Let the journey begin ! Six weeks on the road starts now, and I have all the essentials needed because how can any morning πŸŒ„ go wrong when it starts with a message from Brother Osborne !!

Travis Osborne and his Bible Verse of the Day :

Romans 14:8 For whether we live, we live unto the Lord; and whether we die, we die unto the Lord: whether we live therefore, or die, we are the Lord’s.

There are plenty of storylines to follow once the opening drive πŸš— is in the Books πŸ“š

Have a Blessed Day πŸ™Œ

So, I have a neighbor named Brenda, and we shall call πŸ“ž this one the story about neighbors, spaghetti 🍝, electricity and meeting your Heroes!

Check out this post… “Fun Nugget in the Inbox πŸ“₯! Tonight in Laurel Fork…”.
https://aroundthevalleyin60days.blogspot.com/2026/06/fun-nugget-in-inbox-tonight-in-laurel.html

After the drive πŸš— back from the Softball games in Abingdon, I was ready for a nap and then a quiet night before I head out in the morning on a six week loop.

Shortly before 6 pm, I received a text message from our downstairs neighbor, Brenda, and it was uplifting enough that I turned it into a post on the Laurel Fork Coconut πŸ₯₯ Telegraph. That is the link above…

The photo πŸ“Έ Brenda sent me looked appetizing, and it led me to put my shoes back on and head into downtown Laurel Fork in hopes of getting myself a dinner.

I have to add that I needed to first stop βœ‹οΈ at Dollar General to get some cash πŸ’Έ back on a purchase in order to have $10.00 to pay for the spaghetti 🍝.

The store had lost power three times, and each time, they had to reboot their system. The fourth time occurred when the checkout line was 15 deep, and they were no longer using the register that allows cash back. While walking back to my car πŸš—, the sky opened up in a biblical way, and now I was soaked.

I just figured I’d head 🏑 and that supporting the Community Center wasn’t in the cards tonight. Only having one $5.00 bill in my pocket, I decided to stop and ask if they took plastic? The answer was No but yet the very kind Lady said she would spot me the other $5 and gave me the instructions on how to get my meal. I took the time to show her the post πŸ“« I created from the picture that Brenda had sent me.

The next cause and effect thing that took place was she pointed toward the kitchen and said the gentleman wearing the black apron also had a blog that he used for good.

It was during the lead in part of the conversation that the other gentleman in the room asked if I was Jerry ? See, everything I try to do is designed to give glory to God, so my name isn’t even on my site, nor has it been for the past 18 years.

Because of this, it’s very seldom that someone can connect the dots, but that happened tonight.

Anytime I have a cause and effect story, it leads me to add a link to Joe Diffie and Third Rock πŸͺ¨ from the Sun 🌞!

Power lines are down, and we are without power, and APCO just updated that they were hoping for a return by 2 am.

I’m sitting in the dark with the possibility of missing out on the USA πŸ‡ΊπŸ‡Έ World Cup game, but it’s all good becauseΒ  Brenda sending me a picture of Spaghetti led me to meet someone who I admire for a variety of reasons !

Yes, getting to meet Mr Nester is really, really great, and the spaghetti was too !

The back of the sign reading ” Be Nice ” was icing for the cake πŸŽ‚.

Softball capsule #21Β belongs to Holly Miller, the young Lady who experienced the highest of highs and the lowest of lows on the same night πŸŒ™. Side Note πŸ“ Dad is also a huge part of our day 2 day !

For the first few seasons up at West Virginia Tech University, I had to have a pre-game visit with whoever was our leadoff hitter on game day.

The college version of my announcing a ball game is considerably more amped up and I would tell the person who was going to be the first person to bolt of the bench that he had to do so with a great deal of energy. Because if he didn’t, I would just sound like a Mad Man.

My sister, Sharon, lives outside of St. Louis and is an avid St.Louis Cardinals fan. She was kind enough to secure me an Ozzie bobblehead that looks like the one pictured above. Mine has a sticky note attached that reads Holly Miller !

See πŸ‘€, Holly Miller came out of the dugout one night at Cavalier Park and absolutely nailed an Ozzie back flip on the way to Centerfield. Closing in on 50 years of holding a microphone 🎀 and that moment ranks at the top of the list of memories.

Sadly, later that same night, Holly collided with a fellow Lady Cavalier while chasing down a shot to the gap. It was as physical of contact on a softball field that I have witnessed in person.

Miller is as fearless as she is tiny and actually got up and tried to convince Hix / Dad that she wanted to remain in the game. Fortunately, Hix is as smart as he is humble, so they headed to the hospital πŸ₯ where the broken collarbone was diagnosed.

We were fortunate to have her back this season, and she resumed patrolling πŸš“ CF  like her Dad did back in his day, even the #3 on her back.