This last day of 2016!

Happy New Year to any readers. Milky sun here in Maine. We have owned#20 for two months.  The winter sun floods our table and kitchen island!

A pleasent home.
Amen and amen!

Heavy rain; heavy snow!

Near an inch of rain transitioned to snow here at #20!

The storm strengthened overhead with substantial rates of snow and rain each hour.

This 12/29/2016 storm.

Travel to and from Nebraska and also Connecticut

We flew to MN and drove to Omaha early in the month. Surgery unplanned and dancing planned. Prayers for healing of a young dancer.

Also nice visits with son and family.  Seventy hour visit in Nebraska with days of cold in the upper Midwest. Below zero for take off time from Minnesota.

For Christmas eve and day we were closer with a twenty six hour visit. Now that family is finishing their week in Central America.

Superb forecast

The forecast was accurate, but the cold air as forecast is brutal!

Cold air and wind for 30 hours?

Tuesday

It snowed yesterday. Colder air is here.

Boots, warmer pants and always a stocking cap handy.

Gloves? Access to primary and backup pair should always be a given.

Thursday

Bible study early and volunteer work mid day.

Many interesting interactions.

Two days beyond Thanksgiving 2016

We had family and guests for the days of and after Thanksgiving.  Fun movie and challenge room escape in addition to her good food.

Thank you Kathy.

November 22, various years

November 22, 1923

Joy and great sadness!

Wired on Tuesday

We were isolated from TV for four months. I did not miss any of the negative news or campaign noise.

That has ended! One hundred channels of what?

At home for two Sundays

Tuesday, November 1, 2016. We moved in. Six days later boxes of belongings were delivered.  Now we sort, display and use items unavailable for the last four months.

Home again!

Less than 48 hours

Last minute details!
Coin, content, and sign.

so close-- so close

We hope and pray.

So close to our home with heat.

FIFTY

In August 2015,  we collected all fifty states.

That means we had spent time in all the states.

We immediately started over with Idaho, Oregon, California
and Washington . Soon after  MN, NE, Maine of course.

As  of July 2016 we added Rhode Island and Massachusetts!

We have new rules.
 We must stay one night and eat one meal in each state.
Sixteen down and thirty four to go not bad in ten months.

The FEMA story.

In our local area we had Hurricane Bob in August 1991.  That washed out a culvert or two with some wind and nine inches of rain.  Five years later,  October 1996, the region had a 500 year storm with 17 inches of rain in thirty hours.  Our house sat high and dry.  A small brook twelve feet below our basement foundation does rise a bit.  FEMA all of a sudden takes a broad brush and puts our house on one of their flood plane maps.  For a buyer of our house with a  mortgage the lender will not lend until we prove otherwise. 

The special detailed survey (for a price) was accepted seven weeks down the road.  We then were able to close and sell our home in early September. THE END.

First then second then third delay or condition to meet!

A condition before closing was over shadowed by a seven week FEMA flood zone stall.

That did clear so stress plummeted.  A good thing so then with the closing things really looked up.

Now we are in a position to buy and the last hurdle is for the contractor to actually do the work.

Good day and also good days

Friday, Saturday and Monday all good!

A NH fair yesterday with sun and a light breeze made for a relaxing day outside.

72 hours?

Let it be so!

Excitement turned to a pit in the gut.

Two major transactions on a crawl.  We have been heavy into prayer.

July posts missing due to stress

We needed to prove a lie by FEMA was a lie.

July 2016

This month starts a new adventure!

I am still smiling from his response.

The wrong kind of stress is not a good thing. The undesirable things we stress about the most, usually do not happen.  Keep praying, as believers "without prayer, we don’t have a prayer"  Bob

and he said -

RT is one who comments.

HE said , " for believers   "without prayer, you don't have a prayer."

I love it.  I had written about the stress of moving and how  I had been praying. dlj,6/28/2016

Young then in 40s, last old!

Each time in our lives are best at that time!

In youth we have energy. Mid life is a time for soaring experience and diminishing energy.

Experience or wisdom keep us functional in old age.  Old is fine as long as we  ( I ) use experience.

Moving out: moving on

In the next few weeks K and I will give all the news on many changes.  Excitement and anxiety!  All readers are always moving on.  Some big steps ( BIG STEPS) and other steps seen only when looking back. 

Blessed Assurance

Old time hymns are ingrained in me.  She wrote hundreds of hymns.  Like medicine to the mind and heart are the tunes and the lyrics.  Fanny Crosby.

Enroute

All travel must end.
Half way home.

An Omaha visit

Kathy has had excellent bonding and cleaning time with her granddaughters.

