Part II: The Blue Chair!

And as luck would it—I spotted Ellen and June, our dear friends/volunteers over by Julia's and Andy's pillow booth. (Remember two Sundays ago I blogged about Ellen coming out with her friends Julia and Andy, the pillow people, so they could see our rescue ranch and do a little birdwatching, in The Okay Coral.)

So I jumped out of the blue chair, said goodbye to the nice woman and then I skipped over to greet them. Like me, June and Ellen were totally surprised to see me there and they could not believe that I had come to the festival without Tony. And because those sisters are such nice women they invited me to come sit with them, on the bench seats, on the other side of the stage.

This is a picture that I took, as soon as I finally found the blue chair. The blue quilt, lower right hand corner, belonged to the nice lady who had let me sit by her.

Because the blue chair was extremely difficult for me to clasp my thumb and index finger around two of its legs, I picked it up, propped it up against my shoulder, like the marching, rifle people do, in parades and then I followed Ellen and June to their bench seats.

I ended up sitting on the end of the bench, next to June and while I was wrestling with the stupid blue chair, trying to get it to go under the bench, Donna and Ryan walked up and greeted me. "We're so glad that you decided to come to the festival. Tony, called us right after you left and he told us that you were coming and to be on the lookout for you. We also brought a blue chair for you to sit in. Why don't you come sit with us and our friends? We're sitting just a few rows back." So I thanked June and Ellen for taking me under their wings and letting me sit with them and then I once again wrestled with the blue chair.

Before I sat down, in their blue chair, Donna and Ryan introduced me to their nice friends and one of them was an original member of the famous 13th Floor Elevators. Once seated, I placed my blue chair, on the ground, between Donna's and my blue chairs. Then I started visiting with Donna and that's when we decided to go backstage, with a couple of other friends to watch the fabulous Bluegrass band, Wood & Wire, finish up their set, before David Crosby came on stage. And it was fun, even though I didn't get to meet Crosby.

David Crosby looked great, he was funny and his voice and songs mesmerized me until a sweet friend of Donna's and Ryan walked up to greet them, because I heard her tell Donna that she had forgotten to bring a chair. "Here," I said. "You're welcome to use my blue chair." Then I happily handed off the blue chair and then sat back and enjoyed the rest of the concert.

David Crosby played for nearly one and a half hours and his concert was greater than great. When it ended Donna and Ryan took off to go backstage and because it was way past my bedtime I decided to go ahead and leave before the final set. Even though Ryan and Donna had offered to drive me, after the concert ended, to row 12, where I had left Trigger.

And before I walked away, I told their friend to please thank Ryan and Donna for letting me sit with them and then I said, "Oh, and you can have the blue chair, too. I don't want it, because there are too many blue chairs here. I'm going to buy me a pink one, so it will be easier to spot next year."

I made it home safely and I drove 40 all of the way home and I only saw one car on the road and it was way far behind me. I am glad that I drove slow, because I almost hit a fox and then had to brake hard for a cute armadillo, crossing the highway.

I walked inside, The Cabin, a few minutes before midnight and our dogs greeted me at the door, because Tony was already sound asleep.

Sunday morning when I was starting to tell Tony about the concert, he interrupted me and asked, "Where's my blue chair?"

"I gave the blue chair away. I'm sorry, I didn't know it was yours. Anyway, I didn't want to have to drag it back home...."

After I had told Tony the entire story of the blue chair. Tony was frowning. "Nance, I loved the blue chair. It was the one that I bought, because it was wired with built-in speakers, so I could plug in my iPod and listen to my music. It was my fishing chair."

"I'm sorry I didn't know that," I apologized. "I thought it was just another blue chair. I'll buy you another one this week, but can we please get you a different color?"

"No, because I think they only come in blue." His words gave me the Blues, so I grabbed my guitar and went, into Outer Space, to practice playing the Blues scales that I've recently learned.

I am so glad that I got out of my comfort zone and made myself go see David Crosby, at the Kerrville Music Festival, because it was a wonderful night that I shall long remember. And it was a night that Tony will not forget until I replace the blue chair. And that's about it for tonight.

