A Week of Serving

Shortly after returning home from Alabama, I started preparing for VBS. My assignment was to maintain a list of the children and keep track of attendance. I also duplicated the letters that each child took home at the end of the morning. We had a great crew of volunteers including young teens through septuagenarians like myself and my co-worker at the registration table. When I had a free moment I took quite a few photos. It is hard to pick a favorite. The ones I'm posting are from the Thursday night program.

Our youngest children

Every song had actions

After only four days, the children had perfected the motions

The oldest group included future 5th & 6th graders

Not everyone was able to attend the Thursday evening program due to other commitments. I'm not sure why, but we definitely had lower attendance than in previous years.

I had hoped to attend the LWML convention in Albuquerque this past weekend, but earlier this year that hope faded because of timing and other plans we have for the summer. Fortunately, all sessions are available through live streaming so I've been sitting at my computer watching most of the sessions. The convention adjourned this noon but all the sessions are archived. Watching an archived session is even better since you can fast forward through sections that aren't of interest.

Greenwood celebrates with a "Freedom Festival" on the last Saturday of June with a parade and many vendors who set up booths in a local park. The evening ends with fireworks. We haven't been to the Freedom Festival since moving back to Greenwood two years ago. We figured that traffic would be horrific if we parked too close so we decided to watch the fireworks from another park, several miles away from the originating point. This park has a huge hill that is used for sledding in winter. We took our chairs and jackets (it was getting cool) and hiked to the top to await dark and see the fireworks. We kept looking to the west as the sun began sinking and finally got a photo I really like.

Sunset while waiting for darkness and fireworks

We saw fireworks in the distance at several different locations, but not the ones we had hoped to see. I guess we were too far away. We drove home about 10:10 with the thought that next year we'll park a little closer.

2017 National Senior Games #4

Our time in Birmingham is fast coming to an end. As I mentioned earlier we are staying with Sue and Tsu-Hsing Lin. They provided us with scuffs that we wear in the house, leaving our shoes by the door. We've learned to take a moment to change footwear whenever we enter or leave the house. They even offered new scuffs when they thought the original ones they offered us were too small.

The new star spangled scuffs

Our hosts were very friendly and were happy to suggest places to visit. At the present time, they have another guest, a single guy from Spain who has been staying with them for several months as his employer moves him around the country frequently. We shared a bathroom with David but that hasn't caused any annoyances.

Tsu-Hsing used a selfie stick to take this photo of the four of us.

This has been our home for the past week.

Today being Sunday, I attended the Lutheran Church of Vestavia Hills, an LCMS congregation. The service this morning was the closing program for their VBS held last week. The altar area was not visible as a large backdrop was in place and many pieces of art conveying the VBS theme were in front of the backdrop. It seemed that everything was on a platform. The children were invited to the front to sing two selections along with motions. This is a fairly large congregation and I learned they support schools and children in Uganda and someone else serving in Nicaragua.

The lady sitting in my pew sidled over and spoke to me before the service. After the service another woman struck up a conversation and I learned she grew up in Indianapolis. In the parking lot another friendly woman saw our Indiana plates and she, too, grew up in Indiana. Small world for sure and friendly southern hospitality!

When I first entered the church, near the fellowship area, I noticed they had a coffee set up which is a welcoming site to visitors and members alike. I elected to attend the 10:30 service, but I would have met different folks if I had attended the 8 a.m. service and maybe it would have been more traditional instead of the VBS Closing Program. The pastor had a meaningful sermon on the theme "Who Are You?" and "What Do You Want?"

While I was at the service Ray filled the gas tank and stopped at Publix for a few items and when he picked me had quite a story to tell. I won't go into details as there are so many nuances, but he got turned around after the shopping trip and couldn't find the church. In the end he arrived just as the service was over and everything ended happily and I never was the wiser until he told me the story.

We enjoyed a picnic lunch at a nearby park and then went on an expedition to find some geocaches. On Saturday afternoon we had scouted out several caches but didn't have any luck. We did more research when we were back in our room and thought we might do better on our second attempt. The result is that we found four out of four today!

Many times caches are very small but the ones we found today were the opposite. This is what we discovered today:

Ziplock with blue lid

Metal tube with cap

Glass jar with all sorts of trade items

The glass jar, above, was cracked and some of the items were scattered around. Maybe some kids had found it and opened the jar and left it in disarray. Ray picked up the items and returned them to the jar and I logged the visit with a note that it needs maintenance.

We drained water from this container before replacing the
lid and returning it to its hiding place

On Monday morning we packed our bags and loaded the car as it was time to begin our journey home. But first, we managed to find another geocache and then headed to downtown Birmingham. With some time to spare, we thought we'd visit the Civil Rights Museum, but as we should have known, the museum was not open -- many museums are closed on Mondays. 

Since we had visited the Birmingham Library several days earlier and it was convenient we spent an hour or so there. We were filling our day with odds and ends as we had one more race at 6:30 p.m. We returned to the convention complex and were able to watch some badminton, table tennis and shuffleboard matches. 

