Had another surprise yesterday morning, down in Florence.

The kids had an "off campus lunch day", which means they get and extra hour to go somewhere else and eat, and I get to bug out early. My third period class was canceled and I got to jet out of there at 10AM. Visions of the Dairy Mart were dancing in my head. So I set off for San Saba and decided to take a few more pictures of Bluebonnets along the way.



Of course, to help pass the time, and because I can, I lit up a good cigar while the miles flashed by.



This is a great representation of what you'd see if you made my drive to work these days. Lots and lots of pretty blue flowers spread out along the road.



There are also red (Indian Paintbrush) and yellow (Buttercups) flowers mixed in, but the Bluebonnets are most folks favorite.



After about an hour and ten minutes, I find myself in beautiful downtown San Saba. Note the Texas state flags flying from poles along the road. We're pretty patriotic around here, ya see.



Of course, you can even see one flying from a pole in front of the county courthouse... Until you look closer that is.



Turns out that's not the Lone Star flag. Someone has raised the Stars and Bars in front of the San Saba county court house.



Yep, the first (of three) Confederate national flags, circa 1861? Not sure, because I haven't asked anyone, but I'd bet there's some unreconstructed folks in San Saba county. Wonder what they think of the President?

Don't know about you, but I think the good old Stars and Stripes would look better up there, and the Lone Star beside it. Not below it! Beside it. Yea, I understand the sentiment. I don't necessarily concur. But I understand.

Anyway, would you believe? The friggin' Dairy Mart was closed. They had a sign up sayin' they'd be closed Tuesday through Thursday, but be back open Friday. Sheeeeit! What sort of business closes in mid week, for cryin' out loud? Small towns!

So I went to the spot that's become my other hang out in town, besides the Rylander public library.



I went to the Our Place diner and ordered a bacon cheeseburger on rye. next best thing to the Jalapeno Sourdough. You know. I had a hankerin'.

Today, all I had to do was go back down to Florence and sit through the three classes. Denise had to go onto the base today to give a presentation, but she couldn't find her auto insurance card from 2010. So she got a friend out at work to drive her onto the base and then gave me a call to come and pick her up.



After I picked her up we visited around the CTC office there on base and then I took my wowman to eat lunch at a food court down the way from the main gate.



We chose Captain D's, and I spent a while in line droolin' over all the fried goodness.


In the end, Denise chose the fish sandwich, but I had to have to big plate. Denise looked up at me and said "You know we're gonna go eat dinner later with your mom?" I looked down at her, smiled and said "Do you know who you're talkin' to?"

I'm an EATING MACHINE, and everyone knows it. They gave me two extra entrees to go with it... I chose extra hush puppies and bread. It were goooood!

Yea, I know, it's gonna kill me some day, eatin' like this. But hell, I figure I don't really care. I just wanna have fun while it lasts.

Tonight, as usual, we're gonna go out to Temple and eat with Mom. Then, by the time the rain clears up on Sunday (please God), we're gonna go down to the Back Yard in Bee Caves, West of Austin, and see ZZ-Top. It should be fun.

So, y'all have a great weekend, and we'll talk after. I'll have good pictures and video. Cheers!

Friday.

This'll be a short one.

With this new job and all the driving I hardly have any time to scratch my ass, much less check emails, post around here or read any of your blogs. Please forgive me for that. In a week or so things will start to even out again. I've found a library in San Saba where I can sit for about two hours, two days a week and get stuff done. I'm also toying with the idea of getting a lap top. I took the time this morning in Florence to work up a long post that's set up to go out Monday, telling you all about this new job in San Saba. It's been an interesting week. I hope you'll enjoy it.

I've got to go to San Saba today to teach a make-up class, to make up for the week we lost because of the state wide lock down. After that I'll be joining Denise and her old frond Joan, who's driven in from Kentucky this week, and we'll all be going to Temple to eat dinner. A few of my cousins and my aunt and uncle are gonna join us, Mom included, for dinner at BJs. It should be a fun time.

