I love a parade!

Yesterday morning, I called Pepa about twenty minutes before 7. He had told me the night before they would be leaving their house at seven in order to be in Brownwood for doctor appointments beginning at 10. Of course there is method to their madness, most appointments are scheduled to coincide with Brownwood Lions home football games.

I had been looking for a seller's affidavit to fill out and have him sign for the grain trailer I sold for him. We were going to meet to do this and he was bringing me the title and registration for it. Later in the day, when I drove to St. Lawrence, I would deliver these to the men who purchased it, and pick up a check.

Pepa told me, "Give us thirty minutes to get to Tye".

I waited around, and a few minutes before his predicted time of arrival in Tye, I called.

"Where are you at?", I asked.

"Sitting at the kitchen table", came his reply.

I had suspected this would happen. Fridays are usually busy at Memama and Pepa's house. Unless it is a long, long way to where the Brownwood Lions are playing, they usually make the trip. They have always been supportive of Coach, throughout his playing career in High School and college and through his coaching career. Memama began a tradition years ago of making a tub of homemade peanut brittle for the Lion coaches to eat while watching game films and working on game plans. She always delivers her famous "Whoop Azz" peanut brittle on Friday nights. (I've told her to stir with the other hand when the Lion's luck needs changing). Many Friday mornings you can call and she is working away. Sometimes you can hear a hammer or mallet as she is breaking the large sheets of peanut brittle into smaller pieces.

You just can't rush perfection.

Pepa knows this, but that doesn't keep him from complaining!

Pepa gave me a new ETA, eight-thirty at the Top-18-Truckstop in Tye.

When I arrived, I parked next to the building and pulled my cell phone from my pocket. When Pepa picked up, I asked "Where are you?"

He told me they (meaining Memama, Kyle and him) had just passed Merkel and to wait and they would be there in a minute.

I busied myself with paperwork I was taking to the jobsite, but after a brief while something caught my attention in the corner of my eye. Flashing red and blue lights. I turned around and I could see a DPS trooper's car sitting on the other side of the fuel islands, lights ablaze. Too many vehicles between us limited me seeing anything else, so I gathered the affidavit and exited my pickup.

I had a hunch.

Sure enough, the troopers car was sitting behind a pearl white Cadillac. I walked up just in time to hear the trooper tell Pepa, "I've been trying to pull you over since Merkel!"

If we only had a marching band it would have been a heck of a parade!

By the way, they did make their doctor appointments in Brownwood.

Pat and I visited late yesterday. She didn't go to their appointments with them, because she has a full week next week. She has a procedure Tuesday, Memama has the same procedure the following day, they have to go back to Dallas to the eye doctor Thursday (I think) and that will get them back to a football Friday.

Memama is scheduled for eye surgery on the 27th in Dallas. She has some scar tissue that is distorting her retina in one eye, making the light refract in a funky way. She has been complaining of her world getting dim. They believe this procedure will correct that, or at least stop it from progressing.

With all the tests they have done on Memama recently, they have pretty much ruled out the possibility of her having had a stroke a couple of weeks ago when she fell repeatedly. Yesterday she had one appointment with a neurologist who was doing some testing. One test, Memama had to touch the computer screen in response. I'm sure that spazzed her out! (Computers sometime do that to her!).

Since Pat didn't go with the patients, and since Jani was in Denton and on her way to Stillwater, Oklahoma for Kirby's football game, they enlisted the services of Kelsi to accompany Memama.

So the patients were paired up. Kelsi and Memama, Pepa and Kyle.

Pat did say Pepa is campaigning for a double knee replacement. She is concerned about whether he could wake up from the anesthesia. I figure if he gets serious this won't be a concern. If he wants it bad enough he will agree to undergo the procedure awake!

One quick side note, Kirby is still hobbled by a broken foot. I had wondered why he wasn't getting any playing time and Pepa had failed to relay that information to me.

There is an excellent article in Sports Illustrated on Colt McCoy. I read it on the internet! Not only is he a stellar athlete, he is a stellar person. One of his high school teachers took a picture of him when he was junior, with Colt striking a Heisman pose. Of course that could become a reality if he and the longhorns stay hot! The teacher talked about how that pose was such a cutup and that Colt would never do something like that now.

And finally, they fired the plant up Thursday afternoon and ginned the five modules that were on the yard. The GM and plant super did not even call me, but Delfino handled it. We have 76 bales on a trailer and a load of seed in the seed box. I brought the samples in and dropped them off at the compress last night. We will load out the seed Monday morning and the GM is going to tell me is he wants to ship the partial load of bales.

So, the season is officially underway.

I figure one more week and city life will be a vague memory!

Have a day and a great weekend!

FATHER, shine in us!