The Accidental Tourist's Traveling Pants! or Here's Your Sign! or Blast From the Past!

Today has been great even though it rained a couple of days ago and our grass and weeds look like they've never been mowed.

This afternoon, after we dropped off Sally Field, at Hoegemeyer Animal Clinic, to get her shots, etc. then we met up with our dear friend Jim, at Cracker Barrel, for a really fun lunch.

This past Tuesday, while I was out of town, Kinky rescued Sally, from a field near Hwy. 16, when he was  returning to the ranch. Sally is a super sweet, well-behaved, female Pit, so if any of y'all know someone who has lost a beautiful Pit Bull, please ask them to call me.

Speaking of out of town, I literally had a blast getting to spend quality time with my sweet sister, brother and his sweet wife, in Terlingua. And basically all we did from Sunday afternoon through Wednesday night was have fun, sitting out on the porch, visiting, playing guitars, listening to music, stargazing and birdwatching. And we also did a little hiking.

Sunday evening after we ate dinner, just to put it nicely, let's say, "That I had a little accident," because earlier in the day, on our drive out there, I had eaten some greasy fast food, at a truck stop, in Fort Stockton, that had upset my stomach or so I thought. And please note that Tony and I never eat fast food unless we have to.

Anyway, when we got back to our cabins I suddenly had a new senior citizen moment or should I say movement. There we were sitting on the porch, talking and laughing about life, when nature called me. It called me softly, so I ignored it until a few minutes later when it finally shouted—"Bombs Away!"

So, I quickly excused myself and went inside Cindy's and my cabin that we were sharing. I was only three footsteps away from reaching the toilet—when it happened! And I was totally mortified, because in the past I'd heard jokes about this happening to older people, but I had never thought it would happen to me.

After I had cleaned up the mess, inside my 501 Levis and the surrounding territory, I pulled on my sweatpants and went back outside. As I sat down in my metal chair, I was hoping that no one would notice my new outfit, but of course Ronnie did. "Hey Nance, I like your new pajamas! Are you fixin' to go to bed soon?" Then my family started laughing, so I went along and chuckled too, trying to act as if nothing at all had happened.

Monday morning, when Ronnie took off to go walk, Brick and Maggie, their two sweet dogs, I confessed to Cindy and Nita about me having an accident, in my pants and they sympathized and then we laughed about it, as I hung my damp jeans over the porch rail to dry.

So when Ronnie returned with their dogs, he raised his eyebrows when he looked at my soaking wet blue jeans draped over the railing, so I went ahead and told him about my accident incident. And he burst out laughing which caused all of us to start laughing, again. Then he shook his head sideways, and joked, "All I can say is better you than me. Hey look—we're old. It's no big deal. @#$% happens."

Tuesday morning, Ronnie and I hiked down, to go  check out the swimming pool and the outdoor restrooms with showers. When I came out of the women's super clean restroom, Ronnie said, "Omg Nance! You've got to come check out this sign. Then he started laughing, and joked, "Here's your sign!"

I quickly read the posted sign to discover that the water, at my most favorite resort, was safe to drink and had passed all government requirements, but near the bottom, it warned that "Due to an elevated sulfate content the water may have a laxative effect and objectionable mineral taste."

"Don't you see, Nance? It's not you being old," Ronnie stated, as he pointed to my sign. It's because of the sulfur in the water. Didn't you drink iced tea with dinner Sunday night?"

"Yes, I drank three full glasses," I replied. "I was feeling dehydrated." Then we started laughing about it all over again. And then we quickly marched back to our cabins, so we could tell Cindy and Nita the news about the sulfur in the water. 

When Ronnie told Nita and Cindy about the posted sign we all started laughing again, because like me, my  sweet family loves to laugh. "Hey Nance," Nita joked. "Can I get you a glass of water to drink?" And of course, we all burst out laughing, again.

"Y'all, believe it or not I am going to blog about my blast from the past with pictures, too."

So later that evening after having a super fun Happy Hour, out on the porch, we went to eat dinner together. And when the waitress asked me what I wanted to drink, I said, "Root Beer. with no ice, please." And that remark made Ronnie, Cindy and Nita start to chuckle.

I also have another funny story to tell you about my fun family reunion that involves metal deck chairs and Cindy's, Ronnie & Nita's dogs, but it will have to wait until later, because I've already written too much for tonight.

But before I finish writing this post I want y'all to check out this funny YouTube video that our good friend Les sent to me today. It's about an adorable dog named Wendy and a ventriloquist. So if you still want to laugh some more please click here to watch it. I promise that it will bring tears to your eyes, because it is so darn cute.

Y'all have a great evening!

Jack Sunday!

I was totally blown away after watching the Ken Burns' The Dust Bowl, a two hour, two part documentary on PBS the last two nights. Yesterday and today have been great.

Yesterday morning, right after Tony and I had finished our morning chores Christina arrived with precious cargo—Betty White, the fabulous dog that she adopted from us a few years ago and she also brought Rosco, an adorable, older dog that she is fostering, but might adopt.

