Indian Summer Days and Birthday Shock

I can't think of anything more exhilarating that a crisp, Carolina blue-morning sky, the smell of campfires and bacon, and knowing you have to work 10 hours in an office.  Well, my office is great, because I can move it outside. 

I opened the office, planned on grabbing the phone and a pen and heading out to the porch, but it was steady phone and people for an hour and a half.  Finally there was a lull, and off to my rocker I ran.  Ahhh, such memories of the beautiful days in my life.  Closing my eyes, I fondly remembered the sounds and smells of my happiest days.  The traffic, the birds calling to each other, cicadas high in the trees, the warm smell of the  grass heated gently by the sun... ahh, memories.

A couple of years ago, I started a Journal for all my memories.  Some of them are sad, some are funny, some have such deep meaning for me that if others read them, they could possibly be almost foreign in nature.  But these are all special to me, and I enjoy reading them now, and will definitely later in life.

As the day went on, it got warmer and less busy.  I enjoy helping people at their leisure and always wish I could spend more time with them when it's hectic.  Everyone was happy on this beautiful day except about the traffic.  It is Shades of the Past Rod Run weekend, and that means long slow traffic on the Parkway as the lookers drive in the right hand lane and gawk at the hot rods that owners line up in the parking lots along the edge of the road.  It brings business to this area, but how the locals tolerate it, I don't know.   Next weekend we have another one.  Oh, joy.

Finally 7 pm came, and all was settling in for a cool fall evening.  I believe there is a full moon on Monday.

Sunday is usally a Dollywood day for me, but I'm off for a while during the lull.  So Gary had, of course, a Panera attack.  I wanted to decorate a little for fall and needed a grapevine wreath, so off to Maryville we went.  An hour later, we were sitting outside with fresh bagels and creamcheese to have with hazlenut coffee.  Yum.  We try to make it last, but it's too good, plus it was about 11:30 by then and we were really hungry.  Oh, well, we know where it is..

Michael's had their wreaths outside in bins, so we chose a nice one, then found a bag of "gourds" half priced, looked around a little and then left.  We stopped at Lowe's to get some lumber for that shelf I have been wanting for behind the couch, and found some pretty trip with leaves stamped in it.  They were 8 foot pieces, but we had the top down on the Jeep and I held on to them as we drove on home.

One advantage of a convertible... 





I worked on creating a wreath and Gary began staining the boards and measuring. 

Then as soon as Ron got back from working at the CG Office and Donna got home from Dollywood, we jumped in his truck and drove up to Buddy's BBQ to meet Brenda and Larry for some dinner.  Gary had chopped BBQ pork and I had ribs.

 They were OK, but it was late and they were just about ready to close, so we did get the dregs.  We'll have to try it again a little earlier in the day next time.  We said our goodnights at the restaurant with plans to visit Wild Buffalo Wings for Ron's birthday tomorrow night.  But that never happened.

By nine am I was in the CG Office opening, and Donna runs in to tell me that she's on her way to emergency with Ron.  He woke at 3 am complaining of stomach pain, and was sick.  By early morning, he had decided that he had another bowel obstruction, and needed to go to the hospital.  This would be his fourth time in 6 years.  So off she went and it was so busy I didn't have much time to think about what we could do.  Donna called a little while later and said they had him hooked up to a stomach pump (like before) and he doing OK with some pain killers.  Basically, the Doctors don't want to do surgery, but want to see if it will straighten out by itself.  Not a good way to spend your birthday!!!

It was a busy day, and I was ready to get to the hospital with Gary to see how Ron was doing.  I called Donna and told her we were bringing dinner.  Poor Ron.  He had this big tube in his nose and down his throat all the way to his stomach pumping yucky stuff into a jar on the wall.  But he brightened up when he saw us carrying a birthday present.  UNfortunately we forgot the camera, so we took pictures with Ron's new phone the Fascinate.  It's so new he doesn't know exactly how to get the photos to me, so I don't have them yet.  So this story will continue tomorrow...