Month: August 2023

This is a test of creating a post with a picture.

At the beginning of a new paragraph, Type / and then select Image. Then click on Upload. Find the photo on the computer. Either double click on its filename, or single click then click on Open. Wait until the spinning wheel stops while the file is being uploaded from the computer to the blog server. When the spinning wheel stops and the picture shows up clear in the post, you’re done. To add more text below the picture, click on the + below the right corner of the picture and select Paragraph. To add another picture, click on + and choose Image. Click on Publish to make the post live. Have fun. Once you’re done learning how to do this, on the right side of the vertical menu, next to Visibility, click on Public. Click the circle next to Private. A pop-up will ask if you want to Privately publish the post, click on OK. Now you and I can still see it (because we’re Administrators) but the public won’t see it. Have fun.

I guess this sounds silly, but I do love to play with little kids in church… Today, in a beautiful small basilica in Las Cruces, New Mexico, a family of pregnant mom, dad, young girl (about 8 years old?) and 3 boys (maybe 8 to 2 years old) moved in next to me at church. For some people this might have been a reason to move, but for me it was an “oh my gosh how cute” moment, and “oh my goodness, she’s pregnant again?” I moved my large new straw hat with flowers that Chuck bought for me at the market to give room to mom, and one little boy instantly took an interest in the flowers on the hat. I showed him the flowers stitched into the straw and then proceeded to pay attention to the readings. As the homily was winding down, I handed my journal and pen over to the little guy and showed him I meant it is OK for him to draw on it. He proceeded to draw a big careful circle, another circle… a few things that looked like feet…. not sure. I figure him at about 4 and he had amazing control of that pen. I took the journal back and wrote “Beautiful” and his mom wrote, “a tractor by Max.” A tractor? OK so the boys are farmer’s children? Good big round tractor. Children just need to be played with. Meanwhile… this reminds me of the need to care for little ones… On 3 separate days, I have rescued 2 small beatles and a small spider from the pool I was swimming in. The beatles and the spider were sitting stunned in the water in front of me, and, wondering if I might get bitten, I scooped them up and walked over to the edge of the pool. Dump them on the pool deck and say, “shoo, you are OK!” The spider was the funniest. He lay still and then he began shaking out his legs, one, two, three, etc. Finally, all dry, he made his first jiggly step, and he was off. Just a little hand up from a bigger friend is all the little ones need. I’m off to the pool now. It’s a sunny day in Las Cruces. God bless us.

I was just writing to a friend that I can’t believe we will be out on the road for 4 months!!!! Today we left Fort Stockton, Tx and drove west through flat, brown, dusty, barren land… no cows, no planted fields… and landed 4 hours later in Las Cruces, New Mexico. The land in Texas is flat, and then suddenly El Paso raises her head with expressway interchanges! We saw amazing tight expressways like this in San Antonio also… Actually Interstate 10 is the old trail between San Antonio and El Paso with Forts along the way (like Fort Stockton and Fort Davis) to provide protection for travelers and settlers. So we drove… OUT of Texas and into New Mexico. The hotel is somewhat old but the rooms are large and there is a pool! We drove around Las Cruces looking for a lunch place on a map we got from the front desk. Everything on the menu had green chiles! “Ah”, I thought, “Patience… there must be something without chiles.” There was: mac and cheese with grilled sirloin. OK can do. The air conditioning quit on the way back to the hotel! There is a Chevy dealership next door to the hotel so we unpacked into our room and off Chuck went to the dealership. Today is Friday… maybe it will be finished tomorrow (Saturday). One learns patience on vacation! Tomorrow will take a lot of patience!

How many of us have the chance to just “hang out, relax, and enjoy each other’s company.” Chuck and I drove into Stockton and I did an evaluation of where we are and when we are due in Tucson… “We have time!” I mused… We need to find a place to “wait”. The hotel we found has a nice pool, good breakfast, clean rooms… the “town” is quaint with a Catholic church with daily Mass, 2 barbeque restaurants, … and 3 saloons! Oh boy! Last night, we found an old time saloon with barrels holding up a lovely bar. We drank a Texas-made wine and enjoyed it. Chuck enjoyed a big fat Texas cigar! We decided to enjoy one more day before getting back on I10 and heading for Las Cruces.

