Come along for the Ride!

I am so glad you are here. Stay with us as we travel everywhere. I hope you will enjoy the ride.

Thursday, April 28, 2011

Stormy weather

We have been in bad weather all week so far.
Monday we left home for Meadville, PA to Boston, MA. We haul laminated glass for touch screens. Before we even got there we were offered another load picking up downtown Boston going to Rochester, NY.
Remember the time Gypsy gave us fits in downtown Boston? Well we were going to that same exact place only this time she helped the whole way and in was daylight and we had some recollection of where it was, piece of cake.
Except that we sat in rush hour traffic and it took 2 1/2 hours to drive 29 miles! How would you like to do that everyday. No wonder men tie nooses around their necks each morning, just in case they can't take it anymore, hahaha.
Anyway, we did okay and the drive to Rochester across route 90 through the Berkshire, Adirondack Mts. was amazing. It was a gorgeous day for a drive.
I did the driving while Pops tried to sleep. He is having trouble again with that. Pray for him. Anyway, we followed alongside the Erie Canal and the Mohawk River for many miles. The Erie Canal connects the Hudson River to Lake Erie. I saw many of the locks that lift or lower boats to allow passage through the canal.
The Mohawk River Valley is very pretty. The River is wide and is surrounded by beautiful scenery.
We Got to Rochester in the evening and it was a quiet place. There didn't seem to be many workers, I never saw any. So the dogs and I played in the parking lot until Pops was finished getting us unloaded. Then on the road again. By this time, the rain and storms had hit. It was terrible. There were thunder and lightening and flash flooding. Wow, a parking lot at a truckstop had over a foot of water. There trucks looked like they were sitting in a lake. All the fields looked like lakes too.
Then we got another load right away again. It picked up in Mt.Pocono, PA and was going to Memphis, TN.
The town of Mt.Pocono is a small tourist town, but nice and charming. Although I am not too impressed in cold weather and skiiing. The shops looked really neat though.
We picked up at a high security place, hauling medical supplies. We had to be given security badges to even be allowed through the gates. Hmmmmm.
So we started out for Memphis. It was a somewhat sunny day and warm enough to run the air conditioner. But towards evening we began hearing of tornadoes in the south.
By the time we were in southern VA, the storms were in Knoxville and eastern TN. It was getting bad. I was pretty scared. Tree limbs and leaves were everywhere. We saw many wrecks. A lot of cars had actually pulled up under the bridges and overpasses, one car was stuck up there and had to be pulled out with a tow truck. Traffic cones were scattered, water was running everywhere, deep too. The lightening was something to see, it was in all directions at the same time and all around us. But no thunder!, just wind. We were being blown across the lanes.
We were having warnings on the radio of tornado after tornado in towns all near where we were. At one point when the lightening flashed, I am almost certain I saw one, but can't say for sure. I was really scared now. I went to the bunk and prayed. I remembered when Jesus calmed the disciples in the midst of the storm and I told Him that I trusted Him. And I fell asleep.
When I woke up this morning and we were coming out of Memphis, I could see devastation everywhere. There were so many trees just broken off and laying all along the interstate.
We have heard the reports of the 280 people killed yesterday and last night by these storms and we thank our precious Lord that He spared us.
It was a very nice day today. The temps. were in the low 70s and it was mostly sunny here in Nashville. We are on layover and waiting for a load.
Please pray for the people who have been affected by the storms.

