Monday, August 16, 2010

The Mexican Food Miracle!

Whew! Today has been interesting to say the least, so to set the mood before telling you about it, I have turned on my Himalayan Salt Lamp and cranked up my iPod and Neil Young is singing "Harvest Moon" one of my all time favorite songs.

This morning I didn't walk because I had too much paperwork to do. I spent four hours writing thank you letters to many of our supporters who made a $50.00 or more donation to the rescue ranch and then I packed mailers with a signed copy of Max Swafford's The Kinky File to send to them as a free thank you gift for helping us.

By twelve thirty I was exhausted and ready for Tony to drive me to Medina to mail out the books with  enclosed thank you letters. After writing the Post Master a check for eighty-eight dollars and twenty cents I climbed back into Buttermilk and she took us to Bandera so I could make a deposit at the bank.

Then we got on Highway 173 headed for Kerrville, because we needed to go to H-E-B to buy dog food for our rescue dogs and that's when things started getting interesting.

"Tony, can we stop by the Camp Verde Store before going into Kerrville," I asked. "I need to buy a new pair of Crocs, because I've worn out my old, pink pair. The bottoms are smooth." T. nodded his head yes.


Four miles later and twelve miles from Kerrtown, Tony pulled off of the highway and parked Buttermilk across the street from the coolest store on 173. After Tone had done "The Procedure" which consists of rolling down his window, unlocking the doors and opening his door from the outside and then rolling the window back up—we got out of Buttermilk and then went into the store that has a little bit of everything.

As always it was full of tourists and the friendliest staff helping people check out or find something. When a smiling sales clerk asked me if she could help us, I told her no thank you, because I knew where their Crocs were.

When we went into the Croc room and saw the many colorful Crocs displayed on an entire wall it made me smile, because Crocs have good vibes and that's why people buy them—the knock offs don't have good vibes. Tony was getting antsy even though it only took me fifteen minutes to decide on which pair to buy.

When we went to the check out counter, as I was pulling our my checkbook the young woman said, "Oh dear. You don't want to buy these Crocs, because they are mismatched— one shoe is bigger than the other one. Let me help you find a matched pair." Right then I should have taken it as an omen, but I didn't and we followed her back to the Croc room.

Ten minutes later as T. paced back and forth and grumbled about "starving to death" the helpful clerk told me that she couldn't find a matched size for the pair I had wanted and then she started pulling Crocs in my size off of the wall, so I could make a decision on which ones to purchase. "I don't like the orange or the yellow ones," I said. "Do you have my size in the pink or turquoise?" She looked and looked, but they had none in those colors that were a size small.

Seven minutes later, as Tony grimaced and rubbed his stomach to show me that he was going into "starvation mode," I thanked the super nice, young woman and told her that I really wanted pink Crocs and would come back when their new stock came in.

As we crossed the street to Buttermilk Tony said, "Let's go to The Save Inn right now. I am feeling weak, Nance."

I ignored him and said, "I love this giant, camel metal sculpture. Isn't it cool!" Tone ignored me and climbed into Buttermilk, turned the ignition switch and nothing happened. Then he did it again and again and again and nothing happened. "Looks like Buttermilk's died, again." I said, as I pulled my cell phone from my purse. "Who can we call to help us?"

Tony who was now knockin' on death's door managed to do "The Procedure" and then he got out of Buttermilk and opened her hood and stared at the engine. Then he picked up a big rock and started banging on the battery as tourists getting in and out of their cars watched us. "Nance, it's her battery cables. One is loose and I don't have any tools in the car. I need a wrench." Then he said a couple of cuss words to Buttermilk. "Call Jon. Maybe he can help us out." I called Jon and told him about the predicament we were in and he told me that he was on his way to help. Then I went into the store and asked a clerk if we could borrow a small wrench from them.

One minute later, she returned with a small, pretty, blue wrench and handed it to me. "It's pretty hot outside. Would y'all like some tea or lemonade? It's on the house." I thanked her for the kind offer, but told her no thank you and then went outside to give my starving husband the cute, little wrench. Unfortunately, the wrench didn't help, because the threads on the screw were stripped, so I went back across the street and returned the wrench.

As we sat on a retaining wall in the shade waiting for Jon to arrive, Tony grumbled as his stomach grumbled louder. "Tony, I know why this has happened! Mercury is in retrograde, again." T. said nothing. And then Jon Wolfmueller pulled up and parked next to Buttermilk.

"I brought my tools and jumper cables," Jon said, wearing a big smile on his face. After Tony and him talked about the cables Jon suggested that we try to jump start Buttermilk. After the men hooked up the battery cables, Jon started his engine and gave life to Buttermilk!

"Buttermilk lives once, again!" I said. "Jon, thank you so much for rescuing us. You're our Croc-idile Dundee." Then I told him about stopping at the store to purchase Crocs. "Seriously, Jon, we want to take you out to lunch or dinner for helping us. Sandy can't go because she didn't help." We all started laughing as T. and Jon removed the jumper cables. "Jon, this happened because Mercury is in retrograde, again..."

Jon rolled his eyes and then he and Tony started laughing as we climbed into our vehicles. Jon followed us all of the way to Balser's Northside Automotive and then he took off for Wolfmueller Books.

While the nice mechanic repaired Buttermilk, Tony and I sat next door at Acapulco Mexican Food Restaurant eating a very late lunch that literally saved Tone's life. Thank goodness for the Mexican food miracle!

An hour later we were back at the ranch and I was reading the sweetest, five page, fan mail letter that came today from a woman in Germany. Karin P. wrote to tell me that she loved reading my blog and my first book and that she is a Libra like me and nearly the same age as me. She also told me that she loves Kinky and found me when she went to his home page. She said that her husband Jusgen is going to buy my second book for her birthday present on October 4th.

After reading her sweet and humorous letter I felt honored and I have decided to mail her a free signed copy of my book tomorrow—for her birthday. Her letter has made my day. Thank you, Karin! With Mercury in retrograde I hope it gets there before your fifty-fourth birthday.

At ten minutes past six this evening the phone rang—it was Jon. "Hi, Jon!"

"Hi, Nancy. I was calling to make sure y'all made it home."

"No, Jon," I joked. "We're still in Kerrville and haven't gotten home, yet, but thanks for checking." He burst out laughing. "Here's your sign. I'm sorry, Jon. I couldn't resist it."

"I told Sandy what you said about wanting to take me out to lunch or dinner to thank me, but she wasn't invited because you said that she didn't help. Anyway, she wants to go and says she helped by holding down the fort at the bookstore." He and I started laughing.

"Okay. Well, tell Sandy that she can go, but we're not paying for her dessert, because she helped some, but not as much as you did." Jon repeated my words back to Sandy and I could hear her laughing in the background. "Bye."

Y'all have a great eveing!

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