Happy Birthday to you,
Happy Birthday to you,
Happy Birthday, dear Betty,
Happy Birthday to you!

Each month a group of ladies gather to play Bunco (a dice game).

Last night was Aunt Pink’s turn to be hostess, and I was invited to attend as a “sub.” Aunt Pink is the mother of my dear friend, Ann. Sometimes I call her “Mom,” because she makes me feel so much like a part of their family.

Most folks outside the family call her “Aunt Pink.” Her great grandchildren call her “Grand Pink.” Two of them live next door to her, and get to visit her often — and get to enjoy one of her delicious fried pies each time she gets the skillet out. That was our treat last night — apricot, apple, or cherry — all home made and wonderful. In days past, she has been known to make, fry, and sell hundreds at a time — up to eleven different fillings.

Her theme last night was “Red, White, and Blue” — a memorial for 9/11. She printed special score cards from her computer! Even the M&M’s in each bowl on the Bunco tables were red, white, and blue. She had everything decorated with these colors and even had a “Welcome” sign on her front porch with a vase of roses. She, of course, gave credit for much of the work to her helpers — Amy, Brad, Ann, Freda, and Barbara.

Bunco is a fun game that I learned through this group’s invites for the past couple of years. To hear someone describe it, you’d never believe it is any fun — you throw 3 dice trying to get a six. Each time you get a six, you get one point, and you get another throw. If you throw all sixes, you have a “Bunco.” BUT, when a Bunco occurs, any one at the table can cover the dice and thus add that count to their score. If all three dice are close together, it’s fairly easy to cover them all, but usually they are spread out and we are all scrambling trying to cover each one. It is fun, and you move to another table with a different partner after each game, so the visitation is spread out.

We all had a very good time at Aunt Pink’s, and she was gracious to send home two fried pies home with me for Terry. They are both “gone” now!

Next Tuesday I’ll pick Aunt Pink up at her home and we’ll go to our monthly investment club meeting. She is a very active member of that club as well — makes quarterly stock study reports on her assigned stock, Home Depot. She keeps track of it using her computer!

Thank you, Aunt Pink, for a fun Bunco night and for being such an inspiration to all of us! Happy Grandparents Day!

When our 1999 Expedition hit 115,000+ miles, we went shopping for a replacement. That was in July, and we drove a pretty red Explorer home.

The first day we had it, maybe we should have suspected something wasn’t right. Our dog, Beau, peed on the back leather seat as soon as we put him inside to come home from the vet’s office. Needless to say, we did everything possible to make sure it was cleaned up and deodorized.

About ten days ago, a light started appearing each time we turned on the ignition that said “oil check required.” Since we only had about 2000 miles on it, Terry said to just ignore the message and hit the “reset” button. Then a few days ago, a different message appeared — “oil change required.” Terry looked at the oil, and it was a bit low, and it was a very dark color — too dark for a car with only 2700 miles on it. So, he called the service department of our Ford dealership and was told to bring it in today. The service guy also said that they had been having trouble with the transmission of these cars and would like for us to plan to leave it a few days.

So, do we have a “lemon?” Actually, it is more like an “apple” red!

Kelby and some others at Station 40 left last night for Baton Rouge in three fire trucks. They were delivering donated items for the Austin Food Bank. It’s about a 7 hour drive from Austin, and their plans were to drop off the supplies and turn around for home.

The phone rang this morning about 8:15; Kelby was calling to tell us he was back home and ready to go to bed. He said everything went very smooth — no problems getting through on roads and everything in BR was well marked and very organized. That was good to hear!

The mayor of New Orleans, Ray Nagin, was being interviewed on a news program last night. When asked if his SOS radio interview last week was what caught Washington’s attention, he said he didn’t know, but something did. He talked with President Bush and “GW” told him that the ball had been dropped in getting help to them, but that was going to be fixed! When asked if he (Mayor Nagin) agreed with a comment Jesse Jackson made while flying over a bridge full of survivors — that it looked like the hull of a slave ship — Nagin said he didn’t believe that the slow response was a racial issue, but it certainly could be a class issue — a class of very poor people not getting the help they needed sooner. He also felt that New Orleans was not gone — that it did have a future. Hopefully he is right and that these people who lost everything will have their city to go home to one day — a city rebuilt with compassion. Other cities hit by disaster in the years past were rebuilt — Galveston, Chicago, and San Francisco — and have thrived. Putting New Orleans back together may mean using a different “pattern” to make it a safer place and it may mean relocating it a bit to higher ground. Doubtfully it will be the Crescent City we once knew and were fond of visiting with all of the familiar sites and events — but, if it can be home again for those who had to leave, let’s do it.