Bucket List!

Today has been fun, but first I want to back up to yesterday morning. Rita, the woman from Las Cruces, New Mexico, visiting friends in Kerrville, who had called me on Sunday, about getting a private tour with her friends Monday morning, around 10:30 didn't happen.

Around 11:30, Rita's friend Carolyn called me, "Nancy, I am so sorry, but we have to cancel today's visit, because we had to rush Rita to the Emergency Room in Kerrville and everything is up in the air."

"Oh my goodness," I said. "Is she going to be alright?"

"We don't know. They put her on Morphine. Can we reschedule our visit for tomorrow morning?"

"Sure....." After we adios-ed each other I was very concerned about Rita's condition. When Tony and Brandon returned to The Cabin to eat lunch, I told them about Rita being in the hospital and maybe coming out on New Year's Day. "Tony, you know Rita mentioned that visiting our rescue ranch was on her Bucket List. What if she has already died and never got to see our rescue ranch?"

"She might have, Nance," Tony replied.

Early in the evening Kinky called me, "Nance, I'll be back at the ranch late tonight. How are The Friedmans doing?"

After we had discussed them, I told him about Rita. "Kinky, she may already be dead, but if not she might show up out here tomorrow."

"I doubt if she is dead, Nance." Then a few seconds later Kink and I chuckled about the funny/morbid situation, because weird things seem to happen out here. "If Rita and her friends come out tomorrow—I definitely want to meet Rita and her friends.

This morning, as I re-cleaned The Cabin, in case Rita and her friends showed up, I couldn't quit thinking about poor Rita, while Tony and Brandon did the morning chores outside.

Around 11:10, our dogs inside The Cabin, started barking, so I looked out the window and saw a silver car, that I didn't recognize, driving up to our trailer. "Tony, I think Rita is here!" I half-hollered, before going outside to greet whoever had driven up.

"Welcome to the rescue ranch," I said, to three women climbing out of a car that had New Mexico license plates.

"Are you Cousin Nancy?"

"Yes. Are you Rita?"

"Yes, I am, but my name is Ria, not Rita and I am still wearing my hospital bracelet, because I am still on Morphine."

"I'm sorry, Ria. I am hard of hearing and I thought you said, "Rita." Then I recognized her friend Bonny and greeted her. Then Bonny introduced me to her sister Carolyn. After we had all hugged each other Tony and I gave them a grand tour of the rescue ranch, as we talked about our dogs and about Ria's visit to the Emergency Room.

Apparently, Ria has been seeing all kinds of doctors and taking MIR's etc. trying to find out what is causing her pain in her neck with no results. And the reason Ria went to Peterson Regional Memorial Hospital was because she started having really bad chest pains and thought she was having a heart attack. Then she told us, "Fortunately, it wasn't a heart attack."

"I bet it is your gallbladder," Tony diagnosed. "Nancy and I have known a lot of people who thought they were having heart attacks and it was their gallbladder."

"They've tested my gallbladder and it is fine..."

When we ended the tour we invited the women into the The Cabin, so we could visit some more and drink some coffee. Twenty minutes later, I asked them if they would like to meet Kinky and they all said, "Yes!"

Then I called Kinky. "Kinky, I have three women here and I wanted to know if I could bring them over?"

"Is it Rita?" He asked. Does she look like she's on her death bed?"

"Yes, but her name is Ria not Rita and she looks real healthy to me. We'll be there in just a minute."

Our visit at The Lodge was a lot of fun. They got their pictures taken with Kinky and before we left, Kinky invited us to toast the New Year, with his Man In Black Tequila.

Carolyn and Bonny accepted his invitation, but I declined, because I swore off tequila, when I lived in Crested Butte, Colorado. "I'll have some, too," Ria declared.

"You can't, Ria, because you are still on Morphine," one of the sisters said. Then Bonny ran out to their car and retrieved Ria's medical records folder. "Ria, it says no alcohol." And Ria seemed disappointed.

After Kinky poured the sisters and his shot glasses, I said, "Let's toast to Ria not being dead and scratching us off her bucket list." Then they clinked their glasses together and Ria and I touched their shot glasses.

As they sipped the tequila I said, "Ria, I'm glad that you're not dead and please don't drop dead here."

When it was time for us to leave, one of the sisters suggested that Kinky autograph Ria's medical records and he signed it, "To Ria, I'm glad you're not dead, yet."

Later this afternoon, Kinky treated Brandon, Tony and me to lunch, in Kerrville and we had a good time and that is about it for tonight, because I am going to start writing on Part II of The Cowgirl Sisterhood: The Membership Drive.

Y'all have a great New Year!

I Coud Not Wait!

Today has been a great day and rumor has it, as of 4:45 this afternoon, that Jackie Kennedy Onassis might get adopted on Monday if she gets along with their dog, Emmylou Harris, who was adopted from us a while back. So, Tony and I are keeping our fingers crossed for her, because she is a really cute dog.

Yesterday was great and was filled with excitement and that is why I didn't blog, because I was pretty tired. Friday morning when Tony returned home after drinking coffee with his friends at The Old Timer, his first words to me were, "We've got a new dog. Someone tied her to our gate after I left this morning. She's a great dog and I just put her into The Okay Corral...."

When our volunteers came out to walk our dogs I introduced them to the sweet, one-year-old dog and everyone fell in love with her. "She looks like a Molly to me," Kris said, so I decided that Molly would be her name.

While everyone was walking our dogs I kept coming inside The Cabin to check my e-mail and phone messages. I needed to okay the final proofs for my novella and then high-tail it to Bandera, to withdraw some cash, so I could go to Kerrville to deposit it into my book publishing business account, so I could get a certified check for the full payment and then rush to FedEx to overnight it.

When Carol showed up I told her about being excited about my novella and what all I needed to do before 3:00. Then she offered to lend me the cash to save me time from having to go to Bandera. "We can go to my bank to withdraw the money."

"And I will write you a check and you can deposit it right back into your account..."

When everyone was fixin' to go eat lunch I told them what all I needed to do and that Tony and I were fixin' to go pick up Carol and go to Kerrville, because time was of the essence and they totally understood.

Time wise, everything worked out in Kerrville and when we got back home, around 3:00, I checked my e-mail and the proofs were there for me to sign off on, but since the printing company was on Eastern Standard Time, I only had one hour to sign off on my novella.

When I looked at the proofs I was so thrilled, because they had done a great job for me, for the second time in two years. As soon as I signed off on the printing I called the printers and told them what all I had done in Kerrville and that the check would be there Monday morning. "As soon as we receive the check we will start printing your books," the nice woman said. Then I thanked her and asked her to please tell her staff at 48 HrBooks that I was thrilled with their work. Then I called Carol to ask if I could come over, for a minute, to show her the book cover, because I could not wait for her to see it.

When I showed the cover to Carol she loved it as much as me and I hope y'all do, too!

And here's the back of the novella.

And y'all have a great evening!