Once I got home yesterday, I took time to rest a bit but I also did some prep work for Lisa's visit. You have to strike when the iron is hot and I hate having things that need to be done hanging over my head. Still have things to do but took care of the most pressing needs. This morning I am easing into the day.
On the way home from Charlotte yesterday, while listening to instrumental music, I realized that most of my favorite hymns have to do with nature. As a child I loved to sing This is My Father's World and Fairest Lord Jesus. As an adult my favorite hymn has been When Morning Gilds the Sky. Leaving the flatter area of the Piedmont and seeing the mountains in the distance, my heart and soul were filled with peace and a satisfaction, with joy and excitement of returning home. Passing by Ridgecrest and then the exit for Montreat, I once again remembered how I had wanted to visit or attend camp at these places when I was younger but the opportunity didn't present itself. Now we can have camp all year long if we want to and I don't have to sleep in a bunk bed.
When a good friend visits you conversation is full and interesting and funny. Dena and I laughed and had a great time. She is a close second to Roy for road trippin'. The time is easy, decisions easy and comfortable. When we stopped at a Burger King to pick up lunch while driving through Alabama, a great tag line was added to our vocabulary...Whoppers come with ketchup and mayonnaise, which neither of us want on a burger, but we love the flame broiled taste. The girl taking our order was trying to help us get the most bang for our buck since BK is running the two meal deal for $10.00. We kind of messed it up wanting shakes instead of fountain drinks and she called over her manager to find the way to do this. After they found the best way to order for less bucks, Dena went to the bathroom while I waited for our order. In the back where all the cooking takes place I heard one of the people making our burgers say, "what? These burgers are mustard, no ketchup or mayo? Who doesn't like mayonnaise and ketchup on their burgers." I wanted to respond, we don't...but the manager said, just make them how they were ordered...it's a special order. I so wished at that moment she would have said it is a complicated order just like Bon Qui Qui.
Like I said we talk of the serious and the silly. Laugh till one of us nearly wets our pants and we listen to the depth of the worry or concern that are different in each of our lives but the uniting factor is...what or why or how or when about the issue presented at hand. For me, my upcoming knee replacements are kind of hanging about in the brain. Not worried about the pain because I know there will be pain and the general consensus from all who have had this done is, once you get past the first two weeks, things begin to look up and the other is every six weeks that goes by, it gets better and better. What I am thinking about is all these years, probably more than twenty, I have done everything according to knee pain and the ability of said knees to bend or move. The way I get out of a chair, the way I walk, the way I bend over to pick something up...things like these are so embedded in my mind and muscles. I will have to relearn and practice these everyday things so that I don't end up with new knees, no pain but acting and walking like what I've experienced for the past twenty or more years. Granted, I do not think I will be bionic and able to leap over tall buildings or a patch of weeds in a single bound, but I do think I should be able to get out of a chair without all the dramatics now being experienced. Of course I see all the spiritual applications to this and probably most of y'all do too, so I am not going to turn this post into the all familiar...here is something everyday, now it has life application to it in a spiritual nature. But I do think about this and will probably write about this and yes, some of these thoughts will spill over into Monablog, but for now...you can read and see what I am contemplating for those days ahead.
I went back to Waynesville again and Barber's Orchard isn't even open yet. Anyway, I was on my way to pick up some more paper napkins with a country theme when it occurred to me that instead of ordering ham for Girl's Night Out, I should order brisket and since I was there I went in person to do so. I also made a quick late lunch stop at The Blue Rooster and got fried chicken...they serve legs, yahoo!
Well, a nap is calling me and then I might head over to Lowe's for fruit fly traps. I truly believe our fruit flies are Ivy League educated. Won't touch a homemade trap but will fall for the professional one.
