Papa's Keys

Ever been driving and a thought just hit you. You don't know where it comes from or why it choses the particular moment to stream into your mind. Some times they are happy thoughts and other times they reduce you to tears. Today it was both.

I had taken Callie (the baby dog) to get a bath and was coming home when it rushed in and sat down beside me, begging me to remember. There was no reason or rhyme. Papa's keys.

When I was little, I didn't see them hanging up very often. They were always in his pocket. A small set of keys considering everything that they opened. I don't remember him giving them to anyone. If you needed into something with his keys, he would unlock it for you. They were his keys.

After he got sick, didn't drive anymore, or get around anymore, they hung on a hook by the door. That's the first time I remember being able to hold them. They were smooth and almost soft from years of use, his fingers working them. They were the keys to everything he had built in his life. The store and house. Gates on the farm. Garages of stuff, important things. Then there are the mysterious keys that he only knew what they belonged to.

There is power in those keys. Papa's power. Power that isn't merely given because you hold the keys. It has to be earned, like Papa earned it. If only I knew how to.

So they hang on the wall and ever so often I touch them. Papa's keys.

Counting Change

One of the ways that I save some extra money for my Disney trips (stop rolling your eyes... yes I'm talking about Disney again) is to put any change I have in a cookie jar. So I got the cookie jar down the other night and started sorting, counting, and stacking.

Now you're probably saying "Why not take it to the machine at the bank or the green machine at the grocery." Well when I see those machines I think about a Vegas slot machine... you put ten dollars in and get a dollar back. Not that I think that "they" have set the machine to take money...no...no conspiracy theory here. First of all I don't like the machines because they are so loud...counting by hand is quiet. Also the machine doesn't tell you how much you have until they are done. If you count by hand, you know as you go and there's a satisfaction there.

So I got done and have a tidy little sum to supplement my Disney money. That saving your change thing does work. Now I'm starting on next year's cookie jar.

Countdown

The weather has change. Cooler. Shorter days. Colorful leaves. That means.....DISNEYWORLD. 27 days and counting until I am in the World. There is no way I can explain how much I need this vacation and how much I need to have a recharge. I can't wait to walk under the train station and see the castle again. It's always like the first time.

I want to ride the new Pirates with Capt. Jack. I have refused to watch videos online because I wanted to experience it first hand. Same for the new haunted mansion.

My only sadness is that Spaceship Earth will not be open. Disney has delayed the opening until after the first of the year. I guess that will give me an extra special reason to go back next year. Like I really need a reason...shezz.

So 27 days and report to follow soon.