The Big Rock

That's the name the locals in Metro Atlanta have given to Stone Mountain, which, by the way, is the largest exposed piece of granite in the world.

Today we pulled our boat over there to fish. It was fun! We actually caught fish, in fact, we RAN OUT OF BAIT! That's not fun when the fish are really biting. The weather was nice, not real hot, don't misunderstand me, it was very warm, but without the humidity we usually experience here in Georgia.

Here are a few photos with our view from the boat. If you look close you might see the carving on the side of the mountain of the Confederate Generals and the cable car approaching the top of the mountain. The photo to the right are young Canadian geese. They were beautiful.

This is the greatest part of retirement. We make our own schedule and some of it is really fun.

King of Tidewater

Well, Oscar, King of Tidewater has decided that his new favorite place to nap during the day is upstairs in one of the guest bedrooms. This means next time we have company I'll have to wash that bedspread before they arrive. You never know who might be allergic to cats. His other favorite place is under our bed. I have a pillow under there for him and he loves it. He's out guarding mole holes or chipmunk holes all night long, it's he job, you know, so he's what you call a day sleeper. At least when I have to use the vacuum he doesn't go crazy.

We finally had a little rain this week, which helps our garden and our grass. The grass has finally turned a little green, rather than the dried brownish color it has been as a result of all the dry weather. It's amazing how just a little rain water helps. It's going to be hot the next several days, getting up to the 90's, but the good news is, the humidity has been low which is highly unusual for the deep south. The hot weather is fine UNTIL the humidity arrives and it's absolutely unbearable. It just saps the energy slap out of you!

Tomorrow we are going fishing. I'm sure it will be hot, but there will be a breeze. I can assure you if we get out on the lake there WILL be wind. Absolutely! It makes it difficult to fish in one spot with the wind, even though we do have anchors we get blown around and around. Well, there is another factor involved, we have umbrellas for both of us. When Hubby decided to turn the little jon boat into a bass boat I insisted he purchase umbrella brackets for the back of each seat. You see, I don't fish in the sun! You bake your brain. So we both have nice golf umbrellas to keep us out of the sun and they tend to act as sails when the wind blows. That's okay, I'd rather be blown around a little on the water than bake my brain and cook my fair, freckled skin and end up being a crispy critter and my pasty white hubby getting sun poisoning, again.

I'm off to fix our lunch for tomorrow, we'll have a nice little picnic while we are out giving the fish the sore mouth.

LOOK WHO WON!

Did Paul Potts win? Check out this link to see the clip from the finale of the UK has talent.

http://www.marcandcharity.blogspot.com/

Watch the entire clip, because the winner will perform at the end.

Paul Potts, who is Paul Potts?

Yet another performance from Paul Potts.

Check out this link: http://www.marcandcharity.blogspot.com/

This young man is something else. Even Simon was nice to him. This appears to be something like American Idol, but in the UK. He could be another Elliott from last year's season on AI. Elliott was back at the Finale for this season, had had extensive dental work done, let his hair grow out and I didn't even recognize him, even after they announced who was performing. Elliott had been transformed from a okay looking guy to a really good looking guy. So, go Paul Potts.

Please pray for two young women Kelli, who desperately needs a kidney transplant and Heather who's recovering from surgery to remove a large brain tumor. I've been following their blogs for a while. See Kelli's link on my previous post, Living in Grace. Heather's is Especially Heather at: http://especiallyheather.com/

Today was our last day of VBS. It was really a great week, even though we both are exhausted. Three-year olds are busy little people and keep you on your toes. Tomorrow morning I'm sleeping late, because I am definitely not a morning person and this week has been a reminder of why I don't miss working--getting up early is the main reason. I told a friend this morning I felt physically, this morning, just like I used to feel when I was working and had to get up early.

Check This Blog Out!

I've been reading this blog for a while. Check it out and be sure to watch the video clip she has included.

http://www.living-in-grace.net/

Well, we are half way through VBS--for those unfamiliar with VBS, that's Vacation Bible School. We volunteered to help with the three-year olds. They are sweet kids. Hubby felt like he was not helping, at all, but this morning when he came in the class they all greeted him and hugged him and one little boy said, "Mr. Hubby, you feel just like my papa." It absolutely melted Hubby's heart, so he's decided he'll finish out the week helping with the little fellows.

Summer Has Arrived

After many weeks of nice, low humidity the reality of Georgia summer has arrived. It's hot and humid and we have had one or two afternoon thunderstorms. We need MORE of those thunderstorms. We are in the middle of a severe drought in our state and we are crying out to the Lord for RAIN.

