When I woke up yesterday, I greeted my sweetheart and said, “How can it possibly be Sunday again already?” The time flies so, so fast anymore. I grabbed my coffee, Mr. FixIt his tea, and we headed into the family room for church. I know it is important to have fellowship with other Christians, but I’m telling you...I like not having to drive all the way to town and back on a Sunday. I like to sit in my comfy chair and listen to the worship music and the encouraging words of a good sermon. We can hit “pause” if we have to take a little trip down the hall. Hey, we’re older now. And, we can discuss and openly encourage each other as the message is being preached.
I was busy in the kitchen making a couple of loaves of sourdough bread and fixing pork chops for supper when Daughter #1 shot me a quick text. She told me Big was just about to participate in a swim meet and if I went to this FB page, I could watch it live. I was thrilled! My son-in-law’s mom and I watched her swim in all three events. It’s not the same as being there, but being included and getting to see her swim was so fun! I dished up our plates because the food was ready and wasn’t going to keep well in the oven. I handed Mr. FixIt his and I sat at the bar in the kitchen and watched and cheered my big girl on!
West Virginia notoriously has really bad roads. Because of the large amount of rainfall and the fact that country roads are most often on the sides of hills, roadways often slip right off and head down the slope. Sometimes “Single Lane Ahead” signs are placed before the slip with times stoplights to give people turns to drive through until the funds are available to fix the problem. We are a poor state, so roadwork is prioritized and these country roads are often way down the list.
After such a long day on Wednesday, I was happy to sleep in a little yesterday. Mr. FixIt, being ever the early bird, was up long before me and I had what the Brits call a “lie in”. I stretched and read a little and gazed out the bedroom window at the cerulean sky. Suddenly, I heard the little tinkle of the bell on the cat’s collar as she jumped up onto the exterior window sill. She sat there and tweedled and chirped and sang me her “hello kitty” love song to start my day. I raised my phone, flipped the camera, and there she was...this little black cat that popped into our lives last Halloween. She’s a pistol. I could hear her purring as soon as I started talking to her.
Yesterday was a day of pure satisfaction. I was up at 6:00am to head into town for my yearly mammogram. I had a lumpectomy done a couple of years ago so it’s really important to stay on top of that. I was amazed to have the results by the time I got back home...normal! When I got home, Mr. FixIt was just getting his day started. As soon as breakfast was done, we were off to the County Court House to vote early in person. As I predicted, we are the smallest and least populated state, so there were only two people in front of us. They had us seated on benches with several feet between us. Everyone wore a mask. I’m glad we got there when we did because the line went out the door by the time we left.
When we got back from the beach, we had thirty-three pounds of bagged and frozen fish filets in our huge cooler packed in ice. We have a refrigerator out in the pole building and I needed to move some stuff out of that freezer to make room for the fish. I had several bags of vegetable soup, a pound of hamburger, and a small chuck roast in there. I put them down in the refrigerator part and yesterday, I checked and they were just starting to thaw a bit.
We live in a tiny, sparsely populated county in rural West Virginia where an awful lot of people scoff at the idea of wearing masks. And we’ve been extremely lucky. There have been only twenty-nine cases of Covid-19 in our county. But, up till a week ago, there was half that. With the fact that we traveled...very carefully, but still...and the fact that our numbers here at home doubled in a week, free testing was offered at the small clinic in town yesterday afternoon. We drove over and didn’t even have to get out of the car. The test itself is only slightly uncomfortable and we should have results in 24-48 hours.
Mr. FixIt and I haven’t been to church in person since February. We really miss it, but online church has become our custom and we get up with great anticipation to hear another good sermon. When they first started attending live services, the pastor made some remarks that made us feel belittled for not attending in person. I sent a kind, well-worded message and asked that they please not ostracize those who choose to stay home due to underlying medical conditions that could make getting Covid a death sentence. The next weekend, the pastor spoke into the camera and welcomed us to online church and dubbed us the Warehouse Nation. Their online ministry has started drawing an audience from all over the world. It’s just a simple lesson...don’t shut people out. God’s using this time for HIS glory...not ours.
Eleven and a half hours. Wow...what a drive! At least this time we didn’t have to drive through rain. It was a perfectly gorgeous day. The colors were a bit muted from the recent hard freeze, but the sky was clear and the air was crisp. When we crossed the Blue Ridge Mountains, I could see what looked like wildfire smoke in the distance. The further we went, and the lower the sun set, I became certain that was what I was seeing. I’ve seen enough wildfires in Colorado to know the difference between clouds and smoke.
Sandy toes on the Outer Banks...Mr. FixIt fishing!
This week was exactly what we needed. We had so much fun with the kids and we managed to get a little alone time in, as well. We did something yesterday that I’ve only done a couple of times before. We drove out on the beach. The sand here is decidedly different than Daytona Beach where it’s not quite as solid as concrete and practically impossible to get stuck. Outer Banks Sand is soft. You have to let the air out in your tires down to about 15 pounds to flatten and widen your footprint for better traction. You have to be very careful not to punch the accelerator and spin while maintaining enough speed to keep moving. I was determined to do it myself, but the closer I got to our destination, all I could think about was having to get an expensive tow off the beach. So, I gave it over to Mr. FixIt and observed his technique and asked him questions as we went along. I’ll try next time.
