Dear Reader:

What is that old Robert Burns quote again…“The best laid plans of mice and men often go awry.” This quote pretty well sums up our mountain retreat because (Hurricane Florence) “Slow Flo” decided to go with the old adage “It’s a woman’s prerogative to change her mind.” And change it she did…every few hours.

This unstable atmosphere did topple plans but opened up opportunities for other plans. Since I am later getting home than expected…it will be tomorrow before I will be able to pull pictures and recreate some of the fun places we did visit in our beloved Saluda.

Just let me say that we had some unusual experiences like running into one couple in different places around our state…a God Wink extraordinaire, gorgeous mountain flowers, and friendly mountain people who we returned (again and again) to talk and laugh with…

Because of all the recent ‘message in a bottle’ blog posts I found a bottle I was going to present to all the Ya’s (at the end of the retreat) and discuss with them possibilities of sending out a Ya “hello” message in it…telling a potential finder a synopsis of our unusual friendship of great longevity.

The next time we have a beach retreat we will definitely have to come up with a great Ya story… including pictures and information on how to find us, put it in the bottle and let her go. Where and when it ends up…nobody knows.

Brooke’s husband, Ted, gave me a book by a friend of his, Clark Thompson, who grew up in Saluda… it had me completely enthralled for hours. The author’s old home place  still exists right off the road where the “Ya mountain retreat” is located.

Isn’t it interesting how every region of our country creates their own imaginary monsters…told  children around campfires and sleep-overs. For Clark…this person was Ed, a friend of the family, who “in his mischievous way, loved to create fear in our young minds by telling stories about monstrous “whangdoodles” who lured victims into a barn and then snatched the little kids.”  

*(Clark and all his siblings were so scared, they got to crossing the street in front of the barn to get to their house next door.)

Hurricanes are adult “whangdoodles” …we fear, not only their  (potentially very real)  physical destructive power, but their psychological destructive power too… on our feelings. Especially if we have lived through such an event.

Just let me say that all the Ya’s are safe and sound with our humble abodes intact. We know how lucky we are…yet these feelings of gratitude are also accompanied by a sense of guilt for those who are not as fortunate.

When I saw pictures of my birthplace and childhood neighborhood in Fayetteville, North Carolina I felt like weeping. I still have some family and friends there. There is no doubt they must feel like the worst “whangdoodle” of a storm took their homes and security away from them in one flash flood accompanied by powerful winds.

As I thought about humankind and our reactions to destruction compared to everything else in nature it reminded me of this story.

So until tomorrow…

A young woman awoke one morning to see where a spider’s web had gone up overnight stretching from the door to the wall. She realized in a moment she would get up, open the door to begin a new day and by doing so destroy the “webby masterpiece.”

What a terrible set-back for the spider yet there wouldn’t be a negative reaction…she wouldn’t shake her spindly legs in fury, fall into a depression, curse the gods of chance, or seek comfort food…instead she would wander over to another corner of the room and start again.

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh