Pretty Sad

 Saturday before leaving the house I checked on my baby birds.  You know.  The ones outside of my office window that we saved by plugging up the leaky rain spout so they would not drown.  The babies were gone!  They were not ready.  It was not good news.  As I wondered what could have happened to them, I found one lying dead on the porch floor beside the door to my office.  The other one was nowhere to be found.  I had a sick feeling in my stomach and almost cried.  I hate not being able to save the little babies.  

You do what you can do...  and leave the rest to God.  And what is to be will be.

A couple of weeks ago a lady stopped by my office, quite impressed with Anvil our front yard ape.  So much so that she wants to include him in her publication of Off-168, a magazine featuring local tourism information.  The magazine is available in all State of Maryland Welcome Centers.  It's published 5 times a year according to the seasons.  She features animals a lot and she wants to do a story on Anvil, though he's not real.

Today she stopped again and informed us that she has decided to break her 'tradition' of only featuring live animals on the front cover.  Yes!  Anvil has been chosen to be the first 'unreal' front cover animal on her publication.  She wants him dressed patriotic and so   tonight we went out to find some accessories that will make Anvil's claim to fame stand out and send people to National Highway in search of the big gorilla.  Stay turned!

Dear Diary,

Yesterday was Dad's birthday.  It rained.  Mom and dad felt sorry for me because I kept looking depressed (lack of walks makes me that way).  And so they took me in the Buick.  First to the pet store where I smelled pig ears and chew bones and lunged at a couple strange looking humans.  Then it was on to Tractor Supply.  More good smells.  I'm pretty sure you're allowed to pee on the floor there, so I'm not sure why mom made such a big deal about it and a person I did not know showed up with towels to wipe it up.  Guess it's not okay after all.  Well, when we got home mom and dad left right away to go eat at Wasabi.   Without me.  I pooped on the floor while they were gone.  My bad.  Gracie.

IT'S THAT TIME

Sometimes you just have to let your hair down...   and PARTY!

HAPPY 9TH MARRISA JADE!  

IT'S HARD TO BELIEVE IT'S BEEN 9 YEARS!  

I LOVE YOU TO THE MOON AND BACK!!

Where Once There Was Life

The year: 1978.  Family and friends glided back and forth on the old wooden swing and others gathered around the crooked cement steps on a warm summer's night.  Reminiscing of days gone by.  Talking of memories, of a time when the world was good and right.  

Spring would breath life into the air after wicked winter winds subsided and high snows melted away, leaving an aftermath of wet muddy ground.  Budding flowers emerged. New beginnings and eternal hope sprung forth with the calendars proclamation of spring.

 Memories were warm with Christmas's past.  

Happiness.  Family.  Innocence.  The sounds of life.  The smell of grilled cheese and vegetable soup cooking on the stove.  The warmth of family.  A home.  Full of life.

Spaghetti dinners with fresh warm bread enjoyed around the little porcelain table.  

Lots of Love.  

Abandoned, now.  

Ransacked. 

Void of life.

Once upon a time.  Family.   Laughter.  Life.

Then, nothing.

Over twenty years empty.   

Memories, ever present.  

Across the street from our church sits my brother Jimmy's old abandoned house.  Every year he'd say, "I'm coming back to Maryland in the spring...  to go through the house."  

His time ran out when last year he died.  

Today as I visited the abandoned house I retrieved old photos strewn through debris and memorabilia under piles of junk and clutter.  Soon the house will be demolished as the grounds are now the property of our church.  New life will emerge in what form, I am not sure.  But something good will become of the place.  

Where once there was life.