At Home and on the Road...

Monday, July 13, 2020

Katelyn's birthday was this day. Katelyn is our first born grandmonster. I posted this on Facebook with these pictures of our precious grandmonster. "Katelyn Roper is a loving wife and mother...but she is also our first born grandmonster. She has been a joy to learn how to grandparent on. Today is her birthday. Please join us in wishing Happy Birthday to KTNickles!! You are a joy. Love Ya Bunches." (Katelyn is pictured with her hubby, Drew, Emelia her baby, and Raelyn their precocious 4 year old.)

Tuesday, July 14, 2020
This day Claude had an appointment with our dentist, Dr. Hollen to have his new crown glued in. I drove into Georgetown with him and, while he was at our dentist, I went over the Dr. King's to let him see the finished product on my implant bridge. He is the surgeon who removed my front teeth after my fall last August and repaired my crushed bone followed by installing my implants. He wanted to see what it looked like after Dr. Hollen glued in my implant bridge of crowns. He was so very happy with the end results, as am I. 

When Claude finished we did our typical Georgetown trip items: a walk in the park, a treat delivered to Papa and a meal purchased at a drive-thru and eaten under a shade tree in our car. Such is the nature of a great date during this Covid-19 event.

A few more family things happened this day. Claude shared this picture he took on July 4th when the Marx family came for dinner. Hayden pretty much owns the red rocking chair when he comes. To get here for lunch requires them to arise much earlier in the morning than they have been arising this summer. So...our young man was really sleepy. I just love this picture. Such is the comfort level at Grampa and Gramma's home.

Katelyn also let us know that Drew, her hubby's, grandmother passed away. Sharlotte is Drew's father's mother. She had Covid-19 and was in the hospital. They released her Monday and she went home. She passed away on Tuesday in her home. 

And Aubrey posted this picture of her holding Katelyn's baby, Emelia. Such a lot of family love in this picture. It's good to be an aunt with snuggles like this!

Wednesday, July 15, 2020
I found this quote on my Facebook newsfeed. I sent it to our son Jake who is an English major. He was impressed by the use of parentheticals. I simply told him I should add that word to my vocabulary! 

Claude and I opted to drive to Hardee's and get a biscuit for breakfast. Then we came home and ate breakfast on our front porch. As we were getting ready to leave Love's Travel Plaza, we saw this trailer hauling trailers. It struck us as funny and we called it old people humor. I posted the picture on Facebook and commented about it being old people humor. One of our friends actually commented that she saw this exact trailer near them and they live in Owingsville, Kentucky. We all decided it was probably trailers full of baby trailers sort of like the matryoshka dolls from Russia. So a lot of old people in Kentucky found this humorous.

Thursday, July 16, 2020
We found ourselves again on the front porch eating breakfast. We planted a little tree years ago when we first moved to Sadieville in the front yard. As we sat there we noticed a couple of branches with something growing in them that shouldn't be there. After we finished, Claude got his pruning snippers and we cut those branches off. We had this happen once before and we found that, if we pruned away the offending branch, the rest of the tree grew just fine. This is such a great metaphor for life and pruning out the bad that fills our lives. Great teaching and learning moments in our lives if we look for them. 

Friday, July 17, 2020
Our breakfast this morning yielded a nice visit with the Canadian geese that come every year to nest along the creek. Sometimes they walk all the way up the steep hill (that is our back yard) from the creek. These walked up and I saw them on the empty lot. I tried three times to whisper to Claude to look. He didn't have his hearing aids in and couldn't hear me. I got up to take a quick picture and the geese turned to go back down the hill. They are beautiful birds.

Bailey also sent me a text with a link. It was for a Fresno Nightcrawler Plush pattern. I texted Bailey back and asked if this was something she wanted or just something she was showing me. She said she was wanting one. This is a very simple sewing item. Today I checked the website and ordered this free pattern. It came to me in an eMail and I have printed it. I told Bailey I did this and then told her I was going to make a sewing kit of it and show her how to make it. I love doing things for my family but it occurred to me the other day it might be better for them if I taught them how and then they could do these things for themselves. So, we'll see how this project goes with Bailey. 

