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Entering Iberia

Jun6

In the hotel dining room, I surveyed the deluxe breakfast laid out for us, croissants, sweet rolls, several types of sausage, eggs, bacon, ham, cereal, fruit, juices, various cheeses and coffee. I felt hungry, but wondered if eating a hearty meal was wise.

Today we were leaving Lourdes and crossing the Pyrenees Mountains to enter Spain. I had been dreading this part of the trip, since I suffer from motion sickness. Would the zig-zag route through mountain passes trigger awful, potentially messy symptoms? Reaching up, I lightly touched the anti-nausea patch behind my left ear to reassure myself.

In the lobby, Juan, the owner and manager of Mater Dei pilgrimages commanded in a loud voice, “Before getting on the bus, make sure you see your luggage being loaded. I don’t want anyone missing their luggage when we arrive at our destination.” I spotted Tammie’s and my suitcases among the sea of other suitcases. Continue reading →

Songs of our Own

May30

The white, snow-capped Pyrenees mountains behind the city of Lourdes, France, appeared at first to me as very white clouds. Then, as the bus neared the city, I realized the white was snow and that misty clouds concealed the bare rocky crags. The small city and its outlying farmhouses in the foothills below could be seen basking in the mellow, spring-afternoon sunshine.

In 1945 a movie titled, Song of Bernadette, told the story of Bernadette Soubirous, a fourteen-year-old girl, who saw an apparition of a beautiful lady at the grotto called Massabiele, near the city of Lourdes in 1858. The beautiful lady eventually identified herself as the Immaculate Conception. After visitors began to bathe in a spring which started to flow during one of the apparitions, unexplained healings took place.

As our bus turned onto a narrow, cobbled-stone street and pulled up to our hotel, I thought about the movie. How accurate was the story to the actual events that took place? I knew that many people simply believed Bernadette’s word. Others didn’t believe her even after the miracles. This made me think about the Stuart Chase quote, “For those who believe, no proof is necessary. For those who don’t believe, no proof will suffice.” Continue reading →

A Closer Look

May23

Something was wrong with the outlet adapter. My curling iron blinked when I turned it on but wouldn’t heat up. Feeling befuddled from lack of sleep, I grumbled and fussed until my daughter plugged it into a different outlet, where it did work, but didn’t have a mirror near-by.

Getting out of the wrong side of the bed can happen even while on vacation. With our five-a.m. wake-up call, I’d only had five hours of sleep. Then, instead of taking a speed train to Lourdes in southern France today, as we’d originally planned, we were riding a bus. The French train workers were on strike.

Beneath all these aggravations, was the niggling, pinching, chafing realization that today would have been my 48th wedding anniversary if my husband, Arnie were alive. I felt sad and, in a way, abandoned.

Our early morning wake-up call was not only to avoid the morning commuter traffic in Paris, but because it would take our bus longer than the train to get to Lourdes. I picked up a boxed breakfast and a cup of coffee from the hotel lobby, trying not to spill or drop either as I took my seat on the tour bus. Continue reading →

Striking Contrasts

May16

Strong gusts of wind swirled clouds of ice crystals over the crest of a huge drift between my house and garage. I stood at the staircase window, watching and waiting. This unexpected spring blizzard had already raged for nearly 48 hours. Surely it would end soon. As I watched, the day’s light slowly began to fade. Shielded by cold, gray clouds, our warm, bright sun was dropping behind the horizon.

My daughter Tammie stepped up alongside me and commented, “It looks like it’s still snowing.”

Nodding, I answered, “The weather report is that the storm will end this evening. Anyway, I’ve noticed the wind usually settles down after the sun sets. I hope the man who plows my yard will be able to come then.”

My daughter and I needed to be at Chicago’s O’Hare airport tomorrow to take a flight to Europe. It had been good luck and a quick, last-minute decision that allowed Tammie, who lives in the Twin Cities, to arrive at my house just as the blizzard began two days ago. We’d been snowbound ever since. Continue reading →

Closing Door

May9

Rain pelted down onto my car’s windshield. I leaned forward and stared at the rivulets of water. Were there a few ice crystals in some of those drops? I pulled out my phone and texted my daughter Tammie, “It’s started raining here already. My car’s thermometer shows that it is 35 degrees. Are you still planning to drive home tomorrow?”

All morning as I did my errands, I stopped often to text my daughter updates on the weather. “It stopped raining.” Then, “The rain has started up again.” Later, “I saw a few ice crystals in the falling rain.” I’m not usually so preoccupied with the weather, but the weather service had reported a large spring snow storm moving through the Mid-West for the last two days. Both my home and my daughter’s were in the center of its path!

Having a huge storm approach Wisconsin doesn’t usually bother me, but this time I had something important to do and didn’t want the weather to get in the way. My daughter and I were planning to leave for vacation in France, Spain and Portugal on Monday. But first Tammie needed to drive the three hours from her home to mine. She planned to do it on Saturday afternoon. I was worried that the storm would make the roads too bad by then.    Continue reading →

Smart, Smarter and Smartest

May2

Tammie’s cell phone made a familiar ‘ping’! She glanced over at it from where she was sitting behind the steering wheel and said, “Mom, that’s probably Niki answering my text. Why don’t you see what she said.”

