A Restaurant, A Concert, & Festival of the Horse...

Wednesday, September 7th, we started our day with a donut run to Frank's Donuts. Yum. Then home to make sure the house was in order. As Claude pulled into the garage he asked me to look at the piece of wood on his workbench. We saved two pieces of our tree when they cut it down. Unsure of what we would do with them, we have just kept them and pondered. Claude put this one on the workbench and set it this way. He quickly saw a turtle. I LOVE turtles. We are thinking of painting it as a turtle and attaching it to the old tree as we turn it back into a fairy garden tree.

We were to have had the missionaries visit us to give a lesson to Pat Smith. Pat ended up needing to have some home repairs so they didn't come. We have rescheduled for next week.

For our evening meal, we decided to try out Cinco de Mayo. Our favorite Mexican restaurant closed during the pandemic. We were crushed. Then we saw painting and work being done on the restaurant. A new owner has worked on it for over a year and it is now open for business. We tried it to see if it might still be our favorite Mexican restaurant with these new owners. The inside has been completely revamped. These are the new interior decorations.

Claude ordered Enchiladas Rancheras and I ordered Shrimp Quesadilla. They were both delicious. I will try mine next time without the shrimp, just a veggie quesadilla. We will go back again, and again, and again!

Brad & Ali Manwaring came over in the evening for Cherry Dessert (like a fake cheesecake) and to discuss Self-reliance. We enjoyed our Cherry Dessert on the patio and spent the evening talking. Claude and I will facilitate an Emotional Resilience Self-Reliance course in the Elkhorn Creek Ward. It was such a pleasant evening. No humidity and the temperature was pleasant. Love our patio.

Thursday, September 8th, my big goal was to be on-line at 10am and ready to try and get tickets to Trans-Siberian Orchestra in December. I got right on and purchased two tickets for Claude and I. He does love this as part of our December tradition each year. 

After getting the tickets, I spent my morning weeding our yard. I didn't do any weeding in August as we were gone a week and then down with Covid for two weeks. It took about two hours but I got it all done. The little hill where I have been trying to get ivy to grow was the final piece of the weeding pie and why it took that long. Normally and hour is tops for getting the weeding done. Claude and I have agreed to not grow ivy on the entire hill face. Instead, we will let the grass grow. We are going to get stone and line either side of the stepping stones up the hill. Then we will purchase something like liriope to plant between the stone edges and the stepping stones. We will pull up the ivy that is still good and plant it at the base of the fairy garden tree. Lots of work but it will be nice if it all grows as we anticipate.

Claude went to Lowe's while I was weeding. He has a couple of projects he wants to get done with the weather being a little cooler and less humid. When he returned, he went out to work on the fence. It seems we had one board that was coming loose. Claude purchased extra long wood screws to reattach the board. I went out to see if he needed any help holding that board in place while he worked on it. I snuck up on Claude and this is what I found. It looks for all it is worth like he is being a peeping Tom on our neighbors. Not so. It turned out the board was nailed to the post and the post has warped and curved. It was all not fitting together quite right and Claude was analyzing exactly how he should put it all back together so it would stay together. Fun picture though.

There is a farm on Hwy. 62 in Georgetown called Old Friends Farm. Old race horses can retire their after their breeding days are over. They had a big tree out in front that died. A man came and carved Medina Spirit, race horse, out of the tree. Way cool!!

