Sunday’s sermon was amazing, as usual, and I am always compelled to share my impressions. Pastor Justin Enoch of The Warehouse Church delivers a passionate message every Sunday that really speaks to me. I love this church! It’s contemporary, has a great praise team, and speaks to my spirit week after week. As I was driving to church Sunday, I felt this delightful anticipation that made me smile. I’ve never known a church where people are SO excited to attend. They give you “high fives” as you enter and as you leave. They hold up signs in the parking lot that say “So glad you’re here!” and “You can sit with us!” It is a reaching church and welcomes everyone, no matter where they are in their lives. I love that.
Two hundred and four hours. That’s how long it took to put out the fire at the old Ames shovel plant, now owned by IEI Plastics. As of 11:30 Sunday morning, the fire was declared “extinguished”. Now there is a 36 to 48 hour cooling off period before anything further can be done. Firefighters and assorted agencies will remain on site for another couple of days to monitor the scene. What you see left here is now the responsibility of the site owner to clean up.
I sat in the big leather chair yesterday and gazed around this circle of marvelous, beautiful women I have the honor of calling my friends. We all graduated from high school together…could it really be forty-six years ago??? We’re a diverse group. Some were jocks in high school. Some were wallflowers. Actresses. Musicians. Artists. Dancers. Some were heavy into books. Some were heavy into boys. We were shy…and we weren’t. We were scared…and we weren’t. And look at us now. These raven-haired beauties have glitter on their crowns now…whether we choose to show it or not.
It was twenty-seven degrees here at the farm yesterday morning when I sent Mr. FixIt off on a guys trip to North Carolina. This leaves me on my own till Sunday night. I love this man…I truly do. AND, I love my alone time on occasion, so I’m sitting here in the dining room, in front of Grandma’s favorite window, classical music playing softly in the background. It is lovely outside…nearly sixty degrees, sunny, the last of the autumn leaves clinging desperately to the branches like quivering field mice bracing for winter’s chill. It is warm and cozy in this little, old farmhouse and I’m snug as a bug in a rug.
I have really been getting into nostalgia lately. The other day I shared my Pinterest page of Childhood Memories. When I have a few minutes, I go on and add a few more. It’s interesting how Pinterest works. When you click on something, you soon see more and more pins in that category and it’s been a fun walk down Memory Lane. Some of the memories I could do without, though.
In 1982, Hubby #2 and I moved into an old brick bungalow that had been the farmhouse before the area around it was developed. It was drafty and poorly insulated. Three quarters of the basement was bare dirt floor. The brick support pillars down there were crumbling and frankly, it was a pretty scary place. But the rest of the house was charming. Dark hardwood floors and built-in storage, tall ceilings and a sun porch, large windows you could fling wide open to catch the cool evening breeze…it was the closest I had come to living in an actual farmhouse since I’d left home at the tender age of twenty.
Today’s the day…time for the first “comfort food” meal of fall. Mr. FixIt and I have been working at our respective homes a lot the last week or so and haven’t had a day at home for a while. Today is trash day. It’s “install the new bathroom heater because we bought one without a thermostat, oh my gosh, what were we thinking” day. It’s a day to reconnect and play cards and visit. Today is “Pot Roast Day”. I’m pretty sure it’s a national holiday.
Here’s an update on the fire in Parkersburg, WV. The site of the old Ames Plant is still burning. It started just after midnight Saturday night. The cause of the blaze is still unknown. The old plant housed an operation that ground up plastic that was stored in huge cardboard containers as raw materials to be shipped to DuPont for making whatever product they are currently working on. The Mid-Ohio Valley is home to many chemical plants and Parkersburg formed the Polymer Alliance in the late 1980’s to draw more business to the area. In just one day, over 1,000,000 gallons of city water had been pumped onto the blaze and the last two days saw tankers filling up with river water to give the city water a break. So far, costs of battling this devastating fire has been nearly $200,000 with an estimated cost of $60,000 daily. They are hoping to extinguish the fire by the end of the week.
Mr. FixIt and I go to church every Sunday. It has become the center of our relationship and sets the tone for the rest of the week. It helps us keep our focus on God first. This is the first time in my life that I can go to church with my love every single week. I love it!
We went to the noon service yesterday and decided to drive over in Ohio to a flea market we’ve had our eye on. Really, the only thing there I felt was worth going for was a really awesome antique store. They had a lot of beautiful pieces of furniture at very reasonable prices. But the one thing that really caught my eye was the Soapbox Derby racer. It was obviously sponsored by someone out of Zanesville…a rather large town east of Columbus on I-70. It brought back such fond memories.
The Ohio River is busy with boat traffic delivering supplies to various plants up and down river. Barges are filled with coal, gravel, gasoline, and who knows what else. Many of the big manufacturing plants are located on the banks of the various rivers in this valley for the convenient shipping. The Ohio River has been cleaned up a lot since I was a kid, yet I was told tonight it is not recommended you actually EAT the fish you might catch out of there. Who knows what is still in that water any given day?
IEI Plastics Fire, Parkersburg, WV
