It was a beautiful day in the neighborhood, a beautiful day in the neighborhood.

Yesterday's preview was courtesy of Mother Nature! Stay tuned for the feature presentation! March is coming!

That was a nasty day. The only good thing I can say about yesterday is it is over.

I believe Abilene may have finally gotten a weatherman. I am very impressed with Dan Edwards of KTAB. His resume includes a degree from Texas A & M and his previous employer was the Weather Channel. So far Dan has been pretty accurate. I know right after he arrived he made a long term forecast calling for snow and ice and no one else was predicting it. Turn out he was right on. He had warned us about wind yesterday, gusts to sixty miles per hour. Yesterday's wind topped out at fifty-nine. My hope is that he doesn't begin pre-empting programming. I am very happy with a warning or alert in the corner of my television screen and the occasional runner across the bottom. I sure wouldn't mind it if he could get the Doppler grid more accurate either. (I have always thought it was about ten or twelve miles off from actual locations.)

Krl and I both believe that when it is your time it is your time, regardless of what you do, and we just go to bed. Ignorance is bliss and I'm pretty blissful!

My Saturday began with moving Krl's plants back inside. We were already experiencing a delightful breeze (if there is any such thing) and I could see the red hue building in the West. By the time I left the house on errands, "West Texas" was here. Visibility one mile. I cannot believe the accumulation of "red" dirt in protected areas. Our back porch is covered in a layer of it!

Krl and I didn't need a whole lot from the grocery store, I was really thankful. I'm not too comfortable with this new once a month pay. Since we didn't need too much, it allowed me to do a little "smart" purchasing in advance as some items were on special. When I walked in the grocery store I was greeted by a bubbly woman who was selling "coke floats" with all the proceeds going to Muscular Dystrophy. $1. I told her thanks but no thanks and just gave her a dollar donation. A short distance away was my favorite pie and pastry sales person. She is delightful and very personable. I always tease her about her high pressure sales tactics. She wasn't playing fair, she had commandeered the fresh bread warming oven and had her pies warm. "Imagine this with a scoop of vanilla ice cream", she said as she handed me a small cup with a bite of Dutch Apple pie in it. I'm going to accuse her of being on salary plus commission! I ended up stopping back by and placing a pie in my shopping cart. I was headed to get my last item when I ran into the store director (used to they just called them managers). I've frequented this store for eighteen years and we have developed a casual friendship. After we had greeted each other I continued a short distance to retrieve my last item. This store had only began carrying this brand again a few weeks ago. I had voiced my protests to the store director when they replaced the brand name with a store brand. Since I believe in equal opportunity, I decided to back track and tell the store director how pleased I was with the re-stocking of said item. I think he was surprised, but I felt it was only fair as I had taken the time to find him and complain when they removed the brand name last year. Recently Rian and I had a conversation about some condiments he was needing for his catering business. I made an inquiry to the store director and we ended up walking all the way across the store to view their inventory. We visited as we made our way across the building and he told me he had grown up in Lubbock and was sure glad he wasn't there for the sandstorm. I concur.

I was watching a television movie yesterday and there was a scene that had a group of men playing poker, drinking beer and smoking cigars. The cigars triggered another trip down memory lane.

W. W. Shields Red and White Grocery. Located on Cypress Street in beautiful scenic downtown Roscoe, Texas. I have many memories of "Bill" Shields, Mr. Allen, and "Butch" Graham. (Of course "Butch" was the butcher in the store). You could run in and pick up whatever you needed and sign the ticket then on Saturday when Mom was buying her weekly groceries, Mr. Shields would produce the charge tickets and add them to the tab. He always had a cigar in the side of his mouth. I don't know if I can ever remember it being lit, but it was always lodged in the corner. I wonder if he slept with it there. One of the most coveted items a young man could have was an empty cigar box. Each visit to the store, I would survey the boxes on the shelf, seeing how near to empty the boxes were and also noticing who might be in the store that might make a purchase. A boy could store all of his treasures in one of these cigar boxes. It wasn't if, but when the paper hinge on the lid finally gave it up, canvas tape could extend the life of the box and preserve it's integrity. For a precious possession like this every effort would be made to preserve and prolong. A really neat touch was to add a small nail in the lid to keep it shut. Yep, marbles, baseball cards, money. Anything near and dear could be found there. If you were fortunate enough to have a cigar box at school for your supplies you were really "cool". Years later ,when shopping for school supplies for my children, I found that some innovative marketing manager had begun selling small cardboard boxes with ABC's and visual references to pencils and crayolas stensiled on the lid. I'm sure by now these have been replaced with a new and improved plastic model. For some reason it just isn't the same. These new fangle boxes will never be special like a "King Edward" cigar box. Other possibilities were "White Owl", "Muriel", "Roi-tan", and "Dutch Masters" just to name a few.

Oh, for the good old days.

Well, if you were fortunate enough to see your real estate holdings "increase" yesterday congratulations. If you saw them "decrease", hold fast. There will be another wind on another day!

Have a day!

FATHER, I am so blessed. Thank YOU!