The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

In my opinion, last week was not a good one in Florida. On Mother's Day a young mother and her two children, 2 and 7, were murdered and mutilated...even the family dog. a "boyfriend" is being held.

On Monday, a pastor's plane was missing in North Carolina. Rev. Pollock, of Bell Shoals Baptist Church in Brandon, was flying with his son to a meeting in Texas. They flew to North Carolina to visit his mother. After takeoff from Asheville, the plane disappeared from sight. The plane was later found, with both the pastor and his son having lost their lives.

This gentleman had just led his congregation in the building of a new facility, preached the first message in the church three or four weeks ago, and now yesterday, his memorial service was held there. I encourage you to read about him here.

And then there are the fires in Florida. A number of people lost their homes to fires that were deliberately set. As I was watching the news, one gentleman was being interviewed. As he looked at the rubble that remained, he said that the only thing important to him was to find something of his wife's. When the reporter asked him if he found anything, he said he had...some of his wife's mother's jewelry. His thoughts were only for her. He became my hero of the day.

Early in the week, I opened the paper and looked at the obituaries. One was for a 25-year-old man. One always wonders if the death has been from an accident when one is so young. As I read through the obituary, at the bottom, it read, "Contributions may be made to the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, All Children's Hospital, or Shands Hospital." My heart sank. CF sucks...the breath out of the lungs.

OK, where is the good? Nate and Tricia got to take their baby girl home from the hospital. What a miracle this has all been.

And, last, and certainly least, The Tampa Bay Rays are playing decent baseball for the first time in their career. They have been the laughing stock of MLB, but now they seem to have found the sorely needed pitching. They've been playing awesome defense and have some good hitting. Go Rays!

CF Walk

This is the group I walked with at the Great Strides Walk the last Saturday in April. These ladies work at Gevity, where Sarah works. One of the ladies had a nephew or cousin who had CF, and she got a team together last year. I joined with them. The totals are not all in yet, so I don't know exactly how much was given for Ella and others with CF. There were probably 100 people there that day for the walk.

Several have been held in the greater Tampa Bay area. One will be held this Saturday in Tampa at the Lowry Park Zoo. I'm tempted to go up for that one...it depends on the heat.

Loneliness

I saw the face of loneliness this past weekend. I have a friend who lives in central Florida whom I have known since I was 9. She was the camp director of the camp that I went to every summer after fourth grade. I went as a camper and then worked there during the summers in high school and college.

She had come to Florida in 1948 after graduating from Bible college and working for the government during the war. She along with another lady were the backbone of the camp.

She's now 86. Her co-worker died about five years ago, and my friend has lived alone since. We reconnected four years ago, and I began going over to visit her. Being from Pennsylvania, she's a great PSU fan, and so I would go over and watch football games either at her house, or seeking them out at a sports bar if they were not on network TV here in Florida.

I didn't get over this past season because I was in Virginia with Ella, but I received an e-mail from her stating that she was going to have a hip replacement in February. After she got home from rehab, she asked me if I'd come spend a few days with her. I checked my schedule and told her that I could come for a couple of days this past week.

I had told her that I would get to her house before noon, so she began looking for me around 10 in the morning. I didn't leave my house until 10:30, and I got there about five til 12. That was before noon, wasn't it.

In the afternoon we took a ride out to the camp, where she still sits on the board of directors. She showed me all the changes that have taken place. She is so proud of this place in Florida where she gave so many years of her life.

She has people who look in on her. Her neighbors are great, but she says, "I'm just so lonely." As I think about her, I think about the many elderly who are in a similar situation. While there, I began reading the book, Water For Elephants, which is the story of a man who worked with the circus. As he tells his story, he is now in an assisted-living facility. He says, "I'm 90 or 93. I don't remember which." And then he begins to talk about aging and looking at his hands and then his face in the mirror. "Who is this person?" he wants to know.

The weekend was a good lesson for me. Do I overlook old people? Do I think they are not worth my time? I pray to God that I will never lose a sensitivity to them or fail to be a friend.

Back from Competition

First of all, thank you for your kind comments and encouragement in the last post. It's wonderful to have such good, caring friends in the blogosphere.

I mentioned a week or so ago that our Sweet Adelines chorus was headed for regional competition this weekend. We boarded a bus Friday morning and headed to Daytona Beach. After checking into the hotel, we headed over to the auditorium where the quartet competition was being held. Several of the quartets who sang have competed many times before, and there were quite a few who were on stage for the first time. Some are very polished, some a bit tentative. I said to the person sitting next to me that anyone who got up on stage and sang like that deserves a medal. I love to sing, but I don't know how I'd do in a quartet on stage.

After the quartet competition, our chorus met in a rehearsal room at the hotel and had thirty minutes to work on our songs for the next day. By that time, it was after 10, and some of us were quite hungry, so we went to the restaurant in the hotel and had a bite to eat. Fortunately, the restaurant was open until 11. They put about 12 of us in the VIP room, where we had a rollicking good time.

