Rain, beautiful rain…

I really wanted to sleep when I first opened my eyes and although I tried really hard, to no avail. So, heaving a deep sigh, I crawled out and got ready to face the day. I harnessed up the dogs and let them loose on the porch as I gathered up the trash to take to the dumpster. 

Gary walked by and I took a chance and opened the gate and let them run to meet him. Mikey flew off the porch dragging Sandy with him in his hurry to get to Gary who went ahead and made a fuss of both of them.  

I came down the steps laughing my head off at their antics and chatted with Gary for a while before we moved off on our morning walk. We wandered around in no particular direction before returning for breakfast. 

I ate breakfast, a burrito, and read the world news. If the burrito did not give me indigestion, then the world news surely would. As far as I could tell, the end of the world had not yet happened, so I continued with my day, not that I have anything special going on yet. 

I worked on a few things which included registering the Jeep for the annual stickers. I thought that I had received the proper forms in the mail, but closer inspection showed they were for Quatro. I made a mental note to give them to Malinda the next time I saw her. 

I remembered that I had received mail in my Far West Blvd mail box and one of the letters was from the Department of Motor Vehicles. I put together a list which included a stop at Walmart’s and headed into town. 

The first stop was at the Mail box service as I had already called ahead to arrange the pickup. I only had three letters, two were the usual junk looking for donations but the third was the one I was looking for, the registration forms for the Jeep. 

I headed to the closet Walmart which was a different one than what I usually use and wandered around finding everything that was on my list plus a couple of other items that sort of snuck into my shopping cart placed there I am sure, by the invisible shopping gremlins. These are hired by Walmart’s and are the reason we sometimes end up with things that we could not remember buying. 

I think they are probably the ones that placed the 24 pack of Michelob Ultra-Pure Gold in the bottom of the cart…Actually, that culprit was me and the beer was for Daniel and Malinda, my small token for the kindness they show me. 

On the way in, I had spotted a Great Clips hairdressers on the outskirts of Oak Hill and told myself that I should try it on the way home. I pulled into the parking lot and took a chance as I had not called ahead to make an appointment and walked in. All of the four chairs were occupied, and the lady told me to wait as it would not be long. I was the only person waiting except for a mother and child waiting for the father who was in one of the chairs. It only took 15 minutes and then I was seated. My hairdresser was very good and patient with my requests which were simple, “Short back and sides and pay extra attention to right side as it has a double crown and grows all over the place”. 

In the time I had waited and including the haircut, 30 minutes later I was back in the car driving home very satisfied with the look, not that it is very important except to me. I definitely am not out to attract anyone of the fair sex into my aging life and besides, the dogs do not care what I look like as long as I smell OK to them. 

The drive back to Dripping Springs was uneventful and this time, I made a point of stopping at the Dry Cleaners to pick up my blanket which will be stored away in the RV until the cold weather returns.  

The drive back was uneventful with no little Turtles crossing the road, thank goodness. I may have used up my nine lives rescuing the last one. Wait a minute, is it only cats that have nine lives? Back at The Caboose, I dropped of the groceries and looked around for either Daniel or Malinda to come and pick up the beer and the large steak that I had bought for them. 

They had both been away on a work project and when they returned, I happened to be out walking the dogs and we ran into each other at one of the RV’s which was having water leak problems. We chatted for a while and Daniel stopped by to pick up his stuff and I continued walking the dogs with his, “Come over and have a beer” ringing in my ears. 

After completing the walk, I made a point of feeding the dogs before going over for that beer. Through the course of the evening and after a couple of beers. Daniel, knowing that I like wine, brought out a couple of small bottles although they were bigger than the ones I was used to.  

The three of us shared the two small bottles pronouncing it “very good and tasty” which was our first mistake because Daniel then produced a full sized bottle of the same sweet wine which we also went ahead and drank. Incidentally, I found out later that it was 13.9% Alcohol. 

We drank and told stories until almost midnight with me getting more and more inebriated. I don’t know how the others felt and neither did I care very much as I was quite happy in my own drunken world. 

They must have been able to handle the stuff much better than me as when it was time to go back to The Caboose, they went with me, one on each side with an arm around my shoulders, back to my RV and waited as I unlocked the door and fell inside. 
 
Actually, I was not that drunk as I managed to fix myself some food as I had not eaten and then sat and watched a football game until almost 2:00 am in the early morning. Well, I thought I was watching but in fact, fell asleep waking up to read that one team had beaten the other by a score of 3-0. In the good old days of early television, the National Anthem would have been playing with the TV station signing of with a “Goodnight America”. 

I went to bed and slept very peacefully waking up at a reasonable hour and no hangover. That wine must have been very good, but I never want to drink it ever again. Way to powerful for my aging body. Or maybe, next time…

Written 05/16/2023. Read my other blog at https://pondblog2011.com