#279 Nomad Diary. 21-27 February 2026. Kingsport, Tennessee Visit With Darrell's Brother, Glenn and Phoebe. New Pixel 10 Phones.

 

Beautiful View Looking Out of Pat's Sun Porch in Kingsport, Tennessee

Sister-in-law: Phoebe, Host: Pat, Hostess: Melissa

Mountain View Looking From a Ridge Near Glenn and Phoebe's House in Kingsport, Tennessee

On the Phone with Son, Jeremy and Grandson, Quinn, Andrea in Background, Blocked by Penguin.

Saturday. 21. We are able to sleep without an alarm and get up and do our daily exercises inside the small, enclosed patio area. Phoebe cooked us a fabulous breakfast as is her practice.Today Phoebe is one of several hostesses for a bridal shower. She invited me to go with her after she cleared it with the main hostess. All of the women attending are members of the church where Glenn and Phoebe attend. We’ve visited several times and so I have met these women before. It has been 1 ½ years since our last visit here. Phoebe and I arrive at Pat's house where the party will begin at 10am. Phoebe brought chicken salad for the party spread. Other hostesses added their foods and we had a beautiful and delicious banquet. I enjoyed meeting each hostess and finding where I could help out. I got assigned as the party photographer. I was so happy about this since I just got my new phone and I wanted to try out my new camera. The camera took better pictures than my old phone camera. I was able to get most of the women attending and then shared the pictures with Lillyann, the bride-to-be. The women arrived at the party and we all ate. Lillyann opened her gifts. It was a very sweet occasion for her and everyone. 

Back at Phoebe’s house, she stayed busy preparing food for Sunday lunch for the four of us and 3 guests. In the evening we played a game of Contract Rummy together. 

Sunday. 22. We arrived at the church with Glenn and Phoebe. We had an hour-long Bible class, followed by Acapella congregational singing, communion and a sermon. After morning worship we went back to Glenn and Phoebe’s house for her homecooked meal. Phoebe had prepared mustard glazed chicken legs, noodles with vegetables and beef, cooked in Filipino style, homemade rolls and green beans. After our main meal, Phoebe served a light cheesecake for dessert. It was all very delicious. The company was enjoyable. The couple who came over had a large service dog with them named Ozzy. Ozzy was there with Shari. Chris also came over for lunch. He is a regular invitee for Sunday lunch, and we enjoyed getting to know him again since our last visit. Later, at 5pm, we went back to the church building for the monthly, hour long song service. 

Grandson, Owen, in Alabama

Granddaughter, Esther in Alabama

Monday. 23. The weather turned cold on Sunday and today. There have been a few flakes of snow. Today Darrell drove me and Phoebe about 30 minutes to an Amish store called Yoder’s. We enjoyed shopping and getting a few items there including some vitamin C and some ground coffee. When I was checking out, my credit card was refused. I kept trying different ways, but I was locked out. Darrell tried his card and then another account, but we were locked out as possible ‘fraud’. Phoebe paid our bill for us to get cleared out of the store and free up the line of waiting customers. When we got back to the house, Darrell called the bank and got the accounts working again. We were wondering how our new phones may have affected our electronic banking. After lunch we went to a local grocery and the account was back to working again. We had a call today from our son, Jeremy, Andrea and Quinn. They have been in Portland, Maine since returning to the US from Brazil last week. They are having to stay an extra day from their original plan because there is a current snow storm that shut down Boston today.

Tuesday. 24. Still working through new phone issues and understanding it. After dinner, the four of us played a game of Contract Rummy. We began a second game, but decided to stop after the first round and continue at another time.

Baptizing a Believer at Kingsport Church of Christ, Tennessee

Baptism Completed (a New Birth, a New Follower of Christ, a Christian) at Kingsport Church of Christ, Tennessee

Wednesday. 25. Darrell and I slept soundly through the night! The promise of warmer weather today in Kingsport, Tenn. Darrell made pancakes for breakfast. His brother, Glenn, gets up about 6am, has a quick breakfast and begins his job remotely. Phoebe had a pancake with us a little later in the morning. Through the morning, Phoebe is preparing lunch for the four of us. Glenn is in his office working with a break for lunch. Darrell and I are mostly on our pc’s and new phones. I am going through my apps and finding passwords and seeing what works and what doesn’t. We also have some forward travel planning for the coming week in Maryland. I had a brief conversation with our airbnb host. I also initiated a conversation with two of Glenn and Phoebe’s daughters who live in Pennsylvania and we might get to visit next week. Tonight is Bible class at the church building. There was a baptism tonight. A man stood and told of his repentance for living a sinful life and his knowledge that Christ is the Son of God and his Savior. We wanted to be baptized and live his new life confession. Wow! I took a couple of fuzzy pictures of this beautiful transformation for Shaun.

