Best part of waking up

 So the commercial goes "Best part of waking up, is Folgers in your cup" and I agree with this on some level. I don't function without two cups of coffee in the morning. Oh, I can go on auto pilot with just one small cup, but if you want me to cook something and you expect to eat that something, I need to be on my second cup. Same thing for anything involving directions.  I need my second cup at least started.  For the love of all things good, please don't ask me any important questions before my first sip. As a matter of fact, best not to trust anything I say before that first sip. 

I think another good part of waking up is sitting on the porch with that cup of coffee. Watching the last of the lightnin' bugs  fade out and the sun come up. Scratching a belly or behind the ears of some fuzzy kid and listening to the wind chimes. 

Sometimes I pretend that the wind is speaking to me. Maybe a voice from heaven telling me it's going to be a good day. That I've got this and beauty is every where if you just open your eyes. 

Waterfall #3 Packrat Falls

 

On my journey to visit 12 new (to me) waterfalls, the third was Pack Rat Falls. The hike was touted as an easy .70 mile hike-not so. It wasn't very well marked either, but my sister Lee and her sons Hopper and Rowan made this hike with me. They are all much younger and in better shape and would not have described this hike as an easy one. Beautiful scenery and the way up and if we had been brave enough-Upper Pack Rat Falls was another half a mile up the hill, but maybe another day. 

Decoration Day at Log Hall aka Smith Cementary

 Very often Decoration Day is celebrated with Memorial Day in small towns across America. I thought this was just a day to place flowers on the graves of loved ones and remember those that lost their lives in the service of our country.  Well, I was only partly right. It's sooooo much more. 

Yes, you are encouraged to put flowers on your loved one's resting place, but my husband explained that I needed several individual flowers or arrangements. I asked how many and he told me that I needed at least a dozen. So, I went to work and made little bouquets of carnations that didn't  look half bad. In fact, they were pretty.

When we pulled up to the cementary, you would have thought that there was a funeral going on. Cars were lined all around and lots of people were there. The graves themselves were a sight to see. Decoration Day is day you go to pay respects to those you've lost-so all those little bouquets were loving placed at the base of stones bearing names that Dwight had loved. There were several bunches of flowers placed at the base of every stone. All colors, shapes, and sizes. 

There were a lot of people laughing and telling stories about people that had gone on and it was great to see so very many smiles, but every once in awhile you could catch a glimpse of someone that had mist in their eyes. I was one of those. I managed to keep in all in check, but there were times it was hard to breathe so I just swallowed a lot of air and kept going. We put flowers at his mom's grave, his grandparents, great grandparents, an uncle that died in his teens, his favorite aunt's and one of his aunt and uncle's that meant a lot to him as a small boy. I think that's what got me most of all. Forty years after these people were gone, a boy turned man still thought it was important to pay his respects. What wonderful people they must have been. Looking around at the other graves, there were a lot of wonderful people that had left this earth. So many flowers-I like to think each one represented a happy memory.