We went down to Celje yesterday with the Maribor sisters in tow, for a district council meeting. Afterwards, we went out to get some lunch at a little food stand named "Kabobj". They have a beef loaf and one in chicken&bacon on rotary grills. They slice off the cooked outer layer continuously. The technique was invented in Greece and is called a Gyro by them. They put the little slices of meat into a hot pita bread or tortilla and add veges and a couple of secret sauces. It is marvelous.
I was waiting for the missionaries after I got my order, and noticed this unusual tree.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alma_Karlin
So, that is cool, but what interested me is how the trees are growing out of the stones. The one in front has already plucked a stone out of the wall, and if the tree dies and decays, I suspect the wall will come apart. You can bet that all the roots are pulling stones apart. This is only a corner of the old house. The wall extends 15 feet or so beyond this corner and dissolves into rubble. The rest of the house is gone and the food shop where we bought lunch is about in the center of where it stood. If you remember a photo I took last year of a bronze statue of a photographer sitting on a bicycle, with bulky cameras and equipment, that statue is kitty-corner from here. She was here at the same time he was.
COVID is keeping Liz busy. The missionaries are supposed to keep her updated on their symptoms so she can make entries in the church's medical records. We have 10 confirmed cases still, so that is good that it isn't spreading any further. About half of them are very sick, but none of them have life-threatening symptoms, so far.
Unfortunately, the medical help brought us to the attention of the government and the missionaries are being observed by the Minister of Health. There might be a € fine € for not maintaining social distancing. Worse, this could impact our ability to bring more missionaries into Croatia.
We have been back and forth between here and Celje &/or Ljubljana many times lately, so we've noticed changes as spring comes. We saw green just beginning to peak out at the beginning, and now the fields are green, while most of the trees have at least some sign of new growth and most have emerging leaves. It is a beautiful time of year. We do love that drive - it is so very pretty. The mountains with last vestiges of snow looking down on the little valley with church spires and castles standing above the little villages. Vines and fields are looking good.
We are very impressed by the quality of the Slovene highways. We take the A1 back and forth, which is a toll-way. We have an annual pass for the tolls. The trucks have wide tires, and they don't tear up the pavement like American trucks do. They also seldom interrupt traffic like American trucks do. They rarely pass each other, partly because their speed limit is slower than in America, and cars are always flashing by. The truck top speed is 90, while cars can go 130, and lots of cars (mostly German-built ones) go far faster.
There are some highway standards that bug me. Like there are lots of times when there is a painted arrow on the highway indicating that the lane can continue straight or turn. Immediately after these, the lane splits into two and quite a way farther along are arrows indicating that one is for turns only while the other is only for straight ahead. Many times I end up in the wrong lane and don't realize until the last moment that I have to move over. Why?
We do love the rest areas. A few of them are just a parking area by a pit toilet, but most are nice areas with a gas station and good restrooms. They are seldom more than 15 minutes apart. What a nice way to travel!
Yesterday we were in Celje to clean out the church. People here don't horde TP, but they are just like everybody else when it comes to hording church materials. I tackled a storage closet and threw out all the out-of-date church materials. We filled up the trash cans outside and only removed about a third of the old books. The remainder are still piled in the hall, waiting for space in the trash cans. I found instructions manuals as old as 1952, and we were instructed by the church to throw out all manuals printed before 2014. I also threw out hundreds of old DVDs, video tapes, and cassette tapes. People just hate to see them go, especially the DVDs which were precious a few years ago, but are now obsolete. All this stuff is readily available on the church web site. We worked very hard for two hours and that was all my old joints were up to. The sisters, too. They fell asleep on the ride home.
Sad news. My brother-in-law, Jess Stevens died Sunday. He grew up in Hinckley and attended Delta H.S.. He married Liz's next younger sister, Susan, and we have naturally been very close. When Liz's family gathers, Jess and I were the outsiders - not that they made us feel that way, but when we talked about fishing and hunting everybody else drifted away. We enjoyed each others' company and were just fine having a private talk.
He developed chronic arthritis when he was still young and it got so bad he couldn't shake hands or pick things up. They gave him a medication that made the arthritis tolerable, but with warnings that it causes liver disease and other dreadful things. He took it for 30 years and in the end it was his liver that gave out, but his kidneys and some other organs were right behind and contributing. Sue has been great about it, appreciating that the meds gave them 30 years of good quality of life.
I will miss him, and he owes me a fishing excursion on his pontoon boat.
We still love being here on our missions. We will go back to Celje Sunday because I will conduct the worship meetings.
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