Potpourri - Vol. 2

Hey kids.  Back on the 10th of June I did a blog entitled "Potpourri".  It was a blog of odds and ends that individually were not long enough to make a blog, so like the old Jeopardy category, I just lumped them together.  

Well, on this Saturday night, I am doing the same thing.  Several things are on my mind, and I am putting several of them in this blog, therefore we have "Potpourri - Vol. 2".

Back in the June 10th edition, I mentioned M and I were going to head to San Francisco in early September for Clayton's birthday.  At the time me and M was trying to decide whether to drive or fly.  Well, the readers have spoken!  I heard from about 10 or so of you, and everyone who wrote or texted, without exception, said drive.  Several said something along the lines of "that's a no-brainer."  You know, we agree, so we are driving.  We will leave the last week of August and be gone about three weeks.

I've been working on an itinerary for the past week or so and the trip will be heavy on National Parks.  It is our plan to stop, Lord-willing, at the Painted Desert, Grand Canyon, Zion, maybe Bryce Canyon, Yosemite, Tetons, Yellowstone, the Badlands and the Black Hills.   

Of historical interest, we hope to stop or see Santa Fe, a specific corner in Winslow, Arizona, Three Forks State Park in Montana, where two rivers and a creek come together to form the Missouri River, Little Big Horn, Wall Drug, Mount Rushmore and Fort Dodge, Iowa, where I began my airline career with Ozark Airlines in December 1981.   It's an ambitious itinerary.  Keep us in your prayers.  Also send money.

We have four tomato plants, and they have been doing pretty well, but three of the four have come down with blight in the last couple weeks.  Ugh!  Well, we've had a pretty good crop so far.

Have you ever recommended a restaurant to someone and then when they tell you they are going you kind of hold your breath, hoping they like it.  A week or so ago, John Harris and I were chatting about local eateries, and the subject came around to catfish.   I mentioned Champy's Chicken in Sheffield has, in mine and M's opinion, the best catfish in the Shoals.  John was astounded by my recommendation but said he would give them a try.  After worship this past Wednesday night, John came up to me and said, "I took your advice."  My first thought was "uh-oh, what did I tell him."  Fortunately, he did not make me wait very long.  "I went to Champy's for lunch," he said, "and was going to get some chicken, but I remember you telling me how good the catfish was, so I ordered that instead."  At this point I was seriously holding my breath.  I did remember the previous conversation, so I was really, really hoping he liked it.  "You were right, it was pretty good."  Ok, big sigh of relief, and our conversation shifted to their chicken livers, which are also incredibly good.

As most of you know, M taught school for 38 years at the same district in northeast Arkansas.  In addition to English and Oral Communications, she also taught French I and II.  Since she is no longer using it on an everyday basis like she was when teaching, she says her French is not as good as it was.  There is probably some truth in that, but our daughter-in-law Mimi, who was born in Paris and speaks fluent French, says M's French is pretty good.

I have decided M just has a natural affinity for learning languages.  After traveling to Guatemala last fall to attend the wedding of our nephew to a Guatemalan girl he met while doing medical missions, M has started teaching herself Spanish via Duo Lingo.   I have to admit, I think she is doing pretty well (muy bueno) with it.  I'm impressed.

Our hearts are broken at Sherrod Ave. following the death of Rosemary Snodgrass on Thursday afternoon.  A brilliant woman whose husband Don is one of our Shepherds, she was a brilliant Bible school teacher and counselor.  In the 11 years M and I have been living in the Shoals, I have never heard an unkind word said about her.  Nothing but positive.  But I am going to veer off the Church of Christ track here for a minute and be brutally honest.  

The Church of Christ believes and practices, well most of them anyway, that adult classes that have men attending, must be taught by men.  If it is a woman only class, then a woman may teach.  Frankly, I have trouble with that.   I would have loved to have been in one of Rosemary's classes, I would love to be in one of Marilyn's classes.  I know from what Marilyn has said, what a wonderful Bible student Rosemary was.   I think it would have been great to get some of that wisdom from her.  Men do not have a monopoly on being good teachers.  Ok, that is all I am going to say about that.

We subscribe to Prime, Acorn, BritBox and MLB, and have over the past few years watched a lot of great shows we might never have seen, especially British murder shows.  One we are watching now is a Canadian show that was on for six years, ending about 10-12 years ago.  It's called "Corner Gas".  It is about life in this small town, Dog River, on the Saskatchewan prairie.  The main characters are kind of quirky, and it is hilariously funny.  It's only 20 minutes or so, so you really are not sacrificing too much of your time if it you watch it.  I highly recommend it.  Let me know if you like it, don't tell me if you don't.

I have three pairs of reading glasses.  I keep one by my side of the bed, one in the computer/library room and the third on the table by my recliner.  Anyone else that organized?

Speaking of organized, or crazed, when I eat M&M's, I separate them by color.  The color I eat first usually varies, but I almost always eat the green ones last.  Feel free to diagnose that behavior for me.

Just a week and two days after having a benign tumor removed from her brain, Janet Daugherty was moved to a rehab facility Friday night.  Praise the Lord for answered prayers in her healing.  Let the prayers continue.

That's enough stuff for this Saturday night.  Have a wonderful rest of your weekend.  Be kind to each other.  Au revoir.