Sunday, September 23, 2012

you'll be thinking: she should just move to SC...

...especially when you realize that I have been across the border to SC three times in the past week or so. I  hope they don't try to make me apply for a tag, as I just paid for the new decal for GA license plate recently.

Went back to South Carolina on Saturday, after returning from there to Decatur in the dark on Friday night. There were plans to go to visit a cousin in Augusta area, who actually lives north of North Augusta, the counterpart of Augusta that is across the Savannah River from the actual Augusta in Georgia. I think her family had lived in Augusta most of her life, but when her mom died just over a year ago, she felt like a major change was in order. She and her mom, who was my mother's cousin (their mothers were sisters), had lived in adjacent houses, and had a sweet, remarkably close relationship. One that I had long admired, and know even now was something very special, for mother and daughter to have such a close life-long bond.

She and her mom had been primary caregivers for her dad who died some years ago, and then she was the best, most dutiful caregiver for her mom before she passed away. A lot of heartache in a short time. Then her beloved father-in-law suddenly became ill, and died, so there is a lot of residual grief still floating around.

But this woman has the best, most upbeat, positive attitude of anyone I know. And the sweetest smartest husband. I am so crazy about guys who are 'handy', having been raised by men who go back generations as remarkably self-sufficient, guys who could take most anything malfunctioning tool/equipment apart, study the innards and figure out what needed attention. Usually repairing the old, or actually creating/manufacturing the replacement, then reassembling to have that once annoying item busily humming along as well as if it were new. This personifies my granddads, my dad, my brother, son-in-law, all those guys who will tinker and ponder until the problem is resolved. The older guys, would be doing it because you could not run to the store and buy the part, plus so thrifty they would not have done it even if it was available. The younger guys because they refuse to be outsmarted by something without a brain, that mechanical thing they know they can take apart and study to fix and reassemble. Plus I think the guys just love to tinker/analyze, determined that something in-animate will not get the best of them...

Anyway: the Decatur cousin and I had planned to go and spend the day with the Augusta cousin, so we drove over and spent the afternoon. Had a tour of their new house out in the country. Enjoyed visiting, lunching, exploring an interesting little town in SC. Eddingfield supplied the state with ten governors: their major claim to fame, in addition to being the birth place of the most prolific US Senator in history: Strom Thurmond. I don't recall how many wives he had, or how many children, I think he was in his late 90's when he finally died so he could not longer reproduce with the latest beauty queens. Thankfully/tactfully, this was not included on the historical marker on the street in front of his birthplace. But they were Biblical in number.

It was after dark when we got back to Decatur, though I had planned to leave Augusta area mid-afternoon, allowing me to get back home before dark. So it was nearly 11:00 when I dragged in, after having driven for about seven hours. I'm thinking I might stick pretty close to home this week.... maybe.

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