In the mist, protection and seasoned with love

- Buildings in midtown Atlanta looming ahead in the mist. It was a gray sort of weekend in Atlanta, but there is beauty in that, too.

- In another town on Saturday, my mother and I are off to lunch and during the trip someone in a hurry makes a too close left hand turn in front of us. I am touched that my mother throws her arm protectively in front of me when I slam on brakes, even though we are wearing seat belts.

- Pulling out an indoor grill pan that belonged to my father. The grilled red sockeye salmon was all the better for being cooked in a pan that had been seasoned with love.

Languishing no more, memories and sweet

- After twelve years of languishing in a drawer, these platters I got in Cancun, Mexico in 1998 are finally hanging. Friend Leisa came over and "helped" me with it (meaning she pretty much did it.) I am lucky to have such a good friend.

- Taking my mother out to lunch at she and my dad's favorite restaurant on Saturday. She and I talk about what food he would have ordered and smile.

- Bringing their wedding picture from the house for mom's new apartment. When it is in place, we stand at look at and I say that I like to see it there. She says she likes the girl that brought it to her.

Light on the stairs, HGTV and tribute

- Seldom seen light on back stairs, used only by a few. Serenity at 10 o'clock.

- Visiting with my mother all day on Saturday and catching up on sleep from the week as we have recliner naps in front of the home and garden channel on TV.

- Mother's neighbor from across the hall stops by to say that he only got to know my father for a few months, but that he was a good man. "He stood straight and tall."

Pink ribbons, cherry trees and pink cheeks

- Not making the connection at first to pink ribbons like this one at my mother's residence in Macon, Georgia, I ask, "Did someone have a girl?" The ribbons signify that the Cherry Blossom festival is going on and seem to festoon everything from mailboxes to business doors.

- The festival's slogan is "Welcome to the pinkest party on earth." Yoshino cherry trees line the streets and seem to be everywhere. A local realtor discovered one of the trees in his back yard in the 1940s and it went from that one tree to more than 300,000 in a movement that caught on.

- It has been more than 20 years since we had a baby in our family and lovely baby Mina captured our hearts with her pink cheeks and ready smile. This special guest stole the show from the festival and rightly so!

New friends, nice job and weekend fare

- The just placed bird feeder outside my mother's bedroom window has made her at least 100 new friends. A fat robin senses motion from the window and flies away, but returns when he feels it is safe.

- A Girl Scout positioned outside the drug store, with smiling mother and fidgety little sister just behind, asks shyly if I would like to buy cookies. I select a box of the kind she recommends based on the nice job she does presenting them.

- From Mr C's sign: Corn dogs, tots and the Oscars...C'mon

On the way, Pollyanna and jewelry swap

- In middle Georgia, the Bradford Pear trees have buds on them. A sure sign of an explosion of blossoms on the way...

- Asking my mother if she would like to play a board game, she says she would and for me to choose. I pick Pollyanna, "The Glad Game" - a form of Parcheesi. It is a race/pursuit game that my grandmother loved to play and passed down to her children. It is fun to get out the old familiar box that is so falling apart that I must tape up the corners of the box once again.

- At a party, friend Missy admires my earrings and says how well they would go with the necklace she is wearing. I say that I have been admiring her earrings, as well, so we spontaneously swap earrings and then go to look at ourselves in a mirror. My earrings were bought on sale for about $10 - hers are silver ones she got when she was living in Colorado. Each of us thinks we got the better deal. :)

The Wall, Generation Z and curling

- A meeting in this room at church reveals astonishing purple walls in varying shades being applied to them. It is a work in progress and one of the volunteer painters clearly has a sense of humor.

- Stopping by fast food Wendy's for a quick lunch with my mother and the puzzled look from the young order taker when mom asks for margarine for her baked potato. "Margarine," she repeated. A shake of the head. "Do you know what margarine is?" I ask. No, he doesn't. Wow - now I really feel old. And Wendy's calls it "buttery spread."

- My mom, perusing the TV schedule for Olympic coverage, and calling out with excitement, "Curling! I LOVE curling!"

Rhapsody, substitute and warm wake-up

- Leaving work early on Friday with the unaccustomed snow falling and when I get in my car, the classical music station is playing "Rhapsody in Blue" - a perfect musical accompaniment.

- Three daughters send flowers to their mother for Valentines Day. She wants to give the young delivery person a tip, who says, "We don't accept tips, but I'll take a hug."

- Consistently oversleeping three mornings in a row, due to a power outage making the clock malfunction. But waking up anyway because of the loyalty of the programmed thermostat making the heat come on. The warmth wakes me.

Budding, sweet and spicy and the scent

- A budding artist's rendition of a Christmas tree complete with angel at the top. Little ones from the school across the street from my parents' home come by to bring artwork, cookies and to sing carols.

- Going to bed early and waking in the late evening to the smell of something sweet and spicy baking. Downstairs neighbor Bonnie was baking oatmeal cookies for work. In the morning I thank her by email for the good smells. It was like having a scented candle burning, only better.

