Tuesday, June 15, 2021

Life, As Usual


It's been raining this afternoon and thunder is rumbling somewhere off in the distance. It sounds like a grumpy old man who can't find his favorite pipe. But the birds are singing, quite possibly about the rain. There's the one bird species whose call sounds just like, "You're sweet, you're sweet, you're sweet!" and I cannot figure out what sort of a bird it is and yes, I've tried googling it but the first two hits on the search direct you to my blog, me, talking about the bird who sings, "You're sweet, you're sweet, you're sweet." Which I think is funny. 
And not at all helpful as to identification. 

So I walked in yet another place today. Not a place I've never walked, certainly, but not in awhile. It was Farms Road which intersects White House Road and Old Lloyd Road. I used to incorporate it into my White House Road walks back when I was doing five or more miles. It's about a two mile stretch of really, really pretty country road with very little traffic and a lot of shade. 
Sounds perfect, doesn't it? 


Most of y'all have seen a picture of that pretty little pond before. There a few ponds on the road and some horse farms, barns, tidy, well kept yards with houses that you just know are tidy and well kept too. 


Really, there's just one problem with Farms Road and that is the hills. I know from experience that the road goes mostly downhill from White House and up from Old Lloyd Road which it spans the distance between. It's so low at the more northern end near Old Lloyd that the last time I tried to walk on it, I couldn't because the road was flooded and so were both sides of it. I would have needed a ferry to cross it and there was no ferry available. 
But no worries about that today so I decided to park down at the lower end near the railroad track, walk uphill for about a mile and a half and then leisurely come back downhill for the same distance. 
And all went according to plan. Heading south it is indeed mostly uphill but with a few downward parts and I pushed through in the ninety-degree heat, telling myself that all was well and that I'd just finish this...one...last...hill and then turn around and go back and I did but there are actually a few uphill parts going back and by the time I was about two hundred yards from where I was parked I was wondering if I should flag down the UPS truck going by to give me a ride the rest of the way and of course I didn't and I made it but dear god- I am NOT in as fit a  shape as I was back when I was walking that road before. Also, I am older.
But once again, I did not die. I got in my car and turned it on, praising John Gorrie, who sort of invented air conditioning, and came on home. 
I knew that Mr. Moon and I were going to go to the Wacissa today and so I held that idea as a bit of reward and promise. When I got back to the house, the man was mowing the yard so I cooled off some and then I fried some bacon and made sandwiches with it, slicing tomatoes to put in a container to put on the sandwiches when we ate so that they wouldn't make the bread all mushy. I put cut-up cantaloupe and cherries in different containers, even remembered to put a salt shaker in with the rest of the food. When the mowing was done (and the yard looks beautiful now) we got into our bathing costumes and packed towels and chairs and magazines and loaded everything up and drove to the river. 
The sky above us as we drove south grew dark and I knew that one of our almost-daily summer storms was probably about to come in but that's always hit or miss and we kept driving. Before we got there, I told my husband about how every time I go to the river there's one child whose people can't find them and it turns out that they've just gone from one swimming spot to another and when the mother finds them they give them hell. "Don't you ever do that again! You TELL me before you leave this area. I thought you were LOST!" and the kids looks at the mother in bafflement. But I was right there...
When we got to the parking lot we unloaded and set up our chairs and the food and we decided to jump into the water first in case the weather got bad and we had to leave. We could eat anywhere but cooling off in that cold water was the number one priority. 
And we did. 
Our core body temperatures instantly dropped at least a few degrees. It was wonderful. And then the wind kicked up as we unwrapped our sandwiches so we were even more delightfully cooler and just then one of the many children there went missing, just as I'd told Glen would happen and yes, the mother went through the whole speech when the child was found. 
"Happens every time," I told him as he sprinkled salt on his tomatoes. 
We laughed and tried to keep hold of our napkins as the wind blew and it was so cool and lovely. Jessie and Vergil's house sitter was there and it was good to see her. She took a picture of us and sent it to Jessie. It was odd being at the river with my husband, rather than my children and grandchildren but it was nice. He looked so damn handsome with his hair blowing back, his beautiful profile as he looked out at the water. I wanted to take his picture but he would have fussed at me. He doesn't believe me when I tell him how handsome he is. 
As usual, it was a completely diverse crowd at the little beach. Tots, teens, couples, and plenty of boys whose testosterone levels were far higher than their IQ's, not that they can help that. That's just the way it is. They did amazing jumps and tricks and flips, swinging off the ropes tied to the limbs of the cypress tree to the side of the area where everyone swims, sometimes two or three of them clinging, swinging, and jumping at the same time, all to impress the few young teenaged girls that were there, yelling in exuberant calls that reminded me of young roosters just finding their crowing voices. 
There was a small gator swimming about, closer to the swimmers than they usually come and almost nobody was worried about it. 
"Watch out for that gator," a mama might say to her kids while one man was obviously extremely concerned and stood at the end of the dock, peering at the water with great concentration. I wondered aloud where he was from. Probably not Florida. 
And then it began to thunder and a few fat raindrops fell. People began to pack up and suddenly a bolt of lightening struck, the thunder right behind it and mothers began to scream at their kids to come in from the water right now! and a mother of one of the teen boys yelled to her son, "Don't you jump! Don't you dare jump!" as he was poised to swing from the rope. 
As Mr. Moon and I were putting our things in the car, a little boy in the parking lot next to us was trying every bit of kid logic to get his mother to let them stay. "But I don't see any thunder! It's hardly raining!" and she was saying, "You don't see thunder, you hear it," and frantically trying to round up all her chicks to get them in the car to safety. 

