Home Sweet Home

Steve and I left Sarasota Monday morning and had an uneventful trip to Atlanta. We were delighted to get to see the Smith's daughter and her husband, Christie and Josh, with baby Davis on Monday night. Tom and Julie once again outdid themselves as wonderful hosts. To all of my regular readers Tom did point out that if I am going to post pictures with commentary it should be correct and he therefore gave me a book of bird pictures. It seems that what I labeled as a pelican was indeed a heron. He picked it up right away when reading the blog as he knew pelicans were short legged birds. If you scroll back to the picture you will see my heron with long graceful legs. Tom and Julie have become regular readers and are often finding themselves using my quotes in their daily lives. It is amazing to me that I am having an impact in others lives merely by writing about my own. It is a very good kind of amazed. Thank you for sharing those words Tom and Julie.

The second day of a road trip home is rarely the high point of any trip and Tuesday was no exception. We cruised out of Atlanta and did fine until just short of our home state of Ohio. The temperature began dropping and the rain started. By Dayton it was freezing rain and we had encountered several accidents along the freeway. The last 3 hours were awful driving conditions and I have finally vowed never to do a road trip again. Flying and renting a car will be standard procedure from now on. But we did arrive safely home around 8 PM last night and everyone was still here. John and Jesi and AJ stayed the night as the apartment still isn't quite unpacked. It was good to see everyone and Mike was especially happy to have Mom and Dad home again.

Today I am staying home with John and AJ while Jesi does some more work at the apartment. Our suitcases need to be unpacked too but there isn't much that can't wait. There is of course a hugh stack of mail but a quick sort though didn't reveal anything that needed immediate attention. Thank goodness for the internet. It allows you to be gone and keep up on so much.

John is looking forward to getting back to his own bed as he continues to have a great deal of back pain. He also has not had an appetite lately and seems to be throwing up what he does eat. Not good signs but he will be having all of the scans done next week and an appointment with the oncologist. We hope to get him some relief for these issues next week. Jesi and John will be in Columbus, Tuesday and Wednesday and I will keep AJ here. AJ continues to be a bright spot in all of our lives.

Special thanks to several people that helped out around Perrysburg and Marysville while Steve and I were in Florida. It made my life easier knowing there were people available for Mike as well as John and Jesi. Also thanks to everyone we encountered along the way to and from Florida and while we were there. It was a memorable trip and a great break in winter weather and life in Perrysburg.

So many quotes come to mind today including "pay it forward", and "what goes around comes around". But I promised Julie one that I had come across earlier that was so descriptive of making changes in the world. This is the quote from Mother Teresa.

"If you cannot feed a hundred people, feed just one."