Another Saturday Another Street Corner

 

I hardly knew how to hold a sign when it wasn't raining.  Today I attended a rally against the Big Budget Bill which cuts funding for healthcare for veterans as well as funding for essential VA workers, eliminating their jobs. 

These are my Super Hero Friends, Susan, Vickie and Brielle. Brielle's daddy was Heath Robinson, pictured on Aunt Vickie's poster. The PACT Act, named in his honor after his death from effects of his military service in Iraq, is in danger of losing all funding in the Big Budget. Susan is Brielle's grandmother who battled for the passage of the bill on Capital Hill. 

It was so hot. I just want to mention that. 

We had a group of over 25 (you might not be able to tell from this photo, but we were spread out on the lawn of the Veteran's Home in a nearby city). An employee came out and thanked us for our support and gave us a handout to share with donation items needed by residents.  

My dad was a resident of this Veteran's Home for the last two years of his life and I was there almost every day. I cannot say enough about the wonderful care he received, as did every resident I met. 

He was also very excited when the cart showed up with donated items like shaving cream, razors, soap, tooth brushes, toothpaste, kleenex and other personal care items.  The residents must purchase these items for themselves and many do not have adequate funds to do this. My dad, who we made sure had everything he needed, just liked free stuff. 

Two Christmases ago we did the Amazon Boxes (where you buy a huge Amazon box from a shipper and never know what you will get). One box was about fifty mens patterned t-shirts in various sizes. They went straight to the Veteran's Home where they were much appreciated. 

I will be back this week with a recap of our Amish trip. 

Day Lily Time!

 It's officially summer at my house! The day the day lilies bloom! 

When we first bought our house in the 1970's, my mom and I would drive around railroad crossings on country roads with car seats in the back seat and shovels in the trunk to dig up clumps. 

I started with a few clumps in the front of my house and every so often I split them. These are the side of my garage.  

These are not the OGs. We dug those up before we built the porch and moved them along the driveway. Please do not enlarge the photo. There has been zero weeding this year and the best part of the lilies is that they cover and outgrow the weeds. 

And I call them day lilies when they are in bloom and ditch lilies when they are finished blooming. 

Tomorrow we are leaving on vacation for 36 hours. Mr. Merry is in a tizzy. He hates to leave the house and I am dragging him kicking and screaming and pouting. We are going two whole hours away, stopping for lunch, shopping at an air conditioned flea market, eating dinner in an air conditioned restaurant and going to an air conditioned "Amish" theater for a show. I am sure there are no Amish involved in the theater but using the name means there will be nothing offensive.  We will then spend the night in an air conditioned hotel, have breakfast at an air conditioned restaurant, shop at some air conditioned shops and have lunch at an air conditioned restaurant on the way home. I think he will survive. 

Taco salad again. My lettuce is very very sad in this heat. And my tomatoes are still green for the most part. 

Mama Bears

There is a small LGBTQ+ community in our small rural area. Due to safety concerns, they try to stay out of the spotlight, while offering friendship and support to those who need it. 

There is a group that is more willing to be in public, even though all the communities and the county commissioners in our county refused to issue an acknowledgement of Pride month.  

Actually the commissioners rescinded any acknowledgement at the courthouse where groups put little flags in the lawn or billboards for a week or month. They learned it was all or nothing.  So now there will be no more wooden cutouts of children for child abuse awareness or wooden cutouts like paper dolls to acknowledge abused women, or pink ribbons for breast cancer awareness, or any other symbol because otherwise they would have to let there be tiny little pride flags stuck in the lawn in June. Or even for a week in June. Or even for a day in June.  

These are the Mama Bears, moms of children who are LGBTQ+.  They heard I was an ally and asked me if I wanted to join them in a stroll through town to bring awareness that someone is there if you need some support. I was happy to participate (here we are in front of the courthouse). I am in all black because I misplaced my shirt. I am also carrying my American flag because I am American.

