The Bitter And The Sweet

We've had a beautiful weather weekend.  Temps finally cooled down and we had to close windows at night or it would have been darn chilly in the house this morning.  Ahhhh Fall! Welcome, welcome.  But along with the sweet is also the bitter.  Being on call on a lovely weather weekend makes going anywhere fun not really possible.  So I stuck close to home.  But I did run and retrieve my photos from the County Fair this morning.

A first, second and third...Sweet!  The bitter part? Well, after the leaving the fairgrounds I stopped at the hospital the check on my car.  My car?  Yes, my car.  After finishing up an emergency surgery around 10:30pm last night I jumped in my dear 15yr old car and it had died...again.  We just had it fixed about 2 weeks ago.   I had hoped maybe it would start this morning but no such luck.  My son's words came back to haunt me after the last repair.  "Mom, are you emotionally attached to that car for some reason?  Are you a hoarder?"  Wait, if I was a hoarder wouldn't I have 50 old cars?  I guess you could call me a hoarder of my checkbook since I haven't had a car payment in years and I don't want to part with any checks monthly!   So with Jack's car I drove up to Church.  I had already dropped Jack up there for some early morning meetings.  Having one car is kind of a pain! Anyway, as I entered the Church my phone went off and it was my sister.  Normally I'd think that was a sweet thing but I knew a call from her on a Sunday morning wasn't good.   She was taking Mom to the hospital.  Mom was in a bad way and kept telling Midge that this trip to the hospital would be her last. Of course we were both upset and I just broke down and cried.  Jack told me to just head back home. I spent the morning on the phone.  Mom has blood clots in both lungs but she's doing good right now.  On meds to get her heart rate normal and blood thinners for the clots.  I'll be making a run to Chicago this week.  It's hard being here when so much is going on there.  She sounded good when I talked with her this evening so I'm hoping this bitter thing will turn sweet and she'll be home soon.  At 90yrs old you just never know...she's a fighter though! Now for something completely different.. I was going to title this post "For the Birds".  The other day I looked out the back door and saw these guys:

The yard was covered with tons and tons of blackbirds!

This is just a tiny corner of them.

Reminded me of one of my favorite scary movies...The Birds.  Seriously, they were flying in from all over.  I think there must have been a ton of bugs or something there that they all ate...weird.   Then I was leaving on Friday to pick up Chubbs from the groomer when I saw these gals:

Chickens in the side yard near the creek!

They saw me and headed for home,  Again, more birds....or maybe I should say, "Winner, Winner, Chicken Dinner."   I took off for the groomer and when he brought Chubbs out I almost didn't recognize him!

Usually they leave his hair on his ears and face long.  I like this much better! He seems happy too...maybe it's the ghost scarf they gave him?  Sweet!   So as the sun set slowly over the Pines..

My prayer is for the bitter to leave and the sweet to return.  Prayers for Mom to get over this crisis and get back home soon.  Life is unpredictable...to quote a line from a movie.."It can change with every breath we take"....

But hopefully God in the heavens knows what we need. I have to leave it in His hands.  Sweet.