Feed Shark When I Grow Up

08 September 2009

Non-laboring Labor Day 2009

We went to the mtns on Labor Day.

I normally LABOR on Labor Day - usually around the house getting a plethora of projects either started, only to remain in various states of incompletion for months on end; or complete a few that have been hanging over my head.

Not this year.

This year we played.

First, we went to Table Rock State Park, where I have spent lots of time in the distant past, but not so much in the last 16+ years. Matter of fact, Melinda commented that she & I had never been there together.

Well, we have now.












With the kids.










We hiked the Carrick's Creek Trail, which is really quite astounding for Melinda with her current back issues.






















We had ourselves a picnic lunch and then headed up through the mtns to Brevard, which holds one of the most fun little toy stores in the Southeast . . .








Two stories of sheer childhood bliss.









Etch-a-sketch fun:
























Paddle balls:























Toys from a bygone TV era:
















Army men:















Marbles:























And then there's the slot-car track:































































Of course, I appreciate the real plaster & lath as well as the hardwood floors in the old downtown shops:
































































There are just some fun details on the streets, like giant toy wooden soldiers and the gumball machine:































I even found a pristine tool set just like one my brother had as a kid - one that my kids never saw anything but bits & pieces of and they managed to lose or destroy the remainder of what was passed along. I couldn't believe the price tag on the thing!!!!!!







































We were just about tuckered out, as evidenced by my most energetic boy's exhausted stance:
























But, we still had one more errand to run.

APPLES!


















Hendersonville was a wee bit crowded, due to the Apple Festival, but we skirted that and headed to our favorite apple stand for the season's final haul of Honey Crisp's. Good thing, too, because the sky was ready to loose a storm of epic proportions on us, but we just managed to get turned onto I-26 before it caught up to us:

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11 July 2006

Starting Something New


0500 - forgot to re-set the alarm clock.

Don't have to wake up until 0600 on Tuesdays.

Quiet house.

Twilight.

Rural Southern morning-style.

Light fog.

June bugs on the sidewalk. Better than on the roses or the blueberries.

Sprayed the roses, twice already. Refuse to spray the blueberries.

I eat them off the bushes when we're picking.

Big spiderweb between the two posts on the front porch.

Walked right smack into it.

When I grow up I want to do all this again - live in the country; get to travel to some fun places (like the photo - Istanbul); play as a photographer; have a wonderful family; and finally settle into a regular life where I go to work in the morning, come home in the evening, have dinner, go swimming with the kids at the "Y", and settle in with a good book at the end of the day.

Except for the spiderweb part, maybe. I knew it was there. I avoided it twice last night while out with the dog. Should've know better.

Story of my life.

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