AND It's Hurricane Season.

 Just like that.

All of a sudden everybody is freaking out

about Hurricane Idalia.

(She sounds like an onion... lol)

(FYI the BEST onions are Vidalia's...

try to prove me wrong.)

It's going to be a big storm.

And there is likely going to be a LOT 

of damage. Mostly from the storm surge.

But we are mostly in the clear.

We'll get some of the rain bands

a little later in the storm.

Like tonight and into tomorrow.

I cancelled our Bishop Storehouse visit

for tomorrow. I don't want to be on the road

with all the other crazies.

They have other couples who come to work

that live there in the area.

We are the only ones who drive 1.5 hours each way.

Anyhow.

It might be a busy hurricane clean-up season

up there in the panhandle again.

But we are staying safe.

Busy Sunday!

 It was Relief Society week, so we had

a typically busy Sunday.

They decided NOT to have Ward Council,

so instead we had it via text Saturday evening...

But that meant we didn't have to be to

church until 12 noon.

That's kind of nice...

Once there I did the rounds and tried to visit

with or at least say Hello to as many sisters

as I possibly could.

Then we had a good meeting, with talks from

a new couple who moved into the ward

a couple of months ago.

The EQ Pres and I went to their house a few

weeks ago and met with them.

Nice newly empty-nesters.

Then came Relief Society.

We called a new teacher, so now we have 2,

they will switch off weeks.

It was an interesting class.

More of a lesson than the newer "discussion"

format, but she'll settle in.

It was Elder Uchtdorf's talk about Parenting,

so a little hard for some who aren't 

married / parents, but she did a good job.

And then we had the ward Linger Longer.

I missed it.

Spent 20 minutes chatting with an investigator

and then a few minutes with a sister who needs assistance,

and then a few minutes with the Young Women Pres,

and then a few minutes with the Bishop.

And by then they were cleaning up.

But that's ok, it was mostly cookies.

Home for a quick nap and then to my 1st Counselor's

(Val) house to have dinner (Hawaiian Haystacks) with 

her family, her in-laws (the EQ Pres & his wife),

and the couple who spoke in church.

It was a nice evening!

But BOY was I tired when we were finished!!!!

Then today I met Val again this morning at 9:00

(after working out) to use her husband's

"magic" key (he's 1st C in the Stake Presidency

so his key opens EVERYTHING) to go through

all the cupboards and closets and try to find

one that wasn't being used so WE can use it.

It's been more than a year and I still don't 

have a closet or cabinet for our stuff.

We are sharing with another ward.

Anyhow. She brought the wrong key.

The right key is on his keyring and their son

had that keyring and truck down in Vero.

So... instead we tidied the shelves etc in the

RS room, figured out a way to MAKE a closet

out of some unused space at the back of the room,

and then to the kitchen to pick a color to re-paint

the cabinets.

They are a really dark brown stain and it just

looks old, dirty and dated.

The building is getting a re-fresh in October,

so we are getting our requests in early.

Then to WalMart,

then home to make a big bowl of macaroni salad.

That's my FAVORITE thing to eat in the summer.

Then a quick nap and to the town for an hour.

Denine is sick, again. So I needed to go get

stuff ready for the inspector tomorrow.

Meanwhile we have a hurricane heading our way

(not OUR way... but to Florida - it should hit

Linda's ranch in north FL)

so our town manager who is a mucky muck in 

the National Guard got called out to head up

there and help out.

Which means we are down to 2.5 people

working at the town this week.

(I'm the .5.... lol)

I'll go in at 8:30 tomorrow instead of my

usual 10:-ish... and see what I can do to take

some of the load off.

Anyhow.

And of course, I taught tonight until 10.

Another BUSY week.

Rod took today off as well.

He needed to make a bunch of phone calls.

Kyle is trying to sell his mulcher head in preparation

for heading to Kansas and Rod has been 

trying to talk to all the land clearing companies

locally to see if anybody wants it.

