Sunday

Just a quiet, cloudy calm day. Tom's been doing some laundry & cleaned his room, the girls cleaaned theirs. I've got roast, carrot & potatoes in the oven. Can't wait till it's ready.

Seems Tom has a secret admirerer. Last night someone left a long stemmed yellow rose & a card on the windshield of his car. He thinks he knows who it is.

It's mostly cloudy. You can feel the seasons changing. Even in the daytime, but especially at night. The wind rusting through the elms and maple leaves that are dying. It'll take an especially cool night to get the rest of the trees turning. That won't be long though. I'm ready for autumn. It's my favorite time of year.

When I was 4 and my mom went to work in the local Rexall Drugstore, I needed a sitter of course. There was a mexican family, friends of my parents. I was raised in a very small town. I believe there were 3 hispanic families, and 2 black families. It was a time when prejudices ran very high in this country. But not in our little town. There was no segregation (that I can recall) and we all played together. The Durans, Jo(sephine) specifically & Ab(elino) the parents the family that took me in after school. A lot of weekends. They have 5 kids Lola, Linda & Lydia (twins) Cecilia (my age) & Tony-the only boy 2 yrs younger. They became my 2nd family. My home away from home. My 5 siblings I had other than my only brother. Jo was my sitter from age 4 till 3rd grade. They were Catholic & back then they didn't eat meat on Friday. We were stictly beef & chicken & a little pork people. LOL So Mama Jo would fix ME a piece of fried chicken on Friday, or a sandwich. Cecilia would be SO mad because she had to eat fish and she did NOT like fish either. Poor Sis. Our big "sisters" taught us dance. To jitterbug. To do the dances of the day. They had wooden floors. I LOVED sliding around the floors in our stocking feet. Mama Jo would push the dining room table to the windows so we'd have the whole dining room to dance. Some train tracks ran behind their house. Cece & I would walk for hours down the tracks. Walking sticks in hand. Hunting turtles and horned toads. Jo always told us to get very far away from any passing trains as the train would suck us under them. LOL I had some of the very best times of my lives with my mexican family. Daddy Ab would always talk to Jo & the older girls in spanish. He wanted us younger kids to learn. Cece & Tony could understand a lot, but didn't speak much at all. We probably all know about the same about of Spanish that we had to take in school. Well, Jo passed away some years ago. When I went back to KS after I married in 1972, I often went to their house, as Cecilia & her young son (she married while we were in HS) were usually there. When she moved away and her Mom got so sick-I kind of stopped going to their house. It killed me to see that vital, strong energetic woman so sick. I always saw Ab "uptown". Either at the drugstore having coffee. Or if I had to go to the post office, I'd stop in the Gas Office if his truck was there and say hello. After Jo died, he rarely stayed home. Too lonely I guess. I'd see him somewhere. He never stopped sending us a Christmas card. I never lost the love or closeness I felt for them. Ab's health has been failing for years. But he fought it. The last time I saw him was in Vegas in 2oo6 when a bunch of people from Anthony went out on a charter & Rich & I went out because my brother & sisterinlaw were going and I knew Cece & her hubby from WA and Tony would be there. I never dreamed that Ab would be there and he saw me in the hall of our hotel first!! BARBARELLA!! He had called me Barbarella long before the movie came out. I was thrilled beyond thrilled that he was able to make that trip. I was so happy to spend time with my second family. Well I dont know how I never got informed that Ab had taken a turn for the worse in July. He passed at the end of last month. I didn't find out until the day before the funeral. I was totally devastated. It was like losing my father again. Cecilia and her husband have been inundated all summer as they made the move from Washington state to Texas and had a house built and had to move again. I just wish I had known. Living 500 miles from your hometown and having only my brother & brother inlaw that I stay in touch with basically, kinda sucks. I found Tony on facebook, so maybe I can catch up with the goings on up there a little more.

I'm sure you all are wondering what our huntress Calli has been up to? I can't remember if she had brought in the dead mouse that was in full rigor in my last entry. Since then she hadn't brought anything in. Tom caught her with a dove, but stopped her before she got it in the house. Well, she never came in this evening. She comes home usually about 8:30-9:00pm. I called her several times, Rich called her several times. We looked in the house in the places she usually sleeps. I never found her. She has bells on her collar (unless she's lost yet another one.) I never heard her come in. About 10 or so, I thought I heard her collar bells so I went back into the girls room. She sometimes hides under the bed. Sure enough, there was Calli. Curled up at the head of the bed on Shelby's pillow. I had a flashlight. THANK GOD, because right in the middle of the floor was a small decapitated rat. And some other"stuff" I won't describep- too graphic. I took photo to show Tom, but I'll be damned I cannot find my camera now. I guess someone didn't want me posting that picture on my blog!!! Poor Rich he had to clean it up and he is not good with bloody animals, vomit, and poopy diapers....things of that nature. LOL You never saw a man who could change a poopy diaper SO fast because he was holding his breath the whole time. LOL

Why can't I have an entry full of flowers and happy thin Gs-instead of blood and gore. And Halloween is coming. Tom's favorite time of the year to decorate. Maybe I should start hanging Calli's kills from the front porch. EWWWW!

Getting late, as usual. Started this entry on Sunday evening & finish it on Monday mnorning. Hope you all had a wonderful weekend and are enjoying the movement into Autumn.
Love you all.