Rummage Sale 2018

It is only a two-day sale but takes nearly a week to prepare for. Thankfully, we had many volunteers who worked Monday through Thursday and by Friday morning we were ready. Buyers were lined up at the front door about 30 minutes before we planned to open the doors. We had a steady stream of customers until 2 p.m when we locked the doors for the day. Saturday's thundershowers probably kept some people away, but we still had people visiting hoping to find a bargain or treasure.

Pictured are a few of our 30 volunteers

I managed to get to the gym every morning and then volunteered at the rummage sale in the afternoon by helping to sort the clothing donations. It's a big challenge with our allocated space to show the clothing so customers are able to see what we have. I've worked in this area for the last two or three years and we now do a better job than previously. There were several who put in more hours than me and helped with the set-up of racks and poles to hang the clothes. We also had donations of dozens of hangers that will help with next year's sale.

When the sale was over at 2 p.m. on Saturday the big clean-up began. We had a great crew who knew what to do and thanks to a large supply of banana boxes, we boxed up all the leftover clothing and household goods which were delivered by van and truck to a local charity for their outreach program. Ray came to help and by 3:30 we were headed home. I don't know how long it took for the final cleanup but it shouldn't have been more than an hour.

There wasn't much time for other endeavors last week but we did spend an hour at the football field for Jayden's second game on Wednesday evening. He played when his team was on defense. Even though they didn't score they did make at least two first downs and are learning to move the ball. Again, the opponents seemed stronger and could execute plays but they did fumble too and lost possession once or twice so they weren't perfect.

Football

Tomorrow evening the Colts play their second pre-season game against the Baltimore Ravens at home. In their first game vs the Seahawks, the Colts played well and won. With football in the news fall can't be that far away.

In fact, yesterday we enjoyed watching Jayden play his first game. He's 10 years old and seemed small compared to some of the older kids. His team, Notre Dame, played Navy and lost. Notre Dame wasn't able to score any points as the Navy team seemed better prepared or had older and more experienced players. Every team and player has to start somewhere so we hope to see improvement in the coming weeks. The schedule includes 10 games and concludes by the end of September. I'm sure we'll be attending some of them.

Kylie and other parents make last-minute equipment adjustments

Away from the action, #11 blocking the Navy player

 #11 Jayden behind #10 

As mentioned last week, the women at church served our second funeral luncheon in two weeks on Wednesday. The rest of the week I was busy playing pickleball, bridge, and quilt knotting.

The End

This past week we watched the final episodes of two shows that we recorded weekly since their inception. As I recall, we began watching both Nashville and Scandal the same year and now six years later they both have ended. I'm not sure how many episodes we watched. Too many! Ray gave up on the last season of Scandal but I stuck with it to the end. Scandal was wacky and weird and sometimes hard to figure where they were going with the show. As for Nashville, we especially liked the two young girls, Maddie & Daphne who are sisters in real life (Lennon & Maisy Stella, 18 & 14 years old). The final scene was a nice tribute to all the people who worked on the show. Now we are concentrating on America's Got Talent with the first live show tomorrow evening.

We had an unexplained puddle in our laundry room a few days ago. You'd think the culprit would be the washing machine but there was no water near it. The only logical explanation is that the sprinkler head in the ceiling must have released a small amount of water but why? We were able to mop it up with some old towels but a day or two later we came to the realization that it must have been the sprinkler. There is no other explanation that we can think of.

I help with a luncheon last Friday for the family of a long time church member who died at the age of 86. Years ago, after his wife died, Ernst was a frequent luncheon visitor to our home. He and Ray enjoyed visiting and walking around our 10-acres. Now we are planning another funeral this week for the family of a 90-year-old woman. Some of the same helpers will be able to serve in the kitchen for which I'm grateful.

On Saturday evening we were back at church for the second annual Corn Hole Tournament. We didn't have as many as last year but the weather was very nice.

Four sets of corn hole boards ready for the tournament

The winners received a solar powered butterfly
Dick was the novice champion and Ray the competitive winner 

We returned home just in time to see the sunset. If I'd been a few minutes earlier I may have even captured a larger sun. Unfortunately, we didn't stay up late or get up in the middle of the night to see the annual meteor shower. I heard that this year the moon's position didn't add ambient light and made for a great opportunity to see "shooting stars."

A few minute earlier the sun was huge as it neared the horizon

Ray and I returned to Victory Field yesterday afternoon for the second time this summer for a baseball game between the Indianapolis Indians and the Pawtucket Red Sox, a Triple-A team based in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. We actually had second-row seats just opposite third base but the sun was shining and was very warm so we sat in seats under the canopy and luckily no one claimed them. The Indians started off the game with a home run and were leading 5-2 when we left. We heard today they lost 9-5. 

Last evening I was back at church for the third day in a row. This time we assembled school kits for Lutheran World Relief and filled 29 cloth backpacks with donated items including notebooks, pencils, pens, an eraser, pencil sharpener, a scissor, ruler and a box of crayons. We didn't have any shipping boxes so I'm planning to visit some stores that give away corrugated boxes and then we'll be able to get them to Fort Wayne for shipping to the Maryland warehouse sometime in October.

August has arrived

It's been kind of a busy week and a bit out of routine. For the first time in a very long time, we used umbrellas! We didn't mind because the Tuesday rain was needed. We walked with umbrellas to our clubhouse workout room since the gym we usually go to was closed for its annual cleaning. The clubhouse workout room replaced some equipment earlier this year and added a few new items but we seldom use it preferring instead to go to our familiar haunts. It's nice to know the clubhouse is an option if needed.

On Wednesday afternoon, we met the Peach Truck as did dozens of others to purchase a 25-lb case of Georgia peaches. I divided the case with six other people. The peaches needed a few days to ripen on the counter and as I write this a peach cobbler is baking in the oven. I'm even getting some aroma from the kitchen. Wish I could pass it on.

Surprisingly, I made the list of high scorers for 2018. Every week at the end of our bridge game the highest score is posted on a 52-week chart. Some weeks the high might be around 3,000+ but I was fortunate to score about 5,800. Ray was third with 5,100 which might have earned him "high scorer" many other weeks.

Yesterday we drove to Naperville Illinois to celebrate the 50th birthday of our niece, Laura. Her sister hosted the party on a perfect but warm day in their backyard.

Many friends and relatives came to celebrate

Ray & Laura always enjoy a match of corn hole

We were home by 10 p.m. and are a bit sleep deprived today. To avoid Illinois toll roads we found a new route to and from Naperville exiting I-65 at Roselawn and heading west to Illinois. We missed one turn on our way there and lost some time. But our return home was much smoother and we hardly encountered any traffic using the lesser used highways until we were back in Indiana and on I-65 for the last leg of our day trip.