Civil war

It was spring break for some but not all last week.  Joyce and I stayed behind to hold down the fort while the neighbors spent spring break in New Orleans.  As we go to press I haven’t gotten the skinny on their trip.  In fact, I haven’t seen them since they returned Saturday evening but if any were missing I’m sure I would have heard about it.  I was in charge of Tino the dog’s health and happiness while they were gone and that wouldn’t have been a problem except we have acquired new cat Cookie Monster, aka Oreo, aka Big Mean Kitty.  Early after Cookie took up permanent residence on SA Tino made the mistake of chasing him up a tree.  Since then Cookie has stood his ground against TIno, nay taken the initiative.  I tried a couple of times to let Tino out while I was working around the place so he could get some exercise and fresh air.  Trouble is, Cookie likes to hang around and watch me work and the two of them went at it.  I hoped they would eventually sort things out and call a truce, but no, it was constant bickering.  Cookie would chase Tino while spitting and spewing like an old steam engine.  Tino would run but then as soon as Cookie stopped he would be right back in his face barking.  I finally had to chase Tino down and drag him back into the house with Cookie nipping at his heels the whole way.  Made me swear.

Some of the Browning family congregated Sunday at the Lopez homestead to celebrate Max’s birthday the day before.  Max still preaches part time.  He’s tried to retire several times but seems to be in such demand that he can’t quite shake loose of his congregation.  His granddaughter Cameron is a junior in high school now while his granddaughter Courtney is expected to graduate from A&M next fall.  There’s a rumor she (Courtney) is to be married in the not-too-distant future.  Her father Bruce, a corrections officer by trade, had surgery on his feet last year and isn’t quite able to go back to work yet.  His job requires him to be on his feet nearly all the time so they will need to be pretty well healed up before he can back to work.

I didn’t get much information from Riley, Colton or Carson, other than Carson got a new pair of shoes.  Parker wants to take up boxing.  He was working out on the heavy bag when we arrived.  Joyce asked him if he was tired of being pretty.  He’s a handsome fellow and she’s worried he’ll end up looking like Chris.

Jill and her crew didn’t come spend spring break with us as is their wont.  They will be here for Easter, though.  Let’s hope we have some decent weather.  It got down to 26-28 degrees Friday and Saturday night and that may have been enough to nip some tender young fruit.  The forecast is for it to warm right back up and blow all to be damned.  Maybe it will blow itself out before they arrive late Thursday night and give us a couple of days respite from the cold and/or wind.  Anything’s possible.