During our vacation in South Carolina, John and I toured an aircraft carrier. It was interesting to see all the parts of the ship, read about different duties that a sailor completed, see the planes (I never knew they 'folded up' the wings and lowered the planes into a lower level of the ship), and rehear John's story about his dad: Wayne was in the Navy and their ship was docked when the 'plane elevator' suddenly blew up. Wayne just happened to be on watch that night and was safe from the explosion. However, his buddies were asleep in the bunk room next to the elevator and all were killed. John's middle name is in honor of Wayne's best friend (William),who passed away in that tragedy. I came away from the museum with sadness for lives lost in all the wars, and a deeper appreciation for all our soldiers.

There must have been a pasture on our land, because there are fallen fence posts and some rusty barbed wire traversing the property. John and I did some cutting and bundling of the old stuff. A bit of 'excavating' was needed to find the four strands of wire amidst the brush and weeds.

A friend came to visit. I met her in 1988 when we were room- mates at a High School camp. Jennifer lives in Arizona but flew here to enjoy some fall colors, have some relaxation, and laugh about old times. She is a hoot! Jennifer can start laughing just THINKING about something funny, and keeps chuckling so she can hardly spill the story. It makes my face hurt from smiling so much. We ended up experiencing snow in the middle of October, which gave her a thrill.

My dear friend is also in the middle of her life turning completely upside down, so there were hours of talking, grief, tears, explaining, sadness, anger. I'm thankful that Jenn had this opportunity to 'get away' and reflect. I'm heartbroken over her pain. She is running to God and resting in His promises. It looks like a long road ahead.

A great decision was made when I chose to wake early and go see the sunrise over the Atlantic Ocean. God's majestic paintbrush was different each day. We enjoyed a week of vacation courtesy of my kind sister-in-law, and I relished the warm sunny days that South Carolina offered.