A Pretty Good Week

I’m coming off a pretty good week, and I thought I’d say something about it. I visited Mom, old friends, beautiful places, had a beautiful day of travel, had great meals, and attended a fantastic show.

I wasn’t perfect. I’ll just get that out of the way. Late last week I was pulling some vines out of a hedge. Apparently, some of it was poison oak, so starting Friday evening, I developed what turned into a very ugly rash on my arm. When I got back to Tampa Wednesday evening, I wound up at the walk-in clinic, and I’m still itching some, but it’s getting better finally.

But back to the good stuff. Last Saturday I drove up to Kings Mountain for a visit. While that drive is never “fun,” I had a good audiobook to pass the time and made it in record time of about 9 hours (it is usually about 10.5). Sunday was church, so I got to see a lot of people I’m always happy to see, and Robin and Don and LeeAnn and Cassie came over Sunday afterward to eat.

Monday morning, I set out for Brevard. The temperature was dropping as I went up the mountain, and everything was perfect. The sky was just an amazing blue, and everything was very lush. I met up with my former Pastor from here in Tampa, Dr. Rabb and his wife Anne. We had a wonderful lunch at a place called Marco there in Brevard. On their Specials Board they listed “The Perfect Grilled Cheese Sandwich.” I challenged that, and by golly, it just might have been. A couple of kinds of cheese on homemade bread with tomatoes and bacon made up the sandwich. That came with some of the best tomato bisque I’ve ever had and small green salad. It is always grand to get to spend time with the Rabbs, and the day and setting were just perfect.

Leaving there I was headed to visit my brother-from-another-mother over in Asheville. He’s been having some serious health issues, and I wanted to get back and check in on him.

I was running ahead of schedule, so I cruised over the Canton, NC first. When I was very small,like 3-5 years old, we lived there, and dad worked at Wells Funeral Home. I stopped off at the funeral home knowing no one there would likely have a clue, but I introduced myself, and one of the long-time guys, Joseph Sellars, showed me around, and we talked shop. As I talked about when dad was there, Joseph said, “He would probably be in this newspaper insert then.” During the time we were there, they had built a new funeral home and done an insert in the local paper. He pulled one out of the drawer, opened it up, and sure enough, there was dad along with Bob Pearson, a close family friend I remember for many years.

I drove by the house we lived in. The gray house below ours was the home of Derris and Deecy Jenkins. Derris had a basement full of wood-working equipment and was an artisan (but no one used that word much back then). Fortunately, rather than being bothered by a little kid, they both always welcomed me, and Derris helped me build little projects and we sailed boats we built up and down the little stream beside his house. They are both dead now, but I had stopped by about 20 years ago and was able to visit with them. They are the kind of folks who just made the world brighter. Joseph at the funeral attended the same church and noted that Deecy held the record for 41 years of perfect attendance. Across the street from the Jenkins lived a retired police officer (I can’t remember his name), but he’d sit on his porch and carve little tiny monkeys and other animals out of peach pits. He blessed me with a few of those back then.

Canton is the home of a paper mill, and while the EPA has made them clean it up some, the place still has a distinct smell, which was much worse 55+ years ago when we lived there.

Then back over the mountain to Asheville for my visit with Rick. I wish I could report Rick was doing great, but he does seem to be improving, and if he’ll stick with the therapy, weight-loss and the rest of his regimen, he’ll hopefully do well. We visited a while then I picked us up some dinner. We talked almost weekly if not more, but we haven’t seen other but once in about 15 years, so I was glad for this time. It was even a nice drive back down the mountain.

Tuesday I took Mom for a checkup and we puttered around the house. She’d put her car in the shop Sunday, so we picked that up and I did her grocery shopping. Wednesday was the drive home, and while it was busier than the drive up, there were not major slow-downs, and it was about as good a drive as you can expect.

Yesterday afternoon, we drove to Orlando to have dinner at a favorite spot over there, L.A. Boiling Seafood on Colonial Drive. I had an appetizer of alligator sausage and an oyster po’boy that were excellent. Lay gets this giant tray of crab, shrimp, crawfish, snow crab legs, corn, and potatoes. After that, we went to a performance of the Orlando Gay Chorus at Plaza Live. They did a show based on Broadway music, and it was just excellent. They do an outstanding job, and I’d say this was one of their best concerts yet.

So, as I said, it was just a pretty great week (plus an extra day I guess). About the only thing missing was some Bridges Barbeque. That just didn’t work out this time. I’d like to have more of those kinds of weeks (absent the poison oak though). I hope that you get to have weeks like that every week.