I’m halfway through home leave; French looms in a month. It’s
been … well, I know to manage my expectations. This home leave has revolved
around the care and feeding of Zippy, who really needs to consider an assisted
living facility. I’d planned on visiting some with her and maybe lining stuff
up, but she wants to stay in her own house, which is understandable. But since
I will be departing in less than a month, she really needs someone to look
after her. We had someone visit but she’s opposed to that. Her solution is for
me to quit my job.
Since I’ve been here, I’ve been to one funeral and two more
people from my youth have died. In addition, two more families have called in
hospice for people. Both my sister and her husband have upcoming medical
procedures. It’s not been fun, but it’s centering around Zippy.
Most of my home leave has revolved around downsizing,
cleaning, chauffeuring, and entertaining her, but I’ve squeezed in some stuff
for myself. One thing that wasn’t supposed to be for me was a trip to visit my
aunt in South Carolina. Zippy was supposed to go to that but wound up in the
hospital earlier that week and didn’t feel up to the trip, so I went solo. Had
a blast; we did two garden club events and had good food and good conversation.
Lots of new dog hair, too, with Clyde, the teenage Golden.
There’s another upcoming family trip; Zippy and I – as well
as Rally and The Bat – are headed to Ruston to meet up with her brother and
family (and dogs), who will be having a short graveside service in memory of my
aunt, who died in the fall.
Batgirl is having a wonderful time having me here. She doesn’t
have to use her legs because I cuddle her and carry here everywhere. She’s such
a sweet, spoiled little monster. Also demanding, but that’s what divas do. She’s
still my little baby, even though she’s 13 years old.
I’m coming off a lovely weekend in St. Augustine, where I have
only been once before, which would have been likely 30+ years ago. Leanne, the
expert, booked us a lovely lunch at the Columbia and, much later, we had upstairs
balcony seating at Meehan’s Irish Pub because I wanted Fish and Chips. We stayed
across the bridge for the evening so we could visit the lighthouse easily in
the morning, so we finished off Saturday night with ice cream from Cone Heads.
Lovely weekend with unanticipated beautiful weather. We’d been prepared for
rain on Sunday morning, but it was gorgeous both days.
Last week, I had a short stay over at Leila’s, which turned
out to be one of those good/bad visits. Her grandfather wound up in the
hospital and her car was on the blink, so I jumped in to help with transportation
and some little household repairs. I had a lovely visit with Blue and finally
got some time to visit Leila after she left her grandfather in the hands of
other family members.
Leila had to come into Tally the day after I left for
something and we (and Blue) met again at Harry’s, where I used a gift
certificate from a friend. I’d never gone before and man, it was fantastic. I
brought Zippy home some shrimp, but it cannot have been better than the grouper
I had.
Late that evening,
Leila called me and asked if I knew who was going to be in Tallahassee the next
day, which was Thursday. I had no idea, but it was the day I was taking the car
for repairs first thing and then delivering Zippy to the dentist at 1:45, so I
didn’t really have any free time. (Not counting sitting around and waiting on
Honda to fix the mirror.)
And enter the magic: Leila had just discovered that there
was to be a press conference to announce the renaming of A1A Jimmy Buffett
Highway and Florida’s new JB specialty license plate. He was by far her
favorite entertainer, so this was huge for her. However, they (“they” being
either the folks at Margaritaville or the State of Florida, I’m not sure) also
brought in a shirttail member of the Coral Reefer band to play a few JB tunes following
the press conference. And that member happened to be one of my favorite songwriters,
Scotty Emerick.
Totally love the guy’s music and seeing him perform has been
a bucket list item forever. Living overseas for a couple years at a stretch
makes this difficult and a couple years ago I attempted to see him at Key West
Songwriters but fell short. Since at that show he performed with Dean Dillon, I
couldn’t score tickets but I did *hear* him play because someone kindly
directed me to the back door and I hung out there and eavesdropped.
And last week, an opportunity to see him fell into my lap.
Fortunately, the car got fixed and Zippy got a ride to the dentist so I did get
to see him on the Capitol steps. The gig wasn’t for his stuff but for 4-5 Songs
You Know By Heart, but it hit the spot. I told Leila I’ve now seen him play and
heard him perform his songs, so taking those together it’ll have to scratch the
bucket list item because I don’t see it happening again. He wasn’t at
Songwriters last year and starting this year I’m out for four years straight,
so this may be it.
But it was a lovely bit of magic in what’s been a fairly tragic home leave.
