Celebration - a good thing

June 25, 2007 (5:27am)
57º F, Hazy, Calm wind.

Good morning,

We bid Tom, our choir director fair well in good style last night. He and his wife, Roberta, were totally surprised. Helen and Don had invited them for dinner and a quiet night of reflection of their times together. Then the rest of started to come bearing "dishes to pass." We are sad to see them leave, but have been so blessed with Tom’s ministry and talents. He is a rare gem. We also had some very good food along the way. But the fellowship was better. Lots of "remember when’s" and like that during the time there.

We also had a part of the church service devoted to saying goodbye to Tom and his family. Of course Tom had some words to say and he played/sand one of the songs he wrote at the end of the service. Hope to get the words and music for it. Would be nice if he had it on a CD or some such. Tom has written several pieces, but has not put them into a form for others to enjoy, other than he performs. He had a very long, standing ovation during the service.

They have bought a new house and will be living just west of Kenosha from the sound of it. The company he is working for is located near Chicago I think. He has a drive of about 50 miles to work (for the past few years his commute has been about 100 miles), but doesn’t have to show up at the office everyday. It sounds like he is an outside salesman, traveling to customers rather than the customers traveling to the dealer. He will be selling Ford and Sterling medium and heavy trucks. He was doing that in Green Bay when I first met him and has for most of the time since, in various places.

Don got out his "Spud Gun" (cannon made from PVC pipe, using potatoes as ammunition, using spray can propellent as the explosive charge) and all who had not seen or experienced it before, had a ball. It will fire a potato a hundred yards or so. From the sound of it, Don has regular "contests" with his friends and relatives, trying for distance and also trying to shoot down kites or airborne balloons. Guess you can tell the size of the boys by the size of their toys! It was fun to watch the folks participate and have some, just plain, clean , simple fun. I fear most folks don’t participate in those activities often enough.

I had promised pastor some lumber a few years ago and finally delivered it last night as long as he and we were at Helen and Don’s. It got pushed to the back of the storage unit rather than the front, so took until now to get near it. The storage unit is very bare, with just a few things in it at present. Next time here it will be empty. That will be the first time in many years. Glad to see that happen.

The truck is about half loaded at the moment, but it will be filled before we leave this morning. There still is much to move. The rest of the load will probably be tool type stuff and probably the computer printer at least. I am dreading the bringing of this desk up, as it is a heavy monster. We don’t have a place to put it yet, so can put it off for a while. There are also several other heavy items that need to go too. I am in the process of figuring out a lift of some sort to get them into and out of the truck. I also discovered the rear door is a bit narrower than I thought. Finally measured it. Not sure everything will fit through it without some disassembly. Some how, it will all get there. One of the cube vans had a lift tailgate. Would be nice to have now, but the extra $6,000.00 was a bit much for the van. Think I can accomplish the task for some less.

Margriet did get the laundry done and dried while here. Now I will have clean shorts again. She also got some more things packed to go. When she was preparing the pasties to take to the potluck, she discovered she didn’t have any gravy/sauce mix here, so I suggested she use a can of mushroom soup instead. Didn’t have any of that either. When she did get something mixed up, she was going to add mushrooms to it and found there were none on the cupboard shelf either! Eventually something did get put together to take along, but with some frustration and chuckles too.

Seems there is not enough time to get it all done. Sure glad we don’t have a time line to meet. The next addition to this should be from Guds Nordtre. Time to get a-going.

In Christ My Saviour,

Chris ><>