2018 Life Logs, Day 250–Day of Delightful Joys
2018 Life Logs, Day 250–Day of Delightful Joys
Date: Friday, September 7, 2018
Weather: Partly Cloudy, Turning Cooler with Evening Rain; High 80, Low 66 F
Location: At Home with Rex and Diana Thaxton, St. Albans, WV
My day was filled with delightful joys. Just having a quiet breakfast with Ed and Lynne was the first joy. My visit with them was short, but I woke up early this morning and had more time with them that I expected . . . and I enjoyed every moment. And I received a text from Jed of the first formed chrysalis from our Monarch caterpillars. Seeing that is always an amazing joy. I left Ed and Lynne’s just after 9 am, made a stop at Walgreen’s to pick up some cards I needed for this weekend, and then headed to West Virginia. It was a nine-hour trip which is a bit longer than I prefer to drive in one day, but otherwise it was a good trip. I had some frustrations with my public radio listening with periods where there was no station to be found, and when I did find one, I seemed to be listening to the same three programs over and over as I traveled south. When the reception of one station ended, I changed to the next station which was just starting the program I had just listened to. So I heard parts of three different programs over and over. When the repetition got boring, all I had to do was look around me and enjoy the beautiful scenery. As I headed west from the Shenandoah Valley to cross the mountains going into West Virginia, I was awestruck by the beauty. There were a couple of times when the view in front of me was just overwhelmingly beautiful. There were trees with bright green leaves on either side of the road and in front of me was a mountain ridge just a tad darker green. And behind that ridge was another that was just a bit hazy, behind that one another ridge another shade hazier, and behind that one another ridge that had the hazy look of the Blue Ridge mountains. What an delightful joy to see such beauty. And the last joy of the day was arriving at my nephew’s home in time to go out to dinner with family members. Life is good.
It was a steamy day here, in the upper 90’s, so we stayed inside and visited and then Lynne fixed a yummy chicken dinner. Thank you, thank you. I always love visiting with Ed and Lynne, but I will pull myself away in the morning. The road trip will continue with a drive on to West Virginia.
Heather has cut all the milkweed she has been growing and fed them that, and I have donated common milkweed plants that I bought recently and they eaten all that. I also realized that the 5-gallon aquarium we put them in when they were tiny little eggs is not going to be big enough when the butterflies eventually emerge. We need a net butterfly enclosure, but too late to order that for this year. So, I went to Walmart and bought a 10-gallon aquarium which should suffice. Then I drove to Soares Nursery in hopes they still have common milkweed plants for sale. No luck there. But they said that the local feed and seed store has milkweed growing behind their building and that if I went there and begged, they might let me take some cuttings. That worked, so hopefully the very hungry caterpillars have enough milkweed to eat until they form their chrysalises. That job done, I focused on the laundry, went to an afternoon meeting, and then returned to finish the laundry and make some fried green tomatoes. I know. Why would I spend precious time doing that? The answer is that I picked the green tomatoes to fix for dinner last night, but we ran out of time to fry them. There’s no way I would ever let those precious green tomatoes not be used, so while Jed fixed pizza for the boys for dinner, I made the fried greenies. Jed and I enjoyed them, and neighbor Brian Keefe came over to get his kids and had his very first fried green tomatoes. Heather is in day one of a three-day conference and she wasn’t going to be home tonight until bedtime, but I hope she enjoyed a few greenies when she got home. Sooooo, Monarch caterpillars and fried green tomatoes won the day . . . not the practical things that really needed to be done.
and then an hour later, Jonah and Ollie went to school.
I didn’t see the boys this morning, but I did go over to see them after school. Sam’s cold was enough better to allow him to go to school, but unfortunately Heather had to come home early as she feels just terrible. I drove over to Heather and Jed’s to meet Sam when he got off the bus, but when I arrived, Heather was getting ready to walk to the school to pick up Ollie and Jonah. I offered her a ride, which she gladly agreed to, and I stayed to get a photo of Heather, Jed, Jonah, and Ollie
as they walked out of the school. They walked home because the boys always prefer to walk, but I drove back and got home in time to greet Sam. He bounded off the bus looking very happy.
All three boys had a good first day of school. So life is good.
After lunch, I had just enough time to stop by home to pick up the food I had bought for a first day of school dinner at Heather and Jed’s before heading there to see the boys after school. Sam and I made an after-school run to Staples to get the school supplies on his list and when we got home, there was just enough time to fix dinner before Jed and Sam had to head to a Scout meeting and Heather and I had to go vote before the polls closed. Today was busy, and tomorrow will be even busier as I try to get everything here set for my upcoming trip south. If I don’t come down with this cold, I will be leaving here by 9 am on Thursday morning. I am really looking forward to my road trip, but I am equally looking forward to getting home next week and getting back into my classes at the gym and having slower-paced days. 
So I call those labors a success. Happy Labor Day!
We sat on the back deck and had dinner together and really enjoyed our special time with each other. I might be spending my day with him tomorrow if he is not able to go to the first day of school. I’ve made it clear that I am on call, but I so hope he is better and can go to school. He is ready. Jed got Sam’s new folding desk installed. It can be down during the week
and then folded up on the wall for the weekends. Unfortunately, Heather also seems to be coming down with a cold. Sure hope the rest of us can fight this off.
The back-to-school crowds were there in droves. Somewhere in there, I got a text from Heather letting me know that they were home from their overnight trip to the Outer Cape, but letting me know that she and Sam were not at the Falmouth Heights back-to-school beach party with friends because Sam has come down with an awful cold. Not what you want to happen just before the first the day of school. On my way to dinner, I went to CVS to pick up some Vitamin C and Echinacea and delivered it to Sam. We can’t figure out where he got exposed to this, but we sure hope we can keep it from spreading to the rest of us. I am planning to leave town on Thursday for my whirlwind trip to visit friends and family in New York, West Virginia, Virginia, and Pennsylvania. But I will be going nowhere if I get this cold as I certainly wouldn’t want to pass it on. Here’s hoping my immune system is up to the challenge! 
