07-28-2014 Last Weekend’s Adventure

Dear Joseph and Lucia,

I took the Heartland Flyer down to DFW last weekend. It started out at the station in Oklahoma City. My roommate dropped me off first thing in the morning Saturday morning. It was so much nicer than staring at the back of my windshield for 4 hours.

Michèle picked me up in Fort Worth and we had lunch at the Mellow Mushroom near the TCU campus. They make wonderful pizzas. I worked at a project in Albany, Georgia when I first discovered their pizzas.

I made a tasty European dinner Saturday night with aged cheeses, imported olives, hummus, and English crackers. The horseradish cheddar was great. I found olives stuffed with garlic and blue cheese. We just stood around the kitchen island and nibbled.

After that we just spent all our time in the pool. I caught another dragonfly on my finger. It was cool when Michèle held up her finger and caught her first dragonfly. The smile on her face was beautiful.

We did the same thing on Sunday. For breakfast, I dashed off to Starbucks to visit with a dear friend (Zena) and brought back coffee and smoothies. I’ll have to tell you all about Zena in a future post. She is a fantastic young woman I met while working at Starbucks. She is a rare person that deserves notice. For breakfast, I made toasted bagels with cream cheese and smoked salmon sprinkled with fresh dill.

We watched Grand Budapest Hotel. It was an enchanting movie. There’s a bit of harsh language, but the cinematography was unique and the plot is very enduring. I took advantage of a lazy morning to take her car to the shop for repairs and fill the tank. When I was finished with my errands, we floated about through a lazy and hot Sunday afternoon.

We eventually raced back to Fort Worth so I could catch my return train. After Michèle got home, she sent me a few pictures that made me a bit sad. The one to the left of her foot was her reclining back at the pool as the last of the sun was setting. The one to the right is a picture of my chair that is empty. Kids… when you find the person that loves you unconditionally… without restrictions… just an appreciation of who you are… give all you have to be with that person. Papa Gene always preached the 60/40 rule. If you give 60% into a relationship and the other does too, it creates a strong marriage. I have that now. And I have enough love to overflow to those around me (you two for example).

Once I got to a stop in Ardmore, I sent a selfy to Michèle. Just as I was entering the Arbuckle mountains, there was a river next to the tracks. It was beautiful to see the sunset over the vista.