Bottle feeding, the swap meet, leaf removal

Friday morning was the first time to include bottle feeding to our routine. We started early but Victoria was up to let the dogs out and she took one of the babies in that early feeding. The first night we had the babies we kept them in the pig building.  I was opposed to keeping them in the house and the pig building was a good stopgap. To facilitate the morning feeding, the three babies were placed the kennel box the Burn’s had used for puppies last year, set up in the sunroom. It is large enough for the three tiny goats and just tall enough to keep them contained. Two of the babies are over a week old and are almost jumping high enough to escape the enclosure. Anyway, having them close made it easy for Grandma to help in future feedings. She enjoys the exuberance with which the tiny goats try to empty the contents of their bottles. It helps to be able to do all three at once.

Mama has largely succeeded in feeding the babies five time per day. Those feedings start at about 6:30 am and end with a last feeding at about 9 pm. Three hours, more or less, between bottles. Overnight they are on their own – even though Mama worried over them through the night. So far we have kept them in the little puppy box in the sunroom, abandoning the pig building because of the cool overnight temperatures, but Mama is talking about putting the three in the pig building through the day. That will necessitate Mama having to do the three late morning and afternoon feedings by herself. I am not sure if she is ready for that, but I do agree that the little ones need some time in a larger area through the day and the pig building will allow for more activity on their part. Unfortunately, our days have been wet and cool for the past week and the pig yard is a bit slimy. (The duck area is a mess because of the weather – and they like it that way.)  I am not sure if Mama wants to deal with that messiness either when it comes to the close quarters required to hold the baby goats during feeding. We will see.

I have limited times to help Mama because of a pressing work schedule. In the office Monday. Teaching classes Tuesday and Thursday. Although, I waited a bit longer at the house this morning to help Mama through the first feeding. I still managed to get to the office at a comfortable time, so it was something we may try to keep up on the mornings when I have to meet my office attendance and teaching schedule. I do enjoy the feeding times, so it is nice to crowd in as many feedings as possible. It will not be required for much longer. Four weeks more at the most and the babies will be on solid food alone. At that point we can begin to integrate them into the herd.

Grandma has helped a little in the feeding, but she lacks the strength to do much on her own, so it is actually more work on Mama when Grandma participates. Mama allows the inconvenience to encourage Grandma, but Mama has to be very careful that Grandma does not put herself in jeopardy but trying to handle the baby she is feeding in any other way than to hold the tiny one in her lap during she feeding. Grandma cannot bend over while standing to pick up the baby goat, neither can she safely bend over in her chair to feed the baby. She has no core strength and therefore no balance. Once Grandma barely caught herself as she began to fall forward trying to get hold of a little one. That would not be a good thing for either Mama or Grandma.

I spent Saturday morning at the swap meet with our pastor and another man from the church. I spent only two hours there because I had not dressed warmly enough to endure for much longer than that. When three more men from the church showed up, I bailed out. Not before my throat got a little scratchy and I was thoroughly chilled. However, in that two plus hours I passed out fifty Bibles, talked with many Spanish speakers showing them how to follow the plan of salvation as outlined in the New Testaments we were handing out and one of my fellow laborers got to lead someone though the plan of salvation and pray with him to receive the Lord! Pastor had the opportunity to share the plan of salvation with two vendors earlier Saturday morning. Both of them asked the Lord to save them! It was time well spent.

Once back at the farm, I dressed much more warmly and began raking leaves into piles in the garden and setting those piles on fire. I was careful in doing so, but all the piles burned thoroughly and safely – all thirteen of them. That work virtually emptied the garden of leaves. Outside the garden, at the well house, I was able to create five mounds of leaves and burn them, clearing that area as well. Over the next several night, if it does not rain too much, I will continue down our fence and into the nanny goat paddock. Slowly the ground is being revealed under the seven or eight inches of accumulated leaves, and I am giving the soil in the burned spots access to the ash that will enrich it more than the rotting leaves would have. A win-win.

Sunday, I felt exhausted. It had been a long week. Many early mornings with several late nights. Maybe this week will be somewhat more near normal.

