2021 Christmas Letter of Activies

 My events of the year 

I began a daily Bible study and read online with Christy Jordan, author of Seeking Scripture. We started on January 1, reading Genesis, and will end in December with Revelation. 

I took several day trips this year, including a couple of trips.

In January, I visited several covered bridges in South Alabama: the Easley Bridge, the Swann Bridge, the Horton Mill Covered Bridge, and Noccalula Falls in Gadsden.

February Day trip to Guntersville and Huntsville.

 

In March, we took a day trip to Oak Mountain State Park to visit the museum and see rescued birds of prey.

In July, we rode to Spring Valley Farms in Lutts, Tennessee, to see the Sunflower fields with friends, and then to Clifton, Tennessee, for lunch.

October took a trip with sisters to Mooresville, North Carolina & Mount Airy (home of Andy Griffin)

In November, I took a cruise to Cozumel and Progreso with a friend.

Three trips to Huntsville Botanical Gardens 

Cheek-wood Botanical Gardens in Nashville and their Lego art on March 6. 

On March 6, Ava celebrated her sixth birthday at Chuck E. Cheese.

June River celebrated his June 19th birthday. 

June 19, Atlas celebrated his first birthday(SR The ROOM 124 Wheeler Street Rogersville)(First Trip arJune 29e Sun)

June 29, Hazel Cate was born (fifth great-grandchild)

December 5, Hayne's 2nd Birthday Party@Shoals Next Level 850 Howell Heflin Lane Tuscumbia (inflatables for kids inside) December 10th is December 10

(Onik, BAA, Cluck & Moo Hayne is December 17th!)

December 17: Surprise birthday party for my sister, Vicki, at the Zip City Community Center. She is turning 70

My husband and I received our first COVID-19 shots in March and our second in April.

In April, I took Mike (my oldest son) to the orthopedic Center for back surgery after an accident at work. 

Events I did 

Walking Tours  & Hikes 

Florence Cemetery Walk 

Mooresville Walking Tour 

Donnell House Tour 

Sheffield Business Walking Tour

National Wildlife Hike

PawPaw Patch Hike

National MushroMay 7ke  

On May 7, Our Newly built Modular Home was delivered (this kept us busy)

May 20, 31, Furniture delivered (bedroom furniture and foyer)

May-June Hubby installed 4 ceiling fans and a sliding shower in the smaller bathroom.

June-July Utilities, plumbing, natural gas, internet, Dish, and septic tank installed.

June Washer and Dryer delivered 

June Sofa and kitchen table delivered 

June 75-inch TV  installed 

Aug Man returns to do repairs and install the chimney.

Sep-Dec Hubby built a Deck on the Side and Back of the Modular Home. 

Aug Concert driveway installed. 

AugNovember 1 our RV 

Nov 1, Garage inMay 5ed. 

On May 5, Robert H. died (my sister Paula's husband)

On May 8, Marcus (grandson) graduated 4 UNA College with a Bachelor's Degree. May 28sics  

May 28, Montana graduated from Rogers High School (got a job at Monarch Tile)

In August, our swimming pool was hit by lightning, filling the yard with gallons of water.

In September, Killen opened the used bookstore where I volunteer once a month. It has been closed for over a year and a half because of the Coronavirus.

July, Root canal and a bridge (tooth broke) 

Nov, tooth pulled and one filled (accessed)

Well, we finally settled into our new home, with limestone gravel all around, a concrete drive, a garage, and a deck on the side and back of the house. 

We celebrated Labor Day with two pots of chicken stew, sharing it with the kids, grandkids, and great-grandkids. 

We celebrated Thanksgiving with a variety of dishes, including turkey, ham, green bean casserole, sweet potato casserole, blackberry cobbler, cranberry sauce, Butterfinger cake, and dressing. 

We are planning a big Christmas, and I don't know what we are serving yet, but it will be good. 

I'm so glad we sold the RV and moved into something bigger. Now I can entertain at my house instead of taking everything somewhere else. 

I have my Christmas tree, decorations everywhere, a couple of poinsettias on the table, and the bar ready for Christmas. 

2021 ends with lots of good memories 

2022 may be even better.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

The Stranger

Sally’s parents owned a chain of Macy’s Department Stores.

