I have seldom been at a loss for words. My mom always said I had “the gift of gab”. I was always a little insulted by that because I was sure she was saying “You talk too much!” Ok…I’ll have to admit…I do have a lot to say. About everything.

Some of my very best writing has come from my very deepest pain. As difficult as it was to go through, that kind of writing is actually a whole lot easier than writing from a place of joy. Of peace. Of love. Writing from pain is cathartic. It releases energy and the words have a life of their own. Someone told me I had “lost my focus” a little while after I introduced Mr. FixIt to the story. That has niggled at me ever since. She’s right…in a way. But not in the way she thinks.

I went to the best high school on the planet. You might say the same thing about yours. I hope you do. Parkersburg High School itself is older than 100 years, but the current building opened its doors on August 29, 1917. It is a gorgeous building that looks much more like a college campus than that of a high school. When the old school became woefully inadequate, the person charged with purchasing land for the new building ruffled a lot of feathers when he bought nearly thirty acres of swamp, cattails, and quicksand. The swamp was filled in and the building went up, without the wings. They were added later.

Yesterday’s post about the old Lily Pond in City Park sparked a debate as to which pond was actually the one with all the lilies on it…the big one that is still there or the smaller one that was taken out many years ago. I set out to do some research on Roger Mackey’s page. Roger is a fine historian on West Virginia, and Parkersburg in particular. He has pages and pages of historic photos of everything from the old movie theaters to natural disasters…from the society elite to skid row…and all things in between. I can get lost for hours looking through his old photos. It’s like going into an antique store for me.

Yesterday was a super busy day with appointments and errands and helping Mr. FixIt do some stuff. We got a salad from Chik-fil-A and went down by the Ohio and ate an early picnic supper. The weather was cool and overcast which made the day’s chores less bothersome. I was getting ready to head back home when a friend posted a clearance sale for tabletop ice makers. I’ve been looking at those for a couple of years and finally found one I liked with a price I could live with so I ran to the store to get it. As I was leaving, Mr. FixIt called to see if I wanted to meet him at the park and walk. Man, did I ever!!! I’ve been working hard but haven’t really been exercising so I was quick to say “Yes, please!!!”

We had a guest speaker at church yesterday and man…did he deliver! So here we go…it’s time for some Monday Morning Motivation. We’re going to church.

Forgiveness. Such a simple word that is packed full of power. We all need forgiveness for something. Something we’ve done that has hurt others. Hurt ourselves. Or maybe, something we did in the dark that no one knows about. Thing is….someone knows. Someone always knows. You know. And God knows.

For a class as huge as ours, my high school classmates are extraordinarily close. We have a bond seldom seen in a graduating class. I’m not sure why but classes before and after have reported they aren’t nearly as close as ours. The gals gather every month for coffee therapy and every other month or so, we have a class dinner. Then at the end of summer, we have a class picnic which is always well attended. Yesterday was our picnic and around thirty of our classmates gathered for three hours of fun. We’re starting to see more health issues, more deaths. But we are also seeing joyful achievements and the first arrivals of great grandchildren. Ok, we’re WAY too young for the great grandchildren thing….just sayin’! This particular group that gathered seem more like family, than classmates. When one hurts, we all hurt. There’s not much we wouldn’t do for each other. I love that closeness we have.

We drove into Richmond yesterday and looked around the Depot District. We went around the block and found this really cool alley with paintings on all the windows and old doorways. I love little surprising art finds around cities and towns. We wandered through Two Sisters Used Books where I found The Prayer of Jabez a couple years ago. We browsed through a huge furniture store and stopped at a coffee shop. Then headed for Oxford, Ohio.

I’m beginning to really like this state. I have been to Bloomington in the south. I’ve been back and forth along the I-70 corridor countless times. I spent a weekend here in Richmond in December 2015 when my daughter graduated from Miami University. And now I’m on my third camping excursion here. We picked TOW-Wanda up yesterday and she’s pretty as can be. They detailed her after putting on the new axle. I checked the hub temperature with my new infrared digital thermometer after driving a few miles and it was right around 97-98°. It may give me a false sense of security since the service guy told me “if it’s too hot, it’s too late.”

The other evening, I was sitting out on the front porch and hear something fall in the woods on the other side of the driveway. I looked up in time to see a green ball come shooting out of the woods onto the lawn. Curious. I sat, scanning the trees, and pretty soon another came down. I noticed a quick movement out of the corner of my eye and saw a squirrel darting from branch to branch. Now, I’m pretty good with identifying the fauna on the farm, but I’m not as astute with the flora. I watched to see what tree the squirrel settled in then got up to inspect the green ball. As it turns out, there’s a hickory tree on the bank, and a nice sized one at that. I gathered up a bucket full before I mowed the lawn yesterday and I’ll set them out to dry then take the husks off when they’re dry.