Fun and Games

Okay, every day is not dull and uneventful.

My hard working hubby worked really hard and long on Saturday so we could take Sunday afternoon off. We hopped in the truck and started to drive east and didn't stop until we got to the edge. The edge of the country. This is the bridge crossing the Narragansett Bay between what you might call the "mainland" of Rhode Island and the little island or Newport. There is a lot to see in Newport and we didn't have time to see and do much. We took the trolley to The Breakers. It is a mansion that was built in 1895 by the Vanderbilt family. It cost somewhere in the neighborhood of 7 million to build it--way back then. It was their "summer cottage." Here is the entry gate.

Here is the front of the house. It covers one square acre and is--well you can get an idea of the height when you look at all the people standing in line waiting to get in.Here is a side view. It was hard to get the whole "cottage" in one picture.And here is the back of the house. The back yard was large enough (several acres) for me to get far enough away to get the wide shot. The inside of the house was something beyond my imagination. They wouldn't let people take pictures so you'll just have to take my word for it. Picture 70 rooms of "Look how much money we have!" built by a guy who was worth more than 100 million dollars at the turn of the century. The bathtub in the mater's bath was carved out of a single piece of marble. Pink alabaster was plentiful and the chandeliers--indescribable!Here is Rick standing on the porch of the children's play house that was in the side yard. It was complete with a large fireplace, a wood burning cook stove, a miniature piano, small furniture and real china. The tour guide told how the generations of children and grandchildren were taught responsibility. Even though they each had their own personal servant, each child was expected to hang up their own clothes. Poor mistreated little kids! Here is what us southerners would call the back porch. I tried to get a shot of the yard and porch at the same time. I couldn't get it all in my viewfinder.The grounds covered many acres. Some of the trees were imported from Japan and various other countries. I don't know what kind of tree this is or where it came from, but I wanted to take its picture because it was one big tree!
As majestic as the house was and as beautiful as the gardens were, none of it could compare to the view from "the back porch." The Atlantic Ocean in all its glory! The shoreline here is a rocky cliff. As we stood at the edge of the property and watched the rough sea, I tingled from head to toe and tears filled my eyes. The wind coming off the water was cool and the waves thundered when they crashed against the rock cliffs below. "Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind and said, ... Who enclosed the sea with doors, when bursting forth, it went out from the womb; When I made a cloud its garment, and thick darkness its swaddling band, and I placed boundaries on it, and I set a bolt and doors, and I said, 'Thus far you shall come, but no farther; And here shall your proud waves stop?'" Job 38:1-11.
There were many more mansions to see but we didn't have time or enough money to take them all in. They could not have been any more beautiful than the ocean anyway.

Newport is the Yachting Capital of the US. We made our way down to "the club" and took a few pictures of a BUNCH of boats. I'll post them tomorrow, so check back.

I apologize for the low quality of my photos here. We don't have Wi-Fi in the campground so I am using a cell card to post. It is so SLOW ! I have to reduce the quality of the photos to get them to upload. All you have to do is ask and I'll go back to posting higher quality, but this saves me some time and frustration.

Uneventful Day

I don't want any of you to get the idea that my life on the road is all fun and games. Most days are dull and uneventful. Like today. Rick has been trying to get caught up on paperwork, so this has been "my view from the couch" all day long. (Except for when I carried out the trash.)
This kind of excitement is nothing to blog about, I know. But a little while ago I had just a little more excitement than I was prepared for.

Because we have gray water but no black water hook-up (that's RVers lingo for-- I can take a shower and drain the sinks but can't empty the potty's holding tank) at this campground, we make sporadic trips up the hill to the public facilities. So a while ago, I decided that I needed to stretch my legs, get some fresh air, and "hike up the hill."

I was, well, sitting there minding my own business tending to business when I suddenly got the feeling I was being watched. Not good. I glanced down and saw a chipmunk sitting by my foot, gazing up at me. EEk! I was--well let's just say I was REALLY startled. The poor little critter's eyes bugged when I tried hard not to scream too loudly, and it took off like a shot!

It took a while but my heart did return to it's normal rhythm. I can't say about the chipmunk though. Poor little thing probably ran to his burrow and put a damp leaf on his head.

Perspective

You might want to drag out your atlas.

We just got back from going out to supper. We left East Haddam, drove through a town called Haddam, another named Chester, and finally stopped in Deep River to eat. Now for all my friends and family in Texas, I know you are thinking, "Why did they go all that way just for supper?" If you were to leave Amarillo and drive through three other towns before stopping for supper, you would be really hungry and you may need to get gas before you could start home. Don't worry about us though, we only drove about six miles to find some pizza.

Perspective--apparent relation between visible objects as to position, distance, etc.

