Saturday and the Graduation Ceremony

I slept fairly well last night. I awoke at 2:30AM and went to the bathroom and then went back to bed. I was determined to sleep until at least 4:30AM so I would not wear out today when we attend the graduation ceremony.

I got up at 4:30 and made the bed and dressed and ate my oatmeal and drank a cup of coffee. I also put away the dishes in the dishwasher. Then I watched a video on my notebook about a new book that is selling well. It is "The Making of Donald Trump". I also watched Brooks and Shields on video on my notebook because they were interested in watching a movie Friday evening when PBS had the Newshour and Brooks and Shields on. That's fine, I watched them this morning on video. I can't get PBS on TV at home anymore from the antenna anyhow, so I will watch them on my desktop computer and not have to miss their analysis of the news. I have followed the two of them for years.

About 10:00 Scott plans to leave for the graduation ceremony. I hope everyone has finished their breakfast and is ready by then.

I leave tomorrow morning at 8:00 AM from Jacksonville on a Delta flight. I get into Atlanta at 9:21AM and leave for Tulsa at 10:50 AM and arrive there at 12:03PM.  Leslie is on call this weekend so John will pick me up at Tulsa. Atlanta is a huge airport so I hope I have plenty of time to make it to my departure gate.

I guess I will watch the news now with Scott.  More later...

We attended the graduation exercises and they were wonderful. Ashley did so well. Her grades so far are 4 A's and 1 B. Afterward we went to Carribbas for dinner and had a very good dinner. As usual Ginger picked up the tab. I had an opportunity to visit at length with Taresa, Scott's X-wife and their son Jerod.  We all sat together and had a fine visit.



This is Ashley, my granddaughter, and her boyfriend, Jason.

This is Jerod, my grandson, and his mother Taresa at the dinner after graduation.

This is Scott, my son, and Ginger, his wife with Ashley at Carrabbos for dinner after graduation.
Afterward, Ginger drove us home and we went to bed early. Tomorrow at 8:00 my plane leaves for Tulsa, by way of Atlanta. I hope all goes well.

I went to bed before 9:00. I wanted to be up and dressed and packed at 5:00.

Friday and a Cold Rain

I really was cold last night in bed here in Florida. I finally got up and came into the living room and got a nice heavy afghan and put it over my covers and crawled back into a warmer bed. I slept well last night and got up at my usual 5:00 this morning and made my bed and got myself ready for the day. The house is still chilly of course because Scott's fire went out late last night. 

I would like to get my hair done today if we go into town for anything. I washed it myself several days ago but it has not really looked like anything since. Tomorrow is Ashley's graduation from collage and I would like it and me to look a lot better. At 82, that's not easy. I want to take several pictures and I may be in some of them.

I have had my oatmeal and coffee and no one else is up yet so I am not turning on the TV and will just work on the blog or read. I finished the murder mystery yesterday evening. But I still have several borrowed books from Amazon and the two Bill gave me for my birthday.

I am so happy Keith got my Outlook 2016 mail program fixed last night. All outgoing mail's fonts were so tiny that it had to be set at size 36 to even been seen as I typed. When I sent it off, the recipient received a huge font.  He figured it out in about 15 minutes. He said every edition of Outlook was slightly different and this one was no different from all the others.

The little notebook has served it's purpose. It has kept me in touch with everyone who matters to me in my life....at least those whose e-mail addresses were in the notebook.  Now that Outlook is working properly I can use it as my second computer. Ginger offered me her old Apple but I really don't need it with two PCs. I'd have to learn "Apple".

The wind has blown violently the past two days and it rained all night. Luckily, Scott put the hurricane curtains down last night or everything on the covered patio would be soaked.  The wind blows the rain horizontally off that river behind them. It was pouring in on everything Wednesday before he put that center post back in so he could get the large center curtain all the way down.

What with the hurricanes and everything else, living in Florida is not all it's made out up to be.

More later....

The kids did a run before lunch. Then after they had their showers, we left for Amalia Island for my hair appointment. The woman that did it did a good job and I am satisfied. Last year the one that did it tried to cover me with curls...which is not my style at all.

We had thought about going to a movie but there was really nothing on right now.

