During one of the thunderstorms in Red Boiling Springs, our reporter, Suzanna Brabant, smelled something burning in her house. Unable to find the source of the odor, she called her mother and a friend to help her search her property for whatever was burning. They looked and looked but could not locate it.
Returning to her house, Suzanna noted that the odor was strongest on her porch. Glancing down at the floor, she saw embers and ashes. That was when she noticed that a flower pot containing some moss was smoldering. Apparently lightning has struck the flower pot and caused the contents to catch fire. Weird, huh? Who would have thought about lightning hitting a flower pot?
Last Friday, Leigh Dallas, our bookkeeper and staff writer, came to work with a very sore eye. It was so sore and irritated that Leigh had awakened in the middle of the night in pain. Early Friday morning, thinking that she might have "pink eye," Leigh immediately called her optometrist to make an emergency appointment to have the eye checked. We all felt quite sorry for her, for the eye looked to be as bad as Leigh said that it felt. So that was one appointment that she looked forward to keeping!
Now this is where the weird part comes in. Upon examining her eye, the doctor found that she had a bug wing under her eye lid. Yes! A bug wing! Even though she had tried to wash out what she thought was "grit," the item wouldn't wash out. It had to be removed by the doctor.
Now you might be asking, "How did she get a bug wing in her eye in the first place?" That is a good question and one that Leigh doesn't have an answer for either!
While Truett didn't experience anything weird or unusual, he did have a kitchen accident recently. He was cooking and had laid some papers too close to the stove. Yep, you know what happened, don't you? They caught fire, to be sure.
He was looking away from the stove and wasn't aware that the papers were burning. I was across the kitchen from him and saw the blaze, but it scared me so badly that I couldn't do anything or say anything. Finally I was able to squeak out his name and point to the fire, but by that time he had already noticed it. He grabbed up the burning papers and started across the kitchen with them to throw them into the sink. Seeing him move with that paper ball of fire frightened me even more!
But all is well that ends well. Truett put the fire out and went on with the cooking as if nothing had ever happened... and I had a big glass of wine to calm my shaking bones!
You may not believe this after what I have said about myself in this column on previous occasions, but I can remember one time that I did handle a crisis really well. Skye, 3 at the time, cut her foot badly. The part with the toes was dangling from the rest of the foot. I wrapped the foot up and calmly called our pediatrician. He told me to take Skye directly to the emergency room to have the foot stitched back together. Truett, who was still at work, met me there, but the crisis was nearly over by then. I was right proud of myself. I handled everything without falling apart. But, come to think about it, a big glass of wine was called for then, too, after I got home!
I wish that I could be like my favorite aunt. She raised three boys, who were forever having one accident after another. As a matter of fact, she was in and out of the emergency room with one or the other so often that she said the hospital personnel had told her that they were going to put up a plaque in her boys' honor. No matter what happened to either boy, though, she never lost her cool. I really admired her for handling everything in stride, and all without ever drinking a drop of wine...as far as I know!
Before I close, I would like to thank some special people who have made the world a little brighter for Truett and me with their kindness to us recently, and they are the following: Mr. R.C. Bransford, for lovely spring onions from his garden that certainly enhanced the flavor of our turnip greens; Jane Key, for wonderful tomatoes; Pat Wilburn, for gorgeous, tender lettuce, onions, squash, and cucumbers; Gina Oliver, for the sweetest peaches that topped our vanilla ice cream to give us a fantastic treat; Lone Hickory Berry Farm, for the blueberries that they brought us that were the best that I have ever had; Penny Whittemore, for the plants that she so kindly shared with us; Fay Joines, for the jerky that he often brings us; Irene Garvin and her family, Barbara and Numon Dickens, and Hoss and Wayne West, all for remembering my birthday last week. We appreciate each person's generosity and thoughtfulness, and I especially enjoyed and appreciated Hoss's serenade on my birthday. We are so blessed to live here among friends and neighbors who are so good to us and who have opened their hearts to these Alabama transplants. Thank you, folks! We appreciate you more than we can ever adequately say.
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