~ What a Week ..... Rain, Chain Reaction & Gardening

Next time we have vacation days, maybe we'll leave town. While in the midst of redoing the flower beds next the new walkway, I made a run to Home Depot. On the way back I got rear-ended while sitting patiently at a stop light. Of course I'm thankful that I wasn't hurt, and there was amazingly no damage to Sweet Husband's truck. More importantly, since it was a 6 car chain reaction and there were 5 children in the cars, none of them were hurt. The last car which hit was most likely talking on his cell phone according to those who saw him, and either ran the light behind us or just didn't stop for the cars at the light in front, which was me and the other 4 cars behind me.

The lesson maybe to just not go to Home Depot and only shop at Lowe's. But I did go there first and they didn't have the plants that I needed. I knew Home Depot did because we were there buying them the day before. Five years ago Sweet Daughter's car was hit on the same road, and yes she was going to Home Depot. For me. She says we should just stay away from that store. I say, I'll take a different road from now on.

I was very thankful that I was not in my car that I've only had a few months. The truck had a few marks, the suv behind me had about the same. But the small car that ran into him was smashed on both ends. Of course the next cars all had damage as well.

We were out in the hot sun for about 2 hours by a 6 lane road, while the police woman wrote a report for everyone. So remember to pack sunscreen when you drive just in case.

When we stay home during a vacation the one thing that helps make the week seem a little longer is to take off somewhere at the beginning. So off to Renninger's in Mt. Dora we went.

The first picture is of the "rolling hills" (Florida-style) during the Extravaganza at Renninger's, with tents, vendors and people as far as you can see. That treeline hides the permanent buildings that house antique dealers all year long.



While I was standing up at the top of that hill, I mentioned that I didn't remember a lake down by the trees. It really didn't even come to mind that the water wasn't usually there. When we got down to the other side, this is what we found. And this really makes it look like a small amount of water. It had already receded about a foot lower by the time we saw it.



Most of the vendors had already closed up and either taken their goods and had to toss them out. The one booth shows the damage at the bottom of the furniture from standing water. It might seem like such a fun thing to run a little business like this, but you certainly never know when something like this could happen.

The next Extravaganza will be in Nov. The water will be all gone and it should be dry enough to set up all those tents and booths again. Strange how things can happen that totally alter people's lives and there is so little left behind to ever know about it.

The gardening however went extremely well. I'll be back ... soon.