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Coronavirus…I'm Not Afraid of You!

22 Mar

SUNDAY MEMORIES

Judy Wills

WOW!  The world has tilted off its axis!  The coronavirus has hit, and panic has hit the streets!  COVID-19 has caused the most vicious panic I’ve seen in my lifetime, and I really don’t understand it.  Thank you, media for all this hype and hysteria!! 

NCAA College basketball games (The Final Four) that were scheduled are cancelled.

The Masters Golf Tournament has been cancelled – well, at least postponed.  It has been played every April since 1945, with cancellations only in 1943-1945 due to World War 2.  Some opine that it might be held on April 16.  We’ll see…

Courtesy Google search and TMZ Sports

The NBA has suspended all games until further notice.

But the worst – for Fred and me – is that Disney is actually closing its parks! 

 Disneyland in California, started Saturday, March 14, 2020, until the end of the month.  Disney World and the parks in Orlando, and Paris, France, started Monday, March 16, 2020 until at least the end of the of the month.  And the Disney Cruise Line is suspending all new departures until the end of the month.  I feel sorry for all those people who have reservations to fly down here for a week’s vacation at this time!

Oh well, life goes on.

However…neither Fred nor I am afraid of the coronavirus!

First of all…we believe in a God who is BIGGER than this virus!!

Second, we actually went to EPCOT recently (one last time before they shut down for a few weeks), and thumbed our noses at the virus!  Of course we took precautions – we washed our hands several times while at the park, and we used hand sanitizer frequently.  Amazingly – Disney has set up portable hand-washing stations throughout the park, in case someone is not close to a restroom where they could wash up.  I’ve never – in all the years we’ve been going to Disney, have seen such.  Very convenient, and thoughtful of Disney to do such.

Description: IMG_1189

There are other precautions we always take before going to the parks – or anywhere that we will be around a crowd of people.

And just for your information, Disney World is undergoing a MAJOR renovation!!  Here are pictures of some of what they are doing.  They have added walkways where there were none; they have blocked off areas that are under destruction/construction – and show that EPCOT at least, is going to look totally new!  In a way, I’m sorry to see it go.  As we heard one guest telling HIS children as we were leaving, “when I was little we came here and I saw….”  His children won’t ever be able to say the same thing.

Description: IMG_1167
Description: IMG_1172
Description: IMG_1196

Mouse Gear was on the left, and that was the walk-through between buildings.

Description: IMG_1198

Behind this barrier was the old Universe of Energy building.

Description: IMG_1199

Again, the old Universe of Energy building.  The signs are cute, but…

Description: IMG_1200

Not even close to the original park exit.

Again, life goes on.

But we aren’t about to let that old coronavirus stop us!!  We understand Disney Springs will remain open, so we’ll have that “Disney” outlet to give us our Disney “fix” during the interim.

So there! Mr. coronavirus….TAKE THAT!! ha!

Description: Boxing, Icon, Silhouette, Sport, Fighter

Courtesy Pixabay

 UPDATE “Latest information about Disney Springs is that all Disney-owned stores and hotels at Walt Disney World have been closed.  So I guess our Disney “fix” will have to wait until this pandemic is over.  Shucks!”

Judy is living in Central Florida with her retired U.S. Air Force husband of 50+ years. Born in Dallas, Texas, she grew up in the Southwestern United States.She met her husband at their church, where he was attending the university in her town. After college and seminary, he entered the Air Force, and their adventures began.They lived in eight of our United States, and spent six years in Europe, where their oldest daughter was born. She was a stay-at-home mom for many years .

  Judy has always been involved with music, both playing the piano and singing. Always interested in exercise, she was an aerobic dancing instructor, as well as a piano teacher for many years, and continues to faithfully exercise at home.

After moving to Central Florida, she served as a church secretary for nearly nine years.Her main hobby at this point in time is scanning pictures and 35mm slides into the computer. She also enjoys scrapbooking.She and her husband have two married daughters and four grandchildren, including grandtwins as well as a great-grandson. She and her husband enjoy the Disney parks as often as possible.

Garfield

15 Mar

SUNDAY MEMORIES

Judy Wills

As I mentioned previously, when we were taking the daily newspaper, my favorite part was the “funny papers” or the comics.  I guess that shows just what a simple mind I have.  But that would get my day off to a funny start.

