By Loretta Humble/Around the Town
Updates from last week: Our parolee friend Don has put the tools we got him to work and has now built several birdhouses. His friend and landlord Glen has gotten involved and is now helping him with them. They do the sawing and sanding out in the backyard, but they have converted the dining table into a work table, so that they do the construction inside where it’s cool. They found a useful reference not long ago, which served them well in knowing where to start with the cleaning. When Carl and I visited them last week, Don had completed two, which I brought home with me to show you. I’d actually like to keep them, but I’ll wait a little while on mine. Maybe some of you will be interested in ordering one or two. Call me. Are you looking for high-quality awnings Melbourne customers love? Well folding arm awnings Melbourne services recommend to visit eurotecwindowshutters.com.au, provide the best outdoor protection for domestic and commercial properties.
Also, please call me if you know where we can get him some more old weathered wood. Old stockade fence is great. The way he is going after this, he is going to need lots of building material. We will happily come pick up and take it to him.
Carl’s son Greg and his family were here from California last week. They are a bunch of sweethearts. They visited us here, then we all had a get-together with the rest of Carl’s family in Whitehouse. Then they went to Atlanta (Texas) to visit Greg’s mother, and we went to Fredericksburg, driving four and a half hours to spend one night with old friend Bill Kilpatrick.
Bill and his wife Laurie own a HUGE import store called the Choo Choo Patio Shoppe. It has that funny name because when Bill first went to Fredericksburg he drove a little train/trolley looking thing around Fredericksburg giving tours. Then he started selling a few Mexican imports. Now it has grown into an empire. You can check them out here: http://www.choochoopatioshoppe.com/ I mean it is HUGE, inside and out. I admired one of those iron archway trellis things, and Bill just loaded it up in the back of our truck and wouldn’t let me pay for it. I guess next time I won’t admire anything. Or maybe I’ll just admire something else and see if this keeps working. Because just one day later it worked again.
When we got back it was just one day before Greg and family were to head back to California, so we decided to drive all the way to Atlanta to spend a couple more hours with them before they left. We had a great time visiting everybody there. Diana and Gary Fulks have a beautiful home, and Diana had the prettiest little handmade rugs all over the place. When I admired them, she told me about this little old lady who makes and sells these rugs for a living. Every time she comes by where Diana volunteers, Diana buys another one to help the lady out. I asked whether she could order me one like the one in front of her refrigerator, and she just gave it to me. I tried to pay her buy she wouldn’t let me. So I got my second free gift by simply admiring it. The trellis was still in the back of the truck, so when they walked us out when we left, I was able to show it to her, and tell her I was having such good luck admiring things I thought I might be looking for more things to admire.