Y'all have a great evening!

The Blue Chair!

Saturday was so great. In the late afternoon Kinky called me to tell me that our good friends Ryan and Donna Hatch were over at the Lodge visiting him and that they had a 2015 Kerrville Blues & Roots Workshop t-shirt  to give to me. "Omg, can I come over?" I asked.

Two minutes later, I was hugging Donna and Ryan, in Kinky's kitchen, thanking them for giving me Ryan's expensive ticket to attend that awesome Blues workshop, at the Kerrville Folk Festival, taught by the incredibly talented, great Blues man, Reverend Robert B. Jones. And a few seconds later, they handed me the super cool t-shirt.

Then we all went outside to visit on Kinky's front porch. We laughed and talked about Robert's awesome workshop, guitars, the all of the wonderful and much needed rain that we luckily all received and the David Crosby's concert. "Tony can't go to it tonight, because he's feeling puny and I really want to go to it, because I love David Crosby so much," I said. "So when Tony cancelled on me, I called our dear friend Steve Pietzsch to see if he wanted to go with me instead. He loves Crosby as much as I do and he saw him in a Dallas concert, years ago and he told me that it was the night that David Crosby got busted. He told me that David played one set and then he went off stage and was immediately arrested for drugs. I really want to go, but I am night blind."

"Nancy," Donna said. "Why don't you let Ryan and me come pick you up and take you back home, so you can get to see Crosby? We'd love to do it..." After I asked them to let me think about it and call them back Tony showed up to visit with us.

Then we all sat and listened to several of the incredibly great cuts, off of Kinky's new CD, scheduled to be released in October. And Ryan and Donna loved it, too. And, before Tony and I hugged and adios-ed our dear friends I told them about how much I loved the Science Channel, especially their informative shows: NASA's Unexplained Files and MythBusters.

When we got back home I was still "on the fence" about going to David Crosby's concert, at the Kerrville Folk Festival, because I love him, but I didn't want Donna and Ryan to have to spend a lot of wasted time to come pick me up and take me back home. And fifteen minutes later, after purchasing a ticket Online, I said, "Tony, would you mind going outside to find me one of our collapsable chairs to take to the concert?"

At 7:45 I carefully parked and locked up Trigger, in the Kerrville Folk Festival's 12th row, in their parking lot, across the highway from the music festival and I was proudly wearing my new, super cool, burgundy colored, 2015 Kerrville Folk Festival Blues & Roots Workshop t-shirt that Ryan and Donna had given to me earlier. But I felt naked, crossing the highway, without carrying my new guitar, in my hand. Then things went south.

When I arrived at the amphitheater, I couldn't find Donna or Ryan anywhere, so I walked up and planted my blue collapsible chair next to a sweet-looking, gray-haired woman like me, that had two quilts spread out in front of her, on the ground and said to her, "I'm lost and I can't find my friends. Would you mind me sitting next to you?"

She smiled at me and shook her head up and down. So I opened up and planted the blue chair and then I took off to go buy a Coke, but instead ended up with a Dr. Pepper, because they had run out of it.

On my way back, I got turned around and could not remember exactly where I had left the blue chair, which was no big deal to me, because this happens all of the time to me. Anyway, I finally found my blue chair or so I thought.

I sat down in a blue chair, that looked just like mine, but the old woman and quilts were gone now and she had been replaced by a handsome, 40ish-looking, kind man, that uncomfortably looked and smiled at me, as I sat down, in the blue chair.

After looking at hundreds of blue chairs, that looked just like mine, it took me about three minutes to realize that I was not sitting in my blue chair, because my chair, bought from Walmart years ago, had black legs—not silver ones like the one I was sitting in, so I said to the nervous looking stranger, sitting beside me, "Sorry, I think that I am lost and I don't think this is my blue chair after all." Then I got up and quickly walked away, to hopefully go find my blue chair.

