Author: Susie

Good morning dear friends and family. I’m so sorry if some of you got spam emails as I used the computer in hotels along the way and a friend (Katie) in New York said she got one of those spam emails from me… Was I hacked while looking up mapquests?  I don’t know, but I hope you weren’t bothered.  Speaking of Katie… we heard from Katie, Barbara and Laura in New York and Connecticut and they are well with power out only less than 2 days. Northerners are tough and they survive!   The sun has risen over Breckenridge and the sky is a baby blue with white clouds. Almost like clockwork black clouds will roll in around 1 to 2 pm and the rain threatens, but some say the rains can’t get over the mountains. Every day I go down town and sit on a beautiful "Blue River" where miners dug for gold and minerals. The river has been all restored and park benches and art work decorate the river now. I sit and watch the mountains and utter "WOW!" and try to paint the mountains, but they change minutely. Just like when I try to paint a sunset. But we must pay attention to nature and watch her for she is magnificent and God-inspired like we are.  The Continental Divide is visible from the top of the big mountain, but we have not climbed that far.  Actually we took the Gondola up, but only went half way as I was starving and wanting to eat at one of the mountain cafes.   We walk every day and Chuck has taken to going to the gym as he isn’t going to rehab anymore.  He bikes and lifts heavy things to strengthen shoulders and arms. Good for him!  I walk and walk. This town is beautiful!  We drove over to Keystone which is not a town, just a bunch of condos and ski lifts. Breckenridge is a quaint town that has wonderful stores and art galleries on Main Street, Ridge Street, and a church (St Mary’s) on French Street. I walk about 10 blocks up and down and the three blocks wide. (Like Anchorage – long and slim on streets). Today we will go out for a last lunch and then laundry and packing. We will take 3 days to get to Springfield, Mo and the Submarine convention. After that week we will drive down to La Grange to visit my Mom and Chuck will go for a week in Thomaston (the hunting camp with Dave). Then we will go home to "face the music."  I left the house all covered with much of Aunt Trudy’s furniture and boxes of her things.  We have lots of work to do, but our great country calls. I highly recommend getting into the car, gritting your teeth and forgetting $3.50 gas, and seeing America.  America is alive and well, and each individual community has real wonderful people, beautiful lakes and streams, all (people and waters) threatened by destruction and pollution, threatened by beatles eating the trees, kudzu, greed, over development, lest I overdo… threatened by politics, yet we must hope for America… Go out and thank God we live here and save a tree, hug a baby, and wade in the water. Vote responsibly and talk about God.  My dears. God bless you and God bless America. I’m off to church and then I will try to paint the mountain again. Love from Susie and Chuck on the road!!! 

Hi dear family and friends. We’ve passed over so many rivers in this cross country trip!  The Rabbit River here in downtown Des Moines looks a little low but the Des Moines looks good. Downtown Des Moines is beautiful with many condos and restaurants (downtown development).   We left Clear Lake on Sunday after a lovely boat ride and breakfast at the marina. It is so hard for me to imagine that frost will begin in a month (that is calculated on the crickets being so loud), snow fall by Hallowe’en, and ice fishing and driving on the lake by late December. We plan to be "on the water" too but it will be in a boat. I’ll be nudging Chuck along towards getting a boat in the water on Big Pine Key in Mid November as we prepare for a sunny hot Thanksgiving. No "Season of Mists and mellow fruitfulness" for this Miami/Big Pine couple. We are visiting friends Tim and Kyla who have stayed with us in Big Pine and love it down there, but Tim has to work and Des Moines is home. We are eating very well; last night we ate at an old Italian restaurant near the baseball stadium in downtown. All is well and we are watching the tropics for weather and hope the east coast of the US stays safe. Love to family and friends. Susie  

Hi dear family and friends. On holiday at Clear Lake! I’m overlooking a little harbor full of recreation boats. The sun is shining and the lake beckons. We arrived here Friday evening and boated over to an outdoor cafe and ate dinner, and then yesterday we boated over to the town of Clear Lake which was having a "Best of North Iowa" feast of ribs and other delicacies. Yum. Lots of antique shops and just fun places to explore. The sun is warm and there is a gentle breeze on the lake.  This morning so far I’ve walked and Chuck is porch sitting. We’ll boat on the lake every day and do mostly nothing. It will be grand. I went online and paid the water bill for the Miami house and all my work is done. Oh and I’m working on the first painting of the trip. We’re already "taking reservations" for Thanksgiving and expect cousin Carol from Ohio, Tim and Kyla from Des Moines, and …. we have room will accommodate, but I like to see you on the calendar. I expect to hear many Thanksgiving prayers this year.  Give thanks to our God and Father for our lives and our joy. Susie   