He'll go back to work tomorrow, but he's on

restricted (light) duty for the next 2 weeks,

so no overtime for him.

Which means he goes in at noon and gets off at 8.

That will be nice.

Except I won't be here.

Town on Tuesday.

Bishop's Storehouse on Wed.

Town of Thursday.

Meet Val to try again on Friday.

Oh well.

New Chair

 When I teach, there is a TERRIBLE 

tall chair that I have been sitting on.

I brought a gooshy thing to sit on

to make it a little better,

but it was still pretty terrible.

I finally got the OK to just buy

a new chair.

So I did.

It was delivered during the week

and a big ol' box was waiting for

me when I arrived at school 

Thursday afternoon.

It came with all the parts and even

the screwdriver to put it together.

So I did.

And it's pretty comfy!

I wrote "PFSU" the name of the school on the arms

so people will know it's NOT FOR YOU.

And I put a note in the back pocket reminding

them it was not to be removed from our classroom.

We'll see if it's still there this weekend when 

Larry goes to teach his 2-weekend class.

Fingers crossed.

And I celebrated by buying myself some flowers.

Goodbye Old Red

 We got a red Ford Pickup truck

WAAAAAAAAAY back when Jimmy

was just a little tyke.

Rod used to sit him with his legs through

the steering wheel and pretend he was driving.

He drove it - but apparently not much,

because there was only 87,000 miles on it.

(When you consider Kyle's F250 has over 400k,

the black F250 we sold had over 300k and the

"new" F250 we just bought has over 200k,

only 87,000 is VERY low mileage.)

Anyhow.

It ended up in the back pasture years ago

and there it sat.

Kyle used the bed to put trash that 

appeared on the property.

Tuesday Rod and I went to DMV and got a

copy of the title.

And today he and Rod loaded it up on the trailer

and took it up to the steel recycle place.

Actually Kyle loaded it up earlier while I was in Tampa.

It has flat tires so he couldn't just roll it onto 

the trailer, he had to pick it up with the Cat.

THAT was an adventure!

Anyhow.

It's gone now.

And they paid him $300 for the steel!

Another chapter closed.

Eye Balls

 Rod was seeing weird lights in his eye again.

That hasn't happened in more than a decade.

But when he sees them, he knows what they are....

So a couple weeks ago he headed to the

eye doctor for a Saturday walk-in appointment.

Sure enough, the doctor said his retina

in his LEFT eye was tearing.

(The right eye has detached TWICE)

He made an appointment with a specialist

for this past Friday.

When he went in, the retina was torn

all the way around, but luckily NOT

yet detached - so they did a "quick"

laser repair.

While he was AWAKE!!!

He said it was pretty uncomfortable.

They didn't put a patch on it or anything.

This is NOT an actual picture of him this weekend,

since I was in Tampa and unable to capture a photo...

But this IS likely what he looked like.

He took this week off.

He isn't allowed to pick up ANYTHING 

even slightly heavy for the next 3 weeks.

But at least he isn't sitting face-down 24/7 for 

the next month.

Because he is home today, he is going to the

Bishops Storehouse with us today.

Not sure what he will be able to do while there,

but it will be fun to have him come along and

see how we spend our Wednesdays.

MORE Torrential Rain!

 I didn't get out of town as early as I hoped.

And I got to drive through, yet another,

torrential rainstorm.

At one point we were driving 20mph.

I have my GPS set to avoid highways.

So at least I wasn't doing 20 mph on a road

with crazies who didn't care and wanted to

keep doing 70.

But there were times when I couldn't see

the lines. So I was glad my rental this week

had lane assist.

It beeped at me if I drifted over the line.

I just had to hope everybody else had 

the same nifty feature and keep my

eyes open for anyone who didn't.

My 4 hour trip took closer to 5.

But I got here.

Stopped at the office and built my comfy

new chair!

It was pretty easy to build.

