A Wonderful Sunday

Last night, Drew and I were supposed to go to our favorite Japanese Steak House for hibachi.  Around 4:00PM, he told me he was going to lay down for a while.  Drew has chronic back pain due to herniated disks, arthritis, and he could stand to lose a few pounds.  He’s also diabetic and an insomniac.  I try not to be disappointed when he needs to sleep, even though it usually means I’ve lost him for the day.  But he’s done so much for me to demonstrate his love for me, how can I begrudge him sleep when he can get it?

I knew when he told me he was going to lay down for a bit, that we weren’t going to go to the steakhouse.  I finally called him (our bedroom is upstairs, and it’s still hard for me to go up too many times).  He said, “I’m sorry, Babe, I just don’t feel well.”

I told him it was ok.  I said it with as much sincerity in my voice as I could muster.  I didn’t want to sound disappointed or upset with him.  I was a little, but there was food in the kitchen, so I cooked myself some dinner, wrote some opinions on the political pages I follow, then I went upstairs to join him.

This morning, we were both awake early.  By 7:00 AM, he’d gotten up to sit in a hot tub.  He’ll sit there for hours, so I went back to sleep for a while.  Then I got up and showered and got ready to go out.  We had errands that had to be run, today, including picking up prescriptions and birthday cards that have to be mailed tomorrow.  I sat in my chair, and proceeded with my morning routine, of checking Facebook, checking my political groups, and catching up on “with friends” games like Scrabble and Yahtzee.

Drew came down the stairs fully dressed shortly before 10:00.  I reminded him about the errands and he asked me if I wanted to do it right away.  I told him that whatever he wanted to do was fine, and to my surprise, he wanted to get out of the house.

Since we’ve moved to North Carolina, one of the things that I’ve loved about driving through the country is the number of tiny family cemeteries and church graveyards one can find scattered throughout.  Some look ancient.  I’ve wanted to take pictures but haven’t had an opportunity because since we’ve been here, the weather is either too hot, too cold, or I’m too sick.  So we decided we do some of that, today.

We drove through the countryside, and I just snapped pictures all along the way.  We came across a few church graveyards, but as it’s Sunday, I thought it might be rude or inappropriate to stop to take pictures of the cemeteries while people were worshipping.

We did find one cemetery that was huge and more modern looking than the smaller ones I’d wanted to photograph.  We got out and walked around and I took photos of some of the older headstones.  It was fascinating how the cemetery was organized.  Two headstones standing right next to each other, might face in opposite directions.  There was no way to know which way to step, and I hate stepping on a person’s grave.

After we left the cemetery, we found a place with a restroom, took a break, and got something to drink.  Then we went to pick up our prescriptions.  Our last stop was Walmart.  If you’ve been paying attention to weather news, you probably know that Hurricane Florence is heading straight for the Carolinas.  When we got to the Walmart center, the parking lot was packed to over flowing.  I took a deep breath, believing this was going to be so ugly.

I was surprised to be able to find a cart right away.  And there was an employee gathering carts from the parking lot to keep the cart well full.  I expected it to be a disaster inside, but it wasn’t.  Shoppers were friendly.  Almost every aisle had someone restocking the shelves.  They were cheerful and helpful and we found everything that we’d gone in for.

When we were ready to check out, Drew went back to get handsoap because we’d forgotten it.  I got into the first line I could find because my energy runs out quickly since the strokes.  I didn’t have the strength to push that cart around looking for a shorter line.  I was pleasantly surprised when an employee led me to a shorter line.  When Drew returned, he pointed out that all the check lanes were open.  I expected this shopping experience to sour what had been a pleasant afternoon, but it just made it better.

I wrote a letter of kudos to Walmart and Drew and I ate dinner.  Critters are fed and all is well.  We have no water pressure for some reason.  Hope there’s no water leaking anywhere.

I’ll post my pictures once I figure out how to get them off the camera (it’s not my phone).