On Second Thought

Last Friday Brazilian Independence Day was celebrated. You would think we’d be used to this by now, but there were no parades, no fireworks and not even a picnic by the lake. We decided that for something different we would go out to lunch at the new Howard Johnson Hotel that just opened a few blocks from our apartment. Who even knew that the Howard Johnson hotel chain was still in existence? On their sign there is still the Howard Johnson symbol in the same colors of years ago. (It’s somewhere on the horizon in the picture.) We got there and found it to be a very nice place with an indoor/outdoor restaurant. When we found out that the cheapest meal was the equivalent of sixteen dollars (maybe not expensive by US standards but expensive by ours), and they didn’t even offer the fried clams I used to like so much as a kid or have all the different flavors of ice cream that I remembered. On second thought, we decided to eat elsewhere.
For all the holiday weekend, the town was as quiet as a Sunday afternoon. It must be everyone went off to the country or down to the shore. After lunch we rode around to check out some of the places that were planned stops for our church road rally coming up next week Saturday, and then walked around one of the parks. It was enjoyable!

On the way home, we stopped for some ice cream which was good, but not so good as I remembered from the old days at the old Howard Johnson.

Being a holiday weekend, numbers were down at church too, but there was still a good group out to celebrate Family month. Folks are using the maps that have been put up on the back wall, putting tacks with their family name on sites and pictures of places they have visited. I put a picture of Sue and myself at the Taj Mahal in India. You would think that the comments would be like “Wow, you guys were at the Taj!” but instead it was more “Wow, Bill really did used to have hair!”

Sue and I along with another “empty nest” couple did a reading on the importance of praising God as a part of the worship service.

After the service, like good Baptists, everyone chowed down on two more family recipes presented during the fellowship time. Both were very tasty!

So a new week is underway with the ups and downs that accompany it. I just made my Tuesday phonecall to visit my folks, but learned that they were heading to the hospital. My sister Jewl Ann, who has cancer, has been in with complications and a blood clot since last Wednesday. I talked for a few minutes with my sister Pat, who was at the house, and then said “hi” and “love you” to Mom and Dad, but that was about it.
Passing through Grand Rapids, the president of our mission, Dr Loftis, stopped by for a visit with Jewl on Saturday, but my mom mistakenly sent him to the wrong hospital (sometimes that happens when you’re 94). But in the end he somehow got to the right hospital (though I’m not sure how), and got to visit Jewl. While he was in Grand Rapids he also toured Great Lakes Fasteners, where our son Joel is director of Human Resources, and was able to have a chat with him too. Cool!

Thanks for checking in. This is it for today. Tchau!