The Prodigal Blogger Returns!

He...llloooooooooo! Anybody out there? I'm certain that the few readers I once had, have long ago abandoned me. I don't blame you either. I too have abandoned my blog this summer. Computer time just did not fit into the day. My writing inspiration is only viable in the morning and it has been replaced by my morning walk. I often wrote posts in my head....inspired posts...magnificent posts....LOL! You know me better than that, don't you?! And you aren't buying it, are you? LOL! I don't blame you.

However, although I have left you high and dry this summer, I now sit before you 25 pounds lighter. Whew! I put on a lot of miles on this old dirt road, but I really comitted to make some changes this summer and my hard work is paying off. 25 # gone - another 20 or so to go. Sure was a lot easier putting it on than it is taking it off!

We've had a crazy, busy August and suddenly I find myself facing the first day of school. I love the first day of school, but I am so NOT ready for it today! Empty lessons plans are staring me in the face, pencils lay unsharpened, books lay scattered in various rooms and my students gaze at me longingly, hoping for JUST ONE MORE DAY of summer. Our end of summer was a flurry of activity and filled with road trips (which I will share in a later post) that wore me to a frazzle. I do not travel well. I am perfectly content to live my quiet little life here at the end of the dirt road. However, every now and then, the good Lord knows I need to be shaken out and he leads me to new places. Often I end up enjoying these places. Sometimes I do not. One of those 'do not' places is Dallas, Texas traffic. Oh my! It's a wonder I even lived to tell the tale. And only a portion of the tale shall be revealed today. My mind is still quite muddled and if I were to share the entire story, yours may become muddled as well so I'll stick to one subject.

That would be a first, wouldn't it?

So here's what I wrote from the hotel on Friday night, after my harrowing experience:

Oh my! I'm in north Texas for a few days and today I braved the jungle that is Dallas / Ft. Worth traffic.

I tried to copy a photo from the web, but everything turned out very pixelated and there was NO WAY I was taking a picture while I was actually IN the traffic so just picture it in your mind. I think that every vehicle in the entire southern half of the United States was on the same road I was on. The only difference was that they knew where they were going and...I didn't.

I lived to tell the tale, but I have one question: How do y'all handle big city traffic every day?! Ack!! Tomorrow I am going to take pictures of DS who is attending a Junior Olympic Shooting Sports school/camp and I packed my camera...but left the battery in the charger....don't ask. I think I was already flustered just thinking about driving in Dallas. So I phoned the Arlington Camera Center, which is where I purchased my camera in January (my SIL drove me there) and told them of my predicament. They told me they had a battery in stock and that they would take an existing charger and charge the battery for me. So that meant I had to grit my teeth and join the rat race.

This is such a wonderful opportunity for DS and I was not going to miss out on capturing this on film!I'm going to put in a plug for Arlington Camera Center - amazing people and outstanding customer service! I was impressed from the first time I stepped into the store and they have a lifelong customer in me, although I think I'll send them my business via the Internet from now on. Oye!

Thankfully they pointed me towards an alternate route back to Gainesville, still wild, but better - I'm certain I looked pretty haggard when I walked through their doors this afternoon. I can handle lots of things...I tend to a multitude of rowdy cowboys on a regular basis and I work with cattle, have been run over by steers, can hop a fence pretty darn quick, have been slammed in the head with a heavy gate, and been stomped on by horses, but nothing compares to the traffic I encountered today!

I now know why the good Lord put me at the end of a dirt road. He really does know what He's doing and everyone in the vicinity of the Big D can now rest easy, as of Sunday morning - I am westward bound - and I am taking the backroads!

See, the backroads are much more pleasant!

It's good to be back!