Dogs Playing In The Snow!

Today has been great. Our good friend Les sent me this hilarious NTD.TV video of dogs playing in the snow and I totally loved watching it. In fact, I watched it three times before showing it to Tony and he loved it, too.

So I bookmarked it and if you want to put a big smile on your face immediately I highly recommend that you watch this super enjoyable video. Click here.

Y'all have a great evening and keep on laughing!

Four Food Trucks! or CHI'LANTRO Restaurants Rule Austin!

First off, I am sorry for not writing last night about the four food trucks and my excuse is that I worked late, over at The Cabin and was just too tired when I got back home.

It is 7:00 in the evening and Tony and I just returned home, after spending several hours working over, at the property. We hung up the curtains I made, stained over 40 more 1'x4's, hung pictures up, then took them down and then re-hung the pictures until they were perfect.

Continued from Monday night...Four Food Trucks!

When Tony, Hope & Jae arrived, at the property, the first thing we did was give Hope & Jae a tour of our beautiful property and they instantly fell in love with our beautiful, 1977 Land Yacht (Airstream) too. And by the time we had shown them the "enchanted forest," area, then the super-cool, two-story, red barn, the three Madrone trees, which Chet told me are considered by Native Americans to be sacred spirit trees—we invited them to come into The Cabin.

When they first walked inside, The Cabin, their jaws dropped, to the floor and I thought it was because they were really impressed with our cabin makeover, but I was wrong.

Hope was smiling, but she had her hands covering her mouth and the look on Jae's face was like he had just seen a ghost or something. So I said, "What? What is it?" And then they broke out laughing and pointed to my barefoot, half-man mannequin, that was leaning up against the wall, near the front door. Then Tony and I started laughing, too.

Then we all got a cold beer and while we showed them, The Cabin, I explained about buying the mannequin, at the garage sale and why it was wearing a pair of my old, 501 Levis. And they thought it was hilarious instead of weird.

Well, I talked too much as usual, as we sat around catching up with Hope's latest news and our news, in the big room, and when I finally realized I was doing most of the talking, I paused, and then asked, "So Jae, what do you do, in Austin?"

"He owns five restaurants," Hope sweetly bragged on her super-nice boyfriend. "And he also has four food trucks. Jae's CHI'LANTRO restaurants/food trucks. It is Korean BBQ inspired and it fuses Korean & Mexican flavors and.... "

"Omg!" I said. "I love food trucks so much! And I've always wanted to have one. Especially after watching that great Jon Favreau movie, Chef. It is one of my all-time favorite movies...."

Then once again I realized I was talking non-stop, so I asked them to please tell us more about Jae's restaurants, because I definitely wanted to blog about it. And by the time they were finished telling us about Jae's restaurants all I could think of was us making a fast trip, up to Austin and going with Cindy, Ronnie & Nita, to go eat at one of Jae's five CHI'LANTRO restaurants or four food trucks.

Tone and I had a wonderful time visiting with Hope & Jae and before dark-thirty they adios-ed us, because they wanted to get back to the Trail's End Guest House, in Kerrville, where they were spending the night. "Because we love the Trail's End Guest House and that is where we always stay when we come to the Kerrville area," Hope said.

"We love the Trail's End Guest House, too," I said. "Many years ago, our good friends David & Desiree, who own the popular place, adopted one of our wild hogs from us. We named that sweet, wild hog David Beckham, because he chased soccer balls, but Desiree and David ended up re-naming him, Wilbur and they told us that Beckham/Wilbur was very popular with their guests. Unfortunately, Beckham died a few years ago...."

Tony and I came home after Hope & Jae left and the first thing I did after giving Roy a pill for his arthritis was Google CHI'LANTRO restaurants & food trucks and I was even more impressed after reading that they are the highest rated event caterers, in Austin. Anyway, I hope y'all will check out our friend's popular Austin restaurants & food trucks and get back to me, because we can't wait to eat Jae's food. And here is the business card that Jae gave to me before they left. And please note that I put his business card, in my back pocket, so it sort of got crinkled up a little bit.

Y'all have a great night and keep on laughing!

