After I walked six miles with Leslie Sansone this morning, Hazel came out of the closet and we deep cleaned the trailer and child-proofed it—just in case a child might show up. I have to admit that I like kids, but I purposefully chose not to have children, because I don't like them that much and I am not kidding.
As I cooked shrimp quesadillas for Tony's and my lunch, I nearly burned it, because I was worried about how I was going to entertain a child-for-a-day. During lunch I told Tony about having to spend my day with a kid and he laughed and then said, "Well, I'm not," he said. "If you go with me to Walmart you won't have to and the kid will go away. And seriously, I really doubt if a kid is going to show up, because your horoscope predicted it. And, if you think about it, Nance, we don't know anybody with young kids?"
Ten minutes later, after Tony and Buttermilk left for Kerrville, the dogs started barking outside and the first thing I thought was "the kid's here" so I went outside on the front porch and saw a car driving in. I didn't recognize the SUV, so I went down the steps, out the gate, to go meet the mystery child that I was suppose to spend my day with, and boy was I surprised!
I walked up to greet the smiling couple. "Welcome to the rescue ranch. I'm Nancy," I said, as I tried to see through their darkened car's windows to see if there was a kid inside the car.
"I'm Walt Ratliff and this is my beautiful wife Cheryl and we have been supporting your ranch for years," he said, as I nervously shook hands with both of them—waiting for a kid to suddenly pop out of their vehicle and start running around like a wild child. "We love Kinky," Cheryl said, "and we have read everyone of his books and we just wanted to come out and take a tour of the rescue ranch. Is that okay?"
"Sure," I said, relieved that they had not brought a child along with them for me to entertain. "Let me give y'all a tour." Because I was so happy about the childless couple I gave them the Grand Tour. We went into the Space Ship and then we went into Outer Space and drank some hot tea, then we went inside the trailer and then Kermit took us over to the Lodge for a fun visit with Kinky.
As we watched the Dallas Cowboys losing to the Chicago Bears, Walt said, "Kinky, one of my favorite lines of yours is when you said, 'Mr. President. Build that fence!'" And, we burst out laughing and then I shot them.
Then we went outside so they could see the Friedman Family Bone Orchard. As Kinky and I showed them the graves and talked about plants, Cheryl told me that she loved the pink Four O'clocks and was into planting native plants, so I broke off a small branch and handed it to her. "Take this home and just put some dirt on it and it will grow. I promise. I have some and..."
"I suggest that you plant it in a pot and keep it inside until Spring," Kinky suggested. "OMG! Look! My Plumaria's first bloom. It's beautiful." After we admired it—I shot it, too.
On our way back to the rescue ranch I said, "When we get back to the trailer I will get y'all a wet paper towel for the plant, so you can wrap it up until you get home and can plant it. And you can tell your Petal Pusher Club members that you have Kinky Four O'clocks." They laughed, stayed a little longer and then they thanked me for the Grand Tour and left. I really enjoyed Cheryl and Walt's visit.
An hour later Tony and Buttermilk came home. "I shot some beautiful pictures in the park after I went to Walmart and I can't wait to show them to you. Did a kid come out?"
"Nope, and I've had a great day. This really nice couple showed up and..." After I had told T. about Cheryl and Walt's fun visit I took a nap with Mama and Abbie, but I didn't sleep, because Mama kept tossing and turning and kissing me.
My dear friend, Reverend Analea Rawson, the minister for the Unity Church of Austin, arrived around six thirty bearing gifts—chairs to be exact. "Nancy, I love finding old chairs and fixing them up and giving them away to friends. I brought a chair for you, one for Tony and two rockers for Kinky."
I love Analea. We had a great visit and caught up with each other's news and then we went over to the Lodge, so she could visit with Kinky and give him her rockers, along with a bell and a dog statue to add to his Friedman Family Bone Orchard.
After Frank and Tony unloaded the chairs from the bed of her cool, white Toyota truck we walked around the side of the Lodge to the back porch and watched Kinky arrange them. Then we sat down in them and talked as the light rain fell. She and Kinky talked about Hawaii, Ireland and their other favorite places that would be nice to live and then we laughed a lot as they discussed politics, as Sophie happily sat in Kinky's lap as he stroked her. An hour later Analea and I were back in my kitchen, sipping hot tea, as we solved the world's problems. I really enjoyed Analea's visit, because she is such an 'up person' and we have so much in common. Before she left to drive back to Austin in the rain, we have decided to try to go together to northern New Mexico in October to visit Cindy and I'm keeping my fingers crossed for that trip to happen.
Today has been good. It rained early this morning and it is raining, again as I type this. This morning I got a phone call at 10:01 as I was jogging around the big room with Leslie and her walking buddies, so I let Carlton take the call. "Hello, Cousin Nancy and Tony. This is Jimmie and Nelda Dunn from Arkansas. Nelda and I want to drive down from DeQueen to come see y'all on Tuesday, September 28th and we wanted to check to see if that would be okay. Please call us at..." I was thrilled!
As soon as I walked six miles I jumped in the shower and cleaned up and then I went outside to tell T. about Jimmie calling and them coming down. "Tony, you can sure tell that Mercury is direct and is no longer in retrograde, because the Dunns are coming! Jimmie called and they want to..."
"I know, Nance," Tony said. "Jimmie wrote me on Facebook to tell me about them wanting to come down and see us. They are great people and..."
"I know, Tony," I said, as he fed Randy Travis, Moe Bandy and their sister, Mandy.
Early this evening I punched in the Dunn's phone number. "Hello?"
"Hello, Nelda, this is Nancy. Tony and I would love to see you and Jimmie on the 28th! We are really excited about it."
"Well, we are sort of like y'all. It is hard for us to take off with all of our animals. We have an old horse that has to be fed three times a day. Well, you know, Nancy. Anyway, we've been wanting to come see y'all for quite a while and our daughter told us that she will babysit our animals for us. So, we are going to drive down on Monday and stay in Bandera and then we will come see y'all on Tuesday. What time would be good for you? In the morning or after lunch?" After we decided on a time, Nelda and I visited a little longer and then we hung up on each other. We had us a Dunn deal, so to speak and we can't wait to see them. I know that Kinky would love to see them, too, but his schedule is real tight right now and I am not sure if he will be around, but I hope so. In fact, I wish that all of y'all could meet Nelda and Jimmie—they are our kind of people and I just wish that they lived a lot closer to us.
P.S. This is for Roger and Mary Peach. Congrats on winning the auction for Kinky's old electric typewriter with the F key not working. I planned to ship it out today, but we didn't make it to Kerrville today, so I apologize and I will ship it UPS to Kansas tomorrow. (What are 'riends 'or?)
Y'all have a great evening! I'm fixin' to pop some popcorn and we're going to watch Hawaii Five-0! I hope it's not real bloody.
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