marshmallows again!

"Oh, no, have you gotten back onto that kick?" 

Not yet, but that may soon be forthcoming. Bonnie and Don just had their Midsummer Hang and marshmallows were again featured!

"Really? Another party? That's twice this year, isn't it?" 

Um, no. Their first one with marshmallows was almost a year ago. Then came Hurricane Helene, throwing a tree into their back yard and generally wrecking things. They've finally gotten all that taken rectified, including rebuilding their shed, setting up a new swing, and buying a new fire pit. Time for s'mores, y'all!

"Hey, I recognize those people! That's Jason Arons watching as Brenda Mattingly and Bonnie roast their marshmallows."

Actually, the women were making the chocolate-graham-mallow treats just before Brenda and John said their adieus. That neatly coincided with the arrival of Kate Strickland, nee Faford, one of the nursing students from my Italian trip in 2012. So good to see her again! Surprisingly, she didn't remember anything about the night in Salerno when our guide's brother took us to the archaeological dig. Right? That had been such a big deal for me, seeing those relics of the Roman baths that had lain beneath the bakery floor!!! No one had a clue until the new owner of the store decided to renovate and found them.

"That's right!!! That was so very cool, tromping around in new ruins! There was even a mosaic down there of some goddess. You need to find those photos. How did that even come up in conversation?"

I was talking with Bonnie, Don, Roberta, Lavon, and Jason, over by the new swing set, and the topic of roads in Savannah came up. Ever since Abercorn was resurfaced, it's an obstacle course to avoid the manhole covers that were left lower than the new road. I brought up the ripples in Drayton Street that have risen about three decades ago and no one knew what I was talking about. They are all young enough to regard those as "always having been there", but I remembered when Drayton was flat. Then we got into a talk about the substrate and the shifting, overlapped, layers of sand and clay in this area and how those layers have been added to in the two centuries since Savannah was built, especially with the addition of multi-story hotels and other structures in the last two decades. I held that those new weights had changed the dynamics of the substrate, resulting in Drayton's ripple.

"And all of that led to the Roman ruins in Salerno?"

Rabbit holes, right? They're not just on the internet! 

"For sure. Hey, that's Don and Roberta in the other photo, right?"

You betcha! And here were Chris and Barbara Gooby, for the second time this week. Kate had just arrived moments before they left for a dinner somewhere. Weekends can be so very busy, you know?

"I do! Plus there are all the musicals going on..."

Right? So many choices for a busy, vibrant, woman!