Remember me when the candlelights are gleaming

I'm So Sorry for the long hiatus. I have been struggling here.

New Years Eve I had the house all nice, baked brownies and was pleased to contemplate that I had the house mostly whipped. There is still the dratted porch but it will have to wait for summer, I think, so the paint will stick and I am not going to fret about it. It is what it is. It has thinned down a lot.

My Mom and her "other" kid and family came over after they had a nice dinner out. We watched football and visited in the uncovered living room. Everyone was very complimentary about the house. When they left Mom stayed and we switched over to watch Dick Clark and the historic ball dropping on Times Square. It was a quite evening with a lot of thinking in it for both of us.

Mom lost her mate before I did and then my Dad died the next year. Holidays are lonely for her, too. I felt many things that night that I can't rightly explain but it was hard to contemplate a year with no mate in it to kiss me at midnight, or bedtime if we didn't stay up that late.

I can't say I am sorry the year is gone. '06 is on the list of bad things to remember. It's not really such a long list but it's full of people I miss. I lost the mate, the trucks, Buck the wonder dog and the house is the same layout but really different. Emptier. It sounds so much like a country song that I suppose I should write one....LOL!

I have found friends to help me through and family that never quits in that year. I won't be forgetting them. I am so thankful to have had the hands, hearts, backs and smiles from them. I do much better with people around in the daytime.

The second everyone here was tied up in Jerry Ford's funeral. The banks were closed. The check for the insurance on the truck had arrived on Saturday and sat in the deposit box until Wednesday. I stayed busy researching cars online and making my new year calls to friends and family. Some of them I hadn't talked to in awhile. Many were out and about so they got messages. It was still fun. Some of them called me back. Vgirl was one of them. She and Vhe have been busy. They always are as first responders and firepeople. It was good to hear from her and she emailed me a photo I needed for the wall I want to build.

Thursday got here and I went to the bank for cash to car shop with. I noticed it gets prices reduced to count dollars. I went back to a lot I had seen a couple "maybe" vehicles on and that felt like the right place. I got the only car I could afford there. It came with a six month warrenty and I liked the people there.

I ended up with a Chevy Beretta. It's not going to get the mileage I want but it will carry me and three grands and their gear or me and my amp and guitar. I checked. I went and bought the 50 pounds each of dog and bird food, threw in 50 pounds of cat litter, one bag for the car, one for the cats and a big bag of cat food along with sundries. Then I went and got Grand1 and Grand2 to ride home and unload it with me.

They did a good job helping me and so did the car. It's got some glitches and the guy I got it from will be putting in a new thermostat for me but it seems ok. After he does that I will run it over and ask my mechanic to check it with the machine and check the motor mounts and such.

The dealer's wife followed me home and drove me back so I could pick up my plate and drop off the nephew's car. When I got home I put the for sale sign on it and hung one in the store, too. I hope to get him at least five hundred for it. It really does run well, it just has a lot of little stuff wrong with it. If you tossed a muffler on it, it would be fine for a couple years, I think.

It is so nice to know I can go out and get into a running car and leave if I want. I have missed that. It's not even that I had anywhere to go, really. It's just that I like that freedom it provides. I filled it up and have not had to add gas since. Either it's got a huge tank or I just didn't read the miles right.

Friday, with a car again, I decided to drive it around and deliver some stuff to people. I had something for KMA from Mom and a book for another friend. Then I was going to hit my new favorite dive for dinner.

I was laying out clothes and then showered. The tub backed up. This is bad. It's where I was before the plumber and the new toilet. I got done, plunged and had no luck except bad. The three drains in the bathroom are all interconnected. Now the tub was nasty and the toilet had no water in it. I was bummed. Being a Friday I couldn't do anything till Monday, either, so it was a weekend problem. I shrugged it off and found the bucket to flush with and forgot about it.

I drove the scenic route to my pub just to check the car out in the rain. It does well. I chatted up the help, picked a dinner and then went into listen to the band that was just getting started. This one was a six piece group. Three guitars, a harmonica player, drummer and bass. They did music older than I do! Wow! They KNEW the songs I requested.

The owner had told me they sometimes did open mics so after the first set I asked the guy with the accoustic electrified if I could check out his guitar later. He was nice about it and said sure. I really wanted to get up with this bunch, they were my kind of music. It was not a tight, well rehersed band but one that had fun making music for people to have fun to. I liked them. Two of them looked older than Dad would have been but they were really fun people.

