Here Today, Gone Tomorrow

The clock was ticking, ticking, ticking away the minutes until Matthew was to arrive, with me glancing up every few of them, waiting for his call. Turns out he was doing the same thing at the airport curb, watching and waiting for us to come pick him up. After what must have seemed like forever following a trans-continental flight, he called home, wondering where we were! Bruce, meanwhile was finishing attaching the super-duper new awning that together we spent the day making. Just as Bruce was putting the last screw in, the phone rang, announcing his arrival!

Baxter is good about letting us know when someone arrives. I say that, but actually it is pretty amazing to think that this little dog, who stands no higher than mid calf, can sense when someone is near our home. It's not like he can see them. Well, that's not entirely true, he does perch on the back of the sofa some days, watching the outside world, but other times he can be just laying around when all of a sudden, up he pops, running to the door, barking like nobodies business. If he's happy, his little tail wags a mile a minute, especially when Bruce's car pulls in. I have to look out the door, making sure Bruce has parked, before opening the door allowing him to race out there and greet him. Which, when Matt and Bruce arrived, he most certainly did. I, on the other hand, did not wag my tail, however, I did race out there to hug Matt. Tears of happiness began flowing down my face at the sight of him. After all, it has been more than a year, the longest I have ever gone without hugging him! Later on I was trying to imagine how military families manage....

Maureen, Nancy, Carol, Pat and Ruth all came for a spaghetti dinner, with Ruth bringing a delicious grapefruit cake, straight out of the oven. Only in Florida, right? It was a very, very, happy night indeed.

During our conversation the subject of this blog came up with several well meaning family members pointing out the regular grammatical and punctuation errors to be found. Man, are they right about that; good thing I have spell check or there would be that too! It is no secret I struggle with both, dating back to my high school days. It must be brought to the attention of my gentle readers that I received a D in 10th grade English. I doubt I will ever forget that because fortunately it was a rare occurrence, otherwise I would have spent even more time on restrictions! Mr. Mild was the teacher's name--what a character he was. He wore incredibly thick black glasses, something you rarely see these days. The aforementioned glasses seemed to always be covered with a layer of grime as well. There are some amongst my readership who revel in grammar, I'm not one of them. Furthermore, there are some who would not write a regular blog because of grammatical deficiencies, but again, I'm not one of them either. Here's how I see it. In the past, no written word we encountered had not been previously pored over by an editor whose job consisted of correcting errors. I don't have one of those talented folks on my staff, so I just plunge ahead. Thank you, thank you, for doing your part to ignore my foibles.

Okey dokey now--that's out of the way....

Here is our darling son Matthew preparing his visa application for FedEx pickup:

He looks good doesn't he?

Both he and Carol have absented the property for a few days--Carol until Saturday afternoon, and Matt until Monday evening. Holiday visiting is the order of the day--Matt in Chicago, Carol in Melbourne. Yesterday afternoon I drove her over there amidst blustery skies. During my return journey rain came pouring down like cats and dogs! And it has stayed...raining as I type at 7:45AM. Around these parts we do not cotton to rainy days. Afternoons, we are okay with, however, waking up to it does not improve our spirits one iota.

Continuing our red theme, I present one of my favorite little flowers, a part of the wonderful hibiscus family:

I took this on Tuesday while at the Polasek. Something new they are doing this year for their website is called "Now in Bloom" with photos by yours truly, gratis, of course.

Did I mention that Christmas is one week from today? Did I mention that I am not prepared? If I didn't, I should have. Bruce went to work today and I am going to be hitting the stores, come rain or come shine!

New music, courtesy of our man in London:
Listening to: Florence + The Machine - You've Got The Love
via FoxyTunes