Can You Hear Me Now?

Yesterday was a lot of fun for Tony and me. Our lunch with Mari was a total blast and yes, she and I out-talked Tone. In fact, T. only got to say fourteen words. After we had ordered our lunch, Mari gave me some really nice Christmas presents which I loved. Then I gave her a signed copy of my new novella, because she and her husband David are some of my favorite characters in it.

During lunch we talked about dogs. Her super trained, award winning agility dogs and Tony's and my personal not-really-trained-so-well dogs. We had a long, serious talk about how hard it is to find and buy Made In The USA products, because China makes just about everything now days. Then we talked about our friend Lori and her family opening up a Popeye's Chicken franchise in Kerrville. Then we started talking about getting older. We laughed about no longer being able to multi-task like we use to do, our forgetfulness and our aches and pains and that's when Tony finally got to speak.

"I use Kinesio tape for my back and shoulder," he said. (Nine words)

"What's that?" Mari asked.

"It's used in sports medicine and it has really helped Tony's back," I said. "Hasn't it, Tony?"

"Yes, and my shoulder, too," he said. (Five Words)

After I had told Mari all about the tape she told us, "David uses Salonpas to help his back and shoulder and then she told us all about the heated patches and where to get them.

So after a really fun lunch with Mari, we went straight to Walgreens and bought Tony Salonpas heated pads. Then we went to Wolfmueller Books to see Sandy and Jon, so they could buy some books from me for them to sell. Then we went to the Post Office so I could mail some books and then we came home.

Our dear friend Fourth came over around 6:00 to visit with us and to buy some more books, because his wife Lynda had just finished reading my novella and they wanted to give them as Christmas presents to their friends. And during our fun two-hour Happy Hour, we laughed and traded stories until 8:00, because Fourth needed to go home.

Today has been great. While Tony and I were outside doing our morning chores he told me that our dear friend Jimmie, who just turned seventy-years-old ate Chinese food for the very first time in his life and when Tony read it on Facebook he asked Jimmie why he hadn't ever tried it his response was, "I love BBQ and am a meat and potatoes kind of guy." (We love you, Jimmie!)

We went to Kerrville after lunch, so we could go to The Rev radio station, so we could drop off signed books for Harley and Big G, pick up some groceries at H-E-B and so I could mail out more books at the Post Office.

When we arrived at the station, Big G was in the lobby and after howdies, handshakes and hugs I gave him the books and then we had a fun conversation with him, before he had to get back to work. After mailing out more books we went to the H-E-B, on Highway 16 for two reasons, get groceries and get Tony's new ten-dollar Trac Phone working.

Last Tuesday, Tony and I bought each other new ten-dollar cell phones for Christmas, because ours were 1st generation and over twelve years old and Tony's no longer worked. That evening he called Trac Phone to get our phones activated and our minutes moved over, but there was a problem, but he didn't know it.

The next day after he had gotten our cell phones activated, his wouldn't let him make a call, because of a SIM problem. And because we have no cell service out here to check the phone, we decided before going to Kerrville today, that Tony would sit in Trigger, where there was a signal and use my new phone to work out the problem, while I bought groceries.

When I returned to the truck with our groceries, T. was still on the phone trying to get his to work. When I climbed into Trigger, Tony was talking to a tech and then when the tech put him on hold, Tony says, "Les came by to say hi to me, but I couldn't talk to him because the tech was giving me instructions. I feel terrible about it..." A few minutes later Tony's phone was activated and working!

When we got home I shot our good friend Les an e-mail explaining why Tony couldn't talk to him and that is about it for tonight.

Y'all have a great evening!