Week of 20260125 - Weather Dodged; Home; Inflatable Bed; Renter Angst; Straight Talk Hotspot; Shelley Patterson; Minivan Purchased; Released as Missionaries; Fasted; Laundromat
= Sunday, we reached our hotel in Birmingham after midnight Ghana time. By morning, a headline said airlines had canceled nearly 10,000 flights due to winter storm Fern. It's a blessing we weren't stuck in Atlanta or Amsterdam. We mostly rested; I bought water bottles and Mexican takeout.
= Monday, we were downstairs in time for breakfast together! We were in Montgomery by 2 and after a second pass to look for an item that wasn't lost, we were blessed to find our inflatable bed. Renters had damaged our home and left it impossible to secure.
= Tuesday, we couldn't get Straight Talk to add time to our existing Wal-Mart phones. So, we bought a new one and used it as a hotspot. We ate with Shelley Patterson. I found a minivan, and we bought it! We can turn in the rental.
= Wednesday, we visited our mailing service and had Pad Thai next door at Yummy Thai. I re-learned that you have to put the card in *before* pumping gas [grin]. We went to pay for RV storage but I had not brought the code to get through the gate to the drop box. We drove to a refrigerated cake dispenser and bought two.
= Thursday, Steph spent the afternoon with Shelley at Tea Town; Shelley had decorated a table with a Welcome Home sign and gifts. I ate at San Marcos with a few members of Elders Quorum. I bought rebar and used it to straighten the pipe that secures our passenger gate. After Shelley dropped off Steph, we drove to the Stake Center and were released as missionaries. [choke] There was a plaque on the wall with our names on it and dates of service.
= Friday, we returned the rental vehicle; paid for RV storage; got items from our RV; and items from regular storage; and went back to the rental drop to retrieve Steph's phone, blessedly still there.
= Saturday, we began our monthly fast after a meal at Waffle House across from AUM. We bought a few things, including a Clive Cussler novel. Steph did all the work at the laundromat while I read. We looked at appliances at Lowe's and Home Depot; the renters took our washer and dryer and left a fridge that doesn't work. In the evening, Quinton, our younger son, visited; he looks and sounds good.
We were still driving to our hotel after midnight Ghana time.
We made it. Birmingham dodged the worst of the storm. 0030 Ghana time.
I came downstairs before 9 AM Alabama time. It was a blessing that we made it to Atlanta and from there to Birmingham last night.
The storm wasn't localized.
We didn't try to drive anywhere today.
By 1130, we were watching a Stake Conference in Gulfport, Florida.
Wal-Mart is a culture shock when you consider how long it would have taken you to find a Wal-Mart full of items in an entire city in Ghana and what you would not have found in two weeks.
Guy Fieri initiated a chicken restaurant! In Wal-Mart!
A local Mexican restaurant where I bought supper to go.
Yay!
Steph at breakfast: a rare sighting [tee hee].
Most messages o vehicles here are on license frames instead of filling the back window. And, they're often on "fun" topics.
Guard rails get destroyed here, too.
A familiar sight to those who drive north from Montgomery: Go to church - or the devil will get you. [The lighting didn't work from this angle and the sign has faded, but we know the message by heart.]
A worker, picking up trash along the superhighway.
Our standing freezer and display case blocked access to the rest of our climate-controlled storage.
Behind where the freezer was removed by a crew (InTown Movers), we have multiple rolling shelves that we remove to reach the aisle. We had the same arrangement behind the display case they moved for us.
This is our least-organized storage unit, but even it has some logic behind it. We pulled sleeping bags and our inflatable bed out of it.
Wendy's for supper.
A table at Wendy's (which is famous for square hamburger patties, hence the comment that they don't cut corners)
Why renters would remove an internal doorknob to a workroom is beyond me.
Damage to a window frame inhibited its locking function.
They messed up the screen to mess up the window.
Renters left a refrigerator that doesn't work and blew two GFI outlets (supporting ten outlets in all).
