[ Wednesday, June 14, 2006 ]
Dad's coming over in 30 minutes to pick up his tiller. Beverley's bringing my dress for Billie's wedding so I can try it on. She's redoing the bodice. She went with me to try it on for the second time. In the dressing room I broke down & bawled like a baby. I'm sure it was easily heard through the flimsy walls. The store owner, who when I first tried it on just gave me blank stares & said 'I don't know what else we can do.', still didn't seem to know how to alter a dress. We told her we could just take the top off & redo it. She seemed amazed. She seemed like a moron.
Dad let me & Dave borrow his tiller last week. Neither of us had ever operated one. As I went out the door Dad said 'Good luck. It's gonna shake you all over the place.' We got it up on the hill where our little garden spot is. ( Never mind that it's the middle of June & experienced gardeners have had their plants/seeds out a month before now.) The first row didn't seem that bad. The tiller was shaky, but it wasn't that hard to keep it in place. It took a long time to till the first row. By the end I was thinking 'What's all the fuss about?'. Dave started in on the second pass. About halfway through the tiller started whining. It kicked into overdrive & started slinging dirt all over the place. My eyes got about as big as saucers. I wished I had paid attention to Dad tilling at some point. I wondered, 'Is this normal? Does it do this all the time?'. We kept on tilling. It didn't slow down. It was my turn to take another pass with it. I did. But it was way more difficult to do. Hanging on the tiller was like hanging on to a big hyper dog trying to go this way & that. Every now & then it would hit a rock & bounce up. Finally, I told Dave he had to take over. I didn't want to pansy out but that thing was jarring the shit out me & walking me up & down that hillside. I talked to Dad the next day. Apparently, it's not supposed to go that fast.
So now we have some plants planted & a few seeds. We planted them Sunday after I came back from Billie's Bachelorette Extravaganza.
Cabin rental in June is almost impossible unless you book one early. It's been years since I've rented a cabin. We were pros at it at one time, booking one for a weekend & having awesome little parties. They're a lot more per night now. I guess that's okay if your a tourist. I kept waiting for someone to offer me the native discount though. As in, you're from here, I'll let you have it for less that $150 a night. That never happened. Every place to stay in the Natural Bridge/Red River Gorge area was booked for the weekend of Billie's Bachelorette party. We finally found a place. $82 a night. It looked like a little shack. The inside was straight out of 1977 & smelled just as bad. With a few renovations, the place could be cutesy & cozy & maybe $100 a night.
The Bachelorette weekend was fun though. We drove around Powell county listening to hits from 1995 & '96, laughed an awful lot telling old stories & just enjoying the company. Saturday we went fishing & canoeing in the gorge, a first for me. I was a little scared to try it & had decided that I would stay at the shack & let Billie & Sam go. Mandy didn't want to canoe either, so I figured I'd have company. In the car on the way to the gorge, I felt a little instant of 'Why Not?' so I said "I'm in. I'll do it." Mandy decided she felt comfortable riding in a tube behind the canoe. We were funny looking with three of us piled into the canoe & Mandy tied to it in a tube. As we started paddling up the river a man on shore took a pic & said "I've got to put this in the newspaper." I shouted my email address from the canoe. He wrote it down & said he'd send the pics. I so hope he does. I can't wait to see what a sight we were.
Canoeing was fun. A couple of times we had to get out & drag the boat across shallow spots. I got out to help Billie pick up the boat & fell forward into the creek. Everbody laughed. Billie got out to pull on the rope to Mandy's tube & fell forward into the creek. I got to laugh that time. By the time we were finished, we were all pretty much drenched. Except for Sam. Somehow Sam managed to stay dry.
We got ready to go get something to eat & head to the Silver Mine Saloon called Hosscat's by the locals. We swooped through Campton a couple of times before the bar. When we rounded the courthouse we spotted a guy ahead. Sam said, "Lord, what's wrong with this one?" He had what looked like bandages around his knee & the first thing that popped into my head when I saw those was that he'd been hit in the knees with a baseball bat. (Too many mafia movies.) When we got closer to him we saw that they weren't bandages at all, but bandanas. Tied around his knees with corner pointed down. He started hollering at us. GD, You're some hot M effers. We died laughing. Sometimes that's all you need to hear.
The Silver Mine Saloon had expanded since I'd been there last. They acquired a new layout & a new crowd. I didn't see many people from Wolfe County. Most were from Beattyville. We had a game we took to Hosscat's. It was a little spinner with dares on it. We customized ours. One dare was to "Do the Mullet Dance." We first encountered The Mullet Dance in Morehead at The Plaza, where we saw mullets of all creeds, types, religions & colors thrashing from side to side. At one point I had to do The Mullet Dance on the dance floor. It was much fun. I'm gonna do it more often.
One of the dares was to "Introduce yourself to a guy." However, Billie decided that she got to pick that guy & then proceeded to take pics of us introducing ourselves to designated guy. Sam landed on this dare several times. I landed on it once. But what a doozy she picked. Of all the guys in the bar, there was one & only one wearing a football jersey & a cowboy hat. She picked that guy. That guy was turned away from me talking to a buddy. I tapped him on the shoulder. When he turned around, he looked like he was going to knock my lights out. He never lost that look. I quickly told him what was going on, that I had to introduce myself & that we were having a bachelorette party for my friend Billie. His name was Arnold. Arnold had poor gums & grey teeth. Arnold scared the shit out of me. Billie didn't get to pick our guys anymore.
Hosscat's was fun. Not something I'd want to do every weekend or even once a month, but sometimes a little downhome country bar can be refreshing. Sometimes it reminds you why you don't go to bars much anymore.
The weekend was over too soon, though. We got our pics developed on Sunday. I got home around 4. We planted our little plants in the garden & told stories about our weekend. I showed Dave our pictures from Hosscat's. He's never been but maybe, nah, he'll probably not want to go there. Ever.
(There were 3 fights that night but the bouncers must have taken them outside fast. We never got to see even one of them.)
It's been longer than 30 minutes.
I thought I wouldn't be able to finish this but whattaya know, I did.
~ Rebecca 3:29 PM [+]
