February 2022 Update

Well, it was another heartbreaking playoff for us Bills fans.  I still think they are an excellent team that will contend for the title for several years yet without needing major changes, and that’s a definite improvement over the many years we endured.

 

I had to drop out of my barbershop quartet.  First, we lost our bass, who was a college student and got too busy with his education to continue, and then when we tried to reshuffle with a new bass, I couldn’t make the rehearsal times work that they wanted.  All good things in this life will eventually end, but I got to fulfill a lifelong dream of mine to sing in a men’s quartet, and I am forever thankful for that.

 

We had planned for Krista, Jem, and I to travel to Philadelphia to meet our new granddaughter back in January, but had to postpone because of Covid hitting us, as I mentioned last month.  Our new plan was to leave on February 4, but we had to wait one more day because of a big snowstorm that hit that morning.  We eventually got there a day later than planned, but we had a great time seeing Caitlin and Ben, Carissa and Matt and their kids, and meeting Lena!  She is a beautiful baby, and we loved helping hold her and just helping Caitlin and Ben with things around the house or grocery shopping or whatever.  Of course, there’s pictures!  

Feb 4 snowstorm

Beautiful Lena

Also while we were there, I got the privilege of going with Carissa to her chorus rehearsal.  It was really fun to listen to them practice together, and I took two short videos (below) to whet your appetite.  Whet your appetite for what, you ask?  Well, if you’re anywhere near Messiah University near Harrisburg, PA, you might want to check out her chorus’s show coming up in March.

Carissa's Facebook post advertising their show

And here's the videos of their practice:

That’s all for now, so until March!

 

January 2022 Update

Happy New Year everyone!

 

We had a wonderful Christmas and New Year, in spite of Covid trying its best to impact us.  Several of my family caught it, and it hit both those of us who are vaccinated and those of us who are not, so whatever that means.  I personally did not catch it, nor did two others in my house, even though two others in my house did, so it seemed to be pretty random.  In my extended family who visited over the holidays, again, it hit some and skipped others.  So, in spite of all we know, we still don’t know everything.  Personally, as I heard someone say (I don’t remember who), I believe it is God reminding us Who is really in control, and it ain’t us.

Christmas Eve Dinner

Matt and Ruby climbing our tree

Visit from Santa!

Visiting a local playground - Josie and Cody

Krista

Gus and Kortney

Mat

Ella

I don't know who the person on the left is, but the other one is Daisy

Bea

Ella, Josie, and Hazel

Mat and Gus

Kortney, Daisy, Bea, Cody

Daisy

Kortney and Bea (in front of random citizens)

Ruby

Carissa, Cody, Ella

Alex

Alma and Ansa

Amelia and Regulus

Carissa and Alma (and Ruby's back in the purple coat)

Rhodes

Alex

Bernie was worn out and so was Zuzu

 

We’ve spotted a unique squirrel in our back yard recently—not pure white/albino, but whiter than any other we’ve ever seen.  I’d be curious to see if anyone else has seen one like that.

We got an early Christmas present with the birth of our 12th grandchild to Caitlin and Ben!  Arlene (Lena) Davonne Updegrove was born on December 21, and she is a delight to all.  Krista, Jem, and I will be traveling down to Philly early in February to visit and meet her.

That night, 12/21, I went Christmas Caroling with my chorus in the neighborhood around our rehearsal hall, and that was lots of fun and very well received, especially since that annual tradition had to be skipped last year.

 

On 12/26, our church did its Christmas service, and Ella and I sang in the choir they had for that special service.  Like I said back in November, singing praises to God in a choir is a special privilege.

 

Our weather has been pretty mild so far this winter.  My guess is that the biggest snow we’ve had so far was maybe 4-6 inches.  Until yesterday!  We got a nice storm overnight Sunday to Monday that dumped almost two feet on us.  I was glad I didn’t have to go to work (thanks MLK!) so I had most of the day to clear out the driveway.

I’ll end with a very happy remembrance of this past weekend’s CRUSHING of the Patriots by my Buffalo Bills.  I know some of you getting this are Kansas City Chiefs fans, but I’m hoping we can do as well next weekend against them.  I think our offenses are pretty similar, but I think our defense is better, but we’ll see how it all plays out on Sunday.  Here’s hoping next month’s update includes a Bills Super Bowl win!

 

December 2021 Update

We had a great Thanksgiving with all of our local family, as well as Caitlin and Ben, here and contributing to an abundant meal and lots of fun times together.  Caitlin’s baby is due on 12/26, so they decided to come for Thanksgiving since they won’t be up to traveling for Christmas.  Please pray for a safe and healthy delivery for them, since that baby is due any day now!

 

Like most communities, we have a local community newspaper that comes out once a week.  Ours did a front page feature this past month on our library’s 25th anniversary in its current location, with a picture of the library staff including my beloved.  Back when newspapers were a big deal, it was really impressive if someone you knew made the front page.  Maybe that’s not so true these days, but I’m still very proud of Krista!

 

My famous wife

The front door of our house has been in bad shape for years.  It finally got to the point where we had to do something about it, but not having the skills myself to do so, we hired it out.  Way back in April, we had someone come and look at it and give us a bid to have it replaced, and we accepted that bid and put in a down payment.  Finally these many months later, the work was done, and we’re overall very pleased with it!  It had gotten to the point where we had to stop using the door in the between time of getting the estimate and waiting for the materials to be ready to install, but now we are back in business.

