I'm going to ramble a little here today. You know how Pres. Eyring has taught to look for the hand of God in our lives. Well........I'm here to tell you that He cares even about little things that don't amount to anything really--in the grand scheme--but do much to reassure His children (us) that He knows us and cares.......even about the little, unimportant things........
July 4th has been a big deal at our house.........well, to us.........we have a traditional "heart attack" breakfast. Then it's a race to Main Street for the parade--a small town parade where you know nearly everyone on the floats (all six of them), in the band, driving the trucks, tractors and fire engines, the mayor, the school board, and most of them on the horses............just a great time with friends and loved ones, neighbors and associates. After all the cars which will be competing in the night's demolition derby have departed we pass out dollar bills (it used to be quarters, but inflation has taken a toll) and let the children play on the blow-up toys, ride the ponies and buy a hermit crab while we wander through the park--greeting old classmates, friends we haven't seen for a year (because the only time they come to Delta is July 4th), the bishop, and your children's school teachers. After Roger buys his must have snow cone, we head for home and a nap while the children watch the grandchildren catch fish with their bare hands and everyone gets a sunburn. Lunch is late...........turkey steaks, Dutch oven potatoes, peach cobbler with ice cream, and (the necessary) dry ice root beer. Sometimes it's hard to wait clear till 10:00 for the fireworks.......but they are always such a perfect ending to the day's celebration! Somehow they express the joy and thanksgiving I could never articulate.
Now, here we are, alone, in Alabama--big city, no family around........in retrospect, I guess we could have exerted ourselves and invited people to a party, but we have few resources and no experience here. You understand............ it was a quiet day yesterday. Roger had read that Birmingham is #17 in the list of "places to celebrate the 4th". Well............I take issue with that, but that's beside the point. We had a late breakfast, puttered around here then went to the exercise room (we're so glad they have one here at our apartment complex), showered and went to "see what we could see". We knew where they were going to have a fireworks display, but didn't want to get caught in lots of traffic late at night, especially with church at 9:00 a.m. I didn't know.......but Birmingham is all hills........the end of the Alleghenies........kind of crazy........ The fireworks were going to be shot from Red Mountain--the highest point in Birmingham, so we drove to the "next hill over"--Vestavia Hills.........and found a perfect place.......but we didn't know how the homeowners there would feel about us invading--beautiful homes. I'll add some pictures to the end of this........ it was a lovely, peaceful setting and we really couldn't get too much of that! We didn't know what we were going to do.
I think as 9:00 approached (we are on the very eastern edge of the Central time zone) Roger began to feel more and more melancholy, so we "went out to see what we could". When we got over to Vestavia Hills, the road we had been on earlier was blocked off (two police cars)!!! and people were walking up there........the narrow roads were made even more narrow with all the parked cars. Roger wondered if we should park and follow along, but we didn't.........we wandered around and found ourselves coming up the other end! I really don't know how we did that! But we found ourselves in a perfect spot to watch the fireworks! and a place where we could back the car in with all the others--as we were doing so, we heard a shout and a boy about 11 came to tell us there was a rock under the car. We hadn't heard anything so backed carefully--about 6 more inches and sure enough, there it was. We pulled out and drove another 20 yards along the road to where we could parallel park.......... We walked back to where the rock was, enjoyed the fireworks--though they were kind of far away and some of them went so high they were in the clouds!! (Yeah, the clouds were low--it rained yesterday afternoon) When it was over, we walked back to the car and lead the way out of the "hills". There was a little extra traffic, but not bad at all............so there is my "tender mercy" for yesterday....... something quite insignificant was important to Father in Heaven and we felt His loving care.
Sorry this is so long............I guess I'm a little homesick...........we are going to skype to visit with some grandchildren!!!
This is where we were trying to get to....
What we saw on the way.....
This one is more my style........I love the porch and the fans!
Some grand houses............
This next one was actually for sale........I told Roger I want to live here..........it was so beautiful and serene.........and not so grand...........I could picture myself living here......not in these previous ones. I hope you can get the feeling........and I wonder how you make it happen. I want to make it happen in Delta. So help me, please..........what is it?
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