Consequently, when something hit me especially funny – or nostalgic – I would cut out that particular piece and save it for future enjoyment.

Garfield was one of my favorites.  There have been books and books printed with and about Garfield.  He is one funny cat!

And that’s probably why I enjoyed this particular cartoon so much.  I grew up with cats in my life, and they can really be funny animals.

Another reason this particular cartoon caught my attention was his activity.  I was an aerobic instructor at one time in my life, so this one really appealed to me.

I hope you get a good chuckle out of it – as did I.

Judy is living in Central Florida with her retired U.S. Air Force husband of 50+ years. Born in Dallas, Texas, she grew up in the Southwestern United States.She met her husband at their church, where he was attending the university in her town. After college and seminary, he entered the Air Force, and their adventures began.They lived in eight of our United States, and spent six years in Europe, where their oldest daughter was born. She was a stay-at-home mom for many years .

  Judy has always been involved with music, both playing the piano and singing. Always interested in exercise, she was an aerobic dancing instructor, as well as a piano teacher for many years, and continues to faithfully exercise at home.

After moving to Central Florida, she served as a church secretary for nearly nine years.Her main hobby at this point in time is scanning pictures and 35mm slides into the computer. She also enjoys scrapbooking.She and her husband have two married daughters and four grandchildren, including grandtwins as well as a great-grandson. She and her husband enjoy the Disney parks as often as possible.

Something of Interest…to Us at Least-Part 5

8 Mar

SUNDAY MEMORIES

Judy Wills

This is the last segment of the pictures of the “oddities” that we found at Disney Springs.  These pictures have really interested us, and we hope you have enjoyed them, as well.

I’ve always thought that someone at Disney really does have all that “imagineering” mind on them.  There are so many of these little touches that just make up Disney.

And so, here we go:

All around the “new” part of Disney Springs, we found different motifs, such as this one:

Guest Services now has a building all its own, all the better to serve the customers/guests.  It even has a porch with rocking chairs where guests can sit and relax a bit.

Even the fence has an interesting design:

There is a mosaic on the side of one building:

Description: Florida mosaic

While this grouping isn’t “new” at the Springs, it is pure Disney.  And it stays there, year round.

Description: Disney's Days of Christmas - Happy Holiday

One of our very favorite stores – the Christmas Store.  Everything Christmas and Disney, all in one store. Amazing!  Notice above the “Days of Christmas” sign, in the black and white, is a sleigh and reindeer running across the sign.  See?  Little things…

Description: Disney's Days of Christmas

One of the most popular stores at Disney Springs is the Lego store.  Here are a few of the Lego examples – all made from Lego pieces:

Anna, Elsa and Olaf

Description: Lego store - Anna, Elsa, Olaf

The Hulk makes his fearsome presence known:

Description: Lego store - Hulk

Of course, BB-8 had to be there!

Description: Lego store - BB-8

Buzz Lightyear and Woody attached to a rocket

Description: Lego store - Toy Story - Copy

On a wall near the store – made up from Legos

Description: Lego store - wall art

Maleficent has been there a while.

Description: Lego store - Malificent

As long as we’ve been going to Disney Springs (originally Disney Village, then Marketplace when they added Pleasure Island, then Downtown Disney when they added West Side), Nessie has been in attendance – courtesy of Lego.

Description: Lego store - Nessie

Near the Earl of Sandwich (a really great place to eat!!) is the Tinker Toy.  Wow does that bring back childhood memories!  (Notice the wet pavement?  There are “pop-up” water spouts there.  The little kids LOVE to run through it!)

Description: Tinker Toy

And another popular eatery and a draw for children is the T-Rex restaurant.  Built by the same people who do the Rain Forest Café.

Description: T-Rex

That’s all of the pictures we’ve taken of Disney Springs.  This has been a fun jaunt through the “park” and we hope you have enjoyed it as much as we have.  When you are in Orlando, be sure and head to Disney Springs.  The parking is free; you don’t have to buy anything unless you want to, and you get a good amount of walking exercise at the same time.  It’s one of our favorites.  Come join us!

Judy is living in Central Florida with her retired U.S. Air Force husband of 50+ years. Born in Dallas, Texas, she grew up in the Southwestern United States.She met her husband at their church, where he was attending the university in her town. After college and seminary, he entered the Air Force, and their adventures began.They lived in eight of our United States, and spent six years in Europe, where their oldest daughter was born. She was a stay-at-home mom for many years .

