Everybody seems to feel the need to write something about Thanksgiving, so why should I be any different. Norman Rockwell saw Thanksgiving as an opportunity to gather with family, Dad in coat and tie, Mom in a frilly dress, slowly basting the turkey. Dick and Jane sitting before the fire, playing checkers. Clearly, Norman never visited the home on "Maniacal Lane".
Khiva and I had planned to make our usual family avoidance trip to Gunnison, CO. However, the demands of the Clone Army at TxDOT, and the weather caused us to choose to stay home instead. We had been invited to her parents here in Lubbock for Thursday and my parents in Austin for the weekend. We chose to just tell everyone we had gone to Gunnison and burrow into our own home for the weekend.
Fine with me...I had already composed a list of self-imposed "Honey-Do's" to keep me occupied for the four days. Rake leaves, clean the porches, put up Christmas lights, hang an exterior flood light on the north end of the house, golf if possible. Then, it began to snow. Crap, now what was I to do for 4 days?
Leave it to the hillbilly freaks living to my north to solve my problem. Mr. Gopher had made a return visit to my beautiful yard. Last year, 10 chlorine tablets and the water drained from the swimming pool took care of the problem. The pool was already drained, so I found the entrance to the burrow, dropped in a dozen chlorine tablets and turned on the hose. An hour later, and no water was running out of the hole. I decided to look over the fence into "Hillbilly Land" and saw dozens of gopher mounds all over their back yard. I could have pumped the well dry and not filled the damn colony up. I turned the water off, plugged the opening, and prayed the accumulated chlorine gas would make its way through the 8 miles of tunnels in the neighbors yard.
Spent the rest of the afternoon cloistered in the garage, cleaning out the Tundra and repairing various pieces of broken dog equipment. One day down, and three snowy, cold days to go. Not sure how I am going to keep myself busy for that long. With any luck, there will be a chlorine gas explosion in the neighbors back yard, and their dump of a house will be swallowed into Gopher Land.
For that, I would give thanks...
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11 comments:
Friday was a work day in the real world.
Well, my family is all dead... at least the ones that still would be willing to speak to me enough to justify a trip to Lubbock. Some of B's family is in Austin, but he doesn't want to see them. In fact, we left Lubbock to escape family obligations. Than, half of his showed up here. How nice. Thankfully, some of them left, and returned back to Lubbock.
So, it's Thanksgiving... and I'm thankful we have enjoyed our small, immediate family... and some close friends.
"Then," I meant "then" not "than."
oh, and by the way, Gig 'Em Aggies ... 38-17 as I type ...
I could tell it was a work day for you, because you were on the intercom jacking around all day, Al.
The old A&M team showed up shortly after your post, but they held on to win 38-30. Then, I heard Coach Fran had resigned. Beat Texas and get rid of Fran in one day...Thanksgiving came a day later than usual.
I enjoyed the gopher erradication story. kill the little bastards.
What is the story on the house to the south of you? Mrs. Ed regrets not buying the house to the north. If they ever get foreclosed upon please call me.
gophers AND cousin ed ... you just hit the jackpot!
The house to the south is "inhabited" by the daughter of the old lady we bought our house from. Honestly, I think she is crazier than the hillbillies to the north. Has no concept of lawn watering, which is good, because she also has never heard of a lawnmower. I keep expecting to see her carried out by EMS, gnawed to death by rats.
Hmmm...Cousin Eddie is sounding better and better.
Where the hell do you live? We have the nazi neighborhood association from hell... I left my Christmas lights up until Jan 10th during an ice storm, and ICE storm, like I was going to send my husband (or any one else for that matter) up on an ice slick roof to take down the Christmas lights. We got a nasty-gram... and cripes, the 12 days of Christmas don't even end until Jan 6th.
For Christmas this year, I think Khiva and Batman have been invited to a Holiday soiree at the governor's mansion...
...but I'm pretty sure they're gonna skip it to watch the Weather Channel and clean the rain gutters. :-)
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