I had the chance to make a quick trip to my former hometown of Gautier, Mississippi, this past week. It was a quick 6 hour visit made on the spur of the moment while in New Orleans, Louisiana, on a business trip. Although it felt good to be back in my former home town even for a short while and visit with old friends, I also felt a small bit melancholy.
In my first post of 2009, I want to wish all our loyal readers a new year filled with good health, happiness, and prosperity. I won’t wish anyone a new year filled with excitement and interesting times as I think most people have enough of that already. Not the good kind.
Another month gone, disappeared just like our money on Wall Street. Summer is past, Fall is starting and the leaves are already almost gone. Back when I was growing up my parents used to tell us that “money didn’t grow on trees.”
I wish they would have told that to the kids who grew up to be Wall Street Bankers.
It’s been a fast summer here in Virginia. Between my new job, boating, working around the house and other summertime stuff, There’s been very little time or energy for me to write. So consider this a catch-up posting for the last two months.
This weekend was a two boating-day weekend. Saturday I spent the afternoon bouncing around the Potomac between Occoquan and Quantico, and at anchor in a quiet cove over on the Maryland side. It was a nice afternoon (any time on the water is nice, actually) even though the water was a bit rough. Sunday I went out again with friends as a two-boat rally, which turned out to be a bit of adventure.
Winnie loves to grow things. Calling her a “natural gardener” may be a fair statement even though she did grow up in a small farming village. Having seen the village she grew up in with it’s wonderful small vegetable plots surrounded by hundreds of acres of rice fields, I’m not too surprised she’s good with plants. But she really does love to grow plants and work in gardens.
She is also extremely resourceful.
Among the souvenirs Winnie brought back from China on her recent trip was an 11-disk set of DVDs containing the Chinese classic series “Journey to the West.” Now, as part of our evening routine whenever Winnie and I are both home, we watch one or two episodes. Although it’s only in the Chinese national language (no subtitles) I am able to mostly follow the action with Winnie’s help explaining the dialog. Watching these series has becoming a lot of fun.
My writing has been light lately, and there’s actually a good reason for this; a better reason that just not feeling like writing. I finally finished rebuilding my boat “Sea Dreams” enough that I could get her back in the water, and that event has pretty much taken first priority.
Winnie returned home in Virginia from her month long visit to China Sunday morning. She reports she had a nice visit traveling around different family in different towns around south-eastern China. However, her flying experience coming back to the U.S. left something to be desired.
It’s been a fast month. Spring is officially here and not a day too soon. It’s still not nearly warm enough for my liking but every day gets better. The boating season has begun, but my boat is not ready for the water. Beyond all that, Winnie’s gone to China trusting in me to keep her plants alive until she returns.
She is a very trusting soul indeed.
