The end of an era…

…and there is much in the air! At one point today, I stood in the kitchen and wiped ashes from the top of the stove. Hmmmm…..okay, now, I had already cleaed up the ashes from the oven cleaning fiasco Saturday. Actually, the ashes were coming through the screening on my kitchen door as a result of the fires at work in the Okefenokee Swamp. Some report the fire size is the same as the city of Atlanta or Seattle in acres. Wow! It was started by a lightning strike, a naturally-caused disaster, bringing ashes and stench to the area. My car was full of ashes as well when I left for choir. We had a great total of 3 of us tonight, but the majority of the time it was Kristi and me only. Sort of hard to rehearse under those conditions…

But the thing that truly marks the end of an era was what I saw going on at the corner of Wells Road and Blanding Blvd.----bulldozers have torn down the majority of Johnny Carino’s Country Italian Restaurant!!!!! I could not believe my eyes! The Italian margaritas there were the absolute best, the best! and the Italian nachos yummy, too. Oh, my heart! Such fond fond memories were made there, Martie and I and Jennifer, and of course, my Justin. We had our own favorite waitress, Janet, who now works at O’Charley’s on Fleming Island. One time when my family came for a visit, maybe for Justin’s graduation, I took the entire group there to eat on the veranda. When I was at the stop light this evening, I sent Martie a text message reporting that Johnny’s was torn down. I told Robbie about it when I got to church, telling him it was the end of an era. As I was speaking, Martie sent me a text message that said, “The end of an era…” Our great minds think alike! And our hearts break alike as well.

Earlier today Connie came to the door, asking me about my surplus planters in the courtyard, displaced now that I have been gifted with a pair of topiaries from my neighbor, Michelle. I told Connie I no longer want them but am waiting until Justin is done with his father’s work to take care of them. He has lots of pressure on him right now so my goofy planters can certainly wait. Connie offered to take them away but the larger one in the corner is too large for just her to move. She is so good to me, she offered to reinstall my ceramic house numbers which were removed when the building was sealed and painted. Yay for me!

This morning, before my shower, I got busy with my new silver removing product from Nice ‘n Easy which comes in foam form. Foam form, that’s fun to say! It made almost no mess at all in application and the color came out quite nice, too. This will likely be the last time for the summer since it is nearly pool season and the sun tends to bleach out my hair, especially in the ‘lighter’ areas. So, I go on record, the Nice ‘n Easy Foam is the way to go! No drips, no mess, hardly any clean up required, and I rinsed it out in the shower. Nice! (‘n easy!)