Aunt Stuff and the things we are made of...

Aunt Stuff called this morning, she is one of those folks who seem to know the right time to call.  There was Aunt Stuff on the phone right before I was about to use Aunt Connie's recipe for cobbler instead of MeMaw's recipe.  You would have thought Aunt Connie's recipe would have poisoned us all....(wait, now that I think of it, she did mention her cobbler tasted like turpentine).  Tragedy averted, MeMaw's cobbler prevailed and Aunt Stuff proclaimed herself a hero.  Or the time she called right after I found out that the Houston Chronicle offered an opportunity to write a column for them.  I was so excited!!  I went home and told my parents and all they said was, "how much does it pay?"  I was so excited to see my name in print that it didn't matter they were paying me nothing.  They were taking a huge chance on a virtual kid writing for them and it seemed like a fair trade off to me.  But the reaction of my parents hurt so much that  I went into my room and threw my purse through the window.  May I just say it felt great....Later that day Aunt Stuff just happen to call.  I told her the whole pitiful story...she stopped me and said I could write, she knew it...my initials were still on her Duncan Phyfe dining room table.  She also told me to quit crying and write about it.  I did not take her advice that one time and I didn't write again for years......that was a mistake.  She has been there when I make those mistakes, she doesn't work me over for them, instead she lets me make them, learn from them and then she helps me start over again....a wiser person.  Eager to learn...because the wrong decisions hurt.

Aunt Stuff, great hurricane fighter and philosopher.  She will be that woman who dies fighting an oil rig fire...in her nineties.  She knows the right things to say and she keeps her sense of balance strong by never forgetting who she is and what her passions are.  Unless you want a fiery speech that Winston Churchill would be envious of, don't mention politics, even if you agree with her..  Unless you are completely dumb never mention OU in the same breath as her beloved Texas Longhorns, even though it is her rule to never leave the dinner table without talking about football....and never forget Texans invented Barbeque.  Every other attempt to make it is just a copy.

Some people are like a perpetual great commencement speech.  Reminding you of your potential, warning you about the potholes, and celebrating your excellence.  My Aunt Stuff reminds me that no matter the rough day I have had, something amazing occurred that day too.   She would always say, "think about it, find it....and then write it down."
The book of our lives can be chapters of chronicled reasons to be happy.  Even when I fall down, even when I am sad, even when I think I can't do it...Aunt Stuff's philosophy reminds me that life goes on...the sun keeps shining...and we get one more day to get it right.

Summer is here!!

Summer arrived and it happened the way it always does.....like that crazy uncle who sits on the porch and drinks home brew, we love him but are always surprised he showed up, and always wonder when he will leave.
Summer in Las Vegas is an event.  We talk about the heat like war veterans......When we meet someone new the question is always the same, "is this your first summer?"  That question is always followed by a chuckle, a knowing chuckle....which always makes me laugh SINCE WE LIVE HERE TOO!!
We wear our survival of the desert like a badge of honor..... as though there should be an accolade for living on the sun.  That might just be stupid. 

And every time we go to California we say the same thing....."why do we live in the desert?"

Summer started last Friday (I don't care what the calendar says it started last Friday) and it will go past Halloween.  Halloween my friends....hot until October 31.....that is followed by 2 full days of fall....then we immediately go into full on winter for about 2 weeks, just enough to freeze your favorite plants.... Then the  wind blows, a lot, it gets nice outside and then cold.  Cool and then cold.....wind blows and all the fruit disappears from your fruit trees....and then of course it rains.  About 4 inches a year....that's a good year.  4 inches which usually comes in a couple of rain showers.  Torrential rain taking cars, asphalt and large boulders along with it, not to mention every vegetable you have planted.

And then nothing......for months.....just blue cloudless skies for months.  We are the unweather land.

You can depend on the weather, unless you plan something outside for which the wind will blow or the rain will fall....just for your afternoon.

Las Vegas is a great place for your crazy uncle to sit on the porch and drink home brew.....just bring him in before he spontaneously combusts.