Author: Ryon Williams

So maybe I shouldn’t use the term ‘old’ since it’s rather speculative…instead I’ll just say the elderly. Elderly people love Red. On my first day of Meals on Wheels I was wearing my all red converse. Those of you in the home office even if you don’t know me have probably seen me wearing them. There is absolutely nothing subtle about them. They are what Andrea likes to call my clown shoes.

Whether you love them or hate them doesn’t really matter much because they are one of my favorite pair of shoes, and they managed to bring a smile to almost every single person I delivered a meal to with Meals on Wheels. That alone makes them worth it. The older the person the bigger the kick they got out of them too. After the first day of smiles and laughs I tried to make it a point to wear them almost every day during my deliveries. One of my favorite jokes as an elderly man opened up his door was:

“I just got off the phone with the circus telling me the clown lost his shoes, and here they show up on my door step!”

Besides the comments on my red shoes everyone seemed obsessed with my red hair. Several even went as far as to want to touch it…which I’ll admit was kind of weird for me… but if touching my hair makes someone’s day, who am I to judge and keep that from them. Again the older the person the more fascinated they seemed to be by my red hair.

Having naturally red hair (even though there are times I dye it a darker red), I have heard all the jokes you can think of when it comes to redheads and probably then some. So it was a unique experience for me to have one person after another fawn over it.

On a more serious note though, I originally had planned on working with both Love and Care Ministries and Meals on Wheels. After my initial call to Meals on Wheels and being told that they had 17 of their regular drivers out as well as all the routes that aren’t assigned to a regular driver to complete, I felt like it was God’s way of telling me that this was where I needed to spend all my time.

It was an amazing experience for me…though I’m not going to lie I did have a few routes in some pretty bad parts of town. Which made me a little nervous since I was doing deliveries by myself, but everyone I delivered to was nice. It’s also more work that you’d initially think. Since I took 2 routes it would usually take me 1 1/2 hours to 2 hours to finish, which doesn’t sound all that long.

Until you add this West Texas heat into the mix… also add in the fact that I’m a pale redhead that burns EXTREMELY easily. I have had a constant sunburn the entire time I’ve been doing Meals on Wheels. I don’t want to hear the “you should have worn sunscreen” comments, because guess what? I did! I know better than to spend more than 5 minutes outside without putting on sunscreen. It just never fails though that not matter what I do I burn. If I at least tanned I wouldn’t mind so much, but I just burn and get more freckles. Sometimes it looks like I might have a tan, but it’s a lie! It’s just an outbreak of freckles and I’m still as pale as ever underneath it all.

For all the wonderful people I got to meet and help, the never ending burn was worth it. I got numerous prayer requests, and then some people just needed someone to talk to. I’m sure I might have been the only human interaction that some of these people had all day, if not week.

I also came to realize with one heart stopping event that some of these people just have way too much time on their hands. It was first day delivering and it was either my 2nd or 3rd house. There was a note to knock, identify myself and enter the house to deliver the meal. So as I go up to the door, it’s already open. I knock on the door, identify myself and walk in. Just a few feet from the door is this lady sitting in a chair listening to the radio. Her eyes are closed as if she’s taking a nap, so when she doesn’t respond to my first announcement I try again. Knocking louder and announcing myself louder in case she’s hard of hearing…. Nothing… No response… Even after several more attempts.

My heart stopped. It would be just my luck that on my first day, one of my first few stops I come across someone who has passed away. I was so flabbergasted, this was not something you’re prepared for. Then laughter. This lady lets loose with deep, belly aching laughter. After my heart starts back up again, she proceeds to tell me that she doesn’t own a TV so she has to entertain herself anyway she can and since she noticed that I wasn’t the person who usually delivers her meals she wanted to have a bit of fun. I swear I wanted to kiss her and curse her at the same time.

So all in all I’ve enjoyed my Meals on Wheels experience and am not ready for it to end.

So my 2nd week of Sabbatical…where do I begin. I decided to finally go to the DMV and get a new driver’s license…that took half of my life to do. Really it was only 1 hour, but it might as well have felt like a lifetime. I considered backing out when I saw how many people were there, but for those who have never seen my previous one… it was time. It looked nothing like me. Not only did I have about 80 extra pounds, but I also had hair! This is where I managed to run into a chair adding the first bruise to my collection I seem to have unwillingly started.

I am just a naturally clumsy person as it is but after just one week of being at home I firmly believe I am just meant to spend my days at work where there are very few things I interact with that I can hit my head on. I know that sounds odd… but listen to this: I have managed to hit my head on the vent hood of my stove, multiple cabinet doors, as well as several tables, my car door and a dryer door. I think God is trying to knock some sense into me about something. I haven’t figured out what it is yet, but I’ll be sure to let you know when I do.