Successful drop off, Grandpa’s prognosis, bottle babies, Bible blitz

Cori and I were up at 4 am and out of the house on the way to the airport at 4:15 am. I do not know the time she was supposed to fly out this morning, but we had her there in plenty of time. It was interesting to watch the attendant that helped Cori check in scrutinize the COVID report paper. The attendant even called up a list of acceptable tests to verify a negative result and I had to identify the “antigen” test on the list before she went through with the verification to allow Cori to complete check in. It makes me wonder if there is some desperate training in the flight industry because of a customer becoming stranded in a foreign airport because their COVID papers had not been accepted. The result being that no attendant wants to be “that attendant” who allowed a passenger to be boarded only to be denied entry into the country of destination.  

Fortunately, Cori’s heavy bags were checked against her first-class ticket without question. I had handled the bags three time at the point of putting them on the scales at the counter. They really were unusually heavy. The two bags weighed sixty-six and sixty-seven pounds respectively. She was allowed to have up to seventy pounds each. One of the reasons Cori came was to retrieve all the schoolbooks for homeschooling the kids through this year and into next year. To allow for her to have just two heavier baggage, Nate made the tickets first-class tickets. The cost trade off to pay for two heavy bags versus three bags less than fifty pounds was close to the additional cost of the upgrade to first-class. I told Cori, I will have to try to get Mama in first-class sometime. Not just for the nicer accommodations provided in first-class, but to let her pack two bags to seventy pounds. She would love that.

Mama did not go with me this morning. She did not necessarily want to get up too early this morning knowing what lay ahead of her today.  She has been out of the house since 9 am, mostly for a cardiology appointment for Grandpa. This was an important appointment since Grandpa has had so many pains in his chest recently. As related by Mama as she was traveling in the company of Grandma and Grandpa, the appointment went well enough. Grandpa’s diuretic meds have been doubled and he now is being tasked with having nitro pills with him at all times. Those are to be taken at each instance of pain. That is to be done as quickly as possible. Also, as soon as possible, Mama is to schedule Grandpa for an echocardiogram. Other than that, we wait and see how Grandpa feels each day. Sadly, he has admitted to feeling very poorly on most days.

Having finished up the medical and Sam’s errands, Mama I driving to a farm near Leoni – a fellow myotonic goat breeder – in the general vicinity of her morning’s errands. Leoni contacted Mama early this morning with pictures of several bottle babies on her neighbor’s farm. The neighbor is going through a difficult financial time and is not able to properly feed her nanny goats. The nanny goats, in turn, are refusing to feed their little ones. It is a survival tactic common in the animal world to preserve the life of the mommy in the event of a dearth or famine. Thus, the little ones will need to be bottle fed if they are to survive. So, the kids are being sold for a small fee to help the owner of the little farm and at the same time seek a good home for the starving little ones. Mama is only interested in acquiring little does from the available kids – and if the pictures are any ideation, they are beautifully marked little girls. On the positive side, we have enough help to handle the feeding as long as Mama does not overwhelm us with more than two new babies to tend to. Mybe we can handle three, but I would rather just two. With a batch of eggs in the incubator, eight baby ducks in the grow-out box and an additional incubator on the way to the farm, we are going to be flush with baby animals. That is a fun activity we get to participate in at the farm.

Saturday Mama and I are going to help pass out Bibles at the swap meet here in Decatur. It is typically a very well attended event. That event begins today, but I am not able to get involved either today or tomorrow without taking vacation. Mama and I have not spoken about how long we will dedicate to the Bible blitz, but I am looking forward to doing what we can. Of course, we will have to get feeding done before we are free to go Saturday morning, but that should still allow us to be at the booth by 9:15 tomorrow morning.

It remains to be seen if we have bottle babies to feed as an added chore in our morning feeding.

Cori, Grandpa, gardening, signs of Spring

Monday night Mama, Victoria, and I picked up Cori at DFW airport a little before midnight. She and Nate had talked at length while we were with them in Honduras and they decided that it would be better for Cori to come and visit with Grandpa while Grandpa was still in passable health. We do not know how many of those months we have left, so now is better than later. Leaving Nate in charge of all the little details in her absence is both a blessing and a curse to the household. Some of the differences the kids really like. Schooltime is easier since Nate is less focused than Cori and tends to be a bit more generous in allowances for work to be done and help offered on work Cori requires each child to do on their own. Mealtime is less organized and requires more participation from the kids. They each rise to the occasion in preparation and presentation of those meals, but the simpler meals definitely show that Cori is not in charge. Several calls for advice on ingredients, amounts required per meal, and cook times required for each of the food types have made me aware of just how much Cori does for each meal. It is fun to see things from that perspective. Fortunately, I will be taking Cori to the airport very early tomorrow morning – leaving the house at 4 am to be exact. It has been a brief but very enjoyable visit. Our church family will be very glad to see her tonight.