Monday, April 25, 2011

What is most important to me

Ahh, it is so good to be home.
I was so wanting to get here. To be honest, Pops and I prayed to God that He would allow us to be home for Resurrection Sunday, but if not that we could at least be in one of the churchs where we had made good friends already. We did not want to be in a congregation where we didn't know anyone for this particular Lord's day.
We worked our trips until by Thursday morning we were in Kentucky. And we were hopeful.
But our hopes slowly faltered as load offers kept coming with none going east.
We had many load opportunities all day Thursday as we waited near Lexington, Ky. Nothing was getting us any closer and they really wanted us to take a couple of loads that were going real far away. But they were very understanding when we explained that we wanted to go home, they just couldn't get us a load going that way.
By Friday the load offers were slowing down and after 4pm they were basically non existant. I was beginning to slump my shoulders. I was quiet but still somewhat hopeful. As the evening wore on though my mood changed with the weather.
We kept hearing over the radio of sightings of funnel clouds and warnings to seek significant shelter. Of course Pops' view of this was, "just buckle your seatbelt." Are you kidding me? We are sitting in a truck at a nearly empty truckstop and you want to "ride out" the storm. I have seen what tornadoes do to trailerparks.
And I was losing hope of getting to go home.
Pops called his brother, Buck and made arrangements for us to visit with them on Sunday and join with their congregation for worship. I was glad to be going where we knew someone and it was family, but my heart was so heavy with wanting to be with our church family and my kids. I about couldn't stand the weight of it. I tried to be a little cheerful because I knew that Pops was happy about getting to spend some time with his brother and when he was invited to go turkey hunting with him, he was really happy. So then it was settled. I called home and left my kids know that we would not be coming. :(
It was close to 8:30pm and Pops called FedEx one last time. He asked them if there were any possibility of a load for us and he was told that "no, everything was pretty much shut down until Monday morning with a very slight chance of a load or two, maybe, in the morning."
So by 9:00 I sulked my way back to the bunk and prepared myself for a big, fat pity party. I didn't cry real tears but my heart was crying out big sobs. I tried to not let my sorrow show too much, because I didn't want Pops to feel bad and I felt like God was answering our previous prayers to "at least be where we knew someone." If God was answering that prayer, how could I not be grateful?
At 10:05 we got the signals from our phone and our C-link computer that a load became available. Could we hope? Sure enough it was a load that would take us close enough to home that we could be there be noon on Saturday.
We looked at all of the information and the pickup time was not good for us. We were too far away to get the pickup on time. We had already lost one load this week for that reason. But we pressed "accept" into our C-link and waited.
We got the load!!! But Pops decided he better call them to make sure that we could do it because of the time. They allowed for that and bumped our time by 1 hour. Oh Hallelujah! We are going home.
We were picking up 2 crates of plastic milk caps (blue ones and green ones) and taking them to a big dairy in Ohio. I am so thankful to everyone who drinks milk. I really appreciate that you have all contributed to me getting to come home, especially those of you who drink the blue and green capped kind. I am so glad that the dairy just had to have those two crates of lids by Saturday morning early. Oh how happy you have made me.
So by noon on Saturday we were home. It feels so good, so right to back our truck into the driveway and unload everything into the house. There truly is NO PLACE LIKE HOME!
I got to see Hunter. He is our step-grandson. The girls weren't here, and I missed them. I love those kids so much and think of them so often.
We spent a nice afternoon and evening with Bill and Starla. We cooked and prepared for our dinner tomorrow and I got 3 heaps of laundry done. Later we drove in town for an ice cream cone.
It felt amazing to sleep in my own bed. It is so big. Ahhh!
I woke up really early Sunday morning and quietly caught up on some TV shows that I like. Starla had recorded them for me. I loved watching how these TV moms could say whatever needed to be said to her children and even if they got upset, it was all settled in an hour and everyone was fine. I wish life was really like that.
I got to go to church early to be with the First Place group. These women will never ever be able to realize how very much they mean to me. They are without a doubt, Jesus with skin on for me. I love them and cherish their friendship. Their words of love and encouragement keep me going. I wish and pray that more women in our congregation would attend this group. What they have taught me and shared with me is priceless. There is a love there that really can't be compared with anything else. I believe it is the Agape love that God would want all of us to have for each other, but for whatever reasons we don't have with everyone.
This group of ladies are so imtimately knowing of each other. Nothing is hidden, nothing is unshared and nothing is shared outside of there. We have security with each other. We have a bond, we have love, we have therapy. I love all of you.
Our Sunday School and Worship were good. The children did some specials and some of the adults did too. I love Wills Mountain. This church family is so important to me that I was heart broken thinking I wouldn't be here. Thank God, I was.
Then after church we had dinner as a family. Pops, myself, Bill and Starla, Tom and Drew. I was so happy. My family and my church, the two most important things in my life.