Half A Man! or Four Food Trucks!

Last Saturday Tony and I and our dear friends, June and Ellen had a garage sale, at June's house, from 8:00 - 2:00. It was a lot of fun spending most of the day with these two sisters, and our good friends: Kevin, Curtis, Susan and Baxter.

Tone and I got there a little after 7:30 and while Tony was helping me unpack our stuff/junk and set it up on one of the folding tables that June provided, I spotted something that Ellen had for sale and I knew that I just had to have it. So before our garage sale even started I was already $20.00 in the red, but I didn't care, because I was so happy about my purchase.

Tony thought I was crazy when I told him what I had bought and Ellen was laughing when she took this picture of me removing my precious purchase from the garage sale items.

Yes, that is me carefully removing my new/used half-male mannequin, wearing patriotic underwear and wearing a pair of Kevin's (borrowed) dark, brown shoes, in hopes of boosting sales. And before Tony left, to come back to the rescue ranch to do his morning chores, he asked me what I was going to do with my half-man. So I told him, "I am going to dress him in my jeans and put a pair of my old, pink boots on him and turn him into a lamp!" Tony didn't laugh, but everyone else did.

Around 11:00, our garage sale customers had dwindled, so Ellen and June thought it would be a good idea to do something fun to boost our sales, while we waited for another shopping frenzy. And before you knew it or before Tony returned—we had my half a man-mannequin laying on a trundle bed, hidden under a quilt with his feet hanging out, at the end. And we put a pair of men and women shoes, on the rug, next to the bed. And June topped it off with a baseball cap and she put their lamp and fringed lampshade, beside the bed. And we loved it and we laughed ourselves silly.

When the next shopping spree finally happened, the customers were staring at our restful display and they were laughing, whispering to each other, etc. about it and before long the bed and the mattress sold!

When our multi-friends garage sale ended, Tony helped me load up our stuff/junk that hadn't sold and I ended up making a grand total of $14.00, after buying a lot of their stuff. 

Then after counting my profit Tony happily loaded up his new/used (Ellen's) Nada Chair, (June's) Cabella's outdoor recliner, a really cool, gas camp stove, a set of blue and white, Pottery Barn curtains. And lastly Tone carried my half  a man mannequin and tossed him, into JJ Cale's backseat. Then we adios-ed everyone and came home.

As soon as we got back home Tony carried my half a man mannequin, into The Cabin, and I went into our bedroom to grab an old pair of my Levis and an even older pair of my dusty, Justin Gypsy pink boots. 

Then the phone rang and the father of one of the great girls, a member in the East Kerr 4-H Club, called and asked if he could drive out and adopt Walter from us, because his sweet daughter and him had fallen in love with him, last Saturday. Of course, my answer was "Yes!" 

Thirty minutes later, Walter was officially adopted and he took off, in a big fancy pickup, to go to his new home, in Kerrville. (So please keep your fingers crossed that Walter will mind his manners and his adoption sticks.)

After we adios-ed Walter and the nice man it was dress-rehearsal time and here are a few pictures that I took of Tony trying to help me put my jeans on him and then trying to shove my boots on his gigantic feet.

And the whole time that we were trying to turn my man-mannequin into a cowgirl, Tony kept saying, "Don't you dare take my picture or tell anyone that I was involved with this...." Of course I promised him, but as you can see—I was lying, again.

We had a real problem trying to get my pink boots on him and while we were doing that our phone rang again and it was our good friend Hope calling. She and her boyfriend were running around the Texas Hill Country and she wanted to know if she and Jae could come by for a visit. ..."Great!" Hope said. "We should be there in about forty-minutes. I can't wait for Jae to meet y'all!"

Knowing that time was of the essence, so to speak, I asked Tony to please slit my boots with his knife, in hopes we could put his/her pink boots on. He did that, but we still had no luck, because his feet were just way too big to fit into my pretty, pink boots. So we temporarily gave up.

"Tony, if you'll put my man-mannequin in JJ, I'll take off and go straighten up The Cabin. Then you can bring them over and...."