As luck would have it I finally found my blue chair, far back, on the right side of the stage area. When I laughed and joked to the nice, friendly woman about me getting lost and accidentally sitting in someone elses' blue chair, she laughed with me. And while I was sitting next to her and her family and listening to some great musicians, I kept looking around hoping to spot our dear friends Donna and Ryan.

To Be Continued...(Sorry, Mari. This is a pretty long story with a happy ending.)

Y'all have a great evening!

A Roll! or Flat Tire!

Today has been great. This morning June, Eileen, The Mineral Man, Suzanne and Jim, our great friends/volunteers came out to walk our dogs for us and Jim brought along Ruthie, his super sweet sister-in-law, that is down here visiting them.

Before we all went up to the Koyote Grill, at the Medina Highpoint Resort, to eat lunch together, I invited everyone to come up to The Cabin, because I could not wait to show them my new Mara, Made In Mexico, mugs that I love and am so proud of.

Everyone loved my marvelous, Mara mugs. Ruthie liked the howling coyote, in the desert, mug that she was drinking coffee out of and Eileen was fond of the bear paw mug. Tony's favorite is the dragonfly mug and my favorite mug, for now, is the moose, in the mountains, even though I actually love all six of them.

When all of us took off to go eat lunch together, at the Medina Highpoint Resort's Koyote Grill, Tony and I, who were the last to leave, saw Carol & Bill, our dear friends and newly wed, wave to us as they drove past us, as we were about to turn onto Hwy. 16. And they ended up eating lunch with all of us, too!

Omg, our lunch with our fabulous, fun to be with friends, was so much fun and the food was delicious, too. At one point during our hilarious conversations I told them the story, that I had recently heard, about the famous Gage Hotel's White Buffalo Bar that has a white buffalo head mounted on its wall.

Then I completely changed the subject, because I love buffaloes and white buffaloes are considered sacred by Native Americans. "Last night, for some reason, I was surfing the channels and decided to watch the Science channel. I've never watched the Science channel, because I nearly flunked science, in high school. Anyway, I ended up watching two episodes of NASA's Unexplained Files."

"The first show was titled Did We Nuke Jupiter and it was an investigation about the possibility of NASA intentionally crashing a newly, retired, nuclear spacecraft, from the Apollo program, on Jupiter..." After their eyes quit rolling, several hilarious remarks made, some teasing and a lot of laughter, I realized that I was on a roll, so I decided to tell them about the other NASA's Unexplained Files episode that I had also watched.

"The second episode I watched was about NASA having put one of their sophisticated "land rovers," on Mars, to roam around and take pictures of the planet, so they could learn more about Mars. Anyway, this unmanned, land rover ended up taking several pictures of something it found on the ground, that looked just like a half-eaten jellyroll and none of NASA's brilliant scientists could explain it." Then everyone, at our table, burst out laughing including me.

When the laughter finally subsided, I continued on, "Seriously, I saw the pictures taken of it and it looked just like a half-eaten jellyroll with red jelly on the inside." Then I stopped talking, because everyone was laughing so hard and making hilarious comments about it. "Personally, I am thinking that the jellyroll was left there by a Martian, with a good sense of humor, to be a joke, after an Earth visit."

Then Carol winks at me and jokes, "Yeah, and who knows just how long that half-eaten thing has been on Mars, because the nasty stuff they put in jellyrolls today can take years and years to digest or maybe never disintegrate." And her hilarious remark made all of us roar with laughter.

And that is about it for tonight, because we're fixin' to go outside to do some more mowing. And after that I plan to watch the Science Channel's MythBusters episode, at 8:00, titled Fix A Flat, a 2011 documentary about changing a flat tire without a spare, because I love the Science Channel and need to know this stuff!

Y'all have a great evening!

Tension Convention!

Like Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, today has been great, too. Early Monday afternoon, after I had finished writing a grant proposal, Tony and I went to Kerrville to run a few errands.

We ate lunch at our favorite Thai restaurant, Thai Ocha. We had invited Kinky to join us and even though he couldn't join us he was adamant, on the phone, about Tony and I ordering anything, on their menu, except for their delicious #4, because that is what Tony and I always order.

