End of August

After coming home from Rhode Island, the next two weeks have passed pretty quickly.  I've been working my retail job, even with pain in my Achilles tendons--especially by the end of the day.  Jake continues to make messes in my kitchen...

...the end-of-summer spiders created their masterpieces around the outside of our house...

...and then Thomas called me.  (I'm blogging this way after the fact, since we kept the following information under wraps until events actually happened.)

"Hey, Mom, you know I was hoping to find a job at a BMW dealership in Florida, right?"
"Yes..."
"Well, what do you think about Texas?"
(Um, wow.  And where is this going?)
So I let go.  "Thomas, I want you to go where God leads you.  If that's Texas, and you go there, I'll be happy that you're following the Lord."
"Okay."
"Where in Texas?"
"Austin."

So there it was. BMW of Austin would fly him in to visit the dealership, give him a tour, and interview him.  As the weekend approached, my ears perked up at the mention of Hurricane Harvey.  Hmm.  I Googled it, then widened my eyes, took a screen shot of the map of its patch, then texted Thomas...

"You're flying in to Austin tomorrow, right?"
"Yep, in the morning."
"What about the hurricane?"
"What hurricane??"

I texted him this:

So, he flew in that Friday morning, August 25, and Harvey moved in that afternoon.  Thomas spent the entire weekend either at the dealership or in his hotel, with torrential rains.  I think he said they got 17-19 inches overall! 

 Danny chatting with Thomas (in Austin) on the house phone.  Yes, a corded phone.

Thomas flew back to Orlando on Monday to finish up the last week of the BMW STEP training program.  I took the long Labor Day weekend off so I could fly down for his graduation--more money spent.  Y. company was going to fly Fernando home that same weekend, for his one weekend home per month, so they worked together to fly him down to Orlando instead of Chicago.  Now that our weekend was planned, I finished harvesting some things in the garden, mostly carrots.  I fermented them with some of the rosemary I grew.  Yum!

Tomorrow, next stop:  Orlando!  And Thomas!!


Back to life,
Christine

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Rhode Island, Part Two

August 20.

Fernando wanted to visit the Beavertail Lighthouse, so that was our destination for the day.

One look out into the bay, and I knew I could stay for hours.

 This is my favorite image from our weekend together.

After lingering on the rocks and watching the sea, we meandered into Narragansett for some food.

Yelp proved to be our friend, and it brought us to another out-of-the-way eatery that was fabulous.  I was stuffed!

Behind that eatery lay the rocks, and the ocean.

Tripod, camera, and wireless remote shutter release gave us half an hour to stage an oceanside photo session.

Treasure the moments.  We did.


Back to life,
Christine

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Rhode Island, Part One

August 19.

We didn't have the money, but I bought a plane ticket and flew east.

Not in Chicago any more.

Fernando and I spent our first day together walking the Cliff Walk along the sea, just walking, talking, ambling, taking pictures, and just being together.

The mansions along the cliff were impressive--and that's putting it mildly.

Camera on a rock--selfie.

I could just sit and listen, watch and dream.

We found a humble diner with the most amazing stuffies and New England clam chowder.  I have found a new favorite!

I let my honey snap my picture at the fountain at our hotel.

Back to life,
Christine

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