82 & Somewhere

Never my style to say “never” or to begin with “so” but so I’m up early again, here in Apalachicola. It’s three o’clock in the morning in Panama City, where at five o’clock my sister will be awakened and shuttled off to final prep for open heart surgery beginning about six or six-thirty. BTDT.

Linda and I will soon close and lock the Rectory door and drive to PC to be with family, my brother and more, fingers crossed and prayer hanging over. BTDT and confident. We’ll return to Apalachicola later today for a service tomorrow morning and two services Sunday morning. So what else is new?

Yesterday a dozen oysters steamed three-to-five seconds and served cold to me while a Hole in the Wall full of total strangers laughed at my sham of “steamed” and raucously sang “Happy birthday.” Early afternoon up Scipio Creek to the YellowFly Ranch for a long-missed visit. Last evening, conversation, drinks and dinner gathering several special people from our years of life here. Never sentimental, seldom nostalgic, but this is where we lived our adult lives and Tass grew up and we three were One, and I know I’ll never get over Apalachicola. Even the eighteen-wheelers thundering by windows in upstairs bedroom and downstairs kitchen settle me comfortably home again. And for all our good intentions of vacation, many normal, ordinary, everyday, unexpected interruptions of life made it all the more so. Here am I: send me.

Revisiting Narnia ages and ages on, finding my old sword and shield in the ruins of Cair Paravel.

DThos+ somewhere in The Old Time