Volunteering Mondays

Hello, I volunteer on Mondays at the organization that gives out meals M-F. almost every time I have been out of town recently has involved two Mondays. I am out of town for the next two Mondays. When I told them, I would be gone, I apologized. It is hard to get some tasks accomplished if volunteers are not regular. Both of the people I work under said, “Go enjoy yourself. We will see you in two weeks.” Today there were some large donations of food that we need to date and shelve. That took a bit of time and squinting to read the “best by dates”. Our large marker dates are easier to read when distributing food. It amazes me how many cans of green beans are there and then the next time I come they are almost gone. All of the donated foods are weighed as they come in. Not sure what happens to that information, but it seems to be required. I helped make sandwiches from the donated chicken. They also get a lot of donated hamburger buns, hot dog buns, and loafs of bread. If the breads have been there for some time, and they too are dated, we check to make sure it is still good. Today I threw away quite a bit of it. Bothers me to throw out food, but most of this food is being saved before the business would have to throw it away. It also bothers me that so many people in this country are food insecure. Something is certainly wrong, but I do not know how to fix it. Paula

Understanding

Hello, It is amazing how a simple thing can be misunderstood. For instance, when is it this week and when is it next week? For me Sunday is the first day of the week. Saturday it would be the last day of this week. When it is Saturday, such as it is today, any days after Sunday would be next week. I do not know if this is the standard or if is just the way I see it to be. The person I was speaking with was not interpreting it that way. She thought I was talking about a week from the coming Thursday when I said, “Next Thursday.” We solved it all by using the calendar and dates. It is easy to see how things get misunderstood and resentments happen when we could not easily have a conversation about the days of the week when something was going to happen. And we expect world peace and good relationships to happen among people who do not speak the same language. Being an interrupter is certainly a heavy responsibility. Look at how many different takes there are on the same Christian Bible. Even the written word is open for some variation in understanding. People need to be open to different ideas in order to have a good respectful conversation. Paula

Connected Again

Hello, Because of an upgrade, our internet was down when we came home. Now today it is finally back after a bit more than two weeks without. We did “borrow” from a good neighbor, but it feels better now to know it is back. We had to buy a new router, but it did not connect. Brian tried to help, but could not manage. Then a person tried over the phone, but they were unsuccessful as well. The first technician, who came to the house, did learn that the router worked, but there was not feed in from the outside. He said, “I will have them send a bucket truck to get up to the pole. They should come tomorrow or the next day.” No one came or even contacted us. Leroy called once again and spent a long time on the phone. This person also could not get it connected. He set up an appointment for a technician to come in three days. The technician who came today was very good and got the thing going. He put his ladder up to the pole, climbed up and fixed. He said, “They did not reconnect us after they had completed the update.” We had to call Brian to help us get the router up and working for us, with user name and password. I learned a little more about facetime and making the screen larger. Now hopefully I will remember that if I need it in the future. This shows how much we are dependent on the internet connection. Every day we missed it. Paula

Hot Days

Hello, While in DC we took a little trip to visit Yorktown which was an important battle influencing the outcome of the revolutionary war. It was an interesting place. I do not remember this battle from my history class. It was often a battle between ships trying to gain important trade routes.

The next day we went to Williamsburg to see an historic area where European settlers made a long-lasting settlement. It is a tourist area now with people wearing period costumes and working in the old ways. People seemed to be well versed on history and could answer many questions pertaining to earlier times. There were also some reenactments. It was quite a hot day and we started to notice that the crowd was about a third the size in the afternoon.

It is very hot here today with temperatures in the 90’s. There was a history walk in our neighborhood. It was very interesting about the early life of Grant Wood. He and his family lived in the neighborhood. We went supplied with sun shirts, hats, and water. We managed to do the whole two hour walk. I had thought I might stop after an hour, but there was a breeze and when we stopped, we all stood in the shade. I sat on the ground some of the time and that helped too. The sun has cooked two of the pots of pansies at church. Not sure they will be revived with more water and being placed in a shadier place. Paula

Getting to the Airport

Hello, The bus had not come to the stop on time, according to the paper schedule we had. I tried to look up the location of the bus on my phone. For some reason I could not find that even though I have found it before. I felt a little panicky, but Leroy was calm. He figured we had possibilities since we have to start so early to take the bus. We could even walk home and drive if need be. The bus came with just enough time that we could catch the next bus for the airport. We did learn that there is a summer schedule. Also, I think this bus was a bit late as all the other buses were at the bus station. When we went home this bus was late coming to the station, but it helped that we did not have to catch any other transportation. A number of people were on all of the buses that we used. I am happy to see that. It helps the environment not to have so many cars on the road. We like using it to go to the airport because we do not have to park the car there for a week or more. Seniors ride free and there is a little guilt associated with that. We could pay as we do in the cities of our daughters. The buses do not run sometimes when we need a ride so than we do have to catch a ride with someone in a car. In DC we use the metro. It is so convenient. As it stops about a block and a half from their house. This time when I was looking at the map a public worked came up to help. Telling me where we should change trains and which side of the platform, we needed to be on to get to our destination. There are good people everywhere. Paula

What Time Zone?

