I guess it must be time for another post. I have been nursing a head cold and attending concerts, so I have been busy. My sinuses are much better, but I still have the sniffles and am pretty tired.

Friday evening I went to a concert with both the Booth Brothers and the Perry's. It was here in Lakeland. The Booth Brothers are from Tampa, 30 miles or so away, so this was like coming home to them. They were really wound up! Jim's parents, aunts, uncles, cousins, siblings, nieces, nephews, friends, etc. were there. His dad uses a walker and he and his mom both certainly appeared proud. Toward the end of the concert she requested a song and Michael told her they were going to do one Jim had written instead and that was fine with her, but they did them both.

Of course there was the usual talk about Michael not having his medicine or it didn't work, and he was really wired. The second half he really got with it. I had noticed that there were four guitars that no one in either group had used as well as a huge drum set. Ward you would have been amazed. Michael said they were going to use all of them. Both Ronnie's and Michael's wives were there as well as Michael's boys. They called someone up to play one of the guitars and also Michael's oldest son to play one of the guitars. He is really good and looks like a Beetle. Michael pulled up his hair to make sure it was his son. Michael said that he realized that some people don't think drums are very spiritual, but he said these drums were okay because he was going to beat the devil out of them! Then they would be okay. By the time he was done, I'm sure the devil was all beaten out of them! The set included 7 drums plus the base drum and 9 cymbals. He later explained that when he had his mid life crisis he told his wife he either wanted a big drum set or a motorcycle, so he got the drum set. It would take a long time just to move it in and out of a concert and a lot of space to haul around! The other guys were busy changing to various guitars and really having a good time. Every time I see the Booth Brothers, Michael preaches more than he did the time before and what he had to say was really right on Friday night.

At one point Michael said there was a friend of theirs sitting up there in an orange sweater and that he really respects him. He went on to say that he's a Florida Highway Patrolman. Ronnie corrected him and said that he's a Lieutenant with the Patrol. Anyway Ronnie said he really had to respect him because he carries a gun!

The Perry's were also very good. It seems like they just get better and better. Libby really reminds me of Vestal Goodman. Her voice is huge compared to her 4 foot 8 inch body! She's the only original Perry in the group now.

Then Saturday night I went to a Hopper's concert at the Lake Gibson Church of the Nazarene. It is quite like a very traditional Nazarene church. It really reminded me of the Naz in Oskaloosa in the 70's and 80's. They're really looking forward to having Jim Diehl speak here soon. The Hoppers are just an outstanding group. They are similar to the Speers.

Then last night I went back there to hear Ivan Parker. I hadn't heard him before in person and he is even better in person than on the radio. I'll be going there most Saturday and Sunday evenings for concerts. They also have a meal on Saturday night before the concerts part of the time. Sunday night they had sundaes after the concert and I went to that.

I've talked to people from Lakeland, New Brunswick, and Chicago so far. I hadn't seen many non Florida cars until I went to the concerts. I've seen at them Illinois, Kentucky, Michigan, Ontario, North Carolina, Georgia and several others that I don't remember right now. So far I've only seen mine with an Iowa plate on it! In fact the last Iowa plate other than mine that I saw was one of the girls.

On the way here from Port St. Lucie it rained almost all the way and I went through miles and miles of groves on both sides of the road. I also went by two packers. One had probably 20 or 30 semis of oranges sitting there. They were all loaded in bulk instead of in crates, so I assume they were for juice. Today I went by a fruit stand, but it was closed.

At the concerts both nights they were parking cars right on the grass and they were leaving no marks. Friday it had been raining a lot, but they didn't cut in at all. I asked the parking attendant about it Saturday night and he said they park on the grass all the time and never have a problem. The grass is different here than we have too. He said they mow it every week in the summer and every other week in the winter.

It is cold here for Florida, but that's okay. It's still better than Iowa weather. This week it's supposed to be in the 30's at night and 50's in the daytime. The people from here think it's terrible, but they say it won't last long. I'm not sure that next week will be much better though the way the forecast sounds.

Oh, yes, the big news. This morning about 8:30 we had a fire alarm. I put on my shoes and winter coat and grabbed my purse and opened my door. The man across the hall was standing there and we didn't smell smoke but both thought it would be better to have the alarm for no reason than to have a fire and no alarm. It turned out that one of the room heaters was smoking and that sets off all the alarms. We didn't have to go outside. At least this time I wouldn't have shared my van with 7 kids. I was about to take a shower when it happened, so I decided to wait a while to make sure there wouldn't be another alarm and there wasn't.

This is sort of tough place to be now. I'm just across the interstate from a Cracker Barrell and I've discovered that I can eat half of one of their meals and bring the rest home for the next day. That also works at IHOP. It makes meals pretty cheap.

I had to go to Wal-Mart today and I don't know if I'll ever complain about the one in Oskaloosa again or not. This one was monstrous and of course the things I needed were in opposite corners of the store. This store had no greeters, there weren't many carts, and they were dirty and rusty. I got three oranges and they didn't have bags for them, so they just had to roll around in my cart. I couldn't even open the kiddie seat because it was so rusty.

I've probably rambled enough, so have a nice day, and if you're on the tundra, I'm sorry!