Steph says the oven is rusty. I think perhaps they tried to use it to stay warm after the gas company cut them off.
We paid big bucks to have our sinks and a tub resurfaced; renters messed them up.
We'll have to get a new lid for our driveway outlet.
Our washer and dryer were in the shed, explicitly available to our renters to use while they lived in our home. They took them and kept them.
And tore the shed door restraint connection
And tore the corner ff of our shed.
And dissected the shed outlet.
An animal was tied here. Perhaps a chain from the animal took off the shed corner trim.
The front lawn had gouges in it and had broken auto glass.
Living out of suitcases
..
Changes in the community: speed humps
You get a re-usable plastic container containing cake crumbs and topping.
We ate next door at Kim Cook: Korean Fusion Restaurant
A very large new building in Montgomery. We have no information about it yet.
The turn for Maxwell Air Force Base. Someone almost went into the Alabama River.
I drove to the lemon lot (used cars for sale by people with routine base access) but found nothing suitable.
From Burger King. I'm not sure what it's called.
More fries than we expected
Steph went through boxes that we had shipped to Shelley's address from Amazon and Temu.
The inflatable double bed, with Dollar Tree pillows, pillowcases, and queen sheets. (Remember that Dollar Tree charges $5 for some items now and $1.25 for nearly all others.)
Left inside our garbage disposal
Sister Campbell made this during the Campbells' mission and gave it to Steph.
Steph created the missionary badge that says: mini Sister Ladner.
The passenger gate can't be locked with the pipe bent in this position; perhaps that was the idea.
Personalized plates are common in the U.S.
4LA8KDS{for late kids?}
J0ULES -> JOULES -> A unit of energy, juxtaposed with a plate about wildlife
Wetumpka Express has a *big* printer.
Spring rolls at Yummy Thai (by Wetumpka Express)
Putting stickers in her planner
Not the usual price, but USAA had a deal associated with my credit card (once I remembered that you have to insert the card before you pump; it had been two years since I pumped my own fuel)
A movie theater before my time, the marquee is still in use, advertising a part-time restaurant.
(Fain is the middle name of a friend of ours.)
(I neglected to get the gate code and the payment drop-off was inside the gate; so, nothing happened on this trip.)
Cakeology vending machine next to Kim Cook
Kitchen office, temporarily
Shelley had decorated a table for Steph at Tea Town. (They have boba "teas" with tapioca pearls and brown sugar instead of tea.)
You can pull the door open with your foot.
Refrigerators with freezer drawers are not cheap.
Mischief managed. I straightened the pipe so the hasp holds it, and I applied a new lock. (The old one in the non-functional position will stay there until we figure out what the code was changed to.)
Shelley dropped off Steph.
We were surprised to find a plaque at the church with our names on it (and favorite scriptures).
Elder Lim also has a plaque.
Lacking a lock, I repurposed a plant left by renters.
The rental car, driven by Steph. I'm following her to the Montgomery airport for turn-in.
A friendly person works the National turn-in from the parking lot.
We often praise geeks, but mechanics are indispensable.
Our "Majestic Penny", parked. It was as we left it: full of the items we used until the last minute. We extracted many of them, including my tool kit, for use at the house.
Then we went out to one of the regular storage units..
And filled the van from there.
A second trip to look for an item thought to be missing let us find the inflatable bed in that same unit.
With the sun setting, Steph realized that her Wal-Mart phone was still in the rental minivan.
Blessed again. The minivan hadn't been processed for cleaning and re-issue yet.
Philly steak and cheese from Wing Master
(and pizza from Papa John's for Date Night)
We watched The Closer on the laptop from the inflatable bed in the living room.
We ate at Waffle House across from AUM before our monthly fast.
New Driver. Sorry in advance.
Steph did many loads of laundry (while I read a novel).
We priced refrigerators and washers and dryers.
Definitely back in the States
Quinton, our younger son, visited us.
Looking back
Pamela and Brock Campbell
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