CAPTIVATION

Yesterday afternoon Paul and I went to visit Mama Nick for a while. She seems to be doing well and was conversing very well yesterday. Some days she feels like sitting up for a while and other days, not. She asked if we were getting moved in, so although weak, she knows we're in the process of moving and getting settled in. Some days she's a bit confused, but for the most part we can carry on conversations. Occasionally I get a big smile and laugh from her.

We went to brother Mike's afterward - Marsha is home after her week-long stay with new parents (their daughter Morgan and her husband Steven) and new little grandson Tyler. Mike said it's amazing how much he changed in just one week!

A couple of weeks ago Mike bought two goats and has since acquired two more. At least the new ones are Nubian - the last two he bought. I always want to know what animals' names are and these are: Big One, Freckles, Goldie, and Ears. Ears looks like Jar Jar Binks from Star Wars. We walked around Mike's garden and saw his pretty watermelons, some are ready; we got a small one. Also some cucumbers and an egg plant which I plan to fry like green tomatoes. Marsha said you couldn't tell the difference. Can you tell which one is Ears?? Goldie is on the left, both pictures; Ears on the right. I think.

Mike and I watching the goats.

This is Big One and Freckles.

When we went to Mike's we went around Oldham Road going across the little bridge near the house where Goobie and I lived many years ago. I remember going to that bridge  with our granddaddy (Papa) throwing rocks in when I was 6 or 7, so some of the bridge is almost 50 years old, maybe even older. When we went, the road bed was timber; it's since been paved over and is in bad shape now. This big dragline will help bring it up to the 21st century. I remember making pictures of the creek below with the first little Instamatic camera I had. Such a big ol' machine for such a little ol' bridge. To the far right you can barely see the little white house we lived in. This was a gravel road then... We were just over the creek from the railroad and passing trains would make the windows rattle. Since this was a crossing, the trains always blew their whistles - two longs, a short, and a long. We hardly ever heard them, though, as we were so used to them.

My errands today: took laptop for virus protection update. The man who owns the Computer Store in Iuka was a NASA scientist who worked at Yellow Creek when the solid rocket fuel project was going on. He decided to stay in Iuka when YC shut down and opened his computer place. I also took a box of fabrics to Sandra for quilts and she showed me the next patterns she was using, also a couple of quilts she had made, I know one pieced by hand. Some unpacking, but not a lot; I pulled my middle back and it's been burning all day. I can't imagine how I did that!

Brenda came this afternoon bearing the fruits (veggies) of their labor - a huge basket of fresh veggies - tomatoes, okra, cucumbers, peppers, jars of hot slaw and relish, a jar of Jimmy's honey, a container of zinnias from her yard, and a rose bush she had started from a cutting. So good to sit and visit. How many times when we were girls we would talk about living next door to each other! Well, around 6 or 7 miles apart isn't so bad! Such good talk! She's a wonderful storyteller, knows everybody in the county. Then she and Paul talked about retirement and when they started working and about James L's store where Paul worked. People would send their lists to the store, they'd fill the orders and deliver them around town! (Susan, wish they would do that now! Internet shopping takes all the charm out of it!) Paul did that! I knew he worked at the store, but I didn't know he delivered groceries to the customers. He was 15! Wow! Can't wait to get these two great minds together for some more memories and things I didn't know! Bren's been here all her life, and Paul lived here from age 9 until he went to Mississippi State.

 At night before I go to sleep, I think of Wynne and friends there. That's when I'm still enough to really think about how everything was - and is. Friends will always be friends. God has blessed me so in friends and family. When I retired it was a chapter I willingly closed; and this move was anticipated, too. These events seem almost like dreams and will for a long time. I told Bren today I could hardly look at old pictures. Me! The one who constantly takes and keeps and duplicates and shares pictures! It's just that I don't know where the time goes. How did Amy grow up so fast? Where did 37 years in the same house go; 43 years in the same town? Cameras capture the moments. Hearts capture the love and the memories.

This is another wonderful chapter in our lives.

Note: Paul told me to make this correction - the distance that the movers had to walk up the driveway was about 200 feet, not 50!  More bravo to them!