Time will tell, but Cori’s hurried timing for this visit seems to be very well chosen. Since we have been home, Grandpa has been a little more forthcoming about how he is feeling, and those comments are worrisome. Over the past two evenings, Grandpa has been feeling very weak, spending most of the late afternoon and evening in bed. He told Mama yesterday that he was having fleeting pains in his heart accompanied by shallow breathing. Not good. Each of those brief episode leaves him feeling very weak. He is also often mentioning the loss of feeling in his legs. That numbness has now crept up past his knee on his right leg. Also, not good. There are times as well that his speech is noticeable slurred. Nevertheless, he is in good spirits. He puts on a brave, humorous front and tries to do as much as he can around the farm.

Yesterday afternoon, Grandpa fired up the tractor and used the brush hog to mulch leaves in front of the well house. Unfortunately, that is an area that is booby trapped with stones, wires, and hoses. In using the brush hog Grandpa caught the hose I use to water the goats and got the hose thoroughly tangled in the equipment. I will have to take time tomorrow night to see if I can get the hose unwound from the blades. It will take an hour or more to unwind and cut the one hundred foot hose away, but it is not the first time I have had to cut a hose out of the brush hog. I have run over a hose more than once over the years. Grandpa felt bad about it, but the entire incident was mostly my fault for not keeping the area free of such obstacles or being a little more aggressive about keeping the leaves cleaned from that area. I have had several months to do so but have not found the energy to do so.

In the time Mama, Cori, Victoria, Grandma, and Grandpa were out shopping yesterday, Mama made sure that Grandpa was with her as she went Decatur Garden Center so he could help her make the proper selections of plants, seeds and potatoes to be planted in our garden this week. I have been less than enthusiastic about planting this year due to the very poor harvests we have had in the past. It seems like a lot of work and worry for the relatively few fruits and vegetables it tends to yield. So, this year, Mama and I are going to try something different. We are going to use the Aggrand products Norman has left with us at the farm to fertilize the plants. I will give it my best effort but am still less enthusiastic than in past planting seasons. Planting will begin tomorrow evening. I will restrain my doubts and await the actual outcomes.

Signs of Spring are everywhere around us. The peach tree, the nectarine tree, and the pear trees are all starting to bud and will soon flower. The blackberry bushes, both wild and domesticated, are putting out leaves. All the oak trees around us will soon bud out and flood us with pollen and fronds. That shedding is the one problematic Spring issue we wrestle with after the flood of leaves we deal with in the Fall each year. I still have too many leaves to deal with because I have been procrastinating in doing so. Saturday evening, I burned the leaves still accumulated near the fence flanking the driveway. That took several hours, but that mountain of dried leaves is gone once and for all. That little accomplishment was very satisfying. A little late, but satisfying, nonetheless.

The very late nights and very early mornings are taking their toll on me this week. At least, by Friday, we will be pretty much back to normal. Sad as that longing may be, it will be a nice respite.

Home

At the airport in San Pedro Sula, we were able to have a long parting with Nate, Cori and the kids. The unsecured portion of the airport, shops, eateries and check-in counters are now open to the general public, so we were able to spend an additional hour together as we waited to go through security. The airport there is not a large affair, so getting checked in and through security is a fairly easy exercise. Since we take Mama’s walker with us when we travel, we are given preferential treatment. We are often allowed to pass by long lines of queued up passengers waiting their turn to get to an agent. So, after having an extra hour to visit before finally saying goodbye, we were through security in less than fifteen minutes. With only four gates on the concourse, a change of gate is easily accomplished.

Mama and I got home to our own bed about 1 am this morning after a good couple flights moving us from Honduras to Texas. We had a bit of a hassle in Miami as we were steered through customs to make our connecting flight, but we did eventually make it thanks to the continuous help from willing employees who can easily detect the desperate, lost looks on passengers navigating the maze of interconnecting hallways. If my calculations are correct, Mama and I walked more than one mile inside the Miami airport to get from the gate where we deplaned, through customs, retrieve our luggage arriving from Honduras to the United States, recheck our bags, get rescanned for security and arrive at our gate for the departing flight. It was actually good that we had a four-hour layover, we used about an hour and a half just getting rechecked for the stateside flight.

