Special Times

Am trying to think of a catchy title for this blog. Perhaps as I write, it will appear in my mind. It did.

Here it is Sunday afternoon, and I finally (yes. . .finally. . .) have some time to write. Seems like Paul's and my time has been taken up with lots of little, and big, events. They each seem to stretch into each other.

I did manage to go to Curves twice last week. This I mentioned before. I had hoped for three times, but it didn't happen.

We've been either having hot weather, or wet weather, but nothing worth writing home about. . .except for the fact that Paul and I used our hottub - during the day on Friday! Now, I know you're all thinking hottub? in the hot weathcr? Well, we have it down to 94 degrees, which is less than body temperature, and when you get in and out, it's quite comfortable. We left the umbrella in its sleep mode and actually got some of the sun's rays to cooperate. Well, Paul did. When I finally got my bathing suit on, the sun went in! Oh, well. That's the way it goes. Reminded me of Florida - in the afternoon when we'd go to the pool, the clouds would come and gradually cover most of the sky - Not enough blue left to make a pair of jeans. Or something like that. The fresh air is good though.

Wednesday - I went to Bath to visit with my friends Ruth and Carol. Not sure if I wrote about that in my last blog or not, but I did enjoy their company at the Chat for breakfast, and met Carol there, after my hair appointment, for lunch. I managed to stop at one of my most favorite food stores - Wegman's in Corning - on the way home. Lots of people feel intimidated by the size of this gargantuan food store, but I, having worked in Corning for so many years, would often go there to do my food shopping. I would go in the morning before school started and do a "power shop" of canned, non-perishable foods. I'd spend 15 minutes in there and get so many things. I knew where everything was. On weekends, I'd even go back and windowshop there, and get perishables. Their meats are fantabulous. I'm sure there aren't many foods stores you may feel like just spending time there.

Yesterday, Paul and I took Gracie to The Windmill Farms, out in the country, near Penn Yan.

The Windmill is a shopping area that is located out in Amish country. It is a popular place to visit in the summertime. But they're open from April through mid-December. There are six or more large buildings with booths that are rented out to vendors. And outdoor area with many more booths, and individual shed/stores. They are open only on Saturdays. Visitors, locals, anyone wanting to spend time outdoors, windowshopping, looking for bargains. There's food, picnic areas to sit at. Gracie was a perfect little angel the whole time. Paul ended up holding her a lot of the time because it was really crowded: I would say - almost a thousand people. Parking was at a premium, but we managed to find a parking spot not too far away from all the action.

We were glad to see all the dogs, all sizes, there, leashed, or held, (or both) and quite well-mannered. Only one big dog decided to bark. Not at Gracie, but at another big dog. Gracie could have cared less. She received her share of people noticing her. The usual. . Is it a he or a she? What is she? Is she a long-haired chihuahau? Will she grow into her ears? How old is she? Only one person I heard say - Look - there's a papillon! They're not a well-known breed.



The reason we wanted to go to The Windmill was that we broke one of our Corningware platters, and they have a big area devoted to old Corning dishes and serving trays. Really lots and lots of patterns. I had seen my pattern before, but not this time. We couldn't find my pattern, but we did get a nice plain white serving platter, and I also added onto my small plain beige bowls - so now I have 12 rather than 6. They're a little pricy, but I didn't mind paying for these, as they'll be put to good use! We even used the platter last night for corn on the cob.

This morning I played two songs on the piano in church: the first: for the Prelude, (O How He Loves You and Me) and the second: Special Music. (It is Well with my Soul) To me, it was a time of enjoyment, at a beautiful piano, in a beautiful sanctuary. The congregation really were very kind. I even got an applause after the second piece. Lots of people came up and spoke with Paul and me, and the lady who does the monthly newsletter even "interviewed" me! I know I'd mentioned before that its taken a while for us to get to know these people, but I'm beginning to feel like it could be our "church home."

Tomorrow Paul and I will leave Gracie at Sharon's for the day and travel up to Strong Hospital in Rochester to have a meeting with the surgeon who will be doing my thyroid operation. Our meeting is at 2:15, and it takes about two hours more or less to get up there. That should give us a time and date schedule - finally. August will prove an interesting month. There's nothing really put down on our calendar. . .it's vacant. . . but we'll take care of that tomorrow!

Paul's out mowing the lawn right now. It needs to be done at least twice a week, and he's very good about doing it. Each day I can see changes to the upstairs bathroom. He's worked quite hard on it. He's at the point now, that things (walls?)need to "dry" in order to continue. . .More pictures next week.

Nancy, Dan and Vincent spent the past four-five days in Washington D.C. visiting with old college friends. One pair live and teach in Ireland, and they were glad to be able to visit with another good friend who works in the Washington D.C. area. They all have young kids now around the same age. Six grown-ups, numerous little ones. I imagine our Capital was hot. It is a twelve hour trip from Chicago - so they stayed overnight each way. I would certainly hope so!

Jil has left some beautiful pictures of his hometown, his friends and a nice gathering for a celebration of birthdays and a debutante party at the same time on his blog. Both my kids are happy. Good. I miss them, but am glad they have such full and interesting lives.

Well, that's all the news from this neighborhood - what's happenin' in your neck o' the woods?