I knew that Thanksgiving at Lake Ouachita with my parents, our kids and their respective girlfriend and boyfriends would add to the rush. Still, I was surprised that I had not done a better job of scheduling than I had when I noticed how long it had been since I had posted here.
We did have a wonderful time and great food from everyone at the lake house that Nancy and her siblings share out off U.S. 270. Patrick, girlfriend Sarah and his pit bull terrier, Lou, came up from Fort Worth; Molly and boyfriend John traveled from Austin to meet in Dallas with Megan and boyfriend Clayton, who live in Sherman, Texas. They rode up together. My folks came over from their house south of Little Rock. It was a crowd of 10 plus Lou and our Lhasa apso, Daisy, but we had a great time.
Molly and John got up early on Black Friday to go into Hot Springs and fight the crowds for a great buy on GPS units.
Later that day, we headed back in this direction to meet and have some family photos taken at The Old Mill in North Little Rock. Our photographer, good friend Dan Limke, arrived first and called us to say that at least 30 other people had the same idea, so he went across the river to Little Rock and scout out a new location at Heifer Village.
After everyone arrived, we redirected our various vehicles south of the river for a serious of family combinations that tested Dan’s considerable patience. But it was for family photos that don’t get taken often enough these days.
Thanks, Nancy, for all the work that goes into hosting such an event. Thanks, Dan, for working on a holiday weekend to preserve our memories.
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Nancy and I spent a cool but calm weekend at the lake. (Our dog, Daisy, a Lhasa apso we keep cut short, also came along.) The leaves are starting to change colors and Ouachita is up to its upper banks. No TV, no Internet. Beautiful.
It was almost a blast from the past — we listened to the Arkansas-Florida football game Saturday afternoon on the radio, via a sports station at 96.3 FM out of Fort Smith, then switched to the American League Championship Series between the Angels and the Yankees on XM Satellite Radio. We worked in a DVD of “Friday Night Lights,” the movie, in between.
It was nice. We didn’t get involved in the “blame the referees” stuff about the Razorbacks game because we couldn’t see if they were bad calls or not. The radio announcers (Chuck Barrett and Keith Jackson) said there were some bad calls, but both of those guys DO work for the University of Arkansas, so what do you expect?
I know that the Razorbacks were much-improved over previous games this year, yet they had three chances to score from inside the Gators 40-yard line in the third quarter and managed only three points. So, yes, we scared the top-ranked Gators, but we had chances to win and didn’t — we lost 23-20. That’s it. Whine all you want, but if you want to be Hog-crazy, worry about the Ole Miss game.
The rest of us will get on with our lives or continue to watch the baseball playoffs — football doesn’t really start until the World Series is over. That’s what matters to me, after my family.
Meanwhile, it’s back to work in the midst of some wonderful fall weather.
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