Visiting friends

We are on a brief trip to Pennsylvania to visit some friends from Charley's growing up days. It is difficult to explain how near and dear to our hearts Mary and Floyd are and it will be very difficult to say goodbye to them this time. They are like another set of parents to us. We saw them yesterday afternoon and their limitations are more obvious this time. Since we last saw them Mary has had a stroke and heart surgery. She looks good but hearing Floyd express his concern for her put my antennae up to not wear her out. They are both 77 this year. Floyd also had his health challenges the last two years. Mary and I had a laugh over their new exterior wood burner. If you know about wood burners, she used to have an ancient one in their basement and she would be the one to haul the wood in, pitch it down the stairs and load it several times a day. Well, while she was in the hospital, Floyd had to do this and took notice of how difficult this was. They now have a new exterior wood burner which is loaded right next to the wood pile. Interesting. He is doing the loading too. She is a good sport and we shared the amusement of the sudden change. 50 plus years of hauling wood, I cannot imagine how many tons of wood she has carried. At least the wood we burn is carried right next to the burner.

We will see them a little bit today and some more tomorrow but can see that with Christmas this week, I would rather not wear her out so she can enjoy her family. Despite teasing Floyd about the burner it is also obvious how much he cares for her and this is a man with a reputation for his orneriness. I thought I took a picture of Ingrid with Mary but will have to do that today.

Not to slight the Rodenbeck's, we did have a great little visit with them as well. Poor Erik misunderstood my picture taking instructions and took probably twenty little videos of their trip to a local museum. No wonder they took so long to take...... I love visiting with friends who are accommodating to our overwhelming crowd and especially appreciate their willingness to take us in. The roads were pretty messy on the way there and the wind blew and blew our fifteen passenger van all over the road. Charley's arm hurts today and I wonder if that is why.