A weekend delayed

Months ago, while winter held sway in the hills of western Maine, one of my favorite writers and her spouse (both of whom my spouse and I are proud to call friends) planned to visit and shake off the doldrums of their inhospitable city in our lovely winter woods. We e-mailed and phoned and planned for the weekend, but at the last minute, had to reschedule due to a persistent flu in our house. Sadly, while we coughed our way back to health, they were experiencing great sadness due to a careless driver who did not respect a crosswalk. Emergency rooms, surgery and physical therapy have been their unwelcome companions since.

Finally, though, an e-mail last week. Beth, we are well enough to travel, the cast is off his arm and he can drive. Perhaps we could come to Maine?

Yes, of course, please do come to visit

We had a perfect weekend of talking and walking and seeing sights that were beautiful and healing. We ate good food and laughed at each other's jokes and stories.

On Sunday morning, he decided to shed a vestige of the accident and the long hair and beard fell victim to a trimmer purchased at the local Walmart. We sprinkled the beard hair under the bushes for the birds to take and weave into their nests--little babies will sleep in the softness of something that had once been a sign of despair

New Friends

You know how on the top of blog pages there is a link that says Next Blog? Well, one day last winter, while on the phone for a meeting that was not holding my attention I was idly clicking the Next Blog button on my computer.

Some of the blogs were in languages that I couldn't understand, but I did take time to look at the pictures and others were in languages that I could understand yet was afraid to look at the pictures. In all the clicking and perusing that day, one blog caught my interest with the header picture and totally captivated me with the writing. I could not wait for my telephone conference to be finished so that I could spend some quality time avoiding work and reading through the posts on Crumbs from the Corner. Since that day, I am always happy to see what The Elementary has posted and it is always a treat.

Charlie and I traveled to southern New England this weekend to visit his oldest son and on the way home we met The Elementary and Spouse at a Cracker Barrel. The hour and a half that we were able to spend visiting was not even close to long enough. Have you ever felt like you have known someone forever and actually you had never met?