Another Birthday!

Yesterday was birthday number 71 for me! And it was a good one.

The celebrating actually started back on the weekend that I spent with Wynn (Jan. 17-19). She was the first to wish me happy birthday, and to hand me a pretty little gift bag on my departure.

Then came Jan. 23, when we had dinner out with George and Twilla, followed by birthday cake at our house. George and I have birthdays a week apart, so we celebrated between the two birthdays.

This past weekend Chris, Kelsey, Clara and Robert came to visit. We all went to see the Temple Symphony performance of the Pirates of Penzance. My kids and grands treated me to a birthday dinner and an early gift. But no gift would have been better than their visit, itself.

Clara was surprised by a promise of something to come (I'll keep it a secret for now, but NO! It's not a baby brother or sister, so don't get any ideas, dear readers!). It made the weekend extra-special for her.

Yesterday, being the "actual" day, Kay and Andy initiated plans for dinner out at The Gin, in Belton, and then back to our house to play Sagrada, a new table game I got for Christmas. It was a fun evening together. While we were at The Gin, I got a surprise birthday phone call from Tim. He was lots of fun to talk with, and said "something" would be coming to the house for me the next day. And it just arrived!!! Aren't they pretty? Thank you, Tim.

Also arriving at my door today was a gift from Dan. He got me a new watchband for the AppleWatch he gave me on Christmas day. This band is a little fancier, so now I have one for "play" and one for "dress." That was a sweet gift.

I had only, minutes before,  said good-bye to Tim, last evening, when my phone rang again. I was flabbergasted to hear another birthday greeting from my dear, dear friend (since the age of 9) Shelley! She lives in Washington state, and we don't get to talk often, so this was a wonderful treat. She's made a promise to herself to call me more often this year, and knowing that is a big gift to me!

So all the celebrating is behind me now, and I can start counting down to my next one. Thank you all for all your thoughtfulness! I'm blessed with such good friends and a loving family!

A Weekend with Wynn

Since I was in the Woodlands, for Ruby's memorial service, I decided to see if my friend, Wynn, who lives about an hour from there, would be willing to have me come visit her and spend Friday night. She was so eager to have me come that she talked me into staying two nights. Wynn lives alone (although her wonderful daughter and family live next door), and lives way out in the country, up against the Sam Houston State Forest, so she was hungry for some good ole' girl-talk.

Wynn's lovely farm house

Sunset, Friday evening, through the shutters on Wynn's living room window.

We stayed up late on Friday night and got a good start on that girl-talk. On Saturday we drove back toward The Woodlands and went to a theater to see the new Little Women movie. From there we had a late lunch at Cracker Barrel before driving back to her house. We played "Gin" for awhile and watched Wynn's favorite movie, which she has on DVD - Letters from Juliette. 

Sunday morning dawned with a beautiful sunrise.

We drove back to The Woodlands where Wynn worships with the Woodlands Oaks church of Christ. I really enjoyed the Bible study and worship service. What a wonderful family of God!

Among the members at Woodland Oaks are two other old friends, Don and Karen Gilbert, whom Dan and I knew well back in Oregon. They joined Wynn and I (and Wynn's grandchildren) for lunch at Freddy's. It was great to get caught up on all their family news.

Don and Karen

Wynn and I

I drove home that afternoon, and made it back before sunset. Many thanks to Wynn for putting me up (and putting up with me) for the weekend! I miss her, and wish we still lived nearer.

Goodbye Ruby

I took off Friday morning for The Woodlands, TX, just two-and-a-half hours away from home, to participate in a memorial service for my long-time friend, Ruby. I've blogged about Ruby before. She was my penpal from the age of ten. I lived in Alaska; she lived in Texas. We finally met when I went to Texas for college. We both married and both had baby boys, but a couple years later I lost track of her.

Our second son was born soon after, and life became very busy for our little family. We subsequently moved from Alaska to Oregon. Twenty years later we moved back to Alaska, and five years later we moved to New Mexico. All that time I wondered where Ruby was and if I would ever find her again. In 2007, having had no contact with Ruby for over 30 years, I determined to locate her, if possible. By that time I had spent a year working for a private investigator and had learned some "tricks of the trade" in conducting searches for people. My efforts were successful, and I was surprised to learn that Ruby and her husband, Dave, lived just minutes away from where Chris, Kelsey and Clara lived (Robert hadn't yet been born). It made it easy to stop and see her and her husband, Dave, when we went to see our family. Coincidentally, her daughter and family lived in Albuquerque, where we lived, so when she came our way, we met up again!

Ruby and me - December 2007

It was 1959 when we first started writing - 61 years ago! That's a long friendship, so I was really saddened to learn that she passed away around Christmas time. Her memorial service was on Friday, January 17, and I felt drawn to be there. I'm grateful that I went. I learned new things about her and heard so many loving memories. Ruby is already being missed by many people.

Letterboxing

I blame it on my daughter-in-law, Kelsey! On Thanksgiving Day she took the kids and me out "letterboxing". It was fun, and I knew it wouldn't be the last time I spent time searching for hidden boxes by following clues and cracking codes from the AtlasQuest website. 

Once I got home, I started thinking about what my "trail name" would be. I came up with "Bear Claw" (actually Bear Claw 67, since someone else had already claimed Bear Claw). The name has some significance, because of my Alaskan roots; because our high school mascot was the Crimson Bear; and because I graduated in 1967.

Next came carving my signature rubber stamp, which is used to stamp into the letterboxer's logbook. Of course, it had to be a bear claw. It was my first time to carve a rubber stamp, and it isn't perfect, but I was happy enough with the outcome.

My very first find came a few days later, out at the tiny community of Zabcikville. After Christmas I met with another letterboxer - trail name Pumpkin Gal - and she taught me a lot more about the whole letterboxing culture and etiquette. While with her, I logged three more "finds" in my journal!

Today I was "itching" to crack some more codes, follow some more clues and find some more letterboxes. I chose to go to a couple of parks in Salado. I found two boxes, logged them in my journal and discovered a couple of interesting places that I hadn't seen before.

One of the parks is called Sculpture Park, and it is full of unique pieces of outdoor art. The first sculpture I spotted was near the entrance to the park, just at the edge of the parking lot. It was a huge raven made out of old tires! It made me laugh.

Here are a few of the sculptures I saw as I continued on my treasure-hunt for a letterbox.

After a successful "find" at Sculpture Park, I went to Salado College Park. Salado College was started by a group of prominent men from Bell County who met together in 1859 with dreams to create a top-notch school for the county. Salado College was incorporated by the Texas Legislature on February 8, 1860. Colonel Elijah Sterling Clack Robertson was chosen as President of the Board. A statue of Robertson stands near the preserved ruins of the college.

I did discover the letterbox that was hidden in this park, as well, so now my journal has a total of six stamps. Besides the gratification of solving the clues and finding the letterboxes, I can see that this hobby will be good for getting me outside,  exploring new and intriguing sites.