It was great. It was such a typical, glorious, mundane day at the Wacissa River. 

I've made some banana bread which is far more cake than bread with its cinnamon and pecan and sugar topping, and we're going to have leftover spaghetti for supper. Tomorrow we're going to let Darla and her chicks out of the coop. I sewed some on the dress I've been working on for eons and realized I'd screwed up in a major way with the neck binding but I don't really care. It'll be fine for wearing around the house. 

Another day in Lloyd. 

Love...Ms. Moon




33 comments:

  1. Another lovely visit to your place! Thanks for taking us along on your walk, to the swimming hole and then back home for banana bread!
    Hotter then hell in S. Colorado today! Not looking any cooler for the week and no rain! We need the rain!

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  2. Oh my! That husband of yours is a very handsome man and it is hard to believe he does not see it. It sounds as if the day was perfect.

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  3. A lovely, cool day in NE Ohio. It did not rain, for the first time in seven or eight days. All week is forecast the seventies, except tomorrow, which will be 69. Oh, yes, this is rather unusual for us. We should be low eighties now, and counting up to maybe half a dozen days in the nineties. But that was how it was back in the sixties and seventies. No telling any more.

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    1. Absolutely no telling any more. I swear it used to be cooler here in N. Florida at night. I could be wrong. I am a bit worried about the hurricane season.

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  4. That's a lovely day. I like following your days along like this.
    While you're working on the dress how about putting pockets on??

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  5. wonderful day.....picnic with Mr Moon at the river......and your walk(I would have flagged down the UPS driver LOL).......good for you! sounds divine. Hot as hell here (coastal CA).......97 today.......currently at 7pm still 91......shit- sleep is hell in this heat!
    Susan M

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    1. 97 is brutal! Do you at least have AC in your bedroom? I would have to. Absolutely have to.

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  6. Love the prediction of river happenings, and how they come true with such consistency. It's like ground hog day.

    Beautiful place to walk, it does not look hot!

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    1. Yes- Ground Hog Day. Perfect description, Linda Sue.
      I look at that pond when I'm walking there and think- hmmmm...
      But I've never had the courage to wade in. It looks snakey to me.

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  7. I am looking forward to a thunder storm this evening and tomorrow! hoping for lots of rain so that I don't have to water the garden for ages. I planted out some broccoli plants yesterday morning and by the evening they had been eaten right back to just the leaf " bones" ! Pigeons I guess. Very peeved I am!