The kit came with the screwdriver!

And it is SO much more comfortable than

the chair I was using...

Then to Walmart to get some flowers for my desk.

And some candy for the games.

Arby's for a sandwich,

and to the hotel to eat and go to sleep.

Whew!

Today I have a FULL classroom.

At one point today I had 24 students but I had 2 bail already.

We'll see how many muscle through...

I have a few that are asking a zillion questions

and some of them are even on topic!

And one who wants me to re-teach everything during break.

I'm not going over your notes with you,

Everything is in your manual.

Relax..... (grin)

So, here's to another successful weekend class.

(And now I'm deciding what to order for dinner

for curb-side pickup. I'm ready for my bed!)

What a Week!

We were so excited to welcome Kyle home on Sunday.

But it was a Relief Society Sunday, so a FULL day.

Ward Council, then Sacrament Mtg, then RS,

then meet with 2 sisters for Self Reliance Plans

and food orders, then meet with the Bishop to download....

We got to church at 10:30 and left at 4:30.

Kyle took lots of picture and did a couple of drone flights.

But mostly he mowed.

And then he headed home.

Didn't hang around.

Monday was Rod's birthday!

Kyle and I brought him some lunch at work.

In the middle of a torrential downpour.

(A theme for the week...)

I had a presidency meeting with just my 1st counselor

and we went over the ministering assignments again.

We have had a bunch of new families move in 

recently and needed to revamp.

That took over 2 hours....

During the meeting I got a call that Denine was headed

to the ER - she was sick (again - poor lady!)

Then Kyle and I headed to Walmart for his groceries.

Unfortunately, I totally forgot to announce the Night RS activity

for Tuesday night in RS and there were no handouts,

so Monday evening I sent a personal text to EVERY

active-ish sister in the ward inviting them to the activity.

We had a book exchange.

Kyle made some yummy fajitas for Rod's birthday dinner.

Tuesday I headed in early to get things ready for the

Building Official who only works on Tues and Thurs.

Since Denine left on Monday morning there was 

A LOT to catch up on and I ended up working

all the way until 5:00.

I had a continuing education class to watch on zoom

during my lunch hour and learned some good

information I can use in my classes.

And then we had our activity which turned out really

well and was well attended.

Lots of book exchanging, snacking, and

CHATTING! (And babies!!!!)

It was combined with all 3 wards in the building, so the sisters

had a great opportunity to get together with old and new friends

and just visit. Something that is sorely lacking in this world these days.

More torrential thunderstorms.

We have been rewarded with some amazing sunsets though!

Wednesday we were up early and headed over to the

Bishop's Storehouse where they had lots of orders that

needed to be filled, but thankfully lots of people to help.

(Last week Kyle and I didn't go, I worked at the town and

he was in Kansas, but the other couple didn't show either and

neither did the sister missionaries - so they were VERY

short-handed...)

We helped out there until noon and then headed home

in time for a torrential thunderstorm - so I took a nap!

And now I'm all packed and getting ready to head over

to pick up my rental car and head out early

to hopefully avoid the torrential thunderstorm 

they are forecasting for this afternoon.

Hahahahaha.

I'll try to post this week while I'm in Tampa.

But if not... know that I am thinking of you!

Finished and On the Way Home

 I'm sitting here in my office,

teaching my class on my laptop,

following along as a student on my iPad

and have another monitor for my notes,

AND my phone is open,

following Kyle's progress on Google Locate.

LOL.

Good thing I know my material, because I'm

not really paying attention.

I'm busy watching Kyle's little red dot travel east.

He mowed the 40 acres.

Being Kyle, as soon as he got there, he unloaded

and got right to work.

He said one pass from the front to the back of

the property took him 8 minutes.

And his mower is only 6 feet wide.

So that's a LOT of trips back and forth.

Of course all the rain made the ground a bit soft.

He didn't get stuck, but he DID make a few ruts.

It'll all even out over time though.

