Oops!

Today has been great. This morning when Tony and I went out the front door to go do our daily chores, I said, "Don't forget that we're meeting our friends, at El Sol de Mexico, for lunch at 1:00. I think we should leave no later than 12:30."

When we had finished feeding the dogs and cleaning their pens I said, "Tony, let's leave earlier,  at 11:30, so we can run a couple of errands before we eat lunch with Les & Denise, Deb & Craig and Kris & Jim, The Mineral Man. Because we have to be back here by 3:00, so you can meet John."

We left here at 11:30. Our first stop was at H-E-B to fill up Trigger and that took longer than usual, because the woman in front of us took ten minutes to fill up her gigantic pickup.

Our second stop was at a feed store to buy tick spray and tick dog dip, because we are at war with the ticks. The place we went to was real crowded and when a young woman asked us if she could help us, she sort of went a little overboard, in the help department. And please note that I'm not complaining about anyone taking their job seriously and really wanting to help us.

Every bottle that we looked at for spraying our dog's pens, she would walk off with the bottle and do calculations on the computer to tell us how much we needed to buy to fill our 250 gallon spray tank. It took her about four minutes each time, before she would return with the answer. Anyway, after looking at five different bottles, we had only ten minutes to get to the restaurant.

Because we also needed to stop by the Post Office sub-station, so I could mail a few things we told the young woman that we were running late for a lunch engagement and would come back tomorrow or Saturday. "That sounds good, because when so-in-so gets back from lunch he will know which one for you to use."

Fortunately, the Post Office wasn't packed with customers, so I just walked in and handed the friendly woman my packages and was out of there.

When we arrived at El Sol de Mexico on Water Street we were four minutes late and we recognized our friends cars and truck. When Tony opened the door for me we walked inside and our dear friends and the best waiter in Kerrville, applauded us. "We're glad you made it!"

"I'm sorry that we're late," I said. "We've been running errands for the past hour and sort of got tied up at the feed store."

As soon as we sat down at the table, Beto, the friendly waiter, set down Tony's and my large, iced mugs of tea. "We've already ordered," Jim said. Then Beto walks out of the kitchen and served me the #26, which I always order and Tony's favorite #27. Then he returned to the kitchen to bring out all of our friends plates.

Deb & Craig and Denise & Les had never eater there before and they raved about how delicious their meals were and what a great waiter Beto was. We laughed and joked during our fun lunch and near the end of our meal Denise held up her small glass of tea and asked me, "What are y'all drinking?"

"Tea," I answered, as Beto watched us from the bar. "We get better treatment than y'all, because we eat here so much." Beto started laughing. "In fact, when we ate here for the very first time with our friends Sandy & Jon, we came back four more times that week bringing different friends with us so they could try their delicious Mexican food." Then I held up my heavy mug. "When y'all become regulars here, you'll get the star treatment, too."

"We eat here a lot," The Mineral Man joked and then he looked at Beto for confirmation.

"Yes," Beto agreed, after he had stopped laughing.

"But not as much as we do," I teased. "Soon, y'all will graduate up to frosted mugs like us. Isn't that right, Beto?" He and everyone at our table roared with laughter.

When we got back home, Carlton had a message from Jim. "Where are y'all? Did you get kidnapped?..." He had called at 12:47.

I picked up the phone and called Kris to ask her what time we were supposed to have met them for lunch today. Kris started laughing and said, "Twelve-thirty."

"Oops, I thought we were supposed to meet y'all at 1:00. I forgot that is was 12:30..." And that is about it for tonight.

Y'all have a great evening!

Pickin' On Dale!

Today has been great, because early this evening Brandon came over to check out Dale, my new banjo and he instantly fell in love with Dale, too. He and I sat in the big room, with Tony and our dogs as our audience. I played my guitar with Brandon pickin' on Dale and we played one song after another and we had so much fun. And Tony told us that we really sounded good, too. (Thanks to Brandon's music talent.)

