Retirement fun

Have I mentioned how much fun it is to be retired. I stay as busy as I want to be around the house but have opportunities to do other things as well. So far I have no real deadlines of stuff that just has to be done by a certain time so I can relax and enjoy the time. For instance, on Friday I watched the space shuttle Atlantis launch into space and no matter how many times I watch it, there is still a sense of amazement that we can build something that will lift four and a half million pounds and accelerate it to 17,000 mph plus in about 8 minutes leaving it in orbit about the earth. Then it will rendevoux with another orbiting environment and dock for a few days before returning to earth. Folks, when I was born this stuff was science fiction. Dick Tracy had a wrist watch radio and a base on the moon and Flash Gordon rocketed through space to nab the bad  guys, but that was in the comics. No one really believed it!

But here we are, 1 flight away from the end of an era, and after that, years before more manned space flight can occur from American soil. We will be forced to rely on foreign entities to ferry our astronauts to the International Space Station and bring them safely home. We as a nation are likely to fall far behind in science and space exploration because of this delay.

Enough of that, I was talking about the joys of being retired, and I do thoroughly enjoy it. I will return later with more of this nonsense.

Singing with the Saints

In just an hour I will go to help host the Singing with the Saints program at Howard Payne University. This is the 7th annual program and this year we have 2 outstanding nationally known quartets. The Kingsmen and The Melody Boys will be the featured groups as well as a local group called The Solid Rock quartet. This program of Southern Gospel Music attracts fans from all over central Texas. This year it returns to Mims Auditorium on the campus of HPU. Mims has been in a long restoration process and is a beautiful place to hold this concert. We look forward to hearing some of the best gospel music anywhere.

Rattlesnake vs the Weed Eater

I have been away all week at our creek house. I spent the week on small tasks that I could do alone and enjoyed some time of fishing even though I didn't catch much. On Wednesday afternoon this little? incident occurred.


We have a lawn service that takes care of the lawn since we don't get down very often and it needs at least monthly care. The lawn was due for a trimming when I arrived and on Wednesday the crew showed up to do it. I was downstairs under the house and had just put some chicken on the grill when they showed up. They make quick work of it with a big lawnmower and weed eaters. The weed eater guy had gone around most of the house and was right in front of me when he hit a rattlesnake with the weed eater. The snake was in the surface roots of a tree that grows next to the house, he obviously blended right in and we didn't see him until the weed eater made contact. The snake was about 18 inches long. The weed eater guy kept the snake airborne for a few seconds and by the time he fell to the ground he was severely wounded. A hoe finished him off and the snake scare was over but it made me realize how careless I had been in an area where snakes abound. In the minutes preceeding the snake / weed eater confrontation, I had walked through the area where the snake was hit several times picking up stuff to make the lawn care easier. I had disconnected a water hose and dragged it across the very spot where the snake was hit even reaching down to dislodge the nozzle when it snagged on a tree root. I do not know if the snake was moving and wasn't there a few minutes before or how it got there. Needless to say but for the rest of the trip I was extremely cautious when I walked about or reached for anything, especially at night.

In the 1950's when I started going to the creek snakes were common and we learned quickly to watch for them. The area was sparseley populated then and we were invading what had always been their territory. Now there are a lot more people and few areas that will support them so they stay across the creek in the salt marshes where people rarely go. In the 8 years that we have owned the house, we have not seen a rattler and only one other snake at all. That one is another story that I will post here some time. The lawn crew said they see them frequently but this was a close encounter that they can do without. I agree wholeheartedly. I am not a fan of snakes and especially not those which are deadly poisonous.

So in the future I will be more alert and careful where I walk and what I reach for. The nearest medical facility to us down there is at least 30-35 miles away. We do have an ambulance at the fire station about 9 miles away but it is staffed by volunteers and would take some time to respond. Amazing as it is I only remember 1 house fire down there and I have not heard of anyone getting snake bit.

Catching up

Well it has been a month since I last posted and I suppose I am long overdue. I have been working on the garden a lot and it is growing well. We have tomatoes, peppers, beans, corn, radishes and brussell sprouts. Some are doing better than others. My other project which I have mentioned is my recumbent tricycle called a Delta Wolf because it is a delta style long wheel base trike having two rear wheels as opposed to a tadpole style trike which has two front wheels. I have posted some pictures at picasaweb and there is a link at the bottom right of this page. The picture at the left shows the 'rolling frame stage' which is a major milestone in the construction process.

We did go camping one time this month at Lake Brownwood and enjoyed it a lot. I want to go at least one more time next month before our Texas parks pass expires. We have a pop up trailer that needs a lot of roof repair and I will tackle that this summer. It still works OK but the repairs really need to be done.

I attended the annual employee recognition luncheon at HPU today and it was good to see everyone. One of the guys I worked with received the "Outstanding Staff Member" award and it was well deserved. The food wasn't bad and it was free which is always good.

