The Wind is Blowing and the Leaves are Falling

The weather for the last few days has been wild. I am a weather lover.

Unless it's HOT or COLD, I love the weather. One of my favorite things to do is stand facing the wind with my arms up open wide! Exhilarating! Try it! It's like you're embracing life fully.

So many people are afraid of storms, but I love them. I love the flashes of lightning and the rain pounding and the wind blowing and the snow flying! I've had some very interesting trips during monstrous snow storms. The wildest one was a trip back from Watertown, NY after Thanksgiving. Thanks to turkey sandwiches and half a cranberry/peach pie (without sugar, another story) my sister-in-law, at the time, packed for us, we didn't starve. Thank you, Gloria.

When we left Watertown, we headed west toward Lake Erie. Neil had never seen any of the great lakes, so in Pennsylvania, when we got close, I took a side road and we drove straight to the lake. Once there, we got out and stood at the edge of a cliff looking out at the lake. There were great trees, their roots were out of the dirt. There was ice all over them and water slapping against the cliff. And the wind was blowing. It was very, very cold!

Before we got into Ohio, we were in a blizzard, the blizzard of 1977, some may remember. We were in my Opal GT. Remember those, very low to the ground, with the gas tank opening on top of the back end. No trunk. As I drove, we were in blinding snow and I could not even see the front of our car. I was driving in snow ruts with the snow rubbing the underside of the car. I was driving about 30 miles per hour and just praying nothing was stopped in front of me. Fortunately, not.

At one time, we sat on a clean highway for three hours. Neil had to go into a gas station for a cup of hot water to pour over the gas cap to get it open. We ate all the food and that sugarless cranberry/peach pie was delicious. (The recipe called for sugar in the ingredients but didn't tell the cook when to add it. So it wasn't added.)

I'll tell about the other wild snow storm trip some other time. Love that weather! I know sometimes property is damaged and people are killed. But if I survive, I love the energy.

Remember the Opal GTs.  My Opal had been painted a great kelly green. See, tiny!

(thanks to www.cougars-den.com/ for the photo)

Moving On

I'm not going to dwell on the loss of my friend, Barbara, but I do want to share some good stuff.

The Memorial Service last week was very nice. She would have really enjoyed it.

She painted and knitted and her daughter and others had brought several things she had knitted and painted. The minister who conducted the service knew her and they had had a good relationship. At one time, he pretended he had dropped something and bent over to pick it up saying, "Excuse me." When he stood back up, he had on a neon orange toboggan and scarf. The toboggan had a huge orange tassel hanging from the top of it. Barbara had made them for him for Christmas last year. The attendees loved it.

Her friend Bertha and I were asked to speak about her and the remarks were appreciated. There were several amusing remarks about her politics and political emails. Some had deleted all with out reading, some had deleted some without reading, and some had read them all.

It was so obvious that everyone loved her. I got to meet several people she had spoken of frequently, especially her aunt B and her cousin J.

I hope that my memorial service is as entertaining and leaves people feeling as good about life.

B, I love you and miss you.