Jay's post reminded me that I have been lax in posting here as well. So I will tell the tale of my 4th of July.
Not much of tale, really. We left Friday the 2nd at about 11:30 AM. First we had to spend the morning getting the house straightened up. We let some friends from church stay here for the weekend. The husband has been out of work for almost a year with a bad back that got hurt at work. There has been a dispute with his work so he has not been paid the whole time. The couple had just recently bought a new house and the loss of his income has really hurt them. So they were glad for a chance to take a vacation by the shore. They reported having a great time here, though the storm Saturday knocked out the power for EIGHT HOURS, from 7PM to 3AM. They loved the fireworks Sunday night. All the neighbors tell me it was the best they have seen. The City of Gary, Ogden Dunes and many private parties all had great displays. Steve and Wendy got up Monday morning and acted like locals as they cleaned up the beach and complained about the tourists who leave cigarette butts, beer cans, garbage and fireworks detris all over the place. They left Monday at noon, they were afraid that if they got too comfortable at the beach they would never make it to their band practice. Wendy is the keyboardist and Steve is a guitarist in our church band, and they are also in a band with some friends. As a matter of fact that is how they met, when they were in a band together. Tuesday Steve got called back to work, the first time in 51 weeks. Thank God he was rested.
Anyway, on to my story. We drove live mad to Columbia, Tennessee. That is about 45 miles south of Nashville. We did get slowed down for an accident in Louisville and got off the expressway for about 60 miles at the Ken-Tenn boarder because of another. We got down there about 6:30 PM. We averaged over 75 MPH even including the gas and rest stops, and the stopping for accidents and all. Friday night there was a post-rehearsal party at the groom's folks house. Dee and Rick are old friends of Valerie's, she met them when she was pregnant with Marlana. Dee is the lady that stood up for Valerie at our wedding. Dee and two of her sisters all blind from a genetic condition. All three of them are quite capable of living full lives and get around well with no dogs or much use of canes.
Saturday I got up early and did a 35 mile bike ride in the Tennessee hill country there. A guy from Indiana needs to get some hill workout once in a while so I headed for the local back roads to climb some hills. It was a good workout and I got it done before the heat of the day started.
The wedding was in a brand new, large, beautiful Baptist church. The sound system was amazing and the video system was very impressive. Each had their own control room. It is great what you can do when you have the money. The wedding was about 25 minutes long. Paul and Angie exchanged rings and gave one to her five year old son, who was also the ring bearer. They even had a third candle for the boy. It was so sweet the way Paul took the boy as his son at the same ceremony as he took Angie for his wife.
We stopped at the CVS to have some pictures of the wedding developed on the way to the reception. Rick works at the Saturn plant in nearby Spring Hill. The reception was held at the UAW union hall, a fairly new and fancy building. We ate, toasted and danced well into the night. During the dancing Valerie dislocated her hip, threw it right of the socket. She has been doing in-home health care for a 24 year old woman who was in a car accident (no seat belt). The lifting has been bothering her back and hips and the grating on the dance floor put her right over the edge. This caused her to slow way down for the rest of the evening.
(Continued in next post)
