Forty one years ago this morning, my mother making coffee early awakened me from sleep. You see on my wedding day, I slept on the sofa bed in the den because my parent's home was filled with relatives for our wedding day. It came to me just a few years ago that maybe for the most special day in my young life, having just turned 23 the month before, that maybe I should have been able to sleep in my bed and bedroom one last time to be rested and relaxed for the coming day's celebration. But there she was, my mom, standing next to the sink, filling the peculator basket with coffee, trying to be quiet but the kitchen light is probably what woke me up because she performed that coffee ritual every morning virtually without making any noise...except maybe for the water filling the coffee pot.
So, on a rainy day in September, with the sun breaking through right before the ceremony, Roy and I were married. Neither one of us had any idea what we were doing. Truthfully, that can be said for almost everyone who gets married. But on that day nothing else matters because two people are head over heels in love and friends and family have gathered to celebrate the beginning of a journey that holds both good and bad, exciting and mediocre, wonderful and devastating and all other littles and bigs of life.
One night this week we looked up the address on Google of the townhouse we bought in 1979. With the oil crisis in 1983, our thriving neighborhood of young couples succumbed to the economy. It didn't take long for homes to be abandoned, luxury condos turning into apartment complexes and crime settling in quite nicely...thank you very much. Our town home was never broken into but I survived an attempted car jacking, verbal threats made while I walked our dog Tiff and the whole scary "last"summer complete with shootings, police chases and chaos that made it quite clear, we needed to move if we wanted to be safe. When we moved into our new townhouse, the front yard had shrubs and a tree. We put in a flowerbed around the tree and desperately tried to keep some kind of greenery going because the house faced west and the sun was brutal. In the Google view the picture of that townhouse was sad, no shrubs and the tree had been removed probably all removed due to foundation problems. We moved away from there in October of 1993 and rented it to others. Since we sold it in 2004 it has been through two foreclosures. I think the 70's produced some of the ugliest houses and what ugly house wouldn't be complete without ugly 70's furniture?
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Ah, Monday and not even foggy. Florence looms out in the Atlantic and numerous other named storms are setting up in a row. Good thing we stocked up on snacks from the Mountain View Country Store last Friday. Roy and I ate lunch after our shopping spree at The Farmer's Daughter and we decided that would be our anniversary dinner cause once we got home, we had a few last things to take care of...like planting the flame azalea and finishing up with the roses we planted.
When I woke up Sunday morning and still felt the tired and exhaustion, I decided to take a sabbatical Sunday. I hated to miss Sunday School and church but it seemed to be the right decision. It wasn't even a case of being sleepy, it was a case of feeling like I have been pushing too hard lately. So, Buddy and I eased into the morning and then about 11:00, I made a grocery store trip to get the rest of the things I needed to make Ninfa's green sauce for book club.
This morning we had the AC people come and check out one of our units. It turned out to be nothing but got some good advice for this winter. I left out for Publix once they finished to get a few more salads and some fruit. I came home and put up groceries, well the cold stuff, and then headed over to The Fresh Market. Found lots and lots of fun stuff while there. Decided to top off the tank of the convertible on the way home and did the same for the truck. Think lots of others had the same idea. When I first began the morning, it seemed like a regular day but as time and reports from the weather service continued, more people were out taking care of business today. With Florence gaining strength, even here inland, we are hoping for the best but preparing for the worse. We should only get rain and wind but you never know with hurricanes. All the years of prep for hurricanes is paying off as to having a plan and preparation, this is just at a higher altitude. Roy even called this afternoon to make sure I was preparing for the just in case.
There has been a little rain and some thunder but none of this is associated with Florence. In the distance the sound of chainsaws can be heard...there were road crews along a few streets taking care of some tree debris.
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