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    1. Oh no! Dang pigeons! Or whatever they are. Chickens love to eat things like that too which is why my husband has spent so much time and energy getting the garden chicken-proofed. I sure hope you got that rain.

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  8. I love your account of all the parents' instructions to their kids. I've been on the receiving end of a lot of that dialogue myself. I don't think I could ever be a parent -- it would stress me out too much. (A dog is hard enough!)

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    1. Oh, and could your bird be a bobwhite?
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nEKIAteCDYU

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    2. I swear- it's like there's a parent's handbook. But if there is, no one gave it to me. Still, I seem to know most of what it would probably have in it.
      We don't have bobwhites here. We have Chuck-Widows-Wills but they don't sound like that. So, nope. But thank you!

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  9. Days like these are par of part trove of memory - good times in great places that somehow just come together without too much planning. I bet you remember all sort of little details about this day fo many years - and the act of writing it all down makes it real and permanent too. A joy of blogging.

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    1. I feel like all my days just get lost in each other's memories. Although I do remember specific things that I suppose were out of the ordinary. Sometimes I go back and read blog posts from the past and think, "Really? That happened?" I worry about my memory.

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  10. I regularly sing the praises of "John Gorrie, who sort of invented air conditioning." Bless his cotton socks...as my British mother used to say (an expression of appreciation for someone, often heard in UK).

    Your bird story reminds me about my encounter with a backyard bird call. After almost year of virtual schooling with my 6 (now 7) yr old GS, I heard a bird in our backyard that sounds just like the children calling out to the teacher--over and over again. "Mrs XX-XX-XX, Mrs XX-XX-XX" (as I heard over the computer every school day). I even sent a video of the call to the teacher. Made her laugh and said, Yes! Sounded just like her Chatty-Cathies. And, like you, I can't figure out what bird it is either, even with listening to huge number of bird calls on Cornell's Lab of Ornithology website.

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    1. I've never heard that expression but I love it!
      Do you think your bird could be a mockingbird that actually heard all those zoom classes and mimicked the teacher? Wouldn't that be something?

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  11. I remember being so worried all of the time when I had my first child. By the time I had my 5th baby, I didn't worry so much. Too busy to worry, I guess.
    Now I am retired and I think I worry more again - too much time on my hands...

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    1. I worry too much too, Ellen. As you know. Always have and I'm sure I always will.

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  12. Just a small gator, nothing to worry about. Spoken like a woman who has spent her whole life living in Florida because any size gator would keep me out of that water:)

    I'm fine with bears but not gators, although elk are more dangerous than bears.

    The river sounds like a lovely reprieve from the heat, for everyone.

    It's Miss Katie's birthday today. I've still got to frost the cupcakes and go pick her up. Have a lovely day.

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    1. Well, I'd probably scream if I swam right up on any sized gator but I know that the small ones can't do a thing to us.
      I dreamed about bears last night!
      The river is our joy in the summer. I am so grateful for it.
      Happy birthday to Miss Katie! Kisses!

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  13. Thank you for taking us with you to the Wicassa River today. It sounds perfect. And my man fusses at me when I try to take his picture too so I can never quite capture by camera the way I see him in real life. Maybe when we have grandchildren he will let me take his picture, as I notice Mr. Moon does let you take his picture when the grands are hanging off him like a tree!

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    1. Thank you for coming with me to the Wacissa!
      And yes, the men are easier about us taking their pictures when they are holding the grands. It's a true thing.

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  14. That sounds like absolute bliss to me (all except for the gator 'cos I don't care how small they are I wouldn't be swimming anywhere near that thing)!

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    1. A little gator would be scared to death of a human. But I understand how you feel.

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  15. I'm so jealous of your river. we have a river running right through town but has the town ever thought of making or creating access to a spot where people can go and cool off in it? no. of course it's not a clear river but a brown river as all the rivers are in this part of the state but you know what? I've swam and sat in many of them and the water cools you off just the same.

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    1. Most of our rivers are tannic-stained too but this one is spring fed and bubbles up clear and beautiful and cold, cold, cold. Any river is cooling though, and I wish you could take advantage of yours.

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Tell me, sweeties. Tell me what you think.