On our way through security, Mama, as usual, set off the metal detector because of her replaced knee, but, for some reason, I also set off the alarm. We were instructed to go to a different scanner where the line of other failed passengers was queued up to get a full body scan. Unfortunately, there was no one at that scanner to check us through. Meanwhile, our carry-on items, purse and backpack, with all our valuables, wallets, and passports sat at the outlet of the conveyor where they had initially been scanned through. After waiting for almost ten minutes, I asked the agent at a normal walkthrough scanner right beside the special body scanner if I could try again to pass through his scanner. I passed through without any alarm. Once through, I hurried to gather our items. Fortunately, an officer had taken it upon himself to guard our belongings. Praise the Lord!

We had a relaxed meal at a Cuban café in the airport, almost forgetting Mama’s carry-on suitcase at the counter of the restaurant. The restaurant was set up cafeteria style, so I was carrying my backpack while strolling Mama’s carry-on bag, and at the same time balancing the tray with my food selections in it as I moved from the food counter to the cash register counter. Mama moved her bag to the counter for me and we settled up for the meal. When we left the cashier, I forgot to keep the carry-on bag with me. A very conscientious waiter found us and showed us a picture of the bag we had left, and we quickly retrieved it. The cashier had been overseeing the bag for us. It is amazing how quickly something like that can happen when we get distracted, but I was more interested in getting my credit card put away than in tending to our baggage.

Mama and I both napped off and on through the three hours it took us to fly from Miami to Dallas. I had gotten up a little before 5 am Tuesday morning. For some reason, Mama and I had been getting up very early each morning – before 6 am local time – to drink our morning coffee and get our Bible reading done before the grandchildren got up. Mornings re wonderful there. The morning noises from the birds starts a little before dawn but is quickly drowned out by the noise of traffic which picks up around 7 am. Since the windows are open all the time in the living room and dining room, those sounds freely float in on the morning breezes. Because of that early morning, we were both a bit tired as we made the last leg of our trip.

Norman picked us up at Terminal C in DFW a little after midnight and we hurried home. Everything was unpacked over the course of the day. Mama took her time this morning. She caught up with Grandma and Grandpa about our trip via pictures on her phone. She slowly drank her coffee as she enjoyed her recliner for the first morning in two weeks. Even after getting to bed at 1 am, I was up at 6:15 to get ready for work. I worked from home today because of the international travel. Tomorrow and Friday I will be teaching classes from our HQ house. Both the classes are 4-hour classes but teaching remotely will continue to keep me isolated from my colleagues for the remainder of the week. Just to be on the safe side. We still have several people at the office that worry about those sort of things.

Looking back on our trip, I believe the highlight was our dolphin encounter on Roatan. The time in Honduras was more-or-less relaxed, unhurried. Most of that was because Cori and Nate had everything planned out well, but really it was because none of us were anxious about anything that had been planned. The trip to Roatan, despite the accident with the construction equipment, was almost lazily accomplished. We never felt hurried in any of the activities on the mainland or on the island throughout the two weeks we spent there. Because we have linked bank accounts with Cori and Nate, handling the money Mama and I needed to have available was seamless. For me, that made covering expenses very easy for me and far less of an issue for Nate because we did not have to constantly convert cash from dollars to lempiras as we have done in the past.

Mama and I agreed that this was our best trip so far, nevertheless, we are happy to be home.

Synopsis of our Roatan visit

We took off after church Sunday after the service was over and hurried to Le Ceiba to catch the ferry to Roatan. Once we arrived on the island, we were greeted by an agent from the car rental agency and headed in the general direction of our B&B, stopping to eat dinner and buy a few items for breakfasts the next few days. Once the grocery purchases were done we set out to find our B&B. That turned out to be an adventure because when we got to the spot indicated by the GPS, I told Nate that it did not look like a roadway, but rather like a backwood cutout into the jungle, so we passed it up and recalculated. I was wrong. The very rough dirt road leading off the hard road was the approach to our lodging, so, we turned off and headed into the jungle with some terpidation finally to arrive at the rental apartments. It was a beautiful place to stay in spite of the very rough road to access it. I wish I could include pictures but working from a different computer than my own precludes that function. 

Monday we enjoyed we chilled a bit, went out for lunch and headed to Anthony's Key to do a dolphin encounter. That was probably the highlight of the time on the island. I have pictures that we purchased of the encounter but again, I will have to wait to share those once I am back on my own devices. That evening, we spent the time at the beach at West Bay, one of the nicer beach areas on the island. We were told that there were very nice beaches on the East end of the island but that the roads were very rough and it was easy to get lost in the less developed areas there, so we stayed in the more trustworthy parts of the island. 

