Trekking Rocks

Well, hey there, girls. Didya miss me? I sure did miss y'all.

So, Miss Faye went on a road trip, eh? A spur-of-the-moment road trip
- I do believe those are the best kind. It is another world down in
parts of south Georgia, isn't it? I declare, as I get down there, I
can just feel myself slowing down. It's a feeling I sure could come
to love. Hope the weather was nice for you, Miss Faye. You went down
to see your kinfolks and didn't bring us back any stories? How did
that happen?

And Miss Etta, so glad you weren't hurt in your deer encounter. Y'all
ever hear that deers travel in two's? I mean, when I see a deer jump
out from the side of the road, I come to a crawl if I can't
completely stop 'cause my daddy told me along time ago that where
there's one deer, there's at least one more. Just one more thing my
daddy told me that proved to be timelessly true.

Listen, girls, I've been thinking about this a lot lately: do y'all
collect anything? I used to collect things, but then years ago I got
onto this simplify-my-life kick, and collections - while I sure did
enjoy the hunt - just really meant, well, frankly, more to dust so I
just quit it. Stopped collecting things.

Things that have to be dusted anyway.

I mean, I still collect memories and stories and words and laughs. I
take a bunch of photos with my cutest little digie camera and I save
the snaps on a small big capacity external hard drive so I can pull
'em up and have a look whenever I am a mind to.

But lately, I've found myself collecting one of my favorite things of
all: rocks. When I was a kid, I had a killer rock collection. My
cousin gave me his collection when he lost interest, and I took all
those cute little rocks and glued them to an old piece of wood
paneling I found out in the barn. I can still see that collection in
my closet off the bathroom. I'd go in there and spend hours looking
at those rocks and looking them up in my World Book Encyclopedias,
reading all about each one of 'em.

This past weekend I walked right down to a creek, and as I got there,
I surprised myself by saying I wanted to start looking for heart-
shaped rocks. And you know what? I found one - at that very moment, I
found one.

Well, almost one, anyway. It's the top of a heart. A heart-in-the-
making I say. Then when I got back to our house, I put that rock on a
tree stump right along the walkway where I can reach out and pat it
each time I pass by.

It just made me happy, and I couldn't wait to get back to the land of
internet and share it with my two julep juice girlfriends.

When I was a little girl, we'd load up early one Sunday morning in
the fall and drive up to the mountains to see the beautiful leaves.
At lunchtime, we'd pull off to a roadside picnic area and enjoy the
lunch mom had packed for us. Then for dessert, we'd go walking on
rocks in the creek.

And every time - every single time - I'd fall in.

Well, girls, last weekend, I broke that tradition: I fell BEFORE I
got to the creek. I am just NOT a good nature walker. I'm not. I'm
okay, though. Didn't break anything, thank goodness, cause I do not
look good in a cast.

Oh, how I've missed y'all.

Miz Vul