What A Long, Strange Week It's Been

The Beatles sang about the eight day week, but during this last week we seem to have crammed in even more days than that. Last Sunday Gina and Mom were driving home from Louisiana where they had attended a scrapfest.


GINA, CYNDA, ANGELA AND MOM AT SCRAPFEST

While they were driving home, I went around town taking pictures of the flowering trees. This time of year is so beautiful here in western Arkansas. Here are some of the photos from from that photo excursion.


JANSSEN PARK IN DOWNTOWN MENA


REDBUDS AND DOGWOODS


DOGWOODS

Monday night, Gina, Mom and I made candy fruit kabobs to sell as a fundraiser for Relay For Life. Gina got the idea for them from her sister Berta. You make them by taking gummy fruit and threading them onto a kabob stick, the wrap them in cellophane and tie them with a ribbon. They are very colorful and attractive. Gina sold so many Monday, that we made them again on Tuesday. Gina had friends come over and help, so they had an assembly line set up. They made 84 kabobs that night. We have already raised over 200.00 for Relay For Life selling the candy fruit kabobs.



Tuesday night I subbed for the Pastor, who was away attending a pastor's meeting, at our Bible Marking class at church. Those in the class are marking their Bibles with different topics. It makes it very easy to study a topic. We start out a topic with a beginning text that we write on the back inside cover of the Bible. You then go to that text and underline or highlight it and then write the next text in the margin. You then go to that text and repeat the process. When you are done with the topic, you can easily study it at any time without any notes other than your Bible. It is a really neat idea, and I am excited about the class.

Gina has been very busy at the Credit Union after taking a few days off. It is always busiest at the end of the month, and the last of March was also the end of the quarter. It has also been a busy week at Richie's Discount Auto Glass. That is a good thing, because all to many weeks lately haven't been that busy. I was so busy Wednesday that I didn't realize that it was April Fool's Day until the end of the day. It seems like there just aren't as many April Fools pranks as there used to be.


I did come across one that made me laugh. It was posted on the Mena Forum that President Obama had told GM and Chrysler that if they received bailout money they would not be allowed to participate in NASCAR. You cannot believe the howls of protest that erupted on the forum. President Obama is very unpopular in this area, and NASCAR is extremely popular. The original information came from the magazine Car and Driver. Car and Driver later pulled the fake story and apologized for "going too far" while noting the magazine " has a proud tradition of irreverent editorial and we amplify that each year with our April Fool's Day joke."


Thursday night was Relay For Life Team Captains Meeting followed by the Relay For Life Committee Meeting. We are just two weeks away from the Relay here in Polk County and things are getting very hectic. There is so much to get organized before the big event.


MY SHOP

Friday morning when I arrived at work I noticed some unusual things. The door looked like it had been messed with. but it was locked so I didn't think much about it. When I opened the shop it smelled strongly of gasoline. Where could that be coming from I wondered. The lights wouldn't come one, and as I checked things all of the electricity was off. Before I called Rich Mountain Electric, I checked the breakers on the outside of the building. Every one of them was in the off position. Once I had turned them back on and could see in the shop I found the source of the gasoline smell. There was a huge lake of gas coming from Daddy's 1968 Chevrolet pickup. As I investigated I saw that the hood was up and the carburetor was missing. I knew there had been a break in and now the breakers being turned off made sense.



I think that the main objective of the thieves was that carburetor. Daddy's pickup had a hot rod 350 Chevrolet engine with a brand new Edelbrock 600 carb on it. The thieves had to be customers who had seen the truck and the engine. The pickup was all the way to the back of the garage that holds 12 cars. They took a few other items, and had some set out. The must have been startled and left quickly because they left their tools behind.

I was left with the realization that there is no place that you are safe from this kind of thing happening. Fortunately this is a rare occurrence here instead of the norm.

Also on Friday was the big fundraiser for Gina's Relay For Life Team, USEM Federal Credit Union. They served over 250 beef brisket dinners and raised over $1200.00 for Relay For Life. Gina is worn out, but things aren't going to slow down for her anytime soon. Saturday is the Heath Fair at the local hospital and we will be helping with the Relay For Life booth. What a long, strange week it's been.