Telephone call

Right after lunch I checked my e-mails for the first time today and immediately read a message from cousin Paul. He had learned about the death of "Fritz" Berning and was passing the information on to his siblings.

Not much later, as I was still sitting at the computer, the phone rang and I began a long conversation with Leila (Berning) Judt, the younger sister of Fritz. I believe she said she found my phone number in a copy of the Indiana insert in the LWML Quarterly.

She had visited her brother in the nursing home just a few days previous to his death and I think she was happy that she had since she said it had been a few months since seeing him. Fritz had fallen on black ice and suffered a concussion in 2009 and had been in the nursing home since that incident. Fritz was 90 years old.

I learned from Leila that her husband, Wayne, had passed earlier this year. She told me that she met Wayne when she went to one of the semi-weekly dances at the Hayloft. Fritz would take her to the dance and when she and Wayne began dating, he would take her home. She even remembered that it only cost 50 cents for admission.

I asked her about the time she and her brother went trick or treating as I had reminisced on that event not long ago. She recalled that Fritz talked her into going with him. He wanted to stop at the home of a girl or two he knew and had already decided he would be silent so no one would recognize his voice. Leila was the voice for the two of them. At this time, he had not yet met Florence who eventually would become his wife and survives.

Interestingly, at 80 years of age, Leila thought about taking driving lessons after Wayne passed since she had never learned. But she decided against it and no longer has a car.

In addition to bringing me up to date on many family members, she also mentioned that when searching for photos of Fritz for the funeral home, she found one of me. I expressed curiosity and she said she would mail it to me. Since I don't have many photos from my childhood, I'm looking forward to eventually getting the photo.

Since I was on the phone for a long time, I finally started typing an e-mail to my cousins while talking and sent it to them confirming some of the details on the passing of Fritz Berning.

UPDATE: When we came home at noon today, Thursday, Nov. 29, there was a voice mail message from Leila. She had just seen an old photo album of her deceased sister, Tillie, that was in the hands of her nephew Norman. Apparently there are some photos of my family in the album. She eventually plans to retrieve those photos and send them to me. That should be an interesting day!

One month to Christmas

Thanksgiving was early this year and today is November 25, only one month until Christmas. I'm sure it will be a very busy 30 days.

I started off the week by going to the early service today. I was scheduled to be a Scripture reader. The two readings were easy and very short. Today is also known as the Last Sunday of the Church Year. I found it rather odd that the Gospel reading for today was from John 18:28-40, a section of the passion story that we usually hear during the season of Lent.

The sermon highlighted Augustus Ceasar as one of the world's greatest rulers and leaders. The era he ruled was known as the Pax Romana. During his reign, Jesus was born and is even a greater leader. In the Scripture reading He confessed to Pontius Pilate that he was a king. He rules three kingdoms: the kingdoms of power, grace and glory. As our king, we need to ask what kind of a subject are we?

The Colts played at home defeating the Buffalo Bills. It wasn't a high scoring game but TY Hilton returned a punt for a touchdown, the first Colt to do this since 2007. This is one area the Colts have never excelled in.

Thanksgiving Weekend 2012

Since no one was interested in Black Friday shopping we decided to visit the Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art. We arrived shortly after opening and our first stop was the Jingle Rails exhibit. A good sized crowd was already there. Everyone seemed to enjoy the rails and then we visited some of the other galleries before heading to lunch.

I've posted photos of our visit to the Eiteljorg and the Jingle Rails exhibit on Flickr.com.

Later in the evening Nancy, Dustin, Kylie, Josh and Jayden joined us for our evening meal. I got out our set of dominoes since Jayden, 5 years old, was wanting something to play with. He caught on pretty fast. The photos also show some of the action at the dominoes table. All too soon we bade the Martins and Kidwells good night and sat down to watch some TV.

Before long we had other visitors. David, Carla, Rebecca and Joel (see photo set) had been in Plainfield (only a short distance away) visiting Carla's sister. They were on their way home to Mt. Prospect, IL and had a long drive ahead of them but it was great to see them even though for only a short visit. Joel, a sophomore, had grown several inches since we saw him last spring!

This morning Karen told of hearing a strange noise at the window in the bedroom (she had opened the window for fresh air). We'll never know what caused the noise but she suspects it might have been a raccoon who was looking for a place to spend the night.

Before they left I suggested the Scafidis take the detour around the SR39 construction rather than heading east on I-70 to Indianapolis. They packed their bags and we hugged and said "goodbye." Thanksgiving 2012 was history and now we have only our memories of a fun weekend.

Thanksgiving 2012

Thanksgiving morning began with final preparations for dinner. The turkey was ready for roasting by 12:30. Finished setting the table and here's a quick view of the final result.

