Friday with Friends

Yesterday I said good-bye to one friend and spent good time together with a couple of others.
I sold our Camry to Jim Nieman who bought it for his son, Craig, to drive to college. The car has served us well for 169,964 miles, and I think it will make the perfect auto for Craig's needs the next 2 or 3 years.

 Evelyn and I will drive her Corolla to Louisville for the NACC, and then we hope to go to Ashland and buy a car from a dealer there recommended to us by Evelyn's brother, Ken. Hopefully, we'll be making a new fuel-injected friend in about a week!

Last night we met Milt and Maribeth Pippenger for dinner at the Golden Lamb in Lebanon. They've been camping there this weekend on their way to the NACC in Louisville. We spent the day with them on the Fourth, and they're visiting with Dale and Judy McCann today. We plan to meet 'em at church tomorrow and all share lunch together.
After dinner (a very fine dinner), we followed them to the campsite and sat in their roomy fifth-wheel motor home and visited till 10 o'clock. We decided Thursday that it's been about a year and half since I had seen them and even longer since the four of us had been together.
We first met Milt and Maribeth in 1976--39 years ago!--when we stayed in their home while interviewing for the Christian education minister position at First Christian Church in Longmont. We became close to them there in a Bible study/prayer group that was a great support as each of us comtemplated major career moves--Milt to a teaching position at San Jose Bible College and I to the editorship of The Lookout at Standard Publishing. It's a great treasure to have lifetime friends like these.

A Quiet Fourth

No, I didn't take this picture. But it does remind me of the fireworks we saw this year--from behind the house across the street from us. A family over there shoots off a remarkable fireworks display almost every year. We don't always know when it will be, and sometimes we miss it. But last night Evelyn and I heard the thump-thump-thump of the explosions clear downstairs where we were watching TV. We came up to see if this was THE night, and it was.
The display went on for almost 30 minutes, and honestly, the fireworks were almost as grand as you see in a professional display. We sat on the front porch step and watched before Evelyn came in to go to bed and I went back downstairs where I was uploading vacation pictures to Facebook. I'm slowly sorting out those that seem good enough to share, place by place.
But I didn't get any more uploaded today. Our longtime friends, Milt and Maribeth Pippenger, came to see us about 11:00 this morning and stayed till about 10:00 tonight. We had a fine time catching up with them, sharing updates from our families, and eating two wonderful meals Evelyn prepared. She fixed her favorite Amish breakfast casserole for brunch and a new recipe, prosciutto-wrapped chicken breasts, for supper.
It rained the WHOLE day, alternating between showers and downpours. I was glad we had planned a quiet day at home. I know hundreds of outings were cancelled or dampened by the daylong deluge.
It did finally quit after supper. So we decided to get out of the house and onto our feet and take a walk to the nearby park. Then we came home, finished looking at some vacation pictures (their idea, not mine), and had dessert: Graeter's ice cream and chocolate chip cookies ( a new recipe Evelyn had found with less fat and sugar and more fiber; in spite of being "healthier," they're really quite good--especially with Graeter's ice cream!).