Family

Yesterday was a long day but a good day. My dad and I took out the boat and road up the river past Holy Ground. It was such a beautiful day. Daddy and I didn’t even argue about anything; we just had a good time hanging out together. My mother didn’t go because she is about to have knee surgery next week and it’s hard for she to get in and out of the boat. I spent time with Mama too. She’d made some cookies but because of the arthritis in her hands, she was having a hard time rolling out the dough, so I did that for her and cut the cookies. Mama is only 68 but she spent 35 years as a nurse. Twenty-five of those as a public health nurse where she spent large parts of her day on her feet and giving immunizations. All those years standing on hard floors has taken its toll, so has the years of giving shots. Anyway, I’m off the subject.

Late yesterday afternoon, I drove down to visit my aunt. She lives about an hour away. My aunt, a cousin of ours, and I went to dinner, and we had a good dinner at Cracker Barrel. Quinnishelia, our waitress, was shocked when I told her to keep the sweet tea coming because I lived up north where they didn’t have sweet tea. She couldn’t imagine a place without sweet tea. We ran a few errands that my aunt needed to do, and then we came back to her house. We went across the road to visit my old neighbor. Her 104 year old mother died a few months ago and we’ve all taken it hard, but not as much as she has. She loved her mother dearly. The neighbor would have been terribly upset if I had not gone to visit. It was nearly 10 pm when we finally got back and settled at my aunt’s house. I got to see my two cats, Lucy and Edith, who live with my aunt. I couldn’t take them with me initially to Vermont, so she kept them and then when I could have a cat, my aunt wouldn’t let them go. So, here they stay. We watched the weather report, which shows bad weather for tomorrow night, and then we went to bed. I’ll go back up to my parents’ house this morning.