This morning, I woke up at 5:30. After feeding the dogs and Lucky, the cat—I sat down at my laptop to get some work done. As the coffee brewed, I sat at the kitchen table, pulling pictures of dogs that we had adopted out, from my iPhoto album, so I could e them up to Stacie, who is working on a slideshow for tomorrow night’s Bonefit at the Ruta Maya, starring our good friend, Joe King Carrasco!
I enjoyed looking at the many pictures of our dogs, that we’ve adopted out, and they brought back memories and smiles. After I had picked out about thirty or so pictures, I resized them and then I e-mailed them up to Stacie, in Austin! And, it took less than 20 minutes for me to do!
At 7:45, I phoned Harley Belew, so I could talk to him, on-air, about our dogs, and to tell him, who was his Pet of the Week. Harley’s Pet of the Week was Lexi, a beautiful tan and white muttigree, about 3 years old and is very well trained. She is a great dog and would be a great companion for someone who likes to jog! Hopefully, she will be adopted soon. Before the interview was over, Harley let me plug tomorrow nights Bonefit in Austin!
After the interview, I started preparing breakfast, knowing that Tony would be home soon. The breakfast was tasty, and after cleaning up the kitchen— I returned a few phone calls to people wanting to bring their dogs to us, because they could no longer keep them—for various reasons.
At 9:20, the phone rang. I decided to let the machine take the call, because ‘Kokomo’ by the Beach Boys was playing on my iPod Deck, and I didn’t want to pause it. “Hello, Nancy? This is Tom. Nicki and I and her parents, Nancy and David are leaving Austin...”
“Hi Tom!” I said, to my nephew. “Are y’all coming down for the Kerrville Folk Festival?”
“Yep,” Tom replied. “Would it be okay for me to bring them out today to meet y’all and to see the rescue ranch? We were thinking of driving there first and then going over to the festival.”
“Good grief, Tom,” I said. “I would love for y’all to come see us! You’re not going to believe how cool Outer Space is!”
“Hmm,” Tom hummed. “What’s Outer Space?” And, then he sorta laughed.
“Tom, I named the screened in porch, that you and Ronnie built—Outer Space!” I explained. “And, you are going to be blown away!” (Little did he know the wind was gusting up to 25 miles per hour outside.)
“Oh, okay, Nance, we should be there in a couple of hours. Bye.”
As soon as that call ended—Maribeth arrived, and twenty minutes later—Ben arrived from Austin!
Around 11:00, Tom’s party of four arrived! Tom’s girlfriend, Nicki gave me a hug, as did Tom and then Nicki’s parents. Then I invited everyone into Outer Space. As they followed me up the porch steps, I bragged to them about Tom being a talented carpenter, and they agreed with me and were impressed with his and Ronnie’s work.
Unfortunately, we had a pretty short visit, but it was a lot of fun, and there was a lot of laughter! They needed to leave, because they were anxious to get to the festival to set up their camping gear. But fortunately, before leaving, they told us that they would be coming back tomorrow, for a tour and a longer visit! And, that made my day! I thought.
Well, around 4:35, the dogs outside started barking! Someone was driving onto the ranch! I hoped that it was Tom, Nicki, Nancy and David, but unfortunately it wasn’t. Instead, it was a FedEx delivery truck, so Tony left Outer Space, to go meet up with the driver. As Ben and I watched from Outer Space, Tony signed for the package, and then headed back our way—wearing a smile and giving us a thumbs up!
When he returned to Outer Space, he said, “Nance, it’s for you—from N.M. Kelby. You want me to open it up for you?”
“Yes, please,” I said. “I’ll bet that it is the ‘Bad Girls Bar & Grill’ BBQ sauce, that I had ordered!
“Yes,” Tony said. “And no.”
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“Yes, it is the BBQ sauce, six bottles, and two copies of her book— ‘In The Company of Angels!’” Then Tony handed me the books! “Ben, Nicole is so sweet. She wouldn’t let me pay for the BBQ sauce. So, I am going to send her a brick of y’all’s ‘Miles of Chocolate’ as soon as her book tour is over.” Ben smiled, and nodded his head. “I am nearly finished reading, ‘“Murder at the Bad Girls Bar & Grill’ and it is a fantastic read—just like ‘Whale Season!”’
“Can I read them, when y’all are through?” Ben asked.
“Of course, you can, Ben,” I said. “They are so good! I can’t wait for you to read them!”
“I’m nearly finished with ‘Whale Season,’” Tony said. “And, you’ll like it.”
When the temperature in Outer Space reached ninety-six degrees, Ben decided it was time to leave, so he went over to the Lodge, to see his dogs, Penny and Valerie, and Tony and I came inside the trailer to—escape the heat.
P.S. Thank you, Tom, Nicki, Nancy, David and Nicole—y’all just made my day! I love it!
