September 2021 Update

I’ve been a fan of Bill Gaither and his various groups for many years, and a while ago I saw they were going to do a concert in Camp Hill, PA, which is about a five hour drive from my home.  Krista and I decided to make a weekend of it as it was on our anniversary weekend, and, because of COVID, we didn’t really do anything much for our 40th last year, so we did our 41st up big this year.  We got a nice hotel close to where the concert would be, and enjoyed its outdoor pool and some nice local restaurants before going to the concert Sunday night.  Apparently, there was a Little League tournament in town when we were there because we saw a lot of young boys in the pool when we arrived.  We were afraid we'd never get the enjoy the pool ourselves, but the next morning they were all gone, probably playing their games, so we had the pool to ourselves!  It was a fun and relaxing weekend, and the excellent music by the Gaither Vocal Band and other artists just topped it off perfectly.

 

Our hotel room

The view from our room. You can see the pool through the trees

Outside one of the restaurants "Marzoni's Brick Oven"

We got an xXxtreme Pepperoni pizza. It was delicious!

Our appetizer was deep fried deviled eggs with bacon.  Mmmmmm!

The Gaither Vocal Band

The view from our seats

At the concert

In order to get further hyped up for this year’s Bills football season, Kevin, his son, Alex, and Zach and I went to the final preseason game on August 28.  Our team looked really good, and, although it was really hot again like it was for the Bills training camp we went to a few weeks prior, it was still lots of fun.  We were disappointed with the results of their first actual game this past Sunday, but hopefully that will be a reality check for them, and the rest of the season will live up to our expectations.

 

Waiting for the game to start

I was very glad the Seahawks won, and the Mariners win just enough to keep me hoping before the letdown that I fear is to come.  My sons, Zach and Levi, and I still enjoy the consistent good play of the Sounders, however!

 

On August 29, my daughter, Amelia, arranged for our local families to take the Hot Wings challenge which you may have seen on YouTube done by various celebrities.  She bought each of the 10 hot sauces that go from relatively mild to unbearably hot, and everyone who wanted to participate provided their own 10 wings.  I like my digestive system intact as it is, so I only used the mildest sauce for my first wing and ate my other nine wings plain.  All the other participants, except my son-in-law, Cody, made it all the way through, although most of them agreed that the last three sauces didn’t even taste good.  Cody made it to 7 sauces, I think, so even that is way more than is good for you.  Anyway, it was fun to watch them suffer for the glory of saying they did it.  Most of them say they will never do it again, although some of my family who don’t live locally are talking about doing it at Christmas when they visit here, and some of the locals may participate again.

 

Fall schedules have started back up, with three of my grandkids starting real school:  Hazel and Alma in first grade, and Ivy in Kindergarten.  The grandkids have also started their Awana year.  Levi has started playing soccer with our local Christian school that allows homeschool students to participate, as he has in previous years.  I’ve enjoyed going to his games and watching the fun.

 

We had a Labor Day picnic at Hannah’s house for all the local families with the usual great food, fun games, and good weather.  We provided the food and games, and God provided the weather.

 

My Chorus participated in two ceremonies on 9/11.  We sang “The Battle Hymn of the Republic” at both, and also sang “When There’s Love at Home” at the 2nd one.  “When There’s Love” fit really well in the service because the man who spoke right before we sang it told how he decided to change his flight on 9/11/01 so he could be home for his son’s first day of school.  The flight he would have been on was the one that went down in Pennsylvania!

 

It was a pretty full and fun month, and we’ll “talk” again in October!