A Real Pot Of Coffee! or Navajo Sand! or Cal-Bob's Smoke Shack!

I have been having a blast these past few days and that is why I haven't had a chance to blog, so now I am going to play a little catch up and tell y'all about the fun I have had, since Rick, "The Friendly Lighthouse Keeper" arrived Monday evening.

Tuesday morning, after Rick and Tony had returned from drinking coffee with the old timers, I cooked them some scrambled eggs and they split and ate the one rib eye, that Mama hadn't had time to consume and they thanked me and told me over and over again how tasty their breakfast was and then the three of us went outside and jumped into Kermit, to do the morning chores.

As we rode from one spot to another, around the ranch, to feed the many deer and wild turkeys, Rick and I decided to make a contest out of cleaning up the dog poop and when it was over and all said and done—it was a tie, because both of our buckets weighed the same.

Around 11:00, while Rick was out riding his Triumph all around the Hill Country, Tony and I went to the Home Depot in Kerrville to buy paint, so when Ben and Aaron came out, on Wednesday and Thursday, they could paint our five red barns, because they really looked drab and needed painting badly. And in less than five minutes I had picked the color for our barns and forty-five minutes later we were back at the ranch waiting for Rick to arrive.

We spent Tuesday evening playing music all night, in the big room and it was so much fun and we sounded pretty good, too. Rick and T. took turns playing my mandolin, while I finger-picked songs on my guitar.

Wednesday morning Rick overslept, so Tony went to the Old Timer by himself. Around 8:00, after I had showered, washed and dried our laundry, Rick knocked on the front door, just as I was making a fresh pot of coffee, " Good morning, Rick. Come on in! We'll have some hot coffee to drink in just five minutes or less." I unknowingly lied.

Two minutes after Rick had sat down on a stool at the breakfast bar, I turned around and was surprised to see the coffee ready so soon. After I had poured Rick a cup, I poured myself some coffee and added some Half 'n Half and one ice cube, as I always do, because I don't like it so hot.

When Rick and I toasted each other with our mugs and then took a sip—it was ice cold. "Nancy, did you do something wrong?" Rick teased.

"No, Rick. I poured the water where I am supposed to and if I had poured it over the coffee grounds—we'd have coffee grounds in our coffee. I guess it's time to buy another Mr. Coffee. What should I do?"

"Pour it into a pan and heat it up," Rick suggested, so I did.

Five minutes later, when I poured Rick a cup of hot coffee I laughed and said, "I guess that you could say, "That this is a real pot of coffee."

While the Friendly Lighthouse Keeper and I sipped our coffees and visited, I unplugged Mr. Coffee and was about to put him into the trash can and Rick says, "What are you doing?"

"I'm throwing him away, because he is broken." After Rick had persuaded me not to dump Mr. Coffee so fast and to give him another chance, Tony walked inside the trailer.

After Ben, Aaron, Rick, Tony and I had fed and cleaned all of the dog pens, Aaron and Ben worked on our paint sprayer. "What color are we going to paint the barns?" Ben asked. 

"Navajo Sand," I replied, and Ben started laughing.

"Nav...a...jo Sannnnd," he mockingly teased. "We're painting this here thang Nav...a...jo Sannnnd. I love the way you drag out a word." After we had all quit laughing, I asked him how he pronounces it. "Navajo Sand," Ben quickly quipped. "Not Nav...a...jo Sannnnd."

When Ben and Aaron had nearly finished painting the barn closest to the trailer, Rick, Tony and me jumped into Buttermilk and took off for Kerrville to get some more paint supplies and to eat lunch at Cal-Bob's Smoke Shack, the new, only 100-day-old, best BBQ place in Kerrville, about one mile from I-10. 

As soon as we had sat down at the last table available in the friendly good-vibes, Cal-Bob's Smoke Shack, Carol, Calvin Abercrombie's sweet wife, greeted us and asked us what we wanted to drink. Seconds later, friendly Carol served us our iced teas. "I remember you. You're Cousin Nancy," she said, "the birthday girl," and after a fun visit with her, she took our order.

