Don't know why some days just seem more delightful than others
this was one of those
My car at the dealer,
Me shopping in a thrift shop for 3 hours while it literally poured down rain
Come home to my dog who is ready to go out after 6 hours of aloneness
Check out the pawpaws
They are growing bigger and bigger
The wet grass, the green trees, the weeds in the garden
Oh, so lush after a spring of constant heavy showers
Weather hard to explain
A drought last summer and fall
Causing the deaths of large trees
Now, through winter and spring
An abundance of rain
This is God's world
We must accept the rain or the drought
Sadly on this day we must accept the deaths of innocents
Killed in Manchester
We ask, why God, why?

My dad and his friend driving out to the pasture to sit in the pickup truck and talk about what?  How the cows are doing, the upcoming hunting season, growing quail, fishing, the state of the country.
I don't know what these men talked about but they spent hours together.
While they were out talking Eunice and Marie sat smoking in the living room, discussing stuff. I could sit and listen to them for hours, but don't remember what they talked about. Maybe Marie would get out one of her poems or show my Mama some of her ceramics or paintings.
We girls would dance together the bop to the latest 50's music or we would ride our horses through the pastures and at night we would play Scarin' with their brother-a hide and seek game in the dark.
We spent every weekend together, eating greens, fried cornbread and chicken.  I always thought I was Marie's favorite because she was always so kind to me. She was a kind of Earth Mother, quite different from my own Mama.  Sometimes Sonny, the boy, would get in trouble because we girls would tell on him for throwing corncobs at us. Then Marie would go after him with a skillet, a switch or a paddle, whatever was handy.
Lamar had been in WWII and had been too close to a grenade. He developed terrible skin cancers which left horrid scars on his face. When I was 15, he died and Marie started working in the Catholic School so the three kids could still attend.
Here we were the Baptists (us) and the Catholics (them) never realizing that our friendship in rural Mississippi was a bit unusual.  Mama would lend her Bible to Marie because the Catholic church did not allow the people to read and interpret for themselves at that time.  
When we were really young, the family lived in an old unpainted two-story house with Lamar's Dad-Cap'n-a strict old grumpy German who we tried to stay away from.  We would come up from Louisiana when I was four and spend the night for the nine months we lived in Louisiana.
Saturday night baths were in a tub-four girls first, then Sonny last-he was a boy and the dirtiest.  No running water and a two-seater outhouse. Those were the days...

A trip to the dermatologist
Please check out this sore on my lip
And the one above it.
Yes, think I need to do biopsies of those.
Phone call-you have a basal cell carcinoma
And a squamous cell carcinoma.
We'll need to remove those and send you to the Plastic Surgeon.
That's a little concerning.  
I will tell a few friends and relatives
About my condition, but no big overall announcement.
One month later
Wake up at 4:30 am to eat breakfast
It will be a long day.
Take the dog to the neighbor for the day,
Leave for first hospital with Husband
Driving My Car!!! Scariest part of the day!
Check in to the Dermatologist
Numbing hurting needles to my lips and face,
Tissue cut away, searing hot cauterization.
To the waiting area and another cutting away of my lower lip.
Back to the waiting area. Four hours after our arrival
We are out the door, through the corridors to the parking garage
Back on the interstate to the second hospital.
Check in, ride the elevator and frighten a 5 year old boy with my
Face bandages-they were pretty frightening to me.
To the staging area to dress in a gown, have i.v. attached,
Anesthesiologist, Doctor, Nurses, and finally I start to go under.
Wake up with new bandages, ride home via drugstore and grocery-
12 hours later.  Study prescriptions and instructions.  Made it through the first night and hopefully to full recovery.
Warning-wear a hat, use sunscreen on skin and lips.                              Hope you will never have to take this trip.

Soycorn, rice-a-roni-what is all this baloney?
Genetics don't scare me none
GMOs sound like they could be fun.
Only thing that ever worried me
Was first cousins marrying on the family tree.
Now that's somethin to get your knickers in a twist about
No doubt we haven't seen the end of this come about.
GMO, HMO, what do you know
Where will it go?

So went my early years
With my life so filled with fears
Brought home measles and chicken pox
Skated up and down the blocks
Walked to school in the rain
Oh how the playground was a pain
An athlete I was not
Chosen last for every spot
If you've been there
Then you know what I mean
We'll never make any team.
Moved to the country when I was ten
Certainly a new life to begin
A farm with a dog named Buster
A horse of my own
Ducks in the  pond
Cows in the barn.
A new country school
With teachers who loved you
Several new friends I made
Free time at lunch
And jacks to be played.
Four years spent at this wonderful school
Then time to move on
To an unknown life
And a brand new school.
Algebra, English, Geography, Science, PE
what had happened to me?
College ahead
How can that be?
Dorm rooms and roommates
Chemistry, Speech
New challenges
Only a scholar could reach.
First job, oh no
Big city, traffic
Not for me
I think I'll move to Tennessee
Finally life sublime
Well, it was
At least part of the time
Mountains and rocks like I had never seen
Parties, new friends
At last, life could begin.