Texas, from whose bourne a traveller returns

I am a tired puella. I have driven and ridden 1500 miles in the past five days. You see, I went to an uncle's [first cousin twice removed's husband's] funeral, which was Saturday. I discovered this fact Thursday morning.

So I got up, cancelled appointments, went to Beall's, redid my schedule, helped my boss entirely redo my department, worked at church, came home, and packed. That night we drove to Grandma and Granddad's.

Next day we got up distressingly early and drove to Fort Worth. We checked in, unpacked, and went to the funeral home. We meant to go to Auny Ruby's, but by the time we ate, it was past nine at night, and that was just not happening. Dinner was at the Black Eyed Pea, and it was really, really good. I'm sad the one closed in Albuquerque.

Saturday morning we got up early and went to the funeral. It was a very Christian burial: for which I was grateful. Their church put on a nice reception afterward, and Emily and I were allowed to go explore downtown Granbury for about half an hour, take pictures in front of the courthouse, and visit bookstores and antique shops before we went to Aunt Ruby's for the afternoon.

We got to know an entire branch of the family that we hadn't seen for a while--Heather and Jeff's branch, including their siblings, Andy the brother-in-law, parents, and step-grandma.

They, being quite grown up, had stocked up well on wine, and a funny exchange came when their mother, Aunt Sue, accidentally spilled some on the kitchen floor.

Andy: "There are some cultures that would put you to death for that."
Me: "What cultures?"
Andy: "Fraternities."

Well, then. I had been thinking more of the ones that poured a libation before each meal to appease the gods. So I said so. (After all, there wasn't much to do but talk!)

The sister: "She's appeasing the linoleum gods!"

We really need to write a story involving linoleum gods. I mean, that is just...talk about an idol made with hands... yeah.

Yeah. So then we made the film, had chicken casserole, and went back to the hotel.

We got up Sunday morning, didn't get to go to church :-(, and drove back to Portales. We stopped at Weatherford: they had a really good farmer's market and a courthouse, at which we took pictures. We also stopped at Lubbock and went school-clothes shopping because Penney's was having a particularly good sale.

And then today we came home. We stopped at Santa Rosa for lunch and further courthouse photography. :-)

And that's why I'm a tired puella.