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It's been an odd day...

I woke up at 6am... and anyone who knows me, knows that this is highly unusual. Perhaps I should have taken this as a sign to go back to bed... but instead I headed out around 8am. My first stop for the day was at an Ohio rest area. Which... I have to say... Ohio has some of the most beautiful rest areas of any of the states. This one was full of quite an assortment of trees... all in their fall colors. I would also say that Ohio had much better leaf color this season than PA did when I was there... and it was gorgeous as I drove down the highways this am. Ohio also can boast of some of the best radio stations... as I was able to cruise thru the whole state today listening to great songs from the 60's to now. It was awesome.


Unfortunately... I also got completely overwhelmed with fatigue just before lunchtime... and ended up taking a 3hr nap in the Jeep ... which I definitely could not have done in the SmartCar.
I am not sure why I am so exhausted... but I am. Normally, I would have been much farther along on my way home on the 2nd day... but between leaving late yesterday, and my nap today... I am way behind.

Dinner was spent having a picnic alongside a fabulous cornfield. It was fabulous to be able to walk around the fields... and it was very peaceful in spite of it being near a highway.
And now, I am in for the night, having driven to Indiana...
and am looking forward to watching a little TV...

*photos by Elaine A. Russell

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Today I was feeling a bit giddy. See.... I had woken up early to take my mom to her church services, and knew that I had a couple hours to myself. WoOt!!!

And so.... I made some coffee.. and settled in for a good hour or so of reading some of my favorite blog writers. I then decided... that I could take advantage of the quiet, and take a nap. And so... I let Sabrina out to run around the yard, and prepared myself to settle in to some super fine quilts. I let her in and she raced to the bed... happy and ready to nap. I crawled in... and started sneezing. Then I started wheezing. Then my eyes started to burn...

and I realized that there was something fowl in the air.

You see... there has been lots of construction in this neighborhood, as they are repairing one bridge, and removing another -- at opposite ends of this street. Apparently, Sabrina had found a nice smelly puddle of creosote or some such fowl smelling liquid... and brought it home with her.

So... after several puppy scrubbings... and several loads of laundry

... I gave up on the whole notion of a nap.

Instead... my mother, Sabrina and I went for a drive in the country. We saw gorgeous fields of corn, cows... and then we saw an entire field of sunflowers!!!

For a photographer... this is pretty much as close to nirvana as you can get.

We had a great time... and here are some photos from the day...

*photos by Elaine A. Russell

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All I know is...

that I am here... in this moment...

at this place... at this time... and I am alright.

I am tired... so very tired... but I will be OK.

Today's ride in the country was preempted by a spontaneous picnic at a local park with my niece and her kids. We ended up completely surrounded by Jr. football players... random kids ... cheer leading tryouts... more people than I had imagined would be there. It was rather chaotic... and in a way... completely and utterly peaceful. And so... we had fried chicken... potato salad... fresh fruit... corn on the cob... and spice cake muffins. We watched the kids play.... and I got to wander thru the park taking photos ...and it was wonderful.

Sometimes the very thing you need... is the the thing you least expect...

*photos by Elaine A. Russell

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Today was filled with the fine details of the memorial service... arranging songs and verses and such in order for a program to be printed, ordering and paying for the flowers, and gathering photos for a video that is being made by the funeral home as a service for the family. It is frustrating... because certain photos we had wanted to include... we just can't seem to find copies of.

In 2005, I had made a point of copying all sorts of family photos that belonged to my parents, and also of my sister's family... and arranged all the photos into boxes at my parent's house. Copies were made and distributed to various family members. It was a huge expense at the time... but well worth it.

Somehow in the interim however... things have gotten wonky and mixed up.

Such is life I suppose... but it is annoying when you are looking for something in particular.

One of the things I hope to do over the course of this coming year, is to (once and for all) get all my photos onto digital files. I have tons and tons... and sorely need to get them organized. Times like this remind me how important it is to me to have photos such as these readily available if they are needed/wanted.

In other news... we went on our daily drive today... and explored some of the county back roads. We saw lovely fields, cows, pigs, sheep, horses.....lots of farmland... we even stopped at a roadside stand and got fresh tomatoes and cucumbers which we ate for dinner.

The photos for today's post are from this drive...

*photos by Elaine A. Russell