Two Weeks Without Gordon is Definitely Too Long

I know a two week trip is best for the mission. Much more can get done and it takes a day or more to actually get supplies & get to the village & then there's at least two days at the end for coming down from the mountains and having a bit of R&R before the flight back. I agree with all that. Been there, done that, & understand those time frames. But, two weeks is still too long from my point of view when I'm not on the trip.

The first week I did fine. I was busy & had things to do & catch up on. There are still a few things to catch up on. But this week is beginning to be difficult. I've already spent more time at the medical office than usual and I'll be going in tomorrow morning before heading to the library. "Stuff" that needs taking care of, that Gordon would do if here were here. I'm not really complaining, it's just harder, that's all.

Then there's the weather. Today was another day of partly okay and partly downpours (as well as hot & muggy) & I think tomorrow is supposed to be more of the same. Wed it's not supposed to rain I think. That's good, because I want to hang out a laundry. We'll see.

A Very Noisy and Wild 'n Wet Night!

Starting yesterday afternoon we had off-and-on storms of varying intensity. I fed & walked Casper a bit early to be sure I'd hit a dry spot. He has spent half the afternoon inside as it got very dark, rumbly and stormy. When it cleared up I did get to the store & post office (picked up the accumulated mail for the office) & was able to put Casper out again.

Just before I went to bed, it started again & rained very very hard (& very very noisy) for a while. There were several ambulance & fire calls over night. There was one flooded basement farther down Park St. Ours was fine, thank goodness.

This morning several communities were without power and Springville was in a state of emergency -- downed trees I think. There was a report of a possible tornado in Rushford, to be confirmed today. We did not lose power here -- just some sleep I think.

Today several counties are under a flood watch. I noticed when walking Casper this morning that Cemetery Creek was running fast with lots of muddy water.

A Sometimes Stormy Day

It started out muggy and a bit foggy. Then after church the sun came out for a while. Then the clouds rolled in. I had planned to get corn from Arcade Center Farm, then go get groceries & get gas on the way home. I skipped the groceries & it was a good thing!


There's lots of thunder now & it's gotten quite dark. But it's still 78º so it's still sticky. The map doesn't show that it has reached Arcade yet, but believe me, it has!

This is the Civil War weekend & I feel bad for those camped in the Arcade Park as they must be quite soggy. Much of yesterday was okay for them though, until late evening.

No garden work today -- but I will have some time to read the Sunday paper which I didn't finish before church.

Thoughts While Walking Casper

I decided to feed & walk Casper a bit early tonight, to get ahead of the large rain cloud that the weather radar is showing. It was raining gently, mostly pleasantly while we walked.

When I walk Casper, especially in the evening, I think of Gordon. We usually walk him together (that is, he walks him & I go along) and get to spend some time together and talk. Even if, after the walk, Gordon has to go back to the office to finish charts, or to the hospital to admit a patient, still there is this time when we walk the dog and get to talk. I do miss that when he's away in Honduras. It's not that I'm not in favor of his trip to Honduras, I definitely am. But that doesn't mean I don't miss him - not only at dog-walking time, either, but often.

Waiting for (more) Rain

It hadn't rained yet when I got home from working at the library a little after two, though it was cloudy and the radar showed it's coming. So I decided today is was a perfect day to weed the vegetable garden. It hadn't been done in I don't know how long. Only the tomatoes, which have grown tall, are taller than most of the weeds. I really haven't been good to my garden & I feel bad about it.

I was out there about an hour and a half, yanking weeds, while being careful not to pull up the plants we had planted! Some things haven't made it, but I don't think it was the weeds that killed them. I think they just didn't thrive. But I found most of the pepper plants, some even with small peppers on them! I found one red tomato and at least one more that is thinking about being red soon. The lettuce is doing well, but some of it is really starting to bolt. I t almost always happens -- by the time the tomatoes start to get ripe, the lettuce is about done. Not ideal. I wonder what would happen if I planted another row of lettuce? I might try. It can't hurt. Either it will grow, or it won't. We don't seem to be having luck with squash these days. One plant seems to be going okay -- it's yellow squash. The others either are looking sick or aren't there. We ate our early broccoli & now some side shoots are producing little broccoli-ettes.

After an hour and a half I was tired, sweatty, and had collected two wheel barrow loads of weeds to be dumped behind our old tree house at the back of our property ("the woods"). It hadn't rained yet, but it was getting very still, so I think it's coming soon.

