Shopping Experiences

Susan and I took a few days this past week to get out of town and "vacation."  We went to the Rangers game on Wednesday night which proved to us in person that they are as bad as we thought.  But then we spent the next two days going to different shopping areas in DFW area.  (Yes I went without too much pleading from Susan.)

We went to a new outlet mall called Allen Premier Mall.  And, apparently..., the new style for ladies is now these skin-tight yoga pants that leaves not much to the imagination and bright colored tops.  But of course Susan doesn't want to have anything to do with these.  But all the sales help are wearing these in the stores we went to such as Nike Outlet, Adidas Outlet, etc.   So this attractive sales lady, who happens to be African American, was wearing a pair of these black yoga pants and a florescent yellow top.  She comes up to us and asks if we need any help.  Susan, as usual, says, "No.  We're just looking."  But seeing an opportunity to show Susan that I still think highly of her, I said, "Hey," to the young lady.  "Don't you think my wife would look good in some of those yoga pants like you've got on?"  I say this while doing my "Vanna White" impersonation using my arms to showcase Susan.

"Oh yes." she says.  "You can so wear these.  You just get a bright colored top and you would really look great."

"See there!" I said.  And then doing the Vanna White thing to the sales lady I say, "See how this just POPS!"

Susan just looks at the young lady and says something about "Just can't take him anywhere" and pulls me away from the sales lady.

...We didn't buy anything in that store.

The next day we go to Waco to see Chelsea.  She wants us to go watch her wakeboard.  Now this cold front has moved in and we were totally unprepared.  Having only short sleeved shirts we were thinking we would just pop into the Cabela's store and buy a jacket for each of us to wear.

Now we walk back to the clothing section.  Chelsea tells me we are in the women's section and the men's section is further down.  So I take off by myself to the men's section.  Now my number one priority in finding the right jacket is price!  So I find a rack of Cabela brand camo jackets with a big sign that says $49.  I think.. ...perfect.  I find a large and begin to try it on.

As I'm having a little trouble finding the second sleeve the man working that section comes over to help me get my arm in the sleeve.  About that time Susan and Chelsea walk up having found a jacket for Susan.  The jacket I have put on however is really tight.  The camo looks good but it won't hardly meet in the middle.  Susan says, "That's too small!"

"It's a large." I said with a confused look on my face.

Then the sales clerk who helped me get it on says...[Wait for it].....

"Well, that's a women's jacket.  I started to say something when you were trying to put it on."

"It's right here in the middle of the men's section?"

"Well we have this one rack of women's stuff."  Then he says, "You know how I tell the difference?"  He then points to the collar tag and says, "It says Cabela's for Her."

Really!!! Chelsea is doubled over and Susan just stands there with her hand over her mouth.  They won't even help me get out of this contraption.  The sales clerk walks over to another rack and gets me a men's jacket that looks the same.  But says this one will fit better.  He mumbles something about I wouldn't have to think I had really gained a lot of weight.  UHmmmmm!

And Susan wonders why I don't like to go shopping!

Oklahoma Fun

We just got back from celebrating with Hank & Kaye Dowell on their 40th anniversary.

After enjoying (And I mean really enjoying) steak and chicken that Hank cooked on the grill.  We went to their church to enjoy an evening with Edgar Cruz.  If you don't know who this is, check him out on You Tube.  He's amazing.

The next morning we went to the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum. If you ever get a chance to go, don't pass it up.

And then our real purpose for going to Oklahoma...We were the decoys as Brian and Elizabeth planned out a surprise anniversary party for Hank and Kaye.  Or as Brian put it, "I take full credit for telling Elizabeth to do all the work and planning."  (Sounds like another brother/sister act I know of!)

Just Wanted to Wash My Car

So I like to have a clean car.  That's really not a bad thing, right?

