Saturday, May 23, 2015

May 23 – “Day Six: Relaxin’ in Huntsville”

Wait a minute.  Didn’t I just write that it was the end of May?  Then what is the temperature doing hovering at 46 degrees?  Alabama is cold.  At least the hospitality remains warm.  Breakfast was bacon and sausage omelets with a side of bacon.  Can’t beat bacon.

We did a bit of relaxing around the house after breakfast.  Discussed our options for the day, one of which was “shoot some guns.”  Hey … we ARE in Alabama.  We settled for watching a video of a comedian named Tim Hawkins.  Very funny guy.  I also walked on the treadmill for a while.  I must have been doing something wrong, though.  I could only get about two steps in before I had to turn around and go the other direction.  Just made me really dizzy.  And the posture director worked OK, but it reminded me a lot of a really long level.  Guess it’s the same principle.  Or maybe it was just a really long level.

After the comedian and the indoor workout we took the exercise outside.  We got the nickel tour of Huntsville, Alabama.  The driving part was pretty interesting.  There are lots of really old houses and buildings to look at.  We even stopped for a walking tour of downtown.  Werner von Braun apparently made his home in the area, and he was a big benefactor.  Nice park with fountains and a stream was the focal point of the city center.  That’s when we went into one of the oldest drugstores on the planet.  Still had a lot of its inventory from 1888 on the shelves.  Smelled kind of funny, but I bought a t-shirt anyway.  Chris got an angel made out of a cotton boll.  The rest of the morning we drove around the mountain looking for cool views. 

Finally we headed back to the house for some lunch.  The day turned off beautiful, so lunch was served on the back porch.  And that’s when we met Creepy the Turtle (or did she say Speedy?  I’m not sure).  When Larry opened the back door he had made his way to the welcome mat, so Larry invited Diane to come see.  By the time she arrived at the back door, Speedy’s Creepy head was forlornly gazing upward into Diane’s eyes.  Diane’s response was … less than welcoming.  We did give him some broccoli and redirect his momentum to the bushes (except for the brief moment after Diane went inside to get dessert, and I helped him return to his gazing position at the back door.  She wasn’t particularly amused).

The evening was certainly a highlight for me.  We went to a minor league baseball game.  The Buloxi Shuckers (formerly the Huntsville Stars), a class AA affiliate of the Milwaukee Brewers, played the Birmingham Barons.  S stop in the team store before the game got me a new cap and all of us a quick overview of the team.  The Shuckers’ mascot is an oyster.  Strange, but perhaps a step up from the Stars’ old mascot … a skunk.  Why, you may ask?  Because from the time the team was founded until sometime last year, a family of skunks had made its home out near center field.  The oysters won the game.  I love minor league baseball.

On our way home we took a quick critter-hunting detour to look for some deer in the dark.  We saw some lightning bugs, but the only critters we saw looked a lot like fire hydrants.  Sigh. 

Psalms 29:11 says, The Lord gives strength to his people; the Lord blesses his people with peace.”

Father, thank you for times of relaxing and for critters of all shapes and sizes.  Amen.


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