As soon as I got to our property, I unlocked The Cabin door, opened the windows and then I pulled him, out of the backseat and clumsily carried him, inside The Cabin and I leaned him up, by the front door. Then I quickly put away all of our tools and the scaffolding, into the bedroom and then I swept the sawdust-covered floors.

Ten minutes later, I grabbed my camera and took these pictures of our cleaned-up, soon-to-be cabin, before Tony, Hope and Jae arrived.

Twenty minutes later Tony, Hope & Jae arrived, but I'll have to write about their fun visit tomorrow night, because I am fixin' to go sew another set of curtains, for the window, in the big room, that looks out, at the red barn.

Y'all have a great evening and keep on laughing!

To Be Continued....(Sorry, Mari)

A Heartache Couldn't Happen to a Nicer Guy!

Today has been great, even though we worked all day over at the property. I am still pooped, but hopefully tonight after another good night of sleep I will be re-charged and ready to go, again.

Okay, last night's post I promised to get back to you about Jimmy, the great musician that Stephen & Eva brought along to my surprise birthday. But I could not remember Jimmy's last name.

Well, today while we were, over at the property, I listened to Jimmy Ruggiere's fabulous CD, A Heartache Couldn't Happen to a  Nicer Guy and it is incredibly great and Chet O'Keefe loved it and so did Tony.

So, if you want to check out more about our newest musician friend—Jimmy Ruggiere please click on his name.

And that's about it for tonight, because I am going to wash and dry a load of clothes and then going straight to bed.

Y'all have a great evening and keep on laughing!

Out-Of-Town Friends!

This past week has flown by so fast, because we've been so busy working/remodeling the cabin, doing our rescue ranch chores, spending quality time with many of our dear friends, etc.

But I guess the real reason for time flying by so fast is because I am now 66 years old. Or better said, "This upcoming Halloween, Thanksgiving Day and Christmas day will be my 66th." And if you think about it that is pretty exhausting to say the least.

This past Saturday the East Kerr 4-H Club came out to volunteer for us and it was so much fun for Tony and me and our dogs. We love the East Kerr 4-H Club, because these super-cool, dedicated kids are doing great volunteer work.

While they were out here we walked dogs, down to the creek, with them and after that they helped Tony with a fencing project. And if we hadn't had their help with the fencing it would have taken Tony and me at least four hours to do what they accomplished in just one hour. So before I go any further I want to thank the members of the East Kerr 4-H Club. And here are a couple of pictures that I took when we went walking with them.

In an earlier post I mentioned that I was going to sew curtains for the cabin, after the East Kerr 4-H Club came out, but it turns out that I lied, because instead of playing "Susie Homemaker" (Where in the heck did that phrase come from?) and sewing the curtains—Tony and I went back over the the cabin and worked until dark-thirty. And we spent most of Sunday working, over at the cabin, too. 

The reason why we worked so hard was because we knew that our good friend Chet O'Keefe and his faithful dog, Willie, were coming to see us, on Tuesday and they were staying with us until Saturday, because Chet has a gig to play Saturday night, at the famous Starlight Theater, in Terlingua. 

And also coming to see us on Tuesday, were our great Fredericksburg friends, Stephen K. Morris & Eva Robinett and they were bringing our mutual Norwegian friends, Hans & Marita and Hans & Marita were bringing their daughter Servenen (spell check there) and her boyfriend Casper, who had flown over, from England, to meet their Texas friends. Anyway, Tony and I were determined to get a lot of work done, so we could show off our soon-to-be cozy cabin. So here is what Tony and I accomplished, before yesterday afternoon.

As planned Stephen & Eva, Marita & Hans and Servenen & Casper arrived, at 1:30 and they brought along Jimmy, their musician friend, who is a singer/songwriter, plays an awesome guitar and harmonica and who also used to perform with Travis Tritt. (I can't remember Jimmy's last name, even though he gave me one of his latest CDs for a birthday present. So tomorrow when we are over, at the property, I will pick it up and bring it home and let you know who this famous musician is.)  

And when they arrived they surprised me, because they were throwing me a surprise birthday party and even Tony did not know about it.

