winter is coming....

As I went for my morning Rosie-walk, without my camera again, I again noticed the lovliness of the morning...but the leaves that graced the trees just two days ago have fallen, the trees are getting bare....the bareness of the trees always makes me feel just a tad uneasy....ominous....there is nothing to stop it, winter is coming. Winter is unforgiving, and untameable, and to me, always a bit scary. With our cars and technology and ability to predict weather patterns, the wind and snow and ice are still bigger than us.

anyway....today I have to take Aaron to the airport. The minivan will be full, so we won't be coming home directly afterward...the airport is actually in the village where I grew up, so it is rather sad to go down there for me these days, since my parents are gone. In years past it was a given that airport = visit Gramma and Grampa. Now there is always that twinge of loss when I drive through those streets. wah. We still stop at our favorite bakery though. The bakery that always made my father happy when he was so sick with leukemia. He couldn't chew anything unless it was soft, and he had lost so much weight and had such little appetite. But the delicious donuts from this place were appealing to him. So every time I visited, I would get him some....and of course a few to bring home....so, even when I go into this favorite bakery of mine, I get that twinge. It is an obvious statement, a "DUH!" statement, to say, "death is SO permanent..." but....it's permanence just goes on and on and on....gone. They are just gone. Yes, they are in a better place, but it isn't here, and I miss them.

My sister called last evening while I was cleaning up the mess from the pie making. Did I want to go to the pool? I sure did! The kids were going wild, running around and jumping off things, and I did feel awfully guilty, but Paul said he was fine with it, so I grabbed my suit and a towel, and I was gone.....

I hadn't had dinner yet. Because I was going to just eat pie for dinner. See, Mali and I had that Chinese take-out for lunch...and I was just NOT hungry.....then the kids started asking for Ramen noodles....now, just for the record, Ramen noodles aren't really food. They are starchy salty fatty garbage. No offense to anyone who eats them regularly. My kids LOVE them, the younger ones anyway. So Margaret made some for them, and served them with some baby carrots, while I cut apples, and Aaron mixed up the pie dough. Evelyn made up the pumpking pie filling while I rolled the crust, and before long, we had three pies in the oven. All the time I was swimming I looked forward to that pie. It WAS dinner. And it was good. The piece I had for breakfast was good too.

Oh, I didn't make pie just because I felt like it. We had a whole bowl of apples that were too just a bit too soft to enjoy, and they sat next to a bag of fresh crunchy ones, so they didn't stand a chance. I had to save them!

Now I need to seriously move it.....