San Diego Impressions

My impressions of San Diego over all are good. Things cost a lot more here. Gas is now over $4 a gallon and food is really high. The weather has been great. Generally in the mid 60's to low 70's the whole time we have been here. Most of the people were friendly. The Church we attended was great. Very friendly helpful brothers and sisters. The hotel we stayed at over all was great. We made "guest of the week" one week. There was only one bus load of kids one night the whole time we were here. Anytime you have a bus load of kids they will end up running up and down the halls. I remember when Gina was getting out of college that CA was recruiting very heavily with big bucks to get teachers to move to CA. Now the Governor is cutting back on the budget and the newer teachers, nurses, and fringe personnel are being cut back. People have been holding rallies to "save the schools". Some school districts are charging almost $400 for the kids to ride the bus to school next year and they are not going out more than a few miles. The housing market is falling apart. Some neighborhoods have a large percentage of repos and the houses are selling for up to half what people paid for them. Still overinflated. What goes up must come down. Everything is green this and green that. Not in color but save the planet green. I remember the tree huggers starting in CA when I was growing up out here. If you repeat it enough, they will believe it. I told you earlier what the funniest thing Lee did at the BBQ restaurant. When you have Fibromyalgia one of the "perks" is what we fondly call Fibro Fog. Otherwise known as a major lapse in thought or memory. I have gone places and forgot to put any make up on or combed one hair on my head. We have a couple 3 oz bottles sitting on the bathroom vanity in our hotel room. One is hair spray and the other is special glass cleaner we use to keep our glasses clean. It was windy out one day so I grabbed what I thought was the hair spray and proceeded to squirt extra squirts on my hair. Once my nose kicked in and told my brain that wasn't the right smell on my head, it was too late. I stood there looking at myself in the mirror and quickly decided I looked and smelled squeaky clean and sprayed some hair spray on and called it good. We have enjoyed our time in San Diego but we are both ready to get our home reestablished. It's great having someone make your bed and breakfast every day, but it's not home. I don't know of anyone else besides Lee who considers seven weeks of classes as a vacation, but he sailed through the classes and off to Kwaj we go. We were contacted by a Brother who used to work and live on Kwaj. He is bringing four more preachers with him in a week to build a new church building on one of the small islands that is a part of the Atoll. He is going to introduce us to some of the native brothers and sisters. They are going to hold a gospel meeting in Oct. in their new church building and they are going to start a preacher school for the natives on that island. Looks like God's plan is being revealed to us. Blessing to all!

Official

It's official. We are flying out of San Diego on Sunday April 27th @ 12:30pm and arriving at Kwaj on Tuesday the 29th @ 11:50 am. That is Monday the 28th @ 5:50pm central time (if I figured it right). That is a week earlier than we were scheduled. We are both ready to get our home established again. The shipment of our stuff is scheduled to come in on May 7th so we won't have to wait much more than a week. Hopefully that will give us some time to catch up on the time change before we tackle getting everything settled in the house. Blessings to all.

Early

It looks like we may only have one week left in SD. Lee will finish his class on Friday. I'm not sure when our flights will be. KRS will decide all that and tell us what flights to catch. We have been wrestling with AT&T cellular to get out of our contract. They have asked for some really ridiculous things to prove we are moving. There is no common sense to their reasoning. Our cell phone will be cut off for good on April 30th. The cell phone won't work on the Island so whatever date we fly to the Island we will lose our cell phones anyway. I'm not sure how long it will take us to get our phone on Kwaj ordered and installed. Things should be settled soon and I will let you know. Blessings to all.

Rambling

Happy Birthday Sandra! Are you still 29? The Parade magazine last Sunday had a listing of "What People Earn" I was depressed to learn that Leona Helmsley's dog, Trouble, earned $12 million last year. Leona left her millions to the dog when she passed away. A caretaker has sued the dog for the money. None of them will take it with them when they pass away either. There was a perfect storm at church last Sunday. All the leaders of the church had a situation where all but one were out of town at the same time. One of the leaders rearranged his flight so he could deliver the sermon. It was just Lee and him for class. Lee ended up leading singing. He did a good job. Everything is falling into place on Kwaj. Our house is being prepared. Our sponsors on Kwaj have bent over backwards to help us any way they can. The house we are getting is an older house with cinder blocks and bricks. They are best for not having a mold problem. They were built before dishwashers were the norm. This one has been refurbished so we have central AC and not the window units that are noisy. Our sponsor found a portable dishwasher on the island that had not been used very much. She talked them into bringing the price down in half of what they were asking. They are the greatest. One of the few hobbies I have is growing our own tomatoes. There is no comparison between a store bought tomato and a home grown tomato. Lee ends up doing most of the work helping me get them started. We were told that tomatoes do not grow well on the island. I suspect it is the salt water. I have grown ten foot tomato vines before so I have to try. Macy's is closing so our sponsors went to the store to buy what I needed to try and grow my tomatoes. Amy, I need you to pray for my tomatoes. Now that I know how many and what size my windows are we went shopping for window curtains Sat. There aren't any to buy on Kwaj. My niece had told us about a two story Target somewhere in SD. We found out where it was and checked it out. Unfortunately they did not have what we needed. We ended up going to JC Penney. Our sponsor had told us that JCP would mail to any AP address without any tax. I found what I wanted in the SD store and bought only a few sets to take with us in our suitcases. The rest I bought on line and had them mailed to Kwaj. They should be waiting for us when we arrive. Blessings to all.