We actually had to turn on the A/C. I just hate that, because we have to close up the house. I love the weather that allows us to open the windows and enjoy the breeze. Our house is arranged so if we open the front and back doors we get a really nice cross breeze. I didn't realize that would be the case when I designed it, but it has sure worked out well.

This has been a rather busy week, the Hubby is still taking art lessons, and progressing quite nicely, I must add! A trip to the acupuncturist, not me, but my Mom (it helps with the joint and muscle pain). Don't ask me how, but it does work--all those little needles causes your body to produce it's own pain killer. Bests drugs anyday!!!! I went to my first meeting of the Civil Service Board in my local county. It was an interesting meeting and I think I'm going to enjoy this service to my community. Maybe I didn't mention that I've been appointed to the Civil Service Board, which hears appeals and grievances from employees. This time I'm on the listening end, not the presenting end. I never made presentations in my previous job, but I sure helped those doing the presenting gather all the documents and information they needed to make the presentation. Kinda like a replay of my good government job before retirement, except I just show up and listen. Well, they did send me a package beforehand and I did so SOME homework on one of the cases, but it wasn't bad. This will help keep my mind from turning to mush, if you now what I mean.

Next week is Vacation Bible School at church. This should be a totally new experience for both of us. We are working as helpers in the 3-year old class. We are working with a wonderful lady, Marlene, who will be teaching. Sunday we are helping Marlene decorate the room. Neither of us have any idea what to expect, we just know this is something the Lord has placed on our hearts, so we know HE will give us the grace to do it! Just pray--for us and the kids!

Well, we are off to another party this afternoon. Retirement is rough!

THE NOISE!

This is the view today at our driveway. Look hard, that's a DUMP TRUCK just beyond the trees! Our once country road is being widened to a four-lane highway. This just grieves our hearts. When we moved here 30 years ago it was so quiet we had to buy a machine that makes wind noise so we could sleep. The house we sold to build had tire tracks on the roof from the airplanes landing at Atlanta Airport. Need I say more about that noise. We moved into an apartment for five month while building and the noise from the neighbors upstairs was bad--they wore concrete blocks for shoes and they only ran the dishwasher at 3:00 a.m. Then there were the parties and they couldn't understand why we didn't want to hear all that noise until the wee hours of the morning.

We then moved to our little piece of heaven on earth. Sad what we have lost. The Lord reminded me several days ago that, ... HE works all things out for the good of those that love the Lord and are called according to HIS purpose... (my paraphrase). We are believing the Lord is going to work all this our for our good, we don't know how or when, but we have to believe His word.

They are taking up the old road, grinding it up and all those dump trucks are hauling it off. I'm thankful they are doing this during the day. The paving process I DREAD. They start paving after dark and work until the wee hours of the morning. The low pitch of the engines drive me crazy--it actually hurts my ears and when the roller machines (my brother called them steam rollers when he was small) are working they actually cause our house to rattle from the vibration, that is obviously traveling along the ground. THIS IS DRIVING ME CRAZY!!!! The noise, the house rattling and vibrating, the dust, the noise, the house rattling and vibrating, the dust....

Last week, when DOT shifted the traffic to the new lanes further across the road, they weren't going to put down a cross over for US from our driveway to the new lanes, which has to cross the old road. Understand, they had one for all the other neighbors! I know this might shock you, but we have the phone numbers for DOT's Project Engineer and the contractor's Project Coordinator, so Hubby promptly called Richard and Kevin. He's on first-name basis with them, you know. They wanted us to use our neighbor's cross over, which meant we would have to turn left out of our driveway drive approximately 100 feet, then turn right, then make our turn onto the new lanes. NO WAY! We pointed out to them they were going to take up the old road, so we would be driving through the mud, if it ever rains. We have already experienced the joy of bogging down in the mud. That happened shortly after the project started. The huge pieces of equipment managed to quickly crush the pavement across their right-of-way, which was our access to the road! Then DOT put rock dust down for us to stop that problem. Then there was the mail box issue. We were going to have to jump a ditch to get to our mail box! NO WAY! That would really be GREAT for my artificial hip and Hubby's back!

They made us a cross over. :-) AND they moved the mail box for us and our post with our street numbers. All of this grief in the name of progress. Progress for who? Certainly not us! We loved our little two-lane road.

Check out the Contest

The ladies over at Pinks and Blues have a contest going, so check out their place at www.pinksandbluesgirls.wordpress.com. They are giving away a Dooney and Bourke handbag.