Brandon and I jammed for three hours, before Tony had to take Brandon home. As he was walking out the front door he told me, "I hope that someday I can meet Ronnie and we can have a jam session with him."

"I can make that happen after you graduate in June," I said. "I can't wait for you to meet my brother and for him to meet you, too."

"I love Dale and I can't wait for my banjo to get here. I think I am going to name mine Blue or Haggard. Thank y'all so much for getting me a banjo..." And that is about it for tonight, because my fingers are killing me.

Y'all have a great evening!

I Love Dale!

Today has been really great, because my banjo was delivered and ten minutes after I got it, I was on the phone talking to Ronnie about it, when UPS showed up with my banjo strap and Banjo For Dummies book.

I love my banjo so much! It arrived around 2:30 and after talking to Ronnie on the phone and then tuning it, I have not been able to put it down. I am thrilled with its fabulous sound and I can't believe that it was so easy to learn how to play it.

A few minutes ago, while I was writing this, our dear friend Charlie Cooper (He and his wife Ellen are characters in my novella.) came inside The Cabin with Tony, so he could check out Dale, which is what I named my new banjo. "Charlie you are going to love this instrument and the chords are so easy."

Then I went into our bedroom and grabbed Dale, where she was resting while I wrote this.

When I returned to the kitchen I handed Dale to Charlie and he studied the chords for a couple of minutes in my new, Banjo For Dummies book. Then Charlie started pickin' on Dale. So, I grabbed my guitar out of its case and he and I started pickin' and grinnin' for several minutes. "I need to get me one of these things," Charlie said. "It's a great instrument and fun to play."

After I told Charlie about Ronnie checking it out and then buying their banjo kit and then me buying one already assembled, he said, "I'm definitely going to check this out. By the way, in case y'all want to know, my birthday is coming up real soon and I love this banjo..."

Here's a link if you want to check out my banjo. And that is about it for tonight, because I am going to go pick on Dale some more. 

Y'all have a great evening!

A Hairy Situation!

Yesterday was a great day. Saturday morning, while Brandon and Tony did the chores outside, I was busily cleaning our trailer. Because Mama, our Great Pyrenees, is shedding her thick winter coat it looked like we didn't own a vacuum cleaner or knew how to use one.

Dog hair was everywhere to be found and it was mixed with Mama's, Toto's, Abbie's, Roy's, Belle's and Beau's hair. As Hazel was sucking it up from the floor and the furniture, I laughed out loud. I thought it would be funny to dump the hair-filled canister into a Priority Mailer and ship it to Fay, as a joke, because in my first novella she supposedly collects, washes, spins and weaves dog hair place mats.

The reason that I was frantically spiffing up The Cabin was because the famous, Kerrville Red Hat Ladies were coming out at 1:00, so we could give them a grand tour of our rescue ranch. I was more than excited to meet these gals and I wanted our trailer to look like we didn't live here.

When the men finished doing the outside work, I had finished doing the inside work, thanks to Hazel. When they came inside The Cabin, Tony told me, "Nance, I need to run to the hardware store in Medina and I will be right back."

When Tony took off, I got the ingredients out that Brandon needed to cook us his recipe that he calls, Brandon's Chinese Spaghetti. After he had put the meat in the skillet and seasoned it, with the spaghetti boiling in a pan right next to it he asked, "Can we play some music and use your amp?"

In no time flat, he had my mandolin plugged in for him to play and my pink cable plugged into my guitar and amp. Then we pulled two of the bar stools out into the middle of the big room, so we could face each other and then we started pickin' and grinnin'. We played all kinds of songs from Blues, Bluegrass, Country and Rock & Roll and Brandon made us sound great, because he is a very talented musician.