I have spent most of this week trying to relax and read. Not only my required devotional and book, but also several other books just for fun (I even got a bruise on my shoulder from where I dropped my kindle on my face while reading in bed).

I have always been a big reader but I have felt like I haven’t had the time to just sit down and read for me for awhile now. I forgot how much I TRULY enjoy reading. It felt like I found a lost piece of myself that I hadn’t realize I was missing. I used to always have 3 or 4 different books going at one time; I would listen to one on audible, I’d have one going on my kindle, as well as a physical book. My husband would always call me crazy and say he never understood how I could keep all the story lines straight, but he would always make an effort to ask me about all the different books I was reading.

We were at the Mall eating at one of the Asian food places for dinner before we began our journey to find a new washing machine (See Blog “Productivity Tends to End Badly” for this tale), when Anthony asked me if I had read any good books lately. That question really hit me. I didn’t realize that part of our lives had disappeared, or that it was something more meaningful than a simple question.

He asks me that question at least once a week and this was the first time in a long time that I actually had an answer for him, other than “no I haven’t read anything lately.”  It was only a conversation we would have maybe once or twice a week, but it was time that I would get to share something I’m extremely passionate about with my husband. Even though I know he really doesn’t care what books I’m reading or the story lines, he asks because he cares about me.

So unfortunately for him we sat there for probably a good 40 minutes so I could talk about a book. It. Was. Amazing. I want to make sure that I continue reading for fun not only for myself, but also for my relationship with my husband.

One day I decided I was going to be a productive member of society… I should have stopped there. Nothing ever seems to end well for me when I say I am going to be productive. So after putting on a load of laundry I left the house to go buy the necessary items needed to repaint our house number on the curb. Sounds simple enough.

This is where my journey begins… okay no it’s not that great of a story, even though I wish it was. This first part is more for Peggye since she likes to tell me how great I look for being 75. Those of you reading this make sure to tell her she should come take a look.

I went to Michael’s because I happened to have a coupon. So I’m standing in line waiting to check out. The cashier is helping the lady in front of my download the Michael’s App so that she could use the coupons on there, and I of course had nowhere important to be so it doesn’t bother me at all. Come to find out this lady in front of me looked REALLY great for her age, she got to use the coupons AND the senior discount. When this lady told the cashier that she was 76… (seventy six!) my jaw hit the floor. I could have sworn she was going to reply that she was in her mid 40’s. So she finishes checking out and now it’s my turn. The cashier asks for my birth date since I bought spray paint. Which kind of surprised me, but I guess it makes sense that you have to be at least 18 to buy spray paint. I told her that I was 75, but I just look really good for my age.

So I got to use the senior discount too! …Not really. She just looked at me like I was crazy and asked to see my ID. I guess only one person looking a lot younger than they actually are was enough for her. We did at least get a good laugh out of it. Now onto the main adventure of this post.

Remember how I said that I had put a load of laundry on before I left the house? Probably not so that’s why I’m bringing it up. Just a quick FYI to help provide some visuals for y’all, we enter our house through our backyard and it opens up into our laundry room then leads into our dining room/kitchen. So I’m walking up to our door and I see a wet area that starts from our door and reaches about 4 feet away from it. This is the first clue telling me something is wrong. My next clue… would be the 2 inches of water I step in when I enter our laundry room. Not only was my laundry room completely flooded but water had leaked out the back door a good ways as well as about 5 feet into our dining room. I don’t even think our washing machine could hold how much water was everywhere.

So I spend the next part of my day trying to clean up all this water while my German Shepherd is trying to swim in it. He is really fluffy so looking back on it I probably could have had him just lay down in the water and have his soak up a good amount of it! But then I would have had to give him a bath because I don’t know why, but that water smelled pretty horrible.

The best part about this whole story…. I had put on a load of towels. It’s only me and my husband so we probably have about 8 towels total, and 6 of them were in the washing machine. If I hadn’t decided to be productive that day I would have been home to prevent what I will now refer to as the Great Flood of 2017. I will say it right now, I hate shopping. There are just way too many options out there for EVERYTHING! On the bright side we now get to upgrade to a new washing machine that will be delivered to us this Thursday, and they will even haul off our old one for us! It was time. We have had that machine for 7 years now and it was probably almost 10 years old when we got it. I’m just thankful that it lasted as long as it has. I am now just hoping our dryer lives a year or 2 longer.

I never did get around to fixing my street numbers…

To kick off my Sabbatical, my husband, Anthony, and I took a trip to Seattle with his best friend, who ironically enough is also named Anthony, and his new wife, Monica. It was crazy you were practically eye level with mountains from the plane.

