Outlook

My Dear Readers:

Here I am again, trying to write another Outlook column which I hope will contain something of interest to you, pehaps a bit of news about someone or something that you would like to know more about.

Thinking of newspapers in general, I recall my own mother and how she loved that daily newspaper which her grandson, Kirby (my son) paid to have delivered to her during the last several years she lived in her home in rural Texas or about halfway between Shreveport and Texarkana.

When I would be visiting Mom every few weeks, I was always amused when she sought out the obituaries first - just in case the deceased might be a relative or a neighbor - if so, she would want to make phone calls and/or send flowers or sympathy card, etc. And, now - I do the same thing! Life has a way of “paying us back” or making us eat our own words, doesn’t it? As some wag said, “Life gets kind of tee-jus at times.”

While I had this on my mind, I decided to count the obits in the Morning Morning World for the day of Tuesday, March 2, 2010, and I grouped them by age as follows:

1- 25
1- 36
1 - 51
2 - 50s (late)
7 - 60s
8 - 70s
6 - 80s
5 - 90s
1 - 101

As you can readily see, getting older has its own penalty; but, what can we do about it? Just be as ready as you can possibly be to depart this life here on earth; but, in the meantime, I hope and plan to enjoy each day as much as I possibly can. And, I don’t imagine that I will be around to read my obit when my time comes.

Now, don’t ask me how I got off on the above subject because some things just don’t have a ready explanation. Anyway, enough of that!

Looking back over the past week or so, I don’t recall many news-worthy events. There was a shower at Woodlawn Baptist Church on this past Saturday afternoon in the church fellowship hall; but, I can’t write about it as of today because I don’t have the list of those in the hostess group and I lack a few other details. I was given the list on Sunday at church; but, I must have put it in my pocket or in my Bible because I don’t have it at hand now to type it for this column. (When I left home this morning to type the Outlook column at the Beacon office, I just assumed it was in my purse. Wrong again!)

My week just hasn’t begun well at all. On Saturday night, I had one of those no-brainer nights when I could not fall asleep - everything in the way of aid proved to be useless. So, I finally dozed off not too long before I was due to get up on Sunday morning. That meant that I didn’t make it to Sunday School; but, I did get there for the morning worship service and back for the evening worship.

We did have a special visitor in the AM worship hour - my sister-in-law, Ann (Weeks) Jones had driven over from her Simsboro home. She looked good and seems to be getting along very well. I believe one of her grandsons is now living with her and he commutes to and from college in Monroe. I was so glad to learn of this and I feel better now just knowing that everything is going very well for her and she will not have to “pull up the roots” which were put down during the past ten years or so on that place with her husband, George.

A CHUCKLE: For an exercise in creative thinking skills, the teacher posed the following riddle to her graduate education class at the University of Georgia: “What has four legs and leaves?” (She wanted the students to realize that by considering alternative meanings to the words “legs” and “leaves,” they could come up with the solution - a table.)

The teacher was not expecting the answer one young woman gave: “My last two boyfriends.”

Prior to writing this column, I looked back in my notebook to this time last year when I had commented about the beauty of the blooming Bradford pear trees. Well, they just ain’t doing it that early this year. I feel sure it’s because we’ve had much colder and more prolonged low temps in this area. You can see the buds are forming and we should see the blossoms soon unless they get nipped by more severe cold. And, by the way, more severe weather has been forecast for this area by the middle of this week. Oh, well, as the old saying goes, we’ll just throw on another log (or turn up the gas) and hope we’ll be able to pay the utility bills when they come. And, by the way, the bills are already outrageous even though most folks try to be as frugal as possible. We’re still looking at heating costs of close to $100 per month or more for larger homes - and that is just the cost of heating only part of the home. Wow! And, I am afraid it may get worse before Spring comes....

I have been looking for the arrival of the flocks of chattering birds; but, they haven’t appeared so far. Looking back to my notes from last year, I see they arrived on the local scene about the middle of February, so they are a bit late this year - probably due to the severe winter that we are having over most of the country.

Looking at my trusty Cardui calendar, I see that Daylight Savings Time begins on Sunday, March 14th. I will welcome having an extra hour of daylight in the late afternoon/early evening. In fact, I would welcome having the time set an hour earlier the year round. (I do believe that it now begins earlier in the Spring than when it first was observed many years ago.) I recall one fellow’s account of the first Saturday night at his home after the fast time had begun. They invited friends and neighbors over to their backyard cookout and everybody just had a super time eating, mixing and mingling as they grilled and then leisurely consumed the food while chatting and really enjoying the evening.

All at once, they realized that it was nearly midnight and they still had a mess to clean up and then get off to bed and some would be attending church the next day while others had shift work to go to or other special duties, etc. So, the extra hour of daylight in the late afternoon wasn’t quite so attractive as it seemed at first.

I am so goofy about my sleeping that it isn’t even funny. My late husband always said that if a gnat walked across the ceiling, it would wake me up. But, I’ve been that way since childhood; so, I don’t expect any great change at this late date in my life.

Right now, I have a few things which I am concerned about and I will share some of that with you at a later date. If you are a prayIng person, I would appreciate your including me for a while. It’s nothing to get alarmed about; but, I just have to endure it for a while.

Looking back in my notes, I see where I mentioned mowing my yard for the first time along about now as a year ago. Man, oh man....I haven’t even been able to get all the leaves bagged up from last fall. I have trees with small leaves in my back yard and a live oak in the front which stays green the year round. But, I get the leaves from the neighbor’s sycamore tree in their front yard. I compost the leaves from the pecan trees; but the sycamore leaves are big as a dinner plate and very tough. So, I’m bagging those to be hauled away. Have only two bags which I filled before the weather turned so cold some weeks ago. Oh, well, they’ll be there when the weather does moderate enough for me to bag them. “Just go with the flow” - that’s my motto with the leaves right now. I just can’t stand that severe cold wind long enough to work outside these days.

And, we said goodbye to a longtime friend and fellow church member, Mrs. Ann Boone, this past week.

Ann had been a resident of St. Joseph’s Nursing Home in Monroe for the past couple of years or so and I had visited her there sometime ago.

I have many sweet memories of Ann and her late husband, James or Jim as he was usually called. You may remember that he was our Postmaster for several years at our local post office until his sudden, untimely death. I could always depend on Ann to open her home to our WMU meetngs or to help with any church related event. I recall that she and I attended a couple of Lay Renewals over in the Shreveport area several years ago and we had such a good time on those long special weekends. Ann will be greatly missed by a large and loving family and a host of friends at Woodlawn Baptist Church and through-out this area. May God’s great peace and love be sufficient for those who mourn Ann’s death at this time.

Birthdays are coming up soon for: Darlene Wiggins, Mike Boone, Jim Bond, Bob Sledge, Emily Weeks and Donnie Lee on 3/4; Morgan Templeton and Dr. Alan Miller on 3/5; Candace McVay, Billy Whitten and Ashley Harris on 3/6; Louise M. Adcock on April 7; April Cheek and Taylor Condrey on 3/8; Bennie D. Haynes and Orville Lewis on 3/9; and for Mary O. Boies on 3/10. May each of these good people enjoy a fine celebration of their natal day and we wish them many, many more Happy Birthdays!!!

And, it looks as though another Outlook column has come to a close. Did it contain any of your news or that of your neighbor? It could and would if you would contact me and give me the facts. You don’t have to compose anything - I will be happy to “shape-up” the facts for you. That would be my pleasure. So, just let me know.....

PARTING THOUGHT: There is a time in the life of every problem when it is big enough to see, yet small enough to solve.