John Alvey died yesterday. Bob A. contacted me about it. I am amazed! He had only been sick less then a month. Wendy, his wife, on the other hand, has been taking chemo for weeks..perhaps months. I don't know how she is doing through all of this. They ran the Dalton Defender's museum when I worked there briefly.

The kids and I went to a restaurant and had a really healthy lunch.

More later....

This is Scott and Ginger's pool from the living room. It was way too chilly to use it this time.


After we got home we watched a Disney movie about a cross country running team from Mcfarland, California. It was very good!

Now Scott and Ginger and Chloe, the dog, took off in the golf cart to go check the mail. It's 46 degrees and raining now.

More even later...

Ginger made up some broccoli snacks and she and Scott ate them while we watched a Christmas Story on Apple TV

At 8:30 or so, I went to bed. I was exhausted. I don't know why except that  I have been exhausted a good time of the time that I have been here...for some reason.

Tomorrow is Ashley's graduation ceremony. We will be leaving for Savanna at 10:00.

 
   

Thursday and Ginger Comes Home!

Today, Ginger comes home from Nashville. She has been gone quite awhile visiting her daughter and helping with her daughter's new baby. Ginger's mom is there too so I imagine they have had a great time. This is Ginger's first grandchild and she is thrilled....of course.

While she was there, she rented a condo for Scott and her to live in after the first of the year when Ginger starts her new job there. They have had enough of hurricanes. They have been through two in eighteen months. Matthew last year and Irma this year. They hope the house sells right away but if it doesn't, they may move back to Florida later and Ginger may get her old job back. That's an option anyhow.

We got a taste of a gale sized wind last evening when Scott had to roll the hurricane blinds down to protect the back patio and table.  He screwed the middle brace in on them to keep the large one from breaking. That's how hard the wind blew. I mopped the floor and we left the fans on out there overnight hoping to dry the rest of the floor and the cushions. Whew!

Ginger will be coming in around noon. Her vehicle is at the airport parking. So she will be driving in by herself. In the meantime, Scott wants to go into town again and buy some groceries.  The house seems to be full of food but I imagine he knows what he wants. I need some all purpose contact cleaner in a travel sized bottle. I am getting low.

Keith may contact me this afternoon or this evening to fix the font on my notebook. First he needs to enjoy being back with his wife.

I have had my oatmeal and first cup of coffee this morning. Scott is sleeping late for some reason. It is 6:30 here and he is still asleep.That's unheard of. He usually sleeps poorly.  I got up at 5:00.

I will turn the TV on low.  Be back later....

He slept late because he was awake most of the night. He says he was planning their move.  He did face time Ginger just before she left for the airport and visited with her again after she got there.  She should be in about 12:00 and we will eat at a restaurant in Jacksonville. She says it may be almost 1:00 before she gets her luggage but she will meet us at the restaurant.

Scott got a haircut after breakfast at Carolyn's. Then we went by Walmart so I could get some contact cleaner.  He bought some Zzzquil.  Then we went by Publex and he bought some wine. After that we came home. Scott is clearing the fireplace ash so he can start a fire in it. It is chilly this morning at 53 degrees.

I read until nearly noon and then I told Scott it was nearly noon so we took off for Jacksonville to meet Ginger for lunch. We had a really good lunch! I had a chicken salad.

When we got home I continued my book. It's nearly finished.

More later... I finished the book. It was a cliff hanger!

Later in the evening, we watched an old chick flick...When "Harry Met Sally"! As usual, it was hilarious!

It's just 7:50 now and I don't want to go to bed until 9:00 or I'll be up in the middle of the night.

Wednesday and A Good Night's Sleep

I slept pretty well last night after such a harrowing day. Getting Bill's two books finally downloaded on my Kindle was a good accomplishment but made for a thoroughly exhausting afternoon. I was determined that he was not going to pay for a gift I could not receive. It took a specialist, two reboots of the Kindle, one of them a factory reboot, to finally get them downloaded. I still think a big part of the problem was Amazon's two step security and perhaps Scott's different internet router.

I don't know what I will do today...mostly I watch the news as it unfolds. I have had a time with Scott's TV though. Sometimes I have a problem getting the sound to come on. I will try it again now. ......It worked fine this morning. I watch CNN for the very latest news and then turn to CBS for variety. CNN goes over and over the same thing...all day long. Today, Trump is going to declare Jerusalem the capitol of Israel and move our embassy there. That is going to ignite a lot of violence, not only in Jerusalem but everywhere.  And it will sabotage the peace process.