When Tone returned home the music stopped, because my fingers were killing me and because lunch was ready. As we ate Cousin Nancy's Chinese  Spaghetti, which was absolutely delicious, Brandon and I could not quit talking about how excited we were about my banjo coming on Tuesday. After he had told me how much he loved playing banjos I looked at Tony and he winked back at me. Then I said, "Tony and I talked earlier and we want to buy you a banjo like mine, for your graduation gift since your banjo is in Arizona. Would you like that or prefer money?"

"Oh my goodness, I would love to have a banjo like yours..." His words and excitement made Tony's and my day great.

After lunch while I quickly cleaned up the kitchen, Brandon played my guitar and mandolin some more. Then it was show time! We put up the instruments, put all of the dogs outside, in the backyard, except for Mama and then we went outside to greet the Kerrville Red Hat Ladies, which turned out to be some of the coolest women in Kerrville.

After I had welcomed and introduced myself, Brandon and Tony to the eleven smiling women wearing red hats we started the grand tour. First we showed them The Okay Corral, Tony's No Whiner Diner and my pink writing cabin. To say the least, "They loved it all, especially The Bunkhouse.

Then another car showed up and it wasn't part of their group, so Tony and Brandon took off to greet the visitors and give them a tour. "Let's go up to The Cabin, which is our thirty-year-old trailer, because I want to show it to y'all and give each of you a copy of my new novella."

Mama greeted each and everyone of them at the gate. They loved our view from the front porch, our cabin and Outer Space. As I signed copies of my book, Mama stole their hearts even though she was shedding. By the time we left The Cabin, to show these charming women our dogs outside, Mama's long white hair had found new homes on all of their outfits.

We spent about thirty minutes outside as I introduced them to everyone of our magnificent rescued dogs, which of course stole their hearts, too. And before they drove away I thanked the Kerrville Red Hat Ladies for coming out and their donation of our rescue ranch. When they took turns hugging me and thanking me for giving them a fun tour I did not want them to leave, so I said, "We would love for y'all to come out and walk our dogs on Fridays..."

Fifteen minutes later, Tony and Brandon walked inside The Cabin and Tony said, "Those two nice women work for a vet in Kerrville and next month when they move into a house, they want to adopt Holly, if we still have her..."

"That's fantastic news, but Tony remember that her new name, that Ellen came up with at lunch on Friday, is Tallulah Bankhead."

Ten minutes later, as planned, the Girl Scouts from Dripping Springs! So Brandon, Tony and I went back outside to greet the lovely girls and some of their parents. After howdies and hugs, one of the cute girls said, "We brought our rakes and we're ready to work!" And work they did.

First, Brandon helped them unloaded several bags of dog food and dog treats, then the girls handed our treats and raked leaves and removed rocks from Martha Stewart's pen, Tuesday Weld's pen and Landry and Buffy's pen.

When that was all said and done, we went around to the pens and they handed out toys to our happy dogs. Before they left to head back to Dripping Springs, I bought three boxes of Girl Scout Cookies for Tony, Brandon and me.

After hugs and thanking them for all that they do for our rescue ranch they drove away and Brandon said, "Those girls really worked hard for over an hour. And I can't believe how many great people that I've met since I started working for y'all. Everyone is so nice and..." That's about it for now, because today has been quiet and restful.

Y'all have a great evening!

Can You Hear Me Now?!

Today has been great. This afternoon we met our good friends Kris & Jim, "The Mineral Man" for lunch at both of ours favorite Mexican food restaurant, El Sol de Mexico. The food was delicious as always and our fun conversation never stopped flowing and it was full of laughter.

After a super fun lunch with our friends, Tony and I went to Home Depot to get some ranch supplies and a few more Perennial plants. Then we went down the street to Hoegemeyer Animal Clinic to pick up Holly, a dog that we rescued a few days ago.

Her name is Holly. She is a sweet, one and a half year old Pit Bull, that a man in Kerrville found, standing in the middle of a country road between here and Wimberley, Texas. He figured that she had been dumped, because she was starved down. When his wife opened up the door of their car, Holly jumped inside and laid down on his wife's lap and put her head in the man's lap and slept all of the way back home.

