A Very Unusual Winter

    Back in December, we had single digit cold temps. The thermometer hovered around the 5 degree mark for several hours, and we had several nights like this. Shucks, we even had a frozen water pipe.

   Fast forward to February, 2023, we had a day in the 80s, and another day like this in early March. 

   The red bud tree down by the road is flush with color, and some kinds of grasses are showing a lot of green for this time of year. 

   I even got out the mower and trimmed some of the back yard. I can't remember ever doing that in February.

   We can't do much about the weather, worrying about it is not worth the time.

   Just enjoy what we are given.

   What we see outside is what we will get.

   

Four Years In and Just Keeps Getting Better

 

   On January 19, 2019, on a dark and stormy day,  Carolyn and I married and ushered in four years of health and happiness. God has blessed us together, and we are happy to have these days. 

   On our first honeymoon, we drove through the storms up Highway 58 to Whitestone Inn, and spent two days just being together.

   What better way to celebrate 1/19/23, our fourth anniversary, than to hit the road to Whitestone again, this time in sunshine and milder temperatures.   

   Arriving in mid afternoon, we checked in and found our suite in the Lion and the Lamb building, then spent the rest of our time checking the campus before dinner.

   The view from our room included the north end Watts Bar Lake where the Tennessee River comes into the lake. Even a barge showed up and proceeded North. It was a beautiful afternoon to just sightsee from the gazebo overlooking the lake.

   There were a couple of horses in the field next to our suite, and in the next field, a flock of Jacob sheep, 2 with lambs. 

   We thought they were kinda funny looking, but I guess we were to them also. 

   After a good dinner in the farmhouse, with too much dessert, and hitting a ping pong ball, we turned in, almost going to sleep in the middle of a Gunsmoke episode. 

   As the morning broke on Saturday, the light of an early hour streamed through our drapes, and we awoke to a brisk, clear day. Around 40 degrees, high clouds, but a beautiful time to be up and to be rewarded with a glorious daybreak.

   

      

Smoke rising from the farmhouse, lights on where breakfast was being prepared.

   

   The Chapel was ready.

   Even the outside gazebo was glowing in the early morning.

   What a wake-up call!,

   

   But there was a Saturday in front of us. After a good breakfast, and some good conversations around the fire place in the Farmhouse, we hit the road, promising ourselves that, God willing, we would be back sooner than the 4 years this time.

   

Other travelers were on the move, too. But I am guessing that their travels and destinations were not as soul-warming and peaceful reflections as ours.

   Thank you God

Their's Not To Reason Why

    There is a poem, by Alfred Lord Tennyson, Charge of the Light Brigade, one of whose stanzas  included these lines.:

    

                   “Forward, the Light Brigade!”

                 Was there a man dismayed?

                 Not though the soldier knew

                 Someone had blundered.

                 Theirs not to make reply,

                 Theirs not to reason why,

                 Theirs but to do and die.

                 Into the valley of Death

                 Rode the six hundred.

      There was once upon a time a card game, Authors, a game we played for hours when children. Collect all 4 of the  author's cards, one each of his/her works till you get all 4, and retire the poet into your piles of authors identified and won.

     Nowadays someone may ask, "Who wrote that?" 

     Someone answers back, "Tennyson". 

     "How did you know that?" comes from a disbeliever. 

     "We played Authors a long time back, and some of those writers are forever held somewhere back there in my brain." I would answer.

     The setting of the poem's quote above is the 1850's Crimean War, the same Crimean territory that was taken from Ukraine by the Russians in 2014, and still a bone of contention today. Russian troops were defending a strong position and the British Light Brigade, mounted troops, were ordered to charge and take the position. It was a suicide charge, and the troops knew it. The order came down from above. The British troops realized what they were being called on to do.

                 Theirs not to make reply,

                 Theirs not to reason why

                 Theirs but to do and die.

     They didn't, and they did, and they did.

     How did all that old History get us into a discussion of technology and traffic signals?

     Aha.....

     Sometime last year the county government decided to put a traffic light at the junction of Clark Road and Highway 58 to aid workers going to and from the new Volkswagen plant east of 58. Even with all the technology in traffic signals, this light has a mind of its own it seems.

  Orientation: You are on Ferdinand Piech Rd. traveling west. We live 1.2 mile on Clark Rd traveling west away from the signal. South TN 58 is to your left and north 58 is to your right.

     In a normal sequence, the vehicles traveling 58 have a right of way unless there are cars on Clark waiting. Let's say there are cars and trucks going both directions, north and south, on Highway 58, and there are other vehicles waiting for a green light on both sides of 58 on Clark Rd. In this situation 58 traffic has the green light.