Inside view

Outside view

We went to my granddaughter, Alma’s, dance recital on 12/4.  She did a great job, and it was really fun to see so many Christmasy dance routines.

 

On 12/11, Krista and I went and got our Christmas tree.  We got a different kind than we’ve ever gotten before:  a concolor fir.  The really nice thing about it is that it smells like oranges, but it looks very different from our usual tree.  But different can be good, and in this case, it is.

Photo credit: Jem

My chorus sang at a local mall on 12/14.  I’m not sure if it’s the pandemic or advancing technology leading to mostly online shopping, but the mall was pretty empty.  We outnumbered our audience by about 2 to 1, but we had fun singing anyway, and the few people who were there seemed to enjoy it.

 

This past weekend, the Mickles, Sommers, and Krista, Jem, and I took a trip to Ohio to see David Phelps in his Christmas concert.  We stayed at a hotel in New Philadelphia, OH, and then went to see him sing Saturday night.  It was really fun, and I heard some new to me songs that renewed my fandom of him.

 

Now it’s back home and getting final Christmas preparations done.  I pray you all have a blessed holiday season, and we’ll talk in 2022!

 

November 2021 Update

It seems like this past month was sort of uneventful, so this might be short.  We’ll see as I look back and remember what happened if that holds up.

 

Once a year, our church, which normally has a 8:30 and 10:30 service, has a United service where everyone comes.  Last year due to COVID capacity requirements, we couldn’t have it, so it seemed like a bigger deal this year.  Anyway, they asked for volunteers to sing in a choir, and Ella and I did that.  It was really fun to sing in a church choir again!  I sing all the time in my barbershop chorus, of course, but there’s something extra special about singing praise to God more than singing love songs or patriotic songs or whatever.

 

We hardly ever get trick-or-treaters at our house, and this year was the same.  Other than our grandkids, we had no one.  But Levi still did a great job carving our pumpkins to make our house look festive.

 

Yeah, and that’s about it.  The Bills are basically doing well with a few setbacks, and the Seahawks are looking not so good.  This is why it is important to have two favorite football teams.

 

Next month, we’ll talk about our Thanksgiving festivities and share our Christmas card.  Now your life has purpose waiting for that!

October 2021 Update

Welcome to this update!

 

Our weather news is that summer held on much longer than expected.  It just started getting fall-like over this past weekend.

 

In sports, Go Bills!  They’re doing great and looking really good, and we Bills fans are excited after 20+ years of mediocre to poor teams.  Also in sports, my son, Levi, had his last soccer game this past Saturday when they played in the championship game for their league.  They didn’t win, but they haven’t been to the championship in many years (ever?) so it was exciting.

 

In other news, my quartet lost our bass.  He is a young guy and just started attending the University of Buffalo, and he’s finding college life too demanding to continue in our quartet.  We found another guy in our chorus that said he would sing with us, and we’re excited to start over with him, but it does mean starting over, so we won’t be singing anywhere for a while.

 

We had a fun time with my brother, Ken, and his wife Carrie back on 9/22.  They stopped by our area on their way to the New England area to see fall colors.  I’m afraid that with the unusually warm weather I mentioned earlier, there weren’t many colors to see this year.  I know our leaves are just now beginning to turn.  Anyway, they parked their fifth wheel at a nearby campground, and some of my local family went and saw their setup there.  Then later we all gathered at Ella’s house and fed them garbage plates, our local culinary specialty.  In case you don’t know what a garbage plate is, you take home fries (or something similar) and mac salad, cover that with meat of your choice (hamburgers, cheeseburgers, hot dogs, chicken fingers), and then smother all that with meat sauce and any other toppings you choose (onions, ketchup, mustard, etc.).  It is completely delicious, and they loved it.  And as an added bonus, they got their annual supply of cholesterol all in one meal!  It was great to catch up on our families together with them—we talked for a long time!

 

I think that’s all of the news I have for this month, so until November!

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!

 

August 2021 Update

Right after I wrote last month, we had our vacation with our three-in-a-row reunions at Lighthouse Christian Camp in Barker, NY.  We had some rain and some nice weather, but all in all, it went very well, and it was great fun seeing all of our different family connections.  There were games, bike rides, hikes, skits, and lots of good food and the joy of seeing family we don’t get to see often enough.

 

The cast of Puss N Boots, directed by Uncle Terrelle

Mommom with sleeping grandson, Gus

Sunset over Lake Ontario

On August 7, some of our local family went to the Buffalo Bills training camp at their stadium in Orchard Park.  There were lots of kids activities, and the weather was, if anything, a little too hot, but beautiful.  The team looked really good, and it was fun to see them practice and scrimmage.  We have high hopes for the Bills this year, so it’s a good time (finally) to be a Bills fan!

 

Congratulations are in order for my daughter, Abigail, who married Bernie Shaw on August 12.  As I write this, they are on their honeymoon in Hawaii, and we pray God’s richest blessing on their marriage and life together!

 

That night, August 12, the Webster, NY, library put on a concert featuring our barbershop Chorus, and several quartets, including the one I’m in.  There was a good crowd there, and they seemed to really enjoy the music from the different groups.  If you’re on Facebook, search for Webster Public Library, or go to Webster Public Library | Facebook and you can see some pictures and videos there.

 

My quartet also sang at a surprise birthday party on August 14, and then did a concert at an adult memory care facility yesterday, August 17.  Those were both pretty small crowds, but they too seemed to enjoy themselves with our singing.  It is so good to be out and singing for people again.

 

Thanks for reading these each month, and we’ll talk again in September!