At daily Mass the priest looked around before starting, he leaned over the altar and pointed at me! “Hello,” he said. “You are visiting, yes? Welcome! Tell us about yourself.” I stood up and introduced myself, “Sue Peabody, Lake Placid Florida, grateful you are having daily Mass! Moving on to Tucson!” They clapped!!! It’s the second time I’ve been welcomed at church with applause. Church goers welcome new friends! Jesus is waiting for us. He is even holding dinner for us! And… We get a daily totally non-political message. Yesterday, the Gospel reading was about the farmer who paid his workers, whether they started at 9am or at 5pm… the same wage. Some of the early workers complained, “but we worked a long time and those guys only worked one hour!” The priest left the podium and walked to the pews, “God’s justice is different from ours! Are we envious and jealous? Accept the new faith Jesus offers… Give up old ways. Throw away old idols. Those who have been Baptized early in life struggle to “stay clean”, but late bloomers don’t have to struggle! Sometimes they get baptized and then they die, “hired at the last minute.” God gives the gift of heaven to his children all the same! even those hired at the last minute.” Stop grumbling and “Thank God.”

Finally, my friends! Entering a church is a lot like entering a room and “choosing your spot.” I sat to the left, but I was in an air conditioning draft so I moved to the right side … In the seat back with the prayerbooks was a small slip of paper. I picked it up and it read: “Let my gardens speak for me when I am gone. Let them speak in colored whispers of all the beauty I have seen, and felt, and lived. Let them speak of my seasons of growth (watered by Emmaus retreats) and seasons of abundance. Let the fragrant blooms speak of my life and its greatest lesson: that the beauty we make never dies.” God bless us!

Sunday morning on the road can be a challenge because… it’s the Lord’s day and Church is an obligation. I woke up early thinking about 9am Mass down in Pascagoula at St Peter the Apostle church, but I’m also aware of the need to drive ‘all day’, and who is driving. When I arrived at breakfast at 7:30, Chuck almost fell off his chair. Then he said, “Since we are getting such an early start, why don’t you go to 9am Mass and we will leave from there?” Isn’t the intervention of the Holy Spirit wonderful? When I entered that wonderful little church, I stood in the back and said, “Thank you Jesus!” For what? for getting me up at 7:00am? For being here? For an early 9am Mass? For this sweet church? For Chuck willing to “wait” while I go to Mass?

When has the Holy Spirit made things happen for you? You would like something to happen, but it’s a real “ask” of your partner to change a schedule, a destination, an anything… These “asks” can be hard for us, and we don’t think we can do it, but the Holy Spirit just intercedes. The little church in Pascugula was beautiful. I’ll bet 20 people greeted me. Visitors were asked to stand up and introduce themselves, and then the church family clapped and said welcome! People came to me after Mass and asked me to join this or that group! Very touching! “Thank you, but I’m westward bound!” Ask the Holy Spirit to help you on your journey!!! and say, “thank you God!”

Today we traveled 333 miles west in under 5 hours. Right after Tallahassee I started looking for “a place to stop” and I settled on Pascagoula. Ever get a taste for seafood? Well, this is the place! When we checked into the hotel we asked where we should go for seafood… “Bozos” was the answer! We ate enough shrimp, oysters, crabs, clams, and oysters to feed a large family! Now there is shrimp in our little refrigerator and I’m offering to make a shrimp sandwich for Chuck’s lunch. So goes day 2!!! I swam in a HOT pool under the equally HOT sun! I plan to find a Catholic church with an early Mass to go to before we take off west tomorrow. This is a lot easier than the wagon trains had it! God bless our fore families who made this trip on foot, horseback and wagon. Thank God they did it! Sleep well dear reader!