Tuesday we started off early to meet the owner of the glass bottomed boat for an early morning tour of the reef. It was a nice way to enjoy the reef together but it was not something Mama and I could enjoy thoroughly. Our eyes are not as keen or quick as our grandchildren, so by the time they had spotted something interesting and spoken out about it, it was too late for me and Mama to see the sea creature or interesting coral formation. Nonetheless, it was an hour well spent. Following that, we headed to West End, a narrow street and beach crowded with restaurants and shops. Having looked and discovered nothing that interested us, we let the kids play in the water at an open area between strings of shops and restaurants. As we were leaving that beach, Cori lost her wedding ring in the sand. As diligently as we were able to search, we could not find it again. Sad day. But that night we ate dinner at the Sunset grill on West Bay beach. It was a delicious meal but was eaten in high winds. We lost menus, napkins and almost lost an empty soda can or two. 

When we got back to the B&B I suggested we ask the owners if they could locate a metal detector to help find the ring and through a series of contacts one was located. So early Wednesday morning, Cori and Nate headed back to West End to try again to locate the ring while Mama and I waited at the hotel with the kids. Praise the Lord, they were able to find the ring! It was not with the metal detector but rather when Cori randomly scooped up a handful of sand and found her ring in that random scoop of sand. Having that done, we loaded up and headed back to West End to make some purchases at the rock shop owned by the friend who had located the metal detector, but on the way a motorcyclist told us one of the tires on the minibus we were driving was going flat. 

Nate and I left everyone at the shops and went to find a tire repair shop which was located is a very narrow spot on the side of the roadway right in the middle of an area where heavy machinery was operating to widen the roadway. Long story short, as we were being directed out of the narrow opening between the excavator and a drop-off into a dug out portion of raodway, the excavator struck the back window of the minibus before Nate could roll forward out of the way. That glancing blow shattered the back window and caused Nate and I to spent the rest of the morning waiting on a rental agent and the police to get a proper report filed. Because  of that accident, Nate was required to surrender his license and appear in court the following morning to hear a judgment on culpability.

We picked up a very tired family at West End and headed to a limited access beach at the very tip of the west end of the island. The water access was rocky and required some type of footwear to access but the estuary we were able to explore was wonderful. The sea life the boys were able to see close up thrilled them. Fish, crabs, eels, sea cucumbers, sea urchins, anemones, and black iguanas. We did not stay long after we had lunch at the restaurant near the water because of the rocky shore and limited beach area, electing instead to head back to West Bay and park in a free area to enjoy the beach there. 

We ate street taco's for dinner and headed back to the B&B to get cleaned up and packed up for departure the next morning. While we were washing cloths and getting suitcases packed, Nate went to court. Things turned our as expected. He bore the blame for the accident and was required to pay court costs and the cost of replacing the window on the minibus. Honestly, it was not an unfair judgement since we entered the work zone of the equipment as the operator was using that equipment. It was a very expensive lesson but Nate was unfazed because he knows the Lord will take care of the expense. 

When he paid up and got his license back we headed out to eat lunch at a restaurant close to the port so we could be on time to catch the ferry back to the mainland. That worked out well and we had a pleasant ride over the whitecaps all the way across the open water. We arrived on the mainland a little after 3:30, loaded all our luggage in the church minibus and started home. We pulled up to the house about 8:30, unloaded the vehicles we had changed into at the church once their minibus was returned and fell into bed within thirty minutes of arriving back home. 

All in all, it was a very pleasant trip to Roatan. One we will probably never repeat, but one that gave our grandchildren memories that will last a lifetime.

The ferry ride

 After attending church services, during bitch hour, visiting speaker preached yet again, we hurriedly feature that Junina, and drove as quickly as we were able La Ceiba. Our destination was the ferry landing, where we were going to catch transport across the open Caribbean sea to the island of Roatan. All eight of us traveled in one minivan we borrow it from the Hope Childrens Home, so we got to travel together, and it was a slow trip.

In the United States, the trip would probably have taken us around forty five minutes  to an hour however, in Honduras, the trip took us nearly 3 1/2 hours. On the drive we had to avoid cows crossing the road, dogs crossing the road, people crossing the road, sheep crossing the road, and cars using all kinds of diagonal tangents to merge into traffic from areas that would not have been considered legal in United States traffic. 

