A Servant's Heart

Every week at mass, the priest talks about service and giving of ones "time, talent and treasurers."  When we first moved down here, I was overwhelmed with the thought of it all.  In August of 2023, we didn't have much to give monetarily and I never felt like I ever had a "talent" that would serve the church.  I was exhausted from the move and after spending a good part of my life volunteering, I definitely didn't feel as though I had any time to give.  

Thankfully, all of that has changed in the past three years.  I have been able to create a budget that always gives to others including the church first, and I have found a way to give my time in a way that works best for our schedule and Blessed Trinity's needs.  I realize that working in the gift shop after 11 a.m. mass isn't a large commitment compared to how much I had volunteered in the past, but it does help.  During that hour, fellow parishioners in need of a gift for a First Communicant, or a card for a newly ordained priest, or a religious statue for their home have a place to shop, ask questions and mostly importantly feel part of our church's community.  One day, I even stayed late so that an elderly woman had a place to rest while waiting on her son to pick her up from mass enabling me to use what I believe is my greatest talent - compassion.

Soon, I will be even busier serving the church as I will be the Parliamentarian for CCW.  My role will not be as big as when I was treasurer, but it will be an important one.  Plus, I will be able to support the newly elected President as she has become one of my closest friends in Ocala.  It may not seem like much, but being a part of our church's community has truly changed my life and has made me realize that no act of service is too small in the eyes of God.  

Welcomed Visitors

Doug and I spent the morning in the yard repotting plants and trimming trees.  With that, the long walk at Sholom Park and the heat, we were both pretty tired when we finally sat down to rest this afternoon.  I had just asked Doug what he wanted to watch on television tonight when the phone rang.  It was Meg.  She and Nick had just gotten rained out at Blizzard Beach and were wondering if we wanted visitors.  We quickly said yes and started to make plans for a spaghetti dinner this evening.

Meg and Nick arrived around 7 p.m. tonight and we had a lot of fun visiting with them.  We talked about our week, Nick's time in Ohio, Meg's work, the current Survivor episode and everything else going on in our lives.  Phil joined us out on the patio and spent time defending his stance on underestimating my knowledge of 1970s baseball and taking heat from Meg for not listening to the new Sabrina Carpenter and Madonna duet.  All in all, it was a wonderful evening, and we were very happy to have visitors here in Ocala.  

The Burn Ban

One of Doug and my favorite things to do on weekend nights in Florida is sit out on our back patio with the tiki torches and candles burning enjoying the cool evening weather. It gives us a nice time to relax and catch up on the week that just passed. Unfortunately, Marion County instituted a burn ban recently which changed our routine. We still enjoy our weekend nights on the patio, but it does feel like something is missing when we can’t light up the sky with our tikis.

I had never even thought about there being a burn ban until we got news of wildfires in Northern and Central Florida while we were in California. It made me take our drought a lot more seriously and I am glad to follow the rules as I remember how quickly the grass burned one night after a fallen tiki ember lit it on fire several years ago. I won’t complain too loudly as I know the summer rain will begin soon and the burn ban will be lifted. Until then, I will just enjoy the lights on our tiki bar and small decorative palm tree. They are fun to look at and a lot safer right now.

Unwanted Visitors

Monday morning, I woke up to find a mound of dirt in our backyard behind our lone tree.  My heart sank when I saw it as I wasn't quite sure what caused the huge dirt pile.  It almost looked like a hill of fire ants, but after investigating, I realized that there were no small creatures coming out of it.  My next suspicion was the armadillo that had been crawling around our home at night, but I had never heard of them digging up yards.

Since I had no clue what was causing damage to our yard, I decided to do some research online.  Although Google Gemini agreed that it could be an armadillo, they said that the most plausible answer was either a gopher tortoise or a pocket gopher.  I knew that the first one was a protected species in Florida, so I stopped physically poking around the mound immediately.  Instead, I called the "gopher guy" who I had seen several people post about on our HOA Facebook page.  After not getting an answer or a callback and seeing another hole pop up in our yard on Tuesday morning, I started to panic.  Thankfully, I remembered that our pest control guy was local and that he might have a suggestion.  He instantly texted me back the number of a wildlife company that agreed to come out today.

After walking around our backyard, the trapper told me that it was for sure a pocket gopher and set a live trap in the second mound.  If the gopher wasn't caught in two days, she would fumigate the tunnel on day three.  I was relieved that we had a solution to the problem but soon found out from Doug that we had another unwanted visitor roaming around our backyard.  A black snake had made a home under the grill recently.  Much to the dismay of Doug's coworkers, I instantly spread Epsom salt around the entire grill and fence area where the snake was last seen.  I know it will scare off the rodents, but having a snake in my backyard is too close for comfort to me.  

