Christmas 2018

I have been volunteering at a local food bank whenever I am in Alabama and available on Saturday mornings. It really makes me feel good. I'm also still volunteering at the Redstone School Age Center.

I am still regularly attending the Church of the Highlands. The messages are just great. I also attended their Freedom small group/bible study. It was super.

Meade is doing great with his diabetes. He has gotten so committed to eating well and exercising! I am really proud of him. He had his first colonoscopy. It was 10 years late but since it didn't find any problems, all is good.

The traveling Vietnam Veteran's memorial (The Wall that Heals) came to Huntsville and I went to see it. Even though we have seen the real one this one was almost as impressive. The best part was a really interesting trailer with stuff that has been left at the wall. If it ever comes to your area, you should go see it.

There was a bunch of travel this year.

The first was a 13 day Carnival cruise in January. It went to places that we had never been before (Grenada, Antigua and Barbados). We weren't sure how we would do with such a long trip. It went well. We ate salad only for one meal a day. Meade didn't gain any weight and I gained less than my usual pound a day.We really enjoyed our dinner companions Jim and Missy from Lakeland, Florida. The best shore excursion I went on was swimming with the Turtles at Barbados.

I went to El Paso for a business trip that lasted long enough to get in some sightseeing. The best was the Wyler Skyway.

I went to Dismal Canyon in Phil Campbell Alabama. It is cool, it is one of very few places in the world that has dismalites. The tour is held at night so you can see them glow. Meade is going to go with me sometime.

I attended the Alabama Jubilee. It is a balloon festival held on the Memorial Day weekend. Normally I go to Mississippi for that weekend since Meade's birthday is the 29th. He agreed to stay in Alabama this year since I will only be living in Huntsville for 2 more years. It seemed like a good idea to check it out to see if I would want to go again. It was neat. You can get REALLY close to the balloons. It was especially nice because my friend Lamar spent time with me there.

My annual trip with my mother was to her place in Rockledge. She has custody of her 4 year old great-grandson James and didn't want to try to take him somewhere. I took him to the Brevard County zoo and spent a lot of time playing with him. He is a cutie.  I also got to see Lee and my friend Sarah.

Meade and I went to a timeshare in Sevierville, Tennessee for a week. It was nice. I went to Anakeesta a new tourist place. You ride a ski lift to get up to it and it has a trail on platforms in the treetops. It was cool. I also got to go to the Christmas store. I got 2 really great decorations. The best part was indoor sky diving. I have been thinking about sky diving and thought this might be all I need to do. Actually now I'm even more interested in doing it for real. I also went to Forbidden Caverns. We went to Margaritaville for dinner. It is one of Meade's favorite restaurants. Meade and I went to the Smoky Mountains park and went to Laurel Falls. My favorite things to do on vacation are high places, waterfalls and caves so since I got to do all of those, this was definitely a successful trip.

The last trip of the year was when Lee met me in Atlanta for DragonCon. It was LOTS bigger than either of us expected. I bought a Star Trek uniform to wear. There were some really cool costumes that obviously took a lot of time to make. I was happy with my costume. I spent most of my time at Star Trek stuff. We also went to two "The 100" events and a "Lost in Space" one. We plan to go again sometime. I think even Meade might come because it has an author's track which included a few of his favorite authors.

The UCF (University of Central Florida) football team is still rolling. They won the Peach Bowl in January to finish off last season. It was especially sweet because we beat Auburn. Auburn is the favorite team of a lot of people at work so I got to gloat and wear my Peach Bowl Champions tee shirt. UCF claimed they were National Champions because Auburn beat Alabama who was the National Champions. Unfortunately, UCF is not in one of the top 5 conferences so we don't get any respect in regards to the championship. UCF just won the American Athletic Conference for the second season in a row just yesterday!!!!! It was especially impressive because it was with our backup quarterback. Our quarterback who won last year was severely injured in last week's game. Hopefully, he will recover but they are saying it might be a career ending injury.

We are also still big Nashville Predators' fans. I already went to one of the games in Nashville. It wasn't as exciting as the playoff game I went to last year but it was still really good. I also have a ticket for a game in February. There are lots of games on tv and we watch A LOT of them.  The Preds are number 1 in the Western Conference at this time.  Lee's Tampa Bay Lightning are number 1 in the eastern conference. It would be cool if they both made it to the Stanley Cup. There are tons of games left to play but it is a good start.

And then of course there is the NFL.  Both my Tennessee Titans and Meade's Miami Dolphins aren't doing real well. We are both still "In the Hunt" for the playoffs but it's not real likely.

And then of course there is the minor league Huntsville Havoc hockey team. I try to go to at least one game a month. It is much more convenient than having to go to Nashville and lots cheaper. The play isn't as good but it will do. They won the championship for their league last year!

It is amazing and a bit embarrassing how much I have gotten into sports.

I finally finished the scarf I was knitting for Meade. It turned out pretty good. Now I am making him one of the Miami Dolphin colors. It is going much quicker and turning out good.

The only bad thing that happened this year was that the Miata died in the spring and then my Ford Ranger died in November. They both developed engine problems and since they both had around 190,000 miles and were both over 13 years old (the Miata was 19) we decided not to get them fixed. I'm in process of looking for what to get instead. It will probably be a Toyota Corolla Hatchback but not sure yet.

Hope you had a good 2018 and that your 2019 is even better.
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