In the evening Claude and I determined we would take up his thought of a few nights ago and do a Robert Duvall movie watching experience. We have three westerns he was in and we would start with Lonesome Dove on Friday evening. I popped Jake a text and told him our plans. He asked the movies. Jake is a real aficionado of movies. I told him the movies and that we would start with Lonesome Dove. True to the times in which we are living and the quick wit that Jake inherited from his father, Jake replied, "I thought they changed the title from Lonesome Dove to Socially Distancing Dove. Much laughter on my part. Then Jake commented about Open Range with, "That movies gets the award for best use of a chocolate bar in a movie." And...Jake is correct.

Saturday, July 18, 2020
While eating breakfast on the front porch again, we decided it was time to get out of the house. We plotted a route using these Kentucky Highways: 460, 11 and 52. This would take us through Daniel Boone National Forest and into the knob county of Kentucky. We hopped in our hermetically sealed Jeep bubble and took off to see the countryside. I took these picture while driving using my cell phone. They work!! One of them is my favorite. I wonder if it is yours?

While driving, I was texting with Jake. It started with Jake texting me a picture of the dog he walked at the animal shelter that morning. He volunteers there and they had to discontinue that because of the virus. They have the shelter up and running again with fewer staff and they are now starting to let the volunteers come in and help. Jake walked 5 dogs between 8am and 10am. It turns out this was his anniversary of volunteering at the shelter. He has worked 85 hours to date. There would have been more except for the lovely virus intrusion. As we were texting about this nice service he has chosen to do with his life, the car in front of us had an interesting decal. I took this picture and sent it to Jake to illustrate our texting conversation. 

I sent Jake the pictures of our drive as we hit I-75 for home. Jake asked if we had accidentally arrived in Ireland as everything was so green. I only wish we had. Loved visiting Ireland.

Sunday, July 29, 2020
Today we did our own church service at home. Then we watched a Zoom meeting with CJ Alcorn giving his missionary farewell address. He did an excellent job and spoke about the restoration of the Gospel. Due to Covid-19 he will do his Missionary Training Center on-line. He will travel to St. Louis and do that from his grandparents home. He is actually going to Melbourne, Australia but not until they reopen that area because of the virus. He will go somewhere in the states until the reopen Australia. Such a different situation for these young missionaries. What amazing missionary stories they will have to tell.

Tonight we are going to watch the 90 years of broadcasting of the Tabernacle Choir on Temple Square on BYU-TV. That should be a fun view. 

I was able to finish my project this week of making a paper scrapbook into a PowerPoint presentation of our Alaska 2008 Cruise and Train trip. I have now started on our 2012 Southern Caribbean Cruise. 

I also received word that they are not opening the nursing home to visitors quite yet. They have to formulate a plan to do this safely. The Governor has said it is okay to open them as soon as the nursing home is ready. But, we are have a spike in cases in Kentucky. 400 - 500+ new cases each day. This is being figured proportionately with the earlier rise in cases and we are twice as high now as then from that proportional perspective. So we wait on seeing Papa. I did wave at him through the window when I filled his bird feeder this week. His smile was a delight. 

There are parts of this that are a blessing and I acknowledge that. But there are also parts of this that are hard and I acknowledge that. This week our nephew's wife's father died. He had Covid-19. So it is beginning be felt in our family. That puts it very close to home. The struggle with people to wear masks is just frustrating. The Governor put out an executive order that everyone had to wear a mask in public. He should NOT have to do that. He should be able to have his medical advisors explain the reasons why and we should regulate ourselves. Alas, we are contrary children with a "no one can tell me what to do" mentality. Such contention over a kindness for others and a help for yourself just amazes me. I truly believe until we all learn some lessons that humble us a bit, we'll see this virus around for a longer time.