Laughter with Tears

Poor Jerri had a flat on my truck while taking the kids to tae Kwon Do on Thursday night so James and I went to town Friday morning to buy a couple of new tires and have them put on. I knew it had been awhile since I'd bought tires and having a flat just further reminded me. There was a time when I could haul out the handyman jack, take the lug wrench and change a flat faster than a cat can lick his,,,,you know,,, but I have my doubts that I could now. When Jerri called to ask me where the jack and other tools were, I couldn't even tell her. I've had this truck since 1999 and have only had 2 flats on it while on the road and I called James to come change those and he used the tools from his truck, both times.

Anyway, while at the tire store we ran into a guy that I thought looked familiar but I couldn't remember where I knew him from. James sees him all the time and they were talking and he asked me if I remembered this guy. I recalled him quite well after they reminded me about the last time I'd seen him.

He and his wife (at the time) had come with our friends Paul and Linda to one of our annual, redneck, weekend before Christmas, play cards and drink till you turn idiot, parties. Our neighbors, Jeffrey and Georgie were always guests at these parties too. I worked for years with Paul and Jeffrey and after they became friends with my husband, they also became frequent visitors to our home.

Getting back to this party.

The guys had gone hunting (with several 6-packs) at one point during the afternoon so when everyone finally arrived, they were already well on their way to being soused due to having toasted the ducks, or squirrels, or deer, or whatever animal they'd been too liquored up to actually shoot at that day.

We played hand after hand of canasta, Georgie and I only sipped on a couple of drinks, the rest of the crew were really tossing them back. I knew it was going to be a long night when the guys brought out the 2 bottles of Old Charter that one of the Chemical reps had given James for Christmas. They had a contest going to see who could make the most bubbles rise up in the bottle when they were chugging. Paul won the contest.

James spent most of the rest of the night laying on the ice covered porch throwing up, he didn't move off the couch for several days, Jeffrey was in about the same shape, Paul was at the house at 6 a.m. the next morning wanting to know if James was ready to go hunting! I don't know about the other guy, I didn't think to ask him yesterday. Ha.

Paul died by his own hand a few years ago. We talked about that yesterday and about how much we missed him. He sure knew how to party.