Peachy Keen

Today was such a full day that it may take me several days to tell you about it. I took off early this morning for my mom's house in middle Georgia. The ultimate destination? Peaches. There's a farm with a packing house about thirty minutes from where she lives. The freestone peaches have just become available this week. They don't do any processing at this location -- just packing. Although I've lived in Georgia all my life, this is the first time I've gone to a peach farm to get peaches. I usually just buy them at the grocery store like everyone else.Here's a front view of the open-air building as we pulled up. We went around to the back because from there, you can pack your own box/bag/pail of rejected peaches at a dirt cheap price. They package only the perfect ones for (apparently) supermarket sales. Many of the rejected peaches are perfect albeit small. Others have small, surface imperfections. And then some come down the conveyor belt with their guts oozing out or even totally exploded. We passed on those. Here's the back view of the conveyor system sending the rejected peaches out to waiting hands. The ones that the customers also reject land in the large white pins you see in front.Here are the employees who are removing the imperfect peaches from the packing line and sending them down the belt to waiting people like Mama and me.
We were initially squeezed in toward the end of the conveyor belt, but as people loaded up their boxes and left, we were able to move up to the beginning of the line. Here I am with my box nearly full. Mama had already filled hers, which left her free to make the picture. (And then she helped fill my box.)
From the front part of the building, there are rocking chairs where you can enjoy homemade peach ice cream (for sale) and sit and watch the packing operations.


Here's a short video of the packing operation. You can see the peaches dropping through the size-sorter. The man riding the platform across the conveyor is freeing a peach that had become stuck.


Here's a little church birdhouse. This wasn't for sale, but in addition to peach ice cream (to be consumed on-site only), you can buy fried peach pies (yummy, yummy, but I refrained), peach taffy, peach salsa (I had a taste there, and had to buy a jar), t-shirts, and other peach-themed stuff.Here are the peaches I came home with (and gave some to Emily) for only $5. A box of perfect ones cost $18. They will require another 2-3 days of ripening to be just right. I've already bought my Fruit Fresh so I can get these into the freezer. Oh, yes.... one more peach. (I'm sorry I couldn't get my face in there any better, but the face hole was about waist-high on me, so I had a little trouble getting down there. And more trouble getting back up.)

Better Late Than Never

As promised, here are some photos from last week's beach trip. One of the highlights of the week was dinner at a place called Lulus. They don't take reservations there, but when James' aunt called about 4:30, they said the wait was about 15 minutes. By the time we arrived about a half-hour later, the wait was over an hour. Not to worry. There's plenty to do and see while you wait.
There was a giant sandbox to keep the kids entertained as well.
Our table was near the band, a Southern bluegrass, rock sort of group by the name of Grits and Pieces. We enjoyed the music although conversation was a bit difficult.

Finally, in a flashback to the 1960s, here's a picture I made out the car window while we were on our way to Lulus.
I'll bet you wish you had one of these!

Home Sweet Home

We arrived back home this evening after a coolish (temperature-wise) week at the beach with James' family. With temperatures not getting higher than the mid-70s I never even put on my swimsuit and got nothing more than a few toes wet with salt water. I still enjoyed being at the beach though, and I'll share a few pictures next week.

A most unusual thing happened while we were there. I'm still puzzling over what to make of it. I was walking through Walmart while talking on my cell phone, asking James what kind of bait I should get for him. A 70-ish man approached me, presumably from the rear as I didn't see him until he was within hand-shaking distance. He held out his hand to offer something to me, so I extended mine as well, and smiled at him as he dropped four Band-aids into my hand. By the time I looked to see what he'd given me, he was disappearing around the end of the aisle. Any idea what that was all about?

Still Enjoying the Beach

Here's the bunch of us. (And we didn't go to the circus. This is the drapery in our condo.)
Back row L-R: James' uncle, James' brother, James' brother-in-law, James.
Front row L-R: James' aunt, James' sister-in-law, James' sister. me.

Where in the World Is...

I haven't told you yet that I'm not really here... Here being at home. We're spending this week at the beach with James' family. It's a five-bedroom condo on Orange Beach, Alabama. From our sixth floor balcony, here is the view of the beach.
And the view of the pool below.
This afternoon I sat down on the beach and read mystery stories while my husband and brother-in-law fished. They didn't catch anything, but I'm not really sure that they expected to! In my opinion, it's not quite beach weather yet. Deeming it too cool for a swimsuit, I was wearing capris and a short-sleeved shirt. I still had to wrap up in my beach towel because I was cold. It's nice to be here anyway though, and especially nice to spend the time with James' aunt and uncle, his two siblings, and their spouses. And don't even get me started on what we've had to eat!