Hi dear friends and family from Hannibal, Missouri! While we were in Cookeville, Tn, we were looking at a map of Tennessee to try to route our way to Hannibal, and Yoel, 2 1/2 years old, pointed at the map and said, "That’s America!"  "Yes, Yoel, that is America!" I said. I was proud he was able to identify a map, and that he knows "America".  Maybe we all need to re-know America. So, I recommend a trip "up the Mississippi." On route 79 out of St. Louis, you will go through Louisiana (I discovered on this trip that the Louisiana purchase was really a 2-parter. The lower part, "Orleans," took the name of Louisiana, and left the real Louisiana to be just a town name in Missouri. They have local artists’ shops and great views of the river!America is the little town of Hannibal, population of 16,000, in folding chairs in a small town square, listening to country, Gospel, and Bluegrass music celebrating Music Under the Stars. Hannibal celebrates trains and boats (we saw many trains and hear them all night long at our B&B called LulaBelle’s). Grain and coal carried down the Mississippi costs half what carrying it on roads does… uhhh duh folks, let’s use our waterways and trains more. Our flag flies high and proud in Hannibal. We sat in chairs lent to us, and applauded 2 youths who wrote and sang songs about America in a town that is struggling like many American towns to stay alive when so many towns boast way too many "for sale" signs. The featured group in Music Under the Stars celebrated and sang America and I quote: "This is America; it’s awesome." We all need to get into the car and refind America. Try route 79 north out of St. Louis. Sing the "Highway 40 Blues", open the car windows, and buy local sweet corn. At Hannibal you will love the local charm and great food at The Abby Rose restaurant and the wine and warmth at The Wine Stoppe. Hannibal celebrates the 4th of July for 5 days! We’re off for Clear Lake Iowa tomorrow. God bless Ameirca! Good night and sweet dreams. Susie 

Hi dear family and friends. We are testing the great healing that you all prayed into Chuck and I’m the one who got us lost today… We left Cookeville, Tennessee after great visits with Renee in Orlando, the Paparellis in Atlanta and Al and Shannon in Cookeville. Headed for "The Land between the Lakes"… looked pretty easy on the map.  Can’t get there from here. Left interstate 24 and looked and looked for route 79 to take us to "The Trace" that will go from south to north in this land between the lakes to actually the headwaters of the Tennessee river. Very exciting stuff. (This magical dream land called "the land between the lakes" is just west of Nashville, Tn in case anyone wants to try to find it.)  Anyhow when we circled back to I 24 north I knew enough to say, "fagettabout it, just keep going north to Paducah, Kentucky and we’ll head for the place where we might sleep tonight, Mount Vernon". "Washington?  she’s going to Mt. Vernon, Washington?" you might ask. No. Apparently the middle of our nation just renamed places for places that already have names. Hence crossing the Ohio river from Kentucky into Illinois. Go figure. Tomorrow we will go through St Louis (crossing from Illinois to Missouri over the Mississippi river several times) and we’ll go north on route 79 to Louisiana which is a town on route 79 that is on the way to Hannibal, Missouri.  (Chuck is all afraid of being eaten by Hannibal the cannibal in that movie called Silence of the Lambs {yuck} and I assure him it is a different Hannibal).  So for tonight we are safe and secure in a Comfort Suites that gave us a nice rate for being AAA and then topped it with a 10% discount for Chuck being a retired FHP trooper for 32 years. How nice!  Yesterday we got free cake for being married 41 years.  Life is good. We’re off to a free cocktail party and then early bed as we have to enjoy the free breakfast and then possibly pancakes in Louisiana, Missouri on our way to Hannibal.  This is a great journey of "who knows where we’re going? and how in heaven’s name are we going to get there?"  Pray for Dee a lady who sweetly checked us in today, her husband is very sick. I know prayer works. Warmly to you,   Love Susie   

We have a pretty sizable Martin house in the back yard near the lake with 12 "apartments" that stay vacant over half the year while our Martin family travels across the hemisphere to Brazil. They come "home" to the lake house in February and chirp and sing, clean house, lay eggs, have babies, feed, feed, feed hungry mouths, and then…. the mothers wait patiently for the babies to learn to fly so the whole clan can fly back to Brazil. Chuck and I were away in the Keys for 10 days during this process of family growing and our neighbor Dave told us several babies jumped out to the edge of the "balcony" and …. gulp…. fell off. I considered for a moment trying to help them, but can you see me feeding hungry birds in a shoe box and doing all the stuff I have to do with the houses and to assist our dear Chuck? I couldn’t do it and anyway Dave said he couldn’t find the babies after they fell out of the nest… perhaps a hungry neighborhood cat found the babies and dispatched them in nature’s way.