     The light on 58 goes to yellow and then red for its traffic going both directions. Then the Piech Rd. traffic coming from the east gets the green light and merges into the north and southbound traffic. The next sequence for the light is the green one for Clark Rd. traffic coming from the west. 

     The other day, I was the only car coming from the west , and stopped at the light. The light proceeded to stop the 58 traffic, and then the westbound traffic on Ferdinand Piech Drive (the road into Volkswagen activity and the road directly across from Clark Rd. at that intersection) moved onto 58 North and South.

     Next should be Clark Rd. getting a green allowing me to go north or south on 58 or preceding straight across and onto Piech.

     But there was no recognition for me, as the light changed back to green for the 58 folks. This was not the first time I had waited through a couple of cycles before moving through the light.

     Now this morning: When I pulled up to the light on Clark Rd, at 58, there were 5 or 6 cars waiting on Piech for a green to merge onto 58. After the finicky signal light stopped the 58 traffic I got a green and crossed 58, headed east on Piech. Looking in my mirror, I noticed traffic moving again on 58 and the Piech cars still at the light. They had gotten no green.

     That was when the Tennyson quote suddenly became relevant again. All the cars left at the light could only shrug and quote. The light had struck one more time.

     My story, as trivial as it was, had combined 19th Century military history, technology, and poetry. Did this make me a 23rd Century Renaissance Man?

     "No way", you say.

     "I can spice it up with some Pickleball, a couple of frozen pipes, and a jigsaw puzzle. Will that qualify?"

     But alas, you were gone....

     

     

Christmas 2022...Cold Outside and Warm Inside

      The days preceding Christmas 2022 were cold all over the country, and especially so in this corner of East Tennessee. Low temps of 5 and 7 degrees and windy caused the wind chill factor in minus territory for a lot of the time when Santa was getting ready.

     The inlet across Clark Rd from our house was iced over and got a snow dusting, and one small corner of the front porch showed a tiny spot of white. 

     But inside it was cheery. With a Yule log or two blazing in the living room, and with the tree and hearth providing good cheer, we had the perfect place to ride out the cold Canadian blast.

     We had invaders from Virginia, looking for an overnight accommodation. David, Lucy, Laken, Drew, Dawn and Doug stopped by on their way to Pensacola for the Holiday.

     Instead of putting up our "fake tree", we went with a live one. A Norfolk Pine that Carolyn had raised in the living room for a few years from a small seedling in the living room fit the bill, but did not take many ornaments. The sparse decorations fit in with the sparse number pf presents.

     The coffee table was the go to spot for any thing from a manger scene to presents.

     Presents included a good book, which I have already finished, and a gradient jigsaw puzzle which I have not, although I do have the outer frame done. Green on one side, blue on the other and the middle filling in shades a green on the one hand and shades of blue till they merge together in the center. Interesting concept, but not much to go on to finish. We'll see.

     We did have some gifts for opening on Christmas Day including goodies, Flower Bulbs, a rain gage for Carolyn's flower bed, a computer plug in to store all my photos, and a gift for both of us. An inflatable kayak that we look forward to using in the warmer weather. It was a good day to be grateful and we were as we worshipped with others at a morning service on that day. 

     Needs some air I believe...

     After Christmas we drove to Charlotte where we visited with Dwayne and Karen, Sawyer and Sydney, and a future family member, Prags, who is now officially Sawyer's finance. Fun time.

     Carolyn's three kids (adult children) visited after Christmas, which is always good.

     As I sit here looking out the window on 1/2/23, with temps supposed to reach 70 today with sunshine, it is hard to remember minus 20 on the wind chill meter just 10 days ago

     In actuality we have been blessed with both sets of temperatures, inside by the fire and outside. We have been blessed by family, ones that visited and ones we went to see. We were blessed with those who could not come during this time, but whom we will see in the days ahead.

     Looking back, I should have entitled this piece "Octogenarians are blessed, for sure"

     God has blessed us with good health in these days. We know it and see it around us every day.

     And we are grateful. ....and inside.

Beware, Pyromaniac on Site

    All Summer long, and into the Fall, I have been piling up downed limbs and brush from tree work around the property. 

   Now it is the last of October, and the Hamilton County Air Pollution Control has given us a permit to burn from October 7, 2022 through April 30, 2023. 

   All I need to do is check in on any day of this time period to make sure the conditions are ok to burn.

   My brush pile is plenty dry because of the scarcity of rain this late Summer and early Fall, so the fun day has arrived.

   Not much preparation is needed to get this baby lit, a few newspapers to get it started, a little diesel gas sprinkled around where the paper has been placed, strike the match and apply to the paper.

   Pyromaniac's Delight

   And It Looked and Felt So Good!

Up Faith and Family

    There is an add-on streaming service that Carolyn and I subscribe to. This service specializes in movies, TV shows and series, and family productions, and we watch this particular  channel a lot. 