I talked with him a bit last night.

He had about 30 minutes of mowing left,

but we were chatting and he had to stop working

because his tractor is LOUD.

And then he had a visitor!

Actually he had a couple over on our side, 

headed over to the water trough to get a drink,

but before he could take a picture something

spooked them and they took off.

But there were a few more across the street on the

neighbor's field, so he took a picture of them.

This was pretty zoomed in, but it looks like a 

nice young buck.

He saw LOTS and lots of rabbits.

And he said our 40 acre was FULL of coyote dens.

(And there were certainly lots of coyotes

howling during the night while he was "sleeping"

in his new tent...)

He didn't ever see any though.

(or he didn't choose to tell me about it if he did...)

Anyhow.

He got it finished up this morning and then

I think he built himself a driveway to where

he wants to put his house.

And then he drove into town and put his

tractor in the storage building we are renting.

And then he hit the road.

He won't be home until late Sunday, probably...

but will make it back in time for Rod's 

birthday on Monday.

We'll be glad to see him!

And all the drone footage he shot of the property.

Drive carefully!!!!!

He Made It!

 Kyle MADE it to the property.

It was a nice drive along the way...

He stopped at our favorite italian place in Missouri.

There used to be one in town here, but 

they pulled out of Florida.

Got to drive a LONG, SKINNY bridge

that was down to one lane because of construction.

That's always fun when pulling a load.

Some fog...

And pretty skies.

But mostly lots and lots of highway.

(although gps took him a back way and

he spent a good bit of Day 2 on smaller,

2-lane, windy, hilly roads. He was glad it

wasn't dark!)

This morning he MADE it to the property.

And was VERY gratified to see GREEN!

Looks a LOT better than last year.

And now....

unload that tractor and get to mowing the 40 acres.

There's very little cell service on the ranch.

You can usually get a signal on the hill

at the back of the property.

So I hope for more pictures later today.

Meanwhile,

whew!

Kansas Trip #1

 Kyle left this morning on his

trip to Kansas #1.

On this trip he is taking the Kubota tractor

and all its implements out to the ranch.

He's got the bushhog and the box blade loaded up

behind the tractor.

And the big box on the bed of his truck

holds his giant Yetti cooler full of water.

His suitcase, tent, blow-up mattress and a bunch

of other necessary stuff is also in there.

The front passenger seat (since I'm not going) is

loaded up with food and snacks and other 

random stuff he might need on the road.

He kept the backseat free of stuff so he 

can sleep back there comfortably.

It's quite a large, comfy couch-ish backseat.

And he'll be "happier" there where he can feel

if anybody tries to mess with his stuff during stops.

He will keep me posted.

So I'll keep you posted.

Beau Voyage Kyle!

Weird Fruit Trees

 Our fruit trees are so weird.

All of a sudden this peach tree has decided to throw blossoms!

In August!

WHAT????

Maybe it got the idea from the cherry tree???

We also have THREE stalks of bananas in different

stages on the banana grove.

With more to come!

We won't likely get any peaches OR cherries,

but they are pretty and fun to look at.

But I do see lots of bananas heading to the

freeze drier in the next few months.

YUM!

Bye Bye Beach!

 Kyle is getting ready to head out to Kansas.

Not permanently yet... but it's getting closer!

Today after spending the morning at the

Bishop's Storehouse (and filling a BUNCH

of fairly large orders...) we headed to the beach.

The water was a wonderful temperature

and the bottom was SO FLAT he was able

to walk WAAAAAAAY out there and still

only be in water up to his knees.

(Until that wave behind him snuck up and

got him a little wetter than he hoped...)

It was so beautiful!

I got in for a bit as well, but I was wearing

jean shorts and those take FOREVER to dry

so I tried not to get "too" wet.

It sure was nice though!

And then home to teach my evening class.

And now......... BED!

(Well, pizza, and then some TV and then a rocket,

and THEN bed....)