As the ant stores its food for winter, so we store the sun and warmth for the long dreary days ahead.
Here in the south amidst the 30 and 40 degree days we have occasional reprieves of 70 degree sunshiny days. This one fell just before the forecasted high of 34 tomorrow. (My friends in northwest Arkansas are getting the first ever “blizzard” some of them have ever seen, as I speak.)
We drop everything and run outside on these pale yellow days. Trying to make them last. To hold the glow for the dark days.
We grabbed hot dogs from Sam’s (think: feed our family for $10).
Then we got on the trolley and crossed the river. We went to the History Museum and played in the upstairs playroom.
We went to the River Market downtown. We had icees and ran free.
Then we went to eat at Larry’s Pizza. I wanted some place that I could sit and be waited on. I wanted a place everyone would actually eat the food. I wanted a kid-friendly place that wouldn’t look down on us for having such a large family and actually expect to all sit together. And a place that we could eat as much as we wanted for less than $40.
By then the sun had set but it was still gorgeous out and we weren’t ready to call it a day just yet.
So we went to the capital grounds. We drove through the “echo tunnel” and yelled funny stuff out our windows.
Then we parked, got out, and looked at the eternal flame, stood on the steps looking up at the enormity of the building that made us feel so small. We ran around the memorials and talked about their meanings.
On our scale of how the day was it was declared to be somewhere between a Rob Thomas 5 and a Bon Jovi 10 on a scale of 1 being Lynyrd Skynyrd and 10 being Bon Jovi.
I didn’t document every moment because this time I lived every moment completely present.
Then we went home. And prepared for the coming storms. But this sunshine? It’s alive and warm in our hearts’ memories.
