Another great family get together along with getting to see some old friends again. Click on any of the pics for a better view.
If you have pics from any of these events, send them to me and I'll get them on here.
Thursday was the travel day up for Wayne's wedding. The first half was uneventful, but once I got to Macon, the scenery changed. Currently, I live in the land of pine trees and palmetto bushes; evergreens that are forever green. How Juan Ponce de León decided that it was La Florida is beyond me. It's nothing more than a dang swamp.
Anyway, just south of Macon, the pines started to dwindle and the deciduous trees started to come into view. And what a view it was! I think that those that see it year after year must take it all somewhat for granted. But for those of us that have missed it for far too long, we know that God's best brush strokes are the fall colors of North Georgia. It was a sight for sore eyes and one of the most enjoyable trips I've had in years.
For those of you lucky enough to live in the middle of it year after year, do yourselves a favor and stop for a moment… Take it all in. If you don't, you won't believe the miracle you're ignoring. As for me, if I'm ever fortunate enough to get out of Jacksonville, I'm headin' to the hills, and I'll never ignore it again.
The say that "you're the sum of the people you meet along the way" and I believe that. When you let folks in, you take a little bit of them with you where ever you go. Well, in high school, I had a lot of friends, but there were a few that made me up; Jeff Tarpley, Beth Skelton, Patti Shaw, Shrenna Lassetter, Fred Watson, Sherrie Ballew, and Anne Drennan. I genuinely adored these people and have often thought of them… wondered where they were, how they were doing, and if their lives had been as good and blessed as mine has been. I can never thank them enough for helping me become the person I am. Fred, in particular, was like a little brother to me. We were like peas and carrots. We were inseparable.
My kids are part of the Nintendo generation. Cell phones, PCs, text messaging, and social networking web sites come as easily to them as breathing air. I had often teased them about setting up a FaceBook page for myself and becoming an "online friend." Well, in a fit of boredom one day, I did it. Of course, when one sets up a profile on FaceBook, one lists the high school one went to. OH MY GOSH - old friends I thought I'd never hear from again started popping out of the woodwork, and it has been wonderful getting back in touch with them.
Well, I knew I'd be in the area for the wedding and was hopeful that a few of them still lived nearby. I thought "What if?" Turns out that my ying had a yang, my chi was aligned, and karma was with me. Shrenna, Sherrie, and Anne still lived in the area, and we all decided to throw an impromptu breakfast, lunch, or dinner together. Shrenna had some other commitments, but Sherrie, Anne, and I were able to schedule a dinner together for Friday night.
We reminisced, we caught up, and we laughed a couple of times until we cried. It was almost as if we never skipped a beat. All I'm saying is that if we'd have had a few Miller ponies and some toilet paper, someone's yard would have gotten rolled. The one new thing that came out of this is that while reminiscing about Fred, Anne and Sherrie decided that we weren't like peas and carrots. Rather, it was more like hamburger and hamburger helper… Fred wasn't there to defend himself, so he's hamburger helper. Sorry bubba.
As it turned out, the restaurant where we had dinner wasn't real busy, so after dinner, we retired to the lounge and I had a couple of Cokes and a few great hours with a couple of dear old friends. Still, I had a wedding to go to the next day and it was getting late, so I had to be the one to break up the party. But, we had so much fun that we all started to play "what if" and decided that we would try to get together Monday morning for breakfast and pick up where we left off before I had to head out of town. More on this later...
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Saturday belonged to Wayne and Michelle. It was their day and they put on quite a show. It was the first time I had ever seen Wayne in much more than jeans and a tee shirt, but he crawled into a tux. It freaked me out a little but he looked good in it. And, it was the first time I had met Michelle and unfortunately, I only got to meet her briefly. The girl has a smile that will light up a room and she was quite charming.
The ceremony was short and to the point which I'm sure was good for the bride and groom, but it was also a very dignified event considering the preacher was such a hoot.
"Wait for it..."
"Wait for it..."
"You may kiss the bride."
The one event over the weekend that I didn't get any pictures of was the wedding. I figured there would be pictures galore and I was right. Unfortunately, I haven't received any of them yet. As soon as I get them, I'll put them on here.
Anyway,
CONGRATULATIONS WAYNE and MICHELLE.
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After Wayne and Michelle got on their way, most of the Rogers side of the clan headed back down to Tim and Candi's house for a little get together. I was able to meet Marsha's twin sister, Becky, and her husband, Jerry, along with their daughter Ellen. I'd heard about these people for years and it was nice to finally meet them. They weren't able to stay long as they had to get to the airport to get out of town.
After Larry got back from taking Jerry, Becky, and Ellen to the airport, we sat around and played hearts. That was fun for all, and we had a good time.
This was my first shot at meeting Tim, Candi's husband. I liked him instantly and I liked him a lot. If he has a shortcoming, it's that he's a democrat. If he has a character flaw, it's that he's a Yankee. Larry and I are working on his shortcomings and time will fix his character flaw. Other than that, I thoroughly enjoyed getting to know Tim.
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Tim and Candi have just bought this particular house and moved in only a couple of weeks ago, and like any new home, there's always a ton of little "things" that have to be done to make a house a home. I knew I would have a little down time and had already talked to Candi about bringing up a few tools and tinkering on a project or two to help. Additionally, Larry and I decided we would tackle the new storm door for the front entrance. We just knew it would be done in a couple of hours.
Have you ever seen the show "My Name Is Earl"? I felt like Earl. Surely I did something wrong and karma was getting even with me. For the life of me though, I don't know what it was I did wrong. Needless to say, the door wasn't done in a couple of hours. We started on it after breakfast and worked on it until about 10:00 that night, but we did get it done! Ain't no stupid door gonna whup us!!! And here we are with our new glass and aluminum baby... it sure felt like giving birth.
Of course, since it was a work day, there are other random industrious events going on that day. They're pictured here too.
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What became a general question of "what if" by me to get in touch with some old friends worked out really well. I was able and we all had a great time, but by the end of the evening, we were all wondering "what if." I had to be the party pooper Friday evening, and thus our goal became to try and continue Monday morning for breakfast on my way back out of town. Something came up and Sherrie wasn't able to attend. Our "what if" was resolved to just Anne and me and I was able to get with her for breakfast on my way out of town. It was another short, but wonderful moment to catch up.
After breakfast, I got back on the road. The rest of the trip was fairly uneventful. It was a pretty day and I was diggin' on the fall colors again when suddenly everything became flat... and green... and swampy.