“I can’t wait to retire so I can get up at 6 o’clock in the morning and go drive around really slow and make everybody late for work.”
Mary came over and drove me to the Honda dealer to spend my life savings on a water pump and rear brakes. I was pretty happy since I had 85,000 miles on the van, and it just now barely needed brakes! I still have the original tires. Some people laugh at my driving skills, and I say, “Phooey,” I save rubber!
At 10:00 AM, the car was turned in, and they said they would have it back at 5:00 PM for pickup. We went to my place, along with Scout the Wonder Dog, and put away more of Christmas, moving everything to newer storage boxes. Mary cooked up breakfast, making it out of goodies from the freezer. Dang, steak and eggs never tasted so good. We drank some Snapple with 7-Up and called Caoleen to check-in.
To the back yard on a search and find mission. Mary was accommodating, and she understood the memories I was having and assisted me through the tough parts! I just keep smiling and I told Mary, “Why was the snowman looking through the carrots? He was picking his nose!”
At the end of the day, I will have about thirty new packing boxes with Christmas and Thanksgiving in them!
I thought I had found all of Christmas inside my house. Well, Miss Mary went on a search and rescue mission, and the following picture shows what was still in the house that I had missed! I must be going blind.
How did I miss all of this???
I texted Claudia, my cousin, and mentioned I still had her Dad’s manger that he hand made in the early 1950’s I offered it to her, but she said I could keep it until I no longer needed it. I had great memories of Christmas at Aunt Edith’s, and at Christmas time, this manger would be on display. I love it.
Manger screen made by hand by my Uncle Claude.
At 3:00 PM, we declared victory and began some chores. Mary needed to mail some packages to her son, David, and grandchildren while I had some things to mail to Colleen. Hello Staples, what a great place to go. The folks at Staples were extremely helpful.
After leaving Staples, I noticed the In-An-Out burger joint had no lines, and we looked at each other, smiled, and the rest was history. We burnt rubber heading the get cheeseburgers, hold the onions, and lite sauce. OK, I was not as good as Mary! I did a double-double cheeseburger! We returned to my house a devoured them along with some Snapple. Did I mention Fench fries?
At 4:45 PM, the call came in, “Your van is ready, sir,” right on time. We drove to Cerritos, six miles away, and I got the van while Mary drove the Silver Fox.
It was a beautiful sunset this evening.
Returning home, we gather our things, pointed Scout to the car, and headed to Mary’s for the evening.
Well, we HAD TO STOP at the rib trader, to see Jim. We had a glass of wine and took a side of potato skins home with us. We visited with Jim for thirty minutes before going home.
I am lucky to have Miss Mary in my life!
We arrived home just in time to watch Two And A Half Men. We laughed ourselves silly.
We watched an adventure movie before I headed home for the evening. Tomorrow Miss Mary works, and I finish off Christmas.