So is this a blog about birds? In a sense yes, but the bigger picture is one I’ve written about before. I will never forget the first time I left Chuck "alone" in the hospital, or the evening I left him in the capable hands of Heather as he took his first flight from the nest to go to the Keys without me. …. I stood there alone in the driveway barely able to resist calling Heather on my cell every five minutes… "Is he OK? has he swooned?" He didn’t swoon and he’s fine. Last November, Chuck took a big hit to his brain that rattled him, and we all need to be aware of the horrors and dangers of simple head bumps. But the human is a remarkable machine and the brain, silent and hidden, repairs itself. So we hope. Neuro surgeons (the prima donnas of medicine)… will tell you, as ours has, they don’t know why the brain jiggled in Chuck’s case, jiggled and frazzled, swelled and was angry, but he’ll heal; so they say, "Just wait." So I stood in the driveway yesterday and waved goodbye again. This time… it was Chuck himself driving himself off to take care of some construction and renovation items, to "pay the man" who is doing the work at Trudy’s, to mow the lots and spray the weeds, and generally to get out of the nest. Chuck doesn’t know about the nest. He’s very happy to sit here at home, "perched on the balcony," waiting for his dinner. I think it was me who encouraged the solo flight. My friend Michele said he got chicken wings and I know he bought ice cream… buy one get one free… so he got two. And so I wonder, do the darlings ever think about broccoli as part of a balanced diet? If I don’t make it, it doesn’t go into that mouth. So mother birdies of my world… keep making the broccoli and let the birdies rest a while on the balcony. They’ll go, they won’t swoon, and they’ll have a good time. I’m off to do some long needed spring cleaning, clean the art room, clear some piles, and put some stuff away!!!!! Love to my family and friends from hot sunny south Florida.

Dear family and friends. Memorial Day stirs up memories. That is what it is supposed to do. I am sure Chuck was mentally out on the submarine this weekend, and I hope some of you were remembering glorious days, and some were remembering awful-glorious days at war. This last weekend Chuck and I watched "The Longest Day" about the D-Day landing at Omaha beach, and "Midway" about the sea battle when the American Navy with 3 aircraft carriers (including the Pearl-Harbor damaged Yorktown) defeated the Japanese Navy at Midway island in the Pacific. The battles, and the movies made about them, bring to mind the awful-glorious experiences of war. All war is awful and there must be a way that the "little people" – that’s us – can stop war. The movies depicted old rough and ready generals and admirals who sent men in to do dangerous duties and watched the young men die, and watched other young men take their places and go on. The victory went to the survivors… Who are the toughest, smartest, luckiest? What is luck?

About an hour ago, my neighbor interrupted my musings with her energy and she reminded me things to do. I am working on Aunt Trudy’s estate things – Trudy kept stock accounts that I am trying to move into her "trust" for distribution and also I have a room full of old pots and pans, linens, clothes and other cracked and gently used stuff from Trudy’s house that I’m trying to dispose of gently. My neighbor has been helping me with all the boxes and things. That’s what neighbors and friends do… they gently nudge us when we are stalled! I loved the words Charlotte Bronte had Catherine use in Wuthering Heights! "Heathcliff, I’m stalled!!!" Always think of our stall as a box we get put into, or a box we put ourselves into…. Ask someone to release you or to shove you out of that stall. Thank God for our energetic friends!!! Love sue

In the old days today was called Decoration Day. The women of small towns went to the city cemetaries and honored the Civil War dead. No one had a notion of the United States ever being involved in another war. Yet we were drawn into the "Last Great War" and then, much against our desires, we were drawn into a 2 front war in Europe and the Pacific. This weekend, Chuck and I are watching movies "Patton," "MacArthur," "The Longest Day," "Midway," and "12 O’Clock High" among other old war movies. Old generals direct thousands of young soldiers who fight other brave young soldiers who are directed by old generals. With these movies, we are reminded of the great awful battles of WWII. When the old generals retired they talked sadly of the horror of war, yet here we are with troops spread across Europe and the near East. I am sure that every mother today cringes when we talk of not being out of Afganistan soon. Every mother’s son or daughter is fodder for the wars we fight. Does it seem as we sing "God Bless America" that he isn’t blessing us and standing beside us? Our faith tells us he is here and he is spreading out his great wings inviting us to love our neighbor.  Let’s at least try to make a plan: what can each of us do today to avoid war and bitterness?  Go into a quiet place, look into your heart, find your spirit there. Let your spirit commune with our Great God who has seen it all, and who embraces our fallen soldiers and wants to embrace us too. God bless America  

