(Photo courtesy of cmhowes1 at photobucket)

Note:  I wrote this (in my head) headed to north Georgia in December 2010.  It was my next to last trip to our time-share near Ellijay.

It's a crisp cold December day.  An overcast day.  A gray day.  The sun is just a white hole in the gray sky.  There are snow warnings.

I begin making my way northward.  I'm going to meet Robert and we are going to our time-share in the mountains.  Eagle Mountain.  The real name is Coosawattee River Resort, but we first knew it as Eagle Mountain some twenty years ago when we first started going there. So to us it is and forever will be Eagle Mountain.

As I drive along I look at the trees.  Many of them naked.  Was it only a few weeks ago that they were clothed in their leaves of many colors?  I guess the pines sort of make up for it.  Pines.  Forever green.  Pines.  Oh, the scent...forever lingering along the edge of my memory.

Trucks.  A lot of tractor trailers on this road.  I pass a big orange one.  Schneider National.  I always notice the trucks and wonder if they are one of the many that stopped in at the truck stop where I worked until November 11 of this year.  Yep, that's the date I officially retired.

A gray car up ahead. I've been following it a while now.  Something in me wants to pass.  Then I remember Robert's warning, "Be careful" and Bob's "Smooth and easy".  I'm in no hurry.  Got plenty of time.  Yet my baby, my little black beauty wants to pull out and take the road.  I hold him back.  To somewhere around the speed limit.  Police.  Speeding ticket.  Been there.  Done that on this road.  Paid the $100 fine.

Continuing northward.  I pass Highland Community College.  It's a small school but has a large well-equipped computer room.  I've stopped there before to use the computers or to print something out.

Computers.  Me and computers.  I've been on the Internet over fifteen years now.  A long time.  A lot of changes.  Electronic mail, games, chat rooms, cyber-sex, social networks and more.  I've seen just about all of it.  Met a lot of people thru the Internet.  Had a few long term relationships and some not so pleasant.  I guess you could say I have experienced both joy and pain along the cyber highway.

Highway.  I stay on highway 27 through Rome.  Past all the regular eating places:  McDonald's, Taco Bell, Zaxby's, etc.  Past K-Mart.  But neither food nor shopping tempt me today.  What I am tempted by is the Barnes and Noble down there on the left.  Books.  I'd like to stop.  I always enjoy a trip to Barnes and Noble.  Books everywhere.  I just love the whole environment, even though I buy most of my books at the flea market, yard sales or thrift stores.  Ah, good-bye Barnes and Noble. Today I journey northward.

Up ahead.  A sign.  "Arrested?  Call the dog.  Bulldog bail bond."  Bet they do a booming business.

Then in contrast, a building painted bright blue and green.  Deserted now.  I know this building.  It had been a community thrift center run by a small church.  Just weeks ago I bought clothes and bed linens there for 25 cents apiece.  A going out of business sale.  They could no longer pay the rent.

There.  My turn.  Right onto highway 53 east.  East.  I think about going east.  All the way east.  I feel a tug in that direction.  Time.  Time.  Will that time ever come?  But for today I have another destination. 

I pass the Floyd County Jail.  Then up ahead.  A green pick-up truck over in the left hand lane.  Two kids in the truck bed.  No, wait.  Not kids.  It's two dogs dressed in their winter finery. 

Distraction.  Did I miss my turn?  No.  Highway 140.  East again.  Seven miles to Adairsville.  In no time at all, I'm in historic downtown Adairsville.  To my right a huge decorated tree.

Next begins the right, left, right, right, left, right pattern to get to Robert's place.

Just a quiet two hour drive that began my recent vacation in my beloved north Georgia mountains.  And it snowed, as promised.  We were snowed in for three days.

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Note:  Karma.  I believe in it.  All my life I've heard the saying:  "What goes around comes around."  Did Bob believe in Karma?  I don't know.  I like to think so.  He once said to me of his little acts of kindness:  "I'm selfish, I guess.  I mainly do what I do for me."

So today, on the anniversary of the last blog posted by Bob (oldsky), I submit to you the one he called "A Human Stray":

Sunday, April 06, 2008 

A HUMAN STRAY.

Current mood:  accomplished

Category: Life

    It wasn’t quite daylight when the old man pulled into the Waffle House parking and saw the man sitting with his back against the newspaper box. The old man hadn’t bought a newspaper in at least ten years but decided to break that string. He dug five quarters from his pocket and walked to the box.

    The man scooted out of the way so the old man could get his paper.

    "How you doing?" the old man.asked.

    "Pretty good," the sitter said. The old man knew that was a lie. He’d been collecting strays most of his life and knew the look.

    "I’m fixing to get some breakfast," the old man said. "You want some?"

    The man on the hard cement looked up at the old man with a shadow of disbelief in his eyes. "I’m hungry," the old man said. "If you want to eat, get off your ass and come on."

   The stray tore hell out of the Waffle House menu to the tune of eleven dollars and fifty-three cents.

   As the old man was getting in his car, the stray shook his hand and tried to say how much he appreciated it, but the words were awkward.

    "Forget it," the old man told him. "I was glad to do it."

    The old man drove home remembering a time thirty-five years earlier when another old man had spotted him as a stray.

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