My visiting teaching appointment canceled for Friday afternoon. How to rearrange the schedule? Got it!!
I took Papa to his doctor appointment Friday morning. The man got a great report. Don't get me wrong, there is tons wrong with him, but all the things are under control and he is doing well. His blood pressure was 110 / something great. That is better than mine! His blood density was a bit thick but that seems to vacillate all over the place, so we leave him at the dosage he is at and come back in a month to get it tested again and we see Dr. Weckman in 3 months for a regular check. Great!
Back to Sadieville I hurry to spend an afternoon with the hubster only to find him knee deep in stuff at his desk. We plot the rest of our day. We both work at our desks for the afternoon with BIS (Butt In Seat) at 3pm. We actually met in the living room ready to go at about 10 to 3. Think we were both anxious to have a date time together.
We first went to City Hall. Claude had papers to drop off. I watered the new plants in the little garden spot I am working on. Time to leave Sadieville.
On to Georgetown to the theater to see Sully. This was an excellent movie. Intense. This is the real story of Captain Sully who landed the plane full of 155 people on the river in New York after the plane was hit by a flock of birds and both engines died and everyone survived. (That last one was a great sentence!! Makes me chuckle. Would drive my son, the English major, nuts!) So it is a gripping movie but very well done.
There is a fairly new restaurant in Georgetown. We opted to try it out for dinner. It too was a keeper. An Italian restaurant named Formaggio Italiano. The server gave us our menu and I knew as soon as I opened it what I would eat that evening. They had an all cheese calzone. Many places have calzones but they usually have cheese and meat. I just wanted the cheese kind and this place had it. So I ordered that and a side salad. They give you bread and it was yummy. I actually could go there and eat the bread and salad and be very happy. We will go back for pizza. Excellent dining experience.
Now, time to do a little hands on research. Time to replace the dishwasher...and possible the washing machine. The washing machine has been known to come on by itself. We wanted to see and learn and ask questions, then think about what to do. We visited Lowe's. They gave us plenty of time check the dishwashers out before asking us if we wanted help. By that time we had done some narrowing down and had a few questions we needed answers to. We narrowed it down to 4 possibilities (no big handle on the front and the buttons to operated on the front not the top edge, stainless steel, gray trays inside). Then we looked at washers and dryers and narrowed that down to 3 possibilities (largest size so I could wash and dry a bedspread, quieter if possible). Did not purchase a thing but will measure our dishwasher and give it thought before doing anything. Felt good to have some knowledge and some items we both agreed on.
Then we came home full and happy. What a great afternoon and evening together.
Our Church has a Visiting Teaching program and a Home Teaching program. The ladies all visit other ladies (visiting teaching) and the men all visit other families (home teaching). We are supposed to have an annual interview to assess how things are going for you and the ladies you visit. This last Wednesday night we had our annual Visiting Teaching interviews. They were done with a twist.
This year we had Drive Thru Visiting Teaching Interviews. Yep, that's right. You just scheduled a time and pulled your car up by the Church and had your interview and then drove away. It looked like this:
You pulled into the parking lot and drove down the right side of this picture, made a U-turn and pulled up to the first stop. There the youth cleaned your windshield while you were given a paper on a clipboard with questions to complete while your windshield was cleaned. Then you pulled to the second stop (this picture) and a member of the Relief Society was there to take your clip board, ask you a few questions and give you a bag of goodies.
This is the card with the bag of goodies:
As you can see, the handout was filled with things to keep up your Visiting Teaching Warranty. The 'spark' was wintergreen life savers, the 'fuel' was a granola bar, the 'oil' was a bottle of water, and the 'pressure' was a pocket sized package of Kleenex.
It was all very well done and quite efficient. Loved it!
The saga of replacing tires is...hopefully...complete. The second new tire was put on my car Tuesday afternoon. Yippee!! This nail hole was supposedly tiny but I would leave my tire full at night and in the morning it would be down by 15-20 psi. Not good at all. Now I have two band new tires on the left side of my car. With that in place, I was able to take Papa on a ride yesterday afternoon. He was very happy. And, he was also very happy I wasn't driving around anymore with a nail in my tire.
After getting this second new tire installed, I made a trip to the post office. Here's that story (there is always a story).
