Too Soon Old......

   Way back last summer, while I was visiting in Virginia, and trying to come to terms with solitary living, I was sitting in my son's home texting on my good ole flip phone. You remember how that went:

      for A hit the "1" button one time
      for B hit the "1" button two times
      for C hit the "1" button three times

      and so on, till you finished one word, then another, and another.

   Doug watched while I labored over a short text and said: "Dad, you need an iPhone if you are going to get in this century".

   So it happened, an iPhone 7+, and I was on my way.

   This new device came in very handy later on that year as I was back into long distance courting. My lady friend lived in Tennessee, and I was spending most of my time on St. Simons.

   We texted, at first tentatively, later daily, and then frequently texts and photos daily. Hooray for my new world of cell phones.

   It was great for sunrise pictures from the beach. Just a quick photo snap, then onto a text message with a small note, and send. On her end it was sleep, then a ping on the phone, and she knew I was thinking of her. A great way to lessen the 437 miles from my home to hers.

   I kept up the practice of those quick notes in the morning, even after we married in January of this year. She seemed to enjoy the attention those notes in the AM brought.

   But there is a downside to this practice:

   I left her in bed this morning while taking my phone to the kitchen and starting her coffee brewing.

   The brief communication went something like this:

   Good morning m'lady

Your horoscope for today calls for a 2 L day ....Laundry and Love 

💝

   As I went back to the bedroom, feeling brilliant because I had done something to brighten her day, waiting for her reaction as she read it, she was still in bed and her phone on the charger next to the chair. The phone was on vibrate, and, hence, no ping to get her attention.

   With a certain amount of "cool". I picked her phone off the chair and took it over to the bed, claiming I had heard a buzzing that I figured was a message for her. As I sat with her on the side of the bed, she opened the phone and read a message about possible severe weather on the way. No other message appeared. Glancing at the open phone I noticed no "1" on her message symbol.

   Uh Oh, that might be a problem. Maybe I forgot to hit the send button, or just maybe......

   But I did not dwell on that second maybe, surely not. I would not have done that!

   To be sure, I retreated to the kitchen, to look at my phone. Yes it was true, message sent to the last person I had texted with the day before. What in the world would he think?

   We had lunched with some old friends from Franklin, and I had texted him saying how much we enjoyed the time of fellowship over the meal.

   My first thought after all the realization was how could I erase the message in cyber space, and restore what equilibrium I had left.

   Alas, no eraser available. I would have to copy that first message and resend to the correct party, which I did and returned to the bedroom.

   We enjoyed a great laugh in the early morning, which was good.

   But we did not hear from the accidental recipient.......yet

   There is a moral here somewhere about being careful, I know.

   My face could reflect the bright colors of that sunrise, but maybe the other couple could get as big a laugh as we did.

   Hopefully

   Stay Tuned....

   

Spring Sprung...

   When we left for about 10 days to go to The Island, our back yard looked like this:

   The Woodlake site was, in fact, filled with more rainfall earlier in the month, but had decreased to this pond size when we left. It had been there so long this winter that it seemed a permanent fixture. Even the ducks persisted in making it their home, and it looked as if we would have waterfowl for the foreseeable future.

   Then, on the 1st of April, we came home. It seemed Spring had Sprung in 10 days time.

   The redbud down near the road was in color.

   The white jonquil was flourishing in the side bed.

   Dogwoods  lined Clark Road in full bloom.

   The Iris were beginning and looking very royal in their purple color.

   Snowballs across the street.

   Yards filled with violets.

   Phlox in the back yard.

   Even weeds (?) showed forth color in an empty lot.

   Sunlight through the Japanese maple by the garage.

   The next day after we got home, Dwayne texted that we had left Cornelius just in time, it was snowing on that Tuesday morning.

   What a joy it was to turn into that driveway with the sunlight coming through the maple. And not only that, the lake (or pond) was gone.

   Even our ducks had left for wetter pastures.

   God, in His time, had turned our rain soaked landscape into a riot of color, and we marveled again, that Spring had indeed Sprung while we were away.