Mom, Dad and Keith came up to Austin again this past weekend so we could go to Clay’s high school graduation party.
It was good that they were here again seeing how there was still work to be done on the deck and the extra helping hands are always welcome.
Dad Keith and I built the steps on Friday night and the railings on Saturday. Sunday morning Keith and I tacked on the balusters.
After the railing work was done on Saturday, I cleaned up and ran over to Best Buy to find a gift for Clay and to pick up a new Netgear Super G 108 Mbps wireless router because I thought my old 54 Mbps router was broken. Come to find out that it wasn’t but after hooking up the 108 I knew I couldn’t go back to the 54.
We drove over to Kathy’s house for Clay’s party later that evening. It was good to see Don, Linda, Sharron and Kathy again. It’s been too long since last seeing those guys. Clay recently decided to do the vegetarian thing so Kathy ordered in some great food from Mother’s Cafe. The Artichoke Enchiladas and Capellini Marinara were excellent as was all of the food that the family prepared.
We at Kathy’s until 9 or so and then piled into the car and drove home. We migrated to the deck and stayed up for another hour or so before everyone eventually went to bed.
I got up early on Sunday and picked up my balusters from the ol’ HoPot. I know a lot of the HoPot employees by name now. Seriously.
After Keith and I put the balusters up, Dad and I drove to HEB to get fixins for dinner. Mom and Elise went to the nursery so Mom could steal seed pods from flowers and to buy Fredericksburg peaches from the vendor at the corner of Slaughter and FM 1826.
Dad and I got home and I started on a spicy orange and ginger barbecue sauce. I also made a poblano potato salad and a dry rub for the baby back ribs. I started smoking the ribs at 4:30. I should have started them at 3. Regardless, the ribs turned out fantastic and my wife made it a point, twice, to mention that Dad’s ribs are better than mine. And they are. And the comment quickly became water under the bridge. After all, it was Father’s Day and I think Elise is bitter because I fired her. Mom made a great cobbler from the fresh Fredericksburg peaches. I’m not a dessert person but I can never resist Mom’s cobbler.
Dad and I spent a good part of the afternoon talking out on the deck. It was a perfect Father’s Day. He told me about a time that is referred to as “early last century”. He and his buddy’s grew up in Hallettsville where everybody knew everybody and the high school boys would race their Model A Fords against the town’s sheriff all in good fun.
Back then you could buy a used Model A for $25. Yes, $25!! I have a 4-cylinder truck that takes $25 worth of gas to fill up!
They used to hunt rabbits in their Model A. They took the the hood panels off of the car and two boys would straddle the front headlights, hang on the the hood’s center support bar with one hand and a rifle with the other hand. The driver would drive around the pasture to scare up rabbits. When one started running, the car chased after the rabbit and the shooters would let go of the support bar, tighten their thighs around the headlight and take aim. After you shot a rabbit, you let someone else take a turn. Dad said there would be six or eight boys piled into the car and standing on the back bumper waiting for their turn.
He told me that there was a poor Mexican family that they all knew. Two of the boys from that family worked at the ice house. After a day of hunting rabbits, my Dad and his friends would drive over to the ice house and stack a huge pile of rabbits for the boys to take back to their family.
It was really cool to hear my Dad tell me those stories and I had a lot of fun being with my family. Seeing how he’s my Dad, I couldn’t help but ask if I could borrow $25 so I could buy a car.