Our church, after being without a pastor for 16 months, has appointed a pastor search team to begin the process of looking for a new pastor. I was selected to be a non-voting alternate member of that team. Since we have changed to an Elder based system of governance in the interim time, we will have to find one who is comfortable in this environment. I am sure that will not be a problem but it will present challenges. As you have opportunity please pray that we will be able to discern God's will in this matter. 

Next week I will travel to Caney Creek to spend a week on odd jobs there and doing some fishing. At least I plan to do some fishing. I am not sure what other tasks I can do but I am sure there are plenty. Martha cannot go since next week is the end of semester and she needs to be here for final grades to be posted and to help with graduation. Her father is in poor health and we anticipate a quick trip to Michigan based on what we are told about his condition. Hopefully it will not be this coming week.

I will leave you with this quote from Lamentations 3:22-23a.

The LORD'S lovingkindnesses indeed never cease,

For His compassions never fail.
They are new every morning;

God is good... all the time and, All the time... God is good.

The things I do!

I am in the process of building a new trike. It is a recumbent tricycle and if I am successful it should look similar to the one at the left. That one actually belongs to someone else. I am making progress for a change and actually completed the two rear wheels this week. Perhaps I will be able to finish by early summer. There is still a lot of welding and metal cutting to do and that moves pretty slowly sometimes. I still have a few parts to order. I have another tricycle but it is a tadpole style with two wheels in front and one in back. This one is the opposite and is called a delta style. I will try to post some pictures of my progress later in the week.

Another project that is on tap right now is our garden. I haven't been in a hurry because we still have frost almost every morning and we spend far too much time trying to protect the tender young plants if we plant too early. We plan for tomatos, peppers, corn, green beans, radishes, watermelon, squash, and whatever else shows up. We had a garden last year and we really enjoyed eating the produce from it. This years will be a little bigger but I have to figure a way to get it watered automatically. I moved it farther away from the faucet so it is a little more of a problem. Martha has thinned her Canna Lilies down to about 12 plants from maybe 150 that were there. They multiply like wildfire. As soon as we have blooms I will post a picture.

The last topic is the guitar. I have set my mind to learn how to play this instrument correctly. This involves the fingers on each hand working independently and on command, which they are not willing to do. In addition they must form into un-natural patterns while holding down the strings on the frets. Meanwhile the other hand is picking the wrong notes. I would like to see (I expect) results faster than they come and practice is not the fun part. But practice I must and so that occupies an hour or so each day. Progress will be slow, but I am determined so from time to time I will update the blog with my progress.

Spring Break trip

We went to the creek as planned but as usual our list of projects was delayed by more important stuff. The pipes are all exposed under the house and over the winter we have had several periods of sub freezing temperatures. Some of them lasted days and they did a number on the pipes. All the hot water pipes were damaged and had to be replaced, at least the joints where the pipes joined. This was a project planned for much later but when necessity calls we must answer. We spent almost 3 days on this and had to make several trips to the store. Some of the breaks were behind a wall so we had to remove paneling to get to it. We did finally get to finish the new bathroom and install a couple of light fixtures. The first few days were very cool and foggy. One day the fog lasted all day and another it came and went with short periods of sun. I had wanted to fish some but didn't ever get to it. I will go again in May by myself and may get some fishing in on that trip. I have several one person projects that I can work on and hopefully no surprises await me. I have posted a few pictures on Picasa Web and the link to the right will get you there. The pictures are in the Creek pictures 2010 album.

This and That

This is the day which the LORD hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it.

Psalms 118:24
 
Well I have now had 3 commenters on this blog and I am sure that is some sort of record. We did get home safely from the trip to the basketball tournament and we did stop and visit the grand grandkids for a couple of hours. They are a lot of fun to visit and we should go more often, I don't really know why we don't. The rest of the week has been routine except that Martha had jury duty. She survived that ordeal and now is ready for spring break. So why do we need spring break? Is it for the students or is it for the faculty and staff? I think it is the latter. They need the break to preserve their sanity... We never had spring break when I was growing up and we survived just fine, well mostly.

We are going to the creek to work on our house and see if we can get some more projects done. This is a 6 year + project and I am sure that by the time we finish we will need to start over. That being our plan, I will not post anything for the next week. We have no internet there and barely have cell phone service. The cell phone I have now is not nearly as sophisticated as the ones I had at the university so I will not be able to get email, or post to the blog. I am sure life will go on and we will all do fine. What did we do before email and cell phones?

The verse at the beginning of this post is / was today's "Verse of the day". I have a program that I wrote that displays a different verse each day. It is amazing how appropriate they are for the day in which they appear. So today I must rejoice. God is still good and He answers prayer. Today I have received news of 2 different people who had prayers answered in significant ways. So as you go through the coming week, spend time with Him, rejoicing and thanking Him for everything.

See you after spring break,