Some Things Never Change

As predicted, we are toasty. Mema has the thermostat set on 75, day and night. Considering that we keep our heat at home on 68 during the day and 65 after bedtime, LBeau and I are roasting. Mema is wearing long underwear!

To make matters worse, LBeau forgot to bring his shorts. Like a real trooper, he is not complaining.

In other predictable matters, Aunt Mary asked me to help decorate the tables for tonight. The plan was for her to pick me up at 10:30 this morning. It's now 12:15, and I haven't seen her yet. I just hope we get back in time for me to watch the Cowboy game.

Giving Thanks

It's Thanksgiving week, and once again LBeau and I will be travelling to Camden, Arkansas, to celebrate with my family. Most of the men will stay at deer camp so they can get in some hunting while they are there. The women and children will stay nice and toasty at Mother's, and LBeau will take shorts to wear around the house.

Brent shot this 8-point buck Thanksgiving 2003.

Thursday night a large gathering of Mother's extended family will be at the Fellowship Hall of the First Presbyterian Church for our Thanksgiving meal. When I was growing up, we always had our Thanksgiving dinner at Grancy and Poosie's house, but as the family got bigger, we had to relocate.

Aunt Mary will probably call me Thanksgiving morning and ask for my help in decorating that afternoon. So we'll put out the well-worn candles, turkeys, pumpkins and Pilgrims and set the tables with silverware and napkins.

My cousin Robert will smoke the turkeys, and Mother will make the cornbread dressing. Aunt Mary always bakes homemade rolls and fixes asparagus with cheese sauce. Thanksgiving used to be the only time I ever got asparagus because nobody else in my family liked it very much. Everyone else will bring one or two dishes, and there's always plenty of food for seconds.

I'm not sure who will bless the food this year. Hunter, our resident preacher, will not be there this year (nor will my other children), and Uncle Bill has moved to Tulsa to be closer to his son Ricky and his family.

On Friday the girls will shop. We'll visit Four Seasons to see how Frank has decorated his mantel, and Susie and I will probably purchase some new greenery. Catherine's and Bruce's will be on our shopping schedule as well, but we'll be sure to make it back to Mema's in time for the kick off of the Arkansas-LSU game. Who knows, maybe we can pull off an upset again this year.

At some point Susie and I will probably go to the pasture to cut possum haw to use for Christmas decorating. We'll put it into large black plastic trash bags and hope we can get back to Conway and Birmingham without losing too many berries. I also hope there is at least one cold clear night so I can check out the stars from the pasture.

Of course, Thanksgiving is all about giving thanks and eating good food, but for me it's mainly about family.

High Profile

Ben's and Claire's wedding write up made the High Profile section of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette's Little Rock edition today. Not only did it include photos of the bride and groom, but also pictures of LBeau and me, Brent and Katie and Mema Martha as well as Claire's parents and lots of her family and Ben's friends Mike and Sarah Beth from Birmingham.

My first hint that the wedding might be featured was when the wedding coordinator approached us as we arrived for the reception and told us that the Democrat-Gazette photographer wanted to take our picture. I remembered to set down my purse and shawl and to remind LBeau to take off his overcoat, but I forgot one thing.

An hour or so later when I realized my reading glasses were sitting on top of my head, someone said, "Maybe they'll look like a tiara."

So what do you think? Tiara or reading glasses? At least I remembered to put them in LBeau's coat pocket before I walked down the aisle.

Milestones

As of my birthday on Friday, November 14, I reached the magic age where I am eligible for Social Security. Although I have not gotten to "full retirement" age, I decided it was best to start getting my money while I still could.

So last Wednesday I sat down at the computer to complete the online application. I just love doing stuff online. I gave them about 10 pages of information and hit the "submit" button. Then I put the required documents, a copy of last year's W-2 form and my birth certificate, into an envelope and took it to the post office.

This morning at 7:50 I got a call from a nice lady at the Social Security office here in Birmingham who told me that she had gotten my online application and that they had already received my documents. (She certainly was working early on a Saturday morning.)

"I'm just thrilled," she gushed.

"Well, I'm thrilled, too," I thought. "I'm going to get some money from the government."

It seems that she was thrilled that my application was in order, that I had submitted all of the required documents and that I had given them phone numbers where they could actually reach me.

"You won't believe how many people give us a phone number and then just leave the country," she explained.

So I guess that makes me retired, although it doesn't mean my daily routine will change. I'll continue to build and remodel houses; I'll just be getting a monthly check from Uncle Sam.

Changes

LBeau doesn't do well with change, so I was surprised yesterday as he was leaving for work to see him wearing the leather jacket that he bought probably two years ago. In fact, I can recall seeing him wear that jacket on only one other occasion.

He has been known to order pants from L.L. Bean, Jos. A. Bank or Brooks Brothers and let them sit in the closet in the box for over a year before getting them hemmed. Keep in mind that the style is no different from the pants he has been wearing for the last 20 years or so. It's just that they're new, and that represents change.

The boys and I have also observed him wearing stuff around the house with the tag still on it. I guess he's just waiting for the right moment to go public.

So now that the leather jacket is in the rotation, maybe this summer he'll break in his new sandals from Johnston and Murphy. By then they'll be a year old.

Wedding Wrap Up

The pace picked up in The Slow Lane last weekend with Ben's and Claire's wedding in Little Rock. LBeau and I arrived on Wednesday night to begin making preparations for the rehearsal dinner, the main contribution of the groom's family.

The Friday night event at Cotham's came off mostly without a hitch. However, I made one minor boo-boo when I closed the laptop, causing LBeau's PowerPoint presentation to go black. Oops! All 135 of us got our fix of fried food with catfish, chicken fingers, French fries, hush puppies and some kind of fried corn balls that were absolutely yummy.

A reception at the Clinton Library followed the Saturday evening wedding. The band from Memphis was amazing as was the view of the city from the ballroom. Katie sang with the band, performing James Taylor's "How Sweet It Is To Be Loved by You." But I must say it was the first wedding reception I've attended where I had to go through a security check to get in.

It was wonderful having so many friends from Birmingham drive all the way to Little Rock to be there, and we loved seeing Becky and Cliff, our former neighbors from Texarkana.

Congratulations Ben and Claire and have a wonderful life.

Grocery Store Update

Margie made a trip to the grocery store Sunday morning. Turkeys were on sale, so she bought the Thanksgiving turkey that I didn't get.

She also purchased four or five more cans of LeSueur peas and two more boxes of Honey Bunches of Oats. I thought the two cans of peas and two boxes of cereal that I bought would last a while, but I guess I was wrong.

The big news is that she got the answer to the question "What are Velveeta Strips?" Technically, there's no such thing as Velveeta Strips, but Velveeta now comes shredded. Scott will be pleased.