Friday, September 9th, Alan Jackson was our date night event. We planned to leave our home in time to drive to Firehouse Subs for a quick dinner and then into Rupp Arena in Lexington for the concert. Now that we live in Georgetown, it is really easy to get on Payne's Depot Road outside our development and drive to Hwy 421. Hwy. 421 takes you right to Lexington by Firehouse Subs. Hwy 62 runs with 421 and it becomes Main Street in Lexington. Rupp Arena is one block over in the middle of Lexington. This was going to be a breeze to drive. Right. Not so. We left at the appointment time. As we were driving Payne's Depot the traffic came to a stop and barely creeped along. The clock was ticking on. I checked Google Maps. It indicated a wreck on Payne's Depot. Ugh. This is a narrow road. It turned out the wreck was gone but the traffic was still a mess and we were in rush hour. We finally made it to 421 and Claude put the pedal to the metal and we made it to Firehouse Subs. We quickly ate and hurried back to our car. We had 30 minutes to drive on in to Lexington, find parking and walk to the arena, get through security and find our seats. Ugh! We tried several places and ended up at the parking garage where we park to go to the Lexington Opera House. The sign after we were in the garage told us their elevators were not working. We parked on the fourth level and hurried down the steps, across the busy Main Streets, up the hill and to Rupp. I got our tickets on my phone ready and we made it through the inspection and then ticket check. Now, I have to make note of this. For all 52 years of our marriage, there have been paper tickets. Claude has always held all the tickets until we got to the gate and then doled them out to each of the family as we entered any event. This time, I had eTickets that would only show on my cellphone. Claude had no paper to hold. It was very weird for him. But, he made it. We have to do this at least two more times this year for two other concerts. Hope it isn't his undoing.

The Alan Jackson concert started with a warm-up band. Some guy named Cory something or other. He was not someone I would pay to go and see. Often warm-up bands are very enjoyable. I did not enjoy him at all. However, I did enjoy Alan Jackson. He was wearing a clear plastic boot on one leg. Alan Jackson has Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease. This is a debilitating nerve disorder. I am sure the plastic boot was support for his right leg. He did walk with a limp. But he sang with his whole heart. 

Alan Jackson has been performing for 30 years. He has been to Lexington at least 10 times during those years. To honor his support for Kentucky, Rupp Arena gave him this bar made out of a bourbon barrel.

One of the ladies in the pit area gave him a poster. She purchased it 30 years ago. During that time, Alan Jackson has signed that poster 4 other times. He signed it one last time this night. These two pictures are him signing the poster.

These pictures are Alan Jackson with his family.

He sang a beautiful tribute to 9/11. The arena was lit up with cellphone flashlights. After he finished singing, the audience cheered, "U.S.A., U.S.A., U.S.A.!!" It was very touching. 

One of the songs near the end of the program had lots of pictures of the Lexington area of things important to those living in Kentucky. These are some of the pictures shown as he sang.

He came out for an encore. It was good to enjoy his music again. I would love to go to a concert that was him singing old gospel songs. 

Drew managed to score tickets for his family to go to watch a hockey game. Katelyn shared these pictures of the Ropers at ice hockey. Julia is their exchange student from Sao Paulo, Brazil. The other are Katelyn, Drew, Raelyn, Emelia and Joel.

Saturday, September 10th, someone posted this cute thing. I sent it to Jake who loved Shakespeare. He wore out one volume of the Complete Works of Shakespeare. 

Our evening would be spent at The Festival of the Horse in Georgetown, Kentucky. This is an annual event in Georgetown. The parade of the horses would be at 5pm. We got there at 4pm to walk the booths lining Main Street and have a bite of something for dinner. We opted for a rib-eye steak sandwich for Claude and a corn dog for me for dinner. Then we found us a spot to watch the Parade of Horses. Before it started, I tried to get a picture of the Scott County Court House. Claude was very quick on the draw and had his hand up to block that picture. Very quick for an old fella!

The parade began.

Our Mayor Tom Prather with the gray hair.

Andy Barr, our U.S. Congressman.

The miniature horses,

Then assorted horses followed. Some people were in costumes. 

This one I titled, "Zen and the Art of Horseback Riding".

This little horse had a banner labeling it as a support horse.

Okay, this was so funny. The big white horse seemed to be having a hard time getting down Main Street. There was a long pause in the flow of the parade and we leaned over the rope to look way down Main Street. It seemed to want to turn around and go back, not forward. When they got in front of us we understood what was happening. There was a little white donkey walking with the big white horse. The little donkey was the problem. It didn't want to be in the parade at all. This is evidenced by the second picture.

