The Day I lost my Sister at the Nudist Camp

There goes my sister up and out of the car before I could shut off the engine. I can see the last traces of her as she bounded down this unknown trail with this perfect stranger. I’m sitting there with my mouth open flabbergasted at her impulsive nature. I shouldn’t be; she’s been that way all her life.

A few years into flying as a TWA flight attendant in the 70’s, I took a vacation in Hawaii along with my mother and my sister. The second day we flew in a small airplane to the big island to swim on the black sandy beach that the island was known for. Diana and I, with our one float, climbed down to the beach area; my mother stayed up on top of a rocky ledge. As some guy was hiking by, my mother asked him if it were safe for Diana and me to swim at this particular beach. He replied that the area was known for its rip tides. By that time we were far enough away to see our mother jumping and waving, but not to hear what she was saying. So, with a hoot and a holler, Diana and tore into the water with our float, and sure enough the waves quickly took us away. We were too stupid to realize what was happening. We just knew the waves were cool and big! Eventually, we got back to land. (No problem!)

To return to the original point where we embarked, was quite a hike, as we walked along the beach. At places, we had to climb over rocks, when the beach would disappear. The waves would crash upon us covering us with tons of black sand that the water carried. After the waves receded, we spat out a couple of mouthfuls of black course sand and continued with float in hand moving over the rocks. At last, we could see our mother up on top of the rocky edge. She had her hands clasped as if praying, and when she saw us, I think she jumped ten feet. Seeing her wave furiously, we waved gallantly back, and, then, 1, 2, 3, we bolted into the ocean again.

The next day our Mother rested at the hotel, and Diana and I explored another island. With a rented car, we set out on our next adventure. A young lady was hitch hiking, and Diana demanded that we should pick her up. When this young lady explained she lived in a “tree camp” of sorts, Diana jumped enthusiastically to the opportunity of exploring this idea of living in the trees, and asked our hitch hiker if we could see it. The young lady obligingly replied yes which leads me to my first paragraph.

As Diana scampered off, I took the time to put personal items in the trunk of the car, locked the car securely, and sauntered down this pathway. I had not gone more than fifty feet when I bumped into a gentleman without one stitch of clothing on him. Making eye to eye contact with this guy, I asked if he knew which direction my sister had taken. He pointed at some passageway, and off I went. Meanwhile my sister returned to the car and finding I wasn’t there, she headed back into the camp. I landed at the beach, saw some “free souls” working on their tans, and asked if they had seen this "dressed" person wandering around, and they pointed me to another foot path. How long were we at the Taylor Tree Camp? About an hour…It got to where I didn’t even have to ask, these laughing people just pointed. Finally finding each other, we managed a good laugh ourselves! To this day, I don’t remember the trees.

My Daughter Is OVER A Quarter of a Century Old!

On the 24th of October, Haley celebrated her 26th birthday with her husband and two children and one dog.
I could rehash all those overused phrases: "How time flies!", "It was just the other day when she was so little.", "My oldest baby is all grown up!", "In a blink of an eye, she's out of the nest; she's flown the coup. She's......"
You get the idea without me saying any of those cliches? Good!
Having a 26 year old daughter makes me feel as if I should check into the Smithsonian Museum as an ancient parent.
We're mighty proud of our oldest "baby".
As I have said in the beginning, our children are our jewels from God.
Wild Thing is six years younger than Haley; No sweetheart, no spouse, no children, no college education, he sits today in our rocking chair. Wild Thing doesn't rock much, and he keeps to himself. One thing I can tell you about dear old Wild Thing, he has not flown the coup!
:-)

TWENTY-EIGHT YEARS OF MARRIAGE!
Our annivesary was on October 15th, 2005. We choose which road to take in life, and I guess we've chosen the one with the bumps, the rocks, the pits, the mud, the hills, the valleys. Driving on the edge of a mountainous pathway, we have found ourselves lost a few dozen times. Yep!
And just about the time we are considering the option of hiking, the good Lord locks the doors tight, and He reminds us to stay inside the vehicle. So here we go down this bumpy road of life. The tires are holding up.....so far.

I said to the Lord, "Lord, I need to start exercising, but my get up and go has gotten up and went. My soul is willing, but this whittle body is on hiatus. Help me." And He did.
He did all right. Driving on the gravel road from George's Cove, He zapped that left front tire flatter than a pancake. All righty, uh, thanks...., I think! At dusk, Robin and I locked the doors to Daisy Mae, our Suburban, and as Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz, we stepped on to the yellow brick road to complete our journey....up, up, up hill....to our home.
With us were our dogs, Moses and Charlie. We had no leashes, so we used bungy cords. Why? Because our dogs are untrained, wild animals; our Moses, the Labrador, weighing in at 97 pounds, flunked obedience school twice. He assumes one position: CHARGE! It doesn't matter that his collar is pulled back to his tail bone, and his air passage is blocked. He's dragging my body as if I were a little powder puff. (Yea, I wish.) Robin handled Charlie, our Heinz 57 breed. And it wasn't bad! It took an hour. It could have taken longer, but, remember, we were in the CHARGE position.
Could we have changed the tire? No, the spare was on the right rear tire, having taken the place of a tire that had exploded on the interstate when I was traveling to Memphis a few weeks back. No walk was involved on that one, just me and the chiggers waiting patiently on the side of the interstate for four hours.
The good news is that Daisy Mae was rescued by Ruedi this evening on the 12th, after working a 15 hour shift. What has this self proclaimed procrastinator learned as a valuable lesson, family and friends?
Be cautious what you pray for, and wear tennis shoes. :-) THE END

Mr. And Mrs. Imholz, yours truly...

The phone rings, and it's one of my daughters. I'm hungry for all information updating what's been happening in her life. We talk about five minutes when our conversation is shattered by this deep voice from across the room. Ruedi has no idea what Mom and her baby child's (adult that she may actually be) subject matter is; he commences to shout out off the cuff remarks. He offers advice, his opinion and his funny one liners. Remind you, he has no idea the topic of the conversation. Consequently, I and my adult child are saying, "Huh?"
Finally, it dawned on me why we are having so many of these episodes. My husband is really wishing to hear this line. " She's asking to speak to you, dear." I tried that today, and, my goodness, it worked! Once he has had his turn on the telephone, the three way conversation ceases, and I can focus on the topic at hand. So, dear family, when you call, and you hear this deep voice vibrating close by, please ask to speak to it. ( I don't mind taking the second turn.) Thanks, sweeties!

Should I confess how old this picture is? Of course not! That's my husband, Ruedi, who's from Aldorf, Switzerland. He still has a Swiss-German accent! Ruedi has been with me give or take a hundred years...a long time! Maybe too long--the other day someone asked, "You have an accent, sir. Are you from Texas?"
Now he's telling everyone he's from the southern part of Switzerland. Ha, ha, ha..

I've never done this before, so I'll start off easy.
We're not interesting, not famous, not wealthy; mom's body, (moi), is unhealthy, but I have a lively spirit. It sprints on ahead of me most of the time. Children are great. They're fascinating, individual people. If God did not do another thing for us, it would be enough that He gave us our children.
Ruedi's has a Swiss brother he adores, and I have my Tennessean sister who is the Felix to my Oscar. God is wise. :-)