At the moment I am sitting in my back porch looking at the earliest of fall leaves on my trees. This is my first fall at this house that Lyndsey and I share. I am so very happy to be here. It is comfortable and a place we can call home together. Home is a good place. I am listening to a Knoxville radio station with Bob Kesling who took over for John Ward a few years a go. I miss John Ward, gravel voiced and all. He is retired and doing Tennessee gas commercials. Which made Sam and I laugh alot. It is days like today that I miss them the most...them being Mom Dad and Dot and Sam. Tailgating on the river with brownies from the little bakery on Jacksboro Pike. Can't think of the name now but Dot made sure that we had them. Sam and I headed to Hardee's for either chicken bisquits or roast beef sandwiches...depending on the game time. As a kid it was 1:00pm period. "TV just ruined it!" they always proclaimed afterwards. It s a rain delay per the radio. So we wait for kick off. At one time I remember sitting in pouring rain but I think that was before the metal seats! So many memories in that place and time. For which I am grateful and loved even now on this back porch on a day that is football time in Tennessee.

Throwing Shoes

She was 11.

Tears streaming down her face, she sat in her seat on the bus.

Things had gotten a little hairy getting on the bus leaving camp that day. And when you are small, life gets a little challenging. Shoes got tossed and she was hit in the head.

The head counselor came and got me. I seem to be the one to go to when the crying starts. Not sure why but I do.

I asked what happened and made sure there was no real harm....like blood or a knot. All was well on the outside any way.

She asked me to sit with her. So I did. We sat in silence for a good bit. Because she was 11 and I might as well make a new friend, I asked her what she did, who was her family.

She did art and soccer and lived with her mom and 4 yr old sister. She liked to wrestle with her sometimes. Her dad had died in the last year.

I know that hurts.

It being summer and all, I asked what she was doing this year. Camping with Nana in a really, really, really hard bed had already happened. This week was grief camp...that was where we were when the shoe thing happened. And next week she was going to Alaska.

"We are flying to Las Vegas"

"Gonna play the slots?"
"Nooooo silly....I am too young to do that! But then we're gonna fly to Washington and then get on a boat and then we're gonna horseback ride in Alaska and ride bikes and...."
"Wow....I think I want YOUR life!"
"Do YOU wanna get hit by a shoe?"

: )