September 28 2011

            Yesterday (Wednesday) was marked by meals, with friends, at the start and the end of the day.

Wednesdays are when our Men’s Bible Study meets at 8:30 a.m.  We generally have a course of study that lasts four to six weeks.  When we’ve finished a course of study we have a men’s breakfast before we start the next study.  This was the week of the breakfast and we had French toast and sausage links for breakfast.  This time we did something different.  We watched a thirty minute program entitled “Missions Without Boarders” It dealt with the ongoing situation with Mexicans illegally crossing the boarder and staying in the United States.

            My opinion has always been that they are by definition illegal – law breakers and should be sent home.  I’ve hated the term “undocumented immigrants” and referred to them as invaders.  I’ll have to say that having seen this documentary my views have softened.

            My thinking was, “If they want to come to the U.S., let them go through the proper channels.”  If the information given in this DVD is correct, that is almost impossible.  Our immigration laws are so restrictive as to nearly exclude any hope of them immigrating legally.

            I also was under the impression that illegals were using our welfare system and getting a ‘free ride’.  As it turns out, undocumented workers use stolen or fake social security numbers to get jobs.  Social security tax is taken from their earnings and goes into the Federal Government’s slush fund along with everybody else’s.  However, they will never be able to withdraw that money from social security.  In other words, vast amounts of money go straight to Uncle Sam that will never have to be paid out.

            Also, because the boarders near large urban centers are so closely monitored; many illegals try to enter by crossing in remote dessert areas where there is no water, no food and no shelter.  According to this DVD, a reported 5,000 people die each year in these desserts after crossing the boarder.  It also said that the actual number may be five to ten times that amount.

            What would Jesus do?

            Love your neighbor as yourself.  If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty give him drink.

            Hmmmm…. I got more for breakfast than I thought I would.

            After I returned home from breakfast, I worked on a bunch of small projects around and in the new trailer.  Ella went over to the clubhouse to do laundry and returned in the very early afternoon.

            We called Lynn W. to wish her a happy birthday and find out if she and Kip were coming down for pie today.  She had to wait to find out what her kids were doing for her birthday and said she’d call us back.

            About that time, one of our neighbors (Sam’s wife – can’t remember her name) brought over a bean bag tic tac toe game that her kids had outgrown.  She thought our great granddaughters would enjoy it.  She stayed and visited for quite a while until some other friends came to visit.  Dave and Grace got the nickel tour and stayed until around three.

            After they left, we got cleaned up to go to Betty Wilkinson’s viewing.  Ella had worked with her for years at the Iowa Film Depot.  We stayed just long enough for Ella to offer sympathies to the family and to visit with another old friend from when she worked there.

            We stopped on the way home to but postage stamps to mail out a bunch of birthday cards for all of the October kids’ birthdays.  We ate a very late lunch or early supper at the Dahl’s deli.

            Ella called Lynn back as we were on the way home, to see if she had made plans yet.  And found out that she would be coming down to Village Inn about 8:30.  We read or watched Droid TV until time to go for pie.

            Lynn and Kip showed up at VI (no that is not the Roman numeral 6) around 9.  Her sister Leora showed up a little after that and Sue (minus Stoney) joined us after her dominoes game was done.  It was around 11 p.m. when we got home

            Today (Thursday) is starting off much different than yesterday.  Yesterday was sunny and got up to around 85 degrees with no wind.  Today is cloudy and just above 60 degrees with wind advisers for winds of 25 to 35 mph with gusts up to 50 mph.  Just a passing cold front!  Tomorrow is supposed to colder but sunny and calmer.

September 25 2011

            Let’s see … this is Sunday morning … I’ve slept in the new trailer three nights … that would be Saturday, Friday and Thursday.  That means it was Thursday when we picked up the new trailer at about two in the afternoon.

            If I seem a little confused … I am … the last several days have been so busy and run together!

            The plan was that we would split the stuff we had in the Road Ranger fifth wheel so that some of it stayed and some of it moved into the Hitch Hiker fifth wheel.  We planned to set the stuff on the patio, move the Road Ranger into storage until Spring of 2013, put the Hitch Hiker on our site and move the stuff from the patio into our new home.  Seemed simple enough!

