Shelter in Place

   What does a day of Shelter in Place feel like?

   What do they mean when talking about "A New Normal"?

   I was thinking about this in my morning quiet time and decided that we are just doing now what we were doing before all this staying home was mandated.

   Let's run through an "Old Normal" day, like a Tuesday several weeks back.

   Get up early, maybe 6-6:30

   Read my morning Scripture and commentary (I am currently going through the Bible with Adam Wainwright, a pitcher with the St. Louis Cardinals and a member of Community Church in St. Simons)

   Make the coffee, pour the OJ, and welcome my charming wife to a new day.

   Breakfast

   Check the iphone for email messages and weather forecast, then settle back in the kitchen rocker for a few quick Solitare games. I try to play 4 daily challenges.

   Free Cell, Regular Solitaire, Pyramid, and Spider

   Take care of any chores and get dressed.

   Check the paper and do a couple of puzzles there.

Sudoku

Crossword

   It should be time for lunch by now...

Meal and a Game (or two)

Is she reading or playing yet another game?

   Depending on the weather, the afternoon might be spent working outside, going for a bike ride, practicing Pickleball over at Central High on an old tennis court, or reading.

   By that time, it is Supper..

   After supper and cleanup it is time for some viewing on the TV

Jeopardy, Andy Griffith, and Heartland

   Being worn out from a strenuous day, we hit the hay.

   The next day, we will begin another day, and it will probably look pretty much the same.

   The "New Normal" of the COVID19 is surprisingly like the Old normal of a few weeks back. Sure we don't get to church on Sundays, or play Pickleball on Tuesdays and Thursdays, or work a stint behind the welcome desk at the BX on Mondays, but we keep our minds sharp with puzzles and games and enjoy our days together.

My Favorite-LEMON

   Let's don't forget the Cook, the one who keeps us nourished for our busy schedule.

   We are blessed, and we know it.
 

Fifty-eight Years Ago

   A quiet event on this day in 1962.

   The world hardly noticed.

   The proud parents, as they watched their eldest son grow to manhood marveled as the redheaded young man made his mark on his world.

   How did this child:

   Grow to this man?

   He was active.

   He was inquisitive.

   He learned things.

   He was adventuresome.

   He was competitive.

   He loved his siblings.

   He was a champion.

   He over-married, and he and Karen have raised two great kids, Sawyer and Sydney.

   Happy Birthday to a Good Man.

   Your Mom was, and I'm sure, still is very proud.

   As I Am

 

A Patch of Yard

   Yesterday was Spring.

   Temperature in the low 80s with plenty of sunshine, just right for getting in some needed yard work.

   While working with the weed eater, flashes color kept making themselves known as I tried to get the weeds.

   As I worked along, a passage from Matthew 6 came to mind.

   8 “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. 29 Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. 30 If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? 31 So do not worry, 

   Flowers of the field indeed.

   I decided to take a 10 foot square of our back yard field and see what I found:

Violet (white)

Grape Hyacinth

 

Dandelion with Seed Pod

Star of Bethlehem 

Violet Purple

Wild Strawberry

Periwinkle (Vinca)

   Carolyn and I identified all we could, but if anyone out there can add o our knowledge, tell us in the comments.

   God's creation includes the giant redwood and the tiny flower of the field. Some are honored and protected, others are sprayed and discarded as weeds. 

   All found in a ten foot square path of field.

   There is a certain glory in each that shows His hand.

   Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like these.

The Past and Present Collide

   Past Facts and Information:

      1. Back in the late 80s, I retired from the produce business, sold the company to its employees, and went back to college (University of Tennessee at Chattanooga), and received another degree in Education in 1990.

      2. I did my student teaching at Chattanooga School for the Arts and Sciences (CSAS).

      3. I taught American History in the upper school until Mayre and I moved to St. Simons in 1995.

      4. While at CSAS, my friend Mark Dragoo, who was, and still is, Athletic Director at the school, gave me the opportunity to coach Cross Country and Baseball. Mark was head Basketball Coach for the Patriot Boy's team.

