The Annual Trip

We're back! Got back early Sunday but we were worn out, too much travel for me. The drive to and from New Roads was uneventful, fast and on good roads. We zipped into New Roads, to Bergeron's to get pecans and then back to the camp. Found workers jacking up the structure and had to let them in to check the doors.

Later Mark did not seem to happy with the work and the mess they left. They did jack up the low side of the house but left all the protective sheeting out. Said it was to hard to put back in without breaking it. Mark labored hard to put it back, it was simple but time consuming.

We went early to the plantation and helped a little bit in setting things up. As usual Walter and his beloved wife did a magnificent job of feeding us. We had chicken and sausage gumbo and salad with garlic bread. Chris had the house all cleaned up.

Both Walter and Chris were pleased with the tractor they had bought. Chris seemed to know the entire history of the machine. Between them, they had chopped up the surrounding area, and will drag it level later. Then they will have to acquire a bushhog mower for the tractor. That will come a little later. There is about 10 or 12acres around the out buildings that need to be kept up. In the past, the farm had being paying an absorbent fee to cut the grass. Now with the tractor and mower, we can do the work and save the cost. The up shot being that we will also now have a operable tractor to do that and other work around the place. A farm needs a tractor, doesn't it?

The meeting was more sedate this year. Not much going on. We had Dianne and Richie, David and Chris, and Joe; Herrise with Aletha and Byron in tow; we had James and Joan, Jamie and Amanda Grace. Walter's son Jeff was there with two little fellows - Mathew and Jude. Walter's had yet another son, Bubba, drove in from Jackson. Margaret and John were also in attendance. We missed Camille but we had Ann and Don and with them was Mitch and Cammie and Jack Gonzales. Of course, I missed a few but it was a quite meeting.

We met, Walter passed out checks, we conducted old and new business. The house had been washed and the tractor purchased and repaired (power take off problem had to be fixed to run the later to come mower).

Later that night we had Amanda Louise and Georgie, Paul, Richard, Mark, James, Joan and Jammie at the camp. We ordered up eats from the Tiger Inn, and dined deluxe on styrofoam. I had cat fish, the others mostly had fried shrimp.

We stayed at Morel's rather than at the camp since James - Joan etal were going to be there. Just not enough room for all o fus at one time. Morel's was okay, quaint, small but adequate. And it was clean.

All in all we had a good time together.

We did not mention Aunt Bobbe's untimely passing but it was in the back of all our minds all the time. We miss her dearly.

Until next year. . .

Judie . . .

Judie has disappeared int the "Frozen Nawth" to visit with Jake, Anne and Will (well mostly Will).

Since she has left - no mail on Saturday. I know the USPS has announced the change in service but I did not know it would start so soon. Today, Sunday, no newspapers, no Star Telegram and no Democrat - how did they know she was out of town? Called up the circulation department and they said no more deliveries and that we would get credit for the missing paper. Hard to read credit!

Got the new battery for the old laptop and it is cooking along okay. The new PCMCIA card arrived and I fought the thing all day Saturday. Seems the card is programmed to operate with Windows 9X, XP and Vista - skipped ME/2000. Guess what, the laptop uses Windows ME. Crap, I will have to send the card back, they will not like that but they advertised the card would work with Windows ME. I guess they did not bother to check it out. Any rate, I am waiting for replies from the merchant and from the maker of the card. Maybe there is some secret hand shake that will allow it to work.

To cold and windy to fly. Good news is that the wing I ordered, and sent back to Tower Hobbies, has finally been replaced. So I can put that together and be ready to fly when the weather allows. Not a difficult task, just glue together and swap the servos out of the damaged wing. Then I will be ready to fly.

House is quiet with Judie off visiting. I hunker down in the den and shut everything down. Automatic thermostats keep me warm and I have the task of figuring out where I want to eat. Lots of place but most are not appealing to me. Some I will only go to with Judie, so it looks like Wal-Mart for a pizza or something frozen to eat.

LSU beat Kentucky to become the SEC Basketball Champions out right. They are 13 - 1 in conference play having only lost to Bama early in the season. Since then they have not lost a conference game. Means they will enter the SEC tournament with a bye. It also means that they will go the NCAA tournament.

Life goes on . . . .