The other day, we were going to Abilene so I thought OK, I'll go to Walmart, get gas, and use the car wash at the Walmart.  Now the road construction around the Walmart intersection is quite extensive.  In fact when I'm there, I like to go out the back way from Walmart to avoid the construction.

So I get my gas and pay for the car wash at the pump. Pull up to the car wash with my receipt and punch in my code.  All is well except there is a car in the wash so it tells me to wait.  As we wait, I notice the car in the wash bay is one of those Kia Souls.  I commented to Susan, "That car has lots of soul!" She chuckled.

As I looked down to continue waiting I hear Susan, "Is that car suppose to leave yet?"  I looked up to see that the Kia has indeed pulled forward.  It's wheels up and out of the wheel hump.  But the washing mechanism is still moving from the back to the front of the wash area with water squirting down to where the Kia used to be.  Then...the Kia realizes that the wash wasn't finished and begins to reverse it's path. Being very careful, the Kia begins to back up. It's going very slow because it's an awkward maneuver.  So it is taking several tries to get the wheels back up and over the wheel hump.

By this time the washing has finished.  My part of the wash tells me to proceed into the bay.  About that time the Kia finally gets it's wheels back up and over the wheel hump.  And you guessed it! The wash thinks it's me.  So the car wash begins.

I don't take this very well.  "What are they doing?"  Susan just replies, "Oh my!"
"Hey!" "THAT'S MY CAR WASH YOU'RE GETTING!"  "Move out of the way!  That's my wash!"  The Kia just sits there.  Taking on a second wash for free.

Susan tells me to calm down. "THAT'S MY WASH!"  She tells me to stop ranting!

"I"m not ranting! I'm venting.  Ranting would be me going up there and waving my arms and knocking on their window."

"So what are you going to do?"

I'm going to sit right here and wait for them to come back here and pay me for my wash.  My attitude does not improve as I sat there watching that Kia get MY car wash.

Finally, my wash finishes.  The Kia moves forward, again. Going very slow to take advantage of the blower to dry off their car.

I continue to sit there.

The Kia pulls out of the car wash and turns sharply and stops the car.  I continue to wait right where I'm at.  The Kia just sits there.  "You need to come back here to me and pay me!" I yell.  The Kia just sits there.

Finally I decide to just pull through and go up beside the Kia.  Susan begins to panic, "What are you doing? You can't go through the car wash!"  I said, "What's going to stop me? Certainly not the water or the brushes!"

So I begin to pull forward.  And just then...the Kia pulls forward and up to the office area of the gas pumps. There's no room for me to pull up there.  Frustrated I pull around the pumps and see the person getting out of the Kia.  It's an older lady and she can barely walk. She has no business driving!!!

I don't know what she thinks Walmart can do so I just pull out in frustration.  Now understand.  This all is happening in a relatively short time.  I'm really frustrated.  So as I pull out I realize I'm pulling out into the construction area.  The only way to go now is down the access road where you have to go about a mile just to get back on the interstate.  So now I'm frustrated with this new development on top of the wash.  Yes, I'm still venting.  Susan is still chuckling about the whole thing.

I finally get to the on ramp for the interstate and notice a car in the right hand lane.  Thinking it would pull over so I could have easier access, I continue to accelerate.  But you guessed it.  That car just stays in the right hand lane.  No one was in the left lane.  It just wouldn't move over.  Now I'm running out of lane so I have to slow way down. "MOVE OVER!", I'm hollering, "Can't get my car washed. Can't get on the interstate!"  and Susan is just laughing at me.

But I'm determined to get even with this jerk.  So I floor the accelerator, pass the car and WHAM!  A dove flies into my windshield!  So now I'm yelling, "Oh great! And now I've killed a bird!"

Between laughs Susan says, "It's a good thing you didn't wash the car."

Grrrrrrrrrrr.

Murder Among the Mateys

We were Governor and

Mrs. Napier. 

Best Christmas Gift

Sometimes the best gifts really don't cost anything.  I'm sure there's something from my past that explains this but this year I also got to experience this idea.

