My Tuesday was nothing like I had envisioned.

Pat and Memama went to Fort Worth to see Betsy yesterday. Due to a scheduling conflict, I was called into service. Pepa had an appointment with his dermatologist.

After a series of phone calls, plus a wait to see if we had any snow stick in the Big Country, it was decided that Pat and Memama would drop Pepa at his doctor's office when they passed through Abilene and I would meet him there.

Memama wanted me to go with him to make sure all his issues that needed to be discussed were discussed. I asked her to tell me specifically what his issues were. She responded, "You know, the little growth."

"Oh", I said, "I understand, that growth on top of his shoulders. His head!"

She laughed and went on to address everything she thought the doctor needed to know.

I had taken work clothes, figuring we would be in Roscoe around lunch and I would just go on to the farm.

I was wrong.

Once we finished at the doctor, we went light fixture shopping. (I had already looked so I had it narrowed down to what I thought we the best choices). Ran into some friends from Roscoe in the store and had to visit. Then Pepa wanted to look at dishwashers.

I am not a Home Depot fan. I have a real problem with the people that work (allegedly) there. No one would wait onus, so I finally asked a man at a desk if he would page someone. He turned around and asked another man to help us and the second man began to get up, then sat back down.

Pepa and I were talking and I told him let's just leave the basket with the lights and go to Lowes. He asked me why no one would wait on us and I told him it was characteristic of Home Depot. Just as we were ready to walk away, a woman walked by and asked if we were finding everything. We told her everything except someone to help us. She asked what we were interested in and we showed her the dishwasher Pepa had selected. She began talking to us and told us we could pick it up in a week to ten days. I almost blew a gasket. I asked her if Home Depot was a mail order company. She replied, "No, but we cannot keep everything in stock". I asked he to check and see if they had this particular item in stock and she said she would, but she was positive they did not have it.

After another wait, she came back and told me it was our lucky day! They did have one left from their Christmas sale.

After another extended wait, they finally pulled the dishwasher from inventory and got it to the register. Checking out was an adventure in itself!

Finally we were paid out and I went to get the pickup for them to load the dishwasher. Then Pepa parked his go-kart and got in the pickup. By now he was ready to eat.

He told me let's find somewhere to eat and I inquired what he was in the mood for. (Usually he likes to go Amanda's or Enriques, but they are still closed after the fire). I started making suggestions, Abuellos, Golden Corral, Chili's. I was trying to think of somewhere that would be very accessible for him. Then I withdrew Golden Corral from his choices because I know he isn't going to fix his own plate and Memama wasn't there and I wasn't going to! Out of the blue he told me, "Lytle Land and Cattle". Away we went. As we passed Chili's by the mall he told me, "I have never eaten there".

At Lytle, we had a sweetheart of a waitress. She was attentive and gave Pepa a free water and cobbler and sang for him since his birthday was Friday. Pepa got him a rib-eye steak and the waitress kept asking him if it was o.k. and he would tell her he would let her know in a minute. She told him if she needed to she would have them fix him another one. Finally he told her "Yes, tell them to fix me another steak". She said, "Honey, we have a problem because you already ate almost the entire steak trying to decide if it was cooked properly!"

In our only confrontation of the day, Pepa and I argued about the tip. He got upset when I added money to what he had left. He explained to me that he had a formula. He looks at what the tax is and that is what he tips. I explained that the tax was 8.25 percent in Abilene, while other towns are as low as 6.25 percent, and that the standard for tipping is 15 percent. I told him he was leaving about half of what he should. This conversation lasted almost the entire way from Abilene to Roscoe.

We made three more stops before finally hitting the highway West. It was after four when we got to his house and began unloading. Then a trip to the fuel island, back to his house before finally heading back to Abilene.

Once in Abilene I pinged about. Walgreens, Office Depot, Office Max, Allsups, and finally home.

I was worn out!

Have a day!

FATHER, thank YOU for all YOUR blessings. Do YOU think maybe we could have a little rain?