A Novel Creation www.WatersWords.com

  Stable Faith Cowboy Church   Moving into a new community requires finding your way to the grocery, discovering new restaurants, and meeting new people. High on the list for me has always been finding a church family.   Mike and I knew our way around the north Tampa area of Lutz, but moving further north gave cause for us to look for a place of worship closer to our new home.  We wanted a place where we both felt comfortable.  We had only been married a couple of months. We both liked the church near our Ohio home, Center Pointe Christian Church. (Actually, Mike really likes the preaching there but isn’t crazy about contemporary music.)  Me? I can worship almost anywhere as long as the Word is shared accurately, openly, and honestly.   Moving Mike’s things from Lutz to Inverness, we traveled north, passing a small building in the nearby town of Brooksville each day. It was a wood building in a pretty setting. The sign over the porch read “Stable Faith...

Say "No" to Car Snobs Mike is  not  a car snob.   I’ve known a few. They are those people who look down on a car because it’s a foreign make or not one of Detroit’s Big Three…the Old Guard. Or whatever manufacturer they support.   I used to think my grandfather was a car snob. He only drove Grandma around in a Buick. Then I realized he had Ford trucks and such. It was Grandma who loved the Buick. It was a nice ride.   My parents weren’t car snobs either. We had Fords, Chevrolets, and even a Rambler station wagon back in the day.   My first car was a 1966 Ford Mustang. It was a great car. It was pretty and as it turned out, well built. I know that to be true because it held up fairly well in a crash. At least no one was injured. Of course the car was totaled.    My first “date” with Mike was in his F-250 Pickup Truck. He picked me up at the house where I was staying in Florida and drove me to our high school reunion. He later came to Ohio in that t...

  Customer Service in Small Town, USA   Shortly after moving into our new home, the air conditioner went out. The unit was running… it simply wasn’t cooling.  We called one place we found online, but the person never arrived. We called a local company called  Airfix.  The woman accepting calls late at night walked us through a few steps we could take. She knew the system and was able to tell Mike where he could access the drain. He hooked up his shop vac and although we decided we still needed service on the unit, we were comfortable enough to sleep through the night.   Troy’s, a landscape company arrived on time when we needed some work done in the backyard. Troy was professional with the work he did and fair with his pricing. And Ray, a handyman we found through our local ACE Hardware store did excellent work repairing our deck. He, too, arrived on time and was fair with the charges.    The folks at  Airfix …and Troy and Ray are more than g...

  The End of an Era   That’s what my daughter typed in a message when I told the girls we would no longer be vacationing in Myrtle Beach. “The end of an era,” my youngest daughter wrote.    Tom and I took the girls to Myrtle Beach for a vacation many times throughout the years. We started going there when we bought a time-share in the 80’s. We didn’t make the trip every year. We often traded for a ski lodge. Once, we traded for a five-bedroom chalet in Scotland. That was fun. We traded our week for a few other experiences as well, including honeymoon destinations for our daughters.   After Tom died, I rented the time-share week to others. I saw no point in vacationing there.  This past summer, two of my daughters, two granddaughters, and my mom and I made the trek to Myrtle Beach to the time-share once more.  It was our last hoorah!    I sold my place there. I now have no real ties to property in Myrtle Beach. Just plenty of family memories....

Critters in the House   We have critters in our house.  Two dogs and a cat to be specific.    Long ago, Max Lightening the Wonder Dog was a member of the Waters family. We all mourned his passing in 2012. Losing Max was so painful I didn’t want another dog. He was a member of our family.   When Mike and I started dating, I knew he had pets. I was cool with the notion of a dog. Or two. But having a cat was a different story. The only cat I’ve connected with in any way was my neighbor cat, Joe. (You can read about Joey HERE ).   Still…I like animals and as it turns out, I love the man. So the answer is YES…we have critters in our house.   Honeybee Honeybee is a Blue Healer. We call her “Bee” for short. I wasn’t too sure about how she would take to me. Blue Healers tend to be “one person” dogs. Mike…to be specific.   “Don’t worry if she nips at you,” Mike said. “She’ll get used to you.” But if she growled or turned my way, Mike scolded her.  ...