Well, as soon as they arrived Tony and I started giving them a tour of the cabin and by the time we made it out to the beautiful back porch, Tony says, "Chet's here!"

"He is?" I asked, because I figured Chet would be arriving around 3:00 or so.

"Yeah," Tony remarked. "There's Willie..." And that is when our super-fun party began and to my surprise, our friends brought all kinds of delicious food, refreshments and my birthday cake.

After the howdies, hugs and handshakes we gave everyone a full tour of the cabin and the property and everyone fell in love with our place and they were very happy for us, but not nearly as happy as Tony and I are about getting the property. 

After the tour we broke out our musical instruments and we had a great time jamming, for several hours, in our front yard. And I ended up taking a break and took these pictures of our jam session.

I could write so much more about fun party with our dear out-of-town (and country) friends, but I think that I've written about enough for now, because I am pooped and I still need to start gathering up a bunch of stuff, for me to sell, at Ellen's and June's gigantic garage sale, which will be happening this coming Saturday.

In fact, Tony and I are so tired tonight, we stayed home to rest, while Chet and Stephen are performing, at the Western Edge Cellars, in Fredericksburg.

Y'all have a great evening and keep on laughing!

Foreign Friends! or Faded Glory!

Yesterday and today have been great, because we've worked hard here and there, had fun with dear friends and Tony and I bought our entire 2017 Fall & Winter wardrobes.

Tuesday around noon, Tone and I met up with Hans & Marita, our super-nice, visiting Norwegian friends, for lunch, at Cracker Barrel. Except none of us ate lunch there, because we all ordered from their breakfast menu. And believe it or not Tony and I did not order the same breakfast like we usually do, but Marita & Hans and I did order the exact same thing.

Being with Hans & Marita is always a real treat for us, because they love the same kind of music that we do and they keep us laughing with hilarious tales about their life and interesting, music-related adventures. So as you can imagine we had a total blast seeing them.

After we ate lunch and adios-ed our fun, foreign friends Tony and I went to see our dear friend Stan, the owner of the Melody Corner, because I needed to buy a new Snark tuner for my guitars, banjos and mandolins. And a banjo strap for my latest banjo that I also purchased from Stan.

Anyway like always, Stan's music store was jammed-packed and buzzing with all kinds of musicians and wanna-be musicians. So we had to wait to visit with our friend and buy my stuff while he helped out his friends and customers.

And we didn't mind waiting at all, because it was fun eavesdropping and talking to some of the friendly musicians. Here's my banjo strap and new Snark Super-Tight tuner.

Our last stop was, at the Home Town Craft store, so I could purchase some fabric, because I am going to make the curtains for our new cabin. And this is what I bought, even though I don't plan to sew the curtains until Saturday afternoon, after the East Kerr 4-H Club, one of our all-time, favorite organizations, that is coming out to walk our dogs for us. It will be fun, because our dogs love it and so do we. Anyway, here is the white fabric and the hunter green plaid fabrics that soon will be our new cabin's curtains.

After I bought the fabrics we came home and then we went, over to the property, to do a little more work, on the big room, until dark-thirty.

Today was so much fun. First we went, over to the property, to stain some wood for the big room's walls and we worked for about an hour and got every stick of wood stained. And even though our fingers were stained with a reddish, cedar color and our clothes reeked from the fumes of the stain, we met up with our dear friends: Denise & Les and Jim aka The Mineral Man. But unfortunately, Jim's sweet wife, Kris, couldn't make our lunch date.

Jim was the first to arrive outside Po Po's and we we came in second place. And while we were visiting and standing outside the restaurant, Denise drove by and honked at us and waved before driving off to go park her car.

A few minutes later, Denise joined us, standing on the corner, with us and two minutes later her sweet husband, Les, appeared. And just before the five of us walked, into the restaurant, another person pulled up, to the signal light and honked the horn at us. And it turned out to be our good friend, Harley Belew, waving at us. So we all waved back at him before he took off as we entered Po Po's for a delicious and very fun lunch. 

