More Wordless Wednesday

So, even though this is Wordless Wednesday, and it was indeed wordless when I put it up, and even though there are mountains of words underneath it, there should be words here and so now there are. They don’t make a whole lot of sense in this context, but none the less, here they are.

The power went out on Wednesday, so we decided to have some spontaneous fun, playing dominoes. And also wrestling, I guess.

Click here to play Photo Friday.

I lost this the last time I deep cleaned my kitchen. This morning, I found it again.

We had a big storm roll in on the 31st, and when I realized what was happening in the sjy, I had to run out and snap a few shots. Unlike P-Dub, I don’t have amazingly clear vista, so please pardon my power lines. I don’t even see them anymore unless I am shooting. All the shots were taken within a minute or so. The first one, I just had the camera setting on Auto, and as you can see, they are quite dark, the shutter speed was 1/60 of a second. Then for the last shots, I killed the flash, and they were taken at 1/8 of a second. The clouds were moving so fast that I toyed briefly with the idea of shooting video, but then ere was a loud rumble of thunder and I scooted back inside. All these photos are straight out of the camera.

So, then, just in the middle of my frenzied research on cholesterol and how to lower it and all that, my connection dropped. Kaput. Gone. No internets. Boooooooooooo! So I called tech support, and the lady took me through some things, and she decided I needed a new modem. She said it would be here in three days, and I said that was unacceptable, and she promised to overnight it instead, and I was unhappy, but I though I could deal with 24 hours off-line.

But on Thursday, guess what came? That’s right: NOTHING. So I called the competitor, who I;d been considering switching to anyway, and they made me a pretty nice offer, and said they’d have an installer out Friday. And they did, and life was good. I got back on line just in time to go camping, which picture you saw.

And then on Monday, my cousin and I were finalizing plans via email for a face to face midway between her place and mine for Sunday when she wrote, “and Grandma is in the hospital”. Well, it didn’t look real good about Grandma, we knew she would not be recovering, and we emailed through the week, and I was a bit distracted, and that is what was going on in that mostly silent week between the SPS’s. Check email, switch the laundry, check email, fix food, eat, check email. On Friday, we postponed our face-to-face, knowing that our aunt who was to join us would not want to leave her mother.

Saturday, I spent with Mama, and we had a good time, as we always do. We shopped like lunatics, and I bought more crack shoes. Behold the gloriousness of high heel platform wing tip mary janes:

And then I came home, and compulsively checked my email for a few hours. And Sunday, there was church, and a trip to Granny’s to give her some pictures, and more compulsive email checking. My cousin called early this morning, and Grandma died last night. We will be having a face to face this week after all, because she will be buried tomorrow, beside Papa, who was buried just 8 short weeks ago. It’s been a rough year for grandparents, ya know?

My emotions are so mixed here. I have never been close to Grandma, for a variety of reasons that are really no longer here nor there. There are lessons learned as there always are. And in this case more than any of the others, there are the lingering “what ifs”. There is a hurt and confused little girl in here, trying to make peace with a past that even the grownup me doesn’t understand.

I guess that just about catches us up, now, doesn’t it?

Here is a shot I took of some cypress knees on the edge of the canal at Lake Waccamaw. You can read more about cypress trees in general here and cypress knees in particular here. I did a little research and found out that these are used to make art. They are highly desired for carving statues and such as this. The purpose of cypress knees has not been determined. Some think they serve as anchors for the tree, and some think they serve to provide oxygen to the underwater roots.

There are several species of wildlife that are only found there in the entire world. Unfortunately, it’s a little difficult to get pictures of them, since you find them mostly in the murky depths. That doesn’t require Delta machinery, but it does require a wet suit and a fancy-dancy camera, so I will continue to content myself with top-side shots.