Fort Wayne Dining and Shopping

 

We wanted to pick up a few things at Trader Joe's at Jefferson Pointe in Fort Wayne. When the weather forecast looked nice, we decided to take the opportunity today. Starting Wednesday, we will have very cold days with some snow by the weekend. 

Near Trader Joe's is Biaggi's, an Italian restaurant. I had the butternut squash and walnut ravioli. I have ordered this before, but I had forgotten how wonderful the sauce is.

 We usually are not in Fort Wayne on a Sunday; this restaurant had its dinner menu instead of the weekday lunch menu. We were pleased to see that for the pasta dishes you can order a smaller portion. Not only were these $4 cheaper, but it turned out we had room for dessert.

The main item I wanted to find at Trader Joe's was the peppermint flat pretzels.

 I am co-hostessing the December 3rd Winona Literary Club meeting which means I and another lady will decorate the tables and provide refreshments. We hostesses will get together this Tuesday to firm up decisions. Lois has lots of nativity pieces from different countries we will use as the centerpieces. I had hoped to find some napkins with Merry Christmas in different languages, but I have struck out. 

The nuts are from Costco. I also bought some croissants for Thanksgiving sandwich snacks; and some reading glasses. In the past month the bottom frame of my glasses on the right has cracked and the lens fell out on two pairs. These Costco glasses which came in a package of 3 also are plastic; but on sale the price is about $6 a pair. 

Not much choice of color, but I usually wear my bifocals when not at home, and these plastic readers at home. I will see how they hold up.

When at Trader Joe's I bought some flowers. Now that I am home, I think maybe I should have bought the pot of narcissus. Unlike the plant I bought several years ago, this year the narcissus was in bloom (with some buds yet to open). I do not think my flowers will last as long as the narcissus would have.

When I did my grocery order this week, the chips I wanted to use on Thanksgiving were out of stock. I saw some tortilla chips at Trader Joe's and decided I would buy them instead of making a special trip to the grocery store this week. 

We will eat our main Thanksgiving meal at our retirement community dining room: turkey or ham, dressing, potatoes, 2 vegetables, cranberry salad, pumpkin or pecan pie. We are going to the 12 noon seating. 

Have a good Thanksgiving thanking God for His many blessings.

Four Bears

 

I have four little plush bears that sit on a bench in my bedroom. Three of them were gifts; the fourth I gave as a gift but "inherited".

The bear with the pink hat I gave to my mom when she had breast cancer. It was in a display of breast cancer awareness products. My mother, her mother, her sister, and one of my maternal cousins all were treated successfully for breast cancer. When my mom died, I asked if I could bring the bear home. She is the momma bear.

The bear with the red hat was a gift from my older sister. Do they still have Red Hat Societies these days? This bear is dressed to fit in. This teddy represents my older sister.

The bear with the bluish green hat represents my twin sister who gave it to me.

The pink Ty Beanie Baby was also a gift from my older sister. It is the January Birthday bear. It represents moi. 

We have Momma Bear with her 3 daughters. I reflect on my childhood days when I see them, though they came to me when I was an adult. Sometimes seeing the bear with the pink cap makes me miss my mom and I get misty-eyed. She has been gone since November of 2018.

Never too old to enjoy cute bears. 

Strange Day

 

My day started out sunny at 40 degrees with a forecast of reaching the low 60's in the afternoon.  I enjoyed a normal breakfast, and my physical therapy session went well. It was when I headed out of Winona Lake to Warsaw that unexpected events occurred. 

Since they have completely torn up Road 250 East from Wooster Road (off of which my condo is located) north to Highway 30, I drove west on Wooster past Grace College to reach the medical building in Warsaw where my blood draw was to take place. An almost hour wait, but that is not unusual these days. I stopped at Martin's, one of the few stores in our area that carries low-acid orange juice, and I picked up a few other items. Headed for Winona Lake in the reverse order. 

Only this time when I came to my left turn from Kings Highway onto Wooster, a police vehicle with whirling red and blue lights sat in the left-turn lane; a Grace College security vehicle sat in the eastbound Wooster Road lane along with a sawhorse blocking access. I was a little miffed because I was running late in getting home for lunch, but I thought OK I will keep driving straight and turn left at the next street to wind through the campus parking lots to get to my homeward route.

 What I could not see when I saw the blocked lane because the road curves was what was happening just east of campus. Firetrucks, rescue vehicles, police cars with flashing lights. No way through. So once out of the parking lot, I turned west onto Wooster, went back to Kings Highway, and followed it for a few miles to the round-about where I got on 250 East north. I made it home about 12:30. 

Knowing that Wooster Road was blocked, I did the Kings Highway route again after lunch to pick up my online order groceries at Kroger. I noticed that access to Wooster Road was still blocked. 

At Kroger, more strange happenings. The pickup location has 8 spots (4 pull-through lanes to accommodate 2 cars each), the first car to arrive requested to pull all the way through so another car can pull in behind. Except, there were only 2 pull-throughs, and the other pull-throughs had only the back spot available, the front being blocked with orange cones. Location 1 car had parked itself without pulling all the way to the front. I parked in location 4 not wanting to back up to get out when my order had been loaded. I realized that the lane next to me was being repaired. The concrete had been taken out in a neat square. Then I noticed men standing around and construction trucks parked in the adjacent parking lot. 

I use an app to order and when I arrive I tell them where I have parked. Pretty soon, a car parked behind me. When the store employee wheeled my order to my car, I noticed it seemed large. He asked for the order name. No, I am not Belinda X. Turns out it was the car behind me. Hmmm. I was here first. Then a cement truck arrived, extended its chute, and obviously was going to fill the hole. A lady brought my order, but we could hardly hear each other. Fortunately, she loaded quickly; I was concerned that the cement might splatter and hit my car. I left and Belinda who had been waiting for me to get done followed on my bumper. 

When I headed home, I saw that Wooster Road was open again.  As I passed around a single rescue vehicle blocking my lane, I saw the blackened and charred front of a two-story house on Wooster Road. What had been an inconvenience to me was a tragedy to somebody else. My attitude could have been better. 

Be Careful What You Wish For

 

It was just a few posts ago that I was lamenting that I was tired of my summer warm-weather clothes and wanted cooler weather. This morning we have not cool weather but cold weather. I am grateful I have a heavy winter coat to wear when I go to the Grace Village brunch buffet around 11 a.m. I am also wearing a warm nightgown and my winter bathrobe since yesterday. 

Winona Lake is on the edge of the so-called lake-effect snow band. Last night as I watched on TV Notre Dame and Navy play football in South Bend, the snow was falling pretty good. We had been forecasted to have snow but that it would not accumulate. As you can see in the photo, that is not true. We will get more snow tonight, and the temperatures will remain in the 30's until Wednesday. 

I have not been going outside the house much the past few weeks, but besides the Sunday brunch today, I plan to start back to my ladies' Bible study tomorrow morning and to choir practice in the afternoon.

I wish I had less pain from the incision and the bruising, but it is reducing some. If it follows the pattern of the right side, it will be around week 5 that I feel good. Two and a half weeks to go.

We are meeting some family from Michigan on Thursday at the Bluegate restaurant in Shipshewanna. They joined us last year for Thanksgiving but had poor road conditions for driving home. We could see that the roads would be good on the 13th, so we all decided to get together earlier than Thanksgiving. 

I was planning to stop using my walker on Tuesday, but I will stop a day earlier (Monday) so at least I will not have to struggle using that in Monday's snow. Today, my husband will drop me off at the main door which has a covered porte-cochere. We adapt when we can.