And to our surprise our great and friendly waitress was also our good friend, Jennifer. The sweet woman and her husband that, several months ago, adopted Hollywood from us. Of course, our lunch was delicious and a lot of fun. 

We all resisted getting desserts, so Jennifer it topped-off by showing us some recent pictures of Hollywood playing with her new best Weimaraner puppy friend. "The two are best friends," Jennifer said. "They play constantly and wear each other out..." 

Yes, I know this is turning into a very long post, but please hold on, because I am almost finished writing this.

And to put it on a bumper-sticker for times sake: After our enjoyable lunch with our friends Tony and I went to Walmart, so I could buy a couple of stools and we got them and also bought our entire 2017 Fall & Winter wardrobe collection. 

As you must know by now, neither Tony or I are big on fashion and we like to keep it simple and cheap and that's exactly what we did. Walmart had their Faded Glory long-sleeve, buttoned-down, plaid, flannel shirts on sale for $8.00 and we love those shirts. So we each bought five shirts.

I bought three flannel shirts that were just alike and two in different colors and after Tony saw my selections, he made sure to buy five different flannel shirts that did not match any of mine, because he hates it when we accidentally dress alike. 

We are thrilled about finding our favorite shirts on sale and to give you a glimpse of our upcoming Fall & Winter wardrobes, I stacked up his and my new shirts, on top of the stove and I took this picture of them. And please note that my five, pretty, flannel shirts are stacked, on the front and back left burners. And finally that is about it for tonight.

Y'all have a great evening and keep on laughing!

And Many More! or What Would Ronnie Do?!

Keeping my promise that I made to you last night, tonight I am going to tell you about Ellen and June's great house (cabin)warming party that also included a fabulous surprise birthday party for me, at June's beautiful home.

This great party started around noon-ish and we arrived about noonish-fifteen or so and before going inside we met up with our great friends: Eileen, Chris, Suzanne and her new, adorable, four-month-old grandson, Lisa Susie, Baxter and Dawn, out on the driveway.

Lisa was carrying her homemade, chocolate (soon to find out delicious) bundt cake, for the pot-luck-lunch and she had decorated the top of it with the cutest little cozy log cabin ornament that lights up inside, at the flick of a switch, on the bottom/cabin's foundation. And of course, I immediately fell in love with it.

When Tony and I went inside to greet June & Kevin and Ellen and to thank them for throwing us a celebration house/cabin warming party, it was immediately hug-city. Omg, we hugged more of our dear friends: Kevin & June, Ellen, Jim & Diane, Don, Kris & Jim, Curtis, Kay and Liz & Jim. And not to brag, but just so you'll know, during this fun gathering, Jim & Liz told me that they purposely wore matching hot pink T-shirts, in honor of me.  

Before this totally fun party officially kicked-off, June and Ellen got every one's attention and did the cutest ribbon cutting presentation, that was actually a shoestring-cutting presentation, because they had named their awesome place—the Shoestring Ranch. And here's a picture of Tony and me (actually he and I could not cut the shoestring together, so he did it.) cutting the shoestring, with Ellen and June holding the long, white shoestring.

Then June and Ellen and Tony and me posed for this picture.

And following the ceremony everyone served themselves up some delicious food and we went and sat, outside on the patio, to eat our lunch. Which by the way included a sparkling champagne toast made by Ellen & June to celebrate Tony's and my new property and future home. 

I thought it was so sweet of them to do that for us, but I didn't let myself tear up again, like I did at the bank, because this time I was looking straight up and staring at this little, tiny moth that had temporarily attached itself, to the ceiling of the covered porch.

Near the end of lunch Eileen brought out Lisa's birthday cake that had one candle, on top of it and when she tried to light the candle, but it kept burning out, as everyone sang the Happy Birthday song to me. And as soon as they had finished singing, "And many more!" Eileen quickly re-lit the half-burnt down candle and I blew it out before it went out on its own.

While everyone was enjoying eating Lisa's mouth-watering birthday cake I opened up some of the cutest, funniest birthday cards and we passed them around for everyone to read, before I opened up all of my super-cool birthday presents.

