I've Had My Eye on You for Years

Sounds a bit stalker-ish doesn't it? Makes you envision some guy in the bushes with night vision goggles or binoculars or a gal with a telephoto lens from across a busy thoroughfare watching one particular handsome fella who has no idea as he carries his gym bag to the cab to go get even more toned. Hell, maybe I should write a book. haha. But I don't have the time or patience for that anymore. Been there, done that and it, in all it's horribleness, is around here somewhere never to be read by human eyes (alien eyes feel free).

When I was a little girl, Wichita Falls was THE place to go shopping. At least for my Mom and Grandmother. Every time we went, when we were getting close, we would see the old burned out house on the hill which people now know as the "Witches Gate", (perhaps I'll link to an interesting article about that.) However, just a little further up on the other side of the road, there's another house. Back in those days, I think it was an actual farm house with inhabitants but over time, I've been watching the slow process of decay: the roof slowly losing shingles, the boards becoming more weathered, the barn looking less used and the grass growing ever higher.

A few days ago, I was going shopping for something to wear for Thanksgiving, and as I glanced over, like I typically do,  HOLY SMOKES!!! The front door was wide open. Well well well. Fortunately, I always take a camera or two because you just never know what you're gonna see when you leave your house, so I stopped by on my way back home. It was getting dusky and there was not much light left. "The golden hour."

There were signs everywhere that there was video surveillance. Purple posts, etc. but I pulled up the drive like I owned the place or had every intention of buying it and parked just behind a little building which would shelter most of my car from being seen from the highway. I got out, wielding my camera only,  stupidly leaving my cell phone in the car for the first time ever, but I wasn't alone. I had a partner in crime along with me.

We eased up to the house and went in the back door.

Then, looking around, we kept on going...

I couldn't believe the perfection of this scene. Door open, staircase, window open and curtains billowing. Like an urbex, rurex dream. 

I just had to get a close up of that billowy curtain and that perfectly broken window. Too fantastic.

Stepping past the stairway, I went on into the living room. Wow man! Dig the tv and that fantastic fireplace. I was lovin' it.

Crossing back in front of the stair well, we find these wicked French doors.

Going through that room, which I didn't. This is where we end up. In a dining area I guess, right off of the kitchen.

The kitchen had some issues.  It also led back out onto the back room porch that we went in through.

There was more to tell but I ran out of time and this post was years ago. Still I wanted to post it. Perhaps, I will add an addendum one day.

This is was a fun explore and one I will always remember. :)

New Adventures

On a quiet winding road in the middle of nowhere on a Sunday afternoon, sat this beautiful old church. The ground beneath my feet was damp and even crunchy as I walked to get this shot. I could hear the blissful sound of a babbling brook across the tiny two lane blacktop but I didn't venture across to snap a shot of that. There will be plenty of those shots in my future.
I chose this little country church to be the first post in my new saga because of my firm belief that God has led me to be where I am. As He generally does, He closed doors that needed closing and opened up new ones so that I would find the path He has laid out for me.
I've been a wreck, emotionally and physically, since Feb 2018. I've been lost and hopeless. Sad and dejected. Going through the motions of a life that didn't really feel like mine anymore. I drank too much, I cried too much, I ate too much. I didn't exercise enough. I stayed in my home as much and as often as I could.
I made mistakes. So many mistakes. I traded in the car that was solely mine to get a fancy dancy SUV that was just taken from me in the divorce. I stayed with a man who didn't love me because he can't love anyone but himself because I hoped against hope that the life we had before would come back if I waited long enough. But it didn't.
I didn't do enough to make my kids happy. I didn't spend enough time with my grandkids. The list goes on and on.
So, after being summarily told by every single person I know that there is no place for me in their home, and on some occasions, in their life. Then, just as I was losing hope to the point I thought I would be going home to see my Mom in the great beyond, a friend of mine from years back offered me a place to stay in a town nearly 1100 miles away. No strings attached. Just come up and you can stay and look for a job up here and I've already had a couple of call backs for jobs so I feel like that is a good sign.
I've been here 6 days today. It seems like a lifetime for some reason but not in a bad way. I'm so very grateful for this friend, who really in the past was only a passing acquaintance at my old job as we worked different shifts and only saw each other at shift change, to have been so open that she gave me an opportunity to change my life.
It may last forever up here in this paradise or I may end up having to turn tail and run back home to Texas, but you can bet I'm going to do my very best to make a new life up here and start living for me. This is the kind of place I've always dreamed of. I even wrote a story once similar to this. Maybe it was a self fulfilling prophecy.
At any rate, in my new little journal, there's a page that says, "If you find yourself in the wrong story, leave." So I did.

~Thank you. God, for helping me to stand up, dust myself off and begin to believe I deserve a second chance at this life. I owe everything I am and will ever be to You, Heavenly Father. Amen.~