Hi. Ashley again. Mack is a dear, and if he's doing a project such as his truck he's a stickler for details, but when it came to the planning for our wedding ...well, as they say at the VA- he was MIA. Oh, don't get me wrong; he wanted to marry us, he just didn't know how to plan for it. I truly believe he thought he could just snap his fingers and it would be done.
Laurie and I didn't mind; this would let us put our stamp on our marriage - to let us tell all our friends and family this was truly what we wanted.
It actually went amazingly easy, well most of it did. We decided our new backyard was the perfect venue, and maybe all we'd need would be a tent in case of a shower. Catering could be by friends of Laurie, and Angie knew the perfect minister for our needs.
All we needed was a date; far enough out for all the planning, but not so far as to be into fall showers. We settled on the Saturday after Labor Day.
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I've never had a summer go by so fast; it seemed we'd just got home from the Fourth of July car show, when suddenly Labor Day was just days away. I can't say it was a boring summer, no way; if the girls were at work, Jack and Chuck were over and we cleaned up the 'Bird.
It didn't need much so far as parts were concerned; Chuck and his dad had done a good job of protecting the basic car, but the paint and interior were tired, many of the hoses and belts past their replacement date, and the brakes were on their last legs. Well, we jacked that puppy up, and over three days rebuilt the brakes, changed all the hoses and belts, and changed the oil and filters on the engine and the transmission.
Chuck was amazed at the difference when he pulled out of my garage; the tranny shifted crisply, the brakes dug in NOW, and the engine purred like he hadn't heard in a while. Jack tried to convince him that a manual would be a better (more fun) choice than a slush box, and I pushed him to get more power, but he wouldn't listen to us; "No guys, this is the way my dad bought it, and this is how I'll keep it."
We did convince him that a good cleaning of the interior would help, and a lot of buffing on the paint would pay dividends, and by the time he'd finished rubbing out the oxidized paint it did look fairly decent.
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We'd actually moved into a pretty active neighborhood. Sure, the houses were spread; everyone had at least an acre, and several had five plus, but everyone knew each other, and the first sunny weekend we had been invited to a gathering several houses down the street.
The Lowries were the original owners of much of the land, and it had been parceled ten years before when Ken retired from teaching. They were an interesting couple; not only had he been a history teacher, but he also coached the varsity baseball team and was still active as an assistant coach. Sharon had been a pediatric nurse until she retired, and still volunteered at the hospital maternity ward. Meantime they had a collection of farm equipment and half a dozen goats along with a few barn cats and a couple dogs.
Between us were the Sandovals – Enrique and Inez – middle aged with two kids in college, she was a weaver, and he enjoyed long distance bike riding. Across from them were the Hudsons; another retired couple who were mostly into gardening.
When we arrived at the Lowries' Ken greeted us at the door, and raised an eyebrow when I introduced my companions, but he said nothing – just nodded and introduced us to his wife. She dragged Laurie and Ashley off to meet the other women while Ken put a beer in my hand and led me to the other men.
"So do you always split up like this?" I wondered.
"What? Oh I see what you mean; generally for the first half hour or so we split up like this while everyone catches up on the things that interest us, then it's a general free for all." Ken smiled in reply.
Enrique stuck his hand out; "The women don't want to hear about my latest bike ride, and the guys tolerate a little bragging ... as long as I don't get too smug."
Larry Hudson said; "I do five and six mile rides and get a good workout, HE goes twenty five and complains that he couldn't get warmed up."
I smiled at Larry; "You're my kind of rider. If you want company let me know."