These posts will not be interesting to anyone but the family. But a blog is a place to put thoughts, ideas, and accounts, in one place, easy to find later.
We were re-united with our 2 grandsons in Indiana this past Saturday and drove them to South Carolina to be with us for 2 weeks. This will be an account of their time with us, thinking back on each day.
Saturday was spent driving 11-12 hours back down to the south. We live in a rural state. The closest Starbucks is 25 minutes from our home. Our town has a Hardees (southern staple), a pizza parlor and an ice cream parlor. We have 2 grocery stores and a Dollar General. Everything else is 25-45 minutes away. We have a pond behind our home with its own eco-system and active pond life. Though banked by houses all along one side of it, the variety of critters that make up life attached to the pond is pretty incredible. Right now it is frogs making noises at night, but they are not all over the sidewalk like they were a couple weeks ago, coming down to find a mate. Now there are strings of tadpoles all along the banks, turtles poking their heads out of the water, and dragonflies buzzing around, perhaps eating mosquitoes which never bother us here.
Kids roam the neighborhood fishing and gathering in groups to talk, hang out, swim in the neighborhood pool, play football or rugby.
Yesterday was our first full day in South Carolina with the boys. We hung out at home in the morning, walked around the pond and took our first swim in the pool, which at 10:30am was not crowded. Reportedly, Tropical Storm BERYL is about to hit the coast, bringing us rain. Clouds came and went all day long, alternating with the sun. Highs reached to the 90s.
Caspian was reunited with his friend here and they hung out long enough to break off a KEY in his friend’s house front door and get it stuck in there. The father had to take the lock apart and get it out later.
We then went to RYAN’S for a late 2:30pm lunch, thinking it would not be crowded but finding that it was. The Ryans of their home town has closed, so this was a treat. We saw one good friend at the restaurant. We find that we don’t enjoy gorging ourselves with food enough to go to places like that anymore. I filled up on salad & greens, some okra, some mac & cheese, 2 pieces of fish and one small steak, with a slice of key lime pie for desert. Raven had mostly steak + bread. Caspian had some kind of meat & mashed potatoes. We just watched them for this first day. They both had some desert. Grandparents don’t fight a lot with kids to “eat one bite of green beans” or things of that nature. We’re into peace & happiness. But we will definitely be eating at home and providing good food & snacks for most of this 2 weeks! We can’t afford to eat out like this, anyway.
We then spent some time by the river walk along the Congaree river. Caspian had a good time WADING near the bank with another boy who was there for the day with his mom. Caspian was one year older than he was. They found many salamanders and parts of a crawfish. Caspian later put the crawfish claw in his brother’s hand as a surprise. The Congaree is very wide, and full of rocks. Toward dusk we saw some bats flitting above us. There is a TUBING and rafting business that takes people up river for a 2-3 hour float down to where we were and they get out. We enjoyed watching them come in. The boys may do the tubing float when our other daughter & her husband get here next week.
We then left there for a natural foods store & had smoothies or a natural orange juice, where a machine takes oranges and squeezes the juice out of them, mixing the juice with some water, for a delicious drink. After the hot afternoon outside, we were ready for it.
After that it was time to hit the Art Gallery for a poetry and music program, where the boys heard their grandpa read  poems, along with many friends. They enjoyed some of the performance artists and looking at all the paintings inside the art gallery. Grandma was nervous because of the price tags running anywhere from $900. to $3300. for items in the place! This brings up the question:
What price for ART?? Who decides that ART, the putting of paint to canvas, is something only RICH FOLK can enjoy?? Who decides that? IF I COULD PAINT, which unfortunately I cannot, I would once a month at least, GIVE AWAY as gorgeous piece of art to someone who cannot afford an original piece. Why not? You could even give it to a community center, or find some way to let the community enjoy it. If it gets destroyed, oh well. It still needs to go out there. Who can afford a $2000. painting for their own home? Really, who can afford such a thing? The beauty of the pieces was wonderful. I especially enjoyed a couple pieces with gorgeous, deep red poppies in a field of yellow, and sky. There were people on beaches, all sorts of art for some mysterious rich person’s walls. One gorgeous piece of birch trees and autumn leaves of red, orange and yellow, the paint in thick splotches all over it, had a price tag of something like $2500. To view it, you actually had to stand 20-30 feet away from it. I just thought, “Really. Who is going to walk in here and buy this for their living room wall or study?” I really cannot imagine such wealth. There was a unique table maybe 3′ by 2′ across, held up by a sculpted male figure underneath – pricetag, over $1600. Most people are struggling to pay their light bill, let alone contemplate where such a table could sit within their home.
We left there after 9pm, getting home around 10:30. Everyone was tired. Raven went straight to bed, as did my husband. Caspian & I stayed up for maybe 40 mins. more, listening to frogs loudly clicking and making noise on the pond, then all were asleep.
Doctor Grandma 