Seriously, it really drives him crazy, so to ease our Thai food tension convention—we decided to at least try their famous Thai Iced Tea, instead of getting regular iced teas like we always do, with our delicious #4s.

When Ju, our sweet waitress and new found friend, delivered our drinks to us I grabbed my iPhone, out of my purse and took this picture of my delicious-looking Thai Iced Tea, before I stirred it with my straw and took my first sip.

After taking our first sips of the Thai Iced Teas, Tony and I looked at Ju. "Do you like it?" She asked.

"Omg!" I said. "I love it!" And then Tony agreed with me. "This is my new favorite drink...."

I didn't blog on Tuesday, because we spent most of the morning and early evening mowing.

Wednesday afternoon we met our dear friends: Kris & Jim and Les for lunch, at Brew Dawgs, in Kerrville and it was so much fun. And believe it or not—Tony and I did not order the same thing to eat as we usually do. 

Of course, we both ordered iced teas, but Tony had their Brisket Po'Boy and I ate only half of my huge, delicious Brisket Stuffed Baked Potato, while we laughed and talked about our favorite television shows: Longmire and Netflix's new smash hit series, Grace & Frankie, etc. And I didn't blog last night, because I was over, at Kinky's Lodge, listening to several of his fabulous tracks, on his new CD, that should be coming out, in the near future.

I've spent most of my day today doing more paperwork, which is tedious, exhausting and very boring to me. In about thirty minutes from now, Tony and I plan to go back outside to finish up the mowing and weed-eating before our next rain event, that Jared Silverman, on KENS-5 TV, says is going to happen as early as next Wednesday and Thursday.

And that's about it for today. Maybe tomorrow will be a little more exciting, but not too exciting.

Y'all have a great evening!

Surf's Up, George!

Yesterday and today have been great. Last night we went up to the Koyote Grill, to eat pizza with sweet Sarah and to meet her super nice friends: Meg and Rita, that had come to visit her for a few days. We love Sarah a lot, because she is always making us laugh and she always makes us feel welcomed. Sarah is the friendliest, funniest, upbeat, assistant manager, at the Medina Highpoint Resort and we had such a wonderful time. And Koyote's pizzas were so delicious Tony and I ended up eating too much.

This morning was a lot of fun too, because Ellen, our dear friend/volunteer, brought out her super cool, Kerrville Folk Festival friends: Julia & Andy and Julia & Brian, so she could show them our rescue ranch and they could do some birdwatching, in The Okay Corral. And Tony and I really enjoyed their visit, too.

This afternoon I received a great e-mail from Eileen, another one of our dear friends/volunteers. She had run into her neighbor that, last year, had come out and adopted George from us. George was/is the water-loving, dock-diving dog, that had stolen Eileen's heart. And her fabulous news about George literally made my day great. Eileen wrote:

"I saw George & his owner's dad walking down the road this morning, so I stopped to talk to them! The man told me they took George to Port Aransas & he went crazy chasing the fish in the surf!  He absolutely loved the Gulf!  He told me he and the kids love to walk George and he is sure a great dog! I thought you would enjoy hearing about George!"

Here is a picture of George, that I took last year, before his new family adopted him and took him to his fabulous, forever home, in Kerrville.

I have one last thing to report. Last Friday we went to Wolfmueller Books to visit with Sandy & Jon, our dear friends and they told us that we had to watch Grace & Frankie, Netflix's newly released comedy series, because it is totally hilarious. So early Friday evening, Tony and I stayed up past midnight, so we could watch all of the 13 episodes of the first season. And we loved it and laughed so hard that our backs ached. So now we are officially hooked on both Longmire and Grace & Frankie and we can't wait for the new Seasons. And that is about it for tonight.

Y'all have a great evening!

Jay's Done It Again! Please Help Spread This Good News Around!

Our dear friend Jay Pennington has done another great thing for lost pets. He has just launched a new website: http://www.texasfloodpets.com/ to help those lost pets caused by the Texas floods.