Ten minutes later, at our table, there was the sound of silence, as we happily ate our delicious lunch. "I love this place," Rick said, as we nodded our heads agreeing with him. "This is the best BBQ that I've eaten in years! I'm going to tell everyone in Port Aransas about this place..."

After a fun visit with Calvin, the best BBQ cook in Texas, we grabbed Aaron's and Ben's takeout lunch boxes and then we headed to Home Depot and then we came home to feed the hungry "Navajo Sand painters." Which they raved about how delicious Cal-Bob's Smoke Shack BBQ was, as I repeated myself several times, telling everyone how I much I loved the newly painted barns.

Second verse same as the first, Rick, Tony and I spent last night pickin' and grinnin' and we sounded even better than the night before.

This morning before the sun came up, Tony woke me up at 6:00, so I could do Harley's, the next Kerr County Commissioner's radio show at 7:45 and then Rick followed him, on his Triumph, to the Old Timer to drink a hot cup of coffee, before heading back to the privately owned island, where he lives with a lighthouse.

I spent most of my day sitting behind this computer, taking care of some paperwork and that is about it for tonight. Before I start watching some Frazier reruns that I recorded earlier, I hope that everyone in the Texas Hill Country and visitors will go eat at Cal-Bob's Smoke Shack, Randy & Lisa's Save Inn restaurant and the Water Street Cafe, because these are my three favorite places to eat in the Texas Hill Country.

Y'all have a great evening and please keep praying that we get some more rain!

Street of the Seven Angels! or Vote For Honest Harley! or Down By The River!

Today has been great, but somewhat crazy and I am blaming it all on F.M.T. (Full Moon Time). Early this afternoon Tony and I took off for Kerrville, so we could go by Wolfmueller's Book just to say," Hi" to Sandy and Jon, eat lunch somewhere, go to H-E-B, so we could replace the two rotting steaks that Tony had accidentally left under the driver's seat inside Trigger and lastly, to pick up Ginger Rogers at Hoegemeyer Animal Clinic and take her home and we ended up having a few nice surprises along the way.

When we walked inside Sandy and Jon's bookstore we greeted each other and then Sandy holds up a pretty book and says, "Nancy, have you got a copy of your uncle's book, Street of the Seven Angels?"

"No, but I do now, because I'm buying this book right now. How much is it?" As I was writing a check to pay for the book, Sandy and Jon told me that there has been a lot of news, in the last few days, about my famous uncle, John Howard Griffin, my mother's brother, because his book, Black Like Me, is celebrating it's 50 year anniversary when it was first published, back when I was only 10 years old, living in Fort Worth, 2 years before my 6th grade Russian teacher tried to convince me that Communism was good and so was caviar.

After we had talked some about Uncle Howard, Sandy and Jon told us some great news, "Harley has decided to run for Precinct Commissioner of Kerrville and y'all need to sign his petition, because he needs to collect 90 signatures. Isn't that great! We're helping him collect the signatures at our store."

While Tone and I signed our names to Harley's petition, we decided to save some time and go eat a healthy, delicious lunch at the Water Street Cafe, even though my good friend Mari and I had made earlier plans to eat there today or tomorrow with Karin, but because of some last minute rescheduling on my end—I had to cancel our lunch date. "Hey!" I said. "Why don't y'all or one of you take turns and join us for lunch?"

"I just got back from seeing Kevin. We'll try to," Sandy said. Then we adios-ed them and walked down the sidewalk to Kevin's popular restaurant on Water Street.

"Hi, Cousin Nancy and Tony!" Kevin greeted, as we walked in. "How have y'all been doing?..." While I ate my favorite combo, "Black Bean Soup and Chef Salad" and Tony happily munched away on his roast beef sandwich, Jon walked inside and sat down with us and then Kevin walked over to our table, so we could talk about how excited we all were that our dear friend Harley Belew had decided to run for Precinct Commissioner. When we told Kevin that Jon and Sandy and us had already signed his petition at Wolfmueller's Books, he told us that he and his sweet wife would go down to their bookstore and sign Harley's petition too. Then came surprise number two.

