COTTLE MISSION NEWS: Week 19

We began our week at the USO by opening the facility as the director and her assistant were at the USO all day yesterday cooking ribs for a dinner. Throughout the morning Pam and I helped in the kitchen and in the main hall setting up and prepping food for dinner. We went out for lunch and in the afternoon some volunteers began reheating ribs on outdoor grills and that went on all afternoon. By 4:30 pm everything was rounding into shape and we began to have people arrive for dinner. At 5:00 pm we began feeding and for the next two hours it was bedlam. I worked the drink table and Pam worked the dessert table and we were both very busy. We ended serving about 300 people. Redzone Realty sponsored the event and had 2 or 3 retired NFL Jacksonville Jaguars football players come and visit, pose for pictures and at 6:00 pm and 7:00 pm they gave away two footballs signed by the players. By 7:00 pm things were winding down and cleanup began. Pam and I left at 7:30 pm with 3 boxes of food and drink for the gate guards at the naval station.

Tuesday morning, we spent studying for quite a while and did 3 loads of laundry and cleaned the house—something we hadn’t done for a while. At noon we were dressed for the day and drove to the Town Center Shopping area and had lunch then spent an hour in Costco. Just after arriving a torrential downpour began and the roof sounded like it was going to crash in. When we left the store, it was over, and the streets were wet but nothing like you would have expected. I think they got 1-3 inches in less than an hour right at that spot. We returned north and stopped at Wal-Mart for a couple of things and then back to our apartment where we unloaded and settled in for the night. We were thrilled to see pictures of Andrew and Sarah’s trip to Switzerland. What a great adventure.

Wednesday morning, we were up early and arrived at the LaGae’s on the Naval Station at 7:00 am to babysit Fiona and Clive while Mom and Dad took Eleanor for a medical appointment. When Jerald returned from checking in off of leave at his ship, they got Eleanor up and were gone by 7:30 am. They drove to Orange Park and had a 3-hour appointment with a behavioral specialist to evaluate Eleanor. Pam and I settled in first with Clive who woke up before they left, and a half an hour later Fiona came out of their bedroom. I turned on some cartoons and Pam fixed something to eat and they seemed satisfied. At 9:20 am I left Pam with the kids and drove to the USO and worked on a number of small jobs until both Charley and Joyce left for a meeting with other USO leaders. I was alone and manned the office, watched a little TV and waited for time to pass. We had a few customers, but not many. Pam arrived about 1:30 pm. Samantha LaGae brought her to the USO and she and Jerald had a good trip to the doctor and Eleanor did fine. About a half an hour later Joyce returned, and we visited about what I had done and turned over information and then Pam and I left. After driving out of the parking lot, Pam said “let’s go for a ride,” so we drove to the ferry landing and went across the St. John’s river and drove up the coast line to Amelia Island. We went for at least an hour and the marshlands and water were beautiful. So often we were in a canopy of trees and you could hardly see beyond the road as the old Oaks were thick and beautiful with the Spanish moss hanging down. Amelia Island is a very ritzy location. A lot of fancy homes and properties, golf courses and resorts. At one spot we found beach access and parked and walked out on the beach and it was beautiful. The sand was clean and white and the dunes pristine. You could drive on that particular beach and there were several vehicles parked with tents put up and sunbathers out enjoying the day. We continued up the road and stopped at a convenience store and got some drinks. While I was in the store the heaven’s opened up and down came the rain. We had thunder and lightning for about 15 minutes and water was running off the driveway like a river. I just stood under a cover with drinks in my hand watching the downpour. Almost as soon as it started, it ended. We turned around and headed south via the same road. Instead of taking the ferry back across the river we took Herkscher road and crossed over the St. John’s River on the Dames Point bridge and back to our apartment. In the evening the entire city of Jacksonville got hammered with thunder and lighting and heavy rain for about an hour and it was eerie listening to the thunder and seeing the multiple lightning bolts in the skies continuously. It finally stopped, and the water went away somewhere, and the only evidence of the rain was that everything outside was wet.

