it didn't close properly once, and iced formed, got in the track that pulls the door shut and thus wasn't right. He cleaned out the area, melted the ice with a hair blower and showed us how to take out the baskets for future cleaning. A real nice guy.

We read on the deck and then went out to lunch at "Freedom Square Diner". Dee had read about their fish sandwiches. They were huge, lightly breaded and delicious. Then we went to the movies. We saw "Swing Vote" with Kevin Costner (not one of our favorite actors) and it was a good light-hearted movie. It was about a loser of a guy who had a 12 year-old daughter who was really into being socially responsible as an American. She wants her father to vote in the Presidential election and due to the fluke of electrical power plug being pulled out at the voting station has to re-cast his vote. Good story. The other movies we wanted to see were no longer there.

Back at home, we had a great dinner (made in the crock-pot) and after reading more on the deck, we went to Barnes and Noble to look at books and magazines. I bought a book called The 11 Indispensable Relationships You Can't Be Without

Just a cursory glance through it's pages indicates he's talked about "Withnesses" who help us through the journey of life to our destination. And that though the journey and the destination of life are important, it's the relationships we cultivate along the way that matter the most. I've read Sweet's other books, and feel this will be a worthwhile and enjoyable read as I reflect upon my own journey and relationships. Should be fun.

Good Day

Here are two quilts from the Butler Farm Show the other day. All hand done - awesome!

Yesterday is the first day since I retired that I played 18 holes of golf in one day. In the morning I played at Treesdale with two other rangers, then I had a nice lunch at Siba's with Dee, and then met with Russ, Bob and Stephy at Lake Vue North for another 9 holes. It was a beautiful day for golf.

Dee had a "home stager" come to the house to look at how we have things arranged. Dee wants some decorating ideas, athis gal is supposed to know about such things. I guess she took some notes and will be getting back to Dee. Nice day all around.

A Day at the Farm Show

Here are two pictures from the Farm Show yesterday. The one on the left is of some "Best of Show" Peppers, and the one on the right I call "Friends".

Yesterday Earl came over and we installed the new GFI breaker switch. There really wasn't much to it, as I had been told, but I couldn't have done it without Earl's help. He was familiar with the inside of a curcuit breaker panel box. The hot tub guy called and said he'd just discovered that the part he ordered had arrived damaged, and so he reordered it and he'll be out on Monday.

After I took Earl home I went to Rotary, and was officially given my new member packet, certificate and member pin. The Rotary meeting was a recap of the Board meeting and plans for the future. Afterward I played 9 holes of golf. The Cobra golf company had a demo tent there at the driving range. I got to try out some new drivers. A fellow there coached me on the various drivers I was using as we sought the best one for my swing. A fun process. The one I liked was $199.00. A bit steep for my blood, however with my employee discount that should come down a lot., but we'll see. I had a good round of golf. Played by myself, but it was a very enjoyable afternoon.

I could have joined up with a twosome in front of me, but I know one of the men from seeing him while I was rangering a couple of times. I know him to be a whiner and complainer. He always seemed to be moaning about something golf related, so I declined the offer at one point indicating I wanted to work on some things. Good decision.

During the day I received two emails from my "networking" efforts. The first one was from the Academic Dean at Geneva College. He said he got my message and that I sould send him my Vitae and he would pass it along to the appropriate department heads. Cool! The other was from the person in charge at Judson Press. She'd recalled me having written for them in the past and sais she would pass my info along to the person in charge of some of thir adult curriculum projects. Again, cool! God is Good.

After golf, Dee and I went to the Butler Farm Show. It was a hoot. Here are a couple of pictures I took. The one on the left is of the mounted police riding "Treasure" and "Nicky". You'll notice that the horses turned and posed just as I took the picture. (It seems a cow, had just started to walk by and they turned to look at it.) The one on the right I call "Peace."

We finished the evening with a nice dinner at the Butler Ponderosa. Very nice day.

Networking While Not Working

Yesterday began early with a trip to the med lab for a "glucose tolerance test." It takes two hours. When you get there they take a blood sample, then you drink some very sugary liquid, then they take another blood sample after one hour and then an hour later after that. I took a Civil War Times magazine to read while I waited.

Later in the morning I received a phone call from the AF Chaplain at the 171st refueling wing at the Pgh. airport. He's being deployed to Afghanistan later this month and asked if I would hold the monthly religious services at the base at 3 PM the first Sunday of each month until February. Since I was familiar with the place and some of the people he thought I'd be a good substitute. I said sure. That'll work out well for me since it will allow me to go to Sunday morning worship wherever I want and still be of help at the Guard Base.

Later we picked up the GFI circuit breaker switch for the hot tub and the repair guy has the parts he orderedd, so that should all come together this morning. (Earl is coming over to install the GFI.) Since it was humid and looked like rain, we just laid low the rest of the day. Dee finished her Ann Quinlan mystery and I read the two "Harmonizer" magazines I received with my membership packet from the Barbershop Harmony Society presented to me Monday night. Now I'm an official member !

An email arrived also from a new friend, John, at the Presbyterian church. He has a contact at Geneva College, an Academic Dean. I'd told him of my interest in teaching and he sent me the guy's email address and phone numbers. And he sent the guy my contact info as well. I looked over the course description catalogue for Geneva. There are certainly some doable options there as well. Maybe even moreso, since it's a Christian College. We'll see.