The weather was threatening at 6:30 and some people seemed to think we'd have a storm, but the rain held off and the race began on time. My goal was to finish in 35 minutes and was happy with a 34:06 but could not match the racer in front of me and settled for a 5th place (out of 13). Ray also raced but there were more competitors in the 5K than in the 10K and he didn't place in the top 8 so he was happy to take my photo when the awards were given.

The top 8 in the 75-79 age group

Immediately after receiving my 5th place ribbon we headed for the car and were on our way north about 8:15 p.m. We drove to the Tennessee border and at the 6-mile exit found a motel for the night. We arrived home shortly after 2 p.m. this afternoon, June 13, having made the trip from Birmingham in 7 hours and a few minutes of driving time (455 miles). 

Not far from home, we drove through a very heavy deluge noticing that the outside temperature dropped to 67 from the high of 90. After a trip to the grocery store and doing several loads of laundry we are almost back to our regular routine. 

In 2019 the National Senior Games will be in Albuquerque but we have some time to decide if we want to participate again. We have probably participated in 10 games since 1991 when Ray went to his first one.

2017 National Senior Games #3

Friday was a non-competition day for us so we headed out mid-morning to locate a few geocaches. The first was a very easy find. The second one was a "did not find" even after we looked for 20 minutes. The clue indicated that it was tricky but I guess we aren't smart enough to figure where someone could hide a small magnetic cache.

We then headed to Aldridge Gardens, about half the size of the Birmingham Botanical Garden that we visited earlier. These gardens were the vision of Kay and Eddie Aldridge when in 1997 the City of Hoover purchased their 30 acre estate and began creating a beautiful public garden. The gardens are known for an extensive hydrangea, camellia and azalea collection and some sculpture and artwork. Aldridge patented the Snowflake Hydrangea.

The gardens are open daily and free of charge. We carried in our lunch and then took the trail around the 5-acre lake.

I assume this is the Snowflake Hydrangea

The path around the lake gave us this vista:

The photo doesn't give justice to the view that I saw when shooting through the trees.

It looks like this young family was feeding the Canada Geese.

The geese came up close expecting a treat it seems.

In the entrance plaza of the gardens we came across this large sculpture named "On the Nature of Building." The sculpture depicts one of man's oldest tools, the plumb-bob, the primary element of the sculpture. The plumb-bob allowed builders from the earliest days of construction to modern buildings of today to create plumb and level structures.

On the Nature of Building by Montevallo artist Ted Metz.

We returned to our room so we could get ready for the evening's activity: The Celebration of Athletes which is a fixture of the Senior Games. But first we met Joy and Bill Brewer, from Pennsylvania, for a buffet dinner. We first met the Brewers when the games were held in the San Francisco Bay area but haven't had a chance to connect with them since.

In San Francisco, we met when we shared the home of my sister.

A special guest and athlete at the games is entertainer Pat Boone, now 83 years of age. I took a photo from quite a distance and, of course, it is blurry. Pat plays basketball and his team was still in contention as of last evening.

He sang his biggest hit:
Love Letters in the Sand

This morning the 10K Road Race was held in downtown Birmingham. I would like to compliment the organizers for one of the better run events: they had several water stops and cold towels with apples, bananas and bagels and peanut butter after the race. The race started at 7:30 with a temperature, I'm guessing, about 70 degrees. At the top of my age division, I didn't foresee a chance to make the podium, so I'm happy to get 7th place with a time of 1:14.

The big surprise of the morning was Ray's finish in the 80-84 age division. The preliminary results listed him as 4th place but when the awards were presented he learned he had the bronze medal, his second of these games! Hooray!

2017 National Senior Games #2

On Thursday morning we left for the track shortly after 7:30 enjoying the cool air and almost wishing for a jacket. Ray's 1500 meter race was the second of the day. He did not medal and was disappointed but he had a premonition that he might not. No one can take back the bronze from Tuesday's race; it's his to keep and treasure.

After the race we almost had a whole day ahead of us. Ray took a shower and packed a lunch and we headed out to find a geocache. The GPS took us to a parking area behind an apartment complex. We searched for a while but couldn't find anything. As you may know the GPS is accurate to within plus or minus 50 feet of the cache. We were about to give up when one of the residents wandered by and asked what we were doing. At that point Ray was looking in a tree and he might have thought we were looking for fruit or who knows what. We explained about geocaching and then mentioned that the cache we were looking for was named "Tyler's Pot O'Gold." After a bit, this friendly fellow realized we were just a few feet from Gold's Gym but we couldn't actually see it because we were at the bottom of a rather steep bank at the back of the gym's parking lot. The lightbulb moment made this a special find as we took a less steep path to the cache and immediately located it. Five minutes later as we drove away, we stopped to thank the dude because we would not have found it without his help. Southern hospitality!

We drove downtown and found a parking meter and sat on a ledge to eat our picnic lunch in Linn Park. We'll return to the area on Saturday for the Road Race.

Nina Miglionico

This lady was short of stature as the plaque reads but had a huge influence in Birmingham. She earned a law degree in 1936 and became one of the first women in Alabama to establish her own practice which she continued for 73 years until her death in 2009 at the age of 95.

