WAITING ON SOME RAIN

This has absolutely been the hottest summer that I can remember in Kentucky!  I believe we had temps over 95 degrees for over ten days, and most of those were over 100.  Adding to that, the fact that we had no rain during that time, this area has been scorched.  I realize that we have dodged much of the disastrous weather regarding fires and floods that so much of the country has endured, thankfully all of my family out west did fine, but it has sure been a sizzling summer to the say the least.  I've continued to do my walking, though earlier in the morning.  Thank God for shady roads.  And whereas we were enjoying sitting under the deck most evenings, I'm afraid that weather conditions didn't allow for that to be an option most nights.  In fact, we moved a TV into the basement and retreated most nights to the cool of the partially subterranean part of our house.  I've thanked God for air conditioning on more than one occasion, for sure. 

We lost three of my favorite TV sitcom stars in the past weeks.  First, I was shocked to see that Don Grady, who played Robbie Douglas on My Three Sons, pass away at the age of 66, I think he had just turned that.  Of course, he played the middle son, originally, until the oldest son, Mike, disappeared and  little Ernie was adopted.  Then it became Dad Steve, played by Fred MacMurray, Robbie, Chip and Ernie.  I always thought that it was funny that in real life, Chip and Ernie were real brothers, but on the show, Ernie had just been a good friend of Chips who needed a new home. Checking out Don Grady's website, I learned that this former Mouskateer had recently been working on some music that he thought we baby boomers might enjoy.  Too bad that cancer took his life before he could make it available to us.  I was a big Mickey Mouse Club fan.

Another former sitcom star that passed away recently was Ernest Bourgnine, who was an oscar winning actor in movies and later found his part of a life time playing Lieutenant Quenton McHale on the hilariously funny McHale's Navy.  Turns out he really was in the navy for many years and I'm sure we especially enjoyed the antics of his crew, including the always outrageous, Tim Conway, because my Dad had also been in the navy.  He always seemed to think that they had so much of that series spot on the truth of what really went on during the war.

And, finally, we lost one of the very best of the best of early television royalty, Andy Griffith.  I know I could watch the early episodes of The Andy Griffith Show over and over, and already know many of them by heart.  Outside of The Dick Van Dyke show, The Andy Griffith Show about the small picturesque town of Mayberry has to be my favorite.  And, apparently, I'm not alone.  I think you can watch the reruns just about any day of the week on some channel somewhere.  We remember the antics of Andy, Barney, Gomer, Goober, Aunt Bee and Opie above any other program in history.  I was a fan of Andy Griffith's when I first saw the movie, No Time for Sargents.  I believe it was the prototype for Gomer Pyle USMC, which was spun off of The Andy Griffith Show, and became popular in it's own right.  In recent years, I was not surprised to hear that many of the episodes of The Andy Griffith Show had been accumulated and used as the basis for a Bible Study.  The study is called Finding The Way Back To Mayberry and was written and introduced by Joey Fann and Brad Grasham back in 1998.  I was delighted to check it out and find Joey Fann's website easily on Google at BarneyFife.com.  It's a worthwhile site to visit.

I'd also like to add that my favorite country music star, Brad Paisley, also was an Andy Griffith fan.  Andy sang a lot of gospel music and also played the guitar often on his show. Evidently Brad had a great deal of respect and love for the character and the actor.  When he wanted to make a music video of one of his most poignant and true to life songs, Waiting On A Woman, he asked Andy to play the part of the old man sitting on a bench in the local mall, who gives the young newlywed a lot in the way of words of wisdom.  It turned out to be a great way to remember our old friend, Andy, as he sits on a white bench, in his white suit apparently in Heaven, as he remains, waiting on his woman.

Not a lot going on here in Central Kentucky, we're mostly waiting on rain.  I had hoped to have the bluebirds occupying their little house and working on family # 2, but even though we see them occasionally, don't think they have the second family started as of yet.  We've had to put up with critters over the past weeks, seems the raccoons have really enjoyed, not only the birdseed we keep stored in a trash can out back, but also packages of dog treats that I had left out on the table under the deck.  After weeks of not knowing for sure what happened to the sealed packages, Mark did, finally, find the torn apart and emptied packages back in the woods.  We're still looking for the tupperware pitcher that we use to scoop out the birdseed.

Our Beth Moore Bible Study is continuing and we're sure enjoying discussing the material that we've covered each week.  Next time, we'll know that Beth Moore studies take one week for the discussion and another week to watch her presentation.  We feel no need to hurry through the study, especially in this summer weather, don't feel like hurrying at all.  I hope you enjoying your summer and have managed to keep cool and hydrated. Stay safe and take care, luv, Susan    PS, I was lucky enough to get to go see Josh Turner at Lexington's Red White and Boom.  If you're unfamiliar with this amazingly talented young man, check out his website as well.  He is awesome!