Sunday, July 24, 2011

WAS IT EVER HOT!

We were able to take a day to get away, so we decided to head for Lake Oconee. It's a beautiful lake about 75 miles east of Atlanta. Our neighbor used to have a place on this lake, so we became well acquainted with it when we would spend time at his place. So, we love going out there to fish.

We left early and was on the lake by 8:30 a.m. It was warm, but not bad. We went down the lake and found a nice place to fish. It was in the shade the entire time we were there. Hubby decided we needed to move to another place, so we headed up the lake and was in the sun the rest of the day.

We have umbrella brackets on the back of our boat seats, so they were opened as soon as we anchored at the second fishing hole. Unfortunately umbrellas do not render the same coolness as shade from a tree. By noon it was too hot to fish, so we headed back to the marina where we had a picnic lunch in the shade of a tree. By this time it was so hot it wasn't comfortable even in the natural shade. So, we pulled the boat out of the water and headed home. We had fun, we caught a lot of fish (we threw all of them back) but it's just too hot to fish right now. I can't stand baking my brain in this heat.

Monday, July 18, 2011

All work and no play...until tomorrow

This is what six quarts and 21 pints of green beans look like before they are put in the jars. All of these are out of our garden. I think they about stopped blooming. However, the squash are still blooming as are the cucumbers and the okra has just started producing.

Today we drove out I-20 about 75 miles to a memorial service for a dear friend. We have known Dorothy and Vaughn for probably 30 years. They moved to rural Georgia for a better life on 20 acres. Dorothy loved living in the boonies along with all her animals--11 horses, four cats and a dog.

Last week she had a stroke that left her paralyzed on her right side. As a result her dear hubby had to put her in a nursing home. Early Friday morning someone called him and said, "your wife just passed." Needless to say, he was shocked. How insensitive can one be? Your wife just passed. Why didn't they call and say, your wife is not doing well you need to come to the facility now? Or, your wife has taken a turn for the worse, please come now? I couldn't believe how they informed him his beloved wife has passed away!

The service was really nice. The people were salt of the earth people. After the service the pastor made an announcement that everyone was invited to stay for lunch. Oh my, the food was out of this world. There was barbecued chicken and all the vegetables were out of people's gardens. Then there was this homemade caramel cake.

Tomorrow we are going fishing, finally. This is the first time this year we will have our little fishing boat out.

Thursday my Mom is coming back to stay with us for a few weeks. She is still recovering from a hip replacement. That's tough surgery at any age, but at 93 it's really tough. After some complications she is recovering well. She was in a rehab facility for 20 days and hated every minute of it. She refers to the facility as "jail". I have to remind her that because of the intense rehab she received she was able to climb the stairs at my house the first day home. She has been at my brother's the past week and they have run her ragged. I think she is ready for a slower pace of life. I'm not so sure that our pace of life will be slow enough for her. She's also going to be surprised that I'll insist she do the exercises prescribed by home rehab between their home visits. She won't like that, because she has never been one to exercise. The rehab is a necessity after a hip replacement.

Hopefully, she will be able to return to her home in a few weeks. I mentioned to her she is going to be lonely and bored after being pampered and cared for the past month or so. I've also mentioned to her she can't sleep all day like before the surgery. She was in so much pain she didn't want to do anything. I'm hoping she can return to walking at the mall in the mornings and some of the church activities she just couldn't do before the surgery.

So goes life in the slower fast lane. Well, slower than my brother's household.