As we were leaving the downtown and passing by the Museum of Art, Ray noticed that there was no admission charge. We made a quick turn around and even had free parking in a lot next to the museum. We were surprised at the broad collection the museum houses and it was certainly worth our time to stop and visit.

Outdoor Sculpture

Patrons are invited to sit (but not climb) on this sculpture in the
museum's gallery of modern art.

On our way home we stopped at another location hoping to find another geocache and, again, almost gave up when Ray checked the top of a chain link fence for the second time and realized the magnetic cache was there! 

2017 National Senior Games

I'm sitting down to write this at the end of our third day in Birmingham. I know that this post about our stay in Alabama could get very long if I waited until we returned home, so I'm recapping the past several days while I can remember the details. Birmingham is a beautiful city covered with trees and hills, lots of traffic and an interesting place to visit.

We began our journey south Monday morning, June 5, leaving shortly after 7 a.m. Interestingly, Birmingham is almost directly south of Indianapolis yet it is in the Central Time Zone which gave us an hour extra on our journey, but we'll lose that advantage when we return home.

I took a shift driving when we reached Kentucky and at the same time it began raining and rained all the way to our destination with an occasional time out but the clouds never cleared and the rains continued. We stopped at the Birmingham-Jefferson Convention Complex (BJCC) to pick up our credentials and watched some pickleball being played in the same complex. The University of South Dakota has had a booth at the Senior Games for quite a few years and we stopped in as they did evaluations on mobility, hand strength and a few other areas. Since I've participated at the last several Senior Games I can compare results from past years and see where I'm losing capacity or maintaining it.

We then headed to the home of Sue and Tsuhsing, our hosts, who are renting us a room. We found them on the Airbnb website. They are from Taiwan and have lived in the U.S. since the '80s and have raised three children who are adults living in other parts of the U.S. We have kitchen privileges and are taking advantage of this so we don't have to purchase every meal out. Not that we are doing a lot of cooking -- just making sandwiches and breakfast and other simple meals.

Before calling it a night, we drove to the site of Tuesday's 5K racewalk and found it easily using our GPS. It was still raining off and on when we went to bed but on Tuesday morning the rain had eased as we made our way to the race site. The older women had already started their race when we arrived, but soon it was sprinkling and then raining harder and harder. Fortunately, it was not a thunderstorm but just a good heavy downpour.

When Ray's race, Men 75 and older, began it was still raining maybe even harder. The course was a 1K loop that they had to traverse five times. The puddles on the course were getting deeper as the time went on, but finally it was over and Ray kept watching the DQ board hoping he wouldn't get the third call--he had two red cards. Fortunately, he didn't and shortly after that awards were given to the women and then to the men. I think Ray was a little surprised to get a Bronze medal. There were only four finishers in his age division, with three being disqualified.

5K medalists

Wednesday was a free day and we enjoyed a beautiful, sunny day without rain! Our first stop was Vulcan Park and Museum. The temperature was delightful as we approached the park. Vulcan Park is home to the world's largest cast-iron statue sitting atop Red Mountain where we had great views of the city and learned about the history of iron in Birmingham. Vulcan is the Roman god of fire and forge. The small museum depicts the iron industry that was important to the city in its early days.

The statue is 56 tall atop the tower where you can either take the stairs or ride the
glass enclosed elevator to the observation deck for another view of the city.

View of the city (not from the high observation deck)

This represents the strata that we were standing on: sandstone, iron ore, sandstone & limestone

Our next stop was the Birmingham Botanical Gardens with 67 acres of natural beauty and many walking paths and special gardens. Of course, the spring plants have already bloomed but we enjoyed the diversity of the gardens.

Is this a Rose of Sharon? From the Hibiscus family?

Leaf from a Large Leaf Magnolia (picked up from the ground)

Earlier in the day we easily found a geocache (#50 since we began several years ago) but were not successful when we tried to locate a second one. We walked through the campus of Samford University and found an Einstein Bagel in the library for an afternoon break and also located the track and field complex for the 1500 meter racewalk Thursday morning.

June Arrives in Splendor

We have had a span of beautiful weather to begin the month. The skies are blue with fluffy clouds, warm temps, light breeze and no rain. Last Monday when we drove south to North Vernon I noticed one field of corn where the plants were doing well, maybe 8 inches tall. I don't think I could find a field in Johnson County with corn plants nearly that tall. It is really rare to see fields just sprouting this late in the spring and it's all because of the rain during the month of May.

We finally decided it was time to turn the switch on our thermostat and now we have air conditioning for the first time this spring. I'm sure this may be the latest we've waited to turn on the AC. There were a few warm days interspersed with cool ones when we might have enjoyed a cooler room, but ceiling fans helped on the occasional hot days.

I continue to enjoy digital scrapbooking and last month I finished a page that I've put off for a long time. My plan is to do a companion page to tell in detail the story of how we knew each other. I haven't started the page or set a deadline but I need to so that I can move on to other pages.

Gloria's funeral was January 26, 2016

Did I mention a while back that we're going to the National Senior Games? The games have already started (June 2-15) and we're heading to Birmingham in the morning for our competitions. Updates to come!