When I spoke to the man about Holly he told me that she was a great dog and he could not bare to take her to the Pound, because she was a great dog and good with other dogs. When I told the man that we could take Holly, I decided to change her name to Bunny, since we rescued her the day after Easter.

When we met Holly, I decided to keep her name Holly, because it seemed to fit her. When we took her outside she immediately jumped into Buttermilk's back seat and sat down. She's great in cars and when we got home I snapped this quick picture of Holly, so y'all could be the first to meet her. Tomorrow when I have the time, I will definitely take a better picture of her.

When we returned to The Cabin, Carlton was flashing on the breakfast bar. When I pushed his button he said, "You have three new messages." The first message was from my sweet brother Ronnie. "Nance, pick up the phone!..." The second message was from Ronnie, too. "Nance, I bought the coolest banjo. Listen." Then he put the speakerphone on and said, "Can you hear me now?" Then he started playing his new banjo and he and it sounded fantastic—it blew me out of my saddle. The third  message was from my brother, too. "Nance, call me. I cannot wait to tell you about my new banjo. I love it!..."

I immediately picked up the phone and punched in my brother's phone number, because I've been wanting to buy a banjo. "Nance, I love this banjo so much and it's made in the USA. It's not as loud as most banjos and it's meant for pickin' and grinnin' around a campfire and they are not expensive. They only cost $149.00!..." After Ronnie had spent five minutes telling me all about it, he put me on speakerphone and played one of his songs that he has written and by the time he had finished pickin' and singin,' I could not wait to get off of the phone, so I could buy one, too. 

Before we adios-ed each other Ronnie told me to Google Backyard Music Banjo, in New Haven, Connecticut and that's exactly what I did when we got off of the phone. Two minutes later, I purchased one just like his and I can't wait until it arrives. 

Then I went outside to kill some more Thistle that keeps trying to live here. An hour and a half later, after killing all of the Thistle on the east side of our dog pens I returned to The Cabin. Carlton was flashing again, "You have two new messages." And both of them were from Ronnie, too. 

When I called him back he told me that there were some really cool YouTube videos to watch about people playing our basic 5 string Fireside Banjos. This one is less than thirty seconds and it is my favorite one. Hopefully, my banjo will arrive by Tuesday. And that is about it for tonight.

Y'all have a great evening!

Lightning Strikes Again!

Yesterday and today have been great and so far we have gotten over two inches of rain. Yesterday, I spent the entire morning catching up with paperwork, returning phone calls and e-mails, while Tony did our chores outside.

By 12:30, I was completely caught up with everything, so after I cooked lunch for Tony and me and had cleaned up the kitchen, I grabbed my laptop and went outside to The Bunkhouse, my pink writing cabin, to write. And I typed non-stop until 7:30, because I was on a roll with the novella.

It started raining right after I returned to The Cabin. Then a few minutes later it started raining harder and harder, with loud bursts of thunder. Lightning was hitting all around us, so I unplugged everything inside The Cabin.

Around 10:00, lightning hit real close to the trailer and it woke us up. Then ten minutes later, the electricity was knocked out. Tony and I could not sleep, so we sat in the big room, surrounded by our dogs, with flashlights in our hands.

The electricity finally came back on at 12:08, so we went back to bed.

This morning when Tony returned home, after drinking coffee with his friends at The Old Timer, he said, "Lightning hit a tree real close to the trailer and it split the tree. You have to come see it."

"Where'd it hit?"

"Right behind Ben Stiller's and La Toya's pen. Near the middle." I grabbed my camera and went outside with Tony, to check out the poor tree. Then I took this picture of it. It is right behind the blue scoop and the bark is stripped off. That's La Toya staring at Tony.

This morning Tony did our chores again while I cleaned our trailer. It has rained off and on all day and I wrote this early, because I might be unplugged tonight. And that is about it for today.

Y'all have a great evening!

The Glitch In Slide Show Is Now Fixed!