Whatever

Hammond, LA – Day 13: Just Another Day

I didn’t take a picture.

Sally and I had breakfast at the Airbnb before heading over to her Mom Adele’s house. From there, they were off to visit their Edward Jones rep for some financial wisdom. On the way they let me out at the local shopping center for some retail therapy and to await their return. I spent the next hour or so shopping at Target (a couple pairs of shorts) and Books-A-Million (a couple, well, guess.)

After, we all met up at Shoe Show or Shoe Town or Show Something where Sally looked for a pair of, well, shoes, while her mom and me, cooled our heels (pun intended.) I briefly considered buying a pair of Hey Dude flag themed foot coverings that I would wear possibly once a year on the Fourth of July before coming to my senses after seeing the $50 price tag.

After shopping, there was a lunch at a local watering hole with me, Mom, Sally and Sally’s big sister Susie. Satiated, we three returned to Adele’s house and whiled away the afternoon telling tall tales of our wasted youth.

A couple hours after Susie left, a friend of Adele’s arrived with our dinner. She had recently purchased a Big Green Egg and is breaking it in by cooking up a storm and sharing her cooking skills with her inner circle. Dinner was a pork loin wrapped in bacon, sweet potatoes and a succotash of broccoli and squash. Scrumptious.

When our evening repast was finished, Sally and I returned to where we started our day and watched the Red Sox game. The FRS charged to an early 6-run lead only to have the Blue Jays storm back in the 7th and 8th to tie it, and then win it in the 10th.

Tomorrow, I promise a picture, and it will be worth the wait.

Hammond, LA – Day 12: A Sucker Born Every Minute

Back in January during the first trip here I bought a bunch of postcards at CJ’s Antiques and Collectables in Ponchatoula to use as Thank You cards for the people who sent me Christmas cards. So, to kill some time while Sally was at her doctor’s appointment in that same town, I returned to CJ’s pick out a few more vintage postcards I plan to send off to friends and relations while on this trip.

That first time I came really close to buying something that for whatever reason really spoke to me, but just couldn’t pull the trigger. This time I almost bought a bunch of Boston Red Sox Media Guides from the Early 2000’s, but couldn’t pull the trigger on them either.

Carl Durbin – Leading District Manager 1977

But I did pull that metaphorical trigger on the thing I almost bought in January – Carl Durbin’s 1977 award as Leading District Manager for the United National Insurance Company. There is just something about a trophy for a businessman. That Fedora! But what really chinches it is the portfolio tucked under the arm, not a briefcase, a portfolio is so insurance salesman.

Austin Crawford Hunt Story Teller

I would like to tell you I had a very productive day, but I can’t because I haven’t left the building all day. Didn’t even crack the door. I’ve made three square meals for myself, I built the above puzzle and then watch a 6 part documentary on James Bond films.

I guess you could call doing a whole 1,000 piece puzzle in 6 hours productive…

Four For Tuesday

1) This morning I finished up the travel sticker/poster jigsaw puzzle that I’ve been working on for the last couple of weeks.

2) After lunch I went for a 2-1/2 mile walk around my favorite local trail around the Salish Ponds Wetlands Trail. The picture above is the west pond.

3) While searching for something to watch today, I discovered that A Complete Unknown was available for free on Hulu, so I spent the next 2 hours and 20 minutes planted on the couch.

4) The radio for Bucky with its newly installed Bluetooth module was deposited on my doorstep this evening. Tomorrow I will install it.

Souvenirs

We’re a big fan of postcards around here. I like to send them to people, sometimes unexpectedly, like when I used them to say Thank You for the Christmas cards I received last year. Unfortunately, the mailing of postcards has fallen by the wayside with the advent of cell phones and its companion “social media.”

Santa Fe Sally has been sending some to the last embassy she worked in Bern because they have a wall that is filled with postcards and she likes to add some to that. When she sends them it is not the old-fashioned way, put she puts a bunch in an envelope and mails that. We looked for some along the route of our last road trip. We looked in the places when we had a gas stops but never found any. Nothing in Paris, TX and you’d think we could have found one, what with the Eiffel Tower wearing a Cowboy Hat.