   Fast Forward to the Present (with some facts)

      1. After Carolyn and I married in 2019, I became full time in Chattanooga.

      2. In February of 2020, she and I volunteered to help staff the welcome desk at the BX, which is the conference and athletic center at our church, Brainerd Baptist.

Now let's look at a story that took place over the past couple of weeks.

   While working our Monday shift at the BX, primarily checking in BX members who want to use the facilities, I noticed a name on the computer screen. I knew that name, Phillip Moss, and I wondered if I might have know him in the past.

   When he came back into the lobby, I walked over and asked if he might be the boy (man now) who was at CSAS back in the early 90s. He answered with a question, "Weren't you my history teacher there?"

   We determined that we did remember each other, and that I had been on my student teaching assignment during that 1991 basketball season when he was playing on the team that went to the State Championships.

   We talked about family, about school, and basketball. I remembered him playing and asked about the present team and coach. He said that Mark was still there, still coaching, and the team was beginning the District basketball tournament the next week. The games would be played at CSAS.

   When I asked Carolyn if she would like to watch a game, she enthusiastically answered in the affirmative, and we made our plans.

   The Patriots won that game over Sale Creek. Although they lost the Championship game to Lookout Valley. they did qualify for the Region tournament, which would be on the next Saturday, in the CSAS gym.

   The opponent in the first game of the Region was from Sunbright, a small town west of Knoxville, and the CSAS boys won that game. The next game, also at CSAS, was against Oneida, another town in the Knoxville area, and that game was last night.

   Well, we were there again, and, although the home team lost, it was a good game, and a close one. Mark was coaching a young team with few upperclassmen, and a host of sophs and freshmen.They acquitted themselves very well.

   We had watched three games in that short span of time, and enjoyed the atmosphere of high school basketball. Carolyn, who was not a big fan of sports, was very much "into the games".

   Mark had coached at the school for 30 years and they school had named the basketball court in his honor.

   Even though it had been a losing effort, the best way to top off the evening would always be some Krystals and fries.

   And sports conversation about the game with my charming wife, who is waiting anxiously for the 2020-21 season to begin.

   A "Blast from the Past" leads to a new basketball fan, and an anticipation of things to come.
 

Woodlane Wonderland

A Predicted Dusting (Ha)

3-4 inches all around

Uh, Oh

   Many is the time that I have seen these "car boats" come through the Sound between St. Simons and Jekyll Islands. Always I have marveled at their size coming and going through those waters, carrying automobiles to faraway places and coming in to unload from far away lands.

   These boats look as if they are floating in, but I realize that so much of their bulk is below the water line.

   Carolyn and I spotted one in February 2019, when we were here after our wedding.

   Then one day in September, 2019 on a departure run with a load of cars (I believe there were 4,200 on board), the boat began to list as it made its way east in the channel between Jekyll and St. Simons. Realizing that they could not right the boat, the captain and port pilot became heroes as they took the big ship out of the channel and grounded it on the southern side where it sits today.

   A picture of the taken from St. Simons lighthouse.

    And another taken from Driftwood Beach on Jekyll.

   And why were the captain and pilot heroes in this story?

   Port authorities here in Brunswick say that if the Golden Ray had foundered in the channel, the sunken vessel would have closed the port of Brunswick for months, causing irreparable harm to the economy of the area, not to mention the hardship for many who work here.

   Finally, a shot from the fishing pier on Jekyll's northwest corner.

   The ship is lying on its side, hull in red, with the bow pointed toward Jekyll ,which is in the right of the shot.

   Thankfully no one died in this, but there were a lot of very wet automobiles, and I'm sure the insurance company is waiting, with bated breath, the settlement bill.

   And the Golden Isles has a temporary new tourist attraction.