Making ends meet...

I know you must be wondering. Has Jeanette disappeared from blog world? Is everything okay?

No, I haven't quite disappeared...not quite! Yes, everything is okay, but it would be my longest post ever if I were to explain why I feel like this rope! So I will give you the bare bones.

New Grace, the quartet Barry and I sing with, traveled to New Jersey in June to provide the special music at our church's annual convention. This required significant practice time prior to going, as we have not really been singing together for the last year, so for quite a while before we left, my stress level was high as I tried to cover work, Coral's normal care, extra practice, working out the details of Coral's supervision and care during our absence, and then actually packing and remembering everything to take with us. Aunt Paula took charge of all Coral's care for the 10 days we were gone, and Andrea arrived from California and was able to help for the last week or so.

The convention went well, and besides that, we were able to see Barry's mother and actually stayed at her house the whole time we were in New Jersey. This was great, as I have not seen her for quite a long time, and it was wonderful to catch up a little bit with extended family and friends. After the convention was over, we (Barry, my brother Gord, and I) drove north from New Jersey to Toronto, Canada, where we spent two days visiting my mother and Carol-Ann and her family (which, as you know, is one of my VERY FAVORITE things to do!)

All in all, the time away was a blessing and refresher for me. But, as with most of my little jaunts away from home, there is a price to pay when I get back, and this time was a doozey. We jumped right into work catch-up, arrangements and funeral services for our friend Warren who passed away just before we left home, and helping with Gord and Paula's departure for a 5-week trip to Liberia.

It seems like each day I get up at the usual time and hope I can get a good start on my work. But then the time gets eaten up by other very important things, and I arrive at the evening with most of my work still to be done. I have been working until 2 or 3 a.m. and getting up again at the usual time each morning with less and less "oomph" for what has to be done.

So I have been a little shadow in blogland, but I hope -- oh, how I hope! -- that things will soon be back to normal! I may never totally catch up, but as soon as I can, I will visit you!
.

PICTURE OF THE DAY -- 09/29/2008

Here are a few pictures taken from the train...

In many places, the track follows the Colorado River.

What a beautiful place to live!

Lovely though these pictures are, they cannot even begin to capture the beauty we saw!

PICTURE OF THE DAY -- 09/28/2008

Barry and I are safely home, and we had a wonderful trip!

Going by train is very relaxing, because no one has to stress about who is keeping his eyes on the road. (Translation --Barry could look out the window all he wanted without me stressing about whether or not he was looking at the road!) There is lots of room for each passenger, probably three times the space you get on an airplane, and you can go down to the restrooms or get sandwiches, snacks, and cold or hot drinks in the snack car. There are booths where you can sit and look out the big windows while you sip a steaming coffee and snuggle up against your hubby!

If time is not a limiting factor, I would highly recommend a train trip. There is no better way to see our beautiful country.

Union Station in Denver

We started out by parking our truck for two days outside Union Station, which is a beautiful old building that has been preserved very well.
You almost feel like you have gone way back in time when you sit in the huge waiting area on the long high-backed wooden benches with lights all along the top. Barry was pointing out to me the beautiful workmanship in those benches. Someone took a great deal of time to match the grain in the wood so that it creates a very even pattern on the back of each bench.

Here is the train we rode on, the California Zephyr. We only rode a very short piece of its total route, Denver to Glenwood Springs and back again. The trip takes about 5 hours going, 6 hours coming back.
The car we rode in looked like this. The passenger seats are in the upper section, and below there are washrooms, the snack area, baggage, etc. The observation and dining areas are also on the upper level.

The scenery was beautiful with mountains, the Colorado River, evergreens, and the changing colors of fall. I will show you a few of those pictures next time. I was a little disappointed in them, though. I had to take them through the train windows which adds a different quality somehow and creates reflection problems and so forth. (I also wanted to ask the conductor if we could stop the train so that I could get a ladder and wash the outside of the windows!)

More next time!

I'm off again!

Hi friends!

Just a quick note to say I'll be away for a couple of days. Tomorrow Barry and I are going to ride the Amtrak train to Glenwood Springs, stay overnight there, and ride it back on Thursday. I'm sticking my camera in. Who knows? I might get a good shot to share with you!

See you in a couple of days!

.