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Tuesday, March 26, 2024

Plugging Away

56°f  this morning, about 14°C. Thunder and heavy rain. The rain lasted most of the day, with sun breaking through this evening at last.

A soggy, gray day here today, but I had a couple things to do that kept me busy. First up was taxes. I am almost done, just one little thing to figure out. The other task was listing 9 pairs of athletic shoes on Ebay. Not my usual sort of stuff! These belong to my youngest son, who sent them back with us for me to sell for him.

I did not know that there were shoe collectors!  But why wouldn't there be, when people collect pretty nearly every possible thing you can imagine. Athletic shoes are a pretty hot item, and my son had some worth a few hundred dollars.  So Momma learned some things about listing shoes today while Larry made the 5 hour round trip to the VA hospital for a routine eye exam and some podiatry.  Exciting times around here, as you can see.

Do you often have a song running through your mind? I swear my mind is a jukebox, that makes some very random selections! Today 's mental melody was the Wassail Song. You know the one..."here we come a-wassailing among the leaves so green..."  Larry said it must be my morning tra bringing out the English in me. Sarah was having breakfast with us, and asked if Wassail was English. 

Well, it is, sort of. I suppose it was the English who made it well-known at least in our times. But wassail's origins are actually Norse. I remember from my storytelling days that it was the Norse who brought it to England, and that it was a warm alcoholic drink that was consumed after the toast "Was Heil", which meant "good health".  The favorite vessel back there in the 4th century was the skull of one's enemy. I am very glad that part of the tradition died away (see what I did there?). 

So that was today's jukebox selection. Yesterday it was "Meet Me in St. Louie, Louie". I wonder what tomorrow's will be?

Can't end without a photo or two, so here are a couple more from our trip.

Evening on Tybee Island



Morning in Savannah



A little lighthouse on the way to Tybee


Leaving Savannah and wondering if that muggy air is pollution, swamp gas, or something else?


Along the interstate, wisteria goes wild

Traffic near Charlotte. This was fairly light, but from the South Carolina line to almost the Virginia line, traffic was unbelievable.  I hope we can find a better route next time.


Charlotte, NC


And finally, back in the mountains!


Pilot Knob, NC. Years ago we actually walked up that mountain.


In West Virginia


And our state Capitol, bathed in the sunset.




Copyright Susanna Holstein. All rights reserved. No Republication or Redistribution Allowed without attribution to Susanna Holstein.

Monday, March 25, 2024

Signs

40°f and clear, about 4°C. Beautiful full moon set at about 7:00am.

We saw so many funny or just interesting signs on our trip to Florida last week. Here are a few from Tybee Island and Savannah, Georgia, where we stopped on the way home.












Copyright Susanna Holstein. All rights reserved. No Republication or Redistribution Allowed without attribution to Susanna Holstein.

Sunday, March 24, 2024

Roller Coaster

25°f this morning or, _4°C. Heavy frost, which has probably killed off the pear harvest this year. Clear and cold day.

At least we didn't have snow,  like those of you up north. As someone said, snow is more magical on December 25th than it is on March 25th!

It was so hard to leave our son in Miami. Such a long way away, and he is really missing family these days.  But I am grateful for our visit with him, and expect we will be going back soon. No matter how old, sometimes a man just needs his Mom and Dad.

Seems like things are snowballing along (metaphorically speaking, no snow here!) since we got home. We had some real worry when we learned that the wildfires in Eastern West Virginia were threatening my sister's home and that of one of her sons. 

Photo from WBOY website. Read more here

Very scary, with ash blowing, my sister, her husband and family out building firebreaks with dozens of volunteers, firetrucks parked outside their homes, wind that would not lie down spreading the fire. She messaged me at 2:30am Friday morning that the danger had passed, but later that day the fire was back. Finally the federal forest service firefighters were deployed along with the national guard and the fire seems to be contained and the danger for my sister has passed. For now anyway.

One of her sons did lose his getaway cabin,  which burned to the ground along with 7 or 8 others in the same area. Lost River State Park, which adjoins their properties, had hundreds of acres burned but fortunately none of the cabins were affected. 

My oldest son also lives in that area but although they can see some of the fires they are a good distance away. I am hopeful that yesterday's rain and today's frost might have slowed down the fires. 

Such a worry! But there have been good things too. Granddaughter Sarah arrives this evening from Colorado so we are getting ready and looking forward to having her for the next two weeks. Yesterday evening we took dinner to our friend Rachel's house for a pleasant visit. Sarah's parents will be staying at Rachel's little b&b and Rachel wanted us to check it over to be sure it was okay--which of course it was. 

Friday after unpacking from our trip we restocked one of our booths and picked up a few things at the store. Yesterday morning and today I am doing laundry. What a pile we had! I usually do a load almost every day, but we had 6 day's worth from our trip plus the usual household odds and ends. The last load is in the washer, thank the gods.

I have had hardly a minute to get outside, but tomorrow perhaps I will have time for some garden work as the weeds are already getting out of hand in the flowerbeds. We are behind with mulching but I hope we can catch up this week. Fingers crossed!

Copyright Susanna Holstein. All rights reserved. No Republication or Redistribution Allowed without attribution to Susanna Holstein.
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