Ladies Day

 This morning, Tim was up when the alarm went off. "You sleep in today, I'll get William off to school." 

I took him up on the offer and rolled back over. I went to bed late for a stupid reason: Cara was born at 4:15 am, and so I sat up until 11:15, which was 4:15 her time to wish her a happy birthday right on the very dot. I went upstairs to bed right after that. However, I woke up in the dark with...to...well...never mind what I was doing, but while I was doing it, I happened to look at the clock, and it was 4:15 on the dot! That made me laugh, and I had to message Cara to let her know...right after I got done doing what I was doing. 

So, anyways, I headed back to bed and I was thinking in the dark. Remembering. Asking myself the questions that I always ask myself. Eventually, I did fall back asleep, but it took a while. 

So...when Tim told me to sleep in, I let him.

It was nice to have a leisurely wake up. I had my morning coffee while visiting with the birthday girl via skype. We talked for an hour and a half. It's the next best thing to being there, I suppose. 

Once up, I was getting dressed and it was out the door. I was driving Mattie and her mother in law to another Amish enclave about an hour away. An interesting thing about the Amish that you might not realize is that most of them have home businesses. Levi has his saw mill, of course, and Mattie sells a brand of supplements popular among the Amish. Her mother in law has her own business. She is commissioned by 'the English' (non Amish) to make quilts. She also sells 'tinctures', which seem to be homepathic medications. Other Amish have stores that sell bulk foods. Custom sheds (which are delivered, fully built on a flat bed truck). There are places that make furniture, both in wood and poly-wood. Eggs. Homemade butter, baked goods, candy, little shops virtually everywhere. You just have to know where they are.  In the summer, they do a brisk business selling produce.  

The community we were headed to was even bigger. We've been there before. Levi needed a part for his saw mill, and there is an Amish machine shop in this community. Grandma rode along, because she needed a specific color of fabric for a quilt, and she wondered if I would mind stopping at a couple fabric stores. "Nope, I answered, "as long as you don't mind stopping at the cheese store." (They didn't.) "That's great! I said, "because I was stopping anyway. I was just being polite." We stopped at another Amish "store". This one sold footware. Probably 20 different brands of work boots were advertised on the side of the building. I recognized Tim's 'brand', and was pleased to hear that they welcome der English as well as der Amish.

It was such a nice day, visiting quietly in the car as we drove through the heavy rain and passed by flooded fields and streams completely over their banks. We went from 'store' to 'store' on their errands. It amazes me how they keep track of where they all are. At one point, we passed by an antique store that had an equal amount of buggies and cars parked in their parking lot, something very interesting to everyone. They don't buy antique furniture. They make their own in the time honored style of the antiques that the rest of the world is on the hunt for. They marveled at those buggies as that shop. Mattie said, "People must not have anything better to do on this rainy day." I dryly said, "Well, I'm sure glad we're smarter than that," and we all had a good laugh over that. 

I got home to make a stirfry for supper. William and Tim stood at the table, sampling the cheeses that I'd gotten, chattering while I cut the vegetables. Today was a nice day, a nice break from the plodding January days. I don't often get a day out like that, and it felt great.

Funny thing about that cat. Once Houdini was hauled upstairs by the scruff of his neck and deposited in his bed, he's been quite cheerful, playing with his toys, purring, eating happily. He doesn't seem to mind us at all and even gets up to approach William and see what he's up to. Yet...if the basement door is left open, he'll be gone in a flash. He will stay hidden down there for a couple days, refusing to come up for food or water. 

He's a very strange cat. 

It was sad to hear about the death of David Crosby. He was a genius. And this music really was a staple of my teenage years.   

Have you ever heard such beautiful harmony? 

How young they were! As we all were, I guess. 

Well...now I've done it...I'm in a mood.

If you're in a mood, here's an album. 

and another.

Neil Young has been added to the group at this point.

Funny. 

Even after 50 years, when one song was ending, 

I knew which song was next.