August Brides're Just Plain Hot

We've been having quite the heat wave down here in the Midlands of South Carolina. Yesterday's temp was a record of 106, shattering the previous high of 100 set in our fair city of Columbia on August 10, 1987. Yes, I'm glad for a pool to splash around in. Middle daughter Erica came home for the weekend and she's out there floating even now, but I wanted to post this before joining her. My favorite time to be in the pool is later anyway ... when the cicadas are screaming a cacaphonous dialog from tree to tree and the tiki torches are lit, and we've piped Josh Groban and Il Divo poolside via our speakers that look like rocks! Candles are involved as well ... I'm all about ambience, y'all.

Today the heat did not keep us from attending the wedding of Anna, the lovely daughter of our good friends John and Annette, to Adam, handsome son of equally good friends Tim and Sally. Matter of fact, Tim and Sally were married on the same day as Greg and me, i.e. June 16, 1979 ... only we were married at noon in Atlanta and they were married at two, somewhere in Michigan! We didn't know them back then.

Erica came home from Knoxville for the weekend because she and Anna, the bride, were good buddies during high school. Erica was pressganged into standing by the gift table in the church lobby, looking decorative, while people divested themselves of bags, boxes, and envelopes upon said snowy-lace-swaddled table. Happily she was not required to man the gift bench at the reception, however! It stood on its own four legs and collected boxes, bags, and envelopes with no assistance of any kind from Erica.

Speaking of which ... this past Wednes-hundred-and-two-degree-day I went to Hobby Lobby to buy a wedding gift for Adam and Anna. I wanted Christmas ornaments because I love giving those as wedding gifts, and luckily they were all 40 percent off. I got them a big (about 7 inches tall) painted blown-glass (you know ... those ones that look old-fashioned) bride and groom ... the figures really look like A&A (hair color mainly) and the veil affixed to her blond head is genuine tulle.

Then I chose several heart-shaped ornaments, all different, from rustic to sparkly to whimsical ... one is actually a small picture frame. Thought that was all rather spiffy and touchingly romantic. Each year when they haul the decorations out amid arguments over whether to get a real or fake tree and where to put it, what to buy for the kids, and at which set of parents' house to spend Christmas Eve, they can remember their first Christmas as newlyweds. When it was all so simple: you, me, love, end of story.

Anna's brother is Michael, best buddy of our son Andrew. On Tuesday Michael will be headed down to San Antonio to start basic training at Lackland Air Force Base ... where Andrew has been for nearly four weeks now. Andrew's doing great ... my phone started doing its impersonation of a large buzzing insect during the wedding, and of course it was him. I didn't check my phone till later, during the reception, because I had a feeling it was him and I wasn't about to disrupt the wedding in order to run out and answer it! Didn't seem like the thing to do.

But anyway ... after calling my cell phone, the home phone, Erica's cell phone, and Greg's cell phone, and for all I know Johnny Depp's home and cell phone, he ended up leaving a lengthy message on Greg's cell phone (which was resting at home). He said among other things, such as "we got our blues this week" (I think he means uniforms as they've had emotional blues the whole time) that this week is "Warrior Week" ... the long awaited faux deployment that simulates going to war. He sounded excited but before he hung up he cried. I cried. This is not going well! I hope I make it until August 29th when we fly down to San Antonio to see him graduate.

That's all for now y'all ... all I ate this morning was about ten frozen grapes, and at the sweltering reception I had only two meatballs, two small chunks of cantaloupe, a small sprig of green grapes, a cube of cheese, some kind of little crunchy piece of toast, and two itty bitty cream puffs. I'm hungry and the cicadas are getting cranked up for their twilight concert. Surf's up as it were.

Good night and God bless!