you woo-oo send me, honest you do

Yesterday, I took the long way to Orlando. Why? Well, one thought led to another and the next thing I knew, I was leaving the road more traveled for the highway known as Corridor Z. That IS how these things start, isn't it? I was thinking of school, as I had just left it. Those thoughts led to ones of the lecture videos and a fictional conversation I might have with a student concerning changes that student might see in the current me as opposed to the one in 1995. I then thought of the factors which had helped me to BE that long-ago person and, quite naturally, Mama came to mind. And tears came to my eyes as I recalled how long it had been since I'd been to Grandma's grave to place the "permanent" flower. So you now have the convoluted rationale for me going about three hours out of my way to Florida.
It had been a few years since I had visited Thomas Cemetery. It's a small tract of land outside Waycross, a tract which had been in the family of my great-grandmother. Both of Mama's parents were buried there. My uncle Jimmy is also there, in a plot that awaits his widow and is near the grave of his third wife. Oh, yes, Granny (Thomas) White, my mother's grandmother, is also there, and is the one who granted passage to that bit of meadow to the other family members. (I'm sure Mama would have been buried there, as well, if not for love of, and by, my stepdad.)
So, I made it a point to visit all of their final resting places. The site for my grandparents was a bit overgrown, so I took a bit of time to clear away the crabgrass snaking its way hither and yon and resolved to put a spade and garden fork in the trunk for my next trip.
After taking several pictures of each grave, I resumed my southerly trek. The weather had been cooperating while I was grave-tending, but now it had opened back up and was again raining on me. Just as well, my car and my thoughts needed a washing!