Hi y’all,
I try to have little crossover between the newsletter and the blog, but lately so much has been happening that I am posting bits of the newsletter here and then updating them. Which is what I’m doing now. (YEs there is new content.)
As most of you know from the newsletter and from the blog last week, I lost Teri Lee Akar to a sudden heart attack. There was no warning. I lost a friend and vital part of my writing and professional life. On Thursday, my Hubs took me to the mountains and up to the property in which we have an interest. At the top of the property, he handed me a small box (like a glasses’ case) with a bow.
When I opened it there was a key inside and, well, he had been listening when I’d mentioned how much I want to play in the dirt.
Despite my flamboyant personality and love of sparklies, I am NOT a girly girl. Ruffles, bows, “pretty” things like dresses and high heels are not my thing. I like playing in the dirt and always have, which means jeans and sneakers. As a kid, Joy, Leslie, Lisa, and I used to meet at the creek and play in the water, building and dismantling dams, hiking upstream and down, and swinging on vines, playing chimps and George of the Jungle, and pretending to be one of the Monkees (the singing group, though primates were clearly an influence).
Now, all grown up, I had been asking Hubs if we could rent a very small earthmover and let me play in the dirt, clearing out the springhead stream that is silted in, and try to re-shape the land that was underneath the piles of filth (which we are still cleaning up). GAH! Twenty year old RARE trees are growing up through piles of garbage. The trees have to be taken down, to get at the stuff in their roots because there are plastic bottles with motor oil in them, batteries, electric appliances, and so much PLASTIC!
Anyway, back to the box and the top of the hill.
When I opened the box there was a key inside. I stared at it a moment and then swiveled in my RV seat to see the orange piece of equipment covered by a tarp. I had assumed that the grader had brought it and left it for work, and I assumed the key was so I could play with it. But no! IT WAS MINE!!!!
I raced from the RV to the Kubota. Hubs removed the tarp and THERE IT WAS! Hubs had bought me a Kubota! It has a bucket and a back hoe! It’s 20 years old, is automatic, hydrostatic (the hydraulics drive everything including the transmission) and it’s all MINE!!! I instantly named it Booty, much to Hub’s dismay. See, revel, celebrate, and dance in joy over my Booty!
Honestly, I have a medical condition which means I can’t use it for long at a time. Like flying, the vibration exacerbates everything. But I got to use it for 45 minutes with the bucket and later for 45 minutes with the hoe! I had a blast! Hubs got to take over and do some work, too, of course. I am NOT stingy with my stuff! LOL.
Hereafter is the new stuff —
So, yes. Hubs got me a 20 yr old tractor for Christmas. Because it is an older machine, I broke two of the old hydraulic lines within 4 hours of normal use, which, fortunately, Hubs can fix.
We went to the tractor store On Monday, and, sitting in the parking lot Hubs said (quite sadly) “If you go out and look at the new tractors you will be disappointed in your present.”
I said, “Darlin’ it will be like porn. I’ll look and not touch.”
He laughed.
Until I repeated it to the guy behind the tractor counter. Then Hubs blushed. It was so cute! 
And I kept my hands to myself!
I have the BEST HUBS! He gets me!
Merry Happy to everyone!
And remember that even in the darkest of times there is joy.
Faith