Like Old Times

When walking back from the stop sign, I joined neighbor Julie and her dogs on the road at Shawn and Bob’s house. Julie was just beginning her walk, and she chatted with Shawn and Bob from the street. When Julie continued her walk, Shawn invited me to the porch for a cup of coffee. We used to do that from time to time, but we’ve all been busy this year. Bob went inside to make my coffee, as Shawn invited me to sit in his rocking chair. He came back and sat in the straight chair.

We talked a mile a minute, catching up with each other’s news. I have a tendency to overstay my welcome, so I told myself to sip the coffee and leave when the cup was empty. It was hard for me to do. I love to talk and listen!

I announced my intention to leave, rocked the chair forward, and failed to get up. To avoid being stuck like that, I get up and down from a chair ten times every morning. I tried a second time, pushing against the armrests. No go!

Bob said, “Count to three and do it again.”

I obeyed and counted to three. I did get up, noticing at the same time that Bob’s hand had pushed the chair forward when I reached three. Cool trick, Bob! Actually, it was a very kind thing to do, saving me from total embarrassment. Can you imagine thoroughly enjoying porch hospitality and then physically being unable to leave?? Aarrgghh!

Thank you, Bob.

Playing Online Games

For months, neighbor Shawn, niece Chrissie and I have played two New York Times games together. We compare Wordle and Connections by sharing our results with each other. We can’t see the letters we used, only colored tiles. I think we are quite evenly matched. Almost every day one of us could fail a game, although sometimes we all do well. It’s a fun thing, not cut-throat competition. I have miserable results in Connections whenever a group involves sports, movies, or TV. The others do much better than I do in those areas. If I have a strong point, I don’t know what it is.

Often we are disappointed in ourselves because we missed something we should have known. I decided to cut little pieces of paper and write the 16 words of Connections on them. Surely it would help to push the words around while hunting for a common theme for each set of four. If I found a set I was sure of, I’d push those four words to one side. I did that and immediately found one set. Taking those words out of play made it much easier to spot the connections of the other sets. In seconds I finished the game with perfect results. I was shocked. I shared my results with the others and explained what I had done. I decided it was cheating. I’m sure I wouldn’t have done as well if I had shifted things around in my head. Was it the writing of each word? Was it being able to instantly group things because they were not connected as they were on the screen? I have no idea, but I know I was going at warp speed. That felt REALLY GOOD!

Labor Day

Labor Day is a national holiday in the United States, and for the last 11 years I’ve gathered with the neighbors to have a cookout. I have no idea what an ideal celebration of the day would entail. The day is often the beginning of autumnal events – the start of the new school year and easing into pumpkin season. For me, it was just an excuse to party and enjoy family and neighbors.

This year was different. I’m laughing now that I canceled our cookout because I had tendinitis in my shoulder. If I had only waited two more days, I would have canceled because of Coffee Disaster Number Two! The first awful thing happened when daughter Lise was here. I wasn’t paying attention and failed to put the cup under the drip of the coffee machine. I saw a pool of brown on the floor and knew my carelessness was to blame. Lise kindly helped me clean up the mess. It’s a shame I didn’t swear off coffee that instant (but I don’t want to have anything to do with instant coffee).

Two days ago I was putting away clean mugs and didn’t realize I’d left a mug full of coffee in the same area. I lifted two mugs with one hand and began to sling them toward the mug rack. I recognized the sound of liquid splashing on the floor and knew without looking that it was brown. Coffee Disaster Number Two!! At the very end of the cleanup, I reached a tiny bit too far and felt a muscle tearing in my upper leg. Thankfully, I didn’t fall down. After two days, I am perfectly fine as long as my right knee is always facing forward. With the least deviation, I will yelp and straighten the knee. No one needs that kind of drama, so it’s good that I am alone while waiting to heal.

If this was a holiday for you, I hope it was free of disaster.

Smothered by Glory

Two or three years ago, neighbor Shawn gave me Morning Glory seeds. I scattered them only once, and they’ve come back bigger and better every year. Each morning while daughter Kate was here, we counted the blooms. I think there were 28 one morning. I thought one tendril was reaching out to a mystery weed/tree nearby. I left that plant growing, wanting to see what its blooms were like. Well, now it is being strangled and smothered by the morning glory vine. I’m okay with that, since the buds never blossomed. In my opinion, it didn’t deserve to live.

While scattering coffee grounds in skunk holes in the garden, I went closer to the vine. It had reached out, grabbed the weed/tree, and pulled it close to the house. It was no longer standing on its own. [The images below turned themselves sideways. I redid them for an hour, but they refused to show the way they were taken. I am disgusted and have given up for the day.]

I moved to one side to get a different angle, and the entanglement can be seen clearly. This change took place in three days!

I’m now having second thoughts about the wickedness of the wisteria plant on the pergola. It often waved tendrils toward the house, which I took as an aggressive action. It looks quite tame now, after Kate and David trimmed it last week. I’m thinking the morning glory vine is the real killer, and much closer to my living space. I’m sure I’m safe this year, but I shall be on guard next spring when new plants spring up. If they are bigger and stronger and faster than these, I could be in real danger.

