Wind Songs: Forgetting To Lock The Gate

Our back yard.............

In the past couple of days I have been doing a whole lot of catching up with people that I used to both know and work with when I lived in Tennessee.

Meals and drinks and still more drinks.

As I sat over lunch and later on an outdoor patio and then the next day in a local watering hole talking and visiting I looked at the faces of these people, and listened as they talked and laughed easily and in such a relaxed way.

They were happy to see me.

Polite and friendly and thankfully did not ask a lot of questions because I have little energy to answer.

They just welcomed me back to town and told me often how good it was to see me again.

In Juneau my world of people included immediate supervisors pleading with me to "hang in there!" and "don't go!", managers higher on the food chain providing a set of goals that was a constantly moving target, and an astonishingly large number of people for whom I was considered simply red meat.

It was good to see them all again, good to take them at face value, good that they took me at face value.

Between us moving back into our home (and finally beginning to make some measurable head-way in getting the house back in order again), Jamie's love of running free in the back yard (with all the squirrels and birds she could possibly terrorize), and the friendly and welcoming faces I have encountered since returning - it is good to be back.....................

I quietly left the house this morning, leaving LC and Jamie sleeping soundly on and in the bed.

And headed out alone to check out some yard sales on an already warm Saturday morning.

Temperatures this first week in October are in the upper 70's during the day and around 60 overnight.

Perfect weather and glad we arrived back in Tennessee when we did.

Tennessee was mired in extremely hot and dry weather for much of the summer and we missed the 100 degree temperatures by only a few days.

Leaves are beginning to change color and within the next month this place will be ablaze in oranges and yellows and bright reds.

When I was in Juneau I was at first disappointed in the Fall up there.

There were only different shades of brown.

After adjusting my expectations though it ended up being a beautiful season and I learned that there are more shades of brown that I could ever have imagined.

But I am looking forward to Fall back in Tennessee.

Looking forward to the colors, and then the lowering temperatures, and eventually the quiet that Winter will bring to this place.

With weekend hunts scheduled for the next couple of months I will start running out at the base again on Monday.

It is a daunting thought and truly I do not know why.

Looking forward to spending time alone out there and getting the first workout out there out of the way................

While wandering around checking out yard sales this morning I ended up in a small community half way between Tullahoma and Winchester called Estill Springs.

When I was house hunting a few years ago I actually was interested in a home in Estill.

It was an A-frame house not far from the base on a nice flat piece of land filled with trees.

The A-frame shape and green roof made the house looked like a giant tent, and I liked it very much.

The bank would not finance it because of the construction (not enough comparable homes in the area) and so I gave up on it and continued looking until I found the house we are in now.

As I was busily following signs from one sale to the next this morning I came across a greenway.

Between the blue Fall sky, the early stages of changing leaves, and a narrow inlet that is a quiet and lovely portion of Tim's Ford Lake, I felt compelled to pull the truck off to the side of the road.

Yard sales (and my hunt for area rugs and shelves and end tables) temporarily forgotten, I spent a short while just being alone and outside and part of my changing world................