Darrell on Our Ridge Walk Near Glenn's House in Kingsport, Tennessee

Mountains and Clouds View On Our Ridge Walk in Kingsport, Tennessee

Phoebe in Her Kitchen with this Pie Looking Gigantic in the Foreground. lol.

Phoebe and Glenn at Their Dining Table with a Fabulous Phoebe Meal of Red Snapper, Rice and Curry Vegetables

Thursday. 26. We stayed at the house, worked on computers, visited, ate well, etc.

Friday. 27. Same as yesterday. In the evening we were included with Glenn and Phoebe’s church singing group. They get together once a month for dinner and singing at someone’s house. Today’s group is again at Pat’s house where we went for the Bridal Shower. 

Nomad Notes. Pat hosted the Saturday bridal shower at her house. Her house was so cozy and wonderfully warm and inviting. Pat’s home reflects her kindness and willingness to share. 

Pat and I met back in another city because of our connection through church. Darrell and I lived in Leavenworth, KS in 1990. In February of 1990 I gave birth to our 3rd son, Benjamin. Benjamin was diagnosed with a major heart defect which I’ve previously written about. At that time, we attended a different congregation than Pat, but we knew each other. Pat’s husband Tom is a preacher and they were known to us because we had visited their congregation for gospel meetings and vacation Bible school. In their congregation a baby boy had been born with Down’s Syndrome. There were many messages going back and forth and prayer requests for our difficult situations with these newborns. 

About Shari’s service dog, Ozzy: Shari told me some interesting things about Ozzy. He had finished his 2 years of training about 3 months earlier. In the past couple of months he had alerted her and husband, Randy, and saved Shari’s life twice. Once in the middle of the night, she had dropped blood sugar. She said that she was slipping into a coma. Ozzy jumped on top of her, licked her face and barked her awake. Next Ozzy jumped onto Randy and slapped him in the face. They got up and went to the emergency room. Shari spent time in the hospital recovering. The second life-saving story happened during the afternoon. Ozzy came to Shari and gave her his alert to her condition. She said she couldn’t feel anything unusual, but she and Randy packed up and went to the emergency room. By the time they arrived she was feeling bad. It turned out that she had a heart attack and Ozzy saved her life.

One of the most enjoyable aspects of our worship at the church of Christ is our practice of acapella congregational singing. Both Darrell and I grew up singing hymns and learning to worship God in this way. The assemblies are open to visitors and this is an amazing highlight to experience. 

New Pixel 10 Phones: While we were in Athens, Alabama for the last few weeks, Darrell began researching our need for new phones. He discovered that our Samsung S-21 phones would be phasing out on the security upgrades. This made it important for us to move forward with technology and get new phones. Our choice came down to the Pixel 10 or the new Samsung. We decided to try the Pixel. He purchased them and drop shipped them to Glenn’s house in Tennessee. We have been spending time during our stay getting up and running with our new phones. So far, for me, the change of phones has been going smoothly in many regards. Finding app passwords in some cases is challenging and other cases fairly simple. Years ago I set up google password manager and this is usually where I look to find my passwords. There are some exceptions, but so far none of what I have found has caused any problems for me. I’m not completely through all of my apps yet, but still continuing to learn the new phone and moving forward on my work in progress. 

It’s been a week for Darrell and me to slow down. I’ve enjoyed the relaxation and the comfort of visiting with Glenn and Phoebe. I’ve had some deep memory reflections and thoughts that I make notes on and pray about. 

Ephesians 5:18-20: “...be filled with the Spirit, 19 addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart, 20 giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ…”

2 Corinthians 10: 3 For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. 4 For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. 5 We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ,