Susan and Bryce spent a lazy afternoon with us on the farm, eating and visiting, watching a couple of horse women (literally) strut their stuff, strolling about to see the garden, the koi pond, and other delights. Then Tom, Liz, and I spent an evening in Beaumont, first at Bryce's baseball game (he pitched for a couple of innings!) and then at Josh and Naomi's place, indulging ourselves on short ribs and potato salad and catching up.
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| Bottom row: Kathie and Gene (two of Bryce's other grandparents) Middle row: Elizabeth and Tom Top row: Susan and Marion (plus another bball mom looking away) 'Twas a lovely Texas spring evening. |
Tom and Elizabeth took Gerrilyn and Rachel to dinner at LYC one night while I attended Ellen's birthday dinner, and Elizabeth and I worked in a Groupon massage and a couple hours of shopping. (Under her tutelage I tiptoed into the fashion world of tapered pants, though I wouldn't go as far as she wanted.) We hosted Gerrilyn and Rachel for dinner at the pool house another night. And virtually every meal was stepped up from our usual, as Elizabeth brought her precise, food-channel-educated persona to the table (and the stove).
Friday, the day before she left, Liz carefully placed rows of blue masking tape on the beautiful glass doors around the pool house, Tom's attempt to thwart the lusty, aggressive peacock that, seeing his reflection in the doors and taking it for a competitor, had been ceaselessly attacking (and dirtying) the doors. The look is not, I'm sure, what Gerrilyn had in mind when she designed the house, but it did seem to work; the peacock returned again and again, perplexedly examining the glass, but did not attack again. He did have the last laugh, however, as he pooped all over the treadmill, right outside one of the taped-up doors, that Tom had been using.
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Friday, the day before she left, Liz carefully placed rows of blue masking tape on the beautiful glass doors around the pool house, Tom's attempt to thwart the lusty, aggressive peacock that, seeing his reflection in the doors and taking it for a competitor, had been ceaselessly attacking (and dirtying) the doors. The look is not, I'm sure, what Gerrilyn had in mind when she designed the house, but it did seem to work; the peacock returned again and again, perplexedly examining the glass, but did not attack again. He did have the last laugh, however, as he pooped all over the treadmill, right outside one of the taped-up doors, that Tom had been using.
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And she got to see for herself that despite his stroke, Tom is, as she said, "still [her] dad."
After dropping her off at the big airport (IAH, Bush Intercontinental, as opposed to Hobby, the [relatively] little airport), at 5 a.m., we sleep-drove back for a two-hour nap, finished cleaning and packing, hightailed it to the storage unit for a quick exchange of items, and finally headed east at about noon on Saturday. We made just one visit on this trip, to see my mother's friend from Portland days, Betty Chiles, in Fayettville, N.C.; she seems healthy and happy with a good life.
It took us two and a half days to get to the bay.
It took us two and a half days to get to the bay.
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