A Crisp Saturday

The first snow of the season appeared yesterday. Okay, it was just tiny flakes that you could only see at an angle and once the flakes hit the truck or road, they were a puddle of itty bitty water. Nonetheless, it was the first snow of the season. By all accounts it is a rather late showing. Most of the ski resorts are closed due to lack of snow and warm temps. We are experiencing a bit of a cold blast which isn't supposed to last too long and Christmas Day, well the temps here will be just a few degrees below Houston. A friend told me there had been snow falling all day in Mars Hill and Marshall. The skies certainly revealed that likelihood. While running a few errands in Weaverville, the sky around the mountains was a cold, hard steel gray and the clouds were just about that same color. Even the views from our home told the story; looking to the south from the front porch, sun, blue sky and white clouds but from the back that hard steely gray sky. It was a rather nippy day but I do so enjoy those kinds of days.

I stopped in at Turkey Creek Cafe for a salad and hopefully some cornbread but they had already taken the cornbread made for that day and had turned it into cornbread casserole. Oh my goodness, that is some good stuff! There on the counter tempting me was a slice of ginger cake...I did not resist temptation and got a slice for later. It was was delicious! So with a good supper, Christmas lights on, festive candles glowing and a good book, I was set for the evening. I finished the book Andy & Don, The Making of a Friendship and a Classic TV Show. Very interesting read. Now I will view The Andy Griffith Show how I view I Love Lucy after reading so many books about that show. There are always fun things to look for, but with the Andy show, there are some dark foibles to find as well. Without giving anything away, Aunt Bea and Andy didn't really get along in real life, kind of like how Ethyl and Fred disliked each other in real life on I Love Lucy. Andy also held grudges and punished those he held them against whether they had been real slights or imagined. After having close experiences with grudge holders, who say they don't hold grudges, uh...that is usually not the truth and the best thing to do in those cases is just stay away from them. Those who did just that escaped a lot of hurt but there were those who thought they could win him back and with the exception of a few...most just experienced that grudge holding hurt that cuts rather deep into the heart and spirit.  The friendship between he and Don Knotts is the best story told because neither were faithful to their first wives, they both married three times and they tried to work together as much as they could. They did have a few times where their egos nearly damaged such a good friendship but they came to their senses or let things go into that abyss of "don't know why ___________ happened."  The book also confirmed what I thought after seeing A Face in the Crowd. the best movie Andy did, that he had to draw on some familiarity to play that part so convincingly. I also enjoyed learning about the filming techniques they used that were counter intuitive for the day which in reality makes Mayberry seem to be the idyllic small town experience. A side note I Love Lucy revolutionized filming using three cameras and recording on film...TAGS went back to the one camera, no audience type of filming.

This morning I woke up with afib. It has been a while since that has happened. So while my heart beats to its own drummer, the rest of me is exhausted while it does so. Hopefully, sometime this morning it will get back in beat. Even in these cold temps, I got hot yesterday while working on getting things wrapped and packed to take to the Post Office and I did get a little frustrated in the process, so that could have contributed to this morning's situation. So it is good I have nothing pressing on the schedule today and I have leftover salad and cornbread casserole.