Davis and I got home, a couple of days ago, from getting away for a long weekend. We went to Bardstown, Kentucky to attend the funeral of the father of our friend, David. Picturesque town and such hospitable people. They invited all of the Mississippi travelers to join the family, after the service, for the noon meal provided by the ladies of the church. I'd just like to insert here that, no matter where you go, you're in good, loving hands when you're being cared for by church ladies. They're just a special lot. Thank heavens for the ministry of fried chicken and banana pudding and the sweet hands that prepare it. Amen.

Louisville was the only city I'd ever been to in Kentucky, so it was nice to visit the place named "America's Most Beautiful Small Town", a few years ago. I was so happy to meet some sweet Muffintoppers there in the bluegrass state, too. Hey to y'all.

From there, we went back down to Nashville for a couple of days. Davis and I feel like we're two Mississippi anomalies in that we don't really like country music. Even though the city, where we live, boasts as being the hometown of the Father of Country Music, I can only list about 8 country songs ever recorded, since the genre's Mississippi conception, that I've liked. Because of this, most of our time was spent at historical sights....except for Lincoln's birthplace, which was closed due to the government shutdown. It was our Clark Griswold moment to drive up to locked gates adorned with the unfortunate signage.

We did stay at the Opryland Hotel for the first time. I'd been there to look around, but had never stayed there, so that was nice. If you've never been, you should go if you get the chance. From the moment we arrived at the hotel, we heard much ado about the impending snowstorm that was coming and would almost certainly leave the South looking like Quebec. We kept hearing people mention the coming precipitation and, first, Davis' dad called and then my mother to warn us of the winter apocalypse that was imminent. I mean, like Davis, who is weather obsessed, wasn't already well aware of the forecast and the hour by hour probabilities. But, that's just what southern parents do when the weatherman mentions any form of frozen precipitation....call all the young'uns, no matter how old they are, to warn them of how slick the roads will be. We assured everyone that we'd be home well before the blizzard of '19.
We got home, Monday night, and Davis ran to the store for a few essentials since we'd been gone. He ran into the milk and bread stampede.....fellow southerners gearing up to be snowed in for, perhaps, months. School had already been cancelled for the next day and that was their cue to rush out and get their obligatory ham, cheese, peanut butter, bread, milk, Little Debbie's, and maybe a can or two of Hormel chili. I mean, we don't even flirt with the possibility of starving during a winter weather event down here. It just ain't gonna happen.


Anyway, when we got home, we both had some catching up to do with our work. Davis, since retiring from his job with the Department of Agriculture, started doing insurance inspections for several different companies. It's a nice change of pace from his former office job. He gets to be out and about inspecting homes and businesses and it really suits his gift of attention to detail.

Well, he was in the shower, last night, after a long day of working out in the treacherous snow, and I'd sat down in my new chair to relax....which I am loving, by the way. I got my iPad and leaned back and put my feet up. I checked my emails, texts, and then started scrolling down my Facebook feed.

I follow a local Community Watch page, which alerts people in the area about crimes and suspicious cars or behaviors. Somebody is always posting pictures of something that's going on in our town, so imagine my surprise when I saw someone had posted a still picture taken from their home security camera of a man walking across their backyard, who I thought looked a tad familiar. I zoomed in on the picture and my suspicions were confirmed.

It. Was. Davis. With a caption something like..."Does anyone know this man? He was caught on my property by my surveillance cameras." There Inspector Davis was on our local crime watcher page. With his clipboard and camera around his neck. It was such a proud moment. My husband's picture had garnered the heading, Do you know this man?

"Um, Davis," I yelled out toward the bathroom, where he was getting out of the shower, "you might want to come see this," I continued. As I'm calling him, my phone starts vibrating and ringing and dinging and all the things that one's phone does when one's family is suddenly at the center of a small town scandal. Davis emerges from the steamy bathroom to discover he's one of America's most wanted, while I'm explaining the situation to one of the concerned friends on the phone. Ding, ding, ding. Ring, ring, ring goes my phone. Friends reaching out to inform us of Davis' appearance on the page, which features only the most lawless among us. I assured everyone that we were aware and were working to diffuse the matter....even though I kind of liked this new bad boy image Davis had suddenly acquired. I reached out to the man, who'd posted the picture, and the situation was quickly resolved. Bad Davis was then restored to Good Davis, once again, and the world was right again.

Davis might be the most straight-laced, law abiding, responsible citizen that I know. He adheres to all laws and rules and regulations....even the dumb ones......and the ones that almost everyone else ignores.....and the ones that cause a trip to Kentucky to take much longer than it would if, say, I were driving......so the fact that he was the one in our family to end up on Community Watch has given us all a healthy dose of belly laughter.