The next morning we had rehearsal again at 8:00. After breakfast, we had time to get in our costumes and makeup for our chorus competition. On the competition stage, each chorus sings two songs, one ballad and one up tune. The time cannot exceed six minutes for any chorus. Our songs this year were about rain, so we had very simple costumes...pink raincoats worn over lime green T-shirts and white slacks. Our footwear was white sneakers...very comfortable. Some years one wears fancy costumes with sequins and glitter. A chorus can be as creative as they wish to be. This year props were allowed on stage as long as it was all removed before the next chorus came on stage.

Our front row and members on the end of the top row used umbrellas with the choreography. They made a good impression with the judges. Our of sixteen choruses who competed this year, we placed eighth. That score sounds so-so, but we were happy with our score. We improved over last year, and like anything, there is always room for improvement. Each year the competing choruses get better and better and are very entertaining.

I'll be getting a DVD of our performance, so hopefully I'll get one of the songs posted so you can take a look.

Another year gone by

Today is the sixth anniversary of my husband's death. A couple of weeks ago, I wondered why I was a bit down, and then I realized exactly what was going on. Even though time passes, as certain dates come, they bring with them a bit of sadness even though you think you're more removed from the actual date.



Last year I told myself that I wouldn't write again of it, but a few of you are new readers, and I wanted to share a little with you. If you care to read, go here and here.

Thanks for your encouragement.

Don't Postpone Joy

I have from time to time posted articles by Steve Goodier of Life Support System. Today's' just came in an e-mail, and I thought it would be a good one to pass along. The title of the blog is from a bumper sticker. Those three words say a lot.

JOY ALONG THE WAY
A senator once took Will Rogers to the White House to meet President Coolidge. He warned the humorist that Coolidge never smiled.

Rogers replied, "I'll make him smile."

Inside the Oval Office, the senator introduced the two men."Will Rogers," he said, "I'd like you to meet President Coolidge."

Deadpan, Rogers quipped, "I'm sorry, but I didn't catch the name."

Coolidge smiled. A sense of humor is a marvelous gift to have. It is one of the most important means we possess to face the difficulties of life. And sometimes life can be difficult. I deal professionally with issues which are critical: relationships breaking apart, people losing jobs, people facing serious illness or agonizing with someone close who is suffering, addictions, grief and heartache. Without a sense of humor about my own life, I don't know if I could survive! I take what I do seriously, but I try not to take myself too seriously. Like the New York City cab driver who said,"It's not the work that I enjoy so much, but the people I run into!"

Here is an experiment: look for and find as much joy as possible for one full day. Try to enjoy the people you run into, the work you do,your leisure time and your relationships. Don't forget to enjoy yourself - and take enough time to enjoy God. I believe that if you try this experiment for one full day, by evening you will bask in the glow of a rekindled spirit. It just takes a day to find joy along the way.-- Steve Goodier

There's not much going on here. The weather is wonderful, not yet too hot. Most of the snow birds have gone back home, and we don't have the terribly congested traffic as we do during the winter months.

Our Great Strides walk is this Saturday at Siesta Key beach. Having never done this before, I'm not sure what to expect. On Monday I'm going to go to Tampa to volunteer in the CFF office. I offered to work on the computer. The lady I spoke with said that they never have volunteers who want to work on computers, so she was ecstatic. On Monday they'll be counting all the funds that have come in from the walks in the greater Tampa Bay area.

I've been putting off doing some things around my house. I have tile in my downstairs, all except the dining room and living room. The Groutsm*th came today and cleaned it all. It looks like new. I told the gentleman who came to measure and give me an estimate that I had been tempted to cover it with wood flooring. His reply was that cleaning the tile and grout would be a fraction of the cost of wood. And indeed it was.

If you ever need any tile or grout cleaned, I highly recommend the Groutsm*th.

The upstairs bathroom had black and white tile in a checkerboard pattern, and I decided it was time for that to go, so I'm retiling that floor and replacing my toilets in the two upstairs bathrooms. The old ones are as old as the house, so I figured it is time. I'm also going for the higher stool. They are so much nicer, especially when you're tall or the knees are a little stiff.

After I recover from this, I'm going to replace my carpet upstairs and on the stairs. When you get started and refresh one area, the other spaces all of a sudden look like they need redoing too.

My friend Peg (the other Peg) and I have been playing tourist. A couple of weeks ago, we went to the Ringling M*seum of Art. There was an exhibit of Grandma M*ses. If you ever come to this area, the museum grounds are a must see. The Ringling's vacation home is there, as well as a circus museum.

Yesterday we went to our local historical park and reminisced about days gone by here in our county. The gentleman who offered to be our guide has only lived here for three years, and I think he found it more interesting to listen to us talking about our childhood and our growing up here.

Next weekend is our Sweet Adelines regional competition in Daytona Beach. Our chorus has been working hard to polish up our songs, but we have a way to go. I still have a few notes to correct on one of the songs, so it's practice, practice, practice.

Have a good weekend, everyone.