End of Kate’s Visit

The day before daughter Kate drove home, we went to church with David. He was in the choir, so we could see him all during the service. We met in the kitchen area for the coffee hour. I suspect he doesn’t take time to eat breakfast on Sunday mornings, so he enjoys the food set out there. A woman came up to our table and introduced herself. She was looking at Kate and me. A woman sitting next to me said our names and mentioned we were David’s mother and grandmother. The standing woman had excitement in her voice as she asked, “OUR DAVID????” That’s when she saw him sitting with us. David is a favorite there, and it tickles our hearts that people always respond to him with great enthusiasm.

Restaurants are crowded after church, so we drove by several of our favorites and saw long lines of people waiting to get in. David mentioned Waynesville Pizza, and I thought that was a good idea. It isn’t open on Fridays when he and I go out for lunch, and he has been wanting to go there. This was perfect. We ordered a medium-sized pizza to share. Because David is a thin, bottomless pit, he suggested loaded fries as an appetizer. The plate was HUGE. The hot fries were covered with cheese and bacon pieces, and there was ranch dressing for dipping. We couldn’t finish it. We did demolish the pizza, and David took the rest of the fries home.

I got up at my usual time on Monday, and Kate finished loading her car. She left about the time I usually walk, so I followed her on foot. She was probably almost through the gorge before I got back home.

We chatted on the phone three or four times as she drove to New Jersey. I am always relieved to know she is through the gorge, where the road is still being repaired after the hurricane destroyed sections of it. A line of traffic was behind a large truck, which was just as well. It was quite foggy there. The fog lifted, and traffic moved well until she began to hit rain off and on much of the way home. At least it wasn’t a huge storm system with heavy rain. She got home in record time, making it in twelve and a half hours. Even at her age, I would never have considered such a drive by myself. I stay amazed that it doesn’t faze her at all.

Work and Fun

The day began with fun. Daughter Kate, grandson David, and I were walking to the stop sign when Bob and Shawn stopped in their car to chat with us. The action was very quick, because another car came up behind them just as CAT jumped on the hood of their car. I was able to get one very quick shot before Bob slowly rolled forward. Of course, CAT jumped to safety.

The big job of the day was burning the garden clippings that had mounted up for five months. I would have tried to dispose of them myself, but we had weeks and weeks of drought when burning was prohibited. Kate and David always work well together, and they actively fed the fire for over three hours.

The very next day they trimmed the Wicked Wisteria, starting a new burn pile. The garden really looks good right now, thanks to them.

For fun, we ate lunch on the side of a mountain where the views are awesome. It’s easy to catch people being still while eating, so I have lots of photos taken at mealtime.

Tiny Family Reunion

Nathaniel drove from Charlotte to see us on the only day he had off while Kate was here. David joined us after he finished work for the day. It had been over a year since Kate had seen her sons together. It was so much fun to eat at the same table.

Later Nathaniel balanced bags of candy on his head. We we laughing, but he was holding still. The bags didn’t move until Nate took them off.

They posed for a more formal portrait.

Kate is Here!




Daughter Kate and I chatted from time to time as she drove from New Jersey to North Carolina. She made it in record time –12.5 hours! The first morning here, we walked to the stop sign. I hadn’t been there for over a month because I didn’t want the sun on the surgical sites on my face. It was very foggy, so perhaps I didn’t need the protecting hat.

“Good to see you back!”

While I was walking, a car slowed down, and a white-haired woman said, “It’s so good to see you back!”

I knew exactly what she meant. When an old person disappears for a while, others wonder what happened. Did she break her hip? Is she in the hospital? Is she dead??

This lovely lady phrased it exactly right, with a positive spin. I quickly explained that I’d had surgery on my face and could not be in the sun for a while. She had wondered where I was and was glad I was walking again. In our understated way, we were celebrating the resumption of a normal life after a medical pause.

Lets Call Him Joe

A friend of the family, who would be embarrassed by my writing about him, spent much of a day mending things in my house. He moved at an amazing speed and juggled things with alacrity. He was on a ladder, spackling edges of my bathroom ceiling, and he was on his knees checking a leak in the laundry room toilet. Knowing there had been gushes of water from the roof at the back of the house, Joe lugged a huge ladder there and cleaned out one small section of the gutter that was clogged. I hadn’t thought about raising a garage door if the electricity was off. He reattached a rope so that I could reach it. Pulling it will let me raise the door manually. One of the biggest jobs was installing some steps into the crawl space under the house. He had brought the steps the last time he came, and this time he finished the job. It is amazing.

When it was time for lunch, Joe offered me one of the hamburger patties he had brought, along with rice. At first I said I couldn’t let him serve me lunch, but that was ungracious. Thinking aloud, I asked if a lettuce salad would round out the meal. What a delightful time it was, to eat and chat while remembering old times! He had a special rapport with my dad, and we laughed about a time he found a tree growing in dirt inside his truck.

Although I had done very little, I was tired at the end of the day. Joe was still going strong. What a blessing you have been, Joe!