Monday
Welcome, family and friends to our daily journal,
from Liberty Hill, Texas.
Sixty nine degrees was a good start for the day. I heated some coffee and mixed together some pancake batter. Then I sat outside and pulled pop-tops from aluminium cans … again, just like yesterday, just like last week. I will admit that I’ll be glad to have the cans gone to that great smelter in the sky … or where ever the smelter is located.
Having said that, there is something almost cathartic about the repetitiveness of the task. It made me think of snapping beans.
For those of you who had the misfortune of not having a large garden of green beans, I will explain.
After the green beans have been harvested and before they can be canned, they have to be snapped into bite size pieces. The stem end and the pointed end are discarded. The snapped beans are rinsed and prepared for canning. Since mom had a large garden, snapping beans could take hours, much like the task of removing pull tabs from one hundred and twenty pounds of cans.
Not much in the way of sunshine in the morning sky.
But at last a little bit of color.
I worked at pulling tabs for a hour or so before going inside and making and eating breakfast. Ella was still sleeping, so I went back to pulling the tabs from cans.
At some point Ella came out to join in the fun. There were several bags of cans that needed to be crushed. She chose that task. I think she just wanted to use the new can crusher. (Six dollars at Harbor Freight)
Eventually we finished with the cans and loaded them into the truck topper. Then we headed toward Marble Falls. The bottom leg of our journey, from the green marker on the right to Marble Falls on the bottom left, looks to be much shorter than the upper leg, from Marble Falls up to Burnet, then over to Liberty Hill, and then back to the green marker (home). However, in truth there is only a couple miles difference. What this map doesn’t show is all of the the up and down miles over those hills for which the Hill Country is named.
One hundred and twenty one pounds of cans converted to thirty dollars and twenty five cents. That added to last weeks, equals forty six dollars and twenty-five cents into the Grandies bank account. That will buy a book of stamps for the card ministry.
I recorded a video this morning while I was pulling those pop tops.
Thanks again for stopping by. Share this with your friends. See y’all again tomorrow. Stay safe. Remember, we love you.
- God bless and g’day.
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- 8 months 1 day since we returned to Texas.
- 2 months and 18 days being self isolated.
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The sky was pretty and odd at the same time this morning.
This morning the worship service participants gathered “together” while maintaining distancing. We were there to do the first LIVE broadcast from our chapel. Previously, it had been pre recorded as segments and then stitched together for broadcast.
I had two parts in the service. I didn’t realize that the podium mike want live or I would have used my “preacher voice” to make myself heard.
This was our Zoom Sunday school class today. Next week we are going to attempt a mask to mask gathering on the worship center’s foyer.After Sunday school, Ella and I went to Sonic for lunch and then back to the church church to await people driving by to deliver food for the Kids’ Summer Snack Program. A program to feed children who, through the school year, rely on the school lunch for what may be their only meal of the day.We also received more aluminum cans which we will sell at the metal reclamation center. The money is used to support the Grandies various ministries. We also save the pull tabs for donation to the 
Thanks again for stopping by. Share this with your friends. See y’all again tomorrow. Stay safe. Remember, we love you.
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That it’s going to be a large front for a “slight risk” storm, covering about 1500 miles.
Along about eight o’clock, the sun made a feeble attempt to shine. However the clouds, once more, overpowered Ol’ Sol and forced him into submission again.
Today, being Sunday, means worship and Sunday school. Even though both worship and Sunday school are now online only, Ella and I still go to the church campus on Sunday mornings. We sit under the awning (bottom left in the photo) where we can get a good strong cellular service and/or WiFi.I tried to record the service but failed and I have been unable to find a recording online.I also didn’t think to do a screen shot of our Sunday school class as we gathered via Zoom.
These are most of the people helping out today. People would drive under the awning (yes we had to move) and volunteers would take the donations (practicing safe distancing and masks) and place them inside the church vestibule.
Later, those items were loaded into a van belonging to one of our members. She then took them to Operation Liberty Hill for distribution. We will repeat this next Sunday as well.
This was posted on Facebook:
Now that you have some background about the cans; today, along with the food for the kids, we asked people to bring their cans. My pickup topper is crammed as full as I could get it with trash bags full of cans. Plus the back seat of the truck is also piled high. It may be Tuesday when Ella and I take the First Load to the redemption center.
It was a long day (6 1/2 hours) for these two senior citizens so we ordered a pizza for pick up on our way home.
The first drops of rain have fallen.Thanks again for stopping by. Share this with your friends. See y’all again tomorrow. Stay safe. Remember, we love you.
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The sun exploded over the treetops today like the atomic fireball that it is. After too many days of looking like the moon’s week sister, it came up with a vengeance today.
It started out nice and cool at sixty one degrees, but suddenly began that climb into the nineties. Old Sol will not even reached its zenith until close to two o’clock this afternoon, and it has reached the mid eighties by ten o’clock. I fear the predicted high of ninety two may be optimistically low.
At ninety three degrees, I believe we’ve past the hottest part of the dayWell, I’ll be jiggered if it didn’t go ahead and climb to ninety four before five o’clock. Just as I thought the tide had turned and it was gonna slowly cool down. Well I’m as right as the weather forecasters are. I know, that ain’t saying much.
Early this morning, I noticed this spider web. This spider (or one of its kin) had built a web in this spot earlier. However, I had rolled the awning away while working on the RV roof last week. That destroyed the web. Today, I was glad to see the web rebuilt. Much to the chagrin of my bride, I do not sweep away spiderwebs. They are God’s fly traps. I’d rather have spiders than flies.
We had a Grandies meeting via Zoom at nine o’clock this morning. There were only nine (including Ella and me) out of around two dozen members. Some have neither computer nor smart phone with which to connect. Some are in a hospital or a care facility. By the way, not pictured above but present were the other Donna and Cephus.We will reconvene, again via Zoom, on Wednesday morning for a business meeting. One topic for discussion will be the proposal for Ella and me to gather up all of the empty aluminum cans, that members and others have been saving, and taking them to the recycling place in Marble Falls.
Today has been a stay-inside out-of-the-heat kind of day. I can report that my 
That old atomic fireball continues to throw the heat at us from around the curve of the earth.Thanks again for stopping by. See y’all again tomorrow. Stay safe. We love you.God bless and g’day.
Tom and Ella Journal 