Wednesday Treasures

 Happy Wednesday Morning! I am sorry I missed the Tuesday 4 yesterday...it was a busy day filled with appointments...hubby had an eye appointment in the morning, and I had a Cardiologist appointment in the afternoon...my long awaited appointment as a follow up to the episode that landed me in the hospital back in August! Yes, it took that long to get an appointment with a Cardiologist! Thank the Lord, I apparently really wasn't having heart trouble at all, but a result of pneumonia and nightmares...but anyway, this doctor confirmed that my heart is just fine! They did an EKG yesterday, and could find no issue, and he said he believes my heart is just fine, but he'll see me again in 6 months just to be sure! LOL.  Praise the Lord! My heart is glad, and my tongue rejoices!:

Psalm 16:8-10 New International Version

"8 I keep my eyes always on the Lord.

With him at my right hand, I will not be shaken.

9 Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices;

my body also will rest secure,

10 because you will not abandon me to the realm of the dead,

nor will you let your faithful one see decay."

So with that good news I was very happy to head back home and eat supper and go to choir practice!  But first, upon leaving the doctor's office (this was in the city near us, Palatka), I couldn't help but notice one of the city's amazing murals painted on the side of a building next to the parking lot:

Annie Oakley!

(see link above for this quotation:)
"On February 21, 1908, Annie Oakley and her husband Frank Butler brought their shooting exhibition to Palatka as part of a tour of towns and cities in the South to drum up business for the Union Metallic Cartridge and Remington companies. The group, called “The Southern Squad,” performed difficult feats of trap shooting at the Georgia Southern and Florida Railway’s depot on the riverfront in Palatka and drew a large crowd of not only sportsmen and trap shooters but also women and children.

In addition to Oakley and Butler, The Southern Squad included Capt. Tom A. Marshall, Col. T. J. Anthony, W. H. Heer, and George Maxwell. But of course, the person who drew the crowds and was featured in the newspaper with her picture was Annie Oakley, arguably one of the most famous women in the country in the 1890s and early 1900s.

Oakley along with her husband Frank Butler had worked in Buffalo Bill Cody’s Wild West Show for 16 years from 1885 until 1901. A consummate entertainer, she put on a great show, jumping onto gun tables and shooting clay pigeons before they hit the ground, hitting targets while riding a bicycle with no hands, shooting cigarettes out of Butler’s mouth."

As I was standing out in the parking lot taking that picture, I could hear a train in the background. That's always a welcome sound in this day of fewer and fewer trains in our country.  There is a depot in Palatka, and the Amtrak train stops there...and upon my departure from the parking lot to the street, this is what I saw ahead:

I really didn't mind waiting in the traffic to watch the train going by. That was a treat!! And thankfully I wasn't in a hurry to get anywhere!

There goes the tail end of the train! I wish I could jump on that train and go for a ride!!

But I had to get home, and thankfully I had already put on a pot of chili in the crock pot in between appointments, and it was hot and ready to eat when I got home:

Thank you all for your kind comments and concern for our porch kitties during this cold snap we are having.  I am happy to report that both kitties have survived the freezing weather, and apparently figured out their own spaces to keep warm. I'm not totally sure they stayed here on the porch during the night, but when they woke me up with their moving around early in the morning (our security camera "dings" on my phone when there's activity on the porch), they were active and alive and thankful for food!  Then they settled in their favored spots to spend the rest of the day.  

Sunshine seems to like this straw door mat at our glass doors on the porch. He sits there all day, which gets a lot of sun and it must help him keep warm. For a while, both Blackie and Sunshine were cuddled up together on this mat, but I failed to get a picture of them together.

I think Blackie was under the chairs in the little warm place I fixed for him this morning...it's hard to tell if he's in there or not, and I don't want to go outside and disturb him because then he'll move  out of that space and I won't be able to get a picture...

A few minutes ago he moved to the top of that chair and is laying on the blanket, so I know they are both finding their own places to stay warm, and thankfully today it was only 34 degrees when we woke up and will rise to 68 without as much wind as yesterday, so they should be just fine.

Good Morning sunrise:

There's actually frost out there on the ground!

I'm glad I covered all my vulnerable plants.  Hopefully things will survive until the next cold snap. Remember, this is Florida...this is about as bad as it gets!  No wonder so many people want to move here for the winter!

On a sad note, our sweet daughter in law Rose got some sad news yesterday. Her sister's daughter (in Minnesota) was expecting a baby with a due date of next week. This was a "miracle" conception as she had been told she could never have a baby, so she and her husband have adopted two sweet children.  You can imagine their elation when she finally became pregnant, and everything seemed to be going just fine until this past week, one week from her due date, she developed a very high fever and had to be hospitalized.  Unfortunately, last night they had to deliver the baby, who was still-born. I don't know all the details of why or how, but God knows, and that precious baby is resting in the arms of Jesus today, but this dear family is grieving deeply, as you can well imagine.  Please keep Rose and her sister's family in your thoughts and prayers.  This truly has hit them all very hard.  I was sad also that yesterday was Rose and Benton's anniversary, and now they will all always connect that date with this new sorrow.  May the Lord give comfort to them all in the ways that only He is able to do.  Those of you who have experienced this kind of loss can certainly understand.

I'm sorry to close on a sad note. But this is all a part of life, and we learn that we have to live with the good times and the sad times. May God be with each and every one of us today and bring us peace and comfort in whatever situation we may find ourselves.

2 Thessalonians 3:16

16 Now may the Lord of peace Himself give you peace always in every way. The Lord be with you all.

Amen.