First, I must mention that Paula was at her office for most of both days because of her company's annual physical inventory. That left me on my own most of the time.
Let's start with something new for me. A married couple who go to my church needed someone to care for their dogs while they made a quick trip to see family in St. Louis. I volunteered to do it.
For a decade I have had to find someone to take care of our dogs while we were on vacation. Friends and family members have been kind enough to help out. But it wasn't until recently that I've been on the other side of the situation.
I've taken care our friends, Mark and Patty's pups a couple of times while they were away. But I know those dogs very well. I only met the dogs, I was caring for this time once, a couple of days before hand. But they were good dogs and no trouble at all.
On Friday afternoon and Saturday morning I went to their apartment and fed and walked them. Here's their pictures. Maggie, a boxer, and Joe Joe, a mixed breed, respectively.
They are both very sweet and very affectionate animals. I enjoyed spending time with them.
Over the course of the two days I finished putting together a Lego Technics telehandler. It's the first of two models from Kit 42004.
In addition I used the time while home alone to put together some of the other Lego kits I told you about in my last Lego post. Since they are all models that are themed to the upcoming holidays I won't show them to you until later.
On Sunday mornings during the month of October I've been teaching the 4,5, and 6 year old kids during Children's Church hour at Oakland Baptist Church.
With the month long theme of "God made me to be me" I taught the children about their individuality, creativity, God given talents and how they can use them.
As an object lesson I used a battery operated bubble maker to create bubbles. As they watched the bubbles fly in the air I explained to the children that each bubble follows it's own path. Just the way we as Christians has given us our own path while serving Him.
The bubble machine is terrific. This first was the first time I used it. I've posted a short video on my You Tube channel demonstrating how well it works. Here's the link: Bubble Machine Video
The weekend concluded with a special evening back at my church. The "Hallelujah Hoedown" is an annual event to celebrate the blessings of the fall season.
It is held outside in the church parking lot. It's a pot luck dinner with grilled hot dogs and several versions of chili made by and brought by church members.
There was also a hayride for the kids. A moonlit trip on a tractor pulled wagon of straw through the cornfields just in back of the church.
Adjacent to the parking lot is a small area of grass where the church trustees built a large bonfire. They circle it with hay bales for everyone to sit and enjoy the ambiance of the flames. Here's a link to a short video showing what sitting around watching the fire was like: Hallelujah Hoedown Bonfire
This year I used the bonfire as the setting to fulfill one of the things on my bucket list.
As I mentioned in my last post I really enjoy being around a campfire. One of the scenarios I've always wanted to be a part was to sit around an outdoor fire and be the guy who plays the guitar and leads everyone in a sing along.
Well, I don't know how to play the guitar. But I do play a stringed instrument. Ever since I started learning how to play the ukulele late last year, I have planned on taking it to the "hoedown" and fulfilling my dream.
As you may have noticed from the back ground audio on the video the event is pretty much a fellowship event where everyone is free to enjoy the hoedown the way they want to.
The atmosphere was not exactly the perfect setting for me to get out my ukulele and start playing the way I imagined it. But nevertheless I had my uke with me and I was going to play even if I was the only one who paid attention. I didn't want to waste the opportunity.
I sat down on a hay bale, took out my ukulele out of it's case, tuned it, then opened my songbook and started playing.
Almost no one paid any attention to me or at least that's how it seemed to me. I almost felt invisible. But there was one person who joined in. A fellow church member named Linda, sat by my side and sang along with me. She even held my flash light so I could see my chord charts.
We sang "He's Got The Whole World In His Hands", "Kumbya" and "Happy Trails" together. I am very grateful to Linda for being my singing partner. Her participation validated the whole activity.
There were a lot of people sitting around but much to my dismay I don't think any of them seemed to be interested in joining in with us. So after a few songs, I decided that no matter what I sang it wasn't going to be the spontaneous fun occasion I had wanted it to be.
I thanked Linda for her participation and then put my uke back in it's case and left the hoedown.
I will continue to look for an occasion to live out my fireside sing-along experience the way I've always imagined it. Still, when all is said and done, I can now say that "I did it" and cross it off my bucket list.
So there are a few things that were factors this past weekend for me. Hope you enjoyed reading about it.
One last thing I'd like to mention is that also this weekend I finished listening to yet another audio book. It is the second I've finished over the last couple of months about one of my favorite subjects: Television history. But I'll be writing more about that in a blog series in the near future.
Thanks for reading the RHFactors blog without you I'd just be writing things I already know. See you next time.
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