Girls’ Weekend

Niece Julie mentioned that her group of childhood friends were planning a girls’ weekend in the mountains, so we offered our house as the venue. I was sure that a laughter-filled house would benefit us more than the savings would help them. They agreed to pose for a group picture before setting off to explore Waynesville.

111117 Girls weekend Chrissie Andrea Julie Barbara Kim.jpg

These young women grew up together in a small community near Charlotte. Their group jokes go back to Kindergarten, so they have a rich heritage. It slowly dawned on me that they were in and out of my brother’s house all the time. They saw him much more often than I did.

The horses that board in the pasture behind us were pleased to see us coming out with left-over apples. A chomp and a swallow took care of each offering.

There were no takers for sharing our morning walk. It was understandable. These ladies work hard all week and needed a morning without a schedule. We found that neighbors Connie and Dave, at the end of the street, provided a red carpet for our viewing pleasure. We would share that instead of exercise.

111117 Red carpet for Connie and Dave.jpg

Cataloochee Elk

Our excursion for the day with Maria and Franz was to look for elk in the Smoky Mountain National Park. The entrance to the park is just a short distance from our house, and the road is the most dramatically mountainous road in the area. It’s a lane and a half wide, twisting and turning over the mountain. On the way to Cataloochee Valley, we stopped at a turn in the road where there is a short climb to a viewing area. My best autumnal photo was taken as we were leaving that view.

A front shot is included to show the faces.

I would have been satisfied with spotting the elk at a distance. We were there in the middle of the day, not at prime time of dawn or dusk. We took some photos of part of the herd by zooming in.

There were numerous signs warning people to stay at least 150 feet from the animals and not to enter the meadow if they were there. After turning around, we found elk wading into the stream right beside the road. We were the first car with a ring-side seat. What a view!

One animal crossed the road, and I thought that was very special.

In a minute or so it passed right by my window. I could have sworn she was talking wordlessly and boasting that she had the law on her side, and I wasn’t allowed to get out of the car. I had news for her. I didn’t want to get in her path!

This was the documentation of our day, but the best part was unlimited talk from our morning walk to bed time. We never ran out of subjects to explore together. I admire Maria and Franz for not flagging, despite talking in English all day long.

Tales from the Vienna Woods

This is not about a waltz by Johann Strauss called Tales from the Vienna Woods. It’s about our lively friends who live in Vienna. We knew Maria in college when we were students, and she was the Fulbright scholar teaching German. In 1982 we visited her in Vienna. By then she had married Franz, and they had three sons. The photo shows all but me. Note that everyone else posed nicely, but baby John $ was camera shy even then.

8204 with Sunday papers.jpg

They are visiting us for a few days, and we are filling the gaps from the last 35 years. I was delighted with a story Maria told on herself, and if she gives her permission, I’ll relay it. [Permission received.]

It seems there was some concern that she would not be able to understand Southern speech, since Europeans learned English with a British accent. It was decided that she should be thrown into the culture before going to our college. For eight weeks she lived with a farming family in Alabama, a family that raised chickens and grew cantaloupes and watermelons. Because the cantaloupes went to market, they were never allowed to eat any. Watermelons were sold, too, but the family ate some every day. The farmer used a huge knife to cut slices for them to eat outside, and the chickens were there underfoot to eat all the black seeds the people discarded.

Maria could not understand the thick accents of the parents and the children. One day they sat down at the table to eat, and the farmer repeated the same words he said every day at mealtime. She figured it had to be a prayer, considering the setting. He was saying, “Oh Lord, hep us to….”

Maria said, “After I got that, I could understand most of the things they said.”

This morning Franz and Maria walked with us to the creek, and I took the usual photo to prove they had gone with us.

110617 Franz Maria John at creek.jpg

Frosty!

“On a cold, frosty morning…” are words in a Christmas carol that I like. I’m not rushing the season, but it was cold and frosty the other day. Several times a week we see neighbor Marla while we are walking and she is walking Albert before going to work. Frost decorated the road mirror in a whimsical design. I invited the others to join me in a selfie to record the moment.

103017 John Anne Marla Albert frosted.jpg

The mirror enables the owners of the house behind us to see what is coming on the road. When a few more leaves fall, we’ll be able to spot our house through the woods at that point. The road winds around, hugging the mountain, and our dead-end street slopes toward the valley.