Thursday, April 21, 2011

Visit with Scott

So, we have had another busy week. This one was better than the last emotionally and just more interesting places to see, I guess.
We had a load picking up Sunday morning at 10am at the FedEx airport in Memphis, TN. We drove all night to get there from Springfield, MO. Well, Pops did. We got there around 9:30 and it wasn’t long before another Fedex Custom Critical pulled in right behind us. At around 10:30 we were told that our plane hadn’t yet arrived so we needed to wait.
It was about 2:30 in the afternoon when they finally escorted us into the airport and back to where our freight was finally off loaded from the plane. I was impressed with the size and amount of workers and planes in that airport. There were hundreds of Fedex jets!
We parked our truck and the other truck parked alongside of us. We were told to go into the office building and wait. After about 20 minutes someone came and got Pops and the man of the other truck to go help load our trucks. We were hauling 14 pallets of something very heavy, going to Indiana and the other truck had 5 pallets going to Michigan. Of course to make matters worse, the airport had no loading docks so everything had to be moved and loaded with a forklift.
The other truck was loaded first and ready in about ½ hour. Our truck took a lot longer because of the 14 pallets and they had to be doubled stacked and placed just right to get them all in. We were finally loaded and ready to pull out by 4:30 in the afternoon. What a long, long day.
But we really enjoyed meeting up with Rholand and Trudi the owners of the other truck. Rholand stuck around clear until our truck was loaded too. He was a great help. They are very nice people and gave us good pointers if we ever decide to buy a truck of our own. I hope we get to meet up with them again somewhere down the line.
So I got us started and drove all I could before getting too sleepy to go any further. When I stopped to take the dogs out and go to the restroom myself, Pops informed me that we had a mess. It seems that one of the pepsi cans that we were storing on the top shelf in our kitchen somehow sprung a leak. There was pepsi syrup everywhere! And I do mean everywhere. Wow, what a mess. But I was patient and cleaned it all up even though I was very tired and could’ve gotten really grouchy.
Then Pops took over while I hit the bunk. When I woke up we were already unloaded but I heard someone pound on the door and tell Pops that 5 of those pallets didn’t belong to this address. Oh, No! Well, we figured the other truck must have the 5 that needed to come here. So Pops called Fedex and they stopped the other truck before it made its delivery and routed them to Indiana and off we went to Michigan to take our 5 where the other truck was heading. What a balled up mess! But 3 hours later we had everything where it needed to be and everyone was happy.
We actually got a load offer right away too. We were heading back to Springfield, Mo. But after driving 25 miles we realized that Fedex had thought that we were still leaving from Indiana and not Michigan to make this pick up and once we all realized it, we knew that we couldn’t be there to pick up on time, so the load was taken from us. Well, easy come, easy go.
We did get another load offer though picking up in Chicago and going to Duluth, MN. So we accepted and away we went.
It was a load that was being transferred to our truck by another truck and then in Duluth we were transferring to another truck that would take the load into Canada.
The first truck was not a Fedex truck which meant that it was up to me to get all the Canada clearances and paperwork started for the delivery truck to be able to cross the border without delay. So we made our calls and did what we had to do, except the fax number was wrong and that tied us up for a little longer. Nothing can ever go without some kind of a little glitch, it seems.
But finally we got going. Pops was driving and it was about 5:30am so I finally went to bed. I woke up around 12:30 and Pops was telling me how beautiful upstate Wisconsin was. He was so excited with the scenery and the wildlife. I started to drive not too long after that and realized that he was right. It was very nice scenery. I never saw so many pine trees in all my life, big ones, small ones, straight ones, bent ones, dead ones, (wonder what happened to them?) and really full ones. Honestly that must be all that grows up there.
We came into the city of Superior, WI. That is where the southwestern tip of Lake Superior is. It is a pretty little city and the Lake was gorgeous. You will just have to take my word for that though, because Pops “wasn’t in the mood to take pictures.”
Anyway we crossed the bridge that separates Superior, WI from Duluth, MN. And then we started up a long, steep incline. At the top was a rest area where you had a great view of the two cities and the Lake, but Pops still wasn’t in the mood, oh well.
We got to our drop off point and had to wait about 2 hours for the other truck to come. I cooked us some spaghetti (well, me some spaghetti) and chili for Pops. Man, was it good. That’s the first I had cooked in awhile and we were sick of sandwiches and fast food.
Finally the other truck came and we got off loaded and they got loaded. After giving them all the necessary paperwork, we each went our ways. We drove into town and did a little shopping and then got hit with another load offer right away. This one picked up way up north in Grand Rapids, MN and was going to London, KY.
We drove to our pickup and were less than 2 miles away. It was 10:00pm and we didn’t load until 9am the next morning, so we both got a good nights sleep in a still truck. Yeah!
The next morning we drove to our pickup and less than one block away we saw a small, white house that stated it was the birthplace of Judy Garland, aka Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz. That is so cool, I wondered how much singing the walls of that little house must have heard.  Of course, I had to pull over to take pictures myself. We also saw in the same city a part of the Mississippi River. It was pretty narrow there but running very rapidly and still covered with a lot of ice. I didn’t know that it was that far north.
Anyways, once we got loaded and left there we had to drive right back down through Duluth and Superior, but wouldn’t you know it, now Pops is in the mood but the weather is crappy. It is snowing and foggy and so pictures did not come out. Trust me it was amazing though. Although someone told me that I needed to see it from the high rest area in the fall. I can imagine that is something.
So it was a long drive, over 1050 miles to London, Ky. Pops slept while I did the beginning part of the trip. I drove 600 miles. Then he woke up and started to drive. We had tried to make arrangements to meet up with our niece, Destiny, for breakfast. Pops’ brother and family live real close to London, KY. But we didn’t hear anything back from her. But Scott, our nephew, texted us and said that he would meet us, so we made plans to do that.
We got to London about 4:45 and had arranged to meet Scott at 5am. Our delivery was at 7am and was just a few minutes away.
We spent about an hour with Scott. We had a good breakfast and it was so good to see him and catch up on what has been going on with him. Time went too quickly though and we had to get moving.
We made our delivery and some of the product had leaked out. It is non hazardous, but it is some kind of foaming agent to put out forest fires. Pops was told to not step in it because it is extremely slippery and do not get it mixed with any water because it is concentrated and if it mixes with water it will make so much foam it will be nearly impossible to clean up. Haha guess we’ll be trying to wipe it up with paper towels or something. I almost want to see what would happen if water got it, but I better be good.
Anyway, we are now sitting in Lexington, Ky on layover. We are hoping for a load that comes near home. It is Easter weekend and we really want to come home. We have turned down 3 really good paying loads so far because they are the wrong direction. I really hope we don’t have to stay out all weekend with not even a load now. That would really stink.
But I have trust.
  

