Yesterday evening was not the usual Friday night.
When Mr. H pulled into the yard yesterday evening, there was someone on another bike behind him. I thought maybe one of his friends had seen him ride by and followed him. Nope! Some guy out just riding around looking for fun roads (you have to be a biker to really get this) saw him turn down our road and followed. Bikers are a gregarious bunch, so he just followed into the yard. When I went out onto the porch they were talking bikes. What kinds have you owned, how long have you had this one, what will your next bike be......? Bikers are just like that!
Right here is where you can tell that I'm not a real biker, because I would tell you exactly what he was riding: all I know is Yamaha sport bike of some sort, with a chain and not shaft drive. They discussed where they had been.
Certain roads are famous among bikers. He and Mr. H both have dragon decals. Turns out that this gentleman lives in Semmes, just across the Alabama line from us. He goes to North Mobile Baptist Church (which I know has an awesome choir!!) He is a cabinet maker (when he's not out riding).
He had recently redone a kitchen in Lucedale and wondered if we knew the family. We didn't. We asked him if he knew the guy that did our cabinets. He didn't. But when we invited him in, he was very impressed with our kitchen cabinets, which go up to the 10-foot ceiling.
He gave us his business card and we gave him our phone number. He and some of his friends do a Thursday morning bible study somewhere in Saraland. Mr. H is invited.
After he left, I came in to see about supper. A few minutes later, El announced that M & M, some friends of ours from church, were here. They were on their way back from Mobile and decided to stop by. Turns out they had 2 spare tickets to Praise in the Park.
About 7:15 last night, the power went out due to the storm. It's not unusual for it to flicker, but we were out for about 2 hours. I discovered in the process that the phone number for Singing River Electric is not in the new phone book! El found it in the older one that's still in the kitchen. Since our kitchen phone is cordless, I used my cell phone. I started out calling the phone company to report the power outage, realized my mistake and hung up. A few minutes later I found that the phones were out, too. I called AT&T back. They told me it would be fixed by the 20th. I remember when phone problems were promised to be fixed by the next day and within a few hours they were resolved. I was concerned by the 20th, because last time they said it would be fixed by some day 10 days out, it was 12 days before it was fixed! But it was fixed about the time the electricity came on. I suspect a limb went across some utility lines.
We played "go fish" and taught El how to play gin by lamp light. (Those camping lanterns we got this summer came in handy!)
We'll see what today holds.
Things are beginning to get vertical!!
Christmas preparation is happening!
This is our Angel Tree with kids from our community.
I'm passing out Christmas books at choir practice tonight. And we are working on stuff for our new Worship leader's appearance on Sunday. You can read about him here. Things are definitely happening here at ABC.
I love this pair in flight.
Here's a close-up of Mr. Wood Duck...
And the Mrs....
Now, for those of you familiar with our fellowship hall: If you were wondering where all the usual equipment that inhabits the room had gone, can you find the library in this picture?
El wanted hers to have the stem as a nose since it was a great stem. I'd never done one that way. Looks pretty cool.
Em saw pictures that left some of the meat of the pumpkin after taking the skin off. That produces different lighting effects. Hers has pupils in its eyes and teeth in its mouth. (She wouldn't let me touch it because she knows I would take over.)
While Em was at the party, El was across campus at their last middle school game. She's playing the clarinet. Our middle school band went to every game: home and away. Way to GO (literally)
In case you were wondering how Keldon is doing, you have to look quickly to see him. He's the mascot for the Middle school, running up and down the track dressed up like a Seminole.
And, they are pouring concrete for our new building's foundation at ABC. (alas, it was being watched the whole time, so no opportunity to make handprints or scratch the date.)
It will take a few days to get the whole thing poured. It's Huge!!
The springs really are hot coming out of the ground. Mr. H read an exhibit that explained that the source of heat isn't volcanic but natural radiation. You can see the steam coming off the water in the picture above.
I have no idea why this giant grenade is outside the Ozark Bath House. But it's ... interesting.
There is a whole row of old bath houses along one street in Hot Springs. The Fordyce House is open for tours.
This looks more like a torture chamber than a place for a relaxing experience.
These are the controls for the above shower enclosure. Frightening!
This is the wake sent up by the car as we drove over roads that were VERY wet.
For the first part of the trip it was just rain: sometimes light, sometimes heavy.
Actually, I've discovered that the camera sees through fog better than eyes do. We couldn't actually see that far down the road. We saw a sign that said we were passing by the Grand Canyon of the Ozarks, but we could barely see the sign and have no idea what the view was like.
