Vacation and Old Friends

Have you ever seen one of those movies that while the parents are away, the child has a wild party? Then miraculously the house is cleaned spotless before the parents get home the next day. Well, that did not happen here. Jesse did not have a party, and the house did not get miraculously cleaned before I got home. It is nice to be home, but I have spent the afternoon doing laundry and other chores – the vacation is over.

The Lubbock leg of our trip was fun. It is always good to see Toby’s mom and the West Texas weather was cool and nice while we were there. We also visited with Bear and Anny and their family. There are just some old friends that no matter how much time passes between visits, it always seems like it was just yesterday. The laughter and the love flows from their home. I have mentioned before that I could write a book on B&A stories that would be full of funny incidents that have happened to us through the years. On this visit, Bear made things perfect by running out of propane while cooking our burgers. Too bad he did not have any good neighbors that he could steal their propane. For that old story you can go back to this old post.


Sunday morning Toby and I rode our bikes 55th Street to the Texas Tech campus. Some of you may know that Toby and I met while going to school at TT back in the late 70’s – so we rode past some of our old haunts. We wanted to stop and have coffee at Starbuck’s, but neither of us brought any money on the bike ride. That did not stop us; we went in and begged for credit, "I’ll gladly pay you Tuesday for a coffee this morning." The very nice, young ladies working at Starbuck’s took pity and let us have coffee. Later that morning, we went back with our wallet and the young ladies thought it was very funny, but were thankful that we did actually come back and pay. We also rode around some neighborhoods and parks in Lubbock. Many of the streets have bike lanes making for a very enjoyable ride. And Lubbock is flat – I like that.

Monday morning we drove to Portales in the rain. The rain was not nearly as bad as the back roads that we took. I was a bit nervous to meet Buck, but once I saw him, I realized that the nervousness was gone. I felt like I had known him for years – and I have. The little incident that resulted in the Heimlich Maneuver, was a surprise – you can read Buck’s story for details. Miss Manners has not written much on the subject of how to act while choking or how to continue the conversation after the incident, but I had waited too long to get to meet Buck to let anything derail my visit. I loved meeting Buck. As Toby and I drove off, I thought, "Wow, I truly feel like Buck is an old friend." Next time, rather than meeting at a restaurant, I want to sit out on his veranda and drink beer while Buck smokes a cigar and we listen to his good music.

More to come…