A LOVELY WEEK-END

Today is Monday, June 17th and it is a beautiful summer, warm, sunshine day.  I believe that it will be hot later on and they are predicting high humidity.  Therefore, I have already taken Houston out for a morning walk and I enjoyed it and so did he.  We met lots of people walking their dogs and Houston, being the visitor that he is, had to say his "hello" to each and every one of them. 

I had quite a lovely week-end.  On Saturday morning at 7:30 am I left my apartment with Corinne and Mark for a visit to Florence, Alabama.  We arrived at Turtle Point Golf and Country Club at 10:00am - just as Connor's 9th birthday party was beginning.  Approximately 20 boys his age were diving and swimming and playing games in the big, beautiful pool that is surrounded by lovely grounds and a lake with boats going by every few minutes.  Lunch was served on a covered deck of the club house.  Leslie had everything decorated beautifully, and had a wonderful lunch ordered of chicken nuggets, home-made potato chips, fruit that was served from a watermelon carved like a foot ball helmet and lots of cake pops and other treats.  The cake was an ice cream cake with football decorations.  Everything was football decorated even the water bottles and the napkins and plates and the signs on the wall.  Connor was celebrated in complete style to say the least.  After the party we went to Leslie and Russell's beautiful home and rested for a few hours.  I, along with some of the others, took a nap.  At 4:00pm we loaded into cars - Corinne, Mark, Leslie, Cannon, Cord, Jacque, Wayne and myself and went to the baseball field where we met Russell and Connor.  Connot's team played two baseball games. I don't see how they played because these are 8 and 9 year old boys who had been swimming all morning and then played baseball in the heat for four hours.  They really lost some of their steam in the last game and you could tell that they had worn themselves out and totally lost interest in the game.
Connor had some good hits and made some good catches from center field.  After the games were over and the chairs were folded and put in the cars we drove to downtown Florence for a lovely dinner at an Italian restaurant called Riggatoni's.  It was so reminiscent of the authentic restaurants in Italy - narrow, long, lots of booths and tables, people having wine and visiting with each other, smelled of garlic and other spices and the food was wonderful.  Needless to say, I was ready for the bed when we returned to Leslie's home.  Cord had graciously given his room to me and told me "Mimi you will like my room and my bed.  It is very cozy".  He was absolutely right.  The next morning I joined the rest of the family on the deck for coffee and a great breakfast of sausage balls, scrambled eggs, french toast casserole with warm syrup and juice.  What a great way to start the day.  It was so pleasant sitting on the deck eating and looking at the woods behind their house anticipating the presence of a deer.  Unfortunately, we never were privileged to see a deer that morning but I understand that earlier several had made an appearance.

After breakfast Wayne and Jacque packed my things into their car and we drove to Athens, Alabama which is my birthplace.  We went to the cemetery to try to find my father's grave.  After walking around for several minutes I remembered that the one time I went there years ago the grave was beside an old tree.  That gave us the clue we needed and we found my dad's grave which is next to my grandmother's grave.  Wayne made my picture standing beside my dad's grave and the fact that the day was Father's Day made it just that more special.  We left there and, with the help of the GPS, found the house where I lived for the first year of my life - until my father was killed in the horrible car accident.  Wayne made a picture of the house for me.  Then we went to the home of my two second cousins (I believe that the proper term is cousins twice removed) and had a lovely visit.  My relatives were so glad to see me after a long absence and I was equally happy to see them.  We went into Ben's house and he shared some genealogy records and pictures with me.  He was able to show everything on his big screen TV which made it so much better than having to go through papers and pictures and such.  He was so happy to serve us a wonderful cheese cake that is made with goat cheese and only available in Elkmont, AL or New York or can be ordered on line.  I will tell you it was wonderful - actually the best cheese cake I have ever eaten in my life.  I loved the short visit that I had with Ben, Jean and Jean's son, Joseph, so much and I plan to go back there for a full day in the very near future.  I have already spoken to Sara about taking me there and she is most willing to do so. 

