Those sunburnt hands I used to hold

Friday I got out of work early to have my bi weekly race to the bank. I stopped at a yard sale and tricked myself into a used movie and a plastic fountain with a girl holding an umbrella, loaded them up and headed for town.

I ran into an old friend at the bank. We arranged for me to catch up with him and his family later for dinner. While I was visiting with them I got to look at a unique custom Gibson four string guitar. It was a beauty! It tunes like a mandolin but is a full sized body. Ay gave me a planter of Rosemary to take home, too. I used to have some I grew from seed. I had turned her on to it back then and she said she always thought of me when she whiffed it.

So Gee and Ay and their girl Tee all joined me checking out the new eatery in Little Town that was an older place reopened under new management. They had a patio available and we got there just in time to see the cops writing a ticket for a poor old man that had backed into one corner of the railing around it. Three ladies who had the table RIGHT in that corner escaped injury and were making light of the incident. Gee and Ay knew them and Tee knew a couple ladies from her school at the next table so we were having a good old time before we were even waited on.

The service was good, the company fun, the food good but a little high for the area. They will be having live music, accoustic, and adding wireless access soon so it looks to me like they will prosper. We enjoyed ourselves. Gee and Tee left for a football game, it was homecoming weekend. Ay decided to follow me home and I showed her through the mess what I am trying to get done on the house. We had a really good visit. She left to get home just ahead of the rest of them, around ten.

Reb and Rusty were coming over Saturday night so I was trying to get most of the mess I had created moved out on the insidious back porch. I had started out trying to pull the books I was getting rid of and realized it was easier to pull the few I was keeping, DUH! I narrowed seven five feet long shelves down to one twenty four inch shelf of books. I then had done the same with the CD's, VCR's, DVD's and had one shelf left for photo albums. No one who knows me would ever expect to see me owing just ONE book shelf! And to have only one shelf of books on it will blow their minds.

But I'm going hard core. Everytime I grab at something to keep I ask myself why. Some things even I have to hang on to for emotional reasons. Some I realize it's just a form of greed and put back in the OUT piles. A few things I think will go with the new look in the living room or bedroom so they get reprieves. Most of it is getting boxed up and shipped off. I don't need it.

I even went through the junk drawers from the living room and the pantry and used cigar boxes to sort it all out. When I got down to the layer of loose nails and screws, paper twists and rubber bands I dumped them in the trash. Wow! Organized junk drawers, what a concept (Grama S!). I won't even know the place when I am done.

I guess that is the point. I hate feeling like I am erasing the mate from the house but I can't look at the places he sat, the things that were his, the mugs he drank from, the photos, and all the rest everyday and still move into the future. I want to stay in the past. I can't. If it was possible I would. Build me a time machine and I'm gone! It's not going to happen and to move forward I have to cut my ties to the constant heartbreak of his absence. If I tossed everything we ever had together I would still never be rid of our love. But maybe I can get things around to where I can stand to be in the house without him. Maybe I can cut down on the pain and grief cues that his things flag at me, tearing at my heart with every glance. I have to make my best guess.

It's all a mess. But I got most of it condensed to the point where we would be able to visit comfortably. I finished up an hour or so before they got there. Reb, poor thing, was fighting a headache. I had cued up the movie I bought while I was waiting. I got us all some tea and we sat to watch it. The movie was "Legend". It was ok for a fantasy flick. I had gotten stuff for smores but they didn't feel like doing a fire so we just munched 'em cold. Reb got feeling a little better by the end of that movie.

Earlier that day I had found one of our old favorites and they hadn't seen it before so I threw that in. If you are a biker and want a good humor movie and you can stand a little raunch, some nudity and lots of cussing, "Master's of Menace" is just the campiest flick I know. It always makes me laugh. It made them laugh, too. On the same tape was another long lost fave, "The Outlaw Jose Wales", the movie that made me a fan of Clint Eastwood. I never can watch the first part so I refilled beverages and such.

So it was a quiet night of visiting and watching movies. I don't think the TV has been on that many hours since the mate died. We all went to bed quite late but I woke on Sunday knowing there were friends there and got up at seven thirty. I had my coffee and made the second pot before Reb joined me around nine with Rusty following a little later. I had picked up rolls to go with the coffee and had pancakes and sausages for breakfast later.

Poor Rusty! I have this little musical piano that despenses cigarettes. Dad had fixed it for me after I got it but it was doing this thing where the music would start ok, then go zzzzip! and play the rest of the way ok. I asked him to look at it for me thinking it would be an easy fix. Two more music box guts and two trips out to drill parts later it was working again. Reb had her headache come on again and went to lay down while we tinkered away with it. It was so much fun to dink around and succeed together, I couldn't thank him enough!

The thing got in the keep pile because I had never seen another like it, it was wooden, appeared to have been well made and older. The criteria for staying is that it must be unique, do more than one thing and make me smile. I want to add more original art to the house. Not a lot, just a few nice pieces. The boxes from 2Tall that I kept will be displayed, a sketch the #1son did is getting framed and put up, the pottery oil lamp in it's bowl will be kept, and family photos are going up in the dining room as we are all "originals", lol! I want it simple and easy to clean, and, most importantly to me, comfortable and relaxing for my friends to hang out in.

We had a good time, even with poor Reb's headaches, and I caught that they had had a bike stolen while we were talking. I ran Rusty back out to the garages and had him try the mate's 21 speed. It was a go. I know that would have pleased the mate. The grands all have bikes, and it was just going to rust away. It's one more thing I don't have to deal with keeping up, storing or moving out of the way. We got that loaded up and they hit the road.

It was early in the day yet but I went in and took a nap. The dogs got me up an hour or so later and I made some soup, fed them, did the laundry and got the coffee on for morning. I checked my ebay auction for the uncle and was disappointed but it's over.

The fountain I bought is probably going right back out the door. It uses up about 2 gallon of water a day outside. I can't take the time to keep filling it. That bummed me a little as it had a really nice sound to it. I'm waiting to hear from Scooter Girl on a mattress they should be coming to get soon. A lady is coming for the desk in the dining room so I have to go home tonight and empty that out. I need to call the plumber and get him on the schedule. We are getting really close to being able to start painting. I only have about thirty more boxes to fill...Ha!

I hope all of you had great weekends, thanks for stopping by.