Now this isn't a story about what a good gift giver I am...but I (tagging along with several others) did give the best gift of the year.

It was Monday before Christmas when Linda, the secretary of the church received an unusual phone call.  The caller was a case worker for the Dept of Aging here in Sweetwater.  The case worker explained that she had a client who really wanted to hear carolers for Christmas and was there anyone at the church who could fill this request.

Well the request got to Lori Ortega, our music director.  She called the case worker and worked out a time when some carolers could come the house where Gerald Bohall, the client, lived.  That evening, Lori put out a text message to several people asking if anyone wanted to go caroling to a man who had requested this for Christmas to meet at the church in about five minutes.

Well....
We were about to go out to eat with the Tolles.  Chelsea was here and we didn't really "have the time" to go do this.  But on second thought we decided that we should go do this.  So Susan, Chelsea and I went and met Lori along with her family and our youth director, Stephen and JulieAnn.  We didn't even know the name of this person till we met up with Lori.

When we drove up the house, we went in and met Mr. Bohall and his wife.  He was in a wheel chair and on oxygen.  We all sang several Christmas carols and they seemed to be very appreciative of our effort.  Mr. Bohall told us as we were leaving that he had not been out of his house in two years except when his case worker took him to the doctor.  That made feel glad that we went.

Then on Friday, two days after Christmas, the Home Health Care worker was told by Mr. Bohall what a wonderful Christmas he had.  "This is the best Christmas I've ever had" he told the worker.  He told her about us carolers that came over and sang to him.  He described how happy that had made him.

And wouldn't you know it.  The next day was his last day on earth.  He died on Saturday.

So when someone asks you to do something nice for someone.  Don't put it off. Don't hesitate.  Just go do it.  You just might make someone's best Christmas ever.  And it didn't cost anything.

Carolee's Gift

Carolee Patterson was one of my favorite teachers when I was in high school.

The only class I ever had with her as a teacher was a one semester Psychology class my senior year.  That was it. One semester.  But she was undoubtedly a hugh influence on me.

About four of us students and Mrs. Patterson started an "unofficial" after-school teacher-student club that met at a local hamburger place called Bingo's.  This club met once, sometimes twice, a week.  We would gather and discuss everything from politics to sports, music to movies, futures to pasts.  Mrs. Patterson was always instructing us in life's lessons.

We even got permission from her to wrap her trees in toilet paper once.  Yep, she actually gave us permission.  We picked a nice clear Friday night when nothing else was going on and proceeded to make the most amazing toilet paper draperies from her front yard trees.  We wanted to do it right.  Now I'm not sure if it just bad luck or if someone saw us and notified the police but, we were caught.  We couldn't decide if we should run or just take our punishment.  We stayed and told the truth: Mrs. Patterson gave us permission.  I'm sure the cop believed us but he let us continue and he went on his way.

Upon graduating from high school I received many, many gifts.  I remember a Cross pen with my name or initials engraved from someone.  I'm sure I got some towels.  But the one gift I really remember was from Mrs. Patterson.  It must have cost her a whoppin' 59 cents.  It was a 4 X 8 paper sign with a small metal hanger.  It read, "What you are is God's gift to you.  What you make of yourself is your gift to God."

Mrs. Patterson talked to me very seriously about my future the day she gave me that little placard.

I have kept that sign all these years.  It hung in my office the entire time I was a principal and superintendent. I often pointed to that sign to talk to students who had been sent to my office.  It really does seem to connect with kids.  I know it did with me.  Thank you Mrs. Patterson. Rest in peace.

Murder Mystery Dinner

I could not say anything about this event any better than Chelsea did. Click HERE to see her blog.  But also come back here and check ALL the pictures on my Flickr link. To see the pictures in order: click on Sets and then click on Murder Mystery Dinner.

Thanks to Brent Blanchard for the use of his pictures.