Day 61, Year 11: A Winter Solstice Surprise Visit
Date: Tuesday, December 22, 2015
Weather: Overcast with High in the upper-60’s F (feels like summer)
Location: At Home with Patsy and Joe Kerwood, Mt. Juliet, TN
What a delightful surprise we had on this winter solstice day. Just as Patsy and I were preparing to head out to drive south of Nashville to a Costco to do holiday food shopping, Mark got a call on his phone. He was in the other room, so I looked to see who was calling. It was a good friend, Susie Klein, so I took the call. Susie and her husband, Jim Hammitt, are sailing friends that we would expect to show up in Quissett Harbor in the summer, not in Tennessee in December. So why was Susie calling today? When I answered the phone, Susie immediately announced that they were in their car and had just crossed the Virginia-Tennessee border. Knowing that I am from West Virginia, the border crossing reminded them of us and they called to let us that they are headed to San Francisco for the next six months. Jim is on sabbatical and will work out of UC Berkeley instead of out of his office at Harvard. They had no idea we were in Tennessee and we had no idea they were driving through here today. When Susie told me their destination for tonight was Nashville, I invited them to stop by on their way to say hello. What an unlikely event—Massachusetts friends getting together in Tennessee! But they did stop and we had a great visit catching on happenings from this summer.
Patsy and I were able to go ahead with our shopping trip and still get home in time for Susie and Jim’s visit. After they left, we headed out for another short shopping expedition at the mall area that is two or three miles from here. We seem to make lists, buy everything on the list, and then as soon as we get home, we think of more things that we need. I’m hoping to make one last trip in the morning, but that will depend on the weather. We keep getting radar alerts on our phone letting us know that we will have very severe weather tomorrow—thunderstorms, lots of wind, and possibly large hail and tornadoes. If the front arrives early in the day, I’ll have to postpone the morning shopping trip. But if it is coming through later in the day, I’ll take off early and hope to finish all Christmas shopping by noon. Then Patsy and I will begin preparing those dishes that can be done ahead of time for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. We’ll be leaving here to go to the Grand Ole Opry to see The Grinch Who Stole Christmas around noon on Christmas Eve, so we hope to have dinner prepared before we go. And it is always nice to have as much of the Christmas dinner prepped ahead of time as possible, so we’ll work on that as well. Here’s hoping that our preparations are successful and that there will some time to sit back and relax on Christmas Day.
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| 151222 Day 61 Nashville Trip–Jim and Susie Visit |
