Like A Day in the Park. Like at Night in the near East.

My wife's birthday is in January.  I've found this a convenient coincidence, because the gift ideas I come up with for Christmas are sometimes out of stock, so when I inevitably order them too late to get here for Sue's Christmas stocking - I find they usually arrive in plenty of time for her birthday, about 4 weeks hence.  It is a beautiful scheme.

This year, the particular belated gift that I order was supposed to ship and be here by December 30.  No dice.  It looks like it will be a lot longer in coming.  In fact way too long to make it in time for her birthday.  I need a Plan B.

Plan B: Take the day off, take her to a nice brunch.  Then enjoy a day at the Dallas Arboretum (Winter pricing with no flowers blooming is $5), and then pick up a cheese cake and top off the evening with a dinning experience at a local Afghan restaurant.  

We had brunch at a cafe across the street from Dallas' Ebola ground-zero.  Not sure, but I bet CNN's Anderson Cooper, major network reporters and Jesse Jackson probably ate there last September when the intersection of Walnut Hill Road and Greenville Avenue was the backdrop that led the top of the national news.  Eggs over easy on my brochette with a short stack on the side.  No disagreeable symptoms at all.     

We zigged and zagged our way southeastward and pulled into the arboretum in the sunny 64 degree late morning.  We strolled the grounds. lounged a bit and watched the sky cloud up in the afternoon as the weather front moved into town, bringing the promised rain at sunset.

I usually make the birthday cheesecake, but since we were going to be at the arboretum, the Royale Cheesecake Factory is just a quarter mile up the road, so we just dropped in and the birthday girl selected an amaretto cheesecake.  Done.

A check of the Afghan restaurant's website said open everyday from 11 to 10.  We double checked just make sure.  We arrived at 7 PM, they were turning off the lights.  I found somebody who spoke mostly spanish, and they indicated cerrado, closed.  Close at quatro, 4 PM.  Well, first the British, then the Soviets, and then the Americans always found Afghanistan to be a tough place to do business, I said.  Sue was in high dungeon, but we agreed upon a nice Persian place not too far up the road.  If we can't get satisfaction in Afghanistan, lets go try Iran. They're all in the same neighborhood you know.

It was a Happy Birthday.

Why didn't I do this before?

Under the category: Why didn't I do this before?

Crossword Puzzle: 5 Down: "Hard water" (3 letters)

A wise guy told me, "Make hay while the sun shines", a corollary is, "Put up rain gutters in dry weather".

Some times here in North Texas we go a whole winter without getting snow or ice.  But some times we do get snow and or ice.  When we get rain in freezing weather it should be no mystery as to what happens to the water on the ground.  Yeah it gets hard.  What is a 3-letter word for "hard water", it is "i-c-e".  Due to a very poor design by the home builder, when it rains during freezing weather, the water that runs off of my garage roof and drains right onto the fan unit of my HVAC system.  The ice that forms sometimes around the fan, either freezes it solid (which means I have de-ice it with hot water from a tea kettle), or it builds up on the fan blades, so that when the thermostat tells the unit to start up, the built up ice is flung off the blades with a violent sound of crashing. A crushing rattle that jolts me from my sleep inside my bedroom on the other side of the wall.  At this point my options are limited; my white-trash fix-it solution is to cover the top of the fan with a piece of plywood and then place a segment of a rain gutter on top of the wood to keep the water from pouring into the unit and freezing up again.  I always say, "Mark, once it warms up. you got to get a permanent solution to this redneck rigging."  Ah, but when it is a warm Texas spring day, the need to put up a rain gutter does not seem to be the most pressing need.

So it is a new year.  But like so many Januaries before; it rains, it freezes and I find myself storming out of my warm bed, thinly clad in my skivvies, sloshing barefooted through the sodden sod and around the woodpile to throw a piece of plywood to cover the top of the HVAC fan unit while the rain comes down.

