Goodbye Dolly

Well, the news of the day was sad news - Dolly Parton passed away, and of course that'll be in the news cycle for a while.  I think Dolly might have been one of the most iconic and beloved celebrities in recent memory, universally adored for creativity and generosity.  We made our way to Dollywood repeatedly, of course, and we have some of her music that we picked up each visit, along with stickers, Funko pop figures, clothing and all sorts of other souvenirs.  And movies too - I was forgetting those.  Anyway, it was pretty shocking and sad news today, and it spread around to all of us so quickly.  It wasn't too long later that this was all we were talking about, and of course playing all kinds of her music as well.  

This is completely random, but I took this picture at Dollywood a few years ago.  It’s a picture of a puddle from a recent rainfall, and of course, there in the reflection was a mural of Dolly illuminated by sunlight.  

It’s sort of symbolic in a way, a”light of the world,” a bright and shining face standing out amidst all that grey.  That was her, a splash of sunlight, a positive presence in a dark world.

Today we finished up the racing theme book for October, the series we're calling "DRIVE."  I did that booklet pretty quickly, and am moving on to the next booklet right away to get ahead of things - it's our November booklet.  

Tonight was a big game for the Braves, and they won against the Dodgers in a nail-biter sort of game that just felt like an October kind of game.  There was such tension and every at-bat held meaning and importance and... well, let's just say it was an exciting game.  And we won, and that made it so much more delicious.

It's time for bed though.  We read tonight, and then said our prayers - time for sleep.