Tonight I am praying for the people in the middle east who are struggling with the aftermath of devastation. I am praying for our troops who are being sent into war.  And I am praying for their moms who have to be terrified.  

Magnified VBS

 

I was deprived as a child. My church did not have a Vacation Bible School. My children did not attend Vacation Bible School. I saw advertisements. But we didn't have facebook back then and I did not understand how it works in my community

In my community every church with a VBS invites the entire community, not just church members. And the programs are offered for free. This week my grandkids were part of the 275 children who attended the Presbyterian VBS.  And tonight was the closing program. 

This is the second year they attended this VBS and I knew the decorations would be stupendous. 

After the music, dancing and videos, we get to tour the classrooms! 

Butterfly extravaganza in the craft room. 

This photo does not do the hallway justice. It was dark with twinkle lights and lanterns. Fabulous. 

I need to thank my youngest grandson for modeling to compare the size of the decorations.

His sister had to leave right after the singing and dancing for her softball game. 

The piano

One section was an orchard of fruit trees and bushes but the hallway was too narrow to take many photos. 

These flowers were by most of the doors. 

A garden.

And the Master Gardeners were there so each child could plant a flower. 

The church building has a courtyard in the center and they have a carnival for closing day! 

He was very good at this game. 

This ant farm was an entire wall. 

The ladies serve chips, hotdogs and punch to the families. Mimi and grampa did not partake, but look at the sunflowers!

A closeup of the beehive centerpieces on every table!

In case you ever want to cover up a basketball hoop, this is pretty slick! 

That's just a brief look at the wonderful, wild world of VBS!  They are signed up for one more church VBS in July but there are enough churches in our community that they could attend every week all summer long. 

Weather, Church and Facebook Funnies

We were the lucky ones in the storm last night. High winds knocked down trees and power lines and put things on and through roofs. Some are waiting for power almost 24 hours later. Others have flooded basements.  Today it is in the 60's and by Saturday we will be in the high 90's with  sky high humidity. 

Today was my day in the charity office. One couple came in for help with rent. They are in their late 50's and the husband receives disability, a small two digit monthly pension,  a small SNAP amount and a reduced rent apartment.  The wife/partner has seizures and has been denied disability four times. She used to receive SNAP but it was taken away for new work requirements. She obtained a part-time job at McDonalds. She had three seizures at work the first month and was let go. Not only is she not receiving SNAP benefits, the amount of rent they pay was increased based on the income from the job she no longer has.  Their income is now about $175 a month less than their basic expenses and I referred them to food banks.   

The apartment complex is helping them with paperwork to renegotiate the rent, but they are in the hole this month and at least next month.  So - work requirements.  Bah Humbug. 

I was scrolling Facebook this morning. Facebook is interesting in a small town and we have lots of smaller villages that are neighbors. Here is a sample from today:

(That one was an invitation to a village council meeting.)

I hate to say it, but I think if I was Nancy I would probably block her too. 

Clarification

I know my last post involved too many topics and I wrote it all in the most confusing way possible.  I will warn you - I talk like that in real life too! 

So the house stories:

House #1 

Sat - Alert for house for sale at 12 noon

Appointment made to tour 45 minutes later (12:45 pm)

Full Price Bid made (as well as 2 other buyers)

Seller shut down showings at 3 pm with option for the 3 to bid higher. 

Saturday evening: higher bid submitted with bank  pre-approval letters. 

Sunday morning: house sold to my son

And today the building inspector from the bank inspected.

This house is actually very near my house. You have to leave my street, turn right at the top of the street, turn right at the second street and drive to the back of a housing development to get there. But if you go out the back door, through the neighbors yard, and cut across the golf course, you are at my next door neighbor's yard. They do have two boys. . . .

House #2

This house is across the street from me and went up for sale 2 days ago. 

