Cool and rainy here in Palacios.  And a cool rainy Saturday means no excuses for getting caught up over here at RV There Yet! So – let’s get started!
First of all – Gary.
He doing pretty darn good. He’s still stiff (and achy) when he goes from sitting to standing, and he can’t actually sit for too long (but that’s not really new, is it?), but he’s been back to work all week, and is well on the way to full back health. (Whatever that looks like for old folks like us!). Thank you all for your continued prayers for this guy!

And just what has he (and the rest of the team) been working on? Well, there has been a fair share of electrical fixes and other odds and ends, but the biggest project they’ve been working on is that Ga-Ga Court. You know, the one he fell from. (For those who are still wondering just what is this Ga-Ga thing, here is a little better description.)  Yes, this was a classic “get yourself back in the saddle after you fall” kind of project.

So here is the stage of construction the court was in when we got here -

And as it progressed through the project -

Yes, that is Gary up on the scaffolding. Remember that saddle thing…..

It still needs a little trim work, but it’s almost done!

Since I was working in the yellow building closest to the Ga-Ga court, I didn’t get any shots of the what the other guys were doing. But I did manage to snag a couple of pictures from one of the other fellows -
A little tractor play goes a long way….

And I’m REALLY glad I wasn’t around to watch what was going on here (and neither was Gary, thankfully!)

So the guys were quite busy, and so were we ladies!
It was an interesting and fun month for us that involved lots of paint and many brushes, but it was quite different than any other painting assignment I’ve had!

For you see, most of us ladies spent the entire three weeks painting surfboards!
Ok. So we weren’t painting actual surfboards, but we were helping to paint the 86 decorative surfboards that are lining the walls of the main meeting room.
Here are a couple of shots of when we first got here -



At first we were just giving some of the boards a coat of “color”, since not all of the designs had been determined

but eventually we were given a bit of the detail painting.

Talk about using a lot of different paint brushes!
Here’s the one I did – with a little help from the overhead!

(the one with the turtle, not the Endless Summer one!)
Along with the surf boards there was also lots of staining and varnishing and even some furniture refinishing.



And at the very end of the project, when everything had to be cleaned up and out of the room, we managed to find one last thing to paint – the “sandwich” sign of a local thrift shop!

Nothing like 4 SOWER ladies crowded around a 3′x4′ sign!
So, here are the surfboards after the room had been set up for this weekend’s guests, all ready to be worked on by next month’s group!





Lots more to paint, but I think we made a pretty good dent in the job at hand!

Enough for today.  Rainy Saturdays are also good for catching up on the laundry, working on some sewing, and even a marathon day of Downton Abbey watching (thanks to a SOWER friend who owns the DVDs!).  But now it seems that it might just be time to think about what’s for supper!

More to come, I promise!

Pssst – if the sun comes out tomorrow, we might even get to the beach after church.  :)

Many thanks for the prayers offered on behalf of Gary after his fall.  He had a reasonably good night’s rest and decided that working was better than sitting around getting stiff.

No ladders. I promise!

He’s moving pretty slowly tonight, and I think bedtime will be early again. Tomorrow is a legitimate day off for us – so he might be just a little more apt to “take it easy.”
Maybe.

Today started quite quietly.  The temperatures had warmed up and the air was still.  The early morning mist surrounded us as we walked to work.

If any day had held excitement, it would have been yesterday when Gary’s job was to repair and change the light bulbs on the lights by the pool.
You know, the kind that they mount on old telephone poles.

But he’s a smart ladder guy. He had that baby tied down on three sides and then once he got up there, he tied himself to the ladder for stability.

And then he had ME hold the ladder. Right. Like I could have done anything to prevent an accident at that point. I was a nervous wreck just looking up at him.

But all went well. Electrical stuff fixed, bulbs changed, lights ready for the swimming season. Phew. Get that boy off that ladder, I say!
So, back to today.
Quiet morning. Thoughtful devotions. Everyone off to work. I was just getting started on the day’s project when someone came running to get me.
Gary had unknowingly stepped on a board that hadn’t been all the way secured and went right through.