Just to help you huge-minded Texans get a mental picture, or a proper perspective--you can fit about four, count them, 4 states of Connecticut into JUST the PANHANDLE of Texas. The reason we drove through three towns before stopping to eat? We had to go that far to find a restaurant with a parking lot large enough to park our one-ton truck! I kid you not!

Well, maybe. There is one parking lot in East Haddam that is large enough for our truck, but we have eaten there already and we wanted to try a new place. Still we ended up parking in the lot of a grocery store and walking to the pizza place. But you know we didn't have to walk far. If we had walked very far, we would have ended up in another town! This is a tiny little state with tiny little towns which have tiny little streets and tiny little parking lots, and they are connected by tiny little winding, hilly roads. (Paved? Yes, but not wide enough for me to want to call them highways.)

There is no "out in the country." Every town borders another town but many houses along the connecting highways obviously have acreage so you have the feel of being in the country. The other day we were driving down a street that was the dividing line between towns. The school of one town was across the street of the city offices of another town. Crazy!!! And we are not talking one big city and it burbs either.

I'm not being critical of this tiny little place at all. The scenery is beautiful and the temperatures are pleasant. We are glad to be working and we are always happy to see new places. It is just hard to shrink my thinking enough to get a grasp of my surroundings.

On our way here from Minnesota, we spent one night somewhere in Pennsylvania. We talked with a lady that lived in that area. She asked us where we were from, and we tried to explain that we live in Texas but had come from Minnesota. She remarked that she had "gone out west once." She said, "When I got to Ohio, I had to turn around and come back to the real world."

When we were out of her range of hearing we laughed so hard. If Ohio is "out west" then we must have come from a whole 'nother country! Oh wait! We are from Texas, so I guess we did!!

All this makes me think about how our perspective shapes our opinion and beliefs.
Another definition of perspective--mental view of the relative importance of things.

How easy it is to become the center of our own tiny universe. The importance of the things and the people around us is relative to their position or distance from us. Humm. I'm guilty too many times. Sometimes I get so caught up in my own busyness, worries, or whatever, that I lose the big picture.

Thank goodness God's got the right perspective. Thank goodness that He has no problem understanding the "smallness" of Connecticut, the "bigness" of Texas, and the vast reality of eternity! To help me keep a good view of the importance of people and things in this world, I think I'll keep God at the center of my universe and my atlas close by.

Discussion on Capitol Hill

I used to rant about a lot of things: things that were important to me or things that upset me. I don't think I rant as much as I used to because 1) I'm too tired & 2) I found ranting did little to change anything.

But I just read an article that makes me want to rant! Gender Confusion goes to the Hill. Please take time to read it.

Can you believe that today your tax dollars (mine too) paid law makers to discuss what to do about folks who don't know if they are male or female?

How can a person honestly say they don't know what their gender is? I say, send them to a smart doctor for a complete physical exam. There are ways of telling the difference, and if they slept through health class, a doctor can tell them what they are.

Of all the "issues" before our elected officials, this has to be one that would make them want to call in sick! I know thinking about it makes ME sick! Thinking about how quickly the American moral condition has slipped into the gutter makes me even sicker. We pay men and women to write laws that restrict living a godly, decent life while promoting and favoring perverted lifestyles that will destroy our families and our nation.

What ever happened to the idea that the majority rules? I doubt that "transgenders" make up a majority of the American people. So why is there a discussion going on about whether special allowances should be made for this group of confused people? I'm sure that there are a lot of folks that are confused about many different things. Legislation can not be made or enforced to favor every confused soul walking around.

I ponder... There is a good chance that confused people may change their minds from time to time, day to day. So what happens when laws are put in place to favor the ideas and beliefs embraced by a confused minority and then that confused minority changes its collective confused mind? Do new laws have to be written, again? Where will it end? Will my tax dollars have to pay for sex-change operations for this confused minority?

If the gay activists continue to get their way, someday my sweet innocent granddaughters may enter a public restroom (designated neither "ladies" nor "gentlemen" because that will be illegal) and see a man who doesn't know he is a man, lifting his skirt to use the facility. (Excuse me while I go vomit.)

How long will we let this go on? How long will our God, our Creator and our Judge, let this go on? God, forgive us! God, help us!!

Good Money and Fake Weeds

I like ferns. Don't know why really, but I think they are lovely. Ferns don't grow where I live. Maybe I like them simply because they are "different."

When we drove through Pennsylvania I was amazed at the forest floors. They were thickly covered with these gorgeous ferns. I repeatedly asked Rick to pull over so I could try to dig one up to have for my very own. I was teasing (sort of) and he was in a hurry, so I don't have a fern.

I was pleased to see that ferns grow here as well as in Pennsylvania. I walked around the campground today and took a couple of pictures. Monday when I was enjoying my time out with the girls, I said something about my fascination with these lovely plants. I even told them about how I bought a "silk" fern from Hobby Lobby just so I could have one.

