Continuation

Yes, I always did feel sorry for Ronda (MK-India). I mean, wouldn't you be freaked out if some street trash girl shows up at your front door and tells you that she is pregnant with your husband's baby? Horrible. As if we did not already know that Dave Hoskins was a worthless creep anyway. MK Retreat. Enough said. Just being a rich kid, written about in a book by Terry Rayburn, does not mean anything. So we do feel sorry for Ronda. She could have done better than to get tangled up with all of the Hoskins' problems. And we do feel sorry for Wendy also. There she is pregnant and what are the Hoskins supposed to do about it, just put their grandchildren up for adoption? So it is just one of those unsolvable problems that the dippity-dumb Dave brought upon his own head and why should we care? Any single-celled amoeba can reproduce itself. Once at a company picnic for my mother's company we saw that Wendy was there but we were not introduced. Dave's mother was talking to us and telling us that Wendy is the mother of Dave's children but she did not introduce us to Wendy. It would be sort of awkward to introduce ourselves so we just left without talking to Wendy who was over in the playground with her children. Hazel seemed to think that we were friends of Ronda, Ronda being supposedly representative of all MK girls everywhere when she is not, and assumed that we would be offended by Wendy's presence. I actually do not know Ronda personally, only maybe said hello once or twice and anyway what would I know about India. I must disagree with Hazel's jumping to foregone conclusions at our expense. The Hoskins might be surprised to learn how little and infrequently we ever think about them. They have their places and they should stay out of ours. I would prefer not to expend any energy whatsoever discussing their problems as this will only invite further retributions from their scandal-plagued clan. One would think that George would be glad that his name is not really Hoskins. George changed his original name to Hoskins but we just don't understand why.

Lottie Moon

Yes, it was interesting to learn during my research that my cousins, the Andrews, are related somehow by family connection to Lottie Moon who was famously a missionary to China around the turn of the century. Obviously I am not related to Lottie Moon. My cousins have that connection from the Andrews side of their family. So that's nice. What a small world it is, so many missionary ancestors, so little time to mention all of them. The Methodists, the Presbyterians, the Baptists, they all accomplished many great things in China. Still, it is interesting that the church of China exploded after the foreigners left. The missionaries did many things right so probably without their century or more of hard work there would not have been a church in China to grow but they put many good things in place to plant a vibrant growing church even if they saw few results in their lifetimes. So just because Conchita got this conversation all twisted around, that does not make me a Julie Andrews wannabe. (Movie: "Hawaii") Which reminds me of another reason why I did not return to Evangel. I always so much hated arguing with Rhonda Hurd as if I should prove myself to her. And who is Rhonda Hurd anyway? Rhonda Hurd is nobody so it just does not matter that much if Rhonda Hurd and Jan Chance don't get it. I know what I am talking about and that is all that matters to me.

Hultgren

Yes, we all know that Dave Hultgren was the thief. While working in the warehouse he snuck into the offices and was caught taking money from Ann Niles' purse. In case he forgot, Ann Niles is not his mother so he is not entitled to her money.

Lakeland

Oh, was Sue Olin also with us there that trip to Lakeland to visit the Registers? I don't remember. If so, she might also remember those events, Christy apologizing for her mistake, the books, etc. It seems to me there was talking of something being under construction, something in the works or planning stages. I am not sure. The studio building is history now. But unfortunately for the Registers, the building belongs to the church and not to them or the denomination, and so when the video production was shut down, the church took over the building and repurposed it for Sunday School classes and that sort of thing. The church decides what to do with that building because it is their land and their building. So whatever they want.

Down South

Driving south along the Florida Turnpike on our way to the Miami airport we contemplated the former North Miami hospital, now a derelict ruin, a stack of concrete with bombed out windows, not far south of the county line. Yes, that pile of concrete was long ago the place where Rachel Balius did her candy striper duties during her high school years. Back in those days there was a fairly severe shortage of nurses which helped to motivate Rachel and also my sister to train as nurses. So that's nice. Nurses will always be in demand, obviously, as long as sickness, disease, and injury are problems in this sinful world. Nurses certainly do deserve lots of money for what they have to do. Nevertheless, we know now that in the 1990s there was the surplus of hospital beds and the health department shuttered quite a few hospitals and many nurses were sent to work in clinics or at home care agencies. So nursing is not what it used to be. For those nurses who got in years ago continued employment will probably not be a significant problem. But there would be no reason for someone like me to try to start now. It is would just be too late for me to start medical training, just a lengthy and expensive ordeal with little if any return on investment. It would not make very much sense, not even cents. Besides, I would hate studying medicine. Science always bored me so much.

Genie In A Bottle

Yes, I did read that book, Arabian Nights, in which Scheherazade tells stories for a thousand days and thus her life is spared for being such a good storyteller. Otherwise she might have been beheaded because, well, that is what the cranky old caliph had originally intended. So, yes, it is a very good thing that we do not live in such horrible conditions as were present in the Middle East of maybe a thousand years ago or maybe even more recently than that. Even that TV show, "I Dream of Jeannie," set as it was in Cocoa Beach near the astronaut base which is actually near Daytona Beach up in Central Florida and not down here South Florida, actually would be a nightmare in real life. No one would really want some crazy genie showing up in their house and messing with all their stuff. I vaguely remember once having a discussion with someone about what a nightmare it would be to have to ask three wishes and what would you ask for and what you get might not be what you actually had in mind or really wanted but the genie was just going by what the words that you actually said and not by what you were actually thinking. I think there is a joke about this but I am not sure what it was exactly. I am not very good at remembering jokes. Maybe someone remembers the joke about the genie in the bottle. It was sort of funny in its way but not to be taken so seriously. If you take it that seriously then we will leave you out of the loop because you just would not get it.

I Am Not Susie

Yes, I am not Susie so I do not really know Christy Register although I do remember meeting her at MK Retreat. Susie is the one who knows everybody. Susie is the consummate schmoozer and she is friendly with pretty much everyone. It gives me a headache to think all the lines that Susie crosses with no problem in her networking. Without Susie to follow around, I would not even be aware of the Registers to schmooze with them and anyway why would I want to? With the demise of STAR and loss of missionary standing are reduced to furniture salesman from what I heard. However, I do remember that once years ago when Susie was living out here Susie invited me to go with her to Lakeland to visit the Registers, Joe and his wife. Christy is their daughter. So we drove up to Central Florida and we stopped in at the Register's house where Mrs. Register was reading a book. Apparently Mrs. Register reads many books and spends too much time reading books at the expense of other household duties. This fact was gently joked about by Mr. Register, or did Susie say that? Anyway, there was some conversation about some stuff and then we left and I don't remember what else we did up there on that trip. So the Registers are friends of Susie who, of course, is well known to all as MK-El Salvador. Susie's parents were pioneer missionaries having served before the cutoff date of maybe 1965 so she is of celebrity status to missionaries everywhere whereas my family are of the "Second Wave" of missionaries as the maid Chavelita used to say of us. So anyway, if you want to know about Christy and Registers you could always ask Susie. Susie probably knows a lot more about them than I do.