During the second break my cell phone rang for the first time. I was tickled to hear from the cousins, Reb and Rusty, that they were coming this way for the weekend and would stay over. I wandered outside to get better reception. We set up times and contacts and I explained there would be no showers but they could grab them at her mom's the next day.

I went back in and at the end of the third set I finally got up the nerve to ask if I could do a song. John, the man with the nice guitar, let me strum a few chords and then plugged me in and turned on the mic. I made my usual disclaimer, that I haven't done this in twenty years and then did Old Habits, by Waylon. It was good! I did ok, no chord screw ups, hit the notes right and kept the tempo. By the time I got to the end of it I had two guitars and the drummer back! Yay!And the crowd really did cry out for more, not just one old drunk, either, several people at different tables. I was so HAPPY! It felt so good!

We did Together Again, and the other John sang a lovely harmony with me! I was melting. I love harmony! Then they went back on break and just Steve and I were left. We did All of me by Willie. We had different versions but managed to keep it close. He played a nice lead. We tried for the harmony but my phrasing messed him up. I would love a chance to work it up right.

I was in pig heaven. I thanked my crowd and got down as the guys got back up. I hugged John for sharing the guitar and told them all thank you about ninety times. I bought them a round, too. I really enjoyed it because they and the crowd were so good too me. It was such a rush to sing in public again and to have the guys come back me up like that means they liked what you did. It was pure pleasure. I went home glowing.

Until I had to get up Saturday and start bailing out the tub and dumping it in the ditch. It was ok with just me here and the cousins are just a pair of transplanted hillbillies so I knew they could cope. But then I dumped too much bleach in the tub and tank and by the time they got here you almost couldn't breath in the house.

We had a great visit. For breakfast I made them french toast and bacon with coffee, of course and we got them on their way. It lifts my spirits to have the two of them here. I love them both and they are great, if long distant, friends. I got a little sad thinking that is was almost this time last year that they were here the weekend before the mate passed on. (transmorgrified). I beat it off to enjoy our time together.

Monday I called around but couldn't get anyone out here so I called the plumber I had put the toilet in. He never called back and I had another day of nasty chore. I also tidied up the house and got it ready for Tuesday bible study. That took about an hour. The rest of the day I sat and stared at a game on the computer.

Tuesday the plumber called and come right over in the morning. I called The Kid and asked him if he wanted to make some money. I thought I might have to have the tank pumped and they charge fifty bucks to dig out the pipe. Not gonna pay it, nope. If I have to give someone that kind of money to dig ten inches down two feet square it's gonna be family.

So the Plumber and The Kid and his grand all get here and we play unplug the pipe from both ends. Not a fun game. The tank is fine and that was the good news. The bad news is that it takes three hours to unplug the pipe. A necklace I have never seen, macramed, some cloth that might be underware of a child or a dishrag, hair, weird stuff. But there have been lots of littles here for the holidays and such so anything can happen.

We have success and they are flushing the pipes with hot water. Whoops. They drained the tank dry and it shuts down. No hot water. Plumber and I go check it out and hear nothing from the hot water heater. We click it on, off, reset button....crap. Ok, I'm a trooper. I boil up some water and open the bleach with a gentler hand than last time. I clean up the tub with bleach and the floor as the plumber gets his toys put away. I do the sink and use a scrub brush on the floors clear to the kitchen. I pay the plumber and thank him. I bleach the door knobs. Finally I think I have it whipped.

I go sit down and enjoy a visit with The Kid. He gets a lot of stuff off the back porch, too. That always makes me feel better. The little grand munches stuff, plays with my toys and watches a movie. A good time is had by all. And I have a grown up to talk to. Nice. One that knows me. Nicer. Thanks, Kid. I needed that.

Bible study goes well. Mom brings chili and I have boiled potatoes to mash under it and grated cheese to put on it and sour cream for a garnish. Sis brings baked apples, yummy! Shy Girl can't make it again, darn it, but we study on anyway. More of John. Mom uses the bathroom and hollers, "Hey! The toilet worked!" She was here for part of the not working part and I laughed.
Perhaps it was too soon to laugh. I was rinsing dishes and explained about the hot water. We prayed on it and I let it go.

I got up this morning and while I made coffee I noticed I had hot water! Well Yay me! So I took a shower.

The drain backed up.......

But we are mostly caught up now, thanks for being patient.