throwback

Lately I've been recalling songs or bits of songs that I remember from my childhood. There are some mental images in my mind that I have no photo of and could never recreate for anyone, but they are still there, clear as ever.

The church I grew up in had hardwood floors. The floors were from the boards of the original church building, and the pews had been made by the men (hence they were too tall for almost everyone else and there were wooden foot benches for many of the women who were under 5'). By the time I cam along there were carpet runners in the aisles and up front. But between the pews...pure hardwood. And when the men started tapping their feet to the music, it was like a drumbeat.

This song came to mind last week while we were all fervently praying for my cousin's wife. Clint Short was a WWII vet, a German POW, who had a beautiful voice (and big feet). I can hear his heel tapping out the beat as his head bobbed and he sang this song. As a kid I often wondered if he was trying to get the music leader to speed it up (he tended to sing songs super slow), but now I wonder if he was simply meditating on the words.

Have faith in God when your pathway is lonely.
He sees and knows all the way you have trod;
Never alone are the least of His children;
Have faith in God, have faith in God.

Have faith in God when your prayers are unanswered,
Your earnest plea He will never forget;
Wait on the lord, trust His word and be patient,
Have faith in God. He'll answer yet.

Have faith in God in your pain and your sorrow,
His heart is touched with your grief and despair;
Cast all your cares and your burdens upon Him,
And leave them there, oh, leave them there.

Have faith in God though all else fall about you;
Have faith in God, He provides for His own:
He cannot fail though all kingdoms shall perish.
He rules. He reigns upon His throne.

Refrain:

Have faith in God, He's on His throne,
Have faith in God, He watches over His own;
He cannot fail, He must prevail,
Have faith in God, Have faith in God.

Tomatoes

Some people have table runners. 

I have a tomato aisle.

Pressure

When I was a kid, if we ran through  the kitchen while my Mom was using the pressure cooker, she would scream hysterically that we were going to blow the house up. So when we got married and my mother in law gifted us with a pressure cooker I was less than thrilled. I tried to use it twice, and after that it wasn't worth the stress. Years later she gave me an electric one, and I absolutely love it. 

Yet she had this huge gadget called a pressure canner that you can can almost anything with. It looked monstrous. She actually had two in two different sizes. I figured if a stove pressure cooker scared me, know way was I going to use one that had so much pressure it could can something.

And then my Dad bought one a few weeks ago. My Mom even said it was amazing (though Dad is the one operating it). He loves it. 

Since out garden is only producing small handfuls of vegetables this year, I thought I would try making vegetable soup...which requires a pressure canner. So today we jumped off the deep end and bought one. The pressure is running a little higher than  it should and I've turned the heat down multiple times. Not sure if that means I should can it for less time or turn the stove almost off. The manual says if  your pressure drops below the needed point, then you have to start the time all over again. Don't think that's happening tonight!

Maybe the next batch of whatever will be a smoother process.

Mask up

As my Facebook feed continues to fill with news from people back home who are very sick, I've continued to be amazed at all the photos of people gathering for fun at restaurants and other locations with no social distancing or masks. How many reports must there be of people stuck in the ER because there are no beds left in the ICU before people take this seriously?

MeMaw Ivy ( what AL people call their Governor...some endearingly, some derisively) has finally mandated face masks in public are now a requirement. Hopefully this will help things slow down.

Phyllis, my cousin's wife, was moved out of a normal hospital room into the ER so she could be placed on a ventilator. It was over 24 hrs before they could get her in the ICU. I'm praying the machines will give her lungs the rest they need to heal. The family would like for her to be moved to a hospital in Birmingham, but high school friends who work in those hospitals say things are just as bad there. So I'm praying for healing, for her to have incredible nurses whose information lines up with what the doctors are saying, and for someone somewhere to re evaluate  the policy of separating families from loved ones. It was hard on me when Bobby had a one night stay and I couldn't be there; I cannot imagine what Larry feels knowing how critical things are and getting totally different stories from a nurse and doctor. May God grant them strength and wisdom and healing.

plodding along

Garden - things are moving at a slower pace than normal this year. Not sure if it's because I've not fertilized as often as in the past or because I planted a week or two later than normal. We lost all our squash plants; not thrilled with two of the four tomato breeds we picked out (the Homestead goes bad too fast and is prone to worms and falling off the vine fairly easily; cherry tomatoes we just don't need quite that many). So far I've not had enough tomatoes to can yet; but hopefully by next week I can put up a few. Corn is finally starting to fill out, but not sure we're going to get two ears to a stalk as in the past. Beans have flowered but still are not putting out.

