Monday, Monday!

Rainy weekend ahead for Saturday and Sunday -so they say. Hopefully Monday will be at least clear. I know we always need rain but not several days of rain and gray in a row, please.

This coming Monday is one of those days that comes around every year and which I'd kind of wish it would skip a year now and then. But it won't so I have to face up to the fact that, provided I'm still above ground this Monday, I will be another year older. Doubtful that I will have acquired any in the way of skills, learning, etc., just will be another year older and probably just that much deeper in debt. (as one good old song from my era of music says.)

Monday is also my cousin, Joan's birthday too -a little thing she and I share and Thursday is her brother Ray's birthday  (same year as mine but I was the lucky one who arrived first I guess) and then, next Sunday is my cousin Barb's birthday (would also have been my late cousin Dave's 66th day had things gone differently than they did) and after that, next Thursday -the 18th -is my granddaughter's 9th birthday, which is then followed by my niece's 9th birthday on the 22nd and my favorite Red-Headed cousin adds another year on the 23rd! Boy -a whole lot of libras there, aren't we?

Monday of this past week now though was a special day for me too -my good friend and former classmate who I refer to often as "Bella" had a birthday and a couple days after that -not sure of the date though -it was my late uncle's great-nephew's birthday (we call each other cousin but technically, we aren't -unless you count what I call a "backdoor" relational status as being a "cousin."

Yeah -a whole lot of years packed in there this month.

But this past Monday was a special day for me thanks to the last "cousin" I mentioned who -along with his parents -were here visiting for a few days.

And while they were here, that cousin Eric and I -as I wrote the other nite -went exploring, grave marker hunting here.It was a nice day and also was successful in that we were able to locate his great-great aunt and uncle's gravesite and marker.

Before Eric and his parents left to return to their motel room down in Indiana, PA -I told him if he had a chance to look at a telephone directory down there, to look up another cousin's phone number and tell her who he is and what he family he is researching. Told him, if he's lucky and finds her at home, that she would definitely recognize many of the names in his family tree.

And as things played out, Wednesday morning, with my cousin's phone number and address in hand along with directions to the street where she lives from someone on the staff at the motel where they were staying, he went for a short drive, located the street where she lives as well as the house number and decided to "live dangerously" and go forward and introduce himself to her.

I figured out that he met her when he sent me a message saying "Your cousin sure does get an early start on her getting out and about as she was ready to roll out and do things for the start of the day around 8 a.m. and he added this, "She sure is a heck of a darned good baker too!"

The quip about her being a good baker told me that he had definitely met her!

I laughed and wrote back that I certainly would never argue that point with him as she is,truly, a great bakers! Just a great all-around cook she is! And, she operates exactly the way her own Mom did when someone unexpected visitor would come knocking on the door.

In this case, with my cousin, she had no clue who this guy was standing on her doorstep but for some wild and crazy reason, she opened the door and ended up inviting him in. And after that, she even fed him and sent a package of rolls she had baked back to the motel with him for his parents! Like her mother before her, I can envision that she probably was able to pull a 5-6 course meal out of her refrigerator at the drop of a hat, have it all heated up, perfectly, and on the table in front of him in 45 minutes or less! And then, she probably swooped down and around him, passing plate after plate to him and telling him, "Here, have some of this; try that and just a taste of this, maybe!"

Yeah, that exactly how my aunt would have done and it's the trait I remember best about her too! It's that trait in her daughter that my kids know oh so well and could never pass on anything she passed under our noses either!

After hearing of his successful meeting with this cousin of mine, I told my daughter I was going to have to call her and talk to her about that visit but last night, before I even had a chance to pick up the phone and call her, my phone rang and a glance at the caller ID told me it was her calling me, and I figured correctly too that she would be laughing and telling me all about her day when she answered his knock at her front door, surprised her with his questions about people she knew from way back when and hadn't probably thought about in many, many years too!

I so enjoyed hearing her talk about their visit and she told me too what things she had also sent to the motel with him for his parents -more freshly baked rolls that she had, along with cheese as well and a few other things.

Sure made my day to read about this from him and to hear about their visit from her.

Gives a body renewed hope then that Monday, Monday isn't a bad thing after all, is it?