I got to the historic Eagle Hotel at 1:00 p.m. and first noticed that my potential parking spaces had been taken by Pam and Robert, who are both board members. So I had to park on the far side of the street. Grr, grr, grr. I strode into the former banquet room and expressed my displeasure. Both laughed.

I then started to grouse about the fact that the yellow lines had not been put down in the parking lot, which meant that tomorrow, it would be off limits for parking.

Robert, beaming, said that he’d talked to Atli, the building owner who said that they’d take down the barricade in the afternoon. The barricade is two

Cherokee and Chicky Dew

wood/wrought iron benches with crime scene tape in between. I was glad to hear this, and glad to hear other good news, which was that Atli said he was going to replace the lowered ceiling tiles (which he did) and clean up the front entrance area, which he did.

I was still dubious about having parking lot access, my thinking was that the crew would go in and put down the lines then say that the lot is off limits. I mentioned this at 2:00 p.m. to Steve, the fellow who rode the tricycle bicycle in the parade, and he said that the crew would not be putting the white lines down because the weather forecast indicated that it was going to start to rain at 4:00 p.m., which is did. And, he added, it would remain wet so putting down lines would remain out of the question.

I told him that I didn’t think it was going to rain. I based this on the fact that there were lighter gray patches at the distance. He shook his head and filled the mop bucket for me.

I ought not have doubted Steve because he was right. At 4:00 p.m. the sky opened up and it began raining hard. I stood at one of the windows in the former banquet room and watched the precipitate puddle on the new asphalt. I then watched Robert and Pete gather up and put the wood beside the dumpster into the dumpster.

So, tomorrow the parking lot will be available to those coming to our open house event.

It’s been quite the week, what with the parking lot being ripped up and new asphalt being put down. And the construction and parking lot activity across the way is still going on. I have not been able to wear my hearing aids because they do not screen out ambient noise.

The rain. I was okay with it earlier today, and I’m okay with it now. We live at the foothills of the Talkeetna Range, so we won’t be flooded out, as I was when I lived in South Carolina. Then the Waccamaw River overflowed its banks, and my cracker barrel house was flooded out.

The horses are not happy about the rain, and the goats aren’t particularly pleased either. I tell them all it could be far worse. Do they believe me? I think, I am only as good as my word.

Next: 253. 9/15/23: Mid-month