Some Updates

Well, after a couple of months of intense activity - two children getting married - one close by but we were closely involved in, and one in Fairbanks, AK, which we had little to do except show up - a college graduation, a high school graduation - both in Myrtle Beach - pneumonia, some back pains and various doctor visits, we seem to be settling down again.

But last week we helped our friend Dave Webb move from Upper Tract (between Franklin and Petersburg, WV) back to his retirement home in Clarksburg. Dave retired from a five-point UMC charge at the end of June. And the three of us - Saundra, Dave, and myself - went to Elkins for a fundraising dinner for Tyrand Parish House on Friday.

We met Andy, his new wife Megan, and Megan’s father and girlfriend in Alderson on July 4th for the big parade. Saundra had a unique experience. The town has so many people they set up Porta-Potti’s around. We were waiting for the parade, and finally, she decided she had to visit the restroom. As she came out, she noticed they had a portable wash stand to wash your hands - thank you city of Alderson. But the parade was finally reaching us, so she washed her hands and walked back to the street where a guy was shaking hands with people. He saw her coming and said, “I need to shake your hand, young lady!” So Saundra said, “Sure, Governor."

Most Sundays, we’ve been attending either the Sunday morning 11 am or Sunday evening 6 pm service at Carolyn and Tom King’s Hallelujah Global Methodist Church at 99 Cherry Street in Elizabeth. The church meets in their home - Communion every Sunday, Sunday dinner afterwards most weeks. Friday evening fellowship (dinner and games) at 7 pm. I play piano when I’m there.

We’ve planted some fruit trees on our little lot - a sour cherry tree and four apple trees, as well as a crepe myrtle. We also have several boxes and planters for herbs and veggies. We put a bunch of asparagus roots in the ground and they are growing like crazy.

A couple weeks ago, we had some excitement. Getting ready for church that Sunday morning, Saundra was sitting on our bed getting dressed; I was in my office. Suddenly we heard a tremendous “CRACK” and glass shattering. Saundra asked if I was okay - I wondered if she had accidently knocked a glass off her nightstand. We were both wrong.

Looking over our bedroom, we became aware of a bunch of glass from a window scattered on the floor. Looking closer, there was about a one-inch hole in our screen, with a three-inch hole in the window. I looked back at the wall, but couldn’t find a bullet hole. A couple minutes later, we called Parkersburg’s finest - they came an investigated and found a three-inch rock hiding behind my nightstand. One officer remarked that the guy who threw it should try out for Major League Baseball, since this was a second story window, hidden from the street by a fence and trees. He also pointed out that there had been an earlier call from a couple blocks away with much the same situation - a rock thrown through a window, so we shouldn’t take it personally.

So, I swept up the glass and continued to find little pieces of glass around the house for the next week or so, seeing those little glints as I walked around. Then, last week, I found another piece of glass the hard way - I caught it with my foot. Time for a TDAP booster!

A couple nights after the rock/window incident, we were lying in bed with the lights out, reading our phones. Saundra wanted to show me something on her phone, so she leaned over toward me. Beyond her, I could see a fly - or was it a floater in my eye?

Suddenly, Saundra went nuts. She screamed and pulled the cover over her head and yelled, “It’s a bat!”. I put on my glasses and agreed: It was indeed a bat doing orbits of our bedroom. As I got out of bed, it went into the upper hallway. I grabbed the broom I’d cleaned up the glass with and went into the hallway. Saundra yelled, “Close the bedroom door!” which I did. I also closed all of the remaining upstairs doors as the bat flew downstairs.

I went downstairs and opened the front door off the foyer. But where was the bat? I checked the dining room, the kitchen, the breezeway, looking up to see where it was hiding. No bat!

So I went back through the foyer, into the living room and then into the sunroom, where I found the flying mouse resting on the side of the fireplace on the bricks. Now I had a problem - how would I know if it flew outside?

I called Saundra to come down to keep watch over the front door - “and bring down my cowboy hat!”. She quickly showed up with my hat - and another on her head, also brandishing a yellow dust mop.

I put the cowboy hat over the bat. It did not like this, and began making a clicking and buzzing sound as it wriggled out from under the cowboy hat and then took off like a fighter plane and began making orbits around the living room.

I found that it is indeed possible for a person with decent hand-eye coordination to make contact with a bat by using a broom. I nudged it several times, doing little more than helping it change course. Saundra also made contact a couple times. We didn’t want to kill the little thing - we appreciate bats because of the mosquitos they eat - but we really wanted it to go outside where it could have a good mosquito supper!

Suddenly, it landed on a chair and rested. Saundra said it squinted up at her with one of its beady little eyes. She said something like, “I know your tired, but you can’t rest there,” and petted it with the dust mop. It agreed that the chair was no longer comfortable and took off, orbiting the living room again.

It then went into the foyer. Did it fly out the open front door? Of course not! It flew upstairs. I followed and it was “batting” practice again for me. After about a half-dozen taps, it decided to fly downstairs, saw Saundra and the dust mop standing at the entrance to the living room and decided to fly out the front door, which Saundra promptly closed.

We haven’t see it since. Hopefully, a lot of mosquitos have met their end due to the bat…

We are finally getting back around to more house repairs. We’ve been painting my office - that is, Saundra has been painting and I’ve been helping. When we moved in, it was Pepto-Bismol pink. But that had been painted over royal blue, because that was the color of the receptacles and switch. So I asked for (and got) a cheery bright yellow. We also swapped out the blue-painted electric hardware for plain white. The trim is bright white, so this room positively glows!

We finally have a couple of guys planning on showing up Thursday to repair our rock-broken window, and fix several other windows that have needed repairing since before we moved in - missing panes, cracked panes, etc.

Tom King helped us by replacing the chandelier in the downstairs bathroom shower with a more modest fixture. (Yes, there was a chandelier in the shower where water could spray on it. Go figure!) He also expanded on some work Phil Betts did last fall by swapping out the 15 amp breaker on the microwave/computer/basement lights/downstairs bathroom/kitchen lighting/refrigerator circuit for a 20 amp breaker. And we have a certified electrician coming to separate some additional circuits and put that microwave on its own circuit. (The house was built around 1930. Although the breaker box has many spare slots, over half the house was on two circuits when we moved in. Thankfully, almost all the lighting is LED, so not much power is drawn except by the microwave and the toaster and the electric stove - which has its own circuit.)

I preached this past Sunday at a pair of former Methodist churches outside Marietta, OH. They were joyful services - my sermon was posted earlier today.

I’m still teaching Ethics at WVU-P. This summer’s course is online, but I’ll be back at the college in person this fall.

And finally, Saundra seems to be almost fully recovered from her open-heart surgery. So far, she hasn’t had any recurrences of AFIB since February. Her strength and endurance continue to improve, her knees are much better, and she is happy and joyful, making new friends and praying for many people.

Hopefully, I’ll also be back to regular postings here on SubStack.