Prettiest of mornings outside! Hard to believe the chaos of Idalia is spinning around below us on the map. Prayers for all those affected by the storm.

The fighting finches are back squabbling and disturbing the peace of a beautiful summer morning. I know they irritate the cardinals. The sky is azure blue in my little nook of the world and the grass on all the lawns, crayon box green, is still luxuriating in the heavy rains of yesterday. I always feel the sky is the bluest after a storm and I never fail to think of Noah and how excited he must have been to see that first ray of sunshine after the flood waters. Having the sun not rise one day is something that never enters our thoughts. We just take for granted when we lay our heads down at night that another day will dawn. We’re not promised tomorrow but God’s grace gives us breath for another day. The sunset tonight was the icing on the cake of another beautiful day. The bright sun, blinding yellow on the horizon, iced the line clouds purple and pink. Never seen the clouds more beautiful. Anyway…

Fixing my bagel this morning and putting a few shakes of salt on my cantaloupe pieces, I thought to myself, “Why is the salt black?” Yes, I’m getting older every day, rapidly losing what little sense I have left. I had peppered the cantaloupe. Ate it anyway, didn’t have enough pepper to taste it but it started my day on a crazy path.

I rode with my oldest sister-in-law to her cataract doctor in LaGrange, GA, so I could drive her home if they dilated her eyes. While she was in the doctor’s office, I decided to sit in the car and work on my writing. There was a nice breeze and the sky was cloudy. I never got too hot. I watched a large orange dragonfly try to rest on all the red and burgundy car hoods in the parking lot. I could tell the hoods burned his feet and tail. He would land, drop his tail and quickly fly back up. Wanted to tell him he might try a white car hood but I don’t speak dragonfly jargon.

Oldest sister-in-law came back two hours later blinded by the light. Wanted me to drive home. We were going to stop at the new Publix but she was too visually impaired to navigate the aisles and it was too hot to leave her in the car so we struck out for home. I drive a 21 year old Tahoe tank. She has a much, much younger Lexis SUV. Well, I got behind the wheel and set off for Roanoke. Had to push a button to start the car…really? Anyway, things were going well and we were on our way.

Once we got back on the country roads the bottom fell out of the sky with a torrential rain. I tried to turn on the windshield wipers but they didn’t work like my car’s do. I asked her how to turn them on and she says, “I don’t know. I’m just used to doing it. All I can say is the wipers are on the right side of the steering wheel.” She could not remember how to turn them on because it was just habit for her. She reached over and tried to turn them on but she could not see! Now I’m blinded by the rain. And I’m blinded by laughter. I can’t see either! Then she says, “Why is the car making this noise?” I don’t know but I had been too nervous about the rain to ask her about the noise. I knew I didn’t hear that noise driving over.

We pull over in a safe place. I’m sweating now, and I noticed I had the gear in S instead of D. I’m praying we haven’t torn up something driving in S. Asked her what S was for and she had never seen the S on the gear box. Seriously! It’s right there by the D! It’s amazing our children let us leave the house! Back to square one. I put the car in D and off we go. And yes the rain had stopped so I never thought about figuring out how to work the wipers while we were stopped. We drive another few miles or so and we have a downpour with the sun out and I finally figure out how to work the wipers. Thank God! By the way, S puts the car in sport mode if your driving on twisty country roads and want to keep the RPM up rounding curves.

We make it back to her home and I sit a spell with her. I told her I hope I didn’t scare her with my driving today. She laughs and says, “I couldn’t see anything, had my eyes closed.” We laugh and then she says, “You seen my glasses?” I say, “No, but I’ll go look in the car.” I could not find them, looked everywhere. She goes out to the car and finds them in the first place she looks. I’m thinking, this day will give us a good laugh tomorrow and we made some more crazy memories. Never a dull moment. I love her!

In my family we tell tales around the dinner table on holiday gatherings, laughing at the antics of our childhood. Years from now when we’re gone and our children are sitting at the adult table, I can hear my niece saying, “Y’all remember Aunt Lane and Mama driving home in the rain from LaGrange and they didn’t know how to work the windshield wipers?” Somebody will say, “Shit, you serious?” I know they’ll laugh and remember some more of our hilarious escapades.

“I am going to keep having fun every day I have left, because there is no other way of life. You just have to decide to be a Tigger or an Eeyore,” — Randy Pausch.