Yesterday was non -stop buyer tours, I would guess 12-16 families. My attention span was reached, but I do know more families toured today. My guess is they are holding bids until a certain day and opening them then. 

House #3

This is my house - the house where we found this rail on the right was rotting when we trimmed the bushes. 

My husband did some figuring and, after we went to the egg lady, we went in the other direction to the home improvement store where we purchased supplies for double what they would have been before tariff prices increases.  

He replaced it with white vinyl posts and rails to match our front porch, getting up at 7am to finish it before the oppressive heat. 

I was thinking I would have liked a railing but then I remembered I have never walked up these steps in the first 22 years it has been here. The vinyl is guaranteed for twenty years. At that point we will be 89 years old and won't be using the stairs then either. 

Tonight we are listening to our phones ping with weather warnings including tornadoes. Lots of interesting videos on Facebook (because if you have a tornado warning, you must grab your camera phone), but the only damages seem to be a few downed trees and wires. 

My New Egg Lady

 

It might not look like much, but wait until you see inside this little red building in front of the silos. Some photos are dark - it was a rainy, cloudy day. 

The eggs come from Carol's (who is English) hens plus three of her Amish neighbors. 

One of the Amish kids is in charge of washing the eggs. You bring your own cartons and fill them. 

We are on the honor system! There are packed eggs in the frig for those who somehow can't put eggs in a carton. 

Payment is the honor system too. Now I have to keep 5's and 1's in my wallet again. 

There is also a silent auction for a child who is going to a camp, house plants for sale, homemade greeting cards and jewelry and honey and produce. There was no produce when we stopped but I heard there was rhubarb right after we left! 

Getting back to my treasures from yesterday's post - here they are! 

Meet Mrs. Bunnykins and Pigling Bland, the last two Beswick Beatrix Potter figures in the thrift store. They figured out what they have and Pigling was more than the others I purchased previously even with his chipped ear.  Mrs. Bunnykins was not inexpensive, but worth every penny.  Can you spot them in the cabinet of things I don't need but love?

I would like to say it is a good thing that there are no more figures available at the cancer thrift store. 

I hope I was able to capture the iridescent shine on these saucers and plates. 

There was a large basket of miscellaneous saucers and what I am calling "cake plates" for use under houseplants. They were priced for $1 each. 

I'm not sure I can capture how beautiful they are. Anyway, at my house they will be used as saucers under small glass dessert bowls and as cake plates! 

And how is the bathroom remodeling going? Well this weekend we decided to trim my lilac bushes. This how we started. 

Landscaper trainee.  He was posing, not actually operating. 

My hard worker took branches to the truck for a trip to the city compost pile. 

Trimmed. Please notice the little porch on the right. The helper went up onto the porch which we never use (I call the door my fire escape) and put his hands on the rail. It is rotting! 

Today we took a trip to the home improvement store and bought vinyl post cover kits, new railings and whatever else is needed to rebuild the porch to match the front porch. This project will need to be completed before the total demolition of the bathroom can begin. 

Two days ago the brown house across the street went up for sale. Today was showing day and it was pouring rain with 90% humidity. I tried to sit on my porch to spy on potential neighbors but gave up and my husband repositioned our security cameras. 

There were at least 15 families that looked at the house; at one point there were six vehicles between realtors and buyers. I am thinking it will be sold today. 

On Saturday at noon my son's fiance got an alert on her app that lists houses for sale in our area. She immediately called her realtor and they were at a showing for a house a few streets away from me within 45 minutes.  Five families toured the house by 3 pm and three of the families (including my son and fiance) made full price offers so they cut further showings.  They asked everyone if they wanted to bid higher. After some counting on fingers and toes, they submitted a second bid. They were sitting on my couch Saturday evening calling bankers on cell phones to get copies of pre-approval letters. And Sunday were notified they got the house! They have been looking for over a year.  And that is the housing market in my town. They never even got around to putting the sign up in that yard. Crazy.