Tree trimming

When I parked at SIL, the trees around the site were pretty low, and hanging down on top of Miss Doozie.

"Before" picture - the limbs are on top of the solar panels and roof of Miss Doozie.

 I asked if someone could come to do some trimming...

...so, on Friday, Joel came.

He had originally planned to use a lift to get him up to the branches, but, we decided that using Miss Doozie as the "lift" was smarter as it would be clear what needed to be trimmed, and she has walk-rails on the roof that he could use.

He did a great job, and I'm happy that the branches, when blown by the wind, won't be scraping on the roof!

Bible translation

I am learning a LOT about Bible translation while here on SIL campus - you may get tired of hearing about what I'm learning... but... here are some of the first things I have seen on campus in just my first days:

This is a plaque in the "Quad"...

Linguistic Creed
We believe that language is one of God's most important gifts to man and, of all human characteristics, language is the most distinctly human and the most basic. Without language, culture and civilization would be impossible.
We also believe that any language is capable of being a vehicle for complicated human interaction and complex thought, and can be the basis of a complex culture or civilization.
Therefore, all languages deserve respect and careful study.
As the most uniquely human characteristic a person has, a person's language is associated with his self-image. Interest in and appreciation of a person's language is tantamount to appreciation of and interest in the person himself.
All languages are worthy of preservation in written form by means of grammars, dictionaries, and written text. This should be done as a part of the heritage of the human race.
Every language group deserves to see its own language in print and to have some literature written in it.
Minority language groups within a larger nation deserve the opportunity of learning to speak, read, and write the national language.
Benjamine F. Elson
September, 1987

These are some of the 1000+ Bible translations that folks connected with SIL have participated in translating.

This is a page of a Bible for a language in Nepal

I am scheduled to go on a tour of the center next week - I'm looking forward to learning even more!!!

Bilingual what?

I was looking for a new sewer hose for the rig, and when looking at "sanitation products for your campsite" came across:

... as far as I know, my bathroom tissue has never spoken to me... so I don't know whether it is bilingual or not!

Maybe it is necessary for use with this toilet?

http://www.camco.net/campsite-sanitation

Things that make me go, "huh?"

Artwork around the campus

At the front of the campus are these pieces of artwork:

This is just outside the doors where I've been working at the Welcome Desk.

A view...

I was so blessed to receive a visit by my RVing friends John and Jane on Wednesday afternoon. Jane and I took a walk around the campus and were blessed to see this view from the common room in the Guest House on campus:

Looking out over Joe Pool Lake with threatening clouds from storms in the area.

I am so thankful for this place where I'm staying, and for friends coming to visit.

You might be a full time RVer if...

I belong to an online community of RVers called RVillage. The founder started an invitation to comments on Sunday and I thought my blog readers might enjoy it... and you might want to join RVillage if you are an RVer!

A busy day!

For Tuesday,
- I volunteered at Crisis Ministries this morning, but only for two hours. It was *really* busy - lots of food coming in - unsold Easter products, lots of bakery items as well as meats from the grocery stores, *and* lots of clients coming too!
- I felt bad for needing to leave early, but I had committed to attend our "IBM Lunch Bunch" (now made up of all *former* IBMers). I was really glad to meet up with these former co-workers. Pictures courtesy of Dick (who is, unfortunately, not in any of the pictures!).

Some of the participants - Nancy, Danny, Patti, Melanie

Dave, Angela, Melanie

Nancy and Nancy

Danny, Nancy, Patti

Melanie, Elisa, Danny

Donna, Nancy

Elisa, Donna, Danny

Melanie, Dave, Angela

We added up all of our years of service at IBM (and did the addition in our heads, so... it may not be correct!) - we came up with a total of 310 years of service amongst the 10 of us who were having lunch together.
- In the afternoon, I started my position with the volunteer office at SIL. We did a little brainstorming on things I am to work on, and I have a few tasks to work on tomorrow (Wednesday) while two other volunteers are not there.

A busy day, but very enjoyable!

Checked in at SIL

I drove the short distance (about 35 miles) from Lake Park in Lewisville to the campground on the SIL campus this morning. I got checked in to the campground and got my id badge for volunteering.

I took the walking path back to the RV park from the housing office...

The path had a bridge/culvert over a stream/flooding area - which is just beautiful with fresh new growth at this time!

Miss Doozie is in her site. I've met some of my neighbors - Mike helped me get Miss Doozie into the site.

She fits! I would like to back her further into the site, but there is a walk path that goes down beside the back of the rig that folks use to get to the building behind us... so for now I have her parked close up to the road through the campground. I will check when the RV park manager is in on Thursday if this is the best way for her to be parked. Unfortunately, it means that there is not room for the Jeep in front, so I am parking the "Jee-rage" in another spot.

I look forward to getting started on volunteering!

Easter Saturday

I was getting some chores done this morning - got blood drawn for labwork for the doctor that I saw on Friday, and noticed a Discount Tire store on my way back to the bus...

Since we got the tires for the Jeep at a Discount Tire in Houston, I felt confident with getting the air checked - my friend, Gayle, told me that they will check the air in your tires regardless of where you got your tires... I wonder if I was supposed to give the guy a tip?

 It is a GORGEOUS day in Texas - bright sunny skies...

About 2.5 million people (give or take a couple of hundred thousand) (I *may* be overestimating a little!) are at Lake Park enjoying the day. Thankfully, the way the campground is situated, the day use folks don't use the same areas as the RVers (unlike Willow Grove), so I can enjoy watching them enjoy the park and the lake without needing to share parking and picnic areas.