Our guests rolled in from Illinois about 3:30 and we enjoyed some snacks and relaxing but soon it was time to for our Thanksgiving meal. First, we posed for a group photo.

Back Row: Ray, Veronica & Bob Zielke
Front Row: Me, Carl, Laura & Karen Scafidi

After dinner, we watched some TV, visited some more and made plans for Friday morning. 

Thanksgiving preparations

Yesterday I finished my shopping list and have the thanksgiving table mostly ready. After supper Ray took some garbage out to the garage and a few minutes later rang the doorbell which was a signal that he wanted me to come and see something.

Turned out he wanted me to open the door since he couldn't get back into the house from the garage. There isn't a lock on the handle for this door. I soon realized that I couldn't open it from my side and he couldn't from his side. When he went into the garage, Ray thought he heard something snap when he closed the door. We could see no way to retract the bolt that usually retracts when holding down or turning the door knob. To make a long story short, we spent about two hours working trying various things and were finally able to open the door. Kind of lost track of the number of times we walked out through the front door around to the garage and back again into the house.

I had a grocery shopping trip planned this morning and Ray came along and went to Lowe's to purchase a new door knob assembly kit. Is that what they are called? While I was putting away the groceries and working in the kitchen on tomorrow's menu, he was able to install the door knob but did have to call technical support and, once again, we have a fully functional door into the garage.

Just a short while ago, I added a brine solution to our turkey. Since Ray's sisters and husbands and Laura won't arrive until late afternoon, I don't plan to begin roasting the bird until about 1 o'clock. I've made a list of what I need to do so when I get up I have a plan. Should be a beautiful and warm day tomorrow. This morning the fog was very heavy. I'm glad we didn't plan to go to the Rec Center. We couldn't even see across the water to the trees on the other side of our small lake.

Visiting Preschool

Kylie's 5-year-old son is in a Pre-K class at Concordia. A couple of days ago she invited Ray and me to the Preschool Thanksgiving Feast. This is a tradition for the Preschool when parents, grandparents and siblings can all come to school.

Actually, the get-together was in the church Fellowship Hall, not in the regular classroom (the church's former parsonage). We went to the Rec Center, did a quick shower and change and headed to Greenwood. When we arrived most everyone was there and it was a beehive of activity. There was a craft table for the children and some other toy areas to keep them occupied. Each child was invited to help for a few minutes in the kitchen. I think most of them helped make crescent rolls.

Before long, the teacher gathered all the students and they "sang" or recited a couple of Thanksgiving verses. She then introduced a Greenwood Public Librarian who read several stories to the children and had them participate in several group activities. It was a very nice program.

By then the food was ready and we had a lovely meal which included some of the leftovers from the Anniversary dinner the day before. We were able to sit with Kylie, Josh and Jayden and had a nice visit with them. The weather was beautiful today and should continue for a few more days until the next cold front comes through.

Church Anniversary

Today we celebrated Concordia's 56th anniversary. It's been a tradition for many years to have a church dinner as part of the annual celebration. This year the women of the congregation were invited to prepare the dinner. I arrived about 30 minutes early and met Sue who was already there and we put the pork loins in roasters and added a marinade and cumin and then went to the early church service.

Our pastor began his sermon mentioning that he had met with a lady earlier in the week who had just returned from a trip to China where she was consulting about something to do with education. While in China she attended a church service and related that the citizens of the small town she was in stood in line around the block in order to get into the church service. Do we see that happening in the U.S.?

The sermon then continued with another story. This was about a little boy who spent months building a model ship. When spring came he took it to a nearby body of water to launch it. Unfortunately, he hadn't thought of one thing. He didn't have a way to retrieve his boat--there was no line attached. Sadly, it soon was out of sight. Sometime later, he saw his model in the window of a shop and learned that it was for sale. He earned the money and purchased it--the second time. We are like that--God has made us and then he bought us with the death of Jesus paying for our many trespasses.

After the service I was back in the kitchen with many helpers to finish preparation for the anniversary meal. Besides the pork loin we had baked hash brown potatoes, green beans, rolls, cranberry sauce, applesauce and a wide assortment of desserts. We served about 108 people and had plenty of food leftover. Several of us delivered a meal to homebound members on our way home. I'm sure it was appreciated.

The Colts were in New England for a game with the Patriots and we were pleased that the game didn't begin until 4:30. We were home in plenty of time to see the beginning. The first half was fairly close and the Colts played well. The second half, not as good. In fact, the Patriots scored two touchdowns in 61 seconds and for a short while the team looked like the rookies they actually are.

I have some photos that I had hoped to include in this post, but I'm getting an unusual message from "Blogger" so I'll have to figure that out later. For now, it's almost time for bed. It's been a long day.

