Getting My Sea Legs Back, Or At Least Trying Very Hard

When I got up this morning, this is what the sun looked like. It was bursting through the clouds and lighting everything with glory and if it hadn't been happening in the east, I would have thought I'd slept through a day and gotten up in time for sunset.
It was beautiful and by the time we left, our little deck looked like this, empty chairs, the seagulls coming in to eat up the Sun Chips the ants had gotten to and that we'd thrown for them.

Our little coven-meeting spot with the sky clearing and another beautiful day born on the beach.

Before I packed up the computer, we posed for a picture, Vickie and Kathleen and I.

Gods bless the MacBook and Photobooth.

So then we drove to Apalachicola and let me tell you something about Kathleen on drugs: she is a shopping machine. Yesterday she bought a beautiful short sundress on the island. Kathleen NEVER wears short dresses. And yet, she should. Look at those pretty legs:

There she is, standing in front of River Lily, our favorite shop. She bought the blue hat there. I think. Isn't it pretty?
I bought her a little bluebird ornament for happiness and gave it to her at lunch. She immediately put it the hat.



We shopped elsewhere. The handmade chocolate shop where Kathleen bought us chocolates. And at Tamara's coffee shop where they sell gifts and shoes and jewelry. And lots of other stores. And Kathleen bought another hat which will do nicely when she loses her hair.
So okay, at THAT shop, she tells the woman (and she hardly had a voice today at all so she was whispering) "I'm about to lose all my hair and I need a hat."
The woman had no idea what to say. Vickie and I rolled our eyes.
We shopped for furniture too. Kathleen has decided that she needs real big-girl furniture for the first time in her life. A comfy couch, a comfy chair. We found those in East Point at a store where they sell furniture from foreclosed houses. It was like the Warehouse for Broken Beach House Dreams. And she found a couch and two beautiful chairs and she has to figure out how to get them from Eastpoint back to Monticello and she will.
We had lunch in Apalach and when we got to Sopchoppy we had to stop at the antique store there where Kathleen found a gorgeous little lamp with an egret on the base. She bought it. And then we went to the coffee shop THERE and she bought us cookies.
I told her that by the time her cancer is cured, I am going to weigh four hundred pounds and that's the damn truth. She looks like a movie star and I look like Mama Cass. Bless her heart.
Pass me a ham sandwich.
Thank-you.

We drove home in the on-and-off rain and we're home now. All my chickens are here and I went out and found six lovely eggs and I've unpacked the food and started laundry and Mr. Moon will be home from auction soon. It's rained here and the light is cutting through the trees which, since I have no ocean in my back yard, will have to do.
They do nicely, actually.
The firespike has started blooming. Yet another sign that fall is on the way.

Yes. I'm home. And tomorrow Owen will be here all day long. I talked to Lily today and she said that he's being naughty lately. I can't wait to get my hands on that naughty wild-boy. If he is naughty here I think I will put him in time-out in the chicken coop with Elvis. May the best man win.
No. Of course I won't do that. But it's a thought.

What an amazing three days it's been. It's so hard to believe that such a short distance away the sun is setting over the bay and the dolphins are easing their way west, rolling and blowing and the water is lapping the shore and those chairs are there, sitting empty.

My mother just called me and is in the hospital. She's been having chest pains and although they can't find anything wrong with her, she's spending the night and will have tests tomorrow. I asked her if she wanted me to come in and she said no, that she's fine and not in any pain now.

Really? I suddenly feel deeply and vastly empty. Barely able to finish this and unpack the rest of my things. Suddenly I am not quite sure where exactly I am or who exactly I am but fairly certain that for the past few days, I have been exactly where and who I was supposed to be.

It's a whirling world we live in, isn't it? I am dizzy with the motion.