Susan Says . . .
Posted on Wednesday, September 10, 2008
URL: http://www.nwanews.com/gravette/Opinion/446/
We ended the month of August by attending the benefit auction for Dean Edmondson. It was a holiday weekend and everyone was in a festive mood. There were classic cars on display, tasty burgers and chicken to eat and lots of good old country music by the Jack Reeves family, Patrick Hall and others. We even got a chance to call the Hogs ! It was a fun way to spend a late summer afternoon and we brought home a few goodies from the auction.
On Monday, the Labor Day holiday, I had only an hour’s work at the office. (We had an early deadline and I’d worked more at the end of the week. ) When I got home sister Mary Alice was there so I had a good visit with her and also got to say hello to our friends Ernie and Teresa. When they left I did my weekly grocery shopping a day earlier than usual. After Jim came in from work we enjoyed chicken tenders, sliced tomatoes and cucumbers and cottage cheese for supper.
We got our newspaper pages sent to press pretty early Tuesday morning and Dodie had an auditor come to check on his weather station so I went home at noon. I had the afternoon free to catch up on reading some magazines I wanted to pass on to my niece. I warmed Salisbury steak, mashed potatoes and gravy for supper and that evening went to our monthly library commission meeting. We conducted some routine business and began preliminary discussion on the 2009 library budget.
It was raining when we awoke Wednesday morning so Jim was unable to work on the metal barn roof he was repairing. We had a hearty breakfast and spent the day around the house, doing lots of reading and listening to the rain. Temperatures dropped into the 70 ’s and since it was cool we decided to make a pot of oxtail stew. It was a good menu choice for a cool, wet day.
I was up early Thursday morning and on the road to the clinic for a checkup and some lab work. It was another cool, rainy morning and I had to run the heater to defog the car windows. When my tests were completed I stopped by the market and dropped by to visit niece Laura on my way home. I ate leftover stew for lunch and tried to read on the front porch that afternoon but the chilly breeze drove me indoors. As the day slipped away I listened to a mower operating in the field next door and pulled out a blanket to put on the bed.
Friday was a busy morning at work. We had several customers and a former high school classmate dropped by to visit. I had a good visit by phone with Dorothy Mae Peterson. The sun was out for a change so I visited aunts Leda and Leta in the afternoon. When Jim came in after a long day on the job I browned ground beef, chopped an onion and made tacos for supper.
I took a number of recyclable items to the collection trailer Saturday morning, then visited the farmers market in Old Town Park. There weren’t many vendors but they had some quality produce and I purchased a watermelon, some purple hull peas, squash, yard long beans and several hot peppers. I also picked up a few bars of goat’s milk soap. By the time I got home it was raining enough to bring Jim in from the job. We went out for a short visit with friends and when we returned I baked chicken with rice and vegetables for supper. We listened to the Hogs game on the radio that evening. We enjoyed a big breakfast Sunday morning and visited the grandkids later in the day. Both Jim and I were persuaded to read several books as they sat on our knees and helped turn the pages. We drove to Bella Vista in early afternoon so Jim could check on a leaky roof and returned to mow the yard. His helper came over to finish the job on his rider since our big mower is not operating. When we had the yard all slicked up I prepared spaghetti and garlic bread for supper and we watched the Sunday night football game.
—Susan Holland