To the ground.

Now he wasn’t knocked unconscious, but he knew he had jolted his back badly and was smart enough to just stay still. Choosing rather to be safe than sorry, we called 911, and had him transported to the local ER. Backboard and neck brace complete.



He was seen right away in the ER, and after X-rays it was determined that nothing was broken and, that unless other symptoms presented themselves, it was “just” a back sprain and he needed to keep quiet for the next couple of days. And take drugs as needed for the pain.
I think I knew he was going to be alright when he started asking me if I had taken any pictures (um, I had) and then he wanted to pick one to send to the kids!
I got him settled back in the rig and actually left him there to attend a ladies afternoon sewing function. (He told me to go, honest!)  We had a good dinner and he’s already in bed.
And now, in the quiet of the evening, as I look at those pictures the tears are welling up. So much more could have happened. Yes, he fell. But he was sooooo protected. He didn’t hit anything. And there were lots of tools and boards and obstacles that he could have hit. He was working with a group. He often works alone. Not today. There was a doctor among the volunteers that did a preliminary check. The ambulance was there within 10 minutes of being called and he was seen in the ER hardly a half hour after the fall. God was very merciful to us today.
And I am reminded that while you just never know what the day may hold-
I do know who holds the day.

and His mercies are new every day.

It was evening. The sky had cleared in the afternoon after clouds and rain for several days. As I was working on dinner Gary pointed out the full moon. And then I noticed how the sky had that beautiful early evening pink hue.

Since I was waiting on the brown rice (why CAN’T I remember how long that takes to cook!), I set out in search of the sunset.




I think I’m getting close -

Oh yeah…..



It was a great little walk – and I was back in plenty of time for that brown rice!

It’s pretty sweet that we can enjoy the sunrise in the morning, and just walk through campus to enjoy the sunset in the evening! And just so you know that not all of my sunrise/sunset shots are successful, here is my attempt to capture the early morning “pink” on one too-cold-to-get-out-of-the-house morning….

This time the drive between projects was only about 160 miles.  Easily done in a day. But why take a day, we say, when you can just as easily take two – and see some fun stuff along the way.

We pulled out of Camp Tejas on Thursday morning – a very misty Thursday morning at that!


Hey, wait for me!!!!
He did.
By the time we reached our first stop, the mist was beginning to clear.

Nothing like a brewery tour to start your day! Wink.
We actually had to wait until 11AM for the tour of the Spoetzl Brewery in Shiner, TX – home to one of Texas’s favorite beers – Shinerbock.

No cameras allowed on the tour (free and very interesting), but here’s a shot of just some of the copper involved in brewing this beer .
Oh, the shine of it all!
After our tour, and a bit of lunch, it was back on the road.


(Take note of the hills – they will soon be gone!)
We spent a quiet night at the Walmart in Port Lavaca

and come morning, we were back on the road for the final leg of the trip.
Here’s the Lavaca Bay in the early morning light -



Hello Boat!

And as the road stretched out in long strips of ribbon

(Good-bye, hills)
We were delighted to spot these big guys mingling with the cattle -


Love those Sandhill Cranes!
We made it without incident to our project – Texas Baptist Encampment, aka Palacios by the Sea. Here is our new view -

Pretty sweet, eh? That’s the Palacios Bay out there, which empties into the Matagorda Bay which empties into the Gulf of Mexico. (Check it out on a map HERE!)
Each project has its own “flavor” and since we’ve just been here a little more than a day, I’m not sure just what that flavor will be. But I know it will be different from our last couple of projects – beginning with our neighbors. November and December our neighbors looked like this -


As in, we had none.
January they looked like this -

As in, fair size group – a nice mix of SOWERs and other volunteers.
And this month, they look like this -

As in – Baby, we got us some Community going on!
All in all, a great start to what I’m sure will be a great month!

Later ‘Gator!