Mid-January, 2015 we had a mild spell.  I had an inspiration.  Do the damned gutter and drain - NOW!  I already had a few rain gutter piece from an earlier inspiration, so I measured the eaves, calculated the length of additional gutter plus hangers, seam sealant etc.  I fit all the pieces together on a balmy weekend afternoon, then I climbed off the roof and stood looking up at the eaves like a bedazzled fool.  Why didn't I do this before?

Rain was in the forecast for the coming days.  I took the wife out for dinner, the windshield wipers were pounding out a satisfying rhythm as we pulled into the neighborhood.  The automatic garage door opener did its job, and we pulled up the driveway and into a dry garage.  I parked as my sweetheart retired to the house.  But instead of going inside, I just had to go stand out in the rain and watch and listen as the water trickled down the gutter and out the drain pipe.  I stood in the rainy darkness, watching and listening for a long time.  I must have looked like a fool, but I wasn't concerned, because I felt real good as the water flowed out around my feet - and not on my HVAC fan. 

As 'Coolhand Luke" would sing, "I don't care if rains or freezes..."

*******************

Knock, Knock
Who's there?
Dwayne.
Dwayne who?
Dwayne the water off the roof, the HVAC is dwowning!

In With The New - An Honored Tradition

"New" juxtapose with "Tradition".  Perhaps a bit oxymoronic,  but that is how I like it.

One of my sincerest loved traditions has been the gathering of family friends out in East Texas at the McCord's Blue House for New Years.  For some years now, usually four couples who raised our kids together would gather at the McCord's country estate for a few days and nights around New Year's Eve.  The place has a bunkhouse where the adults would sleep, while the youngins would pile into the kid bedrooms in the main house.  We would share cooking, wine, stories and update events, good and bad from the recent past. Play some parlor games, do a few jigsaw puzzles, watch DVD movies. A good time.

The last 3 or 4 years, the "kids" have grown and moved off to college and such, leaving us empty-nester adults to carry on.  An we have in fine tradition.  Occasionally, one of the young adults will join their parents for a brief time at the Blue House, before dropping back into their own social obligations and orbit of friends.  But the New Years tradition continues, and is there if anyone chooses to join in.  

This year again we made plans to head the 104 miles southeast to the McCord's.  Grant was still home from the University of Missouri on Christmas Break, and in my mind it was a question as to whether he wanted to join his parents for the traditional gathering.  With most his his peers not going to be there, the option to not hang out with the old parents seemed like a strong possibility to me.  I was surprised and then pleased when he asked if he could invite Kaileen to join us.  Including Kaileen in one of our family's better traditions, seemed like a magnanimous and solid idea.  Mom said, "We'll have to check with the McCords first - but I think this would be great."

This is good; something new to the tradition.

Kirby & Donna McCord get the bubbly ready:
3-2-1! Happy New Year!

Donna struggles mightily to pop the champagne cork

Kaileen drove up I-45 to our house from the Houston area and met Grant and Sue.  And then the three of them traveled out to the McCords.  I remained behind to care for the dog.  My plan was to arrive on New Year's Eve, while Grant and Kaileen would come back to our house on New Year's Day to take over caring for the dog and catch the Mizzou v. Minnesota bowl game on our TV.  However, once I arrive in the afternoon, Kaileen was not feeling well; so Grant drove her back to Garland from all the bustle at the McCords.

Grant and Kaileen interact on an easy, well-matched level of conversation and interests.  We enjoyed having her around, as she is positive and interesting and immediately fit well into the household scene around here.

After about a week into 2015, itr was time for the two them to get back to Columbia, MO.  Grant had work scheduled Zimmer Radio and Kaileen too had some things to attend to.  Grant planned on meeting Kaileen about half way between Dallas and Houston at a cafe/pie shop in Fairfield.  Kaileen's mother and "Nana" would escort her up and make the exchange so Grant could drive the both of them back the next day to Missouri.  I was apparently a good deal for Grant, he not only got his girlfriend back, but got a Christmas gift hoodie sweatshirt and then Nana slipped some folding green into his pocket and whispered some instructions into his ear, "Treat yourselves to something nice."  Kaileen comes from good people.

Kaileen and Grant
Prior to departure for Columbia. MO