running ...

Image Source: taken by "Genius" and allowed by Val.

"Can't you drive any faster?"

"I'm already driving faster than I should in this rain.  We'll be lucky if we don't hydroplane before I get pulled for speeding!"

"Well, we're going to have to be on the run as soon as we park, or we will miss our Orient Red train."

"What I don't understand is why you signed us up for this tour with a group of people we don't even know, let along belong to any common interest clubs with.  You know I hate feeling out of place."

"Please focus on the street and just get us there safely.  We won't have to face anyone until breakfast tomorrow morning and if you really feel out of sorts, you can just stay in the carriage and order room service."

"That's an option?  I will be more than happy to do that for the entire trip!"

"You know, Arthur, the reason I booked this tour was so that our retirement years wouldn't all be spent sitting in our living room, watching the same television shows over and over again.  I want to live a little.  Experience new things.  Meet new people.  I'd be happy if we even had to sleep in a tent every night.  In fact, I think I'm going to book us on a safari in Africa when we get back from this trip."

"Leave me out of it please.  Send me a postcard or two and tell me about it when you get back.  I have no interest in sleeping in a tent.  In fact, Lois, if I'd known that your 'little' surprise trip would involve an international flight to Paris and not to see the grandkids on the other side of the country, I would never have gotten on the plane."

"No one forced you to board the plane, Arthur.  You knew where it was going, before we even got in the car to go to the airport.  I saw you looking at the tickets I had hidden in my lingerie drawer, and what did you think we were getting new passports for?  Last time I checked, California was still a part of the United States with no passports required to visit the kids.  I think you were secretly thrilled when you saw where we were going for our anniversary, and you just want to play the grumpy old man act to get everyone's sympathy.  

  Well, I'm not going to cater to your little boy tantrums any longer.  If you want to stay in the cabin the entire train trip, you certainly can.  But don't expect me to spend the entire trip in there with you.  And I won't waste my time or money on booking you on any future adventures.  You forget that you have been living on my income since you decided that you were too good to work full-time, and that we are now living primarily on my investments and inheritances over the years.  Think about that while you are sitting alone in the cabin eating breakfast in the morning!"

Arthur wisely said nothing more about the trip for the duration of the drive, but Lois didn't miss his shocked expression at her outburst.  He knew he had finally worn out his welcome after all these years and was very lucky she'd even included him on this trip.  

Joining again in Words for Wednesday which can be found this month on River's blog here.

busy weeks & weekends

Days tend to blur together.  Work.  Unpack.  Put together.  Install.  Did I eat yet today? Take my meds? Try to sleep.   Repeat.

I did get all of the window shades put up.

Changed out shower heads.

Swapped out boring silver knobs for some pretty floral ones.

Put together a bench slash shoe rack and moved my dresser into the closet.

Rearranged the bedroom a little.

Flattened an embarrassing amount of Amazon boxes to be recycled.

 But I've also been taking advantage of coffee on the front porch in the mornings, listening to birds, and lately watching two hummingbirds fight over the feeders.

I've been sharing apples with the groundhogs.  Plural. There is a lighter, smaller one that lives in the culvert by the front of the house, and another larger, darker one near the stream in the back yard.  So far Charlie is oblivious to their existence, and I plan on keeping it that way.

I haven't seen the possum again, but I'm sure it's out there somewhere.

Cicadas are dying, so it has been a little quieter.

I've been told that in the fall the bobcats come down from the mountain and scream like a woman.

I think I'd rather have the cicadas.

Second chances

"Carl?"

"Yes, dear?"

"Have you ever considered what your life might have been like if you'd never met me?"

"No.  Have you?"

"Um, yes.  For just a brief second or two.  Then it sinks in how completely different it would have been, and I have to think about something else for a while."

"Completely different in a good way, or a bad way?"  Instinctually I felt that her honest answer would be to say in a good way, but I was hopeful that she would prove me wrong.

"Mmhmm."

"That wasn't really an answer, dear.  Would your life have been better or worse had we never met?"

"It isn't really a cut and dried answer, Carl.  Some aspects might have been better, and others worse.  It's like the scales of Truth and Justice.  There is always something that gets sacrificed for the greater good."

I could feel my ears burning as my face became red with anger and was grateful that my back was to her at the moment.  If I didn't get that rage under control quickly, in a flash she would see a side of me that none had lived to talk about.

"And you feel that your life was sacrificed for something bad?"

Image Source:
Pinterest

"Not exactly.  It's just that being immortal can be a little sad at times.  All of the people I once knew are moving on in time.  Aging.  Some more beautifully than others, some less gracefully.  I miss them terribly, but because I haven't aged since that night we met, I had to stop visiting them after the first ten years went by.  There are times when I feel very lonely.  Melancholy is a difficult song to dance to alone."

I knew where this was coming from.  This yearning for companionship, and the struggle to choose between taking a life and granting immortality.  I'd felt it too once.

My daughter always said she doesn't get mad, she gets even.  She might not have been my biological daughter before that night, but she was after it.  This was her way of telling me she resented me for not being given the opportunity to choose.

"Then might I suggest something by Bach, or Mozart?"

I heard her dress whisper as she spun on her heels to leave the room, taking care not to slam the door for she knew that would anger me, but close it firmly enough that I knew when she reached her own room upstairs that door would be slammed.

What was done, was done.  There was nothing I could do about it now.  Even if folklore was true that the only way to be released was to destroy the maker, it would take a much stronger vampire than her to do it.

I've joined in with Words for Wednesdays, and this month the words have been provided by Mimi on her blog [here].

you can teach an old dog....

"Mabel, we really don't need a dog at our age, and there isn't anything you can say or do to convince me otherwise."

"Edward, we are NOT that old.  You make is sound like Death is just outside our door.  It isn't!!  But it is sitting outside those poor senior dogs' kennels, and it's just not fair.  I'm not asking to take in a puppy with all of the training and housebreaking needs.  I'm talking about being temporary fosters for senior dogs over the holidays.  To give them a chance to experience what being in a home is really like so that maybe they will have a better chance of being placed in a permanent home."

"Ha!  I'm not stupid, Mabel.  I might not have as much education as some folks, but I know when I'm about to be fed a slice of eat my words pie.  Getting married to you was the biggest wakeup call in how the female mind works.  You say it would be just temporary, but I know you, and I know how you think."

"Edward.  Stop.  Let's just take a look at the dogs that have been at the shelter the longest and listen to what the volunteer has to say about the Home for the Holidays program.  Then you can decide, and I promise I won't put you on the ropes about it and make you give an answer right away.  We can stop by the shelter on the way back from the craft store.  I need to pick up some things for decorating the front stoop."

"Now?"

"Yes, now.  Get your coat on."

... one year later ...

"Edward?  Are you coming?  The photographer has everything ready, and I really want to get this family photo done today so we have time to order holiday cards.  Everyone is sitting still; we are just waiting on you."

"You can stop beating a dead horse with these 'family' photos for every Tom, Dick and Hallmark Holiday, Mabel.  I'm not sure that three old, gray dogs count as children. In dog years, they are likely older than we are!  I just don't understand why someone thought to name their Great Dane "Mouse," or why you thought that letting him sleep on the bed with us was a good idea.  I'm starting to feel like you prefer his company to mine at night."

"Honestly, Edward.  How can you say such a thing about Mousey?  Just because he doesn't snore nearly as loud as you do, it doesn't mean I prefer his company."

Joining in with Words for Wednesday, the prompts can be found here and above in bold italics.