Of Lightning Strikes, Kidney Stones and Yankee Cousin

It's always an adventure when Yankee Cousin comes to visit each summer, and well it should be. But...

Not all adventures are Yippee and Wowzee and Oh boy! kind of adventures.

Firstly, we had to be at the Atlanta Airport before the crack of dawn. Well, okay, before 9:00 a.m. Fortunately, it was Saturday, so traffic wasn't like being in you-know-where. (Rush hour.)

Back at home with full Cracker Barrel bellies, we commenced to do nothing. Suddenly a severe thunderstorm was upon us and BAM! No electricity. For 6 hours.  We'd just fired up our battery operated lanterns for the night when power was restored. We appreciated the air conditioning coming back on.

The  next evening, BAM! No electricity. Yankee Cousin wailed (she did, she really did). Husband said, "Welcome to living in the mountains."

Lighting struck our modem, too. Just for extra kicks and giggles. 

I will say the fellas came early Monday morning to replace our modem. And the power was restored this time in under an hour.

Mid-week I started painin' in my, um, everything, as a kidney stone is wont to do. This went on for a day or two, then I passed that sucker but a UTI lingered. 

I told Yankee Cousin she must think  I'm the biggest hypochondriac in the whole world, because every time she's here, I have some weird physical ailment strike. 

She said she'd never, ever, never think that! (Me thinkest thou protesteth too much)

But worse, worse than all the above (well, nearly, it's hard to top a kidney stone, can I hear an amen) was I lost my brand new unopened pill bottle of hormone stuff that prevents hot flashes.

I have torn up the car, the pantry, my dresser drawers, etc. to no avail. The only thing I can figure is they somehow fell in the trash in the pantry. (whimpers)

I called the doc, and the nurse said that since hormone thieves aren't rampant, she'd agree to a refill early. 

Ya'll just don't know what a close call you had. 

Texas Week

My cousins who visited for a week, weren't born or completely raised in Texas. Their daddy got transferred when they were up pretty big kids, but that's where they attended high school and finished being raised and settled.

They don't wear cowboy hats or boots (at least not in the summer), but they are proud of their state.

We had a good week, reminiscing, eating, laughing and going over photographs that they brought with them of our grandmother's side of the family. For many of the pictures, none of us could identify anyone in them.

That  made me sad. Did folks think that in over  a hundred years their ancestors would know them? Surely not. It would have been nice if they, or the generation that came after them, had labeled them.

Texas Cousin's mother had labeled some of them before her death, and had made a list (which I forgot to scan) of births and deaths of folks.

I scanned some of  the photos in my computer, and will finish that task soon. I suppose  the ones I don't know I'll just file under the family name.

If you are a picture taker, please identify your subject. Even if it's a pretty  tree. "Taken in great-aunt Joan Doe's back yard." It will mean something to folks on down the road of time.

It really will.

Out of Staters Once Again

So, today I had brunch with cousins I had not seen in many years. They live in Ohio. 

There's a pattern here. Texas, Indiana, Alabama and now Ohio. 

Pretty impressive, especially since I ain't living on the beach or something.

These are my second cousins and their brood. I had not seen one since 1987, when my grandmother (her great-grandmother) died. None of us could determine the last time we'd seen her brother.

So, Brother Of Many Surgeries, Other Brother, Daughter and myself gathered with the eight of them this morning and spent a few hours laughing and getting tearful down memory lane.

But why now? Why this year? It seems interesting to me that suddenly I am seeing folks for the first time in over twenty years from all over the United States.

That's a stretch, I guess, but it feels that way. I am bedazzled and befuddled.

And wished I was a dozen pounds lighter, if I take a minute to be vain.

I'm not sure any of us have seen each other clearly, anyway. 

We are looking through glasses colored with childhood memories.

What Day Is It Anyway?

Well, foot.

Yankee Cousin talked to her Yankee Husband. At the end of this Yankee filled conversation, she said, "I'll see you Sunday." And he said, "Don't you mean Saturday?" and she said, "No, Sunday," and he said...well, you get the picture.

It culminated in Yankee Cousin actually, you know, looking at her plane ticket and comparing the date with our handy dandy wall calendar.

She's leaving Saturday. And, man, we had plans through Sunday! This is a huge disappointment.

I feel gypped. I feel cheated. I feel sad. I feel....well, you get the  picture again.

We did play out the scenario where we dropped her off at the airport on Sunday as planned and drove off. And she had no plane trip to take.

Of course, it's not so dramatic with cell phones.

However; if you are a compulsive liar writer, like me, your imagination can go all sorts of ways with the what ifs.

It's times like these we are to count our blessings. Just be glad she got to come, that we got to spend seven days together.

Not eight.

Just seven.

Help! I've Been Kidnapped By The Yankees!

You'd think goin' on vacation in the South I'd be surrounded by southern people. But noooooo. I am in a housefull of you-know-whats.

And of course, one of Them wants to talk about the strange ways of Southern folk.

So, although she has it backerds, and it is they that are quare, I agreed to let her have the floor, so to speak.

Here goes, words from Yankee Cousin:
First of all, when I am down South, I am always in the minority. For once, it is the other way around, and I love it!

Southern Cousin says she is not only Southern,  but she is tall, pale, and blonde in a house full of short,dark complected, dark haired women. She stands out like a sore thumb. Gee, I never felt that way at her house. ha!

You want to know the difference between the North and the South?

Let's talk about the way the Southern people speak.

For instance, when a Northern person is talking with another person and  you want them to do something, you will say, "What you should do...."

A Southerner says, "What you need to do is..."

A Northern greeting is, "Hi guys!"

A Southern greeting is, "Hey ya'll!"

North: "I'm going to the store."

South: "I'm fixin' to go to the store."

North: "Plug in the TV."

South: "Plug up the TV."

North: "Let's go swimming."

South: "Let's go to the pool."

Southern people leave off all g's on their ing's.

*add by me: Daughter told me she and Boy Yankee Cousins were eating and she asked them to pass the soda crackers. They did not know what that was. She said, "They are right in front of you." (I know she gave them that 'you are stupider than a rock' look she is so famous for. Boy Yankee cousin said, "Oh, you mean the saltines."

But our differences are so insignificant compared to what we have in common: our childhood memories that bond us in our hearts and in our lives. We are a sister to each other, even if blood says it is cousins. We are in tune with one another, thinking the same things at the same time. In many ways, we view the world the same. We know we are going to spend eternity together, which is a wonderful comfort and joy!

Every year I would come down to spend the summer, and I was always afraid that things would be different between us because Southern Cousin was (still is) three years older than  me, and I just knew she'd be more sophisticated and not want to be with me anymore.

That never happened. We were able to pick up right where we left off.

Just like we did last night.