Some pix

The Birthplace of Judy Garland. It is not "somewhere over the rainbow," it is in Grand Rapids, MN.

The sign, in the yard near the home.

Our nephew, Scott.

The south western tip of Lake Superior, in the snow and fog, of course.

One of three wrecks we saw that morning because of snow and fog.

Here is a link to a really good video of father and daughter singing



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yLu73iGs-Ws&feature=player_detailpage#t=239s

April 15, 2011

I know I haven’t been very blog-worthy lately. I just haven’t really been in the mood to write. We have had a rough week with so many emotional ups and downs.
First with the passing away of a beloved, family friend and church member and us not being able to be there for ourselves or for the family. It was hard. And then to make it worse, Pop’s brother, Buck, from Kentucky, was asked to do the funeral. We would have liked to be able to visit with him and his family too. It was really hard not being there.
We did talk to several family members on more than one occasion and had daily prayer for them. They were very understanding of us not being able to be there.
I have been struggling with missing our church family too. I think of all of them so many times each day and feel badly because I want to be there and share in their events and fellowship. I try to keep up and connected through the internet and phone, but sometimes when depression is bad those devices just don’t do.
I did have a bout of anxiety the other night. I couldn’t shake it. I was driving and Pops was sleeping and no matter how I tried to take my thoughts captive, I really couldn’t, and with anxiety your thoughts sometimes are very unreasonable (and you may know that) but they still seem so very valid at the time.
I turned on the worship music and prayed and tried to look at my thoughts from an objective point of view(what if someone else were having these thoughts and feelings and came to me for advice) and I finally managed to put them in their place.
I really have trouble with anxiety when I don’t have control of certain situations. Then I start to doubt my value and my worth and then always, it seems, that someone will do or say something that seems to substantiate my thoughts. Then I look for validation. But my loved ones are not the ones I want to make me feel valuable, it is the ones whose opinions of me shouldn’t matter, those are the ones that I want approval from and hardly ever get it, possibly never get it and then the whole self-esteem thing starts all over again. Wow, I realize that I am a babbling mess, but that is what I was feeling this week.
I hate myself for giving some people so much power over me. I hate it that it matters to me what they think of me.
Anyway, I am over that for now.
We had a slow work week which didn’t help keep my mind occupied. Everytime we go home for awhile it seems to take awhile to get back into the groove of work, but we are really slow getting going this time. Although we did sit for a day and a half with a break down.  We did four really good loads in the last 8 days but we should’ve had 6 really good loads. But it will be ok.
We are sitting for the weekend in Springfield, MO. We got here yesterday and haven’t had any good load offers yet. But we did our shopping and some work around here that needed caught up on. Yes, I do have a honey-do list here too. I still need to do some laundry and who knows. It is on the chilly side here too so sitting inside reading a book sounds like a good idea too.
Keep praying for us. Pray for me.
I love you and miss all of you.

