Pandemic!

 I don't know if you've noticed this, but we are in a pandemic. First one (and hopefully the last) in my life. 

For the most part, I've not minded staying home. I do that most the time anyway. I miss church. I miss lunch with friends whenever we fancy. I miss the freedom of  knowing I can go even if I don't want to, just having it be a possibility is often enough. 

Our gap in our safety is Daughter, who still has to go to work every day. She wears a mask, but her peers do not (even though one just lost a family member to this virus). She is protected from customers pretty well by plexiglass and lots of bleach cleaning and hand washing. She takes off her shoes before entering the house, goes straight up stairs and washes and changes clothes. So she does the best she can. 

But when the cats begin to look at  you like they wish you'd leave, it's time to get out of the house. So, Husband went to the grocery store, geared up in his hazmat suit and I visited my 91 year old mother who I don't touch or get really close to.

Yay.

We did venture out last week and got our first vaccine. Our second comes in a month. I'm now hearing how the side effects are worse with the second one, so I'm really excited.

I've been stunned more than once over deaths to this virus and I guess I will be again. 

On another topic, I'm waiting for at least one big snow this winter. We've had a few baby snows, and one of them gave me joy because I got to watch it snow all day long. 

Tomorrow marks our 36th wedding anniversary. I pray we get to see many more. We've had some great snows on past anniversaries.

Here's to you, my fellow inmates. May we be freed soon. 

Happy Anniversary Baby, Got You on my Mind

Ha! Now you will hum this song the rest of the evening, not knowing the rest of the words.

Me too.  All Day Long!

Today marks the 32nd anniversary of our wedding day. I don't know if I've blogged this story before, and am far too lazy to look back over 600 blogs, so I'm tellin' it again.

Live with it.

Husband was very romantic in the way he proposed. He was living in another town, and try as we might, could not stay off the phone with each other.

This was before cell phones.

Our phone bills that month were a little high. His was just over $300 and mine was just under.

It was alarming. So he said, "Well, I guess we might as well get married."

Be still my heart.

Anyway, he came to my house as usual the night before we were to wed. I cooked supper, we cleaned up and watched TV for a little while. About ten p.m. he decided to call it a night and go on home to his mama and daddy's.

We opened the door and gasped.

There was ice hanging from trees and power lines. The yard was covered in it. And it was snowing with a vengeance.

I called the gate and asked if he could make it out. (I lived at Lake Arrowhead for those of you who know, and for those of you who don't, the answer was, "Lord, no!")

The tiny, narrow, winding mountain roads were not to be traveled upon.

After a few hours of hysterical behavior (Husband, not me), I decided to go to bed. He'd made the dreaded phone call to his mama telling her he was spending the night. I shared this information with my mother about a year ago. Only because she overheard me telling the story to someone else.

I went to bed with Husband pacing the living room, muttering, "I've waited 35 years to get married, and now this."

We called the gate the next morning, and the answer was still a resounding no. However; when I told them we were supposed to get  married (!), they changed their minds. Husband had a front wheel drive. The guards at the gate made a plan. If we weren't there in fifteen minutes (for a usual five minute ride) they would start looking for us and pull us out of whatever ditch/ravine we were in and get us to the church on time. (another annoying tune to get stuck in your head!)

By creeping we made it, and many minutes later made it into town.

We went to the florist. We were the only customers there, and she'd just made it in. She told us she couldn't take any orders because she was the only one there and had to make deliveries, there was a big funeral that afternoon.

Once again, when told we were getting married that afternoon, her plans changed and she threw caution to the wind and made me a small bouquet and Husband a boutonniere.

By the time we arrived at the church, we were pretty much done in.

But the worst was yet to come, as they'd forgotten to turn on the heat in the church and it was freezing in there!

We did get married, despite all the barriers (one I didn't mention because who knows who's reading this? But it was by far the most, um, amusing.)

Here we are, 32 years later, still married.

And they said it wouldn't last.

In Everyone's Life a Little Rain Must Fall...and Flowers will Usually Follow

The moon was high and pale, almost full. The sky was still black with wispy clouds hurrying by on their way to somewhere else.

The wind cut through  my coat as I stood waiting by the car for Husband to lock the door so we could leave.

It was our anniversary and we were headed south. I was beginning to get hungry.

We had decided not to spend a lot of money; no gifts, only eating at a  nice restaurant to celebrate. We'd had some extra expenses lately, and being as we were dumb enough to get married a month after Christmas, our pockets were a little empty.

I had anticipated the day, being with Husband of thirty-one years, just us, just 'doing', not rushing or anything.

Then at 4:45 a.m. the phone rang and it was Other Brother saying to "Put your britches on and get down here."

Mother was sick again.

Of course, we were all afraid it was another blockage and the ambulance hurriedly took her away, with all of us in tow.

Turns out she has a U.T.I. and maybe some other stuff, the tests will determine what that might be. She's losing blood somewhere as her count as gone from 12 at the doc's a few weeks ago to 10 when she was in the ER yesterday to 8 a little while ago.

But she is feeling better this morning, after fierce antibiotics given I.V. 

So, our anniversary didn't turn out exactly like we'd planned. Most of the day Husband was in the E.R. waiting room and I was in the E.R. with Mother.

We did get to eat out - if Wendy's gobbled down in the hospital counts.

