Cape Karen
Well, whadayaknow, I'm able to type into my "Entry Body" box without my words disappearing downward into a black hole! So far, so good, blogmaster! Thank you, thank you! Now, to teach me how to do my photos with this new format? I can't seem to position or align them where I want them to go anymore? So, I will put all my pictures at the bottom of the blog, helter-skelter without ID's, for now.
First, I drove the couple thousand miles (round trip) alone in my trusty 1992 Olds. She was a good girl, and didn't break down once; she never even skipped a beat. A few warning lights came on from time to time, and her catalytic converter made some funny grinding noises while I was there, causing me to go visit a cutie mechanic named, George, who said, "Don't worry - Be happy!" But hey, she's fourteen years old now, and has over 200,000 miles on her. She just keeps on, keeping on - in spite of her old age and mileage . . . kinda like her owner!
I arrived on Cape to find myself graced by the most beautiful weather they had seen in New England for months. I had two solid weeks of warm sunny days and cool, star-filled autumn nights. The air and sea breezes felt like heaven to me, especially when coming from this ozone-filled, polluted valley in the Great Smoggy Mountains. Wow! I could finally breathe again! My energy level soared, and I felt twenty years younger than I do living here. It was amazing to notice the instant and dramatic difference breathing good air makes.
Besides the wonder of being able to breathe again, how can I possibly express how incredibly wonderful it was to 'be home,' after a ten-year hiatus, and to visit with friends and family? (Some of whom I hadn't seen or spoken to, other than by e-mail, in well over 30 years!) I found that most of my friends looked the same - a bit grayer perhaps, maybe a few more wrinkles like me, but they all looked darn good! Susan has let her hair go naturally white, and it looks great cut real short. Karen G. looks healthy and vibrant and still has more energy than I ever had (more news later about Karen G.) My friend, Natalie, at age 75, doesn't look a day over 50 ~ and she's just as spunky and cute as ever! See her below in the photo with her and Susan wearing straw hats - she's the short one on the left. (No way, 75!)
Jane C. looks exactly the same as she did 25 years ago, and she's still going out running every day; Jane O. has put on a few pounds, but is still gorgeous; Ginger looks as beautiful and wholesome as ever; Jane P. has cut her hair real short, and is much thinner than I remember her - and still looking good; Cynthia, who now lives on a boat in Nantucket Harbor with her husband, Ken, and their two cats - who I hadn't seen since our Lesley College days in 1985, is still wearing her long, golden blonde hair in pigtails; I easily spotted her standing on the dock the minute we pulled into Nantucket Harbor. My friend, Rose, is healthy and looking hardly a day older than the day I saw her 10 years ago, and Diane and Kathy look better than ever. Even John, Susan's husband, though battling cancer, is looking amazingly robust and fit, considering all that he's been through over the last two years; and her sister, Betty, and brother-in-law, Jack, seem happy in their retirement.
Son, Scott, came down to visit for a few days from Northampton, and he's looking more and more like his dad - as handsome as ever ~ balding and all. Visiting with my ex-mother-in-law, Ethel, who's 91 now, was a bit depressing - she still has a sharp mind, but she's stone deaf, and is quickly going blind from cataracts in both eyes that are too extensive to operate on, at her age. Frannie, my sister-in-law, was happy to see me, and we had a chance to spend an afternoon together just relaxing and chatting outdoors. She's taking care of her diabetic husband, Keith, who's had a couple of strokes, as well as looking after mother-in-law Ethel, and she really needed a break! She, too, though stressed, looks wonderful, and is still as pretty as ever.
Unlike here, where I rarely go out, the visit home was full to overflowing with friends, activities, dinners out, visits with friends at the beautiful house I was fortunate enough to live in while there - a day in Nantucket and, of course, many beach walks and pretty scenic drives. I had broken the little toe on my left foot the third day I was there - I had crashed my toe right into a cement post, buried under some beach sand at Kalmus Beach, when I went to take some pictures. It slowed me down a lot, because I couldn't wear a shoe on that foot the entire trip, but I managed to limp around, and I even walked around Nantucket at the end of my stay, wearing some funky flip-flops.
One event that shook us all was the terrible accident my friend Karen G. was in one night during the first week of my visit. We had gone over to Cotuit to visit and have pizza with Ginger; later, when Karen was driving home to Yarmouthport, she was hit by a drunk driver. The woman who hit her was a 39-year-old, driving her boyfriend's uninsured car. Karen's Toyota SUV was hurled upside-down in the road and totalled; the police who responded found Karen standing by the side of the road when they arrived. She had managed to get out of her seatbelt, and had crawled out of a broken side window - fearing the car was going to burst into flames. Miraculously, she was not seriously injured - just a few bruises and scratches and a badly bumped head. She was out driving a rental car the very next day! The drunk woman driver who hit her tried to flee the scene of the accident, but her damaged car conked-out, and so she fled into a wooded neighborhood. She was finally found hiding under the deck of someone's house; the police had to use search dogs to find her. (Needless to say - she's in a lot of trouble!) I'm just so incredibly grateful that Karen wasn't badly injured or killed - and I am so proud of her great attitude about the whole thing. She's a real trooper. You go girl!
I could go on and on and on - it was all so amazing - but they say a picture is worth a thousand words - so, here's a small sampling of photos from my Cape Cod vacation. (Please excuse the jumble - I can't figure out how to place them any differently.)
Posted by Karen at October 8, 2006 12:44 PM