Joyce said, "We call them weeds here." -----

I'm still trying to deal with the emotional distress. A voice in my head keeps saying, "You spent good money on fake weeds!"

I wonder if the Hobby Lobby here sells fake tumble weeds? And if so, would one of these New England folks buy one, thinking they had a thing of beauty? For just a little while I felt silly for buying a fake weed to decorate my home. But not as silly as I would have felt if I had actually tried to dig one up to haul around with me.

After pondering this a while I've decided that one woman's weed is another woman's prized house plant. So the next time I'm home I'll proudly blow the dust off my fake fern and thank the Lord that a Yankee didn't catch me digging weeds in the woods!

P.S Please continue to offer your thoughts on my writing assignment--the how-to article. (See yesterday's post.)

I Need Your Help!

I did it again! I left the house without my camera! AUGH! Yesterday three very sweet ladies picked me up and took me to see the Gillette Castle. And I forgot to take my camera. So while they were having a time snapping photos, I made mental pictures. It's hard to post those on a blog.

First let me tell you about the sweet ladies. Joyce, Heidi, and Carla are the grandmother, mother, and sister of my "favorite" (and so far my only) son-in-law, Tony. Joyce lives in Rhode Island and Heidi and Carla live in the Carolinas. Heidi and Carla are on their way to Maine to visit Heidi's parents and stopped in Rhode Island to visit Joyce. And all together they made my day by making the drive to Connecticut to visit me! I feel special. I had a blast. It has been a long time since I had any time "out with the girls."

Their visit makes me think about the sweet mercies of my God. When my daughter married Tony, that crazy kid from up north, God knew that I would be in Connecticut at this time, and He knew how much a little "sister conversation" would bless me. It is so cool how God works the most major events and the tiniest details in our lives together for our good.

I'm not going to tell you about the castle in this post because I have every intention in going back WITH MY CAMERA and my husband. I'll tell you all about the castle after that. But all of that is not what this post is about.

I need your help. You know I'm taking a writing course, and my next assignment is to write a how-to article. How to make, or do, or be something. You know the type of article. The field is wide! Anyway, I'm stumped. I've done a lot of things in my life but I'm not an expert at anything. I can do research on a topic, but I must have some experience or expertise in order to write effectively.

What would you, my readers, like to see me write about? Some of you know me well and some of you don't, but that doesn't matter. I want your opinion. I NEED YOUR HELP! What do you want to know how to make, do, or be? Leave your comments, PLEASE. My "how-to" waits on you! Thanks in advance! I'm excited to get your input!

Time Flies...

I've decided that time flies whether you're having fun or not. It's not that I'm not having fun. I guess if the old saying is true I must be having a blast because, GEE WHIZZ, where have the last four days gone? I posted here last Thursday, I have no idea what I did Friday, (can't remember), Saturday I worked on my writing assignment, then yesterday...

Setting: Sunday--Rick is working at his desk completely zoned out to anything else around him. I'm reading and just kind of wasting time. My phone rings and it is Kaleena, my oldest child. I step outside so my conversation doesn't bother Rick as he is on the phone with insureds.

Lavonda: yak-it-ty yak-it-ty yak (Time passes, morning turns into afternoon, so conversation ends and I go back inside.)

Rick: Get ready and we will run to Wal-Mart.

Lavonda: Slaps on some make-up, puts on shoes, grabs purse.

We get in the truck and head out in search of a Wal-Mart. In no time at all we are a few miles down the road and pass through a few little towns. I start to see road signs that indicate we are on our way to an outlet mall.

Lavonda: (Thinking to myself) SWEET!

We eat lunch, we shop, then its back in the truck to hunt, once again, for the nearest Wal-Mart.

A little time and a few miles pass then road signs indicate we are headed for Long Island Sound.

Lavonda: You're taking me to THE SOUND? And I didn't bring my camera!

Rick: Why not?

Lavonda: You said we were going to Wal-Mart! I don't usually take my camera when I just go to Wal-Mart!

Rick: Well you should.

Lavonda: (Thinking to myself) Mental note--always take your camera every time you leave the camper, even if you are just going to Wal-Mart.

***************

Rick had his rinky-dink camera in the truck so we used it to snap a few pictures. They are nothing to rave about, but just in case we don't get to go back to the sound while we are in Connecticut...here ya go.

I don't know who these people are but they wouldn't get out of the picture.

Rick was a little chilly. The sea breeze was nice and cool.

I can't go to a beach and not get my feet wet. And it wasn't until AFTER we played with the hermit crabs we found in the shallow that we saw the sign that said, "Do Not Disturb the Wildlife." Oops!

In case you are wondering, yes we did finally find a Wal-Mart. We bought groceries and came back to the camper. It was a fun afternoon. I guess that's why time flew.