Back Home

Coming back, one day driving in the rain, and the second half-day in the snow. Air-conditioner in the rental car yesterday, the heater today. Great drives, both ways. The habit of consequence. First Welcome Center, there's a little dog on a leash, peeing on one of those giant poles that carry the overhead awful yellow lights. Dropped over onto State 17 south of Savannah and it was a lovely part of the trip, air off, windows down, cd out, smelling the fecund marshes. First thing Mom asked, after the hug, was what was I fixing for supper. Most of the time in Florida spent on the back screened porch, lovely weather. I'm making some notes, the morning after I arrive there's a huge splash in the lake, I swivel around and an osprey is coming out of the water with a small bass he can barely carry. My sister comes over and we talk about the old house in Jax, where, one street over, there was a monkey, and Brenda tells a hysterical story about being on the beach with Starr Parvin, who also had a monkey. We were all at the beach one day, and Starr left the monkey with B while she took a dip. The monkey climbed onto sister's head and dug in, and she fled to the ocean to get the monkey off her back. I see a sign, on a run to the beach, that says Advanced Disposal and I wonder what that means. Watching a marathon run of NCIS with Mom and the girls and there is a very funny Fruit Of The Loom commercial with an endless clothesline of underwear. Cook, cook, cook, then eat left-overs to clean out the fridge, then make soup, then made another soup and freeze many meals for Mom and Dad. Rhea has taken to an old Polaroid camera and is shooting some interesting shots. My folks don't have, never have had, a dishwasher, and keeping up with the dishes is an endless task. Three sheets to the wind, trying to explain to Karol the way things are remembered. On the way home, falling out of sequence here, I pass the Sand Gap Baptist Church on Sand Suck Road, somewhere in Kentucky. The house is freezing when we get back to my place, maybe 50 degrees, and I can't get the it warm. The next morning I have to be at work and when I get up the house is frigid, in the 40's, and the girls can hardly deal with extremes that I've grown to accept. Troopers though, and we get to the museum. I haul away all the garbage since I was last there, prep the kitchen for the hospital Christmas party (they pay well, treat the place fairly, and Jennifer is a cute little thing), and check the several hundred light bulbs for failures since I last checked. I have to get a motel room for the last couple of nights the girls are here, because they need a shower and a warm place to sleep. I'll be gone another couple of nights. Just wanted to say.