When I went grocery shopping this morning and I had to wander pretty much the whole store because they are remodeling and the aisles are half full and sometimes on different ends of the joint. Dang, I’d never noticed before that Fred Meyer carried souvenirs. Maybe because I never went down where they were. Or perhaps they didn’t before, but with the remodel they’ve added that stuff. Either way, forget gas stops for postcards, grocery stores seem the way to go.

Take a listen of my favorite song about souvenirs, Souvenirs, as sung by Suzy Boggus.

My What A Big Cactus You Have

One of the last stops in Arizona in 1989 was the Saguaro National Park outside of Tucson. By this time in the trip I think we had both decided to move south to Aiken, but we didn’t really say it out loud until we returned home to Madison, NJ.

Recap of today’s events, film at eleven.

  1. I got up
  2. Rode the indoor bike and then showered
  3. Ate breakfast, the usual
  4. Light grocery shopping at Fred Meyer
  5. Walked across the street to Lowes
  6. To pick up the spray can of Flex Seal I ordered online last night
  7. Drove home and put away groceries
  8. Sprayed Flex Seal along the edge of the awning
  9. Walked up the the Community Center
  10. Spent an hour with my peeps drinking coffee
  11. Lunch of an Ensure
  12. Took a short drive with the top down
  13. Took a 2-hour nap
  14. Chatted with Sally on the WhatsApp
  15. Dinner of a sandwich and half an apple
  16. Put together my new computer chair, it has lights!
  17. Started this…

The Proposal

Time for one of my patented long-winded intros leading to a small bit of actual content. Sally, of Santa Fe fame, and I have known each other 42 years. So, when she asked me if I wanted to come down, visit Santa Fe a bit, and then road trip together to go to her mother’s 98th birthday festivities, I jumped at the chance.

She was Donna’s friend from an early age, and the two families belonged to the same church. When I got out of the Navy in 1983, we moved back to Donna’s hometown of New Orleans. The 2 girls connected again; Sally had married, so the four of us naturally became a group. Sally and her husband bought the house 2 doors away. Donna and I babysat the daughter, Claire, and then a couple years later, the son, Stuart.

For various reasons we moved up to New Jersey for work in 1987. The Lewis clan also moved north to Lexington, Virginia, shortly after. We visited several times a year, first from Jersey and later from Aiken. In the early two thousands Sally’s husband proclaimed he was in love with someone else and wanted out. Claire was already in college, and Stuart was a junior or senior in high school. After his graduation Sally joined the State Department. Whenever she was back in the states for language training or something, Donna and I would get to DC to hang for a couple days. Anyway, we go way back.

Now, with just Sally and me, we get along sort of like an old married couple without the sex. Our senses of humor are similar; we would be in a store somewhere, and we would cut up with each other in the checkout line. We “argued” about whose turn it was to fill up the car with gas. “We’ll always have Paris.” A plan was concocted. There was a get-together on Saturday the 18th with the whole family at a place downtown in Hammond called Tommy’s on Thomas. A local pizza joint/nighttime entertainment place—that is where Stuart met his wife and where they go every year on their anniversary. This would be the most perfect place for this; I was going to pretend to ask her to marry me. I wrote a script. I practiced kneeling.

We thought for sure that Adele and Stuart’s wife, Cristina, would be flummoxed; Stuart’s two small kids wouldn’t know what was going on. We thought Sally’s kids, Stuart and Claire, would not know what to say, or their sense of humor might kick in immediately and call bullshit on Sally and me. At the last minute, because of a miscommunication, Adel and Claire couldn’t make it, so we decided not to do it, because those were 2 of the 3 we thought would get the biggest kick out of the stunt.

Scene: Restaurant Interior

Brian
(stands)
"As we knew the end was getting nearer, I asked Donna if she would be okay with this, and she smiled and said of course."
(slight pause)
"So, Sally, these last 2 weeks have been the happiest that I’ve been since last September.
(he kneels)
It would be great if we could grow old, older, together. Will you marry me?

Possible Responses:
Sally
1. Yes, I thought you’d never ask.
2. Stunned silence.
3. What?
4. I hope you didn’t buy a ring already?

Brian
1. You’ve made me a very happy man.
2. Stunned silence.
3. I feel so embarrassed.
4. I may be an old fool, but I’m not stupid.