W^2 or W squared for Wordless Wednesday, July 17, 2024

It is Wednesday morning, and I have returned to the lake after a quick trip to Houston and back. The lilies are still blooming, and Fern and Ivy are enjoying their time here, just as we do.

I flew to Houston last Thursday morning and drove back over the weekend stopping Saturday night at my favorite bed and breakfast in Vicksburg, Mississippi. I had gone home to collect a cedar chest which had belonged to my paternal grandparents and had been sitting in storage since we had cleared my stepmother’s apartment this past January.

I arrived in the wake of Hurricane Beryl to find Houston reeling in power outages, downed trees, and sweltering heat and humidity.  Though the latter is normal for summer in southeast Texas, the lack of power and air conditioning made conditions in the city much more unpleasant.

My trip was successful, and I was able to visit with my brothers and nephew, clear out the storage locker, collect the chest, and take in two baseball games at Minute Maid Park as well as collect more material, aka stories, to share through MakingtheDaysCOUNT.org.

I left after breakfast Saturday morning, and I took the long way home stopping in Vicksburg Saturday night. I had planned a side trip to Oxford to take one final look at Juliana’s home which sold in February ‘23 before finishing the drive home on Sunday.

In all there were three planned stops, at least 1,265 miles, and over 19 hours of driving.

Leaving Vicksburg on Sunday morning, I decided to drive up through the Delta region skipping the quicker interstate highway through the center of the state.

The Delta is the rich agricultural region of western Mississippi with the Mississippi River as the western the boundary. After leaving hilly Vicksburg, the highway flattens out and is mostly straight with corn, cotton, and soybean fields along the highway’s edges.

It was good windshield time and I listened to the Astros game, an audiobook, and a podcast as I drove north. I arrived at Juliana’s former home in late afternoon. It looked almost the same as I remembered. I stopped, knocked on the door, but no one answered, so I returned to my journey and continued northward and home.

I planned to tell the new owners how glad Juliana would have been to know her home was a being lived in and cared for: she loved her time in Oxford in with my dad and often described it as the happiest time in her life.

I am not going to be driving long distances for a few days. I am going to enjoy the time making the days count by the lake. It is Day 44 of summer break, and it is going be a great day. So, I’d better jump up, jump in, and seize the day. Making the Days Count, one day at a time, telling stories, and being purposeful.

How are you going to tell your story?