Month: September 2020

We gathered under a poster depicting the soldier angel St Michael the Archangel with his foot on Satan’s chest. We all had our Rosary beads and we prayed on the sidewalk outside the police station at Lake Placid. I thought about this gathering in some towns in the US. It might not be peaceful. We might be jeered for supporting the police; for praying for peace. We ended the morning prayer with a rousing hymn… "God bless America." Acknowledging God as Creator and Father, we left that site in peace to return to our isolation. I thought for a moment that I got too close to several people…. Just in talking and meeting new people. It wasn’t 6 feet separating us. OH what has become of us that we cannot shake hands and hug? Sunday morning on CBS did a beautiful tribute to the baseball player who shook hands with Jackie Robinson as Jackie crossed the plate after his first home run. That handshake was the first of what didn’t happen at that time! It was 1946 and white people didn’t touch black people. Now once again, we can’t touch due to virus and I miss it! It will be a while before we can hug, and I pray for peace and a good vaccine! We lay before the Lord our necessities: Cure this land of virus. Cure this land of prejudice and hatred. It’s hard to keep faith in hard times, but we must keep looking up to the sky, to the Cross, and realize that our Creator walked on this earth and promised he is with us!!! We are reading the book of Job in daily Mass… "God it hurts," Job will say, but Job will not lose faith or disrespect God. St Peter wrote that we must cast all our cares on the Lord for he loves us. Let us enter the last month before elections with prayer for our country and our leaders. Be humble and do your jobs!!!! The rest of us: VOTE!!! God bless us.

My girlfriend Bonnie celebrated her ….. birthday yesterday! I remembered back to when we were 14 in the locker room in the gym at Southwest High School. 14 years old… debating Elvis vs the Beatles. Debating boy friends. Debating … well what do teenaged girls debate? I remember her mom coming in to tell us to get to sleep when I slept over. 14 years old… Then I met Chuck and Bonnie knew him from when they were "really young"… My Matron of Honor 50 years ago… We have kept close along with all the wedding party except George who passed away this year. Chuck and I keep friends close. Seek the old friends during this time of isolation and find out how they are doing!!! I ask Bonnie "How are you kiddo?" and she answers… "Fine". Bonnie has been through more than I have. She lost her husband while I still baby mine. But, she will survive. as we all will. It’s our job. Happy day all my "Old friends"… God bless us.

Today I joined my friends from St James and actually some others from the Baptist church which is wonderful!!! We met outside the Lake Placid Police department and prayed the Rosary asking for help from St Michael the Archangel and the mother of God, Mary, for our police… We pray that we hold on to the Joy that Jesus promises if we have faith. Have Joy because we are safe in God’s arms. He made us… Would he ever let us go?

In Luke chapter 5, Jesus orders the disciples to fish some more and they tell him they have been fishing all night and got nothing… But, he says, "Go!…" and they catch enough to sink a ship! Jesus says, "Go out into the deep", and .. because they trust God, they go. This is going to be a tough month and it is going to require a lot of prayer for us to stay sweet and sane! Remember, God pours out Grace always. Be calm. Stay sane, and be kind. God bless you!

We expanded our dock a few months ago and moved the boat lift to the other end allowing us a bigger shaded space than the original had. But as some know, when wood is laid, it needs to be sealed and perhaps colored. Chuck did as much sealer as we had and then we had to order more. It came and it sat. The shine was off the installation. The Joy was gone… So I said; "I’ll paint it." It has been SO HOT, that a morning walk wipes me OUT, but there is a tropical storm coming… maybe just a tropical depression, but it provided wind this morning. Ah! wind!!! If the sun shines here in Lake Placid, and the wind is still, we rack up temps in the high 90s. Out I went and along came Chuck to open the can. Then he proceeded to watch and advise… Soon, he thought I would fall off the dock and I said, "You are right," looking down off the narrow place I was standing…. handed him the roller and said, "if you will do this part, I can pull weeds." Now this was a Tom Sawyer of sorts, but i still had to work… I weeded the back shrubbery and cleaned up 4 orchids with some new mulch. Then into the showers. Now the big storm is coming in from the south and we will have bad weather for a day. God bless us and protect all my dear neighbors and friends.

Good morning! For our 50th Wedding Anniversary, I bought Chuck and me an American Road Trip puzzle. 1000 pieces travel from East to West, North to South, include Alaska, but not Hawaii. When we plug in the Statue of Liberty or Niagara Falls we have to talk about visiting there. As we plug in the Grand Canyon or Montana and the great Presidents on Mount Rushmore in South Dakota, we remember the drive home from Kingman Arizona with me coughing in the front seat with pneumonia. Yes, we missed the great Mount Rushmore and the beautiful Yosemite, but we have still done A LOT!!!! I think all the memories led me to consider our favorite cruises… And I came up with Aruba, Bonaire, and Curacao. Ahhh! I used to buy 2 cruises and cruise 21 days back to back. Those certainly were the old days weren’t they? I would sit at my computer and make plans; writing on 8 1/2 sheets of paper our daily drive if it was across the US, up the Mississippi or across routes 10 or 40…. Or the ways to get to and from the cruises; the events on the cruises. Ah yes, those were the days. Now it’s "shall we walk all the way to the park or walk down to the Dollar Store and back on Anderson drive?" It’s not "go to show," it’s pull weeds or work on puzzle. Buy yesterday as we sat on our dock, it was just like our balcony!!!! Only here we can see turtle noses!!!! Thank God. What’s your memory? What’s your dream for 2021? God bless us!