And please note that Jim & Liz's beautiful hand-painted and hand-crafted chalkboard is not shown, in the above picture, because it was too big to fit into the picture. But you can see it in the pictures below, because we love it and we have already hung it, in our new cabin's kitchen. And my painting I did, a few years ago, "What Would Ronnie Do?" is hanging right next to it.

All-in-all it was the best surprise birthday party I've ever had and on top of that it was the most fun house/cabin warming party that Tony and I have ever attended. 

So from the bottom of my heart I want to thank June and Ellen for all of their love and kindness that they've shown to Tony and me and to also thank all of our fabulous friends for coming to the party, because it was a day that Tony and I shall never forget. And I do mean "will never forget."

After this wonderful time we spent with our dear friends we adios-ed everyone and went to the Habitat for Humanity and finished up, at the Home Depot—where everyone knows (y)our name.

And to finish off tonight's blog, on a good note here are some updated pictures of the work that we've done, in the past three days, on our beautiful Cabin, in the woods. 

Y'all have a great evening and keep on laughing!

Inflation!

Last Wednesday was a thrilling day for us, because we met June and Ellen and their friendly attorney, at the bank, for our official closing on the property.

When we were at the bank I was so excited about the closing that I actually teared up when I was thanking Ellen and June for being so kind and generous to us, after we had signed and had all of the signed documents notarized.

My outburst of tears were embarrassing, so as I was looking up, staring at the ceiling and blinking my eyes, (Because Ron's sweet wife, Nita, had long ago had told me, "Always look up to keep away the tears. I promise it works every time.") I felt my tears stop, so I chuckled to myself to try to lift my spirits, and said, "Guess where we're going right after we leave here?"

"Where?" These two sweet sisters asked.

"Home Depot." I replied. "Because Tony and I are going to celebrate the closing by buying ourselves a brand, new toilet, for the cabin." And they were still laughing about it as we adios-ed them, outside on the steps of the bank, and drove away—headed for Home Depot.

Thursday was a thrilling day for us too, because late in the afternoon, Aaron installed our new, pretty toilet, in the bathroom. And after we thanked him for his awesome, toilet-installing-expertise, he stated, "It's a good one, Tony. In fact, it's the best one that I've ever installed and...." And that immediately made Tony's chest swell up a little bit. I guess because he was very proud of our toilet.

Anyway, after we adios-ed Aaron we were sitting outside, in front of the cabin, drinking a beer, before calling it a day and Tony started bragging about our new, super-commode and that made me laugh. "Why are you laughing, Nance? Aaron said our toilet is one of the best."

"I'm laughing, because I am staring at that white box that the toilet came in. Look at the front of the box. It says Bold. Power." So Tony glanced over, at the cardboard-commode-carrier and he shrugged his shoulders like it was no big deal. As I watched his chest begin to slowly inflate with pride, again.

"Tony, toilets must be a macho-man thing or something," I casually remarked, while watching Tony's chest deflate back to normal. "Women could care less about toilets as long as they do their job. Do you think we should buy a new, wooden seat for it? Like the ones we have in our bathrooms?"

Tony was still in a little bit of a macho-mood, so he crushed his empty Keystone Light Beer can, in his hand, and said, "Yeah. Because maybe then you'll be proud of our toilet, too."

"If we could get a pink toilet seat for it—I would be really proud of it," I teased. And that made Tony laugh.

As I finish writing this tonight, so I can go back over to the property and work for a few more hours, I still have much more to report back to you, but I will have to do that tomorrow. 

Because yesterday afternoon June and Ellen threw a super-fun, ribbon-cutting house (cabin)-warming party for Tony and me and all of our great volunteers and our dear friends were there to help us celebrate. And to my surprise they also gave me a surprise birthday party, on top of that and I have the pictures to prove it. So you will just have to wait until tomorrow night to read all about the party, because I've got work to do.

Y'all have a great evening and keep on laughing!

The End Of The Line!

Today has been great, because I lucked out and got my sign! "What sign?" You may ask, so I am going to tell you about it.