The Locket

Doug's dad contacted Meg recently to ask her if she had Jeanette's locket from their trip to Alaska many years ago. That seemed strange to me as he knew that Jeanette had given Doug and I the locket several years before she died after telling us the story about panning for gold on their last vacation with Grandma Brucker.  Although she didn't wear the locket often, she did have fond memories of that trip with her mother. 

I hadn't heard Carl mention the locket in years. He had alluded to me several times before we moved to Ocala that it was very valuable, but I knew that the flakes of gold were worthless. I had already asked our jeweler if it was something that I should have insured, but she told me that although it was a great keepsake of Jeanette's trip, it had no monetary value.  Maybe Carl just wanted to know if one of her grandchildren had it, but I was more afraid that he was going to ask for it back. Since Jeanette's intention was for us to keep it for her grandchildren, I had never contemplated giving it back to him.

I did take a picture of the locket today in case Carl texted us about it, but we never heard anything, so I put it back in Grandma Guard's jewelry box with other memory pieces from both sides of our families. That way if any of our children want to see their grandparents' jewelry, I will be able to share it with them.  I have learned over the years that I can't keep everything, but I can hold on to the memories of others that were "priceless" to them.

Sleepwalking Alarm

Still tired from traveling to California, Doug and I went to bed between 9:30 and 10 on the first full day that we were in The Golden State.  Sometime around 11:30 that night a loud knocking woke me from a dead sleep.  At first, I thought that it was the recurring dream that I had had about someone knocking.  Many times, in the past, I had jumped out of my bed, ran to the door and found no one there.  Thus, my first reaction upon hearing the knocking was to go back to sleep, but then I heard it again.  That's when I realized that it wasn't a dream and ran to Doug's bed.  When he wasn't there, I got worried and bolted to the door.  Doug was standing outside the door thrilled that I finally answered.  

After calming down from the excitement, Doug explained that as far as he could tell he had gotten up to go the bathroom but walked out our room door instead.  He didn't wake up until the door shut and locked.  He had tried knocking, but I didn't hear him because of my white noise machine.  He really needed to use the bathroom so he decided that the only thing he could do was go downstairs and use the one near the lounge.  He tried to be inconspicuous as there were two wedding parties in the lobby, but since he was shirtless and barefoot, he assumed that several people noticed.  I was surprised that no one said anything to him, but maybe they thought he was homeless or one of the drunk partygoers from the Butter & Egg Festival.  Doug returned to our room and had just about given up knocking to sleep on the floor outside our room when I answered.  He was definitely very happy to be back in bed.

After I got over the shock and embarrassment of the situation, I started to panic.  Doug had slept walk quite a few times during our marriage, but only in our house.  I had told him that recently he had slept walked out to the kitchen while I was still up watching television.  I am not sure that he believed me then, but he did now.  Since I didn't want him to get locked out again, and I didn't want to stay up all night worrying about him, I asked him to please sleep with a shirt on and a room key in his pocket.  He had no problem doing either.  I also turned on the bathroom light, put a row of hangers on the back of the door to act as a sleepwalking alarm, placed his suitcase in front of it and tied a bag around the door handle. Before I could finally fall asleep, I even ordered a door stop alarm that would wake anyone up if stepped on.  I am happy to report that there were no more sleepwalking incidents after that, and we both slept very well for the rest of the trip.

Hoosiers in the NFL Draft

Even though Doug and I were on vacation in California, we still made time to watch the NFL draft last week.  It started Thursday evening and became a historic first round for the IU football program as Fernando Mendoza was the #1 pick and Omar Cooper, Jr. was the 30th.  IU had not had a player taken number one since 1938, and it was the first time ever that two Hoosier football players had been drafted in the first round during the same year.  Friday night's draft was just as exciting as two more Indiana players were chosen - D'Angelo Ponds int he second round and Kaelon Black in the third.  

Doug and I were up early Saturday morning to watch the start of the last day of the draft as we were surprised that Elijah Sarratt hadn't been picked yet.  Thankfully, it wasn't long after the fourth round started when he was called by the coaching staff of the Baltimore Ravens.  Three more players were chosen on Saturday as well - Nowakowski in the 5th round, Coogan in the 6th and Aidan Fisher in the seventh round making for the best IU football draft to date.  

By Sunday night, there were six additional IU players signed as free agents and several others invited to minicamp. We don't know how much any of these Hoosiers will get to play in the NFL, but it will make for a very interesting fall.   Between the draft news and the IU football spring game last week, I am definitely ready for football season to start at Memorial Stadium.  Now if we can only find a way to get tickets to the games.