Jay sent this exciting note and our rescue ranch wants to help spread the word, because it is a way for all of us to help those lost and found pets. Please help spread this great news and website, so those pets can get back to their loving families. And that's another reason why we love Jay Pennington. Jay wrote:

"Hey friends,

Just wanted to mention that as there are many misplaced pets in the various

Texas towns due to the flooding and more rain coming.  I kept thinking this

is another database application just state wide rather than per community.

There seem to be several dozen Facebook pages right now but Facebook pages

just don't have the features that our system has such as the privacy flyers

and the nightly emails that search for you, and the thumbnails of pets at

the top where Fb might have your pet way down at the bottom of scrolling

forever, and the searching etc.  So I've got a page together and I've got

the website:   www. http://www.texasfloodpets.com/

Pared down to just Lost and Found ..... Found being general public and

animal shelter Founds.

I'm going to try to alert  the media in different
towns...and the affected shelters...maybe even emergency heads of cities
such as Houston and Wimberley, etc."

Elk and Howlin' Wolf!

Today has been great. Early this morning, before I took off for my 3rd Blues workshop, at the Kerrville Folk Festival, Tony reminded me that if I ever get lost again, I should stay where I am and sit down and wait, because eventually I'll be found. And he asked me to please call him as soon as I arrive at my destination.

I appreciated Tony's concern about me getting lost all of the time, but his advice didn't make sense to me, so I told him, "Tony, I can't just go sit down and wait if I get lost, at the folk festival, because for one thing I won't be able to get myself back up without asking a volunteer to help me, a snake or some fire ants might come along and get me and besides that everyone will think that I am really stoned out of my head. So if I get lost today I will just stop and ask someone for directions to the Threadgill Theater." Tony chuckled, looked down and just shook his head sideways. Then he asked me if he could take a picture of my 3rd poser outfit, before I took off, in Trigger.

When Trigger and I pulled out and turned left, on 16, I hadn't driven fifty feet, when I had to stop, because there was a huge, confused-looking elk crossing the highway, to our side of the road.  When he made to our side, across the street from the Medina Children's Home, I drove slowly past him, so not to spook him. I wanted to help him get back to our neighbor's ranch, that he had escaped from, but I didn't, because I knew that elks can be dangerous and hurt you. So I whispered a little prayer for the big guy instead.

So when I arrived and parked, at the folk festival's parking lot, I immediately called Tony.

"Hello?" Tony said. "Thanks for calling me. Are you lost or did you make it to the theater?"

"I've made it to the parking lot, but that's not why I am calling you, Tony." After I had told him about the poor, lost elk, he told me that he call our neighbors to let them know.

Before we adios-ed each other again, Tony asked me, to please call him if and when I arrived at Threadgill's. And ten minutes later I happily called Tony back to let him know that I had arrived, at the workshop.

Reverend Robert B. Jones' awesome Blues Guitar workshop today was unbelievably great! We started out tuning our guitars to open G and, in no time flat, Reverend Robert had all of us learning how to strum and play super cool riffs just like the Blues legends: Robert Johnson, Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, etc. 

And everyone was wearing smiles, on their faces, as we practiced and jammed together, because Reverend Jones is such a fabulous musical instructor/musician that he had taken the mystery out of the Blues and made it so easy and simple for us to learn and understand. 

No one wanted his awesome Blues workshop to come to an end today, because we were having so much fun and excited about what all we had learned about playing the Blues, in the past three days. So on my way back home I decided that I am going to save up my money, so I can attend his unbelievably great workshop, next year and hopefully my dear friend Ryan Hatch will be able to attend it with me. "Thank you, Donna and Ryan Hatch for giving me Ryan's ticket to Reverend B. Jones' more than awesome Blues workshop! It was a total blast!"

When I got back home, Tony told me that I needed to call Kinky. So I called Kinky. We talked about the weather, The Friedmans, me getting lost yesterday, him also seeing several lost elk, on the highway today and my Blues workshop. And five minutes ago, Kinky called me again, "Nance, do you want to come over and go on a hike with me and The Friedmans?"

And that is about it for tonight, because I am going over to Kinky's, right now, so we can go hiking.

Y'all have a great evening!