Last Friday afternoon while we were in Kerrville, we stopped by Wolfmueller's Books to visit with our dear friends Sandy & Jon. And I am so glad that we did for two reasons:

     1. Because we love Sandy & Jon and we always have fun when we get together.
     2. Because, right next door to their super-cool bookstore, their good friend, Barbara Fitch, was a having another one of her popular, pop-up Fitch Estate Sales.

I've only been to one or two estate sales, in my entire life, so I adios-ed Tony, Sandy & Jon and went next door to check it out for a few minutes. Which quickly turned into at least twenty minutes, because Sandy had to come find me for Tony.

Anyway, there was a ton of great stuff for sale and the place was packed with friendly customers buying up all kinds of things. The buying frenzy was contagious and I almost bought this metal sign, but because I had left my purse, at Wolfmueller's Books, I left the estate sale empty-handed. And I sadly spent the rest of the day and Saturday regretting not buying that sign, because I loved its message.

So this morning around 11:30, after Tony and I took off for Kerrville, to go to Home Depot and the big H-E-B, I told Tone that I wanted to stop by the Fitch Estate Sale, that opened at noon, so I could buy that sign—if it was still there. "Don't worry Tony, no one will be there, because it is Sunday," I unknowingly lied to my sweet husband. "It will only take me a few minutes."

Omg! When we turned onto Earl Garrett Street cars were parked in every parking space available, but we luckily found one, in front of Jon & Sandy's bookstore.

And the line of people to get inside the store was almost a block long. "I'm not going to stand in line for this," Tony declared, as Merle Haggard was singing Okie From Muskogee, on the radio. "Look at all of those people waiting to get inside."

I looked and then I adios-ed Tony and jumped out of JJ Cale, "I'll be back soon!" Which turned out to be another lie.

As I smiled and walked past the long line of people, I heard, "Hi Cousin Nancy." I stopped and turned and saw our good friend Donna S. smiling at me and after a brief visit with her I began my long journey towards the end of the line.

But before I had taken ten steps, I heard another friendly voice, "Hi Cousin Nancy. It is good to see you here and..." Our good friend Diane said to me. And after another fun, but short visit with her, I marched on as I sadly watched the long line getting longer by the minute.

Well, I almost made it to the end of the line of excited, anxious shoppers when I heard another friendly voice say, "Hey Cousin Nancy!" It was Sandy greeting me, so I stopped on a dime (Actually it was a penny.) and I visited with her as I watched the line growing even longer.

After a quick, fun visit with Sandy I slowly walked to the end of the line, that was now nearly to the corner of Water Street and Earl Garrett Street, because I was feeling a bit dehydrated from my long hiking adventure.

Okay, Bottom   Line: The sign was still there, high up on a tall dresser, near the back of the store. I reached for it, but because I am short (politically correct versions: height deprived or height challenged.) I could not grab it.

But as luck would have it—Diane walked up to me and offered to get it down for me! I was thrilled until I watched her struggle trying to get it. "It's too high and too heavy for me," she sulked, when she saw me wearing an upside down smile on my face.

I wanted to half-holler, "Tony!" Like I always do when I need help, but I knew it would be in vain, because he was waiting for me, in our trusty-truck. So, I said to Diane, "Don't worry about it. I guess I'm just not meant to have it."

Then my knight in shining armor appeared, actually he was a friendly, gray-haired, senior citizen wearing a salt and pepper mustache on his round, rosy face when he said, "Here, let me get that down for you." And as I watched him struggle too, to get my sign down for me I was holding my breath and forgot to breathe which almost caused me to faint when he handed me the sign.

After catching my breath and steadying myself, I thanked him and then I walked away dragging my metal sign behind me, because I was totally exhausted from my long, shopping trek and I needed to go to the bathroom, because I didn't want to wet my pants (501 Levis). And I did all of this to get this great sign that only cost me $8.00, because everything in the Fitch Estate Sale was 75% off today.

As I finish writing this tonight, I do want you to know that I did not wet my pants this afternoon, because we got to Home Depot, in the nick of time. And tomorrow I plan to get Tony to hang up my new, used sign, in our new cabin, because I love the message and it was well worth getting.

Y'all have a great evening and keep on laughing!