Well Thursday was a day for renewing old friendships and making new ones. Mike and Sally Stirk came by around 10'ish in the morning and stayed until nearly 3'ish. We had a great visit with a lunch in between and then reminisced and caught up on several years of our lives. We then after an early lite supper headed down to the waterfront area of St.Pete to the Mahaffey Theatre where we were introduced to our part in making our Bridgepoint Church Christmas Pageant happen. What a gorgeous venue and to see the pictures of all of the celebrities who have performed there was awe inspiring.
I started the day much the usual with my 6'ish roll out. I did my routines of the morning that started with my cup of hot green tea laced with turmeric for joint relief while I posted this ramble. Afterwards I spent a few quiet moments in reverence for my Creator and his teachings while lifting up those I know and love. Our world especially those secular progressives need to get back to honoring our Judeo-Christian values and mores and maybe He will heal our land. I honestly think our new president elect will make a difference with that occurring. Afterwards I got ready to ride out to the Rec. for a couple hours on the pickle ball court.
We had several good players an another visiting female player from New York. She was quite good and held her own with most of the A players. I had a wet shirt by the time I left around 10. After a stop at the library for a couple new reads from a recently found new author for me. James Lee Burke has several novels and I'm beginning to think they are historical about the old west. I find his writing very entertaining an information with a twist from the norm western writings. I'm about to finish up all of Ken Follett's books which make for great reading from and historical perspective.
I hand watered the gardens and dig a little hoeing when Mike and Sally came by. It's been several years since we last saw them and Mike has gone through lymphoma chemo and therapy. Their son Brian lives in our area and he too has gone through some changes in his life with a divorce since we last heard from him. Mike still lives in upstate new York about an hour south of Buffalo so they were thrilled with this hot humid weather here since they receive tons of snow and below zero temps during the winter. There were four of us airmen who have kept in touch albeit with some years in between since the 60's when we all were loadmasters together on the C-141 aircraft out of Travis AFB in California. We loss one of our four to leukemia this year which may have been a result of the Agent Orange pesticide we carried on board the aircraft. The VA has made it know there are about 16 diseases associated with this carcinogen product. So far I've been tested to be clean of them whereas Mike and John have shown the ill effects and then they became deadly with John this year. Walt has other health issues and we're not sure in the agent is directly responsible.
Nancy had picked up her mom, GG so she had lunch with us as we sat around the table talking. I took her home around 3'ish then we settled into getting ready to leave around 5'ish for south St.Pete. I must say I've never been downtown near the old pier area in many years and the refurbishing of that area is dynamic. It's absolutely beautiful and the Mahaffey is elegant. We will meet up with our old trio Patrick, Kathryn, Dan and Carol today(Fri.) evening and have dinner together then attend the 6 PM service. Afterwards Nancy and I will stay and work or volunteer the 8 PM service. We are greeters on the second floor balcony area where we will collect tickets and warmly welcome all who attend this special Christmas Eve service on Friday. There will be three more services on Saturday evening as well but we will be in Tampa for a get together with Katie's family. Such a busy schedule these next couple of days as we celebrate the birth of our LORD this holiday season with family and friends.
Well we made a stop at GG's on the way home and then I settled into the Lightning with a come from behind win over the St.Louis Blues on our home ice, LATER
