I had looked forward to this service and had also dreaded it. Looked forward because it was a new beginning, but dreaded it because I thought it would be drastically different.

The service was set to begin at 9:45 am and we got there a few minutes early, even tho we had to wait for a very long train to go by before we could get across the tracks. When I looked around, there were mostly people from "our" church there, except for the guy who was gonna teach Sunday School. As he got started, a couple of "their" men came in and we had a really good Sunday School lesson. It was so good to listen instead of teaching!

After the Sunday School, people started coming in for the 11:00 service and we had about the same number as last week, probably about 65. Margie didn't come, but I really didn't expect her to, but a lady came who hadn't been to church in a year and brought her entire family. We had special music and a good message and afterwards we went down to the fellowship hall for lunch. A lot of people didn't stay to eat, but the ones who did had a very good meal.All in all, it was a good day.

New and Improved or Jaded taste Buds?
Thursday, May 6, 2004

I remember years ago when Geraldine moved to North Augusta,SC, she discovered and introduced me to Georgia Hash. This was a small, one serving can of something with tiny lil potatoes and some kind of a sorta spicy meat that was SOOOOOOOOO good on toast.

We ate it whenever I went to visit and when they moved back to Danville, we found it at Winn Dixie and Kroger. A little can was just enough for one and to my knowledge, we never found a bigger size.

Several years later when they moved to Portsmouth, Geraldine called me and asked if I would buy some Georgia hash and send it by who ever was coming down to visit. For a while, whenever anyone would go to see Geraldine, they would take lil cans of one of her favorite foods. Finally, she discovered a store that carried Georgia Hash, so we didn't have to take it any more.

A few weeks ago, I was at Winn Dixie and happened to see some and I was hungry at the time and I bought a can. Just one, still a ome serving size.By the time I got home and put my stuff away and went to clean the church and got back home, I wasn't hungry so I forgot about it for a few weeks.

The other night, I was looking for something to eat for my supper and spied that can of Georgia Hash in my cabinet. I had a fresh loaf of bread and so I opened it and heated it and settled down to enjoy. Well, I don't know what they had done to it in the few years since I had eaten it, but it tasted nothing like what I remembered. For starters, it had a tomatory taste, more like BBQ than what I remembered. I manfully ate some on one slice of bread, but I just couldn't reconcile what I was tasting to what my taste buds remembered it tasting like. Anyway, I tossed what was left and spent the rest of the evening wondering why when something was so good, anybody would try to "new and improve" it?

A Rose By Any Other Name.............
Friday, May 14, 2004

Several years ago, Fara sent me a red rose...Mr. Lincoln. The same spring Tami sent me a climbing rose, the picture was coral. Well, I planted them along with a hedge rose that Geraldine had sent me.

All of them were planted beside the garage and George( my then green thumbed neighbor) would come over and spray and feed them whenever he worked on his own flowers. They grew and Mr. Lincoln had several beautiful blooms and the Tami rose bloomed with an abundance of beautiful coral colored blossoms.

George moved, but before he did he planted another floribunda beside my wall because it didn't get enough sun where he had it. He came back last year and fed and sprayed them all and they all flourished.

Last year when they started blooming I noticed something odd. Mr Lincoln was still red, but Tami was coral at the bottom of the bush, but where it had climbed up the trellis and out onto the garage wall, it was pale pink. When George came by I showed him and he couldn't believe both colors were on the same bush.

This past Sunday when we were getting ready to go somewhere, I noticed a pale pink blossom and went to check it out and guess what? The bottom is again bright coral and the top is pale pink! What gives?

Unfortunately, when Lee cut my grass, he sat a bucket on my hedge rose and I think it's gone. But maybe, it'll come back out again. In the meantime, I have a beautiful coral and pale pink rose bush, and a beautiful red Mr. Lincoln. And George, a red floribunda and they are all going wild!!

Misunderstood????
Tuesday, May 18, 2004

Today in the middle of doing something, the phone rang. Susan said,"Mama, what color are lilies?" "Well," said I, "tiger lilies are orange, day lilies come in lots of colors....pink, coral, yellow,lavender,white". "OK, bye" said Susan.

A couple of hours later, the phone rang again. "Mama", said Susan; "I've got my lily on my deck". "You don't have a deck, Susan", I replied. "Not on my deck,on my neck", she said. "Oh, ok....I knew you didn't have a deck". Somebody had turned the volume on my phone down to one and I really misunderstood her. Later I saw the tiger lily on the back of her neck. It's kinda cute. If I didn't have a thing about needles and pain, I might even get me a tattoo.