While we were driving home from Michigan, I got a call from Papa on my cell phone. Let me just say that I was fine that Tuesday morning when we left Michigan. I was sleepy and opened the remainder of the unsalted cashews Claude had in a little bag. Claude and I shared them. He also had a small bag with some red licorice bits left over. I had a few of them. Not long after I was not well at all. Claude pulled in to get gas and I hit the bathroom. This was going to be a dicey ride home. I was sick to my stomach in every way possible. Claude was tasked with purchasing me some Pepto to hopefully get me back on track. I started that as we pulled out of the gas station. Nonetheless, after another hour or so, I suggested Claude find another gas station. He did and I did and it was a bit better. During all this is when I received the first call from Papa.
It seems Papa received a package in his mail box. It was white and looked like what his medicines come in. He opened the package and found a brand new back pack inside. Then he knew this was not for him. He looked at the label and realized the address was his but the name over the address was some lady's name. He pulled out his phone book and tried to find her name in the book. No such name. He called me then because 'we have a problem'. I assured him I would take care of it the next day when I saw him. He was nearly frantic because it was shipped two day and he was sure someone needed that package. I assured him one more day wouldn't matter.
A little time passed and I was just worn out physically. Then my cell phone rings and it is Papa again. This time he tells me he has been trying all the people with that last name in the phone book and can't find anyone who knows that name and he just doesn't know what to do. Geez!! I can only imagine what those phone calls were like. Oh to be a fly on the wall for that experience. I told him to just leave the package on his table and I truly would take care of it the next day. There was simply nothing else we could do. Then I tried to rest...
Wednesday I went to Papa's apartment. The package was on the table. No packing slip with more information on the inside. There was a company name on the outside. I'm guessing someone with that name mis-typed their address when ordering something on-line. I check USPS on line and found a place to enter a tracking number an explain your problem. I did that leaving my name and phone number for them to call back. Left the package on Papa's table in case his mailman returned to get the package.
A day or two later, no phone call, not text. I took the package and told Papa I would check with the Sadieville postmaster to get a suggestion as to what to do with this package. Before my Friends of Sadieville meeting I visited the Sadieville post office. She taped up the package and told me to take it back to Georgetown, explain to them what happened and they would return to sender or have the carrier be sure if he recognizes the name as another home on his route. If the Sadieville post master returned it I would be paying postage for that.
Tuesday, after the tire I took the package back to Georgetown's post office, explained what had happened and she took the package. Yippee!! It was out of our hands.
I found a very cool thing while in the post office. This little craft would be perfect for our Andie. She is teaching a 4th grade class this year. She keeps pens on her desk and the kids borrow them. To make sure they are returned, she uses unique pens that clearly belong to her. The pens in a little vase at the post office were cheap ball point pens with a silk flower attached to them with green floral tape. Simple to make and your flower pens are clearly yours and not the kids. It would also be a nice little gift for other teachers. So many possibilities.
As I left the post office parking lot, I noticed a big bush at the end of the lot. It was already reddish orange. Fall is on its way!!
Lots of things happening in our little 'Ville'.
Monday, September 19th, we had our Friends of Sadieville Board Meeting. We planned our October 15th Trailhead Ribbon Cutting, Chili Cook-off and MusicFest. That right, three, three, three things in one.
After the meeting, I drove around to the Mt. Pleasant Baptist Church. We are diligently trying, a little step at the time, to restore this historic building to be the Sadieville Community Center. This summer the projects have included replacing the beautiful windows (managing to keep their original shape and style), painting the outside and adding a deck to the back. My goal on this visit was to take more recent pictures on the work on the deck.
Then I checked out my flower bed I've been working at since April. No pictures of it. It will take forever to get ride of the flowers that had been planted there. But I'll keep at it. I've had an awful time with allergies and have tried to stay inside air-conditioning. But next week will find me pulling weeds again in that bed. The plants I had planted were all taking hold. The day lilies and Japanese irises are doing well. I think I want to get a few stepping stones and put them in the bed to delineate the groups of plants and give me something to sit on when I weed.
I also checked out the crab apple tree on the city property. It is laden with crab apples. I really want to pick them and make more jelly. My family loved that as Christmas gifts a few years ago and I would like to try that again. This tree is full of poison ivy so I'll have to be careful.
During this meeting, Claude was at the Sadieville Park installing the Fixit Station for the bicycle trailhead. Later this week he installed the new bike rack. The bicyclists love to ride these roads in and around Sadieville. They can have a challenging ride or and easy ride. As part of the effort to get the Trailhead designation for Sadieville, we have created a trailhead for bicyclist at Sadieville Park. The local bicycle club has donated the Fixit Station and the bike rack. The city has purchased a cooling station which is really a water fountain that immediately dispenses cold water where the bicyclist can refill water bottles and cool themselves down. Below are pictures of the new signs in Sadieville indicating our being a part of the Bluegrass Trailhead System and pictures of the Fixit Station, Cooling Station and bike rack.
