Here's our perfect bookcase and the wall behind it, plus the dining area

You know how much I like to read, so it should come as no surprise to you that this almost 90-inch-long bookcase hollered "Lynette" when I saw it at The House. I decided to leave it unfinished and protect the top shelf with light beige placemats. Family photos, a few what-nots and the pewter platter our RV park buddies gave us as a going away gift adorn that top shelf, while the rest is stuffed with books and some other treasures, like the small square oak boxes my brother Howard made for each of us, complete with our initials engraved on a brass plate he attached to the top.

You can see Mama's little bitty feet, resting there on her recliner, and Duncan curled up in his teensy basket, in one of the photos.

Mama looks good, sitting there and waving at y'all, doesn't she? We both got our hair permed and trimmed just a few days before I took this picture. We went to Salon in Vogue over on Hawthorne. I'm telling you, that street's important in our lives, isn't it? Even the restaurant where the guys cook, 3 Doors Down Cafe, is three doors off Hawthorne on 37th.

I've also discovered that if I needed to, I could go to the beauty shop (Hey, I'm Southern and find saying salon just not my style.) after work on the bus and get there about 5:20 p.m. Of course, I'd have to get on the bus again and either ride back up to where I work and wait for the Division bus, or ride it to 39th and Hawthorne and transfer to the 75 for the ride over to Division, then get onto the Division bus and ride it to the stop closest to our apartment. Or i could just ride the Hawthorne bus back towards the Willamette River and get off at 20th, then walk the eight or ten blocks home. Depending upon the weather, that's what I ought to do.

Confused? You wouldn't be if you were here, riding these buses. They're logical and timely. I've already down the Hawthorne, 75, Division thing and been to Walgreens twice and Fred Meyer once. Gas ranges from $2.73 to $3.29 a gallon here, in the last 48 hours. I imagine with the BP screw up on their pipeline, it'll continue to rise, and I'll continue to use the bus as much as possible.

Underneath Mama's chair, you can see our hardwood floors. To clean them, we've used a dry Swiffer, a wet Swiffer, or rags soaked in half white vinegar, half warm water, the wrung out and stuck onto the Swiffer handle. Please don't think that we do all of them one right after the other, though. Before we got here, we kept wondering how we'd get the chairs to slide in and out from underneath the table without scratching the floors. What a pleasant surprise we had in store for us--nothing scratches the floor! At least nothing we've yet done.

In the close-up of the wall's decorations, you can see my black and white David Rae Morris photograph of his daddy Willie Morris and Miss Welty. I love that photo and decided to hang my photos of the Lemuria sign and their neon one that says BOOKS right above the photo of those beloved Mississippi writers so well-represented at Lemuria over the years, in person and in print.

To the left of the photo, you'll notice a colorful framed piece with Bye, Bye Love in its lower right corner. That's the far-freakin'-out going away gift that the Jackson Free Press staff gave me. Jakob Clark made a mock JFP cover, complete with a date, volume number and issue number. He turned a wallet-size-senior-portrait of yours truly into groovy, multi-colored art for the mock cover. All in all, it's special for so many reasons, not the least of which are the memories I have of three years spent with those creative and determined people.

The small yellow and green work of art beneath the authors' photo is my Ellen Langford, Hop, that I found over at The Attic Gallery in Vicksburg. I'm tellin' you, you gotta go to that gallery. It'll blow your mind. See that photo in the top right corner of the close-up on the wall? Lesley Silver, co-owner of the gallery, took that photo; I'm pleased to say that I got it at a silent auction, fund-raiser. The colorful flowers in the vase is another piece of MSH patient art; the black and white trees I drew with a charcoal pencil in 1966, up in Starkville at a friend's family's land, off campus where I used to go run and walk. Oh, for those younger days!

That's our oak dining table with six of our eight chairs we bought at Lounge Lizard. Can you believe they're comfortable to sit in for extended periods of time? My booty and back testify that they are. That's a bowl of glass fruit and vegetables on the table, a real steal when each piece went on sale a couple of years ago. And finally you get to see our swag lamp, the one we were checking out when we accidentally found that floor lamp that's in the corner of the living room. When I saw the swag, I knew it was just the right size, shape and color--Mama thought so, too. Leland rewired it for us and put it up on the ceiling.

Now I know you're wondering why the wall behind the table is e-m-p-t-y. Right? Why, it's for future photos and art acquisitions.