What do I do for fun?

It's a question that people ask me occasionally.  I sometimes struggle to find a decent answer.  I don't watch much TV.  I don't play computer games.  

My son, Ron's wife, Elisabet, who he snatched from Argentina, thinks skydiving is great, but somehow it doesn't appeal to me.  She also just completed a 55 mile race on one of her two Arabian horses in high mountain rough terrain... and finished fourth!  She  has enough blue ribbons and trophies to fill a wall!  Her husband, Ron, 58 years of age, still loves to play soccer.  His younger brother Mike, 54, was a semi-professional soccer player.  He now plays golf, but I was never good at that.     

So what do I do for fun? ...besides occasionally going hiking with my son, Tim,  and grandson, Evan?  

Well, I am reading a lot these days.  And have been greatly blessed by the journals of great missionaries of the past.

And yesterday I enjoyed giving a "flat-top haircut" to a plant that was going wild in my back yard.

Today I cut off a dead branch from one of the two palms in my front yard.  This however, was almost like work... ha.

Then sprayed for ants, covering, as always, the circumference of the entire house.  Definitely not fun, but a necessary evil.

But for fun?  Well, I often randomly sit at the piano and worship the Lord... sometimes bringing to mind and singing some old chorus such as "Jesus, Jesus, Jesus!  There is just something about that name."  Or going way back there to "Standing Somewhere in the Shadows You'll find Jesus" and "Precious Lord, Take My Hand, Lift me up, Let me Stand..."  And sometimes the tears flow... 'cause I've always been a cry-baby.

And, oh yes, just for fun I am learning to play my new Golden Tone Hawaiian Steel Guitar... and even producing computer generated rhythm and orchestration backgrounds with a program called "Band in a Box."  I started learning the Hawaiian guitar when I was 16, but I only took 6 lessons.  I really need to take some more... one of these days.  

Now since I am going back and forth to Argentina frequently, I decided to leave my eight string "Magnatone" Hawaiian guitar there and recently purchased this "Golden Tone", also eight string, to have something to play here in the USA.  I love to play the old hymns... just for myself... like "He Hideth My Soul in the Cleft of the Rock that shadows a dry thirsty land...,"  "I Come to the Garden Alone" and many others.

Am I having fun yet?  You bet!  My darling Frances is gone and I miss her more than words can express, but she did not leave me alone.  I've invited Jesus to share my home with me and we have a good thing going!

Ralph