The one Sally worked at was in New York, where she had to deal with the hustle and bustle of everyday traffic and people.

Sally would take the Staten Island ferry and then the subway to Time Square where Macy’s Department was located. 

Sally loved her job and the people but deep inside she was filled with emptiness over the loss of her beloved Jim. 

Sally and Jim were college sweet hearts, they married right out of college and had planned to spend the rest of their lives together. 

After ten years of marriage they still did not have children but hoped someday day to fill that void. 

Jim was an engineer and he had designed many of the tall sky scrapers in New York. 

Sally remembers that tragic night like it was yesterday.

The knock on the door, the two policemen saying I am sorry to inform you but your husband lost control of his car and was buried in the snow.

Jim had stayed late at work and was trying to finish up one of his projects and by the time he finished it snowing up a storm. The wind was howling, it was very dark and the roads were blanketed in snow.

Both Jim and Sally loved the outdoors and they had build a beautiful home two hours away from the city.

They also kept a small apartment in downtown New York when they kept late hours at work. 

But tonight Jim wanted to be with Sally it was their tenth anniversary. 

It had been ten years since Sally was widowed, with no children to fill her days, Sally turned to books.

Bye the time Sally had the fire roaring in the fireplace she could smell the hot coffee perking in the kitchen.

Sally put on her pajamas, poured herself a cup of hot coffee, grabbed a warm blanket and went to her library of books and picked out the latest novel that she had purchased.

Sally had settled in for the night when the ground beneath her house shook. 

The sky lite up like a christmas tree, then total darkness. 

Lighting bolded one after another.

Sally put her book aside and she started to shake. When Jim was alive he would take her in his arms and make her feel safe but tonight she had no one to hold her.

One of the lightening bolts hit the house and it caught on fire. Oh my! What am I going to do? She called the fire department but she lived so far out of the city that by the time the fire trucks arrived the house would be burnt to the ground.

Sally was racing around inside the house, trying to save her library of books when she heard the sound of a car.

The car stopped and a stranger got out and raced inside to save Sally.

Sally did not want to leave the house because of her books but the stranger pulled her outside.

The firemen arrive just in time to see the sky opened up and pour buckets of rain onto the house putting the fire out. 

Sally looked at the stranger only to discovered the stranger was not a stranger.

Sally put the face of the stranger with the man she had been avoiding at the store.

Sally remembered the crazy day, that she had met the stranger.

One day at the store she was throwing a tantrum acting like a kid, she had made a horses ass of herself right in front of the stranger. 

So, every time he came into the store Sally would run and hide, she was too embarrassed to face him.

Tonight she had to face him, he had saved her life. 

The firemen made sure the fire was extinguished and it was safe for them to return inside. 

The stranger stayed the night to comfort Sally and to make sure the fire did not rekindle.

Sally went to check on her books they smelled like smoke and the pages curled a little but other wise the books were still readable.

The roof had to be patched, the walls painted but that would be another day.

The young man stayed to help with the clean up and Sally was not long ashamed to face the man.

Could this be the beginning of a new romance.

Like Humphrey Bogart said in Casablanca, “Here’s looking at you kid"

2009, Tuesday, June 2, Caught in an electrical storm on the Singing River Bridge

I had a dentist appointment at 9:00 A.M.

After the dentist, we rode, so I went to Kohl's where I bought a pair of shorts and a top.  

Next, we went to Sam's Club where we bought two lawn chairs to use at music in Wilson Park on Wednesdays. 

We stopped at Ruby Tuesday, where each of us ordered a rib plate. We had a buy one, get one free coupon.

We went to Lowe's, where we bought a thermal for our swimming pool and two screwdrivers.

I had loaded my bicycle into our Vue and was planning to ride it across the Patton Island Bridge later that day.

Hubby's iPhone had issued a weather alert, stating that a storm was brewing in Mississippi.

I felt like the storm would not reach Florence until after I had finished riding my bicycle across the bridge and back.

My Hubby unloaded my bike while I went to the park's restroom to change into the shorts and top I had bought. 

It was very hot and clear when I started across the bridge, but before I reached the end, it had started to sprinkle.