   Looking back over our latest auto adventure, I realize that it can be categorized using the title of this streaming outfit. Breaking our week-long car trip into 3 parts, it could be named Family, Faith and Family.

   We began on a Sunday afternoon with a 2 and 1/2 hour trip up into Middle Tennessee where we stayed with our Nashville family for the night. Nashville is always a multigenerational stop as we get Rush, Carolyn's youngest and his wife Joan. Add on the next layer with Matt and Clark, Carolyn's grandsons, and top the experience off with the "Greats", great grandchildren, William, Rush, and Darden. 

   This stop off is a sleeping and eating home visit, and for us a B&B. I give you the home and the view from our second floor room.

   Definitely the "place to stay" when night falls in this area. We missed Matt's wife Macy, and Clark's wife Sarah, along with "little Rush", who had the sniffles. (Just Rush had the runny nose.)

   Next stop Louisville, KY. Carolyn and I had been invited to Heritage Week at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. But first, before the event began on Tuesday night at the Seminary, we got to spend the night with Don's brother Bill, who lived close by. 

   Bill, wife Linda, and canine house ruler, Sebastian, welcomed us to Louisville and opened their home to be used as another B&B. A free bed and breakfast for family travelers. 

   Tuesday we got up pretty early. Needing to get out of the way, Bill and Linda were flying out to Scottsdale, AZ the next morning, we made an early afternoon trip over to the Seminary, just 5 minutes away from the B&B. Staying on campus in the Legacy Hotel, we were treated to one full day and 2 half days of food, fellowship and faith.

   Southern Seminary is the flagship school of the Southern Baptist Convention. With its sister institution, Boyce College, these two schools educate men and women for Christian ministry and secular placements. The students we had a chance to talk with seemed ready and motivated to go out and change the world. We were impressed with, not only the students, but the faculty and staff, all of whom were top notch.

   The highlight of our stay on campus was the Chapel Service that takes place each Tuesday and Thursday at 10AM. The whole campus joins together for a time of The Word spoken and sung. It was special to be included.

   Our stay in Kentucky had ended, and we headed east toward Virginia. But we got to spend awhile in West Virginia. We had been watching the Fall colors on God's creations, but we found some good roads in this state, roads that were full of color. Maybe some of the best were in a Rest Area off I-64.

   And one of the more picturesque roads, VA State Route 12 down the middle of the state near Hinton. A scenic route that calls for another visit in the future.

   After a 6 hour car ride, Blacksburg, VA came into view. Doug, Dawn, Lucy, Drew, Katie (Drew's girlfriend), Laken and David were all eagerly awaiting us. They were hungry and tired of waiting dinner.

   One of the reasons for our trip there was to see Lucy ride in a bike race at Woodberry School near Charlottesville. Lucy is a senior at Blacksburg High and the only girl on the Varsity bike team. 

   Lucy is a good cyclist and looks good on her mountain bike. Her only problem is her speed. She moves too fast for the camera. She does have her own fan club.

   One of the highlights of our trip was watching Tennessee beat Alabama. With Doug able to put the game on the screen in the backseat area, we watched the winning field goal and the subsequent rushing of the field by the fans in Knoxville, after a 15 year drought playing the Crimson Tide.

   Sunday found us back on the road heading home. 

   It was a good trip, no problems, plenty of family, food, and fellowship. 

   But the birdies were missing the daily fresh water in the bird baths.

   and we missed our bed

A Possible Rethinking

 Spoiler Alert: Another Pickleball Tournament

   After so much success on the tournament trail, my partner in crime, Jack Painter, and I decided to enter a local P/b event held at the Tennis Center this past weekend. It was a different format, but we thought we might find out how we fared with competition in other age groups. Chances were that we would be the old age group in attendance, and these matches would be filled with men from the younger age groups.

   We DID find out something!

   Since all the players were ranked by skill level, which are pretty broad categories, and the rankings are self generated, Jack and I were grouped with 5 other teams in the Intermediate Division. This meant that we would play 5 matches with the other teams in a round-robin format. We were the old team.

   They used several outside courts at the Center, and 2 or 3 inside. Some of our Division played outside, but all our matches were played on one of the inside courts. 

   We DID find out something, and it was not good!

   This old team played 5 matches in the round robin, and our record was 0-5. Some games were close and we were competitive, but we did not win a single game in any of the matches.

   Having won our age group in the Senior Olympics 85-89 age group, and having beaten the teams in the 80-84 group, we're talking about seeing how we might fare in the 2023 National Senior Games in Pittsburgh, for which we had qualified by winning the Tennessee Tournament.

   Now rethinking, just how good are we?

   More practice is an option, but also is staying home.