The Rain Man Cometh!

Today has been a fantastic day. This morning while I was outside cleaning the dog pens for Tony, our good friend "Rick the Friendly Lighthouse Keeper" called and left this message on Carlton, "Nancy, Tony, this is Rick. I had to come up to San Antone to pick something up and I hope that y'all have your gate opened because I am heading your way right now. Bye."

A little after 12:30 the dogs started barking outside, so Tony went outside to greet Rick, but it wasn't Rick, instead it was our dear friend Fourth, from Medina. As Fourth and T. walked inside the trailer he said, "Nance, look what Fourth has made for me." I looked at it and I thought it was beautiful, especially the long braided leather strap, but I didn't know what it was.

"Fourth, I love it, but what is it?" They laughed and then Tony said, "It's a Gitter," as Fourth untied the leather pouch at the end of the pole that protected the two metal prongs.

 "A Gitter?"

"It's a arrowhead finder for us old people, so they we don't have to bend over when we are looking for arrowheads, Nancy," Fourth explained, as I admired it, while wishing it was mine.

"Tony, maybe Fourth made this Gitter for the both of us?" I teased.

"Sorry, Nancy, but I have already engraved Tony's name on the leather handle at the top. See?" After I saw the word "Tony" I sat it down and then I told Fourth all about our newly formed band, "L—BeNT and Husky Bound" and then I went and got my guitar, out of my office, to show it to Fourth, because he told us that he knew how to play guitar, but he hadn't played his guitar in years. Then he started playing my guitar and Tony and I were very impressed with his guitar playing skills.

While Fourth played my guitar he told us about his mother making him take piano lessons when he was a kid and he said that he wasn't very good at it and the only song that he learned to play, after a year of lessons, was "Wigwam." And we started laughing, even though I didn't know that song, but they did.

"Hey, Fourth, Nancy has a keyboard!"

"Fourth, we could all learn how to play, "Wigwam" and then you could be our mystery guest performer and come out on stage and just play that one song and then walk off!" Fourth shook his head sideways to say, "No", because he could not quit laughing at my idea. Then we had a fun, but short visit with him.

Ten minutes after Fourth drove away, the dogs outside started barking, again and this time it was Rick. After howdies and hugs I invited Rick to eat lunch with us, "We're having Cousin Nancy's Spaghetti."

As we ate and caught up with each other's news Rick told me the spaghetti was delicious and that he wanted to know my recipe. "Garlic, onion, tomato sauce and my secret ingredient is Adam's Reserve: Cajun Seasoning. I like it better than regular spaghetti." Then I told Rick all about our new band, because he is one heck of good mandolin player and he has played with several famous musicians and we had a fun, but short visit with him, too.

At 5:00 this evening the phone rang—it was Kinky! "Hi, Nance, I just got back. Do you and Tony want to come over for a visit?" Three minutes later we were over at the Lodge visiting with Kinky and talking about Kia flying up to Toronto and how great it was that she was adopted by Fay and her family.

When we went outside to plant the solar Hummingbird stick, that our friend Monk had left for us to give to him, when we went to the Kerrville Folk Festival with Monk, I glanced up at the sky and said, "Tony says that it is going to rain." Then we sat down at the picnic table and started talking about the serious drought that we were in.

When a big dust devil suddenly appeared out of nowhere on the flat Kinky said, "I've haven't seen it this dry since the Fifties." Then we heard a loud, thunder clap, the wind picked up and the temperature started dropping. "Ole Tone just might be right about us getting some rain." Then I started laughing.

"I can just see it now, Kinky," I said, sitting right next to Kinky. "You come back to the ranch and twenty minutes later we all get struck by lightning." They started laughing and then we felt a couple of raindrops and then I jokingly said, "Kinky, you brought us rain. The rain man cometh and you're the rain man."

A few minutes later, after another nearby, loud thunder clap, Tony and I quickly adios-ed Kinky, because I needed to get home so I could unplug everything and I am so glad that we left when we did, because the minute that we walked inside our trailer—it started raining! And it rained for forty-one minutes—thank goodness and it looks like we might  possibly get some more.

And that is about it for today. Thank y'all for praying for rain for us, but please don't stop.

Y'all have a great evening!