Quite a few of these horses had these head and ear coverings. They came in all kinds of colors. 

After the horses were past us, along came the street sweepers. You see, the horses made many deposits on Main Street as they walked by. These guys quickly shoveled up that future fertilizer and were followed by the street sweeper. As these guys appears, the crowd applauded and cheered them on. Once they were past, we were free to walk on Main Street again.

As I watched the crowd, this couple caught my eye. I could see Claude and I doing this in our future years. They didn't stop participating in life. The just used the tools that allowed them to still be out there. I appreciated their example.

We ended our outing with a stop at Spotz Gelato. Claude got a pork chop sandwich and I got a head band for our trip to the Amazon. Then we bought a bag of kettle corn to take home and enjoy while watching television. We are watching the Northern Exposure television series. Great evening out in Georgetown.

Our great grandmonster, Nelson, will have a birthday September 21st. I send a message to his mother, Aubrey, asking for suggestions for a gift for our little guy. I settled on a new pair of cowboy boots for Nelson. Nelson will be 5 years old. I ordered the boots through Amazon, after running the ones I was looking at past Aubrey. I then sent a message to Aubrey explaining when they might be delivered and that Amazon had her contact information. Aubrey thanked me for doing this. I told her it stirred a memory in me of Jake, our youngest child, when he was little getting cowboy boots for Christmas. I sent these two pictures of Jake in his boots and thanked Aubrey for bringing back the memory. These pictures were taken in Shreveport, Louisiana in 1976 when my parents lived on East Herndon. 

Sunday, September 11th, we had a good sacrament meeting, Primary and priesthood meeting. Then we came home for roast Claude prepared in the crock pot. I baked cookies for the Self-reliance class. Claude took his nap while I worked on my pictures and Blog. In the evening, we facilitated the overview of the Emotional Resilience Self-Reliance class. After, because I was sooooo good, Claude took me for ice cream. We ended our evening watching more Northern Exposure while I crocheted a little. Good Sabbath Day.

Monday, September 12th, was a day to accomplish things. Laundry, ironing, digging up the few ivy plants in the backyard, things like that. I checked to see where my new sandals were in the delivery process and learned they had been left at my front door. I quickly went out to get them. Claude was at the grocery store and then the bank. When I got to the front door, I was surprised to see the box with my Clark sandals on top of a stack of five boxes. The boxes were labeled with a return address that was Bonnie's home in Utah. They also had labels taped on that said 'Not Returnable!' I put all these boxes on the sofa in the study and took a picture and sent it to Claude telling him his siblings had been up to something!

After Claude returned, we opened each box carefully and went through them. Claude's mom, Bonnie, passed away in January. Cordell was buying her home. He is now living in Manti and determined to sell this house to a nephew. The house needed to be cleaned out so that Wyatt could move in. I am sure these boxes came from that cleaning out. So many interesting things in them. I learned I couldn't be faulted for not sending picture. I have have two big envelopes and one of the smaller boxes full of actual pictures or CD's full of pictures to go through. We may have lived away from Bonnie but she did get lots of pictures from us. Some of the items I took pictures of and asked kids and grandmonsters if they wanted them. So there will definitely be more handing down of Bonnie treasures. At the end of the day, I asked Claude if he felt okay with what we chose to do with all the items. He did. I felt good about our efforts.

Tuesday, September 13th, was the day to get ready for our little trip. 

Included in this day was having the missionaries over with a man they are teaching. His name is Pat Smith. We had a really good lesson with Pat. Then Claude prepared a salad and rolls meal with cake and ice cream for dessert. It was so nice to have these good people in our home. 

After they left, I hurried to visit Jenna Thacker to get my hair cut. This is always fun. She is great to visit with and she gives a superb haircut. 

When I returned home we did our packing and preparing to leave early the next morning. We would head to bed at 10:30 so we could be up and at 'em by 5am. 

Another fine week of life.