I went out with some folks from church today, sharing the love of Jesus and inviting folks to join us at church tomorrow. I'm looking forward to celebrating tomorrow that Jesus rose from the grave, and through our dependence on His sacrifice, we can live forever with Him!!

About to move again!

I let the Lewisville Lake Park campground know today that I plan to move to a new campground on Monday... I am going to be volunteering with the International Linguistics Center and SIL in the Duncanville area.

They have a lot of volunteer needs -- you can see a list here: https://sites.google.com/a/sil.org/dallas-center-ilc/volunteer-opportunities
There are a number of ministries who share the campus - Wycliffe Bible Translators, Pioneer Bible Translators, Dallas International University.

They also have a campground. Right now, there are a number of available sites as most "snow birds" are departing (or have departed) for their home locations further north. I visited the campus on Tuesday and had the opportunity to drive around the campground and to meet many of the folks with whom I will be volunteering in the next weeks and months.

I am excited about this new chapter and to see what God has for me!

Thankfully, the storm warnings did not pan out!

After re-positioning Miss Doozie yesterday in anticipation of hail and strong storms, we had only wind and rain. I was thankful that I had gotten the outside chairs put up and everything in good shape just in case there was anything damaging, but very thankful that there wasn't anything to be concerned about!

Today there are white caps on the lake and huge splashes as the waves impact on the shore on the other side of the inlet that is across from where I am parked.

Today, I went to the "Senior Adult Pot Luck" luncheon at church, and enjoyed visiting with a number of folks there as well as having a great lunch!

Wednesday...

I had an appointment scheduled for today for a mobile glass service to replace the driver's side windshield, so I stayed around the bus.

Something was going on in the area on the other side of the arm of the lake that is near me... there were emergency vehicles over there and folks in the water... I have been looking to see if there were any news reports about a drowning, but have not seen anything. I guess it may have just been practice.

"Auto Glass Russ" came to replace the driver's side windshield.

In the process of dislodging it, the windshield got quite a few additional cracks.

He got the new windshield in... I had gotten an email from our church that our Wednesday night gathering was being cancelled because of predicted severe weather... so I decided I'd better keep my attention on that. I asked him if he had any suggestions and he said that it might be better if I reversed the rig in the site so the big front glass windows would be facing east instead of west (the weather will be coming from the west).

I thought that might be wise, so I turned Miss Doozie around and have her facing the lake now. As an additional benefit, I have a great view out the front of the bus!

Miss Kitty has shown a lot more interest in going outside here, so I've been taking her out. I don't force her to stay, and sometimes she wants to immediately come back inside, but, this afternoon, she stayed out for a few minutes, even rolling on the asphalt surface of the site.

I'm working on finding an app that will alert me about weather heading my way... I thought I had a weather app that did that, but it hasn't been doing a good job... I'm thinking that staying in north central Texas necessitates weather warnings!

Reconciliation Report

I balanced our checking accounts in the past couple of weeks to make sure I had everything figured out for our taxes.

When Quicken finishes the reconciliation process, it puts up a screen like this:

... asking if I want to create a reconciliation report. I always select "No" because I know what is still outstanding at that point.

I don't know why, but whenever I see this, I imagine a heavenly conversation -- someone asking Jesus whether He wants to create a reconciliation report about my life, and Jesus saying, "No, she is mine, and I've taken care of all that she owes." It is a reminder every time I balance a checkbook!

A new site...

When I plugged in to the site in the Lake Park Campground in Lewisville on Friday, I was not able to hook up our EMS (Electrical Management System) because the outlet was installed upside down.

I had plugged the cord in directly to the box without the EMS.

We have a Progressive Industries EMS that we usually plug in to the shore power so we don't get damaging electricity into the bus. Our unit is something like this one: https://www.progressiveindustries.net/ems-pt50x

When I checked in on Friday, I decided to just not worry about it, but on Saturday, there were storms coming through the DFW area, and I thought... ugh - no protection against power spikes, and it probably is not great to have my power cord upside down like that. So, I took a picture and talked to the folks at the campground on Sunday afternoon to see if they could schedule someone to turn the outlet around (I have no idea how difficult that might be). They called me later and asked if I would be willing to move sites on Monday, and I agreed.

So, I moved sites today, and now have a site with a beautiful view out my "public" side of the bus of the lake:

I am scheduled to be here at Lake Park until May 10, though that may change depending on whether I get one of the volunteer positions here in the DFW area. For however long I'm here, I'll enjoy this view!

Longview

On the last day of the rally, my "next door neighbors" in the campground, Julian and Frances, invited me to take a drive to Longview with them. We were enjoying driving around the town, seeing that it appeared that there had been an event and folks were closing up shop, thinking that we should have come earlier...

... we noticed these signs, and we were all thinking, "Ah, we should have come yesterday..." - then all of a sudden, we all realized that it *was* Thursday (not Friday as we were thinking) and that the folks were setting up booths, not taking them down. Ah, the joys of being retired and having no idea what day it is!

So, we parked and walked around!

Some information about Longview.

Looking down the sidewalk...

We saw this down one of the side streets... "Knights of P?" (Julian said that he knows about "nights of pee" but we thought it was probably not that!) I looked it up and found it to be Knights of Pythias (https://www.pythias-tx.org/home-1).

A cute flower truck

Some thoughts in one of the shop windows...

"Pollen - When Flowers can't keep it in their plants."
"You is Tired, You is Broke, You is Adulting"
"Welcome to Adulthood. I hope you like Ibuprofen"
"Life is Hard. Margaritas help."

I should have taken a picture more close up of that marble-like piece across the street - we talked to the artist - she said that she can make custom countertops and that they are sealed and do not need re-sealing (like natural stone). It was really beautiful. The flower truck is there on the right too.

We had a good time visiting Longview!