I have successfully completed three whole days at work; and I'll tell you now, 7.75 hours a day is a long time to be away from things I had grown accustomed to during the summer.
It seems that the summer rides around our little town and the surrounding counties are out of the question now.
No time. No enthusiasm. No photographs. I'll have to wait for weekends.
During the summer I grew accustomed to Punky letting me pet him while he stretched out on the kitchen carpet. But now he is cautious again and darts to a different area if I approach him.
How can three days change a cat's attitude? It doesn't seem fair or right.
I grew accustomed to Roger stretching his cat arms on my legs while I sat at the computer typing on my blog, looking at me longingly for me to cradle him in my arms.
Now he's more interested in the outside yard cat who is obviously in heat and attracting every Tom, Dick and Harry stray cat for miles. How quickly things change.
During the summer I had grown accustomed to pruning my flowers and watering them, and especially rocking on the porch looking at their beauty.
For the life of me, I can't remember when I pruned the roses last; I recently noticed one rose is seven feet tall.
That's what going back to work will do to a brain.
I definitely had grown accustomed to seeing the grandchildren during the middle of the week if we chose to drive to Gainesville, but now I'll have to settle for weekends. . . if they ever get back from vacation.
But I suppose the one thing I had grown accustomed to during the summer was spending time with Truett . . .our breakfasts, the little drives, the lengthier lunches, and the relaxed pace of summer.
There's so little time now to do the things I was accustomed to; and pretty soon the summer will be a whisp of a memory.
But soon those things I became accustomed to will be replaced with fall, winter, holidays and children. . . lots of children.
Lively, enthusiastic little bodies that will consume those 7.750 hours and leave me with new things to blog about.
With two days left of preplanning, I am beginning to feel that flutter in my heart because it's the children that will define my goals for 120 days. (Now that number is correct!)
Good-bye summer.