  Judy has always been involved with music, both playing the piano and singing. Always interested in exercise, she was an aerobic dancing instructor, as well as a piano teacher for many years, and continues to faithfully exercise at home.

After moving to Central Florida, she served as a church secretary for nearly nine years.Her main hobby at this point in time is scanning pictures and 35mm slides into the computer. She also enjoys scrapbooking.She and her husband have two married daughters and four grandchildren, including grandtwins as well as a great-grandson. She and her husband enjoy the Disney parks as often as possible.

SOMETHING OF INTEREST…TO US, AT LEAST Part 4

1 Mar

SUNDAY MEMORIES

Judy Wills

While the door “handles” on many of the stores at Disney Springs are fun and interesting to us, we also found some things that I will call “oddities” that we thought you might find fun as well.

We’ve taken pictures of the ones that interest us the most, and present them to you now. These are some of the little “touches” at Disney that we enjoy.  We hope you will, as well.

Have you ever seen an Archimedes Screw?  Or know what it is and what it is used for?  Here is a VERY small version, Disney style:

Here is Fred spinning the wheel and you can see the water flowing from the pool up onto the landing, made for it.  Of course then it goes right back into the pool, but it gives you a feel for what the Archimedes Screw does.

Remember back to the time that Holland  actually increased its land size by using Archimedes Screws to channel water away from the land and back into the ocean to make more land?   

Here’s a picture of actual Archimedes Screws at work in Kinderdijk, Holland, from our river cruise in 2015:

Back to Disney Springs:

Here’s the logo for the Coach store.   Cute…

In the middle of one of the major walkways, is a gigantic “directional” star:

Description: Directon star

At the appropriate points of the star, there are directional points, with a symbol, each different:

North has an airplane:

Description: Direction star - North - airplane

South has an old-fashioned horse and buggy:

Description: Direction Star - South - horse and buggy

East has a paddle-wheel boat:

Description: Direction Star - East - paddle boat

West has a train (“go West, young man” hmm?):

Description: Directon Star - West - train

The Irish Pub has a bronze man taking a rest on the bench, his hat sitting beside him:

Description: Irish Pub sign and bronze man

We caught the Rain Forest Café volcano in mid-eruption:

Description: Rain Forest volcano - 2

Have you ever seen a building with grass growing on top of it?  Starbucks has it here:

Description: Starbucks and grass top

The World of Disney Store (largest Disney store ever) has a figure of Stitch outside – and he spits!!  So watch out where you walk!

Description: World of Disney store - spitting Stitch

The World of Disney store also has a cute weathervane:

Description: World of Disney store - Tinker Bell weather vane - 1
Description: World of Disney store - Tinker Bell weather vane - 2

More next time….

Judy is living in Central Florida with her retired U.S. Air Force husband of 50+ years. Born in Dallas, Texas, she grew up in the Southwestern United States.She met her husband at their church, where he was attending the university in her town. After college and seminary, he entered the Air Force, and their adventures began.They lived in eight of our United States, and spent six years in Europe, where their oldest daughter was born. She was a stay-at-home mom for many years .

  Judy has always been involved with music, both playing the piano and singing. Always interested in exercise, she was an aerobic dancing instructor, as well as a piano teacher for many years, and continues to faithfully exercise at home.

After moving to Central Florida, she served as a church secretary for nearly nine years.Her main hobby at this point in time is scanning pictures and 35mm slides into the computer. She also enjoys scrapbooking.She and her husband have two married daughters and four grandchildren, including grandtwins as well as a great-grandson. She and her husband enjoy the Disney parks as often as possible.

Something of Interest…To Us, At Least-Part 3

23 Feb

SUNDAY MEMORIES

Judy Wills

As I mentioned before, we were walking around Disney Springs recently and it occurred to me that lot of the door “handles” on the newer stores there have interesting and unique handles.

We’ve taken pictures of the ones that interest us the most, and present them to you now. These are some of the little “touches” at Disney that we enjoy.  We hope you do, as well.

Here is the third “batch” of stores with unique door handles:

Vera Bradley is a fairly well-known brand

The door handles show her brand

Tumi is not a brand known to us

But the door handles are unique:

Lucky Brand is an unknown brand to us.

