A NEW YEAR, NEW LIFE, and A NEW PLACE

I've been here seven months now and time has a way of moving fast or stalling.  I'm not sure which is the case for these seven months in Georgia.  Neither seems to fit the bill.  On the one hand, it seems like I have done so much already, thanks partly to my wonderful daughter and her love, John.  And of course there is Tanner.  He is two and a half and a hand full of love.  I have kept Tanner some so his Mom and Dad can have some time together away from the house.  Tanner loves to grab me by my thumb and say, "come on Granny".  "Sit right there Granny".  "Don't touch Granny".  Just to name a few of his demands.  John, Pam, Wendy, Tanner and I have gone to the mountains to see the waterfall, and Jeanne, Edmond, John, Pam, Tanner and I have gone to Gibbs Gardens for the Day.  What a wonderful place.

Several weekends are taken up with some outing.  I am sure Pam and John have things they need to do on their days off but they are awful good to incorporate me into their weekends most of the time.

Then there is all the good food.  You wouldn't believe the goodness of the food that comes from John and Pam's house unless you smelled and tasted it.  Better than any restaurant anywhere.  Wendy has been busy with her new teaching job but manages to get in a hike or two with Murphy on weekends or she and I will get out on Saturday and have lunch somewhere.

I haven't spent much time thinking about Texas.  I kinda thought I would miss it really bad, but it seems to be an empty page for me to write about.  I talk to my friend, Sylvia, once in a great while and that is about it.  I don't care about the house there.  I am too busy trying to keep up with what needs to be done around here.  There is always something that needs fixing or changing.

Sometimes I think time is moving to slow.  We have several more months of cold weather so I am trying to think of things to do in the house.  The cold isn't as bad as I thought it would be but I sure ache worse than I did during the winter in Texas.

I am longing for warm spring weather and planting flowers in the warm sunshine.  It use to be planting time by the 12th of March in Houston but I hear I will have to wait a while longer here.  Maybe I'll have time to read a couple more books that I have picked up here while Jeanne rummaged through hundreds of books to buy and take back home.

Well, no matter what the time is doing, going to slow, to fast, or just in idle, my time in Georgia has been okay.  I love the hills, curves in the road, and the fresh country air.  That is unless the air from the chicken farm is blowing our way.  Oh well, someone has to raise them.  Got to have chickens.

It is a good day, in Georgia.

Starting Over at Seventy?

I am about to embark on a new journey at the ripe old age of Seventy.  If anyone had asked me some years ago what I would be doing when I am Seventy years old, it wouldn't have been this.  I'm about to pull up stake in Texas and move to Georgia.  I'm turning in my longhorns for peaches.  Guess my Mom would be happy that I will be rooting for the Atlanta Braves Baseball now.  Mom loved them so much.  She knew all the players and the positions they played.  Didn't know any other team, just them.  Funny. 

I have enjoyed Texas, living in Dallas in the Seventies and Houston from 1987 till 2014.  That's the longest I have lived in any city, even my birth city.  The memories of our times here will never be forgotten, but now I am going to build wonderful new memories in Atlanta with Pam, John, and "Little Tanner".  Of course Wendy is moving along with me so we have our work cut out for us. We each have a house to sell and I have to finish remodeling this house and Wendy has to finish teaching school for the year.

Life is moving faster for me now so I have to cram as much in it as possible.  That won't be hard with Tanner just around the corner from me and his Aunt Wendy.  She has to get him educated with lots of books and I have to put love in his heart by holding him close.  Pam and John have given me a gift that will never be surpassed.  I feel blessed that I have two daughters that God has brought back together and although I don't have Steve to help me enjoy my full family, I know he would be glad that I went to Georgia to be together with them all.

I suppose the first celebration when I get there will be Tanner's birthday in May along with Wendy's.  Then will come the 4th of July and Pam's birthday and on and on.  It is safe to say that I will be a busy person.  It's not good to be idle and I have spent much time since Steve's passing that way.  Time to pull out the wagon and fill it up with many new and wonderful memories.  

Another good thing about moving to Atlanta is that I will be much closer to where Jeanne and Edmond live in Tennessee and I will be closer to Virginia.  I will be able to go to Galax and to McMinnville much easier than before.

It will be very sad to pull out of this drive for the very last time but I must not look back.  I must be thankful there is a future waiting for me and when I pull into my new driveway I will give thanks to God.

Life is good.

FOR ONLY TODAY

Today, yesterday, and tomorrow: yesterday is gone, no more wrongs can be made right. What I have done I cannot change, be it good or bad. Yesterday is of small remembrance or embrace. What I have done wrong is wrong forever, what I have done good will be no use to others.

Tomorrow: is not promised to be. Things may not be thought of or done. No good, no bad may be in my grasp. It will be someone else's day of presence.

Today is a gift. That is why it is called the present. It will either be brief and wasted or it will be long and prosperous. I will choose at my awakening what my day will contain. I must not waste one moment of it for it's hours are brief. Today I will embrace life: the beauty of it, the breeze in the trees, the sun on the grass, the beauty of each moment.