Zoo Good Time Two

My blogger would not let me post two images so I will do two posts of the SD Zoo. A lot of the animals were taking a nap when we went through but the elephants were out throwing dirt on their backs. We were told twice how close the monkeys DNA is to humans. I think I have a much closer resemblance to this beauty.
Blessings to all!

We Had a Zooie Good Time

Here is my frog who turned into a Prince and quite a catch. We went to the San Diego Zoo yesterday. I couldn't walk around 100 acres so we rode the double decker bus that the zoo has to tour the exhibits. A sister from church gave us some season passes to get in and a two for one discount for the bus ride. What a deal! The grand kids souvenirs cost the most. We had a great time.

Anchors Away

This is the air craft carrier Ronald Reagan that Lee went onto this week. If you enlarge the pic you can see the planes on the deck. They rarely leave the planes on the deck after the Pearl Harbor attacks. The ship has to be going at a certain speed to launch the planes successfully. The RR was only staying in dock for a week and the Marine base was there in case of any problems. Lee was amased at the whole experience. You could tour the ship a whole week and still not see it all. He said old fat men were not good recruits because his legs were sore the next day from all the steps.

We still don't know if Lee will finish early on his classes, but it is a real possibility. If it happens it will problably be a week or less off.

They are closing Macy's (not the state's Macy's)and putting in AFFES which is the Army's exchange on Kwaj. I have not seen Macy's but it should be a big improvement. If nothing else we can order from a catalog and not pay taxes or postage.

Ya'll have a great week end.

Much Better

I have recovered from my yuk and my full body message and acupuncture is all going well and helping. Lee is going to install a copier on the air craft carrier Ronald Reagan today and very excited about it. Our housing was picked yesterday by our sponsors on Kwaj. I am not used to someone else picking my house but the couple is really putting a lot of effort into picking the best that is available. Unfortunately we are coming in about two months too soon. A lot more houses will be available after school lets out. We will have one of the older houses that are made of cinder blocks that has been refurbished. Our sponsor said it has central air (a plus in the older houses as opposed to window unit air conditioners) and a big patio. The older houses are located closer to the front so we won't have as far to go to check our mail box and be at the heart of the complex. It will be great to be able to put our home back together. I can't complain when someone else makes my bed for me and cooks my breakfast every day, but it still isn't home. Our home sold last week. Ellis is now a land lord because he bought our house for rental property. Hopefully he has it rented by now. Some people from church gave us some season passes to the San Diego Zoo. I'm not sure if we will go this week end or next, but we will go before we leave. Blessings to all!

Yuk!

I have not thrown up for at least 20 years. It just isn't something I do that often. I am sad to say I broke that record last night. Not my best memory of SD. I'm a little queasy today but fine. I have not been to a church that has Sunday night singing on the last Sunday of the month in a lot of years. The church we are attending did last Sunday night. Lee got to lead a few songs and he really enjoyed it. There were so many really talented song leaders at Edmond that he had not lead singing the whole six years we were there. He will probably get all the opportunities he wants at Kwaj. Lee's classes are going well. Not sure if he will finish early or not. It is too early to tell yet. We are supposed to leave May 4th or before if he gets through early. Our sponsors on Kwaj are supposed to pick our house this coming Monday. There are three different kinds of houses they can pick from, depending on what is available. I'm not used to someone else deciding my housing for the next two years. You can ask to move but it will cost $1500 to do so. They are good people and she has Fibro also and knows my challenges. Blessing to all

Beach Bums

We learned the true meaning of the phrase 'beach bums' Sat. One bum had his rigidity bike with his worldly possessions propped up against the concrete park bench while he slept stretched out on the bench. His face was deep brown from years of sleeping in the sun and his once tan pants were dark brown from lack of washing. A female bum layed on the lawn on her side with bread crumbs she had layed right in front of her face to get the birds to come as close to her as possible. Another bum would walk from person to person trying to strike up friendly conversations so he could ultimately ask for some money. He claimed he did not spend the money on booze but he reeked from something. It was either booze or lack of clean hygiene, or both. What a blessed life we have! I don't know what I will do when we get to Kwaj and no one makes my breakfast or comes by to make my bed everyday. When we went in to eat at Fatburgers for lunch Lee needed to go to the bathroom so I ordered our food as he left. I noticed he was back pretty early so I thought the facilities were being used. When I sat down he mumbled something about having to pay a quarter to get into the bathroom (Lee can make Abe Lincoln scream for mercy before he spends him). I tossed a quarter at him and told him there was no reason to wait. I waited for him to come out so I would not have to pick everything up and haul it into the bathroom with me. He came out and I got up and he said 'If I knew you had to go I would have held the door open for you'. I told I would pay a quarter to come out of the women's bathroom and not the men's. Later as we were looking for our car we both needed to go and had walked by a public restroom. After coming out we both agreed what a good investment that quarter was. Blessings to all!