 Reading the newspaper account of my father's accident which is very descriptive, and seeing his grave and realizing that this man, only 28 years old at death, was a real person who was responsible for me being the person that I am was quite emotional for me.  Since I never knew him I have never spent much time thinking about him or what kind of person he was or was he funny, kind, loving or just what.  According to the newspaper article it was written that he was very popular in the social circle of Athens and becoming a well known baker in the south.  It all makes me wonder just what would it would have been like if he had lived and we had stayed in Athens and my life would have been a totally different story.  It gives me pause to know that there would not have been Billy Cline nor my girls nor my grandchildren nor my great-grandchildren as I have today.  What a different scenario to contemplate.  I do know this much and it has always been apparent to me from my visits to Athens as a child and my visit yesterday, there is not a whole lot of stress there.  Speech is slow, movements are slow, nobody is in a hurry, nobody likes to travel much other than a vacation each year, the house is messed up and nobody cares, four cats were playing on the breezeway and lots of junk stacked up there, the yard in front was freshly mowed but the back was filled with overgrown weeds in flower beds, and grass cut but now trimmed.  My uncle's little grocery store building still sits at the edge of the property and Joseph has decided to "clean out the dirt dobbers and spiders and clean it up for storage".  They would never destroy anything that belonged to their ancestors.  Cars and trucks were parked randomly around the property.  The 140 acres that used to be planted in cotton or soy beans is mowed but not planted.  I know that my uncle had over a thousand acres of cotton when I was young so that tells me that a lot of the property has been sold and houses are all around their houses where nothing used to be. Time changes everything everywhere, even in Athens.

Yes, yesterday was a good day.  It was an emotional day.  It was a day for reflection and pondering and thinking about what might have been.  However, I am glad that I have the life I have now.  I can't imagine not having my girls and their spouses and their families.  They are my delight and my joy.  The Lord has told us that He has a plan for all of us and His plan for me is being carried out each and every day.  It has been a good plan and I have lived a wonderful life and hope to continue for many more years.  Whatever my plan is will be fine with me because God is good - all the time.

CATCHING UP

It is the month of June now.  Six months into the year 2013.  As all of the "old folks" say "where has the time gone?"  I have to look back on my calendar to see what, when and where my life has been and is going these days.  I really never thought I would be of the age to do this sort of thing.  I find, in talking to Barbara and some of my other friends, that they are experiencing the same situation.  Getting to the "golden years" certainly has some twists and turns in the road that I never expected.  If I sound depressed this morning, you will have to firgive me and understand that it is not my nature to have pity parties but I really did have one the other night and day.  On Tuesday night, June 4th, I went to Music Club with Barbara and Mary Jane Haynie.  Since I was scheduled to be on the program that night I had to prepare some sort of reading to give since I don't play a piano, organ nor sing.  I spent a long time researching the life and music of George Gershwin.  He was a good topic for me because he was both a classical (like most of the members of the club) and popular composer.  I had a magnificent, if I say so myself, research paper of this man. We had dinner at Red Lobster before going to the hostess's house on Whites Creek and then we assembled in this fabuous living-music room.  The performers before me did great jobs with their assignments and then it came my turn.  As if I had been banished to a cave or someother place of darkness, I could not read my report.  The lighting in the room was very dim, at least for my eyesight it was dim, and even though I had typed the paper and double-spaced the lines, I could not read it.  I, very softly  explained that with my eyesight I needed lots of light and the hostess jumped up and turned on the overhead lighting, which was recessed and probably 45 watt bulbs and did no good.  I just sat there in desperation and looked at Barbara who was sitting next to me.  She jumped up and said "if you will stand beside me, I will read your paper".  She did read it and, actually gave it more expression than I could have, and we finished and sat down to much applause and many compliments on my research and work.  After that we had dessert and came home and I went into a "blue funk".  It lasted several days.  Yes, my eyesight is giving me much concern these days.  I do not have a doctor that can give me one bit of expectations of better days.  In fact the Retina Specialist that I saw recently was quick to inform me that there was nothing that could be done for me.  I don't think that I will go blind - I'm not saying that - but my eyesight is not sharp in dull or dim light.  In the bright daylight I do real well until I come inside out of being in the light and then I can't distinguish people.  I have been known to walk by someone at a funeral home and not speak because I saw the person but could not see the features to know who it was.  That, my friends, is a devastating condition.  I am also having trouble writing on the lines of a check, tablet or anything that requires staying within a certain area. 