The only problem with my visit is that I spend a lot of time alone...with the animals, of course. I let them out from time to time... to do their business.  Scott usually comes home about 3:00 after he works out and/or runs.

Then we work on these dinners. Some of them are bears. They sometimes use terminology with which I am not familiar. .....such as zesting a lemon...I have no idea what that means. We had two meals this week that called for that.  Another problem is that Ginger has no blender and nearly every recipe calls for blending some ingredients. These are all vegetable recipes...no meat at all. They are attempting to eat healthy and low calorie. Meat, of course, has the bulk of the calories in a meal.

I am hoping Keith will contact me sometime today to fix the font on my Outlook 2016 program. It may be this evening after work and before Esther gets home from work. He has about an hour and a half at that time. 

More later...

Leslie called me and tried to fix that font but didn't have any more luck then I had. I did tell her I would try to take some photos of the house and the changes they had made since she and John were here last year. I will try to put them here.

This some of the ground cover they planted along the edge of their cliff. I hope it shows up better then it looks here.

Here is some more of it along the side of the pool.

These are the trees they planted along the west side to try to hide the huge house being built next door. They will grow taller to fide more in time.

This shows how close the large house next door is to their property. It also shows the new palm trees and plantings

This shows the new plantings next to their garage.

This shows the house from the street with Chloe snooping around. It also shows a view of the larger house next door. backed up right against their home. They are still working on that house. No telling when it will be finished.

Here is Scott..checking his phone while on our shopping trip last week in Jacksonville.

This is that house right next door.....going up. Notice the additional garages on the left with apartment above it. They are in the painting stage at that house now.

This is the kids' house from the street.


I may add more later...

Scott came in about 2:00 and I fixed another of those veggie meals. It was called Shakshuka and was mostly veggies. Freekah, onion, red pepper,  garlic, red kale, cumin, paprika, fire roasted tomatoes, cilantro leaves, and silken tofu. It was just fine but a lot of food. Scott ate all of his and some leftovers from day before yesterday too.

Here's a better photo that Scott sent to me.

This is the back of Scott and Ginger's home.

This is a photo of the front of Scott and Ginger's home that Scott took.

This the the back of their home lighted up at night.

And this is the front lighted up at night.

More later....

A gale of a wind came up this evening as we were watching a movie and water was blowing everywhere. Scott put the hurricane blinds down to keep everything from blowing away. We took a lot of old towels out and wiped everything off. I mopped the floor and we both wiped off the furniture.

He screwed the middle brace for the large hurricane blind back in so the middle large blind would be stronger.  Then we put the dog's blanket in the dryer to get it dry.

Keith called. He was in Denver waiting for his plane to arrive and to take off for Phoenix. We will try to get together to work on my mail program tomorrow sometime after he has had some time to spend  with Esther. He has been gone over a week and sounded exhausted!

I am going to take my bath now and get ready for bed..
 

Tuesday and Another Quiet Day

I slept fairly well last night and so did Scott...evidently. He did not leave for work until 5:00 AM That is unusual for him. He usually wakes up at 2:30 and dresses and goes on in to work. He has a terrible time sleeping too.

I have dressed and had my oatmeal for breakfast and a cup of coffee. I finally figured out how to turn my phone back on. I had to reboot it. It appears to work fine now.

Today is Tuesday and Ginger's birthday. I hope Scott remembers to call her and wish her a Happy Birthday! He has a lot on his mind....with the phone interview and all.

I am anxious to get back home on Sunday and see those puppies of John and Leslie's I love puppies almost as much as I love newborn babies.

 

This Saturday is Ashley's graduation. We will drive to Georgia for that. Then Sunday Scott will take me to Jacksonville to catch my flight home.

More later....

I spent most of the day working with Amazon trying to get them to download the books that Bill H. sent to me for my birthday. They had me reboot the Kindle and finally had a factory reboot too.  That fixed the download after trying all afternoon. The factory download wiped out the log on and I took most of three hours working with their tech and finally got the Kindle working again.