I wanted to see what our garden was like in the cold. Little did I know that we had a private skating rink for the birds under the pergola. Woodstock, the bird in the Peanuts cartoon, is the only one I know who would enjoy it.

103017 Frozen birdbath.jpg

Most of the rose petals had fallen, leaving behind lovely star designs. Some warmer afternoon, I’ll prune that bush and trim other plants for the winter.

103017 Frozen roses.jpg

The oak leaves will have the final word.

Happy-ending Halloween

We knew neighbor Logan wouldn’t be getting candy for Halloween, so we asked Shawn to send him over for a non-edible treat. We chatted with him as we finished our meal on the porch. To his credit, he didn’t ask what we had for him, just waited patiently. I said I’d get two little things for him. John asked, “What do you think we have?”

In a very small voice, Logan said, “A costume?”

My heart sank, because I didn’t think a helium balloon would measure up to his hopes. As soon as I handed it to him, he pulled the ribbon, and the balloon escaped to the ceiling. As I looked at the photos later, I saw that retrieving it brought him great pleasure. That was the best thing that could have happened, wouldn’t you agree?

103117 Logan on Halloween (4).jpg

I thought Halloween was over when he left our house. An hour or so later, John opened the front door and called to me, “Come see who is here!”

Logan was so excited about his costume that he couldn’t keep his feet still. I begged him to slow down so I could take a picture. I wouldn’t be surprised if you could see him twitching in the still photo.

103117 Masked trick or treater.jpg

A minute later he lifted the mask, and we could see his cute face. His total satisfaction showed as he beamed from ear to ear. This might have been the best Halloween of his whole life!

103117 Logan unmasked.jpg

Halloween without Candy

I’m glad neighbors Shawn and Bob let us know ahead of time that Logan couldn’t have candy. My sympathy was with them, trying to keep it away from him at this time of year. Then I thought of being a seven-year-old on Halloween. Everyone at school would be longing for mountains of candy. How my heart ached for him! What could we do? I was about to throw away the packing that cushioned our new router when I remembered how much Logan enjoyed stomping on air bags. We gave him the bags on the porch as we finished our meal. Minor explosions followed as he jumped on them.

103117 Logan jumping on air bag (1).jpg

The real present was a helium balloon. After I handed it to him, he jumped about with it, and the ribbon came off. If he had been outside, that would have been the end of it. We all laughed that it was hugging the ceiling.

103117 Logan on Halloween (2).jpg

John said, “Come, let me pick you up, and you can grab it.”

It dangled there, just out of reach.

103117 Logan on Halloween (3).jpg

“Climb up on my shoulders,” John instructed.

103117 Logan on Halloween (4).jpg

As they were retrieving the balloon, Logan’s mind was racing. He asked, “What would have happened if it had been outside?”

103117 Logan on Halloween (5).jpg

We explained that it would have gone up in the sky. He asked, “Would it come back down at the same place?”

103117 Logan on Halloween (6).jpg

It didn’t take much imagination to know what he was thinking. He’d go home, and on the way he’d let the balloon go. It would come back to him, and then he’d go in his house. John said it would keep rising, blown about by the wind, and eventually pop. I jumped in and said we should not do that, because it would be harmful if an animal tangled with the pieces.

John played one long game of checkers with Logan, and then he got up to go. “Thank you for the balloon,” he said as he opened the door.

I intended to watch him run across the street to see if the balloon made it. By the time I realized he was leaving and walked to the door, he was long gone.

Happy Halloween, Logan!

Five Hundred Years!

This is the 500^th anniversary of Martin Luther’s nailing the 95 theses on the door of the church. We mark it as the beginning of the Protestant reformation. John read a lot about Luther this year. One fact new to him was that Luther wrote 20% of everything that was published at that time! The invention of the printing press enabled him to share his prolific writings all over Europe. No wonder we know a lot about him!

For almost a year, John and I have been wearing the sweatshirts sister Chris gave us. Today I finally took a photo of us together.

103117 Reformation 500th anniversary.jpg

Have a blessed Reformation Day!

Nice Niece Weekend

The weekend was nice; the nieces were priceless. Julie is my brother’s daughter, and Patty is a niece by choice. They worked together running a group home years ago.

