Relay time is here!

This is another busy weekend, but for such a good cause. It is Relay for Life weekend in Lowell and both Terry and I participate. I regret I had to miss the last few steering committee meetings but I had already been working with the kids at church on Wednesday evening for AWANA all season and felt an obligation to finish up. It will be interesting to see how Relay does this year with how hard our area has been hit in this economic downturn. I know we are down in team numbers, but hopefully not walkers. I know the enthusiasm will be there as always. It never ceases to amaze me how many people are cancer survivors, caregivers, or friends or relatives of people who are battling or have survived a cancer diagnosis.
Our involvement began three years ago after Terry had been through his treatment and had just been told he was in remission. We did some walking that year. The next year our church team began which was named “Beautiful Feet.” It was an enthusiastic, eclectic group of people who gathered to team walk the 24 hours. I must digress here to explain more about how Relay works. It is an event through the American Cancer Society where teams of people join together and the teams attempt to have at least one person walking the course set up or the athletic track for a 24 hour period.These walkers try to elicit donations for their endeavor. People can sign up to walk for one of the hours or more to help reach this goal. During this time the teams have various things they are also doing to raise monies to go for cancer research and support. Lowell has usually done very well really taking the cause to heart. The teams sell things, have games to play, or offer various services. One team has offered therapeutic massages while others have sold food, with the things being very creative they have thought up. Our team has sisters who have graciously come the past two years to make balloon animals and other things which go over well with the children…and even some adults. We are grateful they have offered their services again this year. Their mother usually comes to walk. There is a lot of excitement throughout the whole thing.
There are celebrations for the cancer survivors which include a delicious supper served for the survivors and their caregivers. This is followed by the Survivors Lap where the survivors walk around the track and are met half way through by their caregiver to complete it. This is to acknowledge not only the people who have been through cancer but the people who were there for them during that time. There is also a time to remember those who have lost their battle and honor them. You can buy paper bags called luminaria which you decorate to honor those people or those who are in time of their treatment or who are in remission. At dusk sand and candles are placed in these bags, the candles are lit and the lights to the track are turned off. It is a very moving experience to see the track almost solid with these bags lighting the way for those who are walking. You can usually hear a pin drop during this ceremony.
There is also entertainment during Relay. Music, games, also a silent auction are scheduled. It is always interesting to see what is donated for this portion of the Relay. We have been privileged to help out the past couple of Saturday mornings of Relay to join with some friends to make music. It is a fun time with joking around, doing some singing and just trying to help liven things up a bit while the event is beginning to wind down. Two good friends of ours have come down for this part of the event which adds to the fun. To get to see them, have some fun, and then perhaps go out to lunch makes for a good time.
All good things must come to an end as the old saying goes. The last half hour is the closing ceremony where the awards are given out for raising the most money. We did pretty well last year in that department. I hope we do this year. Then it is time to go home, recover and then begin plans for next year. The battle against this horrible disease never stops. Too many of our friends, family, and others have been down the road this brings.

Thoughts on growing older

This week I completed the biggest part of my annual doctor check ups. It was a little interesting when I realized most of them were scheduled for the same week. It has been a busy time since our return from Nashville with meetings (who said things would slow down once your kid(s) were out of the house?), preparations for other events and finally the doctors. I look at the list of numbers in my phone thinking, “Gee, when did the entries for doctors begin to catch up with the ones for friends and family?” The list has gotten longer as I have aged along with the fact so many of them are specialists. You have a doctor for each specific thing, eyes, hearing, back, specific conditions like diabetes, along with everything else. Gone are the days where you went to one well known to you doctor. I have mixed feelings as you realize in specializing the doctor has all the up to date information for their area but it was nice to have one trusted person for your medical needs.
Whoever said, “Growing old(er) isn’t for sissies”, pretty much hit the nail on the head. I have found particularly in the years since hitting forty this is true. It has been a goodly number of years since I hit that plateau (Oh man, am I dating myself here). The number of pills taken has slowly grown with each diagnosis. You realize the purposes of each one and are thankful for them but wish you could lower the number. Then, you kind of begin to wax poetic back to your younger years….
I used to be able to eat pretty much what I wanted, although I tried to limit it because of a constant battle with my weight. Second servings are NOT allowed anymore. Now it is controlled amounts of things for various reasons. Gone are the days when I jogged a couple of miles every night as my body would scream in protest if I tried it now. Walking is fine for me. Rougher sports like basketball and softball are for watching for the same reason. Glasses are absolutely essential now, with bifocals added, especially for reading or seeing smaller objects. But the thing I think about most often is the fact I try to get out of climbing for things now…it didn’t bother me in years past. I’d just grab the kitchen stool or inside ladder and have at it. In fact, in my childhood years I used to get in trouble for pulling out the kitchen drawers and climbing up them to answer our phone which was on the wall. I saw it as trying to help, but Mom had other thoughts! I have a “grabber” now to help me get things off the higher shelves. I never let much slow me down, still don’t for the most part, but put more thought into it nowadays.
Lest one think I see things in a morbid way that is definitely NOT the case. In being forced to slow down it has given time to think about the blessings given by God. Each day is a gift from Him to be cherished. The time is used to give more thought to his Word, the Bible, and using the time to pray for others. Seeing things through a different eye with our life experiences is really a blessing. The simple things mean more like hearing the birds once I have my hearing aids in for the day, yet another sign of growing older, along with looking out over the fields on our farm. Wait a minute, there is another change!! A goodly share of the farm has been sold after many years in the family. But still there is still much to be thankful for in life. You find different ways to serve Him. Just keep an open mind to His leading!