You just don’t want to be rueful very often for it means to regret, to feel penitent, or to feel remorse. I’m the last person to ever regret things. Remorse just doesn’t pay. Except for yesterday; I was rueful. Remember those "salad" days when we were young and slim, and here’s a neat word… lithe (meaning flexible). You might wonder if Sue is feeling old today, inflexible, and remorseful? Well, a little, yes; as yesterday I was face down on the dermatologist’s couch as he burned, yes I said "burned," about 17 spots of sun damage off my back. With every "sissssst" I regretted and felt remorse over those old days of cute, little, 2 piece bathing suits worn in the sun in Miami. Covered with oil, reading a big thick book for hours, we baked a golden brown color. Now, spotted and stiff, I ask Chuck to put little gobs of soothing cream on each of my 17 burn marks. Ouch… I have to find a bright side… it isn’t freezer burn from northern winters. You should see Chuck’s face. He too felt the remorse of the dermatologist’s couch; only Chuck’s badges of courage are on his face. It’s cloudy now so I guess I can go outside and sweep my beaches. Come to sunny Miami if you dare and enjoy our back yard beach. We’re fine and hoping you are too. Remember: no regrets! Life is to be lived and loved.

My dear friends and family.  It is hard to rejoice in the face of the rising Mississippi, tornados in Alabama, and general spring havoc that Mother Nature is dumping on the United States… … but rejoice we must with the knowledge that we learned from our mothers who sang to us, "Jesus loves me this I know.. for the Bible tells me so."  Do you remember that song from when you were little?  I was discussing this today with someone… We just have to rejoice for we are blessed to be loved by God, to be Americans, to be protected by Navy Seals… and you fill in what else we have to be thankful for.  Chuck and I are on Big Pine Key for the week. We have to keep "the big house" clean in case a prospective buyer wants to look at it, and we are working on Aunt Trudy’s house to make it our own.  Today, we donated a great deal of Aunt Trudy’s furniture to a wonderful family who needs help in an empty home. They helped Trudy a lot in life, and we are returning the gift. Actually, they came today and carried out a lot of very heavy stuff (we’re on the second floor of a raised home) and they will also take the kitchen cupboards and some other heavy stuff that we were going to have to dispose of as we will be renovating and bringing Trudy’s home into the 21st century.  I am responsible for keeping Loretta’s driveway clear of weeds (this is the big house that is for sale), I’m supposed to be painting the railings a bright clean white and painting some spots inside the big house.   I am also clearing Trudy’s area along the water so we can build a dock. It is a lot of work in very hot weather. We have hired a team of men to fix the crumbling tie beam that holds up Trudy’s house (in the Keys… concrete used to be mixed with salt water which eventually rusted the rebar and swelled the concrete – hense the crumbling).  When the house is strengthened, we will renovate the upstairs.  I enjoy being here in the keys; I go to daily Mass at St Peters and today I was a lector. It was the very important reading in Acts of the Apostles where Saul is headed to Damascus all full of evil to kill some Christians.  Jesus knocks him off his (high) horse and asks him "Why are you persecuting me?" I was reading and here comes Father Tony’s dog with the morning newspaper. The dog (named Scratch) walked up to the visiting priest and looked at him and then took off to find someone in the pews whom he knew. I meanwhile am reading and trying not to be distracted, and not to laugh.  This is a big yellow lab named "Scratch" (as in golf) marching up in the middle of the epistle reading with a newspaper …  So I said later to the visiting priest…  "Scratch brought the good news."  Have to laugh.    I know I haven’t mentioned Chuck too much… He’s still tired a lot but his mind is good while mine seems to be going to the farm. He sleeps very well, but gets up at 6:30am disturbing me something fierce as who in heaven’s name gets up at 6:30am??  Life is interesting…  and I invite you to come to Big Pine, go for a walk with Chuck, and enjoy the constant sunshine and the amazing life we have here. God bless you. Sue