As if all of that wasn't bad enough, my latest event is just as bad under different circumstances.  This past Friday night I was packed up and ready to go to a log cabin in the woods with 8 of my good women friends from church.  I had been invited to go with this particular group on such an outing three times before and always had to decline because of previous commitments..  This time, however, I was raring to go and looking forward to it.  On Friday at noon I went with Paul, Johnny and Jane Steinhauer, Tom and Dena Bruce to lunch.  I did not take my oxygen into the restaurant (this is a normal habit because I don't use oxygen while eating) and the restaurant was not cool.  The air outside was muggy and heavy and some of that condition seemed to be inside this restaurant.  I thought I would be fine because the normal thing with these people is to eat, visit while eating, and then leave - hour and a half at most.  As we were finishing our meal a man and woman who are friends of the others stopped at our table and got into a political discussion with Johnny and during this time my oxygen level dropped seriously.  We left and I put on my oxygen but by the time I got home I was weak, breathing hard and couldn't breathe without the oxygen.  I rested and thought that would fix everything but it didn't.  I had to cancel at the last minute and stay at home.  Sara, who had come to stay with Houston, was here with me and I was glad to have her in the house.  She read her book and we watched a little TV but we didn't talk much and I began to recover.  The next morning I seemed much better and we had a good day. 

Enough about all of that health stuff and let me tell you about the best day of the week!!!!!  Emma, Ava and Anni spent the week with Nita in order to visit their grandparents and also attend VBS at First Baptist.  It didn't turn out quite like it usually does because Nita ended up having to work every day at the clinic that Ray has bought and they are getting "set up" on the computer and with files and insurance and such.  However, that didn't bother the girls because they loved VBS and had a great time being together away from their mothers and siblings.  Emily called me on Tuesday and asked if she could bring lunch and her children, pick up the girls whne VBS let out, and come here for a visit.  I, of course, jumped with joy.  Here she came at 1:00 with 7 of my great grandchildren, Subway sandwiches for everybody along with chips and cookies.  I made a couple of quarts of lemonade and some cookies and we took Houston and went to the picnic area here at the complex.  We spread out over the two tables and had lunch.  The older children began to play hide and seek which I had not seen children do in years.  We had no high-tech games on hand held phones or any of that.  They used their imagination and had a great time.  It was so delightful to watch children running, laughing, tagging a tree yelling "you're out".  It reminded me of the games I played in the yards on Rudolph Street with neighborhood kids.  You don't see that any more or at least I don't see it.  All I see is bored children with "nothing to do" and parents hauling them to places that cost money and can't hold their interest over 30 minutes.  I was so proud of these children and the way they are being brought up - using the resources at hand. 

I hear the lawn mowers going outside my window.  The lawn of this complex is just exquisite.  As I walk Houston around the grounds I can smell the sweet odor of the lilacs, the blooming hedges, the day lilies and many other flowers that I can't name.  You can even smell the honeysuckle that is growing on the greenway track beside my apartment.  It is like walking through the fragrance counters at  Dillards. Houston and I walk in the early morning while the grass still holds some dew and then we walk again as the sun is setting and it is a lovely way to start and end the day.  As I walk around and we meet people and the dogs say their "hellos" and I speak my hello to the other residents I feel so blessed to enjoy the beautiful surroundings and know that God is in control.  He knows how upset I got over my inability to see the other night and  the way I felt due to oxygen level getting low but he also knows how much I enjoyed those children and their mother and he know that he gave me Barbara and Sara for friends to help me in times of distress.  I say it over and over, not only in this Blog Space, but every day God is good - all the time.