Mental Musings

Well...we made it back from our vacation. We really had a great time, but we did have some interesting things happen. To sum-up our trip: we drove through 15 states (Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia--stopped for 1 night, Alabama, Mississippi--stopped for 5 nights, Louisiana, Arkansas, Missouri--stopped for 5 nights, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio--stopped for 1 night, West Virginia, Pennsylvania and back to Maryland. The map below shows our route. Blue dots are places we stayed overnight. In Mississippi: both boys took a trip to a walk in clinic for ear infections; we toured the war zone on the coast; we met a pastor friend, his wife and three kids for lunch in Daphne, Alabama (Eastern Shore of Mobile Bay); we discussed my father's health which is failing quickly with a weak heart as well as his frame of mind with Vietnam flashbacks and depression; Zachary bought a trumpet in Alabama and is going to take lessons from me; met with Tracy and Charlie, my 27-year-old niece a...

We have had a very interesting vacation so far. It started on Friday, September 8, at around 6 am. As we were just leaving Baltimore, about 45 minutes into our trip, Zachary throws up in the car. We are just entering the D.C. traffic and no exits in sight. Zachary insists he isn’t sick. Wendy gets him cleaned up and we continue our trip. The trip was going smoothly. We were expecting to arrive in Atlanta around 4 pm. Wendy and I were alternating driving. I had not told her what road we were to turn on next and she never asked. Sometime around 3:00 pm I realized that we had never taken our exit off of I-95. By that time we were already two hours off course and had to take some alternate roads (including one that I doubt anyone outside of the area had ever been on before). We made it to Atlanta around 8:00 pm after an extra four hours of driving. Last night my mom woke us up to tell us that Zachary was crying. Wendy checked on him and he was complaining of severe earache. I sat up with h...

Today we went to worship service at the church I attended as a teenager ( Temple Baptist Church ) in Big Point, Mississippi. It is the first time I have been to this church in over eight years. Two of my nieces were singing a duet today and did a wonderful job. The church has made some major changes since I was last a member in 1983. The worship service was a blend of choruses and hymns. The worship center had good quality sound and projection equipment. The praise team and choir used flat-screen monitors for lyrics in order to keep their hands free. They has hung some white banners from the choir loft ceiling and projected red lights onto the material to create a more contemporary atmosphere. Plants were used to hide floor monitors and floor light canisters. The worship leader played keyboard and bass, they used another keyboard player along with a pianist and organist. A six person praise team sang with a choir behind them for a few choruses and then joined the choir. The choruses we...

We spent most of our Labor Day weekend painting our den and preparing for our vacation next week. We are going to be driving 5 days and spending 5 days in Mississippi on the Gulf Coast and 5 days in Branson, Missouri. Wendy has prepared travel journals for the boys so that they can make notes about the 14 states we will travel through. Isn't it amazing how we work overtime trying to finish up work before a vacation and then return to extra work that is waiting for us. We spent extra hours packing for our trip and then extra hours when we return putting things away. We try to fill every hour of our vacation with activities or visiting friends and family. Once we return we are worn out and need another vacation just to recover from our vacation. Oh, well. Maybe I will find time to blog while on my vacation.