Hello, In the last month our time zone experience has been: Midwest, Mountain, Midwest, Eastern, and Midwest. My body hardly knows when to go to bed or get out of bed. We will stay in this zone until after the fourth of July, when we will spend some time in Eastern time zone once again. The direct flight to Washington, DC was uneventful except for a delayed start. At least we did not have to fret about catching another plane. Going through TSA, I was asked, “Do you have anything dangerous (or some word like that) in this bag?” Nothing came to mind. He pulled out my travel silverware set that I have so I do not use plastic when eating out. It is my idea of doing my part to help the earth from becoming overcome with plastic. Unfortunately, the knife in this set was serrated. The man then said, “I know it is a butter knife, but the serration makes it unacceptable. You could take it back out to your car or check the bag rather than carry it on.” Since we came by bus and the cost of checking the bag is at least $35, the knife was gone. It saddened me. He suggested, “Look for a slim none serrated knife and it will be ok.” Cutting back on the plastic in my life is not an easy task. However, I did use my two sets of silverware at least three times on this trip so it helped a little. I was also very quick to tell the server not to give me a straw. When at home I almost never eat out, it is not a fast was to cut back on plastic, especially one-use plastic. According to the kid’s almanac, the plastic mass in the Pacific Ocean is twice the size of Texas. There are five such plastic garbage locations in the oceans. Paula

Graduation Number One

Hello, We were happy to be in person for Olivia’s graduation. Only two wishes that it would have been shorter than two hours and that we could have heard a little better. There were over 400 graduates, but it was the talks that made it all so long. After the program, it was a little hard to find the girl even though she is taller than I am. Seems everyone is taller than I am. How did I get short?

Afterwards we went out for a nice meal. With the family and all the grandparents. Tomorrow, we head east for another granddaughter graduation. It is a smaller class so maybe it will be a shorter event. Can you believe there was a time when we thought we would not have any grandchildren and now we are blessed with six of them. While we have been home, we have watered plants at church, unloaded and put some things away at church, discussed moving flowers when the construction starts in earnest, and worked at the meal last night. I served because they were short some people and Leroy stayed on the clean-up crew. It was nice to serve because I got to greet the people. Paula

Our Bus Trip To the Airport

Hello, Just ahead of our stop, the bus stops at the meal site where I volunteer. We could see that stop from ours. There was a long line of people waiting. A woman who eats at the site came to our bus stop. I have seen her there as well as at the church meals. I greeted her. She then said, “Some people won’t talk to me because my husband is in prison. He did not do the crime, but he is there anyway.” I sympathized a bit. Actually, I had not a clue what would be a good thing to say. After a bit she asked, “What would you say it is like for me with my husband in jail for a crime he did not commit?” “It must be terrible for you.” I said. “Thank you,” she said and then she went off to the laundry mat. I saw the bus stopping at the stop ahead of ours, even more people got in line. That woman missed the bus as well as another one she could have caught. Perhaps she wanted to avoid the other lunch people. The bus was quite full. I perched on the edge of a seat next to a very large guy who really needed more space. But at least it was a stable place for me. Leroy stood, but almost lost his balance as the bus started. At that a woman moved her things off the seat and onto her lap so he could sit. That was better. Paula

Being Busy Away From Home

Hello, Miriam does have some jobs for us to do while we are there. I do not think I did so much because I do like to keep busy and I wanted to contribute to the house being ready for the graduation party. We helped plant some flowers, weed, deadhead iris, move soil, and Leroy mowed. Leroy dusted a little and ran the vacuum in several places. I did a small amount of dusting. Humm, it seems I did a bit of sitting around while Leroy moved. He did finish one library book and started another. I only managed to finish one I made breakfast for us each morning and he did his exercises. Maybe those exercises gave him a lot of energy. Leroy helped Andy string some wire for the new water heater. He also helped Andy, Miriam, and Olivia get the new heater downstairs. While Nora, Svea, and I watched, ready to call 911 if there was a mishap. I did make granola three times. The first batch was all gone and about half of the second, but since some of them like it so well, it was good to get a third batch made. I also went shopping for the ingredients. Some of them were in the bulk foods section and it takes a bit of energy to decide if I had the proper amount. So I was working. We took the dogs for some walks along with anyone else who wanted to go. Those dogs sense when we were going on a walk and they trotted right over. Paula

The Home trip

Hello, Our trip home started with ease, although I always get a little anxious about it all. We got to the airport in plenty of time. At the check in kiosk, it had no record of Leroy checking in even though he is sure he did that. I wondered if he clicked on all the possibilities. A kind woman helped us. But then the next thing was that it did not show that we had paid for the, to be checked bag. I was sure that this had been taken care of because we had gotten a receipt for the purchase. Course I did not find that on my phone. We just went ahead and repaid plus an addition amount because we were doing it at the airport. The friendly woman assured us that when we found the receipt our money would be refunded. The rest of the check in and security check went quite smoothly. Although my backpack was pulled out of line and checked. I had a bag of nuts in there and she said, “It is alright, but it showed up as a mass and we need to check those.” Once seated at the gate I calmly searched my email for the receipt and found it. Leroy suggested I take it to the agent at the desk. That was a great idea. The agent saw the purchase and commented, “I do not know why that did not show downstairs. Your last bag purchase will be refunded, but it will not show up for a couple days.” I was pleased to get that done and it did not involve a phone call. Paula