While I was paying for our lunch, I told Kevin about Ginger Rogers, the cute little Chihuahua that we rescued yesterday from Garnet and Jan, that we were fixin' to pick up, after grabbing some steaks at H-E-B and his eyes lit up and then he told his pretty wife about us rescuing Ginger Rogers and her eyes lit up, too. "We've been wanting to get our daughter a small dog and we might want to adopt Ginger or at least give her a try..." Five minutes later, after telling them all we knew about Ginger Rogers we promised to come back and let them meet Ginger, before they closed for the day.

Well, we kept our promise to them and tonight Kevin and Julie are giving Miss R. a chance to possibly become their daughter's dog and we hope that it works out, but if it doesn't for one reason or another, I told Kevin and Julie, "It's either meant to be or not meant to be and if its not don't worry, because I know that we can find her a great home, because little dogs always get adopted fast..."

Early this evening I thumbed through Street of the Seven Angels and smiled, when I read that my uncle only wrote when he was listening to classical music and that he was also a marvelous, humorist essayist, because even though I realize that I am not in the same league as my Uncle Howard, I too, am an essayist and I too, only write while listening to my music and in hopes that it makes you laugh often.

So, that is about it for tonight, because I plan to start reading my uncle's book, that was never published during his life time, until Bob Bonazzi, of Wings Press, in San Antonio, who later married uncle Howard's wife and lived next door to my parents in Fort Worth. Thank you, Bob. I sure miss all of them.

P.S. This morning I did my Utopia segment on The Harley Show and Emmylou Harris was his Pet of the Week and Karin has just called me from the H-E-B store in Kerrville, where she is buying some beer.

Karin told me that she had a wonderful time in San Antonio today! She got to see the real Alamo, take a buggy ride pulled by a horse, ride in a barge down the famous, beautiful River Walk and she drank one beer at a famous saloon there. The only thing bad that happened to her was she got a parking ticket at the U.T.S.A. campus, but she sounded happy and told me that she was so glad to be back in Kerrville and she is coming out here tomorrow morning to walk our dogs with our fabulous volunteers! I am so inspired by her braveness to go into San Antone and just sorry that she got a parking fine, but I can't wait for her to meet our volunteers, because they are going to love her and she is going to love them. 

Y'all have a great evening and please keep praying for us to get some more rain!

Congratulations To Hayden Hickner! or Road Trip!

Today has been so much fun. This afternoon we went to Wolfmueller's Books so we could meet our dear friend "Patty From Florida" there, so we could go to lunch. Before going into the bookstore we checked out their display window by the door and started to laugh, because they had filled the entire display bookshelf with one of Kinky's, Tony's and my favorite Elmer Kelton's best selling book, The Time It Never Rained and it made me appreciate Sandy's and Jon's great sense of humor concerning our terrible drought.

We were greeted by Sandy and Jon when we walked into their bookstore and they invited us to sit down for a visit, while we waited on Patty, because we were ten minutes early. "I love your display window showcasing Elmer's book," I said. "It says it all and it made me laugh and we sure need something to laugh about since we can't do anything about the drought and..."

Then I saw it! "OMG! Y'all have Hayden Hickner's new book, A Bear & the Bees," I said, excitedly. "I love his book and his illustrations and I can't believe he is only sixteen years old and has Aspergers Syndrome and he wrote it when he was only fourteen years old and..."

"It's a beautiful book," Sandy replied. "Did you know that he's having a book signing at the Medina Community Library next Thursday at 9:30?"

"Yes, and I plan to go."

