Thinking of Fall and Villa Rica

From my study window, I can see the street corner. There's an old, distinguished mansion that's crumbling, a sidewalk with all sorts of interesting people walking, a church, myriads of cars and trucks driving by, and a stand of poke salad growing up in the island out front. If the apocalypse comes, we can subsist on that a couple of days. My MawMaw used to pick that stuff out by the railroad tracks. She'd strip off the berries and the purple parts that were poisonous, then stew it with a hamhock all day. It still tasted terrible, but I'm sure there were times in her life that it tasted like heaven. With all the rain we've had this summer, our yard looks like a botanical wonderland, with all the strange weeds growing up. I bought Ken a new lawnmower last year, but since the bathrooms look like a gas station around here, maybe I won't mention it.

It's a sad thing to see that old mansion deteriorating. It's caught between the ravages of time and the luck of the draw. It can cost a fortune to keep a roof intact and to fight off the inevitability of the Second Law of Thermodynamics (basically, that everything breaks down unless you add energy to it). And it would take a heck of a lot of energy to save it now. I wish it were possible, but I also don't have the hundreds of thousands of dollars that it might need to rescue it. Meanwhile, we all have strong opinions one way or the other about what should happen with such things. There is that element of private property that reigns supreme. At the end of the day, what doesn't belong to me (and I'm not ultimately responsible for) is really none of my business, unless I'm willing to do something significant to fix it. Even then, unless I'm able to make it mine, it's still none of my business. We've avoided HOAs in neighborhoods for the same kinds of reasons. 

Summer is winding down, though you wouldn't know it by the temperatures. The promise of fall is there on my calendar. I love to think of the Gold Rush Days, the parade, our grandkids squealing for candy...it's always a fun spot in Villa Rica. We might get two weeks of respite from the heat before winter sets in, usually somewhere in November. You can have an outdoor wedding here pert near up to Christmas. This fall is going to be special though -- we're working on a wonderful Christmas Tour of Homes (that's going to be the second weekend of December) with lots of beautiful homes decorated for Christmas. There's also going to be several workshops from the Villa Rica Arts Coalition -- check them out on Google. One of them is in September, where we will be working on making garland and Christmas decor ahead of time. There are possibilities in the air. Meantime, maybe that will help cool off my brain.