I got up and made myself a nice breakfast, then cleaned up after that. I packed toiletries and the last minute things as I got ready to go. I saw to the cats. I packed the last of the food into a small cooler to take for lunch later. It seemed silly to stop and buy something when I was going to have to throw food out when I got home. That took care of the last of the food in the fridge quite nicely, but of course all of that takes time. Ironically, I finally got on the road about 11am - the time I said we would have left if Russ had lollygagged around.
The weather has been odd. It has rained every day for what seems like forever. I ran in and out of it most of the way down. When I changed highways in Columbia, it was raining so hard that we were going 27mph in the fast lane, emergency blinkers going, with the windshield wipers beating frantically to try to keep up. You could still just see the car in front of you. Ten minutes later, it was beautiful. Weird.
I stopped on the side of the road and had a nice little impromptu picnic on the side of the road. Pasta salad, lemonade, and a tomato sandwich. I stopped and got gas and some junk for dessert a little later. I enjoy Rohnda's company, and would have enjoyed her company on the ride down, but I had some books on CD from the library, and started listening to one called Becoming Marie Antoinette. It was pretty interesting, and kept me company. It's a historical fiction, and not bad. The ride down was long, but not endless. This was the first time I had used the new GPS from Dad and Eve. Although she told me they had problems with it, it worked beautifully for me. Eventually, I ran through a final spit of rain and arrived.
Surprisingly, Russ and Billy were there. They were supposed to go see Russ's mom today, but since he apparently hadn't informed her of this (more volunteering without notice), she wasn't home when he called. He was in a mood, and almost immediately left to go off by himself for a while. I offered to go with him, but he didn't want company. Jo Ann immediately ushered me onto her new, huge, glorious screened in porch. She was on tenterhooks to get it completed before the gang came, and it triumphantly was. It is wonderful.
Miss Izzie was in residence, and although she is a precious child, she is a child. But she was there last year, so it wasn't so unexpected. And she's getting older now, so she isn't quite such an attention hog. Molly was there too. She's a sweet girl, and I really like her. We all visited and caught up. Molly and I went for a dip in the pool.
So kind of a funny thing happened tonight. Logan came in. He had spent the week with friends and so hadn't seen the boys. Naturally when he came in he climbed Billy like a monkey. Logan needs a LOT of petting and touching - it's just part of who he is. The funny part was Izzie's reaction. She was not at all well for it. She regards Logan (which she pronounces as 'Looooogan' as her boyfriend, and she was not at all pleased with so much of his attention focused away from her. They did eventually go back to her room for a bit and he looked at some of her toys with her, but she was in a right little snit about it for a while.
Dinner tonight was pork chops, but Jo Ann had picked up some mushrooms at the store for me. I did a fricasee out of them and ate them over the Rice-A-Roni. They acutally turned out quite good. There was also steamed broccoli. Jo Ann, being Jo Ann, asked for my advise on how to cook it, and then explained in detail why she couldn't use any of my suggestions. Eventually I just left her to it and went back in the other room. But dinner was nice, and we enjoyed the meal together. Molly, being a such a sweet girl, cleaned up the kitchen almost single-handedly.
We ended up the evening relaxing on the porch, watching videos on the now-ubiquitous pads, visiting, cracking jokes, and talking. It was absolutely delicious after the rough beginning to the week, and I could just feel the tension leaving me. A very nice beginning to the trip.
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