Stately Travels

 Thankfully, I have not had too many of these nights in the recent past. Sleeping much better for so many reasons, but this morning, 4:00 ish, I woke up and wide awake. I grabbed my study notes and Bible, headed downstairs. Before I begin reading through I Thessalonians 3 for this Sunday's lesson, a brief update seemed to be the right thing to do. Even with a few days of easing into the morning which is the optimal time to blog, just haven't wanted to do that. A weather report and update on activities is what seems to take up most of my thoughts on "paper" these days. While I am enjoying these days and enjoying having Roy here, you might not want to know the escapades of our worldly I mean stately travels to SC or TN. Thank you for trudging along with me.

Several have asked about The Feral Fam and if they are still around. Yes. I do believe we have lost Junioretta and Mr. Biggio. Junioretta seemed to be rather fragile and Mr. Biggio has had several encounters with King Herod. Junior and Baby don't hang around here and very rarely see them but they've shown up a couple of times this past week looking for food after tom catting around. Junior has had an encounter with KH as well. Big, nasty bite on his back. The girls, Toupee, Sweetie and Cutie are around. Toupee and Blazey get special breakfast service away from the others, mainly cause they let me pet them and they have made sitting on the container with bird seed, their dining choice and place. Charlie, the little yellow cat that just showed up one day is friendlier. Each morning I get to pet him a little more than the day before. He inserts himself between Blazey and Toupee while they get petted and he generally runs to the back door to greet me every morning. The ubiquitous black cats with the little and varying sizes of white tuft are nearly identical. I did notice the other day some differences between them but they have to stay still long enough for those observations. I enjoy The Feral Fam but my heart is still saddened by Hector Protector not being around. Yesterday two of the black with white tufts, not kittens but I still refer to them as such, were out playing on the newly planted apple trees as the wind blew the description cards of type of apple around. Roy went out there to cut off the tags because those newly planted trees are a bit fragile in this early stage and just his appearance sent those cats a running. I got the whole show from the upstairs window. 

Even lower than last week, we got gas at Costco for $3.63. Wowsers! In today's world that is a huge discount. We decided on a whim to go back and buy a few more supplies for the house. Low and behold they had organic potting soil for $7.50 for a forty pound bag. The limit was ten and we bought ten. That is an extremely good price. The cost of anything gardening seems to have escalated with everything else these days. I debated on getting a couple of geranium hanging plants but decided to punt that idea, although they had coral ones.   

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Good Saturday morning. With our trip to SC on Thursday and to TN on Friday, we came home and vegged out. We punted our plans for today and are sticking close to home. In TN yesterday, I think we came very close to being robbed in the grocery store parking lot. We should have moved onto another spot before parking. But, we got out quickly of the truck and moved with focus toward the entrance of the store. The man, who looked like the Uni Bomber moved from the passenger side of the vehicle in front of us. I knew he was behind us for the first couple of yards and closing in at a fast rate, but at the right time there were people and cars driving by. When we got into the store, we looked out in the parking lot. He was nowhere to be seen. What made me think he was up to no good, he stood outside the car, talking to whomever was driving with the hoodie pulled way over his head and he kept something in front of his face, till he turned and looked at us and I memorized his face in that nano second. It was a bit unnerving and Roy and I were both a little shook up. After we shopped and paid for our groceries, Roy went outside the entrance to see if the man and car were still out there. Gone, but we still loaded up the truck at the entrance of the store. Someone might have noticed something because a police car was nearby keeping watch over the parking lot. I remember years ago, after playing tennis, a friend and I were standing in the parking garage outside of the University Club by our cars visiting. We noticed two young men coming toward us with an intent of harm. They were about ten feet from us when they abruptly stopped. They were looking up and their faces contorted into fear. They turned and ran away so fast. I have always believed that angels were watching over us and gave the two guys a little display of who they are. The world is a much meaner place these days and now to use a very familiar phrase, we continue out of an abundance of caution keep our eyes and ears open. I also know to follow those gut feelings. Thank you Lord for protecting us. 

The rest of the day in TN was quite uneventful but beautiful as spring blooms begin to take the stage. It won't be too much longer and produce stands will dust off the shelves and fill them with an abundance of produce. For this we give thanks. 

After two days of fun and going, I still can feel the effects of whatever is effecting me health-wise. I am feeling much better but a few nagging symptoms that change daily doesn't seem to warrant a visit to the Dr. The fear of being labeled a hypochondriac dogs me as both of my parents had those tendencies. Still feels very much stress related. 

When I need a distraction I go to realtor.com or Zillow to look at houses around the area, sometimes even into east TN. Before we added on the back porch, we were kind of looking at condos in the high country. Not a real looksee, but nevertheless in case we found a bargain of a lifetime for a weekend retreat or something. Now, I am keeping a watch on the land across the way. Last week we saw a couple walking around the barns. The real estate prices around here will blow you away. Glad we bought in a buyers market. 

Off to finish up the lesson for tomorrow.