Notes From There, While Here

Greetings from Oklahoma.

I'd tell you about our trip, but it hasn't happened yet, because I'm getting this ready the night before, since I have to get up at 5:00 a.m. to drive partway with The Pony. We are staying overnight, perhaps gambling a bit, but not on New Year's Eve! What do you think, I'm crazy?

The #1 son came home Friday afternoon to hitch a ride to the airport at 4:00 a.m. with Farmer H, who then joined us along the route.

Such a busy time of year. #1 caught me in the act of putting away an entire batch of Chex Mix when he got home. "Who's THIS for?" Funny he should ask, since I made it just for the Hillbilly family's own personal consumption. He has not showed an interest in it at all, other than acting like I twisted his arm to get him to take back a small tub of it for his housemates after Thanksgiving.

"It's for us. You can have some if you want. But you never do."

"Well! I would like some of it when I get back from California! To take back to my house." (He's kind of like my Sweet, Sweet Juno. He doesn't really want something unless he thinks everybody else is getting it and he's not.)

"There's plenty. If it stays here, your dad will just pick out the parts he likes and leave the rest."

"Yeah. I want some."

"I'll save it. You can also have the rest of that vegetable beef soup I put in the freezer."

Let the record show that #1 and a roommate did eat the other half of that soup, with a little hot sauce and sour cream added, and proclaimed it delicious. Better than having it with some fava beans and a nice chianti, I suppose.

Anyhoo...we were all scrambling Friday to get packed and have our chores done (oh, who am I kidding, I'm the only one with chores around here, and they mostly go undone) before hitting the sack early for our pre-dawn departure. Farmer H and #1 had to take his car a couple of miles down the road to leave it with a body man to fix the damaged fenders from his encounter with that semi on I-44. It's one of our Christmas presents to him. Even though we've planned to do it all along, but he couldn't spare the car. A cash thing, not on the insurance.

Oh, and he thought he was extra lucky and extra-gifted, because just Friday night he discovered an extra $430 in his checking account. AHEM. That was his tuition money for Spring semester. I had withdrawn it from his credit union account to cover the eCheck I used to pay the university. But I mistakenly sent in the deposit slip from HIS account instead of mine. He actually took the news pretty well.

Wouldn't you, if you were getting a trip to California and two new fenders on your car?