We have had an annual Chili Cook-off for several years now. This year we will hold it in conjunction with the Trailhead Ribbon Cutting and Merle Tussey will come and provide our final MusicFest of the year. Claude has asked Scott County Judge Executive George Lusby and Mayer Kayla Jones of Stamping Ground to help judge our chili cook-off. We will find one more judge but the event is coming along nicely and things in our little 'Ville' are also moving along nicely.
So, my plan was to be taking Papa for a ride right about now. That is not happening. Why, you ask? It seems I do have a nail in my left rear tire and cannot drive my car until 2pm today when I will again travel to Frank Shoop for another new tire. Can we say another $150 please? Yuck!! Could have gotten that nail along I-75 where there is construction but I'm thinking it was really in Michigan or Ohio in the road construction there. I'm also pretty sure my car has developed some magnetic properties to attract said nails to said tires. Claude is now sure we must get the $300 worth of value out of these cars before we trade in my car. Amen to that.
That was the bad part of my day. However, my day ended very, very well. Claude and I drove to Hurstborne Parkway in Louisville and had dinner at City Barbeque. We love eating at the restaurant in Lexington on Richmond Road and were very happy to find one in Louisville. However, their parking lot is not large enough for the amount of seating in the restaurant. Somehow, we thought a Thursday evening might be less crowded. Wrong! We sat in the parking lot. A spot came open and another car literally pulled in past Claude and took the spot. What? When a mom with two little kids and a baby in the oven got out, Claude said he might forgive her. Wait. Wait. Wait. Someone left but their spot was the Drive In Pick-up spot. Wait. Wait. Wait. One car left close to the door. The mighty Jeep made its way to the spot and we had parking...only to learn that the last spot at the end of the lot was available all the time. Silly us. Silly parking lot with only one enter and exit opening. We had allowed plenty of time and totally enjoyed our meal. We both felt it must have been dinner size portions because the amounts of food seemed more that we usually got at lunch in Lexington.
Our main event for last night was the Vince Gill concert at Whitney Hall in the Kentucky Center in Louisville, Kentucky.
We opted for the box seats this time. We have only done that once before. That was at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC. Claude's parents came to visit and we all went to see Zorba the Greek. It was delightful then and just as delightful last night. Nice cushy chairs with plenty of room. Great view. Claude and I have almost totally got to the lowest tier balcony when attending these kinds of events. We really like the view of the stage from up a little higher. The box seats afforded that as well.
Vince Gill is just great to listen to. Love his voice. His tenor voice is right in my really low alto range making it great fun to sing along. They filled the first half of the program with great music. Lots of oldies and some new ones. He paid a great tribute from his newest album to Merle Haggard.
Someone from the audience kept calling out for Vince to sing a certain song. He kept laughing and saying, "I'm getting to it. It is on the program. I worked really, really hard to make songs people like and I'm going to sing them!" We all laughed.
When it was intermission time, the rest of the band left for their break. Vince Gill stayed on stage with his steel guitar guy and they played and sang a song together. Then the steel guitar guy left and Vince Gill spent the entire intermission entertaining us on his own. He told stories of his father that were hysterical. He lived in Louisville first after he left Oklahoma as an 18 year old young man. So he had lots of Louisville stories. He sang some to us and we totally enjoyed the entire intermission.
Then he told us his daughter just cut her first album and is trying to get it out there. He said he had a surprise for us. He invited her to come with him and she said yes. So the last part of the intermission, she came out, stated her dad wrote a song for her and she wanted to sing it to us. With her dad for her accompaniment, she sang her heart out. It was beautiful. Something about Jenny loves trains, not dolls and frills. Then the band came back from break and she sang 3 originals songs she wrote for her album and one that she did not write but has rearranged. She does have entertainment written all over her. Proud dad and happy daughter.
Then the band finished the evening. They came back for the encore and played three more songs. A fast one. Then Vince Gill told us his doctor told him that after playing a fast one at the end, he needed to play a slow one. Which he did and then one more fast one.
Great evening. Concert started at 8pm. We were done at 11pm. Such a great evening. Next we will go to a Black Jacket Symphony concert at Lexington Opera House to hear Beatle's music.
