Cheryl Beckham

It isn’t often enough that I get good news waiting for me in my email inbox, but this morning I was so happy to see an email from a very, very good friend that moved away so long ago to some god forsaking place in South America, with the subject line stating “Moving To Virginia” I couldn’t seem to open that email quick enough to see if this was a joke or what. I’m so glad to say that it isn’t a joke at all, she is really coming back home after all these years.

She tells me that her hubby finally got the transfer that he had been after in order to get them back to the United States, closer to family and friends because the next good piece of news is that she is pregnant with their first child. Funny how when we find ourselves far from home and a baby comes into the picture how that makes us want and need to get back to our roots. This is just too good to be true and I shot her back a quick reply telling her how happy I am about the news and I can’t wait to see her and her cute little baby bump, and meet her hubby as well of course!

She has to take it easy with all of the packing and moving since she is in her 2nd trimester of her pregnancy and all. Her hubby is going to do a lot of the heavy lifting and all that of course. Her main concern right now is finding the right Virginia International Movers to get them and all of their belongings safely back to the good old U.S. of A. The Internet is going to be her best bet  and the best tool in finding Virginia Moving Companies that will do the job for them. Can you imagine trying to find Virginia Movers without the Internet when you are totally in another country, no way dude! I’m just glad that where she has been living in South America has electricity and the means to have Internet access because from the pictures that I’ve seen throughout the years that she has sent me, it looks pretty remote and it doesn’t look like there is a heck of a lot of modern conveniences that we have all gotten so used to and rely on on a daily basis. And don’t get me started on the subject of modern doctors!

This is going to be so cool!

One of the things that were being discussed at today’s bar b que was the issue of house plaques, or the lack of them. These days it is so important to have your address numbers placed in a place that they can be easily seen and read. It seems that one of the neighbors in the neighborhood of the bar b que had recently called 911 for a medical emergency in the house and it took the emergency ambulance a longer time than usual and they almost didn’t make it in time to help this particular elderly lady in medical distress stay on this earth.

This emergency happened during the evening and the address plaques that were placed on many of these houses in this particular area of the neighborhood were very hard for the EMTs to locate and read, which could have ended in a major catastrophe for this woman. So the talk of the neighborhood these days is all about finding the perfect address plaques to replace the old faded worn out ones that have seen better days in an effort to keep all of the residents safe in any type of emergency situation.

This is something that we all need to think about. An important issue that I think needs more attention drawn to. So I’m doing my part by posting this story and passing on how important it is to have what it takes to allow the police, the fire department and/or the ambulances to locate your property and home with ease, because in case of an emergency, as we all know, every minute, every second can make a big difference and possibly save a life.

I have seen many fine looking lawns and gardens in the most beautiful yards in my day. I have always enjoyed driving around looking at houses and taking in the beauty of the fabulous landscaping that a lot of people are sporting these days. Once or twice a month my parents would gather up all of us kids in the station wagon and off we would go out for a nice long Sunday drive,gazing at all of the new houses that were being built along with the landscapers working their magic. So I got this interest and appreciation honestly. One of things that was a total turn off to us was seeing those bright blue tarps that are seen so often being used to cover what ever items they want to protect them from being seen as well as being kept from all the elements that Mother Nature throws at us through out the various seasons.

If I was to need a tarp for such purposes I think that I would purchase and use one that blended in with it’s surroundings so as not to bring attention to is as the bright blue ones do. I mean it is as if they are screaming “Look at me, look at me” when there is so much more that your eyes should be looking at and appreciating considering how much time and money a good landscaping job takes. There are many other tarps out there that can do the job nicely that don’t cost an arm and a leg. And I would never buy any tarp at the dollar store or at the local flea market that we frequent where there are dealers that have dozens of bins lined up filled with $1 items. That really irks me as well. When I go to the flea market I don’t want to see the same items that I can buy at the Dollar Store. Most of the $1 merchandise is crap and if I wanted to shop for crap I’d just go to one of the many stores around here that advertise their crap for only one dollar. And there is nothing worse that going into one of those stores and finding a good amount of their jump is more than one dollar.

I should have pulled over immediately when I noticed that my engine was running hot. But since there was no safe place to pull over and I had my daughter and her new puppy with me I wanted to make sure that we had some shade, cell phone reception and a bathroom I decided that I would just keep on going to the dog park that was only a few more miles down the road. It’s too bad that my van wasn’t happy with that decision, although it did get us into the dog park’s drive way, just shy of a legal parking space.

As soon as I pulled into the drive way we heard and felt a big BANG from under the hood, while watching very hot water and steam spewing all over in various directions. It’s just a darned good thing that my brother-in-law was home and that he was able to hook up his new towing trailer up to his pick up in a timely fashion and get to us before it started getting dark.

So now I am stuck with no transportation, my van is sitting in a shop waiting to be given an estimate so I’ll know if I need to sell my first born in order to pay for it to be road worthy once again. It sucks to be me today.

Why is it that when you think about someone you usually end up seeing them or hearing from them!?  I have been thinking about one of my girlfriends the past couple of weeks on and off.  Then today out of the blue I get a call from her.  That may not seem all that strange, but the thing is we haven’t talked in about 3 years.  She moved out of state, is married and has three kids so her free time is limited.  I usually work late at night so we are on totally different schedules, so emails are going to have to be the way to go these days, instead of long distance phone calls.