Sunday, April 10, 2011

Great sermon by Ray Bennett

Pops and I are in a truckstop near Buffalo, NY and was having trouble locating a church to attend today. We contacted Dan Hughes who used to be a Gap preacher for a church in Buffalo, but found out that they have since closed their doors. Another victory for Satan, a "killed church".
So we remembered that Raymond Bennett does a radio broadcast and also has many sermons available through his Delmarva website so we decided to go that route this morning. His website is: http://www.restorationplea.com/
Check it out, it is very good and you will surely find a great sermon there.
We chose to listen to Four Ways to Kill a Church. We chose that one randomly. But it was a good choice for sure.
He used many scriptures from the first 3 chapters of Revelation.
There are four ways listed here to kill a church, but you don't really need all four. Any one of them could prove fatal for a church.
1. Church members leaving their first love- losing the desire that you feel upon becoming a Christian, losing the zeal for Christ.
2. Christians getting tired of the doctrine- wanting ears tickled or "feel good" sermons.
3. Having weak leadership or leadership that gives in to false doctrine- letting the church members or outsiders gain leadership roles.
4. People being lukewarm in the faith-never really committing to anything, never growing in their knowledge and service for the Lord.

Gee, I can so much of those things happening. It scares me.
Rev. 2:16 says that: So because you are lukewarm-neither hot nor cold- I am going to spit you out of my mouth.
Lukewarm people make God sick to His stomach!!! Ouch! Do I make God sick to His stomach?
Ray used a story of a dog that he saw that had just vomitted up a Big Mac sandwich, He said, "Now you know what that dog did, don't you?" Yuck, Yuck, Yuck, I know what that dog did. He ate it again. Are you sick to your stomach now?
2 Peter 2:20-22 says paraphrasing: That people who once knew the love and mercy of the Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ and then turn their backs and go back out into the world and enjoy the worldly things is like a dog who returns to eat it's vomit.
How many people do that very thing? Turn their back on God and backslide into the world. We would never, ever think of eating our own vomit, yet we do, when we do not remain faithful to God.
Oh my, this sermon really made me think. I do not want to be even a small part of killing the church. I do not want to be unfaithful and make God sick to His stomach.
But there are also 4 ways to strenghen ourselves and our church.
1.We need to hold fast to our first love-remember the freshness and steadfastness we clung to in the beginning.
2.We need to be loyal to the doctrine.
3. We need strong leaders and we need to allow them to lead us.
4. We need to be on fire, don't let your fire burn out.

Great sermon, Ray. We love you. We are so glad that your messages are available to us in this way. Praise God for you.

I woke up with a song in my heart this morning:
Praise Him
Praise Him
Praise Him in the morning
Praise Him in the noon time.
Praise Him
Praise Him
Praise Him til the sun goes down.

Let's all Praise God for the many blessings He gives us each day.

Please pray for the family of Drenna Izzett. She went home to be with the Lord yesterday. She was a very faithful member of Wills Mt. and a long time friend to the Ryan family. She will be greatly missed.