We made it back safely and were not eaten by any bears! (Note: We did not actually see any or were near any bears but it sure felt like we should have been). Let me tell you it was absolutely BEAUTIFUL there, I didn’t know trees could be that tall! Okay I did know, but I had never been around any before. Oh and let me tell you the weather was perfect. We got lucky and it did not rain once while we were there, and humidity? It doesn’t exist up there! People had told me about that before going, but I didn’t actually understand it until we were there. Though because of that I did manage to get a sunburn in only 68 degree weather… On the bright side my husband likes to point out it was the longest I had ever been in the sun before burning!

I now know the secret to easily becoming physically fit… just move to Seattle. The hills, oh my word the hills… everywhere we went there were hills comparable to what we like to call mountains here in Abilene. I swear my calves got a work out of their life, plus the lack of humidity? Hardly any sweating. Though the cost of living there is really expensive, so I’m not sure if it’d actually be worth it.

We visited Pike’s Place Market, and I have officially determined that I am not a crowd person. I know it was a tourist spot so of course there were a ton of people, but it just made me think of huge cities where people deal with that everyday. No thank you. I like my personal bubble, it may not be a very big bubble but it’s there. I kept worrying that someone was going to try and pickpocket us, I was going to step on a little kid or that I was going to trip over absolutely nothing and cause a huge scene that it was hard for me to enjoy it at times.

Later that day we went to the Space Needle, of course. Let me note now that I am afraid of heights…to put it lightly. We get into a crowded elevator and I’m pushed off to the side. We start going up and to my great delight (note: I say this EXTREMELY sarcastically) right next to me there was a window. Which I’m sure had a really lovely view, and I would have been okay with had I been able to mentally prepare myself for. I know that sounds silly, how did I not know that there was a window there? Well I didn’t and thinking back on it I should have guessed that any really tall tourist trap would of course have windows in their elevator, but I wasn’t thinking clearly. Thankfully my husband realized pretty quickly how freaked out I was and managed to push through the crowd to switch places with me. I still didn’t like that I could see our rapid ascent, but I was no longer staring over the edge watching the ground disappear beneath us.

We had dinner at the restaurant there, which after I made my way shakily to our table and was able to adjust to being up so high, the view was absolutely beautiful. The restaurant itself rotates so you could see all of Seattle. Next we had to venture up to the observation deck at the very top of the Space Needle. I would have been perfectly fine just leaving after dinner… but no the group wanted to go up, so we went up. The views from the deck were probably more beautiful that what we saw from the restaurant but I was too busy hugging the side of the wall and making sure people went around me if they wanted to go by to really enjoy it much. It’s one thing to be inside staring out but I could not handle being out in open air very well.

We also saw a Seattle Mariners game (Baseball for those who may not know). They lost, but it was still a really fun experience and there was a huge firework show after the game that definitely made up for the loss. We of course opted not to drive and used Uber/Lyft most of time. Have any of y’all ever tried to use one of them after a big event? If they were to pick us up near the stadium it would have cost us $128! Yes you read that right a hundred and twenty eight dollars. For a 30 minute car ride. We ended up walking roughly 2 miles to get out of the high priced zone and ended up only having to pay $28, but it was kind of creepy. I believe walking around after dark in an unfamiliar area would put anyone on edge.

Our next big adventure was zip lining. We had to travel about an hour away to a 230 acre farm to do this, but it was well worth it! When we were first pulling up everyone thought I was planning on getting us killed because it was pretty much in the middle of nowhere with very few signs letting us know if we were going in the right direction…. I can admit it did seem a little shady at first (Don’t let my husband know I said that). We got lucky and it ended up just being the 4 of us in our own group. We started our adventure off getting to ride a historic Unimog forest vehicle. Don’t know what that is? No worries I had never heard of it before either. I did make sure to attach a picture of it though. Apparently the owner of the farm saw it being driven around town one day and basically stalked them home to ask if he could buy it.

As noted earlier I am petrified of heights but I am also rather odd… who knew right? The hardest part about zip lining for me was the 3 little steps I had to take to be hooked onto the line, not the actual jumping over the edge. I’m not exactly sure why this was easy for me when I was hugging the wall at the Space Needle. Where everyone else had no issues at the Space Needle, but were all nervous about zip lining. I’ve just accepted that I’m weird and it makes no sense. Our guides were great they really helped make the experience that much better. We got to try all sorts of berries and plants (yes I said plants). After we all made it safely through the forest we made our way to a little beach about 10 minutes away, where we found the water to actually be pretty warm considering it was only 72 degrees.

There was so much more that we did, but this pretty much concludes the highlights of our Seattle adventure. Overall it was amazing, and we definitely plan on visiting again.