Split Week

Last week was a 'split week.' Peggy went out on the truck with a Chinese friend, Kathy Sitt, and her 2 kids, Gordon (14) & Rachel (11?). They left our house on Sun. June 13 and returned on Fri. the 18th. I stayed home. It sounds like the Sitts had a good time. They had the American Big Rig Cultural Experinece - riding high above the 4-wheelers, fueling in the truck islands, backing away from a 10 ft. bridge that trucks cannot fit under, eating mostly out of the cooler & small frig in our truck, rolling-rolling-rolling night and day for a week. Peggy did not stop much. She had a very good week of driving. I kept the dog at home. Paddy and I had a nice week. We spent the day at the antique mall on Monday. I entered figures on the computer and revised the vendor list with our manager. It is very unusual for me or Peggy to be at the antique mall on a Monday. Most of the time we're out driving. But that Monday was a divine appointment for me. I was at the front desk all day, working with Sandie. Usually I do my work back in my corner. In the afternoon Sandie answered the phone and turned to me to say someone was trying to call from jail – would we accept a call from Cavitt. That is Peggy's maiden name. I took the phone. Peggy's younger brother seemed relieved to get hold of me. He asked me to bail him out of jail in Murphysboro. So I finished up my work and went to bail him out. He'd been in for 5 days. He was charged with assault. He'd had a yelling fight with his 17-yr-old daughter the previous Wed. He had been drinking. She has been very hard on him for the past couple years, giving him a lot of friction, so at times it comes to a head. As she was going to her car to drive away, James yelled at her not to leave, and he hit her car with a shovel as she was driving away. She must've called the police – someone did. A little later, police came into his apt, cuffed him and took him away. He does have some history of getting into trouble with the law from time to time. So I bailed him out, and he told me the whole story on the way home. There's so much more to the story, but bottom line is Jimmy and Nicole need our prayers and support. Lord help us to help him! I went from Jimmy's place to the Monday Night Prayer Meeting at Calvary Campus Church. Our church is very much a praying church, and God answers prayer – Phil. 4:6-7; John 15:7. Tuesday I spent the morning at home, stopped by the antique mall around noon and went to a doctor apt. at 2:00. After that I went to Jimmy's place, and he paid me back the bail money. Wednesday I left home early, had breakfast with David Winkleman and helped him with violin issues at his house for awhile, and then Paddy and I drove to Springfield, IL to visit Kregg and his trusty sidekick Buster the Shih tsu. I arrived an hour before Kregg got home from work, so I fiddled on his front porch for awhile. We went to his parents' house for supper. I hadn't seen them since playing for their 50th wedding anniversary about 3 years ago. After I quit playing in Illinois Symphony, I had less excuse to visit Kregg. We met at U of I about 1988 or -89. Since that time, whenever I played in IL Sym, I always stayed at his house or his parents' house at the beginning. Kregg visited us in Korea in summer of 1995 and he took a road trip with us to Disney World in about 1997, when we were home from Korea and traveled with a young Korean couple and Peggy's daughter and her infant son Zachory in an old borrowed conversion van. I have a lot of histoy with Kregg. Last Thursday he took off work, and we drove 98 miles to Hannibal, MO to bask in the atmosphere of Mark Twain's hometown. This year is the 100 year anniversary of Twain's death. We walked the downtown area, went into an antique shop, walked to the riverboat landing on the Mississippi River, walked up 244 stairs to the light house, ate at a restaurant overlooking the river one mile south of Hannibal, ate ice cream downtown, and sat in front of a cafe for their wifi before leaving town. We did not go on the tour; I was in a saving mode. But I'd like to take Peggy there another time for the antiques, the fantastic clock shop, and to take the tour at that time. Paddy was along on this day-trip, but not Buster. He is fine at home all day, but Paddy goes berserk if she is left at home for any length of time. She's going to have to get over that. We went back to Kregg's house, had pizza and played Scrabble. It is always a pleasure to spend time with our erudite friend Kregg, author of “The Marshall Miracle,” and master of all kinds of classic rock and sports trivia. I left when Kregg went to work on Friday - he's a librarian at the IL Supreme Court Library. Back home I waited for the ladies (and kids) to come in off the truck. God has put some remarkable friends into our lives!