I don't know what I was thinking, because I didn't have my cell phone with me, or I would have called my Hubby to come pick me up.  I had forgotten it.

So I turned my bicycle around and started back across the bridge.

I was almost all the way back when the rain started to pour down and lightning was dancing all around me.
I remember looking towards the locks of the dam and thinking to myself, I sure could use some windshield wipers to clear my sunglasses that were covered with rainwater.

All I could remember was trying to get safely across the bridge away from the storm, but it was too late. I was caught inside the cage on the bridge during an electrical storm and had lost my short-term memory. 

I was lucky that was the only thing that happened to me with lightning dancing all around me. 

It took me about 20 minutes to ride my bike about four miles, which is two miles out and two miles back. 
The storm hit at 12:53, I must have started about 12:33 P.M., and I was at the hospital by 2:30 P.M. 

It was reported later that day that a terrible storm had hit the Tennessee River.

I was dripping wet when I arrived back at the park. 

The storm had frightened Hubby, so he drove the VUE across the bridge to look for me, and he saw me coming off the bridge.

I didn't remember riding across the bridge or changing out of my wet clothes at the restroom in the park. 

Hubby said I kept repeating myself all the way home. Where did all those wet clothes come from?

When we got home, I ate a snack bar and drank a can of soda, and I remembered nothing.

Hubby thought I had a stroke, and he said that I needed to go to the hospital, but I kept saying nothing was wrong with me.

Hubby called my daughter, he handed me the telephone, my daughter asked me some questions, and all I could say was Give me a minute to think.
My daughter asked me if I remembered riding my bicycle on the bridge, and I said, 'What bridge?' I could not remember anything. 

I had been inside an electric field caused by the lightning.
The lighting had hit the cage that was attached to the bridge, where I was riding my bicycle.

Somehow, my daughter and Hubby persuaded me to go to the hospital, and I was seen by Dr. Robert Coble. 

They drew blood, took a brain scan, and checked my urine. The doctor was puzzled by the results. 

He said that the enzymes in my heart were going crazy and I would have to stay until they stabilized. 

My family stayed while I recovered.
It took several hours, but my short-term memory began to return, and I was released at 7:30 P.M. 

All I wanted to do was go home and go to sleep. 

The next day, I felt a little better, but the right side of my head still felt a little numb.

Information on Lighting:

Lightning injuries are usually the result of five different mechanisms: 

Direct strike, — direct strike injuries occur when lightning strikes a person directly

Contact injury occurs when a person touches an object that is part of the lightning current pathway

Side flash (splash), Side flash or splash injuries occur when lightning arcs from the object struck to a nearby object.

Ground current (step voltage), Ground current, or step voltage injuries occur when the lightning current spreads peripherally through the ground from the site of the strike

Blunt trauma, or blunt injuries, occur in two fashions. 

In the first instance, the victim's musculature contracts diffusely, causing the victim to be thrown a considerable distance from the lightning strike. 

The second mechanism is a consequence of large temperature fluctuations associated with a lightning strike. 

Lightning causes the instantaneous superheating and expansion of the air, which is followed immediately by an implosion as the air rapidly cools. 

The duration of heat is so brief that thermal injuries seldom occur. However, the explosion and implosion of air can lead to blunt trauma of major organ systems such as the brain, liver, and spleen.

Because the duration of a lightning strike is extremely short, little of the massive energy is transferred internally to the victim. Instead, the majority of the energy flows externally over the victim's body (a "flashover"). 

However, enough energy passes through the body to disrupt and short-circuit electrical systems within the body, especially the heart, vasculature, respiratory center of the brain, reticular activating system, and autonomic nervous system. 

The primary cause of death in lightning injuries is cardiopulmonary arrest due to asystole. 

However, asystole can be readily converted to a coordinated cardiac rhythm with timely and aggressive cardiopulmonary resuscitation.

Why were the enzymes in my heart elevated after being caught in ground current lightning?

Weather observations for June 2, 2009, Muscle Shoals, North West Alabama Regional Airport 

SCT055 means scatter clouds at 5,500 AGL, scattered means 3 to 4 eighths cloud coverage.

BKN090 were broken clouds at 9000' covering 5 to 7 octas of the sky.