Thoughts on Nashville

It has been three weeks since we left for our trip to Nashville. I am always eager as it is a time to reconnect with our loved ones and friends who live in the area. I have fallen in love with the rolling hills, history, and the sights and sounds. We usually plan for one big thing while we are there as it does have its “touristy” type things which are definitely expensive. So far we have been to the Country Music Hall of Fame, the Charlie Daniels museum and store, along with perennial favorite the Ernest Tubb Record shop. The city has its own feel and flavors. It isn’t all country music as we discovered on our first trip. There is a Nashville Hard Rock Café, although it does have exhibits for country stars. It is loud and raucous as one would expect. We have found some very interesting restaurants both downtown and the surrounding area. We had a wonderful pulled BBQ pork lunch from a little kind of hole in the wall place near our son and daughter in laws house. I even allowed myself some of their wonderful homemade pie! We’ll definitely make a return trip.
This trip was made interesting by a couple of different things. One, a lesson learned when we stopped in Dayton, Ohio for the night at a pretty nice hotel. We got our things in the room and I placed two of my bags in an out of the way spot to prevent tripping over them….that ended up being a mistake. When I left the room I picked up the top one of the two bags and neglected the bottom one which had my music supplies in it. This included the tuner for my mandolin, music, music stand and a couple of other things. We pulled out of Dayton and down the road we went. It hit me about an hour later, “Yikes, I think I left my stuff at the hotel!!!” When we stopped for gas my fears were confirmed. Oh great!!! I immediately called the hotel (one of the good things about cell phones. You can handle things quickly). The lady informed me they had found it and she was waiting on a phone call from someone and she would call me back. Ok, I can handle that. I waited two days and never received a call. This lead to three more calls to the hotel with the same results during the week. Frustration was growing with not getting a straight answer out of anybody. The line was always, “Give me your number and I’ll call you back.” I began resigning myself to the fact I would have to replace the lost things. Also to wondering about what could seem a lack of service when we would be paying the shipping costs to get the things back along with the fact I called the facility immediately. I know, I know I was the one who was lax in not checking the room a third time before going to the car. The self inflicted trip to the woodshed has definitely taken hold with this sometimes addle brained, middle aged lady. Check the room a third and even fourth time if necessary before you leave!! I did finally get my bag back. I found a five AM voice mail on my cell phone saying they had found my bag. I quickly called back and arranged for the shipping back here. It has arrived and everything was in good shape, for which I am extremely grateful.
The second thing was a wonderful trip to the Grand Ole Opry!! We had been going kind of back and forth about buying tickets as they aren’t the cheapest. I had read Steve Martin, the comedian, who happens to be a world class banjo player would be making his debut at the Opry while we were there. We had not purchased tickets before we left as we were still discussing the costs. When we arrived Pat and Myla gave us a coupon to get tickets BOGO (buy one, get one free) to attend the evening of music. THANK YOU, dear ones!! We had supper at Opry Mills Mall which is right by the Opry itself and I got some walking in before the show. We arrived at the hall about half an hour before the scheduled beginning time…which was good with the way the hall filled up. We found out later both the shows that evening had sold out so I really felt blessed getting tickets when we didn’t purchase them until two days before the event. I was just drinking in the sights of the auditorium when all of a sudden I heard a loud “How-dee!!” I about jumped out of my seat having a heart attack when I realized a young lady had come out dressed as the late country star Minnie Pearl. While doing kind of a comedy routine she went over the etiquette of being at a live radio show and the rules such as “no smoking”. Then the show itself started with eighty-eight year old “Little” Jimmy Dickens as the host for the first half hour. He really wowed the crowd. He could out sing some of the younger singers of today, in my humble opinion. If the Lord allows me to make it to eighty-eight I hope I still have a singing voice as good as his. You also realized why he is called “Little” Jimmy as he is four feet eleven inches tall, hence the reason he wears the tall cowboy hats when on stage. The evening went on with Marty Stuart, Vince Gill, Amy Grant along with others. Vince Gill introduced Steve Martin and the place went bonkers!! At the Opry you are allowed to get right up to the edge of the stage to take pictures so the area was absolutely packed. I sat back and marveled at the talent of this man. I would have never dreamed he was such a fine musician. It makes me glad I put out the money for the limited edition of his first album which is just coming out. I was also glad for Ter’s patience as that particular edition is taking longer to come out than the regular length one. It is a late arriving part of his anniversary present. I hope he likes it, but I think he will. God really worked things out in allowing us to attend this not soon forgotten evening. I don’t know about Ter, but it really took me a while to settle down to sleep after all of the excitement. I thought about buying a cowgirl hat, pretty light blue with beading in the front. Then I realized the Opry shop only had one size...LARGE. Can you say the hat will be down over your eyes? I settled for a necklace with a treble clef symbol on it (looks kind of like a backward ampersand, for those who don’t read music). We killed a little time while waiting for the traffic to thin out a little and headed home. We turned on the radio station which broadcasts the Opry to listen to the second show on the way home as it was different from the first. This ended a really memorable evening. Would I go again? In a heartbeat!!