"Good. Then let's ride together," Sandy said. Then we started talking about the drought and that's when I saw Joan, a friend of Kinky's and mine, who had given him her dog Sophie, so I excused myself and went to talk to her about Sophie. After a short, but fun visit with her, Patty walked up and hugged me and then I introduced her to Joan.

Before leaving the bookstore Patty, T. and I invited Sandy and Jon to join us for lunch. "I'll come down there in a few minutes to drink some tea with y'all, but Jon can't because he has to stay here to hold down the fort."

When the three of us walked into the crowded Water Street Cafe, Kevin, the owner greeted us and then I introduced him to Patty and then we went and found a table and the laughter commenced and when Sandy joined us—we're talkin' one non-stop laughing, hilarious party and believe it or not—we even found humor in discussing politics, religion and our awful drought.

While we were eating our delicious lunch and Sandy sipped her tea Patty and Sandy started talking about how much they loved shopping at Target. "I haven't been to a Target store in over sixteen years, since I left Austin, because I don't do big cities," I casually remarked, and you should have seen the look of shock and disbelief on Sandy and Patty's faces—like I was some kind of an alien from another planet, so I burst out laughing and they followed suit. Then for about five minutes they told Tony and me on how cool Target stores are to shop at and I was pretty impressed.

Then we started talking about Whole Foods and what a great store it is and once again I told them that I hadn't been to a Whole Foods store in over sixteen years, too and I got the same reaction from them—shock and total disbelief—followed by another outburst of laughter.

And when it was all said and done Patty suggested, "The next time that I'm back in town let's do a road trip and take Nancy to Austin so we can take her shopping at Target and Whole Foods!" And that set the wheels in motion, so to speak. "Let's do it. We can go in my car and ...," Sandy said.

After the four of us ate our tasty chocolate cupcakes we went back to the bookstore and while I told Sandy and Patty about our new band L—BeNT & Husky Bound and how good T. had gotten on the mandolin—Jon sat at his desk and "wolf-ed down" (Because he is a Wolfmueller.) the chocolate cupcake that Sandy had brought to him.

After I had told them about Ben picking the song, "My Rifle, My Pony and Me" for our band to learn Sandy pulled it up on YouTube and we watched Dino and Ricky Nelson sing it in the classic movie Rio Bravo. Then it became question and answer time.

We had Sandy sitting at her laptop Googling Ricky Nelson to help us remember his brother's name. "It's David Nelson," Sandy reported. "It says here that "Garden Party" was Ricky's second most popular song. I love that song."

"I do, too," I said. "Maybe our band can learn that song, too." When Patty started talking about Kelly McGinnis living in Florida, I asked, "Was Kelly McGinnis in Top Gun?" So, Sandy checked that out and verified that yes, she was in Top Gun. After fact checking several more questions we had for Sandy I looked over at Jon and said, "Jon, if you had Sandy charging us just a dollar to look up and answer all of our trivial pursuit questions—you'd be twenty or thirty dollars richer." Jon laughed and then he and T. took off to look at some book on photography.

Ten minutes later, after Patty had purchased several books from Sandy to take back with her to Florida—it was time for Patty and us to leave. So after we all hugged and adios-ed each other Trigger took Tone and me home.

Around 5:00 this evening Tony and I went over to the Lodge to visit with Kinky and we sat outside beneath a big, old oak tree and caught up with each others news and talked about Enzo's great adoption, seeing Joan at the bookstore and the drought.

And that is about it for tonight.

Y'all have a great evening and please keep praying for rain for us.

What Kevin Suggested!

Today has been fun. This morning I cleaned the dog pens instead of walking the distance with Leslie. Then I came inside the trailer to get ready for our eleven o'clock appointment with a nice man and his wife, who drove all of the way down from Arkansas, who wanted to see our rescue ranch and talk to Tony and me about animal rescue, because they are thinking about moving to Texas and starting a horse rescue ranch.

But unfortunately that didn't happen. He called me twenty minutes before they were supposed to arrive to cancel our meeting, because his wife had become suddenly ill, so he was going to take her the hospital instead. Hopefully, tomorrow he will call me with good news about his wife before they head back up to Arkansas.