Snakes - I don't want to see another one. In the last three weeks we've killed two in the hen house...both of them over 5' long.  I saw a medium size one (between 15-24" - hard to tell when their slithering in their s shape) while cutting grass, and I've seen three small to medium sized skins...one between the front ramp and the dryer vent; one in my garden; one near the pond drain.

Berries - found some blackberries on the other side of the pond while cutting grass. I don't like them myself, but picked some for a cobbler for Mrs. Bryan and Bobby. When I looked again this week they were either gone or dried up.  Our one blueberry bush that has survived our plantings is actually producing this year and I've been able to freeze some. The wild ones our neighbor planted got mowed down by a friend while our mower was in the shop.

Virus - My cousin is still at home, but it wife is in the hospital and getting worse. She has it in both lungs; doctors at the local hospital are consulting with UAB about drug options. The brother of my high school friend is back at home, not back to normal yet, but improved enough to go home. And the father of another high school friend, after 40+ days in ICU, is now approved to move to an acute long-term care facility as soon as a bed becomes open. The Walker girls are well with an exception of they still have no sense of taste or smell. Meanwhile Wake County has announced there will be no fall sports (or band or other such activities), and schools everywhere are debating about what to do.

China  - more countries are taking note of China's cruelty and annhilation of the Uigher's. American placed some symbolic censorship on party leaders in the area, etc. China has now in turn placed the same travel restrictions and such on Senators Marco Rubio (R- FL, Ted Cruz (R - TX) and two other American officials. Canada is withdrawing some of their officials in response to the current Hong Kong situation as well as the Uigher situation, and India is blocking 50+ phone apps that are all created in China. America is considering doing the same, or at least requiring a warning label to go with those apps. TikTok is the one that Americans are most familiar with, and the Chinese are adding faces in the videos into their facial recognition database.

Elections - training will all be online this year, which  means I won't be teaching this fall. On the other side of the spectrum, that also means I am free to work early voting. I've applied, but we won't hear for another month who they will be hiring.

And that's where things stand for July 2020.

Covid-19

As reports from friends continue to come in from TN and AL of people I know who either have COVID or have a relative of theirs with the virus, it was a bit disconcerting to get my email from the Wake County Board of Elections detailing all the precautions we will be taking this fall for the safety of both the workers and the voting public. I'm thankful they're taking this seriously (I knew they would) and are and will be doing everything in their power to make elections safely happen. And yet, it still makes me pause.

There's still so much unknown about this virus. Parents are being asked to make decisions about their children's education now (will they attend school or do online school), when we are still several months away from the start of school. A lot can change between now and then. My sister was telling me that if a student is out sick, they will have to be tested for Covid before they can return. My niece has a lot of sinus and throat problems, so this would mean she would have to be tested for Covid at least once a month. And when I think about friends with children who have true health needs, my heart aches for them. I've not double-checked the department of non-public education to verify this but I've heard that homeschool registrations for this next school year have doubled.

Meanwhile, people we know with the virus have symptoms that range from "mild flu with ongoing loss of taste and smell" and "extremely severe sinus infection with fatigue" to days in the ICU (most being 3-7 days, though there's one now on day 43) or repeated visits and steroid treatments at the ER.

It's such a strange time to be living. These are the types of things you read about in history books. Sometimes I ponder if God didn't send this to make us all hit the pause button in our lives to rest and refocus, and other times I'm still baffled that we can have such a pandemic in such a modern world. Regardless of its cause or the reason behind it, it is here, and likely here to stay for some time.