They see Kathy work and work!

Child of God

And a follower of Jesus.

Travel / arrive / settle

Routines at home always exist.  Day of the week routines, time of day routines are examples.  On the road a routine is subject to ( and you fill in the blank).

Routines home and away.

We are on an away team.  Routines away must be put in place or abandoned.  When and where to eat, nap time and face time are variable.

Office hours remain similar to at home.  Check electronic connections is a home and away routine.

April at the end

We had a good day.  In a few days I will add details.

Mild feels good!

Daytime temperatures in the 60s are back.

We are then able to wash the outside of the house. Kathy did the windows.

A good day? Yes

Box or piece of furniture out the door.  One by one items in the house are no more (in the house).  Once we saw a film showing two older brothers in France who lived with one bowl each and sheep in the dwelling.  If the item is not in the house it is easy to do fine without it.

Thoughts on stuff.

The next cold Sunday

Wind today.  But the fun weekend story is a recap of last night.  We saw four singer song writers in the round.  Each would give a brief back story about the tune they wrote.  Then they sang it.  Each an excellent guitar musician; each with mellow voice.

Three of the four did the same fourteen months ago on a stormy January night.  We would not have missed this all new addition.  Don Campbell, Dan Merrill, David Good and Steve from Schooner Fair.

Warm then and right now cold !

Tonight and tomorrow morning even colder.  The wind is howling in Maine and the thermometer is falling below 30F. 

The wind is howling in Nebraska and the temperature jumped from 71F to 83F. What a country.

This on April 3, 2016.

Stress or do something

The structural issue was visible and serious.  Fix it or get it fixed; two choices.  Too many months later the work is seventy percent complete.  Thursday, forty eight hours from now I hope nothing is visible. At that point I can say, THE END.

Snow Feb 17 and Mar 21

Our gravel driveway was snow free from late February to yesterday!

See also wx comments

Look right also

News --- Kathy is painting and I am swapping light fixtures. Also in this snow less March I am able to clear brush before the growing season!

Cold frozen ground is pleasant.  The thorns still grab and hold even through gloves.

Other news I'm back in a weekly Bible study.  The students make the class. God whispers listen and learn. Yes dearest Lord.

Sunday the 13th

Breakfast in one of our diners then late afternoon pizza at one of our pizza locations.

We saw more empty tables at both.  The season and time change may be the reason for fewer customers.

Visiting and movie

We saw the movie Zootopia a few hours ago. Fun plus an underlying message. Additionally three granddaughters were also there.

March 2016

Communication by this weekly newsletter.

We assist during the school week soon.  Now able to get away at any time because we are both retired.

If curious please read on.

Click weather comments. Find by looking right. I added a BLOG entry to the wrong BLOG (weather comments).

Some may say from the end of Psalms 41 and 89:
 Amen and Amen

A snow free gravel driveway!

Tuesday morning we awoke to three inches of crusty snow. Rain on the snow gave the crust.  In the afternoon brief gushing rain and wind melted both morning and previous snow.

March now two weeks away is our transition month with snow and melting.  These sentences are also for my review. As I look back in six weeks the gravel driveway will or not be clear.

Return to a routine.

This is now a new routine. Why you ask? K is no longer going to work.

Thirty two days

In the last thirty two days we were in Maine two days!

Posting on this blog while on the airport bus we just arrived in our home state. We still do an overnight to bring our bird home after which we have major tasks at home.

Minneapolis snow- 8 ??? Inches

Our two mile drive was okay.  The parking lot status for tomorrow is an unknown.

My mother

Doris Johnson
1923 - 2016

This soul's earthly journey
Birth depart fly;
Passing settle.

In the USA

We are sitting in the Los Angeles CA airport.

Up for 20 hours. Home by midnight Maine time. We have daily NZ and Australia tales.

We are 1/3 mile from check in!

Nine days in NZ then eleven days in Australia and tomorrow we fly to the West Coast.

Three cities, two countries and adventures each day.

More cloud and cooler than expected

Melbourne has been hot during some January Australian Opens.

Not this year. Two mornings the roof was closed for the first match at 11AM. Sunny today however.

Great Ocean road

After five full days of tennis we rested Saturday.

Sunday was a 13 hour tour. We saw surf, ocean, and a rain forest.

Twelve hours of tennis!

We saw four matches in Rod Laver Arena. Also two more on court two.

Morning ( 11AM ) to now 11PM.

It is now 2016

The New Year starts out cold and ends similar. Travel through the months ahead is planned and not so much!

We are reasonably sure we will be around the next one hour. The next week, month or year is the exciting part.

Happy New Year!