Around 11:45 (Please note that I have decided to use numerals instead of spelling out the time, because it is faster.) I checked my e-mail and the note I received from Mari, of The NoMads, tickled me and made me laugh out loud and that was when Tone walked inside the trailer and said those famous words, "Nance, I'm starving. Can we go eat at The Water Street Cafe, in Kerrville, since you haven't started cooking, yet? It will be my treat for helping me this morning." 


"Sure, that sounds good, but give me two minutes, so I can reply to Mari's funny e-mail. I'm going to invite her to join us for lunch because she loves that place, too."

Thirty-two minutes later, we walked into the crowed, popular restaurant and sat down, in hopes that Mari would join us before we placed our order. Well, Mari was a no-show, but Kevin, the owner of Water Street Cafe, did and we got to visiting. "Kevin, I just want you to know that we love your cafe and now our two most favorite places to eat in Kerrville is here and at Randy & Lisa's Save Inn Restaurant."

As I enjoyed his delicious, homemade Lentil Soup, I complimented him on how good it was and I almost got him to tell me all of his secret ingredients, but I didn't get all of them, because he reads my blog and probably realized that I was attempting to steal his secret recipe and make it mine, because he is one sharp cookie, so to speak and then he changed the subject. "Did you walk four miles this morning?"

"Nope, I cleaned dog pens instead. Kevin, by the way, thanks for the funny comment you made on yesterdays blog, suggesting that we wash Trigger and roll the windows down, like you—to help make it rain today. Do you want to go wash Trigger for us? He's right outside and could really use a bath." Kevin thought it was funny, but took no action, so Trigger is sitting outside and still dirty.

After we left Kevin's cafe we marched up the street to Wolfmueller's books to say "Hi" to Sandy and Jon. When we walked inside their, bustling with customers, bookstore they greeted us and then they introduced us to a nice couple, who were their friends from Fredericksburg and we had a real fun time visiting with them.

When Sandy and Jon got busy helping their customers find books we adios-ed them and then we headed for Office Max to pick up a few office supplies before heading home. As we were checking out we had the nicest surprise. Mari walked inside, "Hey, Mari!" T. and I half-hollered from the checkout counter.

Mari, who had not seen us looked over and then the three of us started laughing. And then we had a fun visit, standing outside the front door of Office Max and of course, it was filled with non-stop laughter. Then she headed home and so did we and that's when my back started aching.

Early this evening, I spent over an hour playing my guitar, that Ronnie made for me, eight or nine years ago and not to brag (Yes, I truly am bragging.) I sounded pretty good or at least that's what T. said. I figured out how to play a couple more of Neil Young songs and then I practiced on my finger-picking skills until my fingertips were killing me.

As I finish writing this tonight, I want Mari to know that I am sitting on her pretty, pink sheepskin, that she gave to me, because my back is aching from laughing way too much today thanks to her, Sandy & Jon and Kevin. And now, as soon as I finish typing this, I 'm fixin' to find out if Mari's magic sheepskin can heal the pain in my fingertips.

Y'all have a great evening! And please pray for rain for us tonight by doing what Kevin suggested Tony and I do to help make it rain—wash your vehicle and then roll down the windows and wait.

Baublit! or Perfect Timing!

Today has been great. This morning I walked six miles with Leslie Sansone and then after breakfast I went outside and helped Tony clean the dog pens and I really enjoyed it because I got to visit with our dogs.

This afternoon, after lunch, Trigger took us to Kerrville to run a few errands. Our first stop was at the big discount store where years ago I had bought my cheap, Made In China wristwatch, Pinky, in hopes that they could replace the battery for me and revive her. 

But, because today is F.M.T. (Full Moon Time) I lucked out and got this lady D.E.M. (Disgruntled Employee of the Month) who did not want to wait on me. After I told her about Pinky's untimely death the other day and asked her if she could put a battery into her, she sarcastically said, "No! All I can do is give you this screwdriver, so you can get it out." Then she handed me this small green screwdriver and stood back and watched, as I tried for three minutes to unsuccessfully pry open Pinky's tightly sealed back.