Thursday, April 7, 2011

Home visit

We had such a nice visit home although I didn’t get to visit with everyone I would have liked to. It is like that when you come home. I hope everyone understands. It is not easy to try to do so many things that have to get done and still visit with each person. I am sorry if I missed you and hope that maybe next time we can make it work. I did get to talk to my good friends, Ruth and Carol on the phone this time. I miss them and I think of them so often.
We got home Thursday afternoon. And until we got unpacked and everything carried into the house we were tired. I put some dirty laundry into the wash right away and then carried our stuff up to our room.
We got to have a quiet visit with Starla and try to catch up a little and relax and watch some tv too. Later that evening her husband, Bill came home and we visited with him too.
Friday morning we took our truck over to the mechanic to get some work done while we are home and that took up most of our morning. Then we just kind of hung out the rest of the day until the grandkids came later in the evening. We looked for some stuff in the garage that we wanted and needed to take back out with us and we also dug out our big deep fryer because we wanted to deep fry a turkey tomorrow for supper. Bill had never eaten it deep fried.
Our son, Tom, came up to visit with us this evening. We were having tacos, a favorite of the kids and Tom was going to stay and eat with us. He usually works Friday evenings but he has been so sick with his sinus problems that he took the evening off. Well, that was to our benefit. I love when my kids are here. I miss them so much. We had a good time. It was good to see the kids again. I always enjoy their visits. Later we all just relaxed and chatted.
Saturday morning Pops got up and went to visit with the evangelist that comes to Wills Mt. every other Sunday to preach. They wanted to discuss some church business and other personal matters. I read and finished another book and really just was enjoying doing nothing. Of course, it is good to watch tv! I got to catch up on the shows I like to watch. Starla records them for me.
Our deep fried turkey dinner was so very good. It was hilarious watching Bill and Pops lower it into the grease. But they had the timing just right and it was delicious.
Sunday morning we got up and went to church. I got there to meet up with the First Place Ladies and we had a good discussion on God’s best for our future. We talked about having a vision and goals for ourselves and keeping our goals in line with God’s vision for us.
Then we went into the Sunday school hour with Jeff teaching on The Life of Jesus. He is leading up to resurrection Sunday. So this was the first lesson and it was about how Jesus was with God from the beginning through creation and beyond. Our son, Drew, showed up for services today. He usually attends somewhere else, but I was so glad to see him here this morning. Wow, I still can't believe my eyes each time I see him. His weight loss and physical workouts have really made a difference in his appearance. He looks great.
Then our worship service was great with Dan Hughes preaching on the crucifixion from Matt. 27 and how Jesus suffered so much for us and how He was mocked and spit on. He did all of that for us. He could have saved Himself from the pain and the humiliation but He endured because He loves us that much. It was such a good message. I don’t understand how people can turn away and not be obedient to Christ and God’s Word. Dan Hughes is a great preacher of God's Word.
We had a fellowship meal afterward as is custom at Wills Mt. each Lord’s Day. All of the food was so good and it was good to be with those that we think of as our family. I love the people of Wills Mt. so much. They will never know how often Pops and I think of them and pray for them.
After the dinner, Pops and I went over the town and visited with a woman from the church who is very sick. She is older and has severe heart problems and has been not feeling good for a few weeks. We took her communion and visited for a little while. She looked better than she did last time we visited. Someone must be taking good care of her. We love you, Drenna.
After all of that we came back home for a little while and just played with the kids and relaxed until time for church again that evening. Our evening lesson was still on the Mannerisms and Customs of the Bible. We discussed the styles and types of apparel that was worn in Biblical times. It was so funny. Did you know that hunters hunted in the nude? We had such a good time learning these things with our dear friends. These are the times that I miss so much when we are on the road.
Monday Starla and  I picked up my sister and her daughter, Kacey. We all went to Confluence to visit with my dad. It was a nice, warm spring day so we took him outside to the porch. It was good to see him and we read him all of the postcards that I had been mailing. And we talked about selling his house. I thought maybe that would upset him a little bit, but it didn’t seem to. It was a wonderful visit. I miss my dad, that is why I try to call him often when we are out on the road.
I loved getting to see my sister. She is my best friend in this world, next to Pops. I am so happy to see her grow in the Lord. I love that she attends Laurel Highlands CC. That is my second favorite congregation. And Kacey is getting so grown up. She will be going to college in the fall. Oh my, I watched her little self be born and it seems like only a few years ago, not 18+ years. Where does the time go?
Tuesday we got most of our little errands done and got all of our stuff organized and packed and began to ready ourselves to leave again. Our truck is supposed to be ready by morning and we will be going again. I always get a little melancholy while we are getting ready. I already begin to miss everyone and get sad.
We are still planning on the family going out to eat tonight so that is good.
Drew called, he has to work. He can’t go with us tonight.
Mechanic called truck work is close to $3000 after telling us up front not more than $2000. Pops is upset about having to call our boss and tell him. Depression is starting to hang over our heads.
Bills talks to Starla and needs to go home alone and work through some stuff that is troubling him, so he can’t make it either.
That just leaves Tom, Starla, Pops and me. It didn’t feel right but we tried to make the best of it. We went to Ruby Tuesdays in LaVale. We did have a good meal and our waitress was pleasant. It wasn’t a bad time, but it wasn’t the good time either. Oh well. Life is life. You take the good and the bad and make the most of what you have. God is God in the good times and God is God in the not so good times too.  We must learn to love, trust, believe, and live each day. And be grateful.
I love my home time. I love my family. I love my God.