Once upon a time on a cold morning in May...yep, I got up, dressed warmly, with gloves on, I went outside with the faucet cover and covered the faucet because of the freeze warning issued for tonight and into tomorrow morning. Then to the front deck and brought in the flowers to the porch. A little later, before the rain begins, I'll cover up a couple of plants in the back. Then hope for the best for the rest. Dang, I should have kept those worn out flannel sheets.
March 11th is the last day I wore eye makeup and fixed my hair. Yesterday, the first attempt at coming back to a social and civilized world came about because of a dentist appointment. When the text and email came saying my appointment was on, I did a happy dance. I cannot imagine what type of dance I'll do when the hair salons open again. The only thing, visor hair, bandanna hair or headband hair wouldn't do. My hair, going back to a natural part, did okay but the dilemma of remembering eye shadow colors I wore, finally rectified itself. The dentist office is on the opposite end of Asheville Cardiology parking lot. I have never, ever seen that parking lot so sparsely occupied. The procedure now is this, call the office and wait in the car until they call you back to come into the building. I was doing just that when a maroon car pulled into the lot with a police car with lights on pulled in behind it. The policeman got out of his car and made the wide half circle walk to the driver's side of the car. A small gray SUV stopped within a few feet of the situation. The cop was laughing as he walked away from the car to his. I then realized the gray SUV was an unmarked police car with those orange official plates. The plates from a distance looked like they were from New York, that's what threw me off. Cause then I'm thinking oh, they caught interlopers from NY because they and a few other states are on the hot list of no visits here from there. Another police car joins in. I never saw the people in the car from my view but the thought crossed my mind, should I be filming this just in case? About that time the dentist office called for me to come in. My effort to not draw attention was smashed to smithereens when I accidentally set off the car alarm.
It was a very successful dentist visit. The temp cap was put on the implant that began in January and then next on the schedule was a tooth extraction so that another implant journey could begin. All my implants have been upper ones, this is my first bottom tooth implant. Dr Hodges got that tooth out like the ultimate pro that he is. I cannot recommend him enough to friends. While we were waiting he began to show me the tooth he just pulled. How little tooth there was in the actual crown and where the infection had lodged. Good thing I am not squeamish about those kinds of things. It was such a gentle extraction that I felt good enough to make a Target run. There were a few things to pick up and since this was my first day of any kind of excursion except for the grocery or hardware store, I didn't really know all the changes in store. I wasn't going to get anything that everybody else would be needing but it was odd at some of the stuff they were out of. Then we stood in this long line to be instructed what checkout we were to go to. We were not social distancing in that long line but it moved much faster than I anticipated. The Novocaine was wearing off and I just came on home. Odd not to see a million cars in Biltmore Village or waiting at the light to go into the Biltmore Estate.
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For no particular reason at all yesterday, I got to thinking about some homes that were built in Westbury in the late 50s and into the early 60s. Such a random thought. When my father was transferred to Houston our first home was in West U. Kindergarten was coming up for me in the fall, back then no bridge year if your birthday was in late summer, and the elementary school in West U wasn't within walking distance and we only had one car. No school bus service offered, probably cause it was in the late 50's and we probably lived within the mileage limit for bus riding. So the luring song of the suburbs called. I vaguely remember looking at houses. The thought of these princess houses came to mind. Their style was a cottage style, think fairy tales not craftsman style. The window have metal trim, the garage doors had a cut out wooden trim on them. The roofs were those large wooden shingles and that set the look. I don't think these houses were ever a serious consideration for my parents but they were unique, in fact just this one street or two had them and nothing like them on any of the surrounding streets. A dim memory of my parents putting an offer on a house on Briarbend, but something my father said made the family nix the deal when he thought for sure it was a done deal. I don't remember what he said, but it came in the form of joking.... He ended up buying a house on a nearby street and in hindsight, it was probably the better house for us and for him to expand later on. Back to the storybook houses...I looked at Google to see if I could find any information on these houses, nothing. So, I did the next thing, put a post up in the FB group, "you know you grew up in Westbury when...." Got the answers from several people and many long time Westburians didn't have a clue about the homes. I did a street view search and found one house that still had some of the trim on the windows and garage. No one would have those wooden shakes, cause they are illegal now due to being a fire hazard. The memories that come while social distancing.
With the day warming up it was go into all the great outdoors and work in the flowerbed. I got several of the raised garden planters filled with soil and arranged so it will be an easy task to plant seeds. With two nights of frost and freeze warnings, thus blackberry winter, it is safe to do the majority of planting. Looks like we will have several days with no rain and cool to warm temps, so I will try to wrap up this work before it gets too hot for me out there. My neighbor Nancy brought her mother's day gift for me to see. Her name is Cora and she is a beautiful nine year old horse. I loved meeting Cora and she helped "cut the grass" while Nancy and I visited. While working in the flowerbed my brother messaged me. He sent the wedding announcement for my parents in the paper that long ago day. His friend does family ancestry research and thought she would send this along to him. I had never seen the announcement before and neither had he. We talked a little later and got caught up. He has projects going on at his house both indoors and out. He just picked up an antique farmhouse sink and cabinet for one of his bathrooms.
It looks like Sunday will warm up quickly, so I just might get outside and do a little work. I need to make a list of all the projects that have been done during this time of social distancing. From the very little to the big, getting it done. And, there is still many more to do. But, I'm not rushing through these things, I am trying to be present in each one and see what it is I am to learn or appreciate.
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