First Snow!

 Yes, it's official. We had our first snowfall of the season. It was hard to measure as it melted about as fast as it came down. According to the weather report at noon today, the meteorologists at the airport resorted to measuring the amount of snow that fell on a car because the ground was too warm and the snow melted. They reported 0.2 of an inch for today.

I didn't actually see any snowflakes in the air. We were in a cycling class where there are no windows but when we left the building later, we could see some melting snow on our car. When we arrived home we saw evidence in the garden where the rays of the sun had not melted the white stuff. Also, the photo shows most of the piles of grass and leaf clippings that Ray dumped there the last two days. Eventually the piles will be spread and rototilled into the soil.

I count more than a half dozen piles of grass/leaf clippings

Indian Summer Again

The last several days have been awesome with some beautiful weather. I cleaned the dead foliage from several Hosta plants and Ray spent two days mowing the lawn and vacuuming leaves and unloading huge piles in the garden. (I hope to get a photo of the garden tomorrow since I didn't think of it today.) After he finished mowing, he exchanged the mower deck for the front end loader and we're ready for snow plowing, but we hope that that's not necessary for a long, long time. In fact, I don't think Ray had to plow snow last winter.

I was busy the last two days cleaning windows that weren't finished when I began the job a while back. That being said, I just remembered there are four small windows in the basement that I haven't tended to. Maybe I can get to that tomorrow.

For several years I've been wanting to spiffy the kitchen's back splash. A week ago we stopped at Menard's and found some wallpaper that we liked. Yesterday I finished the project. Here's the result of my efforts but I didn't get a "before" picture.

First, used "falling leaves" wallpaper
and then a border of apples

Today's sermon was about the widow's mite. The pastor began his sermon asking "What is our purpose in life?" For many it is a big house, cars, lifestyle, etc. when it should be to glorify God and serve others.

After the service I stopped at the mall to redeem two coupons I won at my last two races and came home with a new pair of running shoes. Who said running was an inexpensive way to keep fit? Have you priced a pair of Nike shoes lately? The price tag read $110 and I was happy to use my $35 certificates to save a little money.

We didn't have a Colt's game to watch this afternoon but I turned on the Broncos/Panther game because it just seems right to have a football game playing in the background on a Sunday afternoon. The Colts had a great win last Thursday evening against Jacksonville. The Jaguar's only win of the season was against the Colts early in September. Andrew Luck and Reggie Wayne are having a great season and some of the other young players are doing very well also. Could the team make the playoffs? Wait and see.

Election Day 2012

On a happy note, we won't have to hear all the senate campaign commercials anymore. They just about dominated the airwaves the last month or so. Plus the commercials for governor. I think the only ones who enjoyed the commercials were the TV stations. Their bottom line must be looking good at this time of year.

Four years ago we took advantage of early voting because I knew I would be busy on election day. This year we waited until election day. We passed the polling place on our way to the Rec Center but saw a large number of cars in the parking lot and decided we would stop on our way home. At noon, the parking lot was very crowded and the lines inside the building long, so we went home for a couple of hours. We returned at 2:30 and found the lines were still long and, for some reason, not moving. Finally, we registered and got into another line. We have three precincts voting in the same building but nobody had to stand outside. About 70 minutes after arriving we were on our way home. Not too bad a wait.

Now we wait again...for the results.

Mission Accomplished!

The 5th Indianapolis Monumental Marathon & Half-Marathon was held this morning with the start at 8 a.m. I've run in all five Half-Marathons and it was interesting to observe how the event has grown over the years. There were definitely more by-standers shouting and waving on the street corners than in the first year. I can recall the first year when heading to the finish line with about three miles to go and not many runners nearby. However, today it was much different. I was surrounded by runners all the way.

The weather was supposed to be dry and cool (low 30s) but the weatherman changed the prediction to possible spotty showers. Fortunately, I finished before any rain fell. The full marathoners probably did get wet.

With about two miles to go, traffic control moved all the half-marathoners to one lane. The other lane was cleared for the first marathoner! This dude finished a full marathon in less time than it took me to do the half! My official time was 2 hrs 19 minutes 17 seconds which is about 7 minutes slower than last year. I guess I'm slowing down more than I care to admit.

The clocks have been moved back an hour. We won't have to leave in the dark tomorrow morning, but dusk tomorrow will seem much earlier. I guess winter is approaching.

Ray has had a fun afternoon and evening. He's been switching back and forth between college football games and the Indiana Girl's High School Volleyball Championships. There were four championships in all and he watched two of the matches with both going to 5 games each. Bishop Chatard won in 3A defeating Yorktown and Avon was the 4A champion over Carmel. Notre Dame had an unbelievable finish to remain undefeated in football.