3/23/09

Well, mom is eighty today. We threw a big birthday bash for her yesterday at the church. Of course, by “we” I mean my sister. All I did was show up and bask in her cast-off glory. But what little I did do wore me the hell out. I was almost glad to get back to work so I could relax. So, with the party being the prime concern of the weekend, I didn’t get a chance to go to the shop at all any of the three days I was off. Friday I wasted in front of the TV with the cat. Around 1400 h Pat called to invite me to go shoosting with him and Nora. We set 1530 h at the range in Whiskey Flats as our meet time. I took Ms. Clio to the car wash and got her all tarted up so I can try to sell her to that interested party. I'm driving Fifi exclusively until the deal either goes or falls through. I really could use the money but I really like that car. We’ll see. As I was pulling up to the driveway with the clean Ms. Clio, Pat called to ascertain my location. They were already at the range so I hauled ass in Fifi to meet them. We shot and then they had to go pick up their baby from daycare. We made tentative plans to go to dinner but I still needed to check with mom and family. Oh, Thursday evening… no, I need to go back further. My mom and sister, Linda, are into these collectable baskets, Whataburger or Bong-Burner, or Longaberger, or something like that. Anyhoo, every year for the last, geeze, decade or so, they have gone to Ohio for the convention. At one of these things they met a lady named Ida. Ida came to Fort Worth for some convention some years ago and spent time with mom and Linda at Linda’s lake house. They’re like real great friends now. Well, mom called Ida two weeks ago and invited her to come for the birthday party. She said she couldn’t make it and everyone was sad. Boo hoo. Well, Thursday evening Linda told mom she had to go to a meeting in Not Texas and would come by afterwards for dinner. The meeting was to pick up Ida at the airport. Mom was beside herself with glee all weekend over her visit. She wasn’t too much of an imposition at the house either, especially since she and Linda did all the work on the party freeing me from having to do it. Huzzah! Ok, so where was I going with that story? Oh right, I had to check with mom and Ida to see what the dinner plans were before going to have bait with Pat and Nora, oh and, um, Esmeralda, or whatever they are calling that baby thing they drag around everywhere. I also had to go into the office and pick up my keys and phone from the guy covering for me and go to BloodBath and Beyond. Back at the house, I was given clearance to go have bait and did. It was quite yummy, as usual. Saturday morning was again wasted in front of the TV waiting for my brother Ted and niece Madeline to arrive from Round Rock. We all hung out all afternoon then went to another family dinner thing at Spring Creek Barbecue. I think we checked in on the progress at the church, the up-setting for the party, at some time as well. I don’t remember. I had to wait up for Linda to bring Ida “home” and they finally did that around 2330 h or so. Sunday morning I “helped” finish up the preparations and tried to stay out of the way while the party happened. John and his two boys, um, Cletus and Zebediah, or something, came to wish mom a happy birthday as did Pat, Nora, and Persephone, or whatever. Oh, there were also another hundred and fifty or so others there too. I got called away to go buy ice so I couldn’t hang out and talk to John and the boys so I hope they had an acceptable time. Sorry guys. After everyone left and we got the church cleaned up, we all left and went home. Ted and Madeline came by the house for a bit then went back to Round Rock. The rest of the day was spent napping and watching TV. This morning, Linda came by at 0600 h and took Ida back to the airport. So hopefully life will get back to normal for me this evening. Although, I imagine we’ll be doing dinner out somewhere with someone so mom doesn’t have to cook. We’ll see.