We had errands to run yesterday. Quite often, Mr. FixIt and I are in the minority when it comes to mask wearing in our little corner of West Virginia. We went in the garage to pick up my truck. No one was wearing a mask. We went into the bank to put our change in the cash machine. No one in the bank was wearing a mask. We went in separate directions from there and I headed to the DMV. I was one of four people wearing masks. FOUR! The place was busy but we were able to maintain some social distance.
It seems I drive a lot…more than I care to, actually. But it just seems there’s always something that draws me to town. I told you earlier that my truck needs brake work, so we ordered new rotors. They were supposed to arrive on Wednesday, but didn’t get here till yesterday. Which actually worked out perfectly. We had our family Thanksgiving yesterday at the former Mrs. FixIt’s house, so we dropped the truck off at the garage on the way.
(I’m not sure I would attempt to make this recipe as written. I think the measurements are off.)
This is the cozy time of year…when you’re more apt to fire up the stove and do a little baking just for the comfort of it all. The smells, the tastes, and the memories they bring to mind are just one of the things I love about fall. I’ve always loved the change of seasons when the colors are rich and glorious and the light is filled with gold. I’ve always felt a little melancholy along with the fade from summer to winter, but this year feels a little different. We had such an incredibly busy year, I’m really looking forward to the down time winter inevitably brings.
Oh…the continuing saga of the lady beetles. It was a wonderfully warm day yesterday. And, you know what that means? The uptick in the number of lady beetles takes an astronomical leap. This is my fifth November in this house and I’ve never seen an infestation this bad. Actually, now that I think about it, last fall was fairly light in the beetle department, so maybe that’s what they’re so bad this year. I vacuumed them up several times during the day clear into the evening. This is the worst I’ve seen since 2004 when my mom died.
My mom died in January 2004. My Aunt Rosie met me during a layover in Charlotte and we flew the rest of the way together. We rented a car and drove to the farm where we were met by two more of Mom’s siblings…my Aunt Peeps and my Uncle Bob. It’s a small farm house, as you have seen in the photos I have shared over the years. There are two bedrooms upstairs and one small room on the main floor where my grandparents slept. There was a rollaway bed in the “Girls” Room” so my Aunt Rosie and I bunked together.
That’s all it took. Three days and I tracked down the daughter of Maj. Chambliss M. Chesnutt. One of my readers suggested the website honorstates.org to find information on the soldier whose POW/MIA bracelet I found in a box of stuff I bought at an auction. I went on and saw that his wife had posted there back in 2016. There was no other information available. I did a few Google searches as I found the time. Somehow I found pownetwork.org and there was mention of a story on military.com about a Pensacola woman finding Maj. Chesnutt’s military ID in Vietnam in 2019. I was intrigued.
Just a few weeks after Mr. Virgo died, I took off in my first little camper…all by myself…for the adventure of a lifetime. There aren’t very many moments in time that you can just…leave. And that’s exactly what I did. I had no idea where I was going except a general direction and people I definitely wanted to spend a little time with. I didn’t have reservations ahead of time. I just flew by the seat of my pants and set out to heal my grief…one campfire at a time.
When I was a single mom in Denver back in the mid to late ‘70’s, I didn’t have a pot to pee in or a window to throw it out of. I was living in HUD housing, supplementing my meager food budget with food from WIC, and occasionally qualifying for Food Stamps. I was poor as a church mouse and trying my best to raise my child alone 1,200 miles from my family. Hubby #1 was out of the service and had moved back to WV after we split for the last time. To say I was struggling was an understatement.
I made great strides in organizing the camping gear yesterday. Now, you might ask… “For crying out loud…how much camping gear does this gal have???” Yeah, well…enough to make me crazy. It’s not just sorting the gear, though. There were boxes in the belly of the big camper that had just been hauled around from one side of the country to another without ever being opened. There were boxes of toiletries that had long ago either dried up completely or leaked out all over other things that were still perfectly usable. There were folders of pamphlets for the inner workings of the campers I’ve owned over the years. There were bags of receipt I kept for my business. There were countless business cards for people I don’t remember. Discount cards, rewards cards, gift cards with a dollar or two left on them. A couple of boxes of change. I’ve always said “I’ll get to that.” So, it’s time to pay the piper and go through all that. I have to maintain my mantra…be ruthless. Not a problem…till I found a rabbit hole I had to go down.
Ol’ Jack Frost came and bit our gardens Tuesday night. We awoke yesterday before dawn to 30 degrees. I didn’t get a picture of the elephant ears. They were the most obviously damaged of all the plants. What were great big beautiful leaves turned into limp dishrags hanging from the tall stems. I’ll try to get photos today.
