Went to LaGrange, Georgia, today to get a haircut and do a little grocery shopping for my beach trip. Took oldest sister-in-law with me. Last time we went to LaGrange she thought she saw a T-Rex. Seriously! We had the best time at Kroger! We love the big grocery stores. Roanoke has a Walmart and one grocery store. We have no big selection of things, just the basics. We oohed and ahhed over the cut-up fruit trays, the cheeses, and all the bakery treats. Got excited in the coffee aisle. Can’t even buy the coffee in Roanoke that youngest son and I love, Green Mountain Brown Sugar Crumble. Had to wait for a tall handsome man to walk by to get the coffee off the top shelf for me. I had already tried to rake the boxes off with a wooden spoon, my weapon of choice when high shelf grocery shopping. He probably thought I was crazy. I told him to get me six boxes of the K-Cups. Really wanted eight since it was on sale, but hated to ask him for two more.

Youngest son is a coffee drinker like his daddy, all day long. If he’s writing, there is a cup of coffee nearby. When I was interviewing with Chief for a job with Russell Corporation’s internal publications, he asked me if I drank coffee. When I said no, he said very seriously, resting his clasped hands on top of his desk, “How do you write without drinking coffee? I don’t know if I can work with someone who doesn’t drink coffee.” Well he did and he married her, too!

We have three coffee pots on the kitchen counter here now. Sometimes we K-Cup it, sometimes we coffee pot it. Took us forever to find a coffee pot that didn’t turn itself off after two hours. We like our coffee hot. I never liked coffee till I discovered the deliciousness of coffee creamer. I am addicted now. When my dearest friend retires, I’m going to turn her into a coffee drinker.

Yesterday oldest brother called me four times in a row from his cell phone. I’d say hello each time and all I would hear were cows mooing loudly and bellowing aggressively. Many years ago he was trampled by a bull and had to have knee surgery. By the fourth call from him, I was sure he was being trampled again and needed help, so I called him imaging the worst. He answered and said grouchily, and I quote, “Why in the hell did you call me four times?” And I said, “Your butt dialed me four times! I thought you were being mauled by a bull.” He said he’d never butt dialed and I said you just did, four times! We had a good laugh but I had a few heart palpitations when I called before he answered.

This oppressive heat is wracking havoc with my porch pondering and bird watching. Been squirrel watching the last few days from the window near my reading chair, wishing for some of their energy and inquisitiveness. They just race up and down the bamboo trunks full speed ahead, scampering and frolicking around. I love when they stop, grasp the bamboo branches with their claws, sit up tall, and quiver their question mark tails. They are beautiful little creatures.

Searching for inspiration in my pile of quotes tonight. I took Penelope on a walk after dark and thought of this quote. “The night walked down the sky with the moon in her hand,” F. L. Knowles. I remembered the quote but had to search for whom it’s attributed to. I love the imagery. I can see the night flinging the moon and stars up in the darkness.

The sunset was magnificent tonight in its watercolored peach and pale pinks. The sun was a bright yellow ball of fire, hitting the horizon at sunset, shattering into a million beautiful peach colored jewels. I never get tired of watching Mother Nature’s watercolor rendering of the setting sun. I always see God in her paintings and feel his presence.

“Never regret a day in your life. Good days give you happiness, bad days give give you experience, worst days give you lessons, and best days give you memories,” Unknown.

“Time is too slow for those who wait, too swift for those who fear, too long for those who grieve, too short for those who rejoice, but for those who love, time is eternity.” — Henry Van Dyke