I talked to two farmers today who were having good days. One had just shot a coyote.
“Well, that’s good!” I cheered.
“But there were two more with him,” he amended.
“Oh. Well, maybe you got the patriarch and they’ll leave.”
The other farmer said, “I got up this morning and my cows weren’t out, and that’s always a good thing.”
I didn’t disagree.

I have to tell myself to live in the moment. Pretend I’m a dog or something. If you had told me 20 years ago that I’d be working for the government in a job I loved and driving a Maxima, I would probably think I had a pretty great life. Especially if you’d told me I was on a four hour road trip, alone, to see my friend in Kentucky.
But the truth of the matter is, I couldn’t go where I really wanted to go (Ireland) with who I really wanted to go with. I no longer speak to my best friend. My favorite person in the world is no longer in my life. And my coworker is disgusting.
Life hurts.
But, I’m in pretty good health, I have lots of friends who care very much about me, I have my own home and a precious 80# dog.
So, you take what you got and grin and bear it.

I wasn’t able to leave until 2:30. Duty calls. Jake wasn’t here, and I feel obligated to keep the office open if at all possible. Plus I hate to burn time off if he’s gone. I like to use my hours to avoid suffering. And, as history has proven, it’s best I be here. For instance, this morning, I had just gotten in the door when here come somebody whipping in. Turns out, it was the handyman, here to check the toilet. I thought Charlie was gonna leave it till he got in Monday. Not that I’m complaining. I love our handymen. (He had his grandson with him: a serious blonde headed young man who blinked at me sleepily. They were headed to the aquarium for a field trip. I was pretty jealous. I like the turtle). And let’s not forget the unexpected printer delivery the other morning. It’s always something. Those dang LB Chase guys show up on a whim.

Anyhoo, I swung by the house to get Chess situated; I’d hated to turn him out this morning while it was so gloomy and cold. That poor baby knew something was up, he was at his most Velcro-y last night. He knows when I bust out the orange suitcase his life is fixing to be upset for the near future. So it was three by the time I got home, thanks especially to school traffic at the house, and 3:30 before I got on the road. Traffic was atrocious: Knoxville was a slow roll all the way through. There was a backup around Cookeville, but luckily not nearly as bad as what the east bound side was dealing with. I missed my preferred exit because my car GPS was all for taking me straight through the middle of Nashville and up 65.
I was vehemently against this plan, as it was Friday evening. I thought about how excited I was to be seeing Lori and trying the new Italian place downtown. Who am I kidding, I always have a good time, and I was bound to be busy, which would be good for my mental well being. I just hated to be abandoning my dog. I do depend on Angela more than I care to admit.

Anyway, I got off at the Lebanon exit that takes me through the roundabout and makes me wish for more time to explore their downtown. It looks fun. What’s NOT fun is driving a low-riding car with illegal tint windows. I couldn’t see crap. I told Kevin either I didn’t need to be driving past dark, I didn’t need to have tinted windows, or there need to be more streetlights. It was a little dicey. But I made it, and that’s all that matters.

Walking in the door at Kevin’s is kinda like visiting Lisa: he met me with three bottles of wine to choose from. I’ve got my hands full of road snacks and a bunch of bananas and haven’t even got my suitcase out of the trunk before he’s pouring.
No, I’m not complaining. See why I like visiting?
We drink one bottle down, and I’m feeling it, since the last thing I had was chili at about 1:00, so I choose our salad (cranberry crunch) and he puts on the season premiere of Yellowstone since I missed it last week. Like everybody else, I was mad and disgusted, but not really surprised.

I checked on JA a little after ten, and they’d made it! Having two drivers makes a huge difference in covering ground. I think I would have wanted to rest the horses more, but that’s their call.

Kevin fell asleep in his chair during Yellowstone so we turned in pretty early. Big day of decorating ahead of us!

Thankful for this home away from home.