Now hopefully tomorrow sometime, my son, Keith, will contact me and fix the font on my notebook Outlook 2016 program. Right now, it is so tiny that I can't read it when I am composing it. I have to raise the font size to at least 36 and then those who receive my e-mails find that size font way too large.

We decided to go to the pizza place for lunch. It was the middle of the afternoon by then. When we got home we watched an old movie, "On Golden Pond".  We have frozen it now and Scott is on the phone with a recruiter.

More later...

After Scott got off the phone, we watched the rest of "On Golden Pond", one of the better movies  in my experience....rare these days not  to have unlimited violence in a movie. Much as I love movies, there are just way too many full of violence and unbridled sex that leaves nothing to the imagination, these days. I see about one movie a year for that reason. As a family, we used to go at least twice a month. I believe these types of movies with all that violence, just promote violence in our society. After nearly 17 years of war and so much violence in our society, I can believe nothing else.

I took my bath after the movie and went to bed at 8:30...totally exhausted!

Monday and Another Busy Day.

I slept really well again last night. I woke up once, went to the bathroom, and got right back to sleep. That's a very comfortable bed.

I woke up shortly before 6:00 and took a shower and washed my hair. It was beginning to drive me nuts. It had begun to get stringy looking. It had been six days since Kathy did it before I left.

Anyhow, I've fed both animals and watered them. I am watching the news right now.  CNN just does the same news..over and over again. Now I am watching the CBS news. At least I can get some local news from Jacksonville there. I've had a cup of coffee and a cup of Chai too. I am out of Chai now.

I guess I will read this morning. There isn't a lot to do except that and watch TV. It's very foggy out this morning.

More later....

I puttered around all day and even washed my hair and then sat out front on the porch in the sunshine and read. Then it got cloudy again and I came back inside and watched the news and some TV.

Scott came home about 3:00 and we had leftovers for dinner. I had the soup and he ate my leftover Mexican food from last week when they served me twice as much as I could eat. I had just put half of the food I hadn't touched in a styrofoam container and brought it home.  So he ate that and some cheese and crackers.

The building inspector had come and he gave their hurricane blinds the o.k. He signed off on the inspection.

Later that evening we watched a movie. Two different people called him about a job. He has a phone interview this morning with one of them at 7:30.

Leslie contacted me with photos of Mini;s puppies. She had to have them delivered by c section again. She had nine. Five males and four females. That was exciting news.

We both went to bed at 9:00.  I had run down the battery on my phone so I plugged it in in hopes of figuring out how to get it back on in the morning.

Sunday and Breakfast Out

I slept until 5:30 this morning...and I slept well.

I am up and around now and dressed and have fed both Chloe and the cat, Eddy. I will wait to see how late Scott sleeps this morning. Hopefully he got a good night's sleep. He is like me. He does not sleep well much of the time.

We plan on going out for breakfast this morning so I will not eat my oatmeal. Scott wants to run this morning so we may eat a little later. I won't starve. I imagine I could go a week on what I have extra on my body.

Scott is up now and is going to run now. Afterward he will take a shower before we go to breakfast.

More later...

My friend, Bill Henson sent me a book for my Kindle for my birthday but I never received it. I think he had the wrong Kindle address for the gift two times. He has tried twice and I have not received it yet. I don't have his e-mail address on this notebook so I can't tell him. Maybe someone from church who reads this blog will contact him about it.

Scott and I drove over to Steffins for breakfast and had a very good breakfast.  Then I read all morning. Scott watched Saturday Night Live, which he had recorded. About 1:30 we started putting together lunch. It was finished  by 2:30 and we ate.  It was kind of labor intensive but good. I couldn't eat all of mine so I put it in a container for later.

My neighbor, Marilyn, texted me that she was really glad to get home. I am happy to have her back. I told her I would be home on the 10th.

More later...Scott is looking for a movie to watch.

We watched two movies this evening. One was "Bridge of Spies". Leslie and I wanted to see that  movie while we were in Springfield for Mission Center Conference a couple of years ago. However, the next viewing was to be at 10:00. Neither of us wanted to see a movie that late. So, Scott bought it last night and we watched it. Then we watched another great movie...Concussion. That was excellent too.

I went to bed right after it finished. Scott went to bed before it was finished. He was exhausted.