            In fact what happened was:  we moved a portion of our belonging onto the patio.  That went as planned! Yeah!  What happened next was NOT planned.  The slide out on the Road Ranger would not slide in.  We called our maintenance crew here at Cutty’s and said we were ready for them to move the trailer into storage however we needed help getting the slide in.  They came and we pushed and pulled and it would not budge.  On closer examination, it was discovered that the bottom of one corner of the slide had rotted out.  The bottom had fallen to the place that it was impossible to force it to slide back in.  It was finally decided to give up the idea of sliding it in and to just tow it to storage with the slide out. (To help you that are unfamiliar with trailers and slide outs, imagine that this room is like a drawer in a cabinet.  When it slides out/open it hangs three to four feet out of the trailer.)

            What this blip means to our long term plans is uncertain at this time.  The plan was to live in the Hitch Hiker until the fall of 2012 and then move it to Texas.  We planned to stay in Texas until the spring of 2013.  We would leave the Hitch Hiker in storage in Texas and drive back to Iowa.  We would have the Road Ranger moved from storage onto our site and live there until we drove back to Texas in the fall of 2013, where we would move the Hitch Hiker out of storage and live in it.  A home in both places.

            The Road Ranger is twenty years old and not worth the expense of repairing it.  Since the slide will not go in, it can not be driven on the road.  That means that I can’t sell it to someone who would buy it “as is”.  We may try to sell it off as “parts”.  So we may or may not be able to recover some of the lost value.  But at any rate, we will not be able to live in it again.  So, scratch the long term plan and start looking for options.

            We did get the Hitch Hiker moved to our site and moved stuff inside.  We are still trying to find places to put it.  Now however, we need to move ALL of our stuff from the Road Ranger into the Hitch Hiker.  The HH is five feet shorter than the RR and does not have as many storage cabinets inside (though the ‘basement’ storage compartment is much larger).

            The fact is we have more stuff than we have room for.  When we moved from the house and into the RR we downside quite a bit, even though we still have several rented storage space with things we haven’t used in four or five years.  Now we need to downsize again.

            Everything is piled here and there while we sort and arrange.  I don’t operate well in clutter.  And not only is my physical space jumbled so is my ‘mental’ space unorganized while trying to determine what to do next.

            The good news is God has guided us into a warm and comfortable home to live in when the other one was no longer suitable.

            Okay, let’s see, what else has happened since my last post?  We babysat with the greats.  Then found out that the youngest had hand, foot and mouth disease.  She loves to eat the crushed ice from my glass of water.  Here is how that cycle goes: her hand into my glass digging for ice. ice into mouth, hand back into my glass and repeat over and over.  So far I am showing no signs of any sickness.  Hand, foot and mouth usually only affects young children and infants.

            Last Wednesday was busy.  We were at grandson N’s before 6:30 a.m.  I had Men’s Bible Study from 8:30 to 9:30.  I had some lab work done before going to the doctor’s at 1.  after the doctor’s I had x-rays of both knees. (no results yet)  Then back to Ankeny to pick up greats from schools.  Had supper and pie at Village Inn with friends.  Ella worked 5 to 8.  I worked getting stuff around in the trailer until I left for Worship Committee meeting from 7 to 8 p.m. We hadn’t been home long when we got a call from other friends that wanted to meet us at Village Inn for pie.  So we went back for more pie.

            On Thursday, after spending the day move stuff in and out of trailers, friends took us to supper at Ryan’s steak house.

            Friday was just more moving stuff.

            Saturday Ella worked in the morning while I did more moving stuff.  In the evening we went to church for the Praise Service.  We were home and in bed by seven.

            Sunday, Ella worked this morning. I went to Sunday school and church.  I fixed a quick stew from leftovers when I got home from church before Ella was off work.  After lunch we did some shopping and are now home at wishing I had taken a nap instead of shopping.

            There!  All caught up … I think.