The little kitten has moved on. I’m afraid the little guy will be feral. I was never able to get close at all. He had been living under my house being able to squeeze in between small “vent holes” formed by brick spacing. Once I was able to get these holes plugged up this kitten left and has never returned. A student on the next block over told me there was a feral black cat that was famous for having litters located by them. Surely this kitten came from there. I wish it well.
This is as close I was ever able to get to the kitten. Shot through the back door with Stumpy looking on:
I was in panic mode doing up the house cleaning and last minute preparations. I cooked up three pork butts for pulled pork sandwiches, made two bowls of cole slaw, and obsessively tweaked the spread sheets.
Thursday evening the club president and his wife stopped by to pick up the ballots I had for the election of the new board. They promised to stop by early Friday to help me prepare for the open house Friday afternoon.
Friday morning I ran out to first get the coffee urn from the rental place. Then, I looped over to Walmart for just a few things. Sam’s Club is right next door. My Sam’s membership through Joe is a Business membership so I’m able to get in early. Five boxes of cookies, a huge cookie tray, buns, and four bags of ice were my purchases. My brick friends were waiting for me as I pulled in the driveway.
The truck was unloaded and I parked into the street away from the house. I had a sign fabricated to show the house location which I placed right in the middle of the driveway to keep people from driving in.
Everything came together and the afternoon was just a blur as I acted as host. Usually at meetings like this the host house is off limits as bricks are displayed outside in sheds, patios, and walls. I showed some main people how to operate the simplest music boxes so I did not have to be present for the demonstration. The Encore Banjo was the real hit.
Scenes from the open house:
We were all laughing when I told the members to just enter the house through the side driveway entrance. One lady said, “But, that is your bedroom!” I told her it was fine, there was nothing to worry about. The bed was not exactly made up which got them laughing. This woman said it was evident I was a bachelor not worrying about how the bed was made! Truer words were never spoken. In hindsight, if I only had another day to fine tune cleaning wise the house would have been a bit more presentable. In the grand scheme of things those small annoyances never amounted to much.
Everyone had such a good time swapping stories and visiting. The weather held beautifully. The sun was brilliant, but it was not all that hot. These people have such varied talents. One member from Texas presented me with a brick wearing a Utilikilt! On the front flap it was embroidered: IBCA BAMA BRICK BASH 2013. I was so thrilled.
Things really did progress pretty smoothly. I was so flattered on the positive feedback I got on my printed directions and hotel selections. It was the Tuscaloosa tourism director who worked with me blocking out the rooms and doing the bidding. I learned from working the run set up for the past six years the importance of being clear, concise, and always expect the worst. I printed out maps from Google with the routes outlined along with printed directions. The club has a Facebook page, where I had these maps also posted.
The afternoon really flew by. I was afraid that having the only open house people would get bored. Far from it: it was hard to get people to leave for the dinner which was held at Wintzell’s Oyster House. I was a bit worried. I had a reserve for 35 people and would be responsible for a 28 minimum. There were 35 on my spread sheet for the dinner. For a group this size I worked with the restaurant and decided upon a buffet with entries of: fried shrimp, fried & baked chicken pieces, and pot roast. Sides were Cajun rice and cole slaw. Desert was bread pudding. A beverage was included along with a cash bar.
Back to the present: Billy arrived here Monday. We are going to convoy to the phonograph show in Illinois . He ended up not driving his truck towing a trailer. He can pack his wife’s Honda Element to within an inch of its life!
For the road trip I have our overnight stop all picked out in Seymour, IN. This is the Travel Lodge using the cheap coupon in the discount walk in book. Right next door is Brewski’s: the dive with the great hamburgers. This will work out to about a seven hour drive on Wednesday and a five hour drive on Thursday.
Must get to work on building the brace for the back of my truck. I’ll be returning with another heavy treasure, a cast iron lamp post that originally saw service in Chicago ! This will be installed in my back yard where I now have the plain 3” pipe light that used to be in my front yard. Redoing all these jobs has me thinking so much of Ron and how he used to describe me as: “That Jimmy, he is like a squirrel in a cage that keeps going round and round and round!!!”
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