We made the ferry port in plenty of time, got our tickets printed and punched, then waited about 20 minutes to board the ferry. It looks to be about a 60 foot catamaran style craft, but the seas are just slightly choppy so the rock and reel of the boat, to me, is pleasant. Several of the kids were worried about getting seasick, but so far no one has experienced those symptoms.

This is our grandchildren’s first time on a boat like this is really funny to watch how they react to the rock in real life the boat call me even to the setting some thing on the table in front of them. It’s been hilarious as they’ve talked us through the thought process they’ve used to follow the up-and-down movement of the table just to sit canna soda on the table that they think is moving. 

This trip, by ferry, should take us about two hours, maybe a little bit longer to get to the port in Roatan. There we should meet a rental car driver, who will deliver a minivan to us that we can use to transport ourselves around the island for the next several days. We are genuinely looking forward to this. 

Nate and Cori have reserved a room for us at a resort hotel on the island. I think they have planned out most of the meals that we will be enjoying while on the island due to suggestions by friends in Honduras, who have been to Roatan multiples of times. For me and Mama, it’s just the experience of being there, and being there with us the grandkids for their first time on the island as well. 

More updates will follow. Mama 

Hurry and more hurry

Tuesday was a catch-up day for me and Mama. We had had less than four hours of sleep in the thirty hours or so from the time we had gotten up Monday morning not know we would be flying out the next morning and the time we were picked up at the airport in San Pedro Sula - having spent the night in baggage claim at DFW. So, after getting to the house in El Progresso, Mama and I both took a long nap - almost two hours. We went to bed as early as was practical that evening. We were both asleep in only a few minutes and slept soundly through the entire night. When you get to our age, sleeping an entire night through is not a normal occurrence. 

Wednesday was shopping and Megapaca - an upscale Goodwill store where Mama found multiple items we could not do without - and La Colonia, one of the nearby grocery stores. Services at church that night were in English because of two visiting preachers who are speaking at the Come Away conference starting Thursday evening. Pastor Matt translated the preaching into Spanish for his congregation. I still marvel at the skill required to translate a speaker, especially a preacher, and maintain both the intent and continuity of the presentation, or in this case, the sermon.  Since I know both languages, it was instructive to see how Pastor Matt accomplished the translation when some additional explanation was required to get the point across. 

Last night began the Come Away conference. I spent an hour at a grill cooking hotdogs - the the main fare of the meal - and visiting with John, the leader of the children's home there. All I was able to eat of the many things offered by those who added their dishes to the hot dogs was the hotdogs themselves, but it was still a time meal in great company, followed by a song service and a sermon. We ended up getting to the room Mama and I are in at the clinic on the property about 9:30 pm. We stayed at the clinic overnight to facilitate being able to clean up last night and prepare the breakfast meal this morning. We will follow the same routine tonight and tomorrow morning.  Many of the kids, especially the teenagers, were out much later playing basketball and soccer on the property. It is a fenced and gated property, so there was no concern about those who were playing outside late into the night.

This morning we started about 7:30 preparing a continental breakfast for the seventy attendees. Cutting muffins, sweetbreads and fruit. Making copious amounts of coffee and juice, emptying and relining trashcans and making sure tables were set up and ready for the 8:30 meal. We had a general service at 9 am and sessions were broken out for men and women separately after that early preaching service. We elected to come home for the afternoon and will return to the church this afternoon for an evening meal, a preaching service and another late night of fellowship. Mama has reconnected with friends we know from years past and made a couple new friends who are attending for the first time. It has been a great conference so far.

Meanwhile, back at the farm, Norman, Victoria and Grandpa have been dealing with freezing conditions since Mama and I left. Only today did the temperature get above freezing. Thankfully, tomorrow will be well above freezing even overnight. That is good because on Wednesday afternoon the heat pump shut off so the house was without central heat overnight with the outside temperature in the low twenties. Since the house still had power, electric heaters were put in service to keep everyone warm. Yesterday the wife of the owner of the company Victoria had called for help called Norman and was able to give him directions of how to get the heat unit operation again. Praise the Lord!