- Bringing in a box of Florida oranges to the crew at the printing company and loving the scent of oranges that keeps popping up here and there.

Have a wonderful weekend and I hope good things pop up for you around every corner!

Madison, home and Decatur

- Friend Barbara G and I attend the holiday tour of homes in Madison, Georgia each year. This is a photo I took last year at one home before I was told I was not supposed to photograph anything. :)

- This past Wednesday, I literally was just about to give my credit card number for the tickets to the Saturday tour, as the call came in from the rehab center that they were sending dad to the hospital. "I'll call back," I said, but never did. I thought I would be staying with dad in the hospital over the weekend, but thankfully he went home to be with mom last night - out of the hospital and no more staying at the rehab center. Rehab will come to him.

- And Barb and I are consoling ourselves over missing the Madison tour by going to the Decatur, Georgia Candlelight Tour of Homes this evening. A good kick-off to the holiday season. It will be cold, but dry. Tomorrow would have been colder and raining. It is working out as it is should. It's all good.

I hope your weekend is full of all good things!

Home spot, shake and big bands

- A mid-week trip to this hospital in Macon, Georgia to be with my dad who is back in again.* He offered up this startling fact last time we were here: The entrance to this hospital is on the spot in which he lived with his parents in their family home when he was a teenager. The house was eventually torn down to make way for the hospital.

- It always makes male medical staff smile when they tell him their name and he offers his hand for a shake, even when he is woozy.

- Later I find a program on GPB-TV (Georgia Public Broadcasting) that has clips of bands from the Big Band era. Mom and Dad especially love The Glenn Miller Orchestra, so I check to see if he is awake by singing along with "I've Got a Gal in Kalamazoo." A great song and fun to sing, but I am not known for my singing and it is a good test because it makes him smile.

* Dad had a medical procedure yesterday, and was resting comfortably when sis and I switched caregiving shifts last night.

Rm w/a vu, story and dedicated

- A room with a view. Sunrise from my father's hospital room in Macon, Georgia over the weekend.

- Visiting with an uncle who I haven't seen in a really long time. And hearing the story of how he met my aunt - he spotted her at a bowling alley and told his buddy, "I'm going to marry her." The buddy laughed at him, but he did marry her - three months later.

- Meeting so many dedicated hospital workers over the weekend: a recently divorced student radiology technician who decided to make a life change with a new career, a 23-year-old nurse who LOVES working the 7pm to 7am shift and is perky even in the middle of the night, a nurse who finally became an RN at age 47 and is sorry her dad didn't live to see her realize her dream, the young woman who comes in to clean proudly displaying her babies' photo on the back side of her hospital badge - she has a one-year-old and a two-year-old, the smiling medical technician who finds me wide awake at 3am and asks if I would like a snack and then brings cherry Jello and Sprite. Lovely people.

Shadows and light, a red one and just right

- Leaving for home through the church sanctuary after a chili lunch and delighting in the shadows and light the afternoon sun makes through the stained glass.

- Shopping with my mom for a new winter coat for her. She chooses a bright red one and cannot wait to get back to show my dad.

- A lovely fall day on Sunday. The temperature seemed just right, the sky was blue, leaves crunched underfoot. A wonderful day.

The office, extra mile and dance at the wedding

- A Heidelberg Press and a printed journal during its drying time. Another day at the office.

- A very nice man who goes the extra mile to help a frustrated woman get a difficult prescription filled for her father in another town. And he is having it delivered to him for nothing. How about that.

- I held her for the first time one January - a smiling baby with an infectious personality, blue eyes like her mother and curly hair like her aunts. Someone stole her heart and she will marry him on Saturday - maybe outside or maybe inside a barn if it rains. This aunt will dance at Abigail's wedding. *

* A Friday 55 tribute to Abigail's wedding...

Cheery welcome, not today and nature's light show

- This cheery welcome, incorporating hosts, dinosaurs, Georgia's gold-domed capitol building and other points of interest, is the first thing you encounter when you step off the elevator at Georgia Public Broadcasting. Such a nice surprise - the wall before being just kind of blank.

- The woman at the drive-thru at Kentucky Fried Chicken telling me about the $1000 per day sweepstakes I can register for with the receipt. And my non-gambling, doesn't-believe-in-gambling mother chiming in from the back seat, "Don't forget whose car you're driving!" I totally would have turned over the money, but it was not to be...we were not winners this day. :)

- Nature's light show lighting up the still dark morning sky. It is always a relief to arrive to work safely during rain showers and to hear co-workers coming in one by one.

New home, legends and looking forward

- A new home in a familiar city, they are back in the city of her birth, their marriage and the city in which two daughters were born. This is the view to the right on the road leading to it, a gazebo just visible. An appropriate view for a woman who has always loved gazebos.*

- The city is Macon, Georgia, home of music legends Otis Redding, The Allman Brothers Band, Lena Horne and Little Richard. The Allman Brothers Band museum is just down the street.

- He looks out at the view from their bedroom windows and says how beautiful the Bradford Pear trees will be in the spring...

* A Friday 55...