Well Thursday was a fun day that took us to a new place to visit old friends and former family on my side. It was also a shopping day as we visited a Sam's Club in the area and stocked up on non perishable items in bulk. The weather was near perfect even for off the mountain which had cool temps to start the day snd tons of sunshine. I started the morning with my usual before 6 roll out to my routines that start with some quiet times to honor my LORD, give thanks for another day and to lift several up by name for comfort and healing, all seem to be holding at this point in time.
I loaded up the cooler with some veggies from the garden as well as some blue berries and we headed down the mountain to I-77 and then over to I-40 at Statesville towards Hickory for a first stop at Sam's Club. After loading up with items and gassing up at 3.38 we headed over to the Keys household. Sandy and Bob have lived in this neighbor hood for 19 years and then her dad came up from Tampa about 9 years ago and live just a couple streets over from them in the small town of Newton. They each have huge lots of an acre or more with very nice houses, yards and out buildings. Sandy is my niece by my first marriage but has no contact with her mother and aunts. Its so sad but her dad whom I met while flying in the USAF has long been a former brother in law but also a dear friend since 1966 when I first started my tour in the military. We were married to sisters at one time but both he and I were divorced from each of them. He had two children but luckily I had none. I actually raised his son Junior for a couple of years when I first came on with FHP while Bruce served overseas during Viet Nam. His mother wanted nothing to do with Junior and to this day she has no relationship with her daughter Sandy, weird to say the least, oh well.
We visited first with Sandy and Bob and she is an awesome artist and is now a grandmother. She and Bob had 3 kiddos and all are well adjusted despite no contact with her side of the family. Bob comes from a large family who grew up in Maryland and moved to Florida where he and Sandy met and married and they have retired to Newton. They are sweet folks and we love getting together with them and Bruce and Norma his second wife of 50 some years. Norma is from the Philippines and she is always fun. We had a delicious supper and then played a new game which is fun they taught us after eating. We headed out around 6:30 so we could be back on the mountain before dark and the chance of having deer run out in the roadway. It was a great day both weather wise and visiting with close friends. We are hoping to make this at least an annual get together, LATER