Day One of the Great American Peabody Adventure and what a fun time we have had so far! 302 miles in a little over 4 1/2 hours and we landed in Madison, Florida on Interstate 10. Standing at the check-in counter, I craned my neck to spot it! Yes! The pool! 95 degrees on the thermometer and a big blue pool. Hurry, hurry to the beautiful room! Change into my bathing suit and out the door to the pool. No hesitating here… Ah! a giant outdoor bathtub. It was actually cooler than 95 degrees I guess. I walked down the steps into the water, scanned the blueness, and I headed for the deep end and the shade. As I wallowed against the wall in about a foot of shade, with my back to the sun and a water jet caressing my lower back in 5 feet of cool water, it came to me what I did when I entered the pool. I scanned for depth and shade. I thought about what some of us do when we enter a new room: Do you seek the back wall and put your back to it, where you can see the door? Do you seek an air conditioning vent, or steer clear of all vents? Do you seek a quiet spot or a noisy spot? I thought about some of us always in the same place at church… Do you seek the right or left? Front or back? Do you stand and see where the A/C is blowing? For me, at St. James, it is to the right facing the altar about the 3rd row back. Since I got to Saint James, I have moved from the left side to the right. I think I can hear better over there…. What does it mean?

After my little pool exercising, we went into town and ate the Friday night special fish buffet at O’Neals. Ah! Catholics have a sway… how many fish fries are on Friday? There was a table with about 10 very happy ladies right behind us! (Chuck said, “it’s the Garden club”). I mean those ladies were laughing and telling stories and both waiters talked with them about “grandma!” Madison is a small town where everybody knows your grandma so you better behave!!!! Oh my goodness… After a plate full of grits, corn, sweet potato, ribs and chicken (oops I skipped the fish)… I headed for the cobblers. I missed the banana pudding. As we left, I nearly dragged Chuck back, as I shouted, “they have banana pudding!” Chuck rushed me out, pulling his ball cap lower on his face (big city boy style)…. We are now ready to finish our first day in our room with wine and a movie. It’s early yet… God bless us and you. Celebrate your happy day!!!

I have been honored to know some really good people in my life and Janet is one lady I’m thinking is having a good time with God right now! Janet’s family home was in the house next door to our house in Miami at Westwood Lake long before I moved in. She married and moved not far from her family home, but she returned often to swim with her children in the lake behind our houses. Janet was pregnant with one of her children at the same time her mother and her sister were pregnant. The 3 pregnant ladies played in the lake where Janet’s brother and I later played and had long talks as adults. It’s a kooky story, but my friend Mike is one of those “late pregnancies” that surprised everybody! When Chuck and I moved into the house next door, Janet had already lost her husband, Whitey, and she had moved away. Whenever I saw Janet we had such wonderful, funny, happy conversations about “the past.” Life was good, and we had nothing to complain about. I never heard a negative word from Janet. God blessed her with a sunny, beautiful personality. Janet passed away recently at age 84 after a battle with Alzheimers that saddened all of us. To watch the light slowly go out on a happy life is a slow, lingering grief. God blessed Janet with a quiet death this week.

Janet’s short life makes me wonder: What is a life well lived? It is a life spent thinking things before us are good things. Flowers are meant to be treasured and sniffed, not trampled. Clouds are meant to be clapped over, because clapping keeps the rain away. Puppies are to be cuddled, and children are to be read to. Mean-spirited people are to be shivered at and given to God. People are to seen as God’s children. All of the people, even the ones we disagree with so strongly, are God’s creations. Thank you Janet for teaching me to clap!

This is the beginning of a four month Odyssey around the United States! Celebrating the interstate road system, we will begin at almost the beginning of Interstate 10 in Lake City, Fla and travel across the bottom of the US to Tucson. This first part of our trip will be a relaxing drive across country. I hope to find good hotels every 270 to 300 miles, relax in a warm pool, eat a good meal, and sleep in a clean bed every night. Repeat. I think our whole first leg will be in desert country, ending in Arizona which I always think of as “Arid Zone.” Chuck and I are not looking forward to the heat, but our goal is a submarine convention in a large (cool) hotel in Tucson. I have warned our friends that they will not see us for 4 months! That’s a long time to be gone from home, but this trip can’t end until we witness a cousin’s wedding in Springfield, Massachusetts on December 9, 2023. We can’t get homesick and go home before December 9 because we have the wedding! So stick with me… I’ll describe the United States as I have gleefully described what we have seen before on our trips. So… sign in occasionally for this wild, “Where’s Susie?” trip.