Tomorrow, Saturday, we will wrap up the conference by now and shortly thereafter relocate back to the house. It will be an overnight stay at the house because Sunday morning, as soon as the service is over, we will be leaving for Roatan. It is about a three hour drive to catch the ferry from La Ceiba to the island and another hour by ferry to the island. We will need to have the van packed with all our luggage and anything else we want to have in the four days we will be on Roatan by Saturday night.  I am sure we will make it, but it will be a bit hurried to meet the timeframe. 

Mama and I are rally looking froward to stying on Roatan.

Travel Update

 Well, we made it to Honduras but what a trip it was! Inclement winter weather moved unexpectedly into North Texas over the weekend prior to our planned trip - last weekend. The ice and snow that fell rapidly caused some major problems and the worst of the weather was actually forecast to hit overnight last night. That forecast turned out to be true and far worse that thought. So, with that in mind, Mama and I began to look at how we could change our flight from Wednesday morning to some other date. The two problems with any change were that 1) the change had to be made within the 72 hour deadline set for the expiration of our COVID test. We were on our way to have that test done as we started looking for options, knowing that there was no option to have the test re-administered before late Thursday or early Friday morning due to the business closings imposed because of the dangerously iced over roads, and 2) the weather was not forecast to break until late Thursday afternoon. Our best option was to try to move the trip up by a day or more.

With that as our plan, I called customer service at American Airlines. The airline had already announced that there would be no change-of-flight costs imposed, so that was a benefit we wanted to take advantage of. We got through to customer service and were told in an automated message that the wait time would be an hour or longer. Sure enough, it was. I was on hold for an hour and fourteen minutes. Thankfully I did not lose the call as Mama and I drove from Decatur to home. The representative was kind but difficult to hear and more difficult to understand, as we often find true in these situations, but he was able to help, and Mama and I got on a flight out Tuesday morning at 5:30 am. 

We immediately called Bro. Zach to see if he was willing to go along and drop us off at the airport that evening. The roads were already bad and getting worse, but the freezing rain had stopped and only a light snow was falling by 1 pm. Mama and I rushed to finalize our packing, get the last minute items pulled together and load the Sequoia. We left the farm at 5 pm. it was a miserable drive to the airport. It took us almost two hours at speeds never exceeding 40 mph on the icy roads. Fortunately all the drivers we shared the roads with were being as cautious as we were - with only a few exception - but things were bad. 

Traveling into Ft Worth, we finally were on treated roads within a few miles of the airport. That was encouraging to me and Mama because it meant that the runways at the airport were clear and passable as well. However, the roads in the opposite direction as we traveled were looking far worse than in the direction we were going. We knew that Bro. Zach was in for a rough trip home. He dropped us off to spend the night in the baggage claim area of the airport and headed out. It took him over three hours to make the triphome, but he got home safely.

Mama and I had a mostly uncomfortable night in the unsecured area of the airport but were able to finally check in for our flight at 3 am. Tuesday morning. That is where the real fun began. When we presented our COVID test papers to the attendant, she refused to let us on the flight because she felt that the documents were not adequate to pass muster in Honduras. Something about a NO having been circled on one portion of the paperwork alarmed even though NEGATIVE had been circled as the result of the rapid antigen test. It was ridiculous, we knew, but there was no changing her mind. 

I stopped Mama from causing a scene and we walked away from the counter, collapsed on some nearby seats and began crying out to the Lord. I was at the point emotionally and physically that I felt like I was on the verge of having a heart attack.  Fortunately, the Lord calmed both me and Mama, but I took my meds for that day just to be sure. After we prayed, I told Mama I would at least go ask about making arrangements to reschedule our travel but when I spoke to a different agent, she saw no problem with the COVID test papers and processed us onto the flight. PRAISE THE LORD! I hurriedly called Mama over to the counter to weigh our checked luggage and we allowed the attendant to get her portion done. WE took our tickets and carry on items and quickly left the counter hoping the lady who had refused us passage di don't see us move that direction. I looked to make sure and she was busy with other customers.

So, we arrived in Honduras yesterday at 1:30 pm local time a day earlier than originally scheduled. There was no problem with our COVID test documents, nor had we expected the there would be. But again, Praise the Lord! Back at home the conditions have worsened significantly because of overnight freezing rain and very cold conditions. That makes it a huge challenge for Victoria (who was unable to go to work today) and Grandpa to care for the animals. They will figure it all out just as Mama and I have done for many freezing mornings. Today will be the peak of the nasty weather. Friday is forecast to be almost seventy degrees. 

Typical North Texas Winter weather.