From Sunshine to Fog

We're back home and officially empty nesters. Here are some pictures from our final day in Tampa.

We went to Ybor City to roam around and have lunch. It's a nice place by day, but if you're not into partying, it's probably a place you don't want to be after dark.

Several methods of transportation we saw.
We drove by the shipyards and aquarium.Finally, here's the Tampa skyline at sunset as we headed to the airport.

Hello, Dolly

I have a bunch of pictures (and of course comments) from Tampa so far, but blogging is not really how I should be using my time right now, so you'll have to stay tuned.

Here's some of what I've done. In case you were wondering the difference between civilized living and a barbaric existence, here it is:

Shelf paper.

Movers and Shakers

With the help of Dave, both his parents, and especially Caleb, we got the truck packed for moving Phillip's stuff to Tampa tomorrow. Caleb kept saying, "One more thing," as he went back into the house to get something else. And he kept saying it even after we had emptied Phillip's room. We may get to Tampa and find that Caleb packed "one more thing" that wasn't supposed to go!

Alexa wanted to help, but mostly she just hung grumpily around.

The empty room.

Our den -- the empty place where the love seat used to be.

Until we get new furniture, the recliner and the rocking chair are where the sofa belongs. I remembered to tell the teenager who will be feeding Blinky while we're gone that we were taking the sofa and love seat so that he wouldn't think we'd been burglarized.

We plan to hit the road about 6 a.m. for what will likely be a ten-hour trip. Time now to hit the hay!

On the Road to Tampa

We got up at 4:30 this morning to see Phillip hit the road about 5:00. He needs to get to Tampa by mid-afternoon in case there are still issues with his apartment and/or electricity that he needs to resolve. Tomorrow he'll get a Florida driver's license and take the written part of the CDL exam, as well as go see the State Farm agent. Wednesday morning he'll make a "rush hour" (it can't be anything like Atlanta's!) dry run to work to see how long it might take him on Monday morning. I'll pick up the Uhaul truck tomorrow, load it (with help, of course), then James and I will head to Tampa Wednesday morning. This morning I have CVS, Walgreens, Kroger, and Publix on my list.

Home from Tampa

Phillip and I arrived home about 12:30 this afternoon. Let the laundry begin. And the mega-logistics of having him housed in Tampa by January 5th. That sounds easy enough, but the problem is that his job is contingent upon him having a Florida driver's license and being ready to obtain a Florida CDL license. He can't get those licenses unless he's a Florida resident. And he can't rent an apartment without having a job, especially since he has no rental history. However, his employer is going to provide him with a letter of intent that includes his salary (we still don't know if he's a Level A or B mechanic) and that should be sufficient for renting a place.

Yesterday we did the majority of the apartment hunting. We went to a couple on Wednesday afternoon, but by the time Phillip knew that he had a job, it was late afternoon, and most leasing offices close by 5 or 6 p.m. We started our search via McDonald's wifi, and one of the areas Phillip wanted to look in is Davis Island, south of Tampa. It was a short, nice drive, and the island is delightful. One side is mostly houses, and the other side is mostly rentals (apartments and condos). Here are a couple of the houses.

The southernmost part of the island has a small airport, and this is what we saw there.

I should have made pictures of the apartments/condos that we saw, but I didn't think about it. He could probably afford these places, and he liked the idea of living on an island. However, what you don't find out via the Internet is what these buildings truly look like, and how old they are. The places we saw looked like they had been built in the first half of the last century, with very little updating done since, except for sawing a hole in an exterior wall in order to insert an air conditioning unit. So, Davis Island is pretty much out.

We did find two or three good possibilities in his price range close to work and on the bus route, since he gets free bus transportation. Now, it's a matter of nailing it all down.

As we started toward home yesterday evening, Phillip tried to make a picture of a beautiful sky behind us. It didn't work so well through the Cruiser's back window, but it's still an interesting shot.

Home Again, Home Again... NOT

Phillip & I have stopped for the night just outside Valdosta. After spending the entire day looking at apartments, we were too tired to finish the trip home. I have just enough energy left to upload a couple of photos of a car we saw today.