The door handles remind me of a “gripper snap” on blue jeans or western shirts – some might call them “rivets” or studs.

Marvel has its own store.

While the door handles aren’t unique, the symbols on the doors are:

Raglan Road is an eatery that looks interesting:

They do have some interesting door handles:

(opps…caught Fred in this one!)

Lilly Pulitzer has a store here, as well.

And the door handles show her “brand.”

(caught Fred in this one, as well)

Savannah Bee Company is an interesting store. Everything honey, as you might imagine.

While the door handles are not unique, the doors themselves are:

This last one is not really a “door handle” example, but we have been fascinated by this little shop every time we pass it by.  See what you think:

B. B. Wolf’s Sausage Company sells…you guessed it –  everything sausages!

Notice the fork in the sausage on the chimney:

And the weathervane is adorable!!  Notice he’s standing on a fork!

That’s all for this week – and the door handles.  Next time I’ll be presenting some unique “things” around Disney Springs that we enjoy, and that fascinate us.

Judy is living in Central Florida with her retired U.S. Air Force husband of 50+ years. Born in Dallas, Texas, she grew up in the Southwestern United States.She met her husband at their church, where he was attending the university in her town. After college and seminary, he entered the Air Force, and their adventures began.They lived in eight of our United States, and spent six years in Europe, where their oldest daughter was born. She was a stay-at-home mom for many years .

  Judy has always been involved with music, both playing the piano and singing. Always interested in exercise, she was an aerobic dancing instructor, as well as a piano teacher for many years, and continues to faithfully exercise at home.

After moving to Central Florida, she served as a church secretary for nearly nine years.Her main hobby at this point in time is scanning pictures and 35mm slides into the computer. She also enjoys scrapbooking.She and her husband have two married daughters and four grandchildren, including grandtwins as well as a great-grandson. She and her husband enjoy the Disney parks as often as possible.

Something of Interest…To Us, at Least-Part 2

15 Feb

SUNDAY MEMORIES

Judy Wills

As I mentioned last time, we were walking around Disney Springs recently and it occurred to me that lot of the door “handles” on the newer stores there are quite interesting and unique.  And just for information purposes, most of the stores I have photographed for this posting, are NOT Disney – they are just on Disney property.  Some of the names are quite recognizable, but others are not – at least not to either Fred or me.

Therefore, we’ve taken pictures of the ones that interest us the most, and present them to you now. These are some of the little “touches” at Disney that we enjoy.  We hope you do, as well.

This is a second “batch” of stores with unique door handles:

The Disney Candy Cauldron is a fun store.

There is a large front picture-window where the passer-by can stand and watch some of the candy being made.  Especially the candy apples.

All that metal frame work around the picture window is around the door as well:

Another unique door is at the George Wine Bar:

Can you say “shillelagh”

Columbia Sportswear Company has unique door handles – fish hooks perhaps?

And speaking of unique door handles, there is Kipling.

One of my favorites is the Levi store.

Description: Levi's sign

These handles really caught my eye:

Description: Levi's door

Here is the Keihl’s store – an unknown store brand to us:

Description: Kiehl's sign
Description: Kiehl's door

Okay, here come the cleats:

Description: Sperry sign

Imagine – having cleats as a door handle!

Description: Sperry - cleats - 2

Sugarboo is just a name that tickles my fancy.

Description: Sugarboo & Co

Their door handles are cute, as well.

Description: Sugarboo door

Frontera Cocina is unknown to us, but looks like a good Mexican food restaurant.

Description: Frontera Cocina sign
Description: Frontera Cocina door

Volcom is an unknown name to us, but has unique door handles.

Description: Volcom sign
Description: Volcom door

Uno de 50 is unique – as are the door handles.

Description: UNO de 50 sign
Description: UNO de 50 door

There are more to share with you, next time.

Judy is living in Central Florida with her retired U.S. Air Force husband of 50+ years. Born in Dallas, Texas, she grew up in the Southwestern United States.She met her husband at their church, where he was attending the university in her town. After college and seminary, he entered the Air Force, and their adventures began.They lived in eight of our United States, and spent six years in Europe, where their oldest daughter was born. She was a stay-at-home mom for many years .

