Redmond Rocks

So we were home for about 36 hours. We reset the timer for the garden so it would get more water, and installed the timers for the lawn irrigation and water for the photinia. I mowed the lawn, Joyce did laundry, took the pickup for an oil change, and loaded up for kids and grandkids.

Thursday morning we left for Redmond (that’s on the east side of the Cascades for those who aren’t familiar with Oregon). Our church’s Annual Conference was Friday evening and all day Saturday at the Free Methodist Church there. It was typical Conference – a little perfunctory business, some good inspiration, lots of visiting, and (of course) good eating. So that’s all I’ll say about Conference.

I need to add before I forget… the weather was (and is) great. Temps in the 80s, sunshine, wonderful. Wonder if it will stay. Now I want to post a few pictures.

We stayed with friends in their “modest cottage” on 20 acres east of Redmond. Actually their home is gorgeous and designed for entertaining. We had the guest suite with our own bathroom, huge shower, hot tub, gas log stove (but we didn’t need that), and all the luxuries to pamper us. Tough when you have put up with that!!!

This is the view from their front porch -- looking west toward the Cascades. The mountains are (L-R) Broken Top, South Sister, Middle Sister, and North Sister. I just realized I cut off Mt. Bachelor farther to the left.

Mt. Hood is just to the left of Joyce. Just a little tip of it can be seen from their front yard.

Our hosts were Duane and Sonda to the right. The man next to Joyce is Arnie. He is the area representative for the Free Methodist Foundation. I met Duane and Sonda on a trip to Ensenada, Mexico about 10 years ago. They are simply wonderful people whom God has blessed and they honor him in all they do.

This morning we attended worship in Redmond at the Mt. View Church where Annual Conference was held. Their building is about a year old and is very, very functional. And now at 11:00 pm we are sitting in the Lebanon Church parking lot having our last “fix” of internet. Tomorrow we are looking at a house in Salem, then on up to Champoeg State Park for a week of camping. The kids will arrive Thursday.

So, until the next time I have internet… who know when. Blessings.

Nice Weather At Last

It has been a very busy week in Lebanon. We visited lots of people – mostly over a meal so we are stuffed and probably gained 10 pounds. The only meal we have eaten in the RV was a dinner last week and that was left over food from the potluck last Sunday (we ate most breakfasts here).

We have had rain and cold weather; we have had wind and we have had sun. Today was a nice sunny day. Yesterday ended okay but started out with rain. I preached yesterday. Ginger was here and she took us out for lunch.

I took Joyce to see “A Team” tonight. She was thrilled! Yeah, right! I wanted to see it so she tolerated it with me. It is pretty good – lots of shooting, blowing things up, and very improbable heroics. But that is typical A Team.

Tomorrow we have a couple meetings, go home for a couple days, then to Annual Conference. More about that later. Blessings.

One Last Time

We are in Lebanon. We are sitting in the rain. So what’s new? Well, for one thing the rain DID go away for a few days and we had 80* weather – in Grants Pass. We got to Lebanon Saturday and the weather was nice – shorts weather, even! But today and tomorrow is rain. Then… well, maybe some more nice weather.

Last week was mostly the usual – cleaning up, getting things ready for sale or whatever happens. Steve (a carpenter friend) came over and helped me install a new back door. I decided to get a pre-hung door because the other one wasn’t fitting correctly. Joyce started her own project. A long time ago she cut a flowery vine out of old wallpaper, then glued it to the wall in the bathroom – sort of a decorative touch. It is had outlived it’s usefulness so she commenced to take it down. Only problem is she had glued it on with Elmer’s! Boy was it stuck. I think it will look okay when we paint.

I finished reducing eight file drawers down to four. There’s no reason a retired guy needs to have two file cabinets. At least I don’t. Anyone want to buy a file cabinet?

As I’ve said before, the RV has been stored at my sister’s between Lebanon trips. This time we went up Friday evening so Roy and I could get an early start on repacking the wheel bearings. He was my mentor; now I’m supposed to know what to do the next time. After lunch we headed for Lebanon. Again, we are set up in the church parking lot. Our goal is to visit as many people as possible while we are here. So far, most of our visits have been over meals. We are eating way too much!!!!

I preach this Sunday so the preparation is also taking some of my time. It is good. The people here are really great. In fact they had a potluck for us Sunday and gave us a nice money gift as appreciation for being here. It’s humbling.

Rain, Rain Go Away

Yes, it does rain in Oregon. And this spring it has rained too much. Even die-hard webfoots are crying, “enough already!” In February or March the prognosticators were saying the snow pack and rain fall were well below normal and it would be a dry summer. Now they are saying the opposite. I know I’ve had enough and it is dryer in Grants Pass than up in the valley.

I’m thankful for a more laid-back week. On Monday I went down to Boatnik. That’s an annual Memorial Weekend celebration in Riverside Park. Joyce stayed home because she was recovering from a cold. I watched the hydroplane races on the river, and the enjoyed the Memorial Day festivities. The food was good, too.

One of my projects was entering all my sermon file information into the computer. It was in an old program that was not compatible with all the new stuff so I couldn’t update it with recent sermons info. I’ve not updated it in about 6 or 7 years. This is not the sermons themselves; it is a file listing the sermon title, date preached, Bible text, topic, and number. The number is simply an arbitrary number I’ve assigned it and the actual sermon is filed by that number. So, I finally decided the old program was history and reentered everything in Excel – all 920 of them. I finished it Saturday. Yea! Now I have to enter the “new” sermons that have not been cataloged. There is probably a 100-150 of them, more or less. I’ll do that this coming week.

Today we went to church at Jerome Prairie. This afternoon we had another Allen Creek Gang potluck. This time at the home of Richard and Janis on the bank of the Applegate River. Beautiful lawn. Tables and chairs all set up. Nice and warm but not hot. Now, back to that discussion about Oregon rain. It was predicted and looked like it would. We were prepared to make a run for the carport if necessary. But guess what? It didn’t. We had a great time – not as many as last time, but still good. Some of the gang…

 Joe, Koey (behind the flower), Ed, Linda, Ken

Richard at the dessert table

  Sandy, Janis, Harriet, Flora

George, Loretta, Martha

This week will bring more changes. By next Sunday we’ll be in Lebanon. More about that later. Have a good week.