When I finally decided to give up on Pinky I took three deep breaths and then silently counted to fourteen, because ten wouldn't cut it for me and then I gave her tool back to her and said, as nicely as I could, "Thank you, for your help."

Then the D.E.M., who could have also been an alien in disguise, softened a little and she or it whispered, "Take it to a pawn shop. I'm sure they can fix it for you. That's what I tell everyone to do," as I slipped Pinky back into the sandwich-sized baggie and put her back into my purse. 

Then I called Tony on my cell phone to find him and then we left the store and headed to H-E-B and picked up a few groceries. Then we went to Wolfmueller's Books to pick up two more copies of The Art Of Racing In The Rain that they had ordered for me and I am so glad that we did.

When we walked into their bookstore Jon was at the counter ringing up a customer and Sandy was sitting at her desk doing some paperwork and she said, "Hi, Tony and Nancy. Come on over here and sit down." Then we started visiting.

"Sandy, you know it is Full Moon Time and I think I just had a first encounter with an alien or a D.E.M.— disgruntled employee of the month," I said, as Jon's customers walked out of the store.

Sandy laughed. "Really? What happened?" Sandy asked, as Jon walked over to join us. "Jon, Nancy thinks she met an alien just a while ago," Jon smiled and then they started chuckling, as I opened up my purse and took Pinky out to show her to them, as I told them about my unpleasant encounter. 

When I finished my story they both said, in perfect harmony, "You need to take it to Dayton!" Then Sandy says, "Dayton Baublit can fix it and his store, Baublit Jewelers, is right down the street. He's our good friend and he fixes and repairs every body's watches in town."

"Where?" I asked.

"On Water Street, Sandy said. "Jon, why don't you take Nancy over there and Tony can stay here and visit with Mary Jo and me." Jon and I took off and marched down the street to Baublit Jewlers. The minute that I walked into their friend's jewelry store I felt the good vibes bouncing off of the walls and immediately fell in love with the store. Then Jon introduced me to Dayton, his daughter Amy and Clipper and I immediately liked them, as I did the store. 

"Cousin Nancy and her husband Tony run Kinky's Utopia Animal Rescue Ranch, in Medina and she needs for you to replace the battery in her watch," Jon said. While Dayton worked on Pinky's backside we had a fun visit with them. In a matter of minutes Dayton brought Pinky back to life and her little ticker was ticking, again! And I was as thrilled about Pinky's recovery as I was to have found the best and friendliest jewelry store in Kerrville. 

When we returned to the bookstore we had a fun visit with them and somewhere in the conversation Sandy said, "Kevin is now reading your blog."

"Who is Kevin?" I asked.

"Water Street Cafe—Kevin," Jon and Sandy said, once again in two-part harmony.

"Oh, that Kevin. Yes, I met him the other day when we had lunch with Carol. He and I had a fun visit and I really like him and I'm sure you know that he is a big Kinky fan too and..." 

When my back started aching because of all of the laughter, I grabbed my two books and paid for them and then we adios-ed them and came home. And the weirdest thing happened when we stopped to pick up our mail before turning off of Highway 16—Netflix had sent me the movie, Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back! 

"Tony, talk about perfect timing! I can't believe this. I meet an alien, Pinky is alive and ticking and then this shows up—it's a sign!..." By the time we had reached the rescue ranch I had talked non-stop about the alien, the Star Wars movie phenomenon, Pinky and tonight's Full Moon, so Tony jumped out of Trigger—unloaded our groceries faster than he ever has before and then he and Belle took off in Kermit, so I took these pictures to document my day.

Tonight because it is Full Moon Time I am going to watch Star Wars tomorrow night. And that's about it for today.

Y'all have a great evening and May The Force Be With Y'all!