We listened to GOODBYE DARKNESS
by William Manchester, an older WWII memoir but a classic one. I had read it years ago and knew my SO would enjoy it since his dad was in the Pacific theater and was one of those veterans who had seen brutal combat and never spoke of it afterwards. His dad has been gone for 30 years and now SO wishes he had found out more about his dad's war record. He can't get enough of these books suddenly. We listened to FLYBOYS
by James Bradley last year on one of these trips. You just have to read or listen to one of these books to understand why we fought in that war. I can't help but wonder how different the war memoirs will be that come out of the wars our soldiers are fighting now.The first thing we did when we got home was water the plants we had put inside the sunroom. A few of the dryest ones have not yet recovered and are probably beyond saving, but my beautiful grape ivy fared well, as did the palms and ferns. Oddly, the pothos ivies didn't do well, and the Chinese evergreen left from my ex-father-in-law's funeral (he was not an ex when he died, so is he now?) is stressed. I want to save that one especially. I might have to cut it to the bottom to get it to come back. I'll watch it for now.
Yesterday we just sat around most of the day staring at the football play-offs. Making that long two-day drive back from the mountains really takes it out of us both. The animals are both delighted to be back, though. The dog ran her traps outside before she ever came in for the first time. She remembered the last time she was here that there were lizards around the lawn mower shed, so that was her first stop on her rounds. Then she discovered a new armadillo hole under a big live oak, and she worried that for a while, before moving on to the gopher mound out along the driveway.
We'd had some strong wind storms while we were gone, and an electric line was down across the driveway. I called the electric company and they came out to pick it up -- neither of us was going to touch it and we fretted about the dog running around it. The thing was not "live," and even though we were pretty certain of that, we wanted to the electric company to take the risks. The man said it was the line that used to go out to the abandoned water well in the Front Forty. When the previous owner had the meter pulled from that well, they should've taken down the line but instead, the windstorm did the job. Now we have a needless pole sticking up out there, with nothing on it. I'm hoping that will be on my SO's future to-do list.
All the first night and into the next morning, the cat walked sentry around the house -- staying next to the wall, padding through the laundry room and the mud room, into our bedroom, checking out all the closets and the cubbyhole where my SO's desk sits, through the kitchen, pacing along the cabinets and baseboards, into the sunroom, the dining room, the living room, along the fireplace hearth, the fish tank, into the foyer, up the stairs, round and round, repeating the trek over and over. I guess he was making sure everything was the same as it had been when he left a month ago. Or maybe he was thinking to himself that he thought we had left this place forever. He was obviously happy to be back home, and his poop has already returned to normal. My SO thinks maybe the kitty was just homesick. Could be. But I'm keeping the vet appointment I made for him tomorrow.
So we are home, and we are happy to be here. It's humid, but it's cool. I slept so soundly last night. Nothing like being in your own familiar bed with your own familiar pillows and blanket. Now, we have a busy week to get through, and maybe things will settle down our old routine.
Onward ....
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