Happy Birthday to my Sadie girl this morning. 6 years old already.  I can’t believe it.   Sure wish I was there with you!

We were awakened by heavy thunderstorms and hail this morning.   News said possible tornadoes but it’s letting up now and starting to see some sky so I think we are in the clear.   Got to get to North Carolina today.

We have had a gorgeous drive after the rain stopped.  Got to go through Louisville and Lexington, Kentucky which to me is some of the most beautiful land anywhere.   The horses and farms are amazing.   Then through Tennessee.   We were just north of Pigeon Forge in the mountains which is also beautiful.    We crossed in to North Carolina and over in to Asheville.   I tell ya, if you have never seen the Blue Ridge Mountains you have missed something spectacular.   Not only do the mountains seem to envelop you and just give you a big hug but there are streams, rapids, waterfalls and gorgeous rocks and cliffs to look at as you go through.  It is one of my favorite places.   I went to a Reiki retreat in Boone, North Carolina a few years ago and had the privilege of hiking through some of the foot hills and creeks.   Just breathtaking.

Gregory Facetimed me when Sadie opened her presents and I got to talk to her a bit and watch her squeal with excitement over her birthday presents.   What a joy!   We have got to get down there before too much longer.  Mammie needs some kisses.

Well, we have arrived at our stop in Lenoir, North Carolina.   We don’t have to be here until 6 am but with the way the time works we wouldn’t be able to get here on time so we are spending the night at the warehouse.   We are first in line, of course, so hopefully we will be able to get out of here early in the morning.

DG here:  Sorry I didn’t type last night.  Beat to a pulp.  Much better today.  Well, we started out in Indiana after a day driving through the heart lands.  Driving through so much farmland I can’t help but be drawn to all of the old farm equipment sitting out behind barns and houses just rusting.  This train of thought started because of an old truck I noticed sitting in a field.  It was away from any structure.  Just out there on it’s own.  Close to the corn, but still within the confines of what one might call the yard when looking at farm property.  They don’t usually have much yard around the house as ground is precious in these areas and as much as can be is planted with the crop of choice.  But here sat this truck.  All alone just like someone drove it there, shut it off and walked away.  Never to return.  Well, now I see old farm equipment everywhere.  I guess I have always seen it but never really given it much thought until now.  So much of it, just sitting there, abandoned after it’s last day, never to be used again.  Or it appears, never given another thought.  Sad in a way.  If you think of farm equipment as having a soul.  The Indians believed everything had a soul, the rocks, the trees, the wind.  Why not farm equipment.  I felt the collective sadness as I drove by.  All those years, all those plantings and harvests.  Left to rust.  Someone, a scrapper, needs to recycle this stuff so that it can once again be useful.

I feel the same way about the old houses and barns that have been abandoned.  What does this say about us as a society that we just abandoned things that are no longer useful, or we feel are to time consuming to maintain.  We do the same with people.  But not my son.  He will not put me in a nursing home.  Never.  I love you son.

Annie thinks I am feeling abandoned.  Not yet, but it could happen.  Not.

Oh well, time for dinner.  Truck chili.  Mmmmmm.  Been smelling it all day.  If you want to get a sense of what I’m talking about, seal off your kitchen next time you are cooking something yummy and stay in there with it all day.  At least 10 hours.  You will be hungry after that.  And it will be good.

I’m rambling and like I said, hungry, so I will sign off now.

More about old farm equipment tomorrow as I am not done with this thought thread.

Good night and God bless.