  Judy has always been involved with music, both playing the piano and singing. Always interested in exercise, she was an aerobic dancing instructor, as well as a piano teacher for many years, and continues to faithfully exercise at home.

After moving to Central Florida, she served as a church secretary for nearly nine years.Her main hobby at this point in time is scanning pictures and 35mm slides into the computer. She also enjoys scrapbooking.She and her husband have two married daughters and four grandchildren, including grandtwins as well as a great-grandson. She and her husband enjoy the Disney parks as often as possible.

The Born Loser

2 Feb

SUNDAY MEMORIES

Judy Wills

When we were taking the daily newspaper, my favorite part was the “funny papers” or the comics.  I guess that shows just what a simple mind I have.  But that would get my day off to a funny start.

Consequently, when something hit me especially funny – or nostalgic – I would cut out that particular piece and save it for future enjoyment.

As I said previously, we don’t take the newspaper anymore, so I don’t know whether or not cartoons – such as today’s posting – are still out there and being published.  But this one caught my funny bone and I cut it out.

He’s not called “the born loser” without reason!  As I recall, he kept setting himself up for falls, just like this one.  Such subtle humor – but I really got a good laugh out of it.  I hope you do, as well.

Judy is living in Central Florida with her retired U.S. Air Force husband of 50+ years. Born in Dallas, Texas, she grew up in the Southwestern United States.She met her husband at their church, where he was attending the university in her town. After college and seminary, he entered the Air Force, and their adventures began.They lived in eight of our United States, and spent six years in Europe, where their oldest daughter was born. She was a stay-at-home mom for many years .

  Judy has always been involved with music, both playing the piano and singing. Always interested in exercise, she was an aerobic dancing instructor, as well as a piano teacher for many years, and continues to faithfully exercise at home.

After moving to Central Florida, she served as a church secretary for nearly nine years.Her main hobby at this point in time is scanning pictures and 35mm slides into the computer. She also enjoys scrapbooking.She and her husband have two married daughters and four grandchildren, including grandtwins as well as a great-grandson. She and her husband enjoy the Disney parks as often as possible.

A Tribute to Erma Bombeck

26 Jan

SUNDAY MEMORIES

Judy Wills

AT WIT’S END

As I mentioned last time, from time-to-time I go through some of my “stuff” – mostly papers – and run across some things that I’ve saved for one reason or another.  That happened recently, while I was searching for a particular photo I wanted to use in one of my postings.

In searching, I came upon this article written by Erma Bombeck.  She always wrote such fun and funny things.  Obviously this one was written about teenagers, and I must have saved it because I had teenagers at the time.  In any case, I thought it was funny – and appropriate – enough to save.

I hope you think the same.

Here is “At Wits End” by Erma Bombeck:

Judy is living in Central Florida with her retired U.S. Air Force husband of 50+ years. Born in Dallas, Texas, she grew up in the Southwestern United States.She met her husband at their church, where he was attending the university in her town. After college and seminary, he entered the Air Force, and their adventures began.They lived in eight of our United States, and spent six years in Europe, where their oldest daughter was born. She was a stay-at-home mom for many years .

  Judy has always been involved with music, both playing the piano and singing. Always interested in exercise, she was an aerobic dancing instructor, as well as a piano teacher for many years, and continues to faithfully exercise at home.

After moving to Central Florida, she served as a church secretary for nearly nine years.Her main hobby at this point in time is scanning pictures and 35mm slides into the computer. She also enjoys scrapbooking.She and her husband have two married daughters and four grandchildren, including grandtwins as well as a great-grandson. She and her husband enjoy the Disney parks as often as possible.

Time to Reboot

19 Jan

SUNDAY MEMORIES

Judy Wills

From time-to-time I go through some of my “stuff”  –  mostly papers – and run across some things that I’ve saved for one reason or another.  That happened recently, while I was searching for a particular photo I wanted to use in one of my postings.

So I hope to treat my readers to some humor to start their work week.

This week, I found this cartoon from Shoe.  We don’t take the daily or weekly newspapers anymore, so I don’t know whether or not Shoe is still appearing in the funny papers.  According to the date on it, it appeared in 1993.  But this one seemed to “hit the spot” with me, and a lot of computer users, I’m sure.

