How I Spent my Summer Vacation, or Surgery Countdown

It’s been awhile since I updated my blog.  Basically my entire summer centered around my mental countdown to July 27 when I was scheduled to have a total right knee replacement.

My last post featured my husband’s trip to Guatemala.  When he got back in town, we hosted a retirement party for one of his former colleagues from the V.A. Hospital.  Our home, cottage and backyard filled with people, stories and laughter while our stomachs filled with food and drink.  This was to be the first of several summer gatherings with people that we used to work with and still enjoy.

Retirement party for one of the V.A. docs at the Great Raft Brewery

Support supper for one of the Early Head Start teachers as she faced breast cancer surgery

It wouldn’t be summer without a beach trip.  Less than a week after Ricky's return from Guatemala, he and I drove to South Carolina to meet my sisters and their husbands in Myrtle Beach.  Ricky and I learned the hard way that there is a difference between 2^nd Street North, Myrtle Beach and 2^nd Street, North Myrtle Beach, but we eventually found the condo.  Sun bathing, exploring, relaxing, visiting, and eating were the preferred activities for the week.

Celebrating our last night at the beach

Ricky and I celebrated the Fourth of July with lots of bangs and flashes, beer and burgers at my friend Melissa’s house.  The men enjoyed the fireworks as much as the children. 

Fourth of July Fireworks in Suburbia

Another special summer treat was a visit with my long-time friend Emmilee in her gorgeous, rambling house beside the Ouachita River.  Several times over the years, family members have added on to the old family home place, which makes the floor plan unique.  It was easy to take a wrong turn in the morning and end up in the old kitchen instead of the current kitchen, or at one of five outside doors but not the one you were looking for. 

Brunch at Emmilee's

Deck and Screened Porch

Ricky and I loved sitting on one of the screened-in porches overlooking the river, drinking coffee, and visiting with Emmilee.  Ricky fished from the river bank and explored the property, while I gravitated to the extensive libraries in the home.  Emmilee has a wall of cookbooks in her study, while her late husband’s library takes up multiple rooms.  I knew her late husband well from my days as adjunct instructor at LSU-Shreveport where he was a philosophy of education professor. 

His home library reflects his life and contains multiple book shelves devoted to different philosophers—John Dewey, Bertrand Russell, Wittgenstein, a general Social Foundations of Education section, plus a book case of Louisiana books.  I was both in heaven and overwhelmed as I looked through all the shelves.  Emmilee had generously offered for me to take any books that I wanted for my library.  Ultimately I selected books that would remind me of Joe and those that I would enjoy reading.   It was hard not to take bring home boxes and boxes of books but I restrained myself.  The books I selected now occupy a prominent spot in my library, and a framed print Emmilee gave me from the library hangs on the wall.  I can look around my library and relive this trip any time I want.

Tomorrow's post--I Get a New Knee!