Going to Springfield

I may not be here for a week. Da and I are going for our yearly visit to Springfield, Illinois. October is our favorite time back there. The summer humidity and heat are gone and the winter chill has not set in yet. It looks like we will get to see the fall colors at their peak this year, too. Sometimes we miss them, one can never really predict them that well. I always look forward to seeing them anyway. I'm taking my camera just in case.

More importantly, we also have relatives to see. Papa is 106 and a half! He reminds me of the energizer bunny--he keeps going and going and going. Da's sister, Emby, is there also. We will spend a lot of time with her, I'm sure. She knows Springfield very well, as well she should as she has lived there most of her life. Maybe I can get her blogging, too.

Emby's daughter and her husband live nearby, too. We won't see them this trip because he has recently retired and they are having fun traveling. He tells such tales out of school. You'd be amazed and amused at what a high school principal puts up with.

This will be a bittersweet trip, though. Papa has been in an assisted living facility for a year now and we are to start getting his house ready for sale. He has lived in Springfield all of his life and in only three houses, too. He was born in one in 1900. When he married in 1925 he moved to his second house and, shortly before he retired, in 1964 he moved to this house. There are a lot of memories there. Thankfully, that branch of the family doesn't exhibit any pack rat tendencies.