I remember when our oldest daughter, Karen, was in high school, and taking a computer class.  She would frequently spout off with:  THIS THING HATES ME!!

And so, I give you….Shoe:

Judy is living in Central Florida with her retired U.S. Air Force husband of 50+ years. Born in Dallas, Texas, she grew up in the Southwestern United States.She met her husband at their church, where he was attending the university in her town. After college and seminary, he entered the Air Force, and their adventures began.They lived in eight of our United States, and spent six years in Europe, where their oldest daughter was born. She was a stay-at-home mom for many years .

  Judy has always been involved with music, both playing the piano and singing. Always interested in exercise, she was an aerobic dancing instructor, as well as a piano teacher for many years, and continues to faithfully exercise at home.

After moving to Central Florida, she served as a church secretary for nearly nine years.Her main hobby at this point in time is scanning pictures and 35mm slides into the computer. She also enjoys scrapbooking.She and her husband have two married daughters and four grandchildren, including grandtwins as well as a great-grandson. She and her husband enjoy the Disney parks as often as possible.

NAME THAT TUNE

12 Jan

SUNDAY MEMORIES

Judy Wills

I’ve mentioned before that shortly after we moved to Florida, we joined the church where we now worship.  And within six months of that time, I became the church secretary.

Within a year, two of our pastors had left for other churches – our Minister of Music and our Youth Pastor.  Our current Minister of Music, Rick, came to us within a year of that time.

Rick

One day he came to me with an idea of having the congregation “vote on” or suggest their top 10 favorite hymns, and we would present the “winners” one Sunday at a time, for 10 Sundays.  He would give the background of the hymn, i.e. when it was written, who wrote it, if there was any kind of story or history behind the writing or composing of that hymn, and then give the title of the hymn, and we would sing it.

And so we put together an insert to the bulletin for several Sundays, asking the congregation to give us their favorite hymn titles.  Rick then compiled the list of those hymns submitted, and came up with the final 10 favorites.  The list of favorites was quite extensive.

And then he gave me a threat – “If you tell ANYONE what the favorites are, I will do you bodily harm!!”  And then we both laughed.  But it gave me a good reason to NOT tell anyone what the finalists were.  And I did have several people ask me if I knew what the top 10 were.  Of course!  I said.  But Rick threatened me with bodily harm if I spilled the beans!

I found it fun, and the congregation thoroughly enjoyed finding out, Sunday by Sunday, something about the hymns we were singing.  That always seems to mean more when we sing a song, and know the history behind it.  And Rick always told the history of the hymn before he announced the title. 

I must admit that I don’t remember in what order those hymns were, but Rick started with number 10, and worked his way up to number one – one each Sunday.

That final Sunday was full of suspense.  And Rick really did it up right.  He began with, “the Number One Hymn chosen by most of you…well, could it be Jesus Loves Me?”  I heard a collective “ohh” from the congregation.  

“Or could it be How Great Thou Art?”  Another collective “ohh” from the congregation.

But then he said. “Or could it be Amazing Grace?”  The collective “ohh” was louder this time.  And then he began telling the story/history of a song, and finally said, “Yes, it is Amazing Grace.”  I could almost hear a collective chuckle from the congregation.  

It was a fun – and informative – time for our congregation.  So many of the songs we sing are just songs we sing.  This gave us some background into how and why composers and song-writers do what they do.  The inspiration behind the songs we do sing.  It really brings meaning to the music we sing.

To God Be The Glory

Judy is living in Central Florida with her retired U.S. Air Force husband of 50+ years. Born in Dallas, Texas, she grew up in the Southwestern United States.She met her husband at their church, where he was attending the university in her town. After college and seminary, he entered the Air Force, and their adventures began.They lived in eight of our United States, and spent six years in Europe, where their oldest daughter was born. She was a stay-at-home mom for many years .

  Judy has always been involved with music, both playing the piano and singing. Always interested in exercise, she was an aerobic dancing instructor, as well as a piano teacher for many years, and continues to faithfully exercise at home.

After moving to Central Florida, she served as a church secretary for nearly nine years.Her main hobby at this point in time is scanning pictures and 35mm slides into the computer. She also enjoys scrapbooking.She and her husband have two married daughters and four grandchildren, including grandtwins as well as a great-grandson. She and her husband enjoy the Disney parks as often as possible.