I gingerly picked up my daughter’s phone, afraid that I would accidentally press a button or somehow damage it unintentionally. The message had already disappeared from the screen. Not sure what to do, I hesitated.

Tammie encouraged, “Don’t be afraid to handle my phone, Mom. You’re not going to break it. You know my code. Go ahead and enter it to see what Niki said.”

Reluctantly, I did as my daughter directed. I suspected she was hoping that if I used her phone a few times, I would begin to want one for myself. Several years ago, she had asked me, “What would you do if your car broke down while traveling to visit me? You need to own a cell phone so you can call for help!”

I doubt what I did was what she had expected. I went out and bought a primitive flip phone. It doesn’t have dozens of bells and whistles, but I can make calls and take mediocre pictures. Continue reading →

Birth Order

Apr25

Cats love my daughter, Niki. Every time one is around, she gently, lovingly pets them while they purr in ecstasy. My white and black cat, Louie was enjoying Niki’s attention recently when she told me, “Our new neighbors have a pretty little calico cat.”

Five-year-old Gemma jumped in to make sure her Mama got the details right. She blurted, “Her name is Jewel, and it’s supposed to live in their barn. When we come back from playing with the kids there, it always follows us home! We try sending it back, but it won’t obey.”

Laughing, Niki agreed, “The kitty is very naughty. It doesn’t obey. It not only follows us home, but it tries to slip inside our house. It’s snuck in a few times while the boys were going in and out of the house to play in the snow.”

Gemma pipped up again, “The cat is fat!”

“The cat is very fat.” Niki confirmed. “One day last week I found it sleeping in Luke’s cubby. Of course, he hadn’t hung up his coat on one of the hooks, so kitty had a soft bed. I picked her up and discovered the reason she’s so fat. It’s because she’s going to have kittens! I think they’ll be born soon!”

Smiling, I suggested, “More than likely, she’s coming into your house looking for a warm nest to birth her babies in.” Continue reading →

An Evening in Paris

Apr18

I crept quietly towards my sister’s bedroom door and peeked in. Babe was sitting on a ruffled stool in front of the dressing table combing her dark hair into a smooth pageboy. Clad only in a long slip, she looked thin and delicate.

Behind me, I heard Mama coming up the stairs. Tousling my hair, she walked past me into the room inquiring, “Did you want me to help you slip into your prom dress?”

The blue, floor-length formal Babe had chosen to wear for the dance tonight had blue tulle over a silky under-skirt. It looked heavenly. I sighed in admiration. My sister looked like an angel standing in a misty cloud. Slipping into high heels, my sister turned back toward her dressing table, picked up a blue bottle and dabbed perfume behind her ears.

I giggled when Babe’s date came to pick her up. Although I’d seen him before, he looked different wearing a formal suit. Mom retrieved her brownie box camera from her bedroom bureau to take a photograph of them in the backyard. I watched and wondered if I’d ever look as grown-up and sophisticated as they did.

After Babe and her date drove away, I wandered around in the backyard for a while. Despite a small rain shower earlier, the golden rays from the setting sun felt warm. Under my bare feet, the grass felt slightly damp. The scent of blossoming lilacs filled the yard. Sniffing, I thought my sister’s little dab of perfume. Continue reading →

Mother’s a Fickle Dame

Apr11

We never bothered to turn on the radio when we returned home from church. In the soothing quiet of the living room, the only sound was of the rustle of the Sunday newspaper. I had just finished reading the funnies when my husband Arnie, put the sports section down and announced, “It’s a beautiful spring day. I’m going to go for a walk, do you want to come with me?”

Eagerly jumping to my feet, I responded, “You bet I do! Just let me go and grab a sweater.”

“You won’t need one.” Arne pointed out. “It’s warm today.”

I nodded in agreement as I replied. “This whole month of March is warmer than usual. The last of our winter snow melted away last week.” With a chuckle I admitted, “Once the snow is gone, the refrigerator breezes go away, too.”

Sunshine on the deck behind the house felt as warm as a summer day. The breeze was pleasantly warm as well, so I needed nothing more than the light-weight, short sleeved shirt I wore.   Continue reading →

Brain Candy

Apr4

It was time for me to shut the lights out and go to bed, but I decided to read just one more page. Along the bottom margin I spotted this one-line snippet of trivial information. “There are 140,000 ladybugs to a gallon.”

Despite knowing that no one would hear me, I yelled into the night, “Ew! Who in the world would research information like this? Why? Who cares how many nasty, stinky ladybugs fill a gallon jug?!” Although I protested, I still found it fascinating to know.

Reading for a short while at bedtime helps me wind down from the day. Trivia books, like the big bible-sized book I had on my lap that evening are the best. They’re interesting, but discourage ‘read-gorging’ for hours on end. The last novel I had read at bedtime kept me up until two in the morning.

Sometimes trivia is so interesting I look up more facts on the topic. My house has always been a magnet for Asian beetles. I’ve wondered why. No one else in my family has as many. I researched the topic and learned that lady beetles leave trails of pheromones wherever they go to attract other lady beetles. I have an invisible vacancy sign over my bugs’ inn. Continue reading →