Parting Gift

I flew back to Tampa yesterday to spend a long weekend with Dean and the kitties. I was so worried that either the kitties would have forgotten who I was or they would completely ignore me in classic cat fashion and they'd warm up to me only on my last day. Neither turned out to be the case. All three gladly greeted me right at the door. Unfortunately Wrigley was so overjoyed by my homecoming that he kept me up most of the night last night. That's okay though because I'm spending a lazy day on the couch dozing and watching the Twins game. Everything is just perfect.

Since I've been gone, our long time neighbors across the hall have moved away. That made me a little sad to hear because they were a very nice family. Like a lot of families around here, they were pretty religious. Despite the fact that I'm an emphatic agnostic, I really do like seeing the Southerners dress up on Sunday mornings in their pinstripes and hats. They were one of those families. Part of their charm was that they kept this outside their door:

While I wouldn't be too happy if this were a fancy-dancy highbrow apartment complex where I spent hours laboring over the outside appearance of our home, I kinda like this angel- fake flowers and all. She exemplifies Florida life as I've experienced it. Low income but happy and hopeful.

Well, now she's ours. Dean found her shoved up against our door after our neighbors moved away. We're not sure if it was laziness , lack of room in the moving van or a strong statement about the fact that we lived in sin across the hall from them for four years. Whatever the reason, she's welcome here until we move away and probably shove her back up against the new neighbors door.