Thursday morning, we opened up the USO and there was no bread or pastries. Joyce Schellhorn had called and said a power line was down along the street by the USO, so it was dangerous getting in or leaving the parking lot last night. We unlocked the doors, turned on the lights and fans and I took out the trash and recyclable paper bins and settled in for the morning in the office. Charley Tramazzo arrived about 10:30 am and opened up the safe which permitted us to sell tickets. Joyce finally arrived around noon and we gave her an update on what we had been doing and left at 12:30 pm. We had some time to kill before a dental appointment, so had lunch at Subway and then to our apartment and cleaned our teeth before leaving for the Patch Dentistry office in Mandarin. Instead of getting on I-295 south, we went north and completely drove the I-295 belt loop in a clockwise pattern until we crossed the St. John’s river by NAS Jax and got off on Old St. Augustine road. We arrived at the dental office and I went in first and I saw Mike Patch, the son of the owner. He liked to be called “Doctor Mike.” They took a panromantic x-ray of my mouth to establish a baseline and then a checkup before a cleaning. I had one spot of decay and a broken filling that needed to be fixed. When done Pam had her teeth cleaned also. We were finished by about 4:00 pm and left during another torrential downpour, which lasted about 20 minutes.

Friday, we went to the USO again and it was a special day of service and there were about 20 people from Citi Bank working and they had mowed the lawns, trimmed the trees and shrubs and did a nice job. Inside all the metal cabinets had been moved from the meeting room by Charley’s office to the new storage area by the Kids room and the volunteers were busy moving boxes and bins for Joyce Schellhorn. Joyce was in typical form when there was a lot going on as she could only focus on one thing at a time, so we stayed out of her way and wondered why we were there, but yesterday she was hopeful we could be there to support her. Eventually I did a lot of jobs for Joyce and Pam manned the phones. By noon the group finished their work and had done a wonderful job. The rear meeting room was empty, and all the furniture was in the new meeting room behind the office. All the storage cabinets, including the open rack was in the new storage room and filled with boxes and bins of stuff. The final item was filling care package boxes for a USO in the Middle East and when done they had about 30 boxes filled with goodies which Pam and I will mail next week. It took about an hour to get out of the facility as Joyce wanted to talk and wind down a little. Mike O’Brien, the executive director, was there all morning and that always made her nervous. We left at 2:30 pm and had a late lunch then returned to our apartment in time for the afternoon entertainment, as thunder clouds moved in and we got our symphony of thunder, lightning and rain. It rained heavily for about 30 minutes.

Saturday began at 8:00 am with a huge “boom,” which marked the end of twin cooling towers built in the 1980s, part of Jacksonville Electricity Authority’s coal-fired St. Johns River Power Park. They reached 464 feet into the air and came down right on the hour in a collapse of concrete and a cloud of dust. The power park was decommissioned on January the 5th, 2018 with a shift from coal to cleaner-burning fuels and renewable energy. They estimated the residue would be 100,000 tons of concrete and 4,000 tons of reinforcing bar which would end up in roads and the steel in cars. Additionally, at 9:00 am Argentina and Iceland squared off in their first match of this year’s World Cup of Football being held in Russia. We are sure Cynthia was riveted in front of their TV anxious about the game. The outcome was certainly not what was predicted. At noon we finished some laundry and cleaning and got dressed for the day and drove to JoAnne’s where Pam bought some dress lining material. We had lunch at Cici’s and then stopped at Wal-Mart for some grocery shopping. Back at our apartment we unloaded the groceries and then went for a drive north on I-295 to I-95 until we reached the turnoff to Fernandina Beach on Amelia Island and drove to that quaint historical town and drove around and took pictures and enjoyed the scenery. We continued down A1A back through Amelia Island where we had been a couple of days earlier and passed the Implosion site. It was going to be interesting not having those tower landmarks present to orient ourselves. We arrived back at our apartment and picked up mail and made phone calls to check on a few families and singles about church tomorrow.

Sunday was Father’s Day and we had some time to ponder about our Dad’s. Both men have played a significant role in who we are. Importantly, their firm and abiding testimonies of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, which defined who and what they became. Both with strong work ethics and reliability and loyalty beyond question. Hard-working and innovative, we often joked about the “fixes” both men did to just about everything they owned. We love our Dad’s and hope they know how much. We are also proud of our sons and what they have become as adult men and father’s. Each in their own way have traits and skills that are unique, and which bless their families. We hoped they all had good days today.

Pam and I left for church and picked up Alexis Connelly and drove to the Jacksonville Beach chapel. We enjoyed a great sacrament meeting which centered on Father’s Day and also on reports from Young Women and their leaders from recent Girl’s Camp. We attended the other block meetings and following the meetings met with Shay Tuttle and arranged to take her to dinner Monday evening. We dropped Alexis off at her housing unit on base and then returned home for a quiet afternoon. It was nice to receive some texts and phone calls from the kids.