Old Foggy.... EEEEEEE---OOOOOOOOOOhhhhhhhh

This morning's fog was hanging there, waiting for me as I got into my car for school...  creeping around the corners of the barn and haunting the edges of our woods.  I loved it, and if I hadn't been running just a tad bit behind schedule, I would have snapped happily away for as long as the grey mist awaited and the sun remained hidden.  I watched the sun's silver light through the clouds...  The fog brought it to a silvery, moon-like state, and I was glad to see it.  I love the sunshine, but I sometimes think it is all uppity over the moon because it is so much brighter and beloved, especially during the winter...  the moon doesn't stand a chance, except with lovers and poets...  and me.

I know..  I am NOT the girl for teaching today.  This would be the moment to grab a book and a cup of hot tea or coffee and head for a cozy nook to spend a happy moment in some faraway land...  The good, deep fog bewitched me, body and soul.  I was a goner as soon as I stepped into the aura of it.  I couldn't stop my heart and mind from taking a little trip to my childhood, to the going-to-sleep story my daddy always told me of "Old Foggy."

His story was one of a young soldier ( My Daddy).  The army soldier was away from his family and his girl (Mom)...  The story always got better then.  I wasn't any different from anyone else in this world.  I always loved the stories and magic to be all about me.  My daddy usually told me this story as I was winding down and trying to sleep.  I fight sleep like a little tiger, but the long and inspiring tale of "Old Foggy" always brought me into that dreamlike state that leads to bed.  "Old Foggy" was the name Daddy gave to the ship that transported him across the Pacific, to Japan, and then gloriously BACK HOME again...  I wish, for genealogy reasons, I knew the real name of the ships, but to me, the name will forever be "Old Foggy" (both ways, which I know is impossible or highly unlikely.)

The Pacific must have been wreathed in fog for night after night, and the ship bellowed the fog horn, "EEEEEOOOOOOOOHHHHH" that my Daddy could imitate with his deep, baritone voice.  I loved to hear him sound that horn in the story...  It meant he was headed home to his girl...  and then the story ended with the most magical of all events...  After he got home and stayed there where he was happy for a while, he had a little girl...  and she was the reason he had traveled back over the ocean during that post WW2 time...

And that little reason/princess was me.  So, you see when the fog is out and the sun is hidden, that little princess doesn't think she should have to work...  she wants to crawl back into bed and listen for that comforting voice....  and the warm tales of the "Old Foggy" story-teller from her past...

However, this is 2011, and my dear students await...  Some of them are going to work on PowerPoints this morning, and the fog in my brain BETTER move on out!! haha...

Gotta Love the weather....