IrishOboe

Friday Jimmy took the day off so he could drive down and visit me for the weekend.  He got me out of the house for something besides church, choir practice, and grocery shopping.  Wasn’t that nice of him?  It was quite nice, actually.  I don’t have many connections left here in Orlando so it was nice to spend time with a friend.  This is not to diminish the value of being with Mom and Dad nor to denigrate the friendship of people still in Orlando, but mostly my friends are not where I am, which is proving to be more difficult than I’d supposed.  Here’s a big hug from me to everyone (and there’s a good number of you!) who has kept the emails and the love rolling.  It is very much appreciated. :)

Now for the weekend.  Friday afternoon Jimmy and I went to Wet ‘n Wild, a water park I’d been too many times growing up but not since high school.  It was a hot day but as we were surrounded by water it was quite tolerable.  They’ve put in a number of new rides since my time and my favorite was called “The Storm.”  You shot down a blue tube into a large funnel where you whipped around a few times before free-falling a few feet down the center into a deep pool of refreshing water.  Sadly you are now required to keep your head above water in the wave pool.  What’s the point in swimming if you can’t swim under water?  Stupid lawyers.

We did all the rides and the best ones a few times (the mat ride is still on the top of the list).  After a quick shower at home we went to the Outback for a delicious and well earned meal (we’d played through lunch).  We skipped the dessert menu and made chocolate chip oatmeal cookies at home.  Jimmy let me play piano while he did the dishes.  It is ever so much more fun to do someone else’s dishes than one’s own, so I enjoyed the treat very much.  I’ve read through the Trinity Hymnal (the one I grew up with at St. Paul’s Presbyterian Church) and am now on the 1940 Episcopal Hymnal, which has all kinds of old goodies that are beautiful that have been dropped from the repertory for various frivolous reasons.  Jimmy taught me cribbage and I tried not to worry about my poor mother who was with Dad at a friend’s place trying to fix her computer with a used mail-order mother board.  They didn’t get back until around 11pm and the news wasn’t good.  At least we had cookies for her. :)

Saturday we spent the morning at home relaxing, talking, playing games (we even got the ping pong table out) and we watched the Pirates of Penzance.  It was one of my favorites growing up and as we watched it as a family again we realized that Dad and I remember 100% of it and our knowledge is pretty much mutually exclusive.  He sees the history, the politics, the literary value, the plot, and things I cannot appreciate whereas I saw costumes and dancing, music and emotion, sets and excitement.  I had no clue what the story was about or 80% of the words.  “With cat like tread upon our way we steal.”  Made sense to me.  The words still are hard to follow so Jimmy and I ended up following with the libretto.  It is quite clever, I have to say.  Now Jimmy has been exposed to Gilbert and Sullivan and can better appreciate Chariots of Fire.  And I wonder why it takes me so long to write up my adventures . . .

In the afternoon Jimmy and I went to Wekiva springs and went on a longer than anticipated hike, but I enjoyed it and was happy to find out that my feet can take four miles of rough terrain.  I’d done five miles in the grass along the trail not too long ago, but grass is soft.

After the hot hike it was pure delight to swim in the springs.

It was quite cold at first, but after I was in the cool fresh water brought healing to my bones.  Jimmy found the 72 degrees a bit cold to be delightful, but he doesn’t have as much insulation as I do.  After a few tosses of the Frisbee we called it quits and went home to a love dinner of blueberry chicken lovingly prepared by my Mom.

At one point we played boggle and since it’s fallen out of favor at Langdon family gatherings I hadn’t played in quite a long time.  I was thrilled to bits to keep a number of words and even get some three pointers.  I was even more thrilled to get to 50 before Mom got to 100 and I even came in second place!  In this case, my dear sister, second place is something to be proud of!

Sunday we went to Church of the Messiah together and the choir sang an anthem.  After the service was a pot luck in celebration of the church’s 57^th? Birthday and we got to tour the new building and write God’s promises on the (unfinished) walls.  Afterwards we went to Leu Gardens and enjoyed the plethora of flowers in bloom, though it was quite miserably hot!  Here are a few pictures.  I just love the old oaks and vines.

Soon after we got home Jimmy had to drive back to Georgia, and I hope he found the 48 hour visit worth the 15 hours or so of total driving.  It was a nice break from thinking about everything I want to do before going to Switzerland, which is only two weeks away!  Fear is mounting and probably will continue to until excitement takes over when I arrive.

Thanks, Jimmy, for a lovely weekend!