I will choose to give thanks, to be caring, to surround myself with happiness and love. I will hold tight the things I cherish and give thanks for their presence in my life. I will smile often and also laugh out loud at things that make me happy. I will use my time wisely for it is brief. I will do kind deeds and not boast. I will sing God's praises and pray for the pain of others to be lifted.

At the close of the present I hope I will have done all I can do to make a kind mark on my small world. I see, I feel, I hear the nearing of the present day close. May it be meaningful and full of love, and embrace the one's I love more than myself.

Spring is Here, I Think.

Here it is March already, as if I haven't waited for it long enough. This has been a winter for the record books. I have been here almost twenty four years now and I have never seen a winter as cold for so long a time. The whole winter was cold, wet, miserable and down-right uncalled for. All of my palms and bottle-brush plants are dead. Most I just put in this last spring. I will certainly have a bare yard this year.

I can't say I was the only one having a tough winter. My sister, Jeanne in Tennessee had a good bit of snow and a lot of real cold weather. My sister, Pat in Virginia had it the worst. I think she said they had a total of around fifty inches of snow this winter, and winter isn't over for her. It can still snow as late as May in the Blue Ridge Mountains.

I want to see some green grass and leaves on the trees. Before the leaves comes the pollen I'm afraid. It is visible from my office window here. I hate those little long squiggly yellow things that are only good for stopping up the skimmer baskets on the pool. But what a small price to pay in order to see those green leaves pop out.

Nothing has been as bad as what my brother Bob has gone through this winter. He has had major surgery on his throat and tongue because of cancer, only to learn afterwards that it was an ulcer from the radiation he took in the fall last year. Now they want to operate again and take out what they put in. I would be wanting to bang some heads against the wall if it were me. I guess Bob is taking it as good as he can considering all the pain he has had to endure. His wife, Joyce, sometimes feels like she is at the breaking point because she has to do so much for him.

When I think of the things Bob and Joyce have had to go through this winter, and all the other less fortunate ones, it makes me ashamed to complain about having to wear long-johns and an extra pair of socks. I do complain a lot over nothing but again I should keep myself busy so I won't have the time to complain. I think I will go get busy and watch some television and stop complaining.I'm not sure what I will have to tell all you folks about if all is perfect. Well, something will come up I am sure.

See ya. Sandy

Where is Spring?

This has been a long and cold winter, one like I have never seen in my twenty four years here in Houston. I long for the warm sunshine and the green leaves on the trees. I guess I should count myself lucky because the rest of the country has had it worse and me.

My neighbor and "friend" has sprung back. She is early and she should go back to California before she gets nipped. We are suppose to get more cold weather and maybe some snow. I haven't had to do lunch with her yet but she did bring a bunch of empty boxes to Wendy's yesterday for me to move books and so forth to other rooms so they can put down the tile. I asked her if she wanted the boxes back and she said "yes, I save them for people like you".

What kind of people was she referring to? I didn't know I was in a category of people. She commented on my hair growing out. She said when she does that it always looks awful and she has it cut back short. Was there a message for me in that statement? Hmmmmm! Well, one good thing about the upcoming cold weather, maybe if I am lucky she will go into hibernation til we warm up.

Enough said about all the cold weather. Spring will eventually come and "she" will show her shadow at my door. Maybe I will answer it....hmmmm....then maybe I won't. See ya.

OLD KATE MULLINS

I have to tell you about Old Kate Mullins. In my home town people occasionally referred to some people being as dumb as Old Kate Mullins. I heard it all my early years. I asked my Mama one time who was Kate Mullins and why people said she was dumb. Mom wouldn't tell me, only smile and say she was a woman in town that people thought was dumb.

When I became an adult I asked Mama again about Kate Mullins and why people thought she was so dumb. Mama never talked bad words around us kids and I had never heard her use any. She said, "well if you really have to know, Old Kate Mullins was so dumb she wiped her ass before she shit". Well of course I was first shocked that Mama had said those two words out loud and then I started thinking how dumb that really was. I asked if she was real and Mama assured me she was.

I had kidded around with the saying in front of Wendy and Pam a lot after they grew up, and after numerous questions about her I finally told them how dumb she was. They never believed that she was a real person, just a joke.

A couple of summers ago my brother Bob, the slow talking brother, came out to stay with me for about a month. We stayed up at my lake house and we had a ball, sitting around all day, swimming in the hot summer sun, and reminiscing about old times. One night Wendy came up to visit us and we went out to supper at a spaghetti, pizza place. We were having a good time and Wendy loved to hear Bob tell his yarns and to just talk in general. Out of the blue Wendy said "Bob do you know Old Kate Mullins"? What happened next was good enough to be on T.V. Bob leaned up in his chair and said in his s l o w southern drawl, "awl----I knew ALL the Old Kate Mullines". At that Wendy, who had just took a big drink of her coke, spit all of it across the table all over Bob's pizza and in his face. Wendy immediately apologized, still laughing. Bob said, "awl---that's alright, the wet coke will make my pizza easier to chew".

I sure have got my money's worth out of Old Kate Mullins. Sure would have loved to met her. I've picked on Bob enough for now. See ya, as Bob would say.

Kate Mullins

This is not Kate Mullins, but I think Pam might be dumber than old Kate Mullins. She was walking around out in the storm.