Our one excursion was going to my favorite waterfall. I have any number of photos of the falls from my vantage point looking up the mountain. This time I took one from the other side of the highway where I’m looking down. The highway is a twisty one that winds around the mountain. The bridge is two lanes wide, with just enough room for one row of tourists to breathe while looking at the cascade. From looking at some brochures, I found the name to be Sunburst Falls. If you Google Sunburst Falls NC, you can see much more dramatic photos than I could give you. Julie and Patty made appropriate noises of approval before we piled in the car and continued onto the Blue Ridge Parkway. We discovered that the leaves were past peak up there.

102717 Waterfall downstream.jpg

Another day the weather did what the weathermen said it would do – rain, heavy at times, all day. We stayed inside and talked the livelong day. At one point we were laughing uncontrollably. I won’t share the story, because no one could tell it like Julie. The basics were certainly met. We had shelter, food, and hilarity.

Sunday was the celebration of Reformation Day. It was the 500^th anniversary of Luther’s nailing the 95 theses on the door of the church in Germany. Our church went all out with special music. During the service they presented Bach’s Cantata BWV 80 based on the hymn, A Mighty Fortress is Our God. The director of music also arranged that hymn for the hand bell choir. I was very impressed with all of it. Only members of the orchestra were paid. Soloists were regular members of the choir. John sang bass in the choir, and he was listed as Cantor John Mehrling because he did the service chants. Before the service, I made Julie, Patty, and John pose before two of the three banners in the sanctuary.

102917 Julie Patty John in church.jpg

We ate lunch not far from the church and dropped by the farmer’s market for Julie to scope out the place. She will be here with a group of her friends in a couple of weeks and was looking for things they might like to do. Julie and Patty headed East as John and I drove home in a snowstorm. I’ve seen snow falling on colored leaves only once or twice before in New York. It is an odd sight.

102917 Fall colors and snow.jpg

It was a Setup

The new router came in the mail, and I put it aside until the house was clean! For once, I was rewarded for doing the right thing. I think that’s defined as doing what has to be done without too much complaining. In all fairness, I must say that John offered to help. It’s just that I couldn’t wait for it. Wonderful guests are coming Thursday evening, and my deadline for cleaning was Tuesday. The next two days will be spent in the kitchen so that I’ll be free to visit. John is one who needs adrenaline. If you aren’t one of those, you know a few. Urgency would not arise until the company hit the highway. I could see myself tripping over the vacuum on the way to the front door.

What I did was dangerous. My brain hardly functions after 6 pm, but I put off the router installation until John went to choir rehearsal. The fewer people wanting to be connected, the better. As is the norm now, the instructions were pictures on a card, a small card. I was to plug in the new device for power, hook it up to the modem, and download an app on the phone. Really? Was this written by someone with purple/orange hair? Without WiFi, my phone would not download anything, but it would put its load down. While still connected to the internet, I got the app before beginning to unplug things. Despite my reading everything six times, the process went smoothly.

Connecting one computer to the internet was the tip of the iceberg. Without a trumpet fanfare, I was able to hook up two phones, two tablets, a desktop computer, and a laptop. The only thing left hanging was the printer. It has taken a printer vacation – it’s offline. I quit when John came home. Here’s hoping brilliance will strike when we unplug everything to rearrange the wires behind the desk. Thank heavens this turned out to be a good set-up process and did not set me up for disaster!

Meanwhile, during the day, autumn is progressing nicely.

102417 Autumn from the deck.jpg

“Where Am I?”

A white van stopped beside us as we walked down the road. The driver asked, “Where am I?”

John replied, “You’re on Qualla Road. Are you lost?”

“Just need to know where I am. Where am I?”

I judged the man to be in his 60s or 70s and hoped he wasn’t suffering from dementia. He pulled up a camera for us to see and mumbled something about back roads. John explained that he was in Jonathan Creek and that I-40 was to the right and Waynesville to the left.

He said, “Now I know where I am. Thank you.”

He drove on down the hill, but instead of going to the highway, he turned into Sorrell’s a few feet earlier. I wondered if he wasn’t satisfied with our directions, needed gas, or really knew where he was and went in for breakfast.

It should be etched on my face. People need to know that when they ask me a question, I want to know their life histories. “Where am I?” and “Back roads” don’t cut it.