Tony and I really enjoyed visiting with Christina and Betty White, who looked fantastic and happy and after we showed Christina all of our dogs, she is going to come back in December to adopt and pick Jethro Tull up and we are thrilled for him, because she loves dogs and knows how to spoil them!

Yesterday afternoon, we took Sally Field to Hoegemeyer Animal Clinic to get her checked out and given shots and by the time we got back home Susan had called and left a message on Carlton, "Sally Field is ready to be picked up. She didn't need to get spayed and Dr. Janssen told us that she is about ten-years-old and she is a really sweet old girl."

This morning while Tony and I were outside doing our chores, Jack Sunday called and left a message for me on Carlton. He is a very popular radio personality on KFGO, in Fargo, North Dakota—The Mighty 790 AM and he is a good friend of Kinky's.

After I had listened to Jack's message, wanting to know if I would do a radio interview with him tomorrow, to talk about our traditional Thanksgiving dinner for our dogs, which we have been doing for over fourteen years, I called him back to tell him that I would love to do it. So, if you would like to listen to the interview at 12:10 PM, Central time, go to this address KFGO and the second tab at the top of the page, click listen live, because he loves dogs and he wants to spread the word about our rescue ranch to his listeners in Fargo.

When I got off of the phone with Jack I called Kinky, in Las Vegas, to tell him about doing an interview with Jack Sunday and Kinky was thrilled about it. Then he and I talked about The Friedmans. Before we adios-ed each other he asked me if I had seen Willie on The Today Show this morning, talking about his and Willie''s new book, Roll Me Up and Smoke Me When I Die: Musings From The Road. "No, Kinky, I didn't, but I will check it out and tell you about it."

Later today we went to the little H-E-B store for last minute grocery shopping and to pick up Sally Field, because our dear friend Rick Reichenbach is coming up from Port Aransas to spend the Thanksgiving holidays with us and we are really looking forward to seeing him. And that is about it for tonight, because I want to work on my novella.

Y'all have a great evening!

Sally Field!

Yesterday and today have been great. Yesterday, after our wonderful volunteers had walked our dogs,  they went to their cars, trucks and SUVs to get the food that they had brought for our picnic at Tony's No Whiner Diner, in The Okay Corral.

While Tony and The Mineral Man cooked up the hamburgers, veggie burgers and sausage, June and Ellen showed us the darling pictures that Ellen and her had taken of some three-day-old, part-Chihuahua puppies with their mother, that Ellen had rescued from the pound in Kerrville. So, in seven to eight weeks, if you are wanting a sweet, small puppy or their mama, please call me at the rescue ranch, because they are precious.

Our picnic was really fun and it was filled with laughter, of course, because our volunteers like to have fun and yes, my back ached most of the day, because they made me laugh so much.

After Jim, June, Ellen, Eileen, Lisa and Kris & Jim "The Mineral Man" left to go home, Tony and I jumped into Buttermilk, so we could go to H-E-B to get groceries and a 32" television set for the big room, because MIR broke it.

I bought the cheapest television they had that was on sale and all of the way home Tony and I talked about dreading to set it up, because we're not good at setting up electronics. And when we got home it only took us forty minutes to get it right! So, the reason that I didn't post on my blog last night was I watched Coach and Frazier reruns. Here's a picture of my television, that I took late this afternoon with Roy Rogers sleeping on the floor and Belle Starr-Simons dosing on the pillow.

This morning after we did our morning chores outside, our friend Karon, the nice woman who adopted Pecos Bill from us, called us about a stray dog that had wandered up and an hour later, she delivered the sweet, old female dog to us. We're not sure how old she really is, but we're guessing about eight-years-old. I named her Sally Field and she probably weighs about forty pounds and she is very sweet and great with children. Please meet Sally Field, who is another one of our fabulous dogs!

Around 11:30 Christina called me. "Hi, Nancy. I'm Christina &*^%^&#@ and you probably don't remember me. I adopted a dog from y'all a few years ago."

I interrupted her and said, "How is Betty White doing?" After she told me that Betty was doing fabulous she told me that she wanted to come out to adopt a great, large, male mutt from us which are the hardest to get adopted!  

"I like mutts," she said, "I want a junk yard dog to live the good life with Betty." After she made an appointment to come out next week we adios-ed each other. And Tony and I can't wait to see Christina and to say hello to Ms. White.

Around 12:30, our fabulous volunteer, Eileen, showed up with her friend Audrey, who was from out of town, spending the weekend with her. "I just wanted to show her the rescue ranch and meet y'all," Eileen said, as Tony and I smiled and stared at Audrey's precious, small black Llasa-Cocker.

After a short, but fun visit with them they drove off so Eileen could drive Audrey around the Hill Country. 

We ate a late lunch today, because neither one of us was very hungry and after lunch I began making the changes to my novella, that Eileen and Lisa had volunteered to proof read and edited for me. And, because I am so blind I had to use my big magnifying glass, that someone gave to me as a joke gift for my 60th birthday and it really helped. I took this picture of the first thirty-five now edited pages of my novella, because Eileen has the other fifty pages that she wanted to go over one more time.

Y'all have a great evening!