This morning at about 5:30, Mark took off on his motorcycle headed for Texas.  There is a matter of business he’s been trying to take care of by phone or online, and it hasn’t been working, so he decided the only thing for it was to go there in person.

I got a call from him around 10:40 this evening and he was still only in Lafayette, LA.  He has yet to get to Beaumont, TX which is near the border with Louisiana, but it was still an hour and a half away when he called.  He hopes to accomplish his business in the morning (Tuesday) and then plans to turn around and head back this way.  He figures with the late start he’ll be getting, he can only be back to Pensacola, FL by tomorrow night.  From there he’ll return home, hopefully, by mid-afternoon on Wednesday.

I got up with him at 4:00 this morning to help him get ready and see him off.  Then I went back to bed for a couple hours.  When I got up I felt almost frantic.  We haven’t been apart much since he stopped long-haul trucking, and I hardly knew what to do with myself.  I think Mary Beth caught on about the third or fourth trip I made to the office to take care of “business” on my day off.

There was a problem with my phone, and I almost went back to ask Mary Beth if there was someone here who could help me figure it out.  I wasn’t getting a dial tone and my phone said there was no line.  I was afraid that it wouldn’t be working when Mark tried to call me this evening.  I put my brain to work on the problem and discovered that the power button was off.  Easy fix!

Fortunately, there were a number of women in the quilt group I attended this afternoon.  Being able to spend time with other women and work on my quilt helped to calm me.

When I came home, I had an appointment with the Geek Squad at Best Buy where I had left my laptop several days ago.  It had a really bad virus, and they had called to tell me that it was bad enough that they were going to have to wipe my computer clean.  They said I should come down with a flash drive and back up anything I didn’t want to lose.  However, when I got there the woman at the desk said there was no way for me to get into my computer to back anything up because the virus has taken over.   All they can get now is a black screen.  They have ways they can back things up for me, but it would cost $85.  I made the difficult decision not to have them back it up.  I may lose some of my photos.  At least, I still have the photos that I’ve published on my blog.  That’s on the internet, so I can see them from any computer.

Then I went grocery shopping.  Mind you, tonight is the first time I’ve tried driving outside of this resort.  I had to use the GPS to find my way around, and I’m not really used to driving the truck in the dark so I went over a couple curbs, but I made it out and back in one piece!

For those who are so inclined, would you pray for Mark and me?  Pray for traveling mercies for Mark as he drives these long days, especially since the weather has gotten colder and he’s battling the wind and the sun in his eyes and such.  And pray for me.  I need a sense of peace and safety, and I need to feel God’s presence here with me.  I sure do appreciate having you all to “talk” to as well!