I feel quite satisfied with my afternoon's work. I didn't want to do it & had been putting it off. But I'm sure glad I persuaded myself to go and get it done. Maybe I can persuade myself to do just a little bit of weeding more often -- it would be so much easier.

Just as the first few gentle drops of rain started I remembered to get a bowl & pick that one red tomato. Then I went back to the bushes where I'd dumped the weeds and picked some raspberries, a few black raspberries (or blackberries) and on my way in I gathered the last couple of strawberries growing just off the deck. It's not enough to do much with, except eat, that is. Maybe a small portion of mixed berries over a similar small portion of ice cream?

Need to Organize

Today was my day off from the library. I was at Gordon's office this morning, paying some bills, checking on others. Why won't the company apply a credit to our account which amounts to more than the bills they sent along with the credit memo & saying they were overdue? When I called them they said the couldn't apply the credit until I told them to -- I DID. Even with the bills, we still have over $15 credit, so now I'll have to inform them AGAIN to apply this credit to the bill? Seems silly to me. Why wouldn't I want the credit applied to the amount owed?

I made bread this afternoon and bought flour so I'll be able to make more. I also bought myself 2 ears of corn for dinner. Yum. I got more plums so I can make jam. I had cut up 4 cups, but need six. Now I'll have enough. Maybe I'll make the jam this weekend. Peaches will make good fruit for lunch -- or for cereal.

I need to do some filing. I have receipts and haven't lost them, but they need to be in the files & not sitting in a pile on TOP of the filing cabinet. I promise I'll get to it before Gordon gets home from Honduras.

I did look up B&Bs in Edinburgh. I listed those that are reasonable in price, relatively close to the Edinburgh castle area, and seem interesting. I checked them all on Google Maps and was able to get a "street-side" view of them as well. We just have to decide which one looks good & inquire about getting a reservation. They're not like hotels, where there are lots of rooms. Some of these have as few as 3 rooms, so we may have to try more than one place.

I check the news from Honduras every day, just to see how the political situation is doing. It seems to be both somewhat stable (not violently flaring up every day) and also not settled at all. Constitutional questions are being raised about how the coup was carried out by International Observation Mission for the Human Rights Situation in Honduras. http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/2040/68/ I wonder how this is all going to get resolved.

First for a While

Between Barb, Kim and Barb's two girls visiting in mid-July and then getting Gordon ready for Honduras

life has been pretty busy here. That hasn't left too much time for "musing" at least writing down what I'm musing about.

The July visit was wonderful, if too short, of course. We rode the train and played in the elementary school playground and had an all-around great visit. We enjoyed the grandchildren immeasurably. We enjoyed the time with our daughters as well. We wish we could see all of them more often.


Then pretty soon it was time to get Gordon ready for the trip to Honduras. We kept watching the news as the elected president of Honduras had been ousted in what's being called a coup at the end of June and we've kept an eye on the situation to be sure it's safe for the mission trip to proceed.

On Sunday, August 2, four NY/HELPers left from Buffalo for Honduras for 2 weeks: Gordon, Eileen Brittain, Nancy Savoy and Hannah Zetterstrand-Robinson (pictured below).



Gordon lost his passport on the first leg of the trip from Buffalo to Atlanta. Fortunately he found it again, but not in time to make the flight to San Pedro Sula with the other 3. After phone calls back & forth from him to me, me to Yovany in Honduras (with the help of Jeff Mason) we got the word out that Gordon would be delayed 24 hours but would arrive on Monday instead of Sunday. Then there were more calls between Gordon & me & me & his sister Marty who lives in Atlanta. She went to the airport and they located each other, so he was able to spend the night at their house before going back for his flight on Monday. Then there were more phone calls. Lito Gutiérrez (another NY/HELPer & doctor) called the clinic nurse Mirtila to tell her Gordon would be late. Then on Monday evening he called Honduras again and then let me know that everyone had made it to La laguna safely and all was well.

It's funny (or maybe not). I didn't think I was really worried -- either about the group's safety in light of the political difficulties in Honduras right now, or about Gordon getting their safely one day late. But, after Lito's call to assure me that he, as well as the others, were definitely in the village, I felt a great relief. So, I guess I was worried even though I didn't really realize it.

I know I won't hear from them now until they come down from the mountain, around August 13. So I will trust that they will have good clinics and learn and teach a lot and all will go well, even if not exactly as planned.