Reaching Out

I began yesterday with a LONG walk with Bonz. I took some water and a couple of treats for him just in case it got too hot. It turned out to be a nice morning for a walk. Dee went to Contours to work out. Afterwards, I got in touch with one of the organizers of our 45th High School class reunion, and made a reservation to attend. Since it's two days after my mother's doctor's appointment next week, I plan to go and see her, accompany her to the doctor's office and then spend the rest of Thursday, Friday and Saturday at her place. I'm sure there are there are things I can help her get done during that time around the house.

I also was able to make contact with the Dean of the Humanities Department of Butler County Community College. I told him of my interest in teaching there. He was very encouraging and suggested I look over the course descriptions online and see which courses I felt I could teach or would like to teach. He said to include the course codes in a cover letter to him along with my curriculum vitae. he indicated that getting a class for the fall "might be pushing it. But definitely for the January term." I saw they had a course on "The Bible as Literature," and also an "Intro to World Religions" course as well as come communications classes (speech, and small group communication) among others that appealed to me. So we'll see.

I also had a phone call from a guy at the church we're attending. He asked me to sing in a quartet for the service on September 7th. He thought I might have some barbershop arrangements of religious songs, which I do. So we'll practice on Tuesdays for several weeks before the service. Should be fun.

In the evening I went to barbershop practice. It went well and there were two new guys there from the open house we'd had a couple of weeks ago. They seemed to have a good time. It would be nice if they stayed with it. I didn't go to Ol' Uncle Bob's for milk and cookies because I had a glucose tolerance test this morning and thus had to fast for 12 hours first. Good day.

Sunday

I like to share photos I've taken on some of our wanderings. Here's one from our trip to the Strip District last month...He's the sausage guy at Wholeys. He was stuffing the intestine casings with sausage. Neat machine!

Yesterday we went to worship at the Presbyterian Church in Cranberry and met the Campbells there. It was a nice service and a good message. The last hymn, though, was one few people seemed to know. I liked the bass part, but I heard one guy say as he was walking out, "I don't know about that funeral dirge at the end." And it had 5 verses!

We went to Smokey Bones for lunch because there was a coupon in the newspaper for buy one get one free. We had the strip steak and it was delicious. Needless to say that was our main meal of the day. Then, we spent the rest of the afternoon reading the Sunday paper on the deck and then I finished my new book about being called by God and how retirement fits in with that.

My sister had sent me some Internet links for checking out adjunct faculty openings, so I had fun checking that sort of thing out. Dee made us a delicious tuna salad over greens dinner, which we ate on the deck. It got cooler as the afternoon wore on, and we decided to take Bonz for a LONG walk together for about an hour. Then, we closed the evening with a movie "National Treasure 2" with Ed Harris and other stars. It was a REALLY good story.

The Long Walk

Yesterday I began the morning with a very long walk with Bonz. We walked through the neighborhoods for about an hour. My pedometer registered 6,000 steps. It was cool when we began and began to get hotter as the morning progressed. Next time I'll be sure to take a bottle of water for Bonz. It's nice walking through the various neighborhoods and seeing the homes. The association does a good job of mowing and maintaining the various common areas. It's a very pleasant stroll with lots to see. Although there are a couple of steep hills as well. I'd like to do that several times a week. We'll see.

While I was walking I called my mother to see how she is doing. We talked a long time about her yard, taking her meds, about Kerri, and stuff like that. She sounded good. Wondered if I'd talked with my sisters. I told her about working on my VITAE and that they were giving me help with that. I told her Dee is looking for a part-time job. She mentioned that my dad told her that any money she made would put them in a different tax bracket and what she made would just go to taxes. (She mentioned this every once in awhile.) So this time I said, that we benefited from having her home and were blessed because lots of kids today have two parents that work and so the mom isn't home to care for them. She liked that idea and said "Thanks for saying that."

Then, Dee and I went to Ross Park Mall. We had lunch in the food court. The Japanese Chicken over fried rice and veggies was delicious. She shopped and I began reading my new book Called For Life: Finding Meaning in Retirement by Paul Clayton

It's put out by the Alban Institute. I like much of what they publish and so I rejoined the book club recently. I ended the afternoon with a banana/pineapple smoothie and Dee had the Coffee Mocha Smoothie.

On the way home we stopped at Home Depot and bought two 2.5 gallon gas cans. (I've seen people filling their tank at the gas station and then gas cans for other vehicles back home.) Since we get these gas perks at Giant Eagle and you are allowed up to 30 gallons with each fill-up, it makes sense to get as much as you can if the price is right. We're currently going to save about 70 cents a gallon, so an extra 5 gallons will get me another smoothie some day. (We'll try it and see how it works out with the hassle factor and all.)

Back at home Dee made us two cob salads later which we ate on the deck. And I finished the What's So Amazing about Grace book. Philip Yancey is a very good read. In many ways it's a radical book about how our understanding of God is that He's a God of Grace. And most of the time we are people of "ungrace." I highly recommend it. I continued reading the Clayton book until dusk while Dee talked with Kerri on the phone. It sounds as if she's doing well. They went house hunting some during the day.