An October Synopsis

I am hardly able to believe that the month of October is almost here and gone, and I haven't even bothered to blog.  To make up for lost time I intend to write a month in review blog for you now, so sit back and enjoy.

The month began on a frantic note as I worked hard to prepare my home for a temporary roommate.  I still hadn't unpacked all my belongings from moving, and had been using the second bedroom as a storage room.  Having someone move in with me was the catalyst I needed to finish my unpacking and organzing.  That doesn't mean I've finished all my home projects, but I am getting closer to being done.  Some of the bigger jobs I need to finish include outdoor gardening, painting the back porch, and finishing the shoemolding.  One of these days :)

My temporary roommate came and went within two weeks time, but it was nice having some time to get to know her a little better.  She is the girlfriend to an old friend/cousin of mine, so having a chance to get to know someone he considers important in his life was nice.

In other news this month I traveled with some of my good friends down to Floyd County, VA to the Floyd Country Store and their Friday Night Jamboree.  I've been there before, and like the first outing I had a wonderful time.  I enjoyed the great bluegrass music, the flatfoot dancing and just meeting the regulars.  Two of the regulars stood out to me the most.  First was Kay, she's a 70 something year old lady who is fiesty as can be.  I first met her six months ago when I went to the jamboree, and when I saw her again this time she remembered me. 

The first time I met Kay I walked away with a memorable quote (now you have to say this with a pretty heavy southern accent to get it right), "Honey, I've seen Elvis".  She was talking to us about her age at that time, and without giving us a direct age, this was her way of saying she was older than we thought she was.  This past visit she made us all laugh when she stopped to share with my pregnant friend that she had no excuse not to be out there dancing.  As Kay stated, "I learned to do the twist when I was pregnant."  Again, coming from this adorable southern woman I couldn't help but wear a large smile at her comments. 

The second regular I met was an older man named Rosco.  If you wanted a steorotype I could give you one in sweet ol' Rosco.  He was white haired with a long white beard, wearing old coveralls and a weaved hat with feathers.  When he smiled, which he did often, half his teeth were missing.  He was loveable, friendly sort and a hoot to dance with.  He helped me to have a very fun time while at the country store.

Recently, I've had some more trying times, but even through those events I know God has been close providing His comfort.  Last Thursday was particularly hard for me.  The day started out alright, but certain announcements brought disappointment.  First, in the middle of the afternoon I received an email saying that a job I had particularly wanted had hired someone else with more experience.  Less that two hours later a friend of mine told me some equally hurtful news.  Then as I was leaving her home my Dad called me to say my Grandmother had just passed away, though it had been expected it was still another hit. 

As I said earlier God was with me through this all, so the next day when I was dealing with all the shocks of yesterday I had to laugh when the final straw came.  Since God knows my sense of humor I wouldn't be surprised that he had specially arranged that a manure spreader happended to be spreading alongside the road as I came around the corner.  It was all perfectly timed so that my car got spread with you guessed it...shit.  I usually don't have a crude sense of humor, but the first thing that popped into my mind was, "I've officially been shit upon."  I couldn't stop laughing, and was on the phone with my friend at the time, and she shared in my humor. 

The funeral for my Grandma was a good time spent with my family, and remembering Grandma's many special gifts.  All in all it was a good time of rememberance of a very wonderful woman.  

This was the month in a nutshell and I still have one more week to go.

A Course in Tractor Identification

In the fairly close knit community where I live it's not uncommon (though not necessarily frequent) to recognize vehicles belonging to acquaintances either on the road in a parking lot. So, more than likely while I'm out and about I'm not just aware of my driving, but also on recognizing people I may know.

The other day I pulled into the parking lot of a local restaurant in town. I parked next to a red cab-less tractor and immediately knew it belonged to one of my two Old Order Mennonite neighbors. When I walked inside I wasn't surprised to see Gerald sitting a table eating his lunch. I joined him briefly to visit, but then went on my way.

This week as I've been thinking about what happened (recognizing a tractor and knowing who it belonged too) and the whole incident has struck me as funny. It seems to me that there are probably very few places where you need to be able to identify tractors as a means of knowing who might be dining in a restaurant. I've lived in several cities where the idea would be laughable, yet here in my hometown the thought is somewhat normal. Just goes to say, what some find as normal others will most likely not :)