When we got home though, we had flowers. Daughter had written in a card words sweet enough to make a grown man cry and had spent part of her meager money on a bouquet for us.

Older, younger, all the generations surround us.

Troubled or celebratory, they are the tapestry that makes our lives rich.

Thank God for what you have.

There was Another Anniversary Yesterday

I saw on something or other that ten years ago yesterday was when Clay Aiken sang on TV for the first time, when we heard his audition for American Idol.

I remember him walking out and me groaning, feeling like he was going to be splattered all over the place. It was as though he was trying to look as awkward as possible. You could tell he was nervous. And when he spoke and had the same Southern accent as I do, I almost cringed.

But then he sang. I hollered at my  husband to come in the room. I said, "That boy may not win because of the way he looks, but you won't hear a better voice."

I was right. On both counts. Except there was all the hoopla saying that he really did win, if phone lines had been big enough to take all the calls.

His voice is one that actually does something to me. No matter how long I go without hearing him sing, the minute I do, it's like myself stands up and takes notice. I guess his voice speaks to me somehow. I've had other singers do that from time to time, but Clay Aiken is the only one who does it almost every time.

All my family likes his singing, and we have seen him perform live several times. He is a funny, down to earth young man that engages the audience in a way that makes you feel like you know  him. In fact, the one time I've actually talked to him, it was like talking to my nephew, who is close to the same age and uses the word "whatnot" all the time in speaking.

But then again, I have yet to be star struck. I've never wanted anyone's autograph or anything like that.

I had forgotten that I heard him sing for the first time on my wedding anniversary.

Anyway, music is a wonderful and mysterious thing. So many kinds, so  many singers, so many instruments out there, it leaves almost no one out.

Aren't you glad that the good Lord blessed us with this thing we call music?

I know I am.

And They Said It Wouldn't Last!

Twenty-eight years ago, on January twenty-eighth, my husband and I tied the knot.

He was a thirty-five year old bachelor, and I was divorced after twelve years of marriage to a not so very nice person.

The night before we were to get married (which had been kept a secret to almost everybody), he came to my house for supper. We ate, watched TV, and when he got up to go home, we opened the door to a winter wonderland.

There was already about four inches of snow and ice. It had happened in a matter of a few hours.

I called the gate and asked if it was safe for him to get out. After the guard stopped laughing, he said no, no way, nope. I lived in a community that was made with the houses suspended off the mountainside, and every road was a winding, narrow snake trail. I guess that's why the guard said no.

Well, my husband to be freaked out. He kept muttering "I've waited thirty-five years to get married, and now this." He kept peering out the living room window as though the weather might miraculously improve. He paced, back in forth, in front of the couch.

He called his mama and told her he was trapped (wasn't that supposed to be what he said on our fifth anniversary?) That went over like a ton of bricks. He may have been thirty-five, but he wasn't supposed to be spending the night at some divorcee's house!

We weren't even going to tell our parents we were getting married. I had found out via the grapevine of trustworthy friends that my parents were freaking out, thinking I was on the re-bound from my divorce, and besides that, they didn't know this boy! They (Mother) were trying to find out the goods on him, by hook or crook.

But when my husband was caught red handed with a Service Merchandise Mart catalogue, turned to the WEDDING RINGS, his mama asked why was he doing that? And he said - wait for it- "A friend of mine is thinking about getting married and wanted to borrow this."

I can still, after all these years, hear her eyes rolling practically out of her head.

The final straw for her was when he was trying to sneak his suit out of the house. His mother's house. Can you imagine trying to sneak something as big as a suit out from under your mother's  nose?

She flattened herself against the car door and told him he wasn't going anywhere until he told her if we were getting married. So, of course, he broke down and confessed.

Which meant I had to tell my parents.

One of my best friends (who kept her mouth shut - at least somebody did) agreed to stand up for us. The preacher's daughter was to be the other witness.

Back to the night before: I went to bed, I don't think the future husband did, even though I put clean sheets and quilts on the guest bed.

I called the gate again the morning of the wedding. They said you can't get out. I said, "B-but we are supposed to get married today."

"Well, why didn't ya say so? We'll get you out if we have to use our helicopter!" (they had a helicopter?).
They tracked our every move, waiting to rescue us from driving off a ravine, if necessary.

So, in husband-to-be's rear wheel drive Volkswagen, we crept, and finally saw the gate! WHEW!

But wait! On the other side of the gate was my ex-husband trying to wheedle his way in!!! YIKES!

The guard, who had plenty of girth and knew what was going on, stayed between the two cars, blocking old ex's view. And kept him occupied while we sped away at 5 mph. on the ice.

The groom put the James Bond theme song in the tape deck. We were so cool.

Just before we left my house that morning, the phone rang. It was husband's mama asking if she could at least pay for a few photographs to be taken at the church, since NOBODY was allowed to attend. He asked me, I said, "Sure."

She said, "That's good, because they'll be there at 3:30 p.m." Ha!

We got to the church, after I had begged a florist to make me a small bouquet to hold.

They had forgotten to turn on the heat.

We got married in  forty degrees. I couldn't tell if I was shaking from nerves or cold. It was probably both.

I look back at the pictures, and even though we thought we were old (I was thirty), we look like children, with love and  hope shining from our eyes.

Happy Anniversary, sweet man.