Comings and Goings

Sam has been in Germany for a couple of weeks. He gets home late tonight. While he has been able to speak to his siblings on "WhatsApp" and video chat with them, I have had very little communications with him. I am sure it will be a fun ride back from Tulsa, unless he is just too tired to tell us about it.

Daniel and Sam

In the morning, Daniel is headed to West Texas. He has the latest step in the SAFD journey to handle on Monday: The Polygraph.  I had failed to count it as a step in the hiring process, thinking all that remained was the Face to Face interview. The interview will be conducted SOON, pending the outcome of the polygraph. The SAFD hire/ start Date will be Dec. 18. That means, in another month our nest could be down another birdy.
This is a turbulent time for me! Yeah. Get over it... the twins are already 22 years old.
So far, Tom and I have no solid Thanksgiving plans. We are having to  keep our options open, based on events in other people's lives. I am thinking we may be going to Ohio.
We did just get back from Ohio this past Sunday.
There are many things going on in the lives of Mr C's family. His Mom can use prayers, as she is having pain in her hip and may need surgery. This would necessitate someone staying with her as she recovers... actually BEING with her daily. At the moment, all the available family members are working, or have obligations that preclude their being there more than a day or two at a time. I am the logical person to be there.
Mr C and the twins can handle the house here, and our wee amount of critters without me. Garden season is past. We are just trying to take small steps at a time right now, to be sure of our direction.

Lower Falls at Old Man's Cave, Hocking  Hills State Park, Ohio

Tommy is planning a Thanksgiving dinner in Dallas, with friends an a couple of siblings. My folks (Mom and Ralph, Dad and Kathie) are getting together. Ben and Paula are going to Paula's folks, I think. We ought to know in another week or so about whether we are going to Ohio or not. But for the moment, I am just counting us out everywhere.
We had a good visit with Arlene and with Bob. We got to see Joyce for a short while on Saturday, and even spend an hour or so with Luke, and with Eric. Luke's daughter Leigha gave me a birthday card!

It would be nice to take a trip sometime, to be able to stop and actually SEE the sights along the way. I have been by the St. Louis Arch probably more than 30 times. I have never got to stop and see it, though I think most of my kids have at one time or another. We are always so focused on the destination that we seldom stop to enjoy the journey. (Heck, we hardly even stop to potty!) I'd like to see the Creation Museum at Glenrose, Texas. The Ark Encounter in Kentucky. Someday, the Grand Canyon.

Our seasons are changing. (I mean that both naturally and metaphorically.) The trees here have been going quickly from green, to brilliant colors, to raining their leaves down in a smothering cover on the ground.  So far, we haven't had a frost, and a few plants are hurrying to ripen their last fruits. Our own circumstances are changing, and we will have to adjust to the new landscapes we encounter.
Thanks for reading. May your day be blessed.

Hiking to the Rockbridge... or, "Gee, mom can sure run!"

Our last day in Ohio, we went to a sight we hadn't hiked to before, the rock bridge... located aptly enough, in Rockbridge. It was supposed to be 3/4 of a mile from the parking area to the bridge, taking the shorter of two loops.
The intrepid hiker twins forged ahead, leaving Mr C and I huffing along behind. I am amazed at how quickly one loses tone and endurance when walking is cut back from almost daily, to once a week or so. A few of the points in the trail were... steep. (huff hufff huff). Mr C soon got ahead of me as I stopped to catch my breath take pictures of interesting flora along the path. The path wended its way along the side of a pasture through fifteen foot high ragweed, which was just bursting into full bloom, and then into deep, shady woods. It was uphill every step of the way, in both directions.
Really.
So Mr C calls back to me, "Watch out, there is a hornets nest here by the trail! YEOW I just got stung by a hornet!"
So I stopped. I was fifteen or twenty yards from the nest. The hornets in Ohio build big paper nests, like deformed basketballs. This one was cantaloup sized, and not two feet off the trail.
Tom moved on ahead.
I stood very still several minutes, then detoured around the trail, giving the hornets nest a very wide berth. Hornets don't much seem to care whether you are trying to avoid them. They don't even care that you have stayed far from their nest... at least as far as one can get on a steep rocky hillside in the woods. They came after me for even daring to be within sight of their nest!
I will never be able to tease Chris about his fear of wasps again.... I screamed like a little girl and RAN, feeling them tangling in my hair as I swatted wildly around my head, running full tilt, pell mell down the steep trail towards the already stung Mr C. (Shhhh, I didn't say down the trail... It was up the trail... uphill all the way, both directions!)
I mentioned heavy woods and steep hillsides already didn't I? You know, these trees are supported by these pesky things referred to as roots. The path is choked with roots. The roots are all that keep the dirt from washing down the steep paths into the creek at the bottom.
The roots also make it really difficult to stay upright when running shrieking through the forest swatting at ones head, pursued by hornets. Especially when you hit the mud on the trail next to the footbridge.
 I did a lovely trip slip flip slide right into the mud at the end of the bridge.  I was flat on my back in the muck. Tom stomped the hornet that I slapped from my hair.  The rest of the (flock? crew? pursuers?) gave up and went back to guarding the trail.

Took me a minute to get up.
I was covered in mucky mud from shoulders to toes... looking every bit like I may of slid into second base on a close call in a rainstorm.

We hiked on to the rock bridge, where Dan and Sam waited. They hadn't seen the hornets nest at all. I got several pictures of the bridge... a natural expanse of rock spanning a creek, forming a rock bridge that people are actually allowed to USE.

We took the longer loop back from the bridge, and warned other hikers we encountered that they might prefer the longer route to the bridge... even if it was even more uphill all the way than the shorter route.

I am fine, no broken bones or other injuries, other than sore muscles from my muddy impact. Too bad the twins missed seeing the sprint... I bet they have never seen Mom run!

I was going to post pictures of the rock bridge, but it blends so perfectly with the sides of the gully it spans, you cannot tell by the pictures that there is even a bridge there.

Library Day

I have been out of books all weekend. Dan has been pestering me since Friday evening to go to the library- so we went this morning.
I also stopped at the post office for stamps and to mail the letters that didn't go out Saturday.
Last time I was at the Library, I bought a couple of audio books from the library used book store. One was "The Hobbit", which we listened to today, on the way *there and back again*. (Insider joke for Hobbit fans).
Today, the twins found an audio book of Tom Sawyer, which they are listening to as they *clean their room*. (Insider joke for parents whose kids say they are cleaning their room)
(For non Hobbit fans- the main character in the book names his journey "There and Back Again". For non parents- any time a kid says they are cleaning their room- it is a joke.)

I was in a lousy mood all weekend- just irritable and crabby for no good reason. I did put in several more applications to various companies in Ohio. Another colossal waste of time. Mr C looked at houses online- there and here. He says he needs a resume to apply for an interesting job he saw there. I started making him one during his lunch break today. When you have worked for the same company for almost 19 years... the resume is going to be pretty short!

Just so you know- even if he sends in his resume- it doesn't mean he will be offered a job. Even if he is offered a job- it doesn't mean he will accept it. Even if he accepts the job, it doesn't mean we will actually and in fact move to Ohio so that he can work at said job.
Having been down all of these roads before, I have learned I cannot count on any decision being a "final" decision.
*sigh*