FRIENDS

Usually my blog is a little bit of a travelogue.  In this post, I digress.

Having just turned 68, yes, I found myself a little melancholy, thinking about my life before and my life after my birthday.  One does that when they get to be my age.

Having recently spent a weekend with two best friends, who came to Edisto Beach State Park to celebrate my birthday with me, I thought a lot about friendship and how especially important and meaningful it is.  

"Friends are hard to find.  In a lifetime you only find a few.  And when you find them, you always know them by sight and heart alone, you always grow a little taller in your soul, and you know you have been blessed just to know them"........Ashley Rice

"A friend is one who knows you and loves you just the same".......Elbert Hubbard

A local pastor, Shawn Wood, in a recent message, said that in our lifetimes, most of us find it hard to name five CLOSE friends.  Sad to say, most 40 year old men cannot name one REAL friend.  Are we too busy?  Are we too removed?  Has Facebook and texting taken the real meaning of true friendship out of our lives and made most of our friends relationships that we only talk to electronically?

"I value the friend who for me, finds time on his/her calendar, but I cherish the friend who for me does not consult his/her calendar".........Robert Brault

Pastor Wood went on to say that if we get our friends right, our lives will be richer.  Show me your friends and I will show you your future.  You are the average of your five friends, should you be lucky to have them.  

"A friend is one who knows you and loves you just the same".....Elbert Hubbard

I would like to introduce you to six of my dear friends, the real kind.

Here in South Carolina, I met Vicki and Patricia through Seacoast Church.  We have become the closest and best of friends in the last ten years.  We have been through good times and bad, sickness and health, the death of close relatives, family sicknesses and all of those times that you truly need friends.  And we have had many, many, many good times and have shared lot of laughter. No matter what we do, we have fun, and laughter is great medicine.  Each of us is only a phone call away.  We would do just about anything for one another.  These are the gals who came here to celebrate my birthday with me.

 Making a birthday dinner!

Bible Study on the back porch

We rented a cabin here at the state park and had a really nice time that included an educational boat ride with the Department of Natural Resources, taking in a Shrimp Festival, sitting on the beach, enjoying good food and just enjoying each other's company.  I truly love these gals.  

Friends # 3 and 4 live in Pennsylvania, where I moved from 10 years ago.  But our friendship did not end there.  We met as coworkers at County National Bank in Clearfield, PA.  In fact, Lois was my boss! We had a really close friendship for about 15 years, and still do.  I was blessed to be able to meet up with them this past August following Tom's family reunion.  We had not actually seen each other in years, but felt like we could pick up right where we left off.  That is true friendship, you can feel so comfortable with them even if you can't be together as often as you would like.

Linda, Lois and myself along with another great friend, Dan.

I cherish these gals and have so many joyful memories of times we have had together.  We visited Dan on several occasions when he lived in Palm Springs, CA.  He was also a County National Bank employee. I love these friends despite the distance...distance does not diminish real friendship.

And finally, I cherish Ann and Anita.  Ann and I met when we were both 12.  Do the math.  OK...it't really big numbers, I will do it for you.  It is 56 years since we met.  Could that be?  We were neighbors and schoolmates in Pennsylvania.  Closer than peas in a pod until we graduated high school and went our separate ways.  After 20 years we rekindled the friendship at a class reunion and have become close again, doing a lot of traveling together both with and without our husbands.  The unique thing about our friendship is that we are total opposites, in so many ways.  But we put friendship beyond personal differences and I would do anything for her and I believe she would do the same for me. Not to mention the fact that she lives in Arizona and I live in South Carolina. She is a special woman and I have treasured her friendship over all the years.

Anita is my newest dear friend.  I met Anita when I moved to Del Webb Charleston and we became immediate friends.  Our common love of books and God immediately sparked a close friendship. Anita is a tiny little ball of endless energy and she has been blessed with a tremendous gift of encouragement.  We love to get together and talk about books and our families.

Well, I have rambled on enough.  I could go on and on about all the wonderful people that God has brought into my life, but this post would go on forever.  You know who you are and I am so grateful for your friendship.  With friends like you to grow old with, I have no fear.  God is so good and I thank Him for you.  If I am an average of all of these friends, I am truly blessed.

"A friend loves at all times".....Proverbs 17:17

"Lots of people want to ride with you in the limo, but what you want is someone who will take the bus with you when the limo breaks down".........Oprah Winfrey

PS.....Although I have highlighted the women in my life, I would certainly not want to neglect to mention my five best male friends .....my sons Terry, Jeff, Todd and Jason...and hubby Tom

DEAD SNAKE-AT LEAST WE THOUGHT SO

There are so many wonderful things about camping.....getting close to nature, getting to see the country, meeting so many wonderful people, having new experiences, the list goes on and on.  However, there are just a few drawbacks.  Like not having a bathtub, or a good oven.  The one big drawback that we have found is .....snakes.  We have been on the road for a year and have, up to this point, not encountered any snakes.  We don't dislike all snakes, just the bad ones.  Well, I did have one encounter.  One night, while riding my bike at the Naval Weapons Station in Charleston, I saw something ahead in the road that looked like a piece of tire on the edge of the road.  It was quite large.  So I just steered around it with my bike, passing about a foot from it.  Since it was under a street light, I glanced over at it and got quite a shock.  It was a VERY large water moccasin....coiled up on the street.  I put pedal to the metal and headed home at record speed and told Tom that I had seen a VERY bad snake.  When we went back in the car to see it..it was gone.  Not good news, that meant it was alive.  Sighting #1.
Earlier this week Tom was walking Barklee late at night here at Edisto State Park.  We have been told that snakes are very rare here since they like fresh water, not salt.  He came home to tell me that he had seen a copperhead cross the road here in the campground.  Sighting #2.
Last night, Tom took Barklee for a walk around eleven.  He came back to the camper to tell me to get dressed and to come out, he had killed a copperhead.  Well, I was less than enthusiastic to go look at a dead copperhead and possibly run into one of his friends or family.  When he saw the snake, he immediatley put Barklee into the truck, then kicked sand into the snake's face to confuse it and then kicked it in the head and then stomped on it to kill it.  Dead snake.  When he got there for the photo shoot, the snake was gone.  Tom saw it slithering, confused and dazed, toward a tree.  He went back to the truck, got a piece of pipe and proceeded to beat it to death.  Mr. Snake definitely looked like he had a broken jaw as well as other mortal damage.  So Tom picked it up with a pole and brought it to the camper and hung it on our flagpole as proof of his amazing feat.  When he told me what he had done, I replied that no snake will be hanging from the camper in which I was sleeping and asked him to bag it in a kitchen garbage bag and TIE THE BAG.....you never know.  Deed done.  We went to sleep.  Tom will confer with the ranger on duty in the morning to see how to dispose of the remains.
So the snake is now "hanging around" in the bag over our picnic table. R.I.P.  Come early morning Tom goes outside to get his shoes on to walk Barklee.  He glanced over at the bag, and there, sticking his head out of a hole in the bag was the deceased...alive and well, doing his best to leave.  Needless to say, Tom was a little surprised.  He had killed it twice.
Well, the snake was then double bagged and given to the ranger, who was going to "relocate" the varmit.  It seems that they do not like to kill snakes in State Parks...that is probably why the snake was living here, he thought he was off limits.
From now on, no more walking the dog in the dark late at night.  And no victory dances after murdering a snake with multiple lives.
Below is the picture of the snake hanging on our camper....it was actually still alive when Tom hung it here.....not a good idea...