Denise and I will celebrate our birthdays on Saturday. We were born on the same day, eight years apart. Go figure that. Handy eh? So we're gonna take Joan down to Austin and show her the wonders of Pappasito's. Then were gonna travel further southwest and take her to Lost Maples State Natural Area. I should say, I'll be taking both Denise and Joan, because Denise has never been there ether. I hiked there a few times back in the early 90s and remember it as being very beautiful.

Mushy's been postin' all these great fall foliage shots lately, makin' me jealous of the natural beauty he's surrounded by. So I'm gonna take advantage of the weekend and get a road trip goin' down to a part of Texas that looks like that. The part I know about anyway. I'll post the pictures some time, after I get them fixed.

There's no tellin' when that'll be though. Like I said, I'm busy as hell these days, and my home computer is about worthless. If I had a car like this I'd set it on fire and leave it burnin' on the side ot the road! So I'm postin' this from work on the base, and checkin' emails from the library in San Saba two days a week. So bare with me.

Anyway, you folks take care and have a great weekend.

Had dinner with Mom on Tuesday night.

She'd cooked a roast and veggies last Sunday and put it in the fridge till Denise and I could get over there during the week to share it with her. My sister had already come over earlier in the day and taken her share by the time we got there at about 8PM on Tuesday night.



Mom went into the kitchen and started to heat everything up when we got there. She said she had an excess of eggs now that dad's not there to eat them and was afraid they'd go bad before she could eat them all. She asked me, would we like some stuffed eggs to take home. I tried not to slobber on myself and look too eager. "Sure, we'll take those off your hands." They were goooood.

Dad used to eat scrambled eggs and waffles every morning. Mom's scrambled eggs are wonderful. Her secret is... well, it wouldn't be a secret if I told ya, now would it? Come over some time and I'll fix 'em for ya. I learned at the feet of the master.



She heated up the roast and veggies in a skillet in the oven, heated up some peas on the stove and baked us some little croissant rolls to go with it all. It was all wonderful. She doesn't have the energy to cook elaborate meals much any more but when she does it's a treat for everyone. She's got fresh peaches in the freezer, so there'll be ice cream and chicken as soon as the weather gets hot, or as soon as she gets hungry for it.



After the meal we sat in the living room, talked about all sorts of stuff and sipped some of that chilled Chateaus Monet (you keep it in the freezer). These after dinner tipples have become a regular treat whenever we go over there for dinner or after eating out. We make sure she has a ready supply of the good stuff.

All in all, she's doing OK these days. She's keeping herself busy going through dads stuff and deciding what to keep and what to give to the Goodwill folks. I took a bag of dads stuff home with me when we left. It makes me feel very strange to do it, but that's life.

My dad told me a few times that when his father died of a heart attack in the back yard of their farm in 1964 that he'd taken his fathers clothes out into the field beside the barn and burned them. He couldn't stand the idea of some other man wearing his dads clothes. I guess I don't feel that way, and it's not my decision to make anyway.

The plan today is to go over to get mom at about 4:30. Then we'll ether drive back here and go to the Olive Garden, or we'll stay in Temple and go to BJs. It's a new thing, all this stuff bein' up in the air. Mom can change her mind in a second and decide not to go out at all, so I'll have to badger her from time to time to get her to come out of the house. Well, traditions change. We'll do whatever she wants to do.

This weekend was going to include dinner with some friends of Denise. The Deans secretary and her husband. But the husband shot himself in the hand cleaning his pistol a few days ago and is in the hospital, so the dinner is off. I feel sorry for the guy, but what a friggin' idiot! They think they might be able to save his pinky finger. Sheesh! I mean, I ALWAYS know when my shit is loaded. It ain't that hard to prevent that sort of thing. Well, shit does happen.

So, It looks like I might have time to get some stuff done around the house. I just ended one semester and will start another Monday. My classes are full, so it should be another busy one.

Anyway, you guys have a great weekend and we'll reconnect on the other side. Cheers.