Our Friend Tom

Our good friend, Tom popped in to spend a couple of days with us last week.  Randy and I used to live next door to Tom when we lived in Sumner.  I guess it is called Lake Tapps now.

First it was Sumner, then it was Bonney Lake and I guess 'they' now have decided to stick with 'Lake Tapps'.  It was all very confusing for a while.

Anyway ~

We have known Tom for about ten years now and he is one great guy.  He is the kind of neighbor that will do anything for you, and the neighborly-ness has turned into a great friendship.  Tom is the kind of great friend that you never miss a beat with.  Whether it is through phone calls, emails or the pleasure of seeing him, we can pick up right where we left off.

Tom originally had plans to fly to St Louis on Saturday and then drive to our house on Easter afternoon.  Unfortunately, the St Louis airport was hit with a tornado that Friday before Tom's trip.  With the stormy weather that we were supposed to have this past week, along with the condition of the airport, I was afraid that he would postpone his trip.  On Sunday, however, he bravely went to SeaTac and landed in St Louis later in the day.

Tom spent the night with his buddy, Mike, in St Louis, and then the two of them drove to Mountain Home (Arkansas, not Idaho) on Monday.  Shortly after Tom arrived, The Wild Weather Gods treated us to the most hellacious storm we had ever seen.  It rained so hard we had rivers of water running down the driveway.

This picture is not my best by any means.  It was nasty outside and I didn't feel brave enough to sacrifice me or my fancy camera for pictures of our driveway washing into the lake.

I am happy that Tom made himself right at home and didn't care that I fixed sandwiches for dinner, Easter ham sandwiches and pretzels with snicker-doodles for dessert.  We introduced him to the ciabatta rolls that we buy at the WalMart bakery.  Oh my, these rolls are some sort of delicious.

These are not the above mentioned sandwiches.  These were the sandwiches I made for Randy and Tom on Tuesday when Tom was burning and Randy was working on the tractor.  Off and on, there seemed to be a man conference going on around the tractor.  I don't know if they were talking about how to fix the tractor or about sneaking off for a beer run, but I do know the tractor is still broken.  Or, they could have been trying to remember what I told them:

The heart sandwich is Randy's, the happy face is Tom's.

We spent most of Monday late into the evening catching up on our lives.  Roxy came into the living room a couple of times to tell us it was time to go to bed, but we just ignored her.  I have to show her who is boss every once in a while.

Tuesday morning showed up full of sun.  Oh my, what a joy to see the sun after a few days of thunderstorms and tornado warnings.  Tom wanted to start a 'recreational burn' and so he spent the day gathering downed limbs and burning them, and alternately attempting to teach Roxy her manners.  Tom was much more successful with the former than the latter.

Roxy thinks the best and funnest way to play is to bite and jump and then bite harder.  Randy and I have tried everything to break her of this.  The more we discipline her, the more she thinks we are playing and she starts to bite and jump more.  The only thing that I have found that works is to ignore her.

Our little princess immensely dislikes to be ignored.

Anyway ~

I want everybody to know, Randy and I do not put our visitors to work.  Tom did exactly what Tom wanted to do.  I am sure that if the weather would have been better, Randy and Tom would have at least taken the boat out.  Boating just wasn't in the cards on this trip.  That just means he will have to come back to Mountain Home.

Tom burned all day and, boy, did he get a lot of yard debris burned up.  There is a rock that I wanted moved up to the top of our driveway - a mere twenty feet from where it is now.  Randy told me the rock is too large to be moved with his tractor.  Tom and I gave it a go, but there was no budging that rock.

Later in the afternoon, Randy gave Tom the two-cent tour of town, which included a tour of the local beer store, and then Randy cooked chicken wings on the Big Easy.  While they were cooking, we sat on the deck and watched another storm come in.

If you look very closely at the picture above, you can see my first attempt at photographing lightening.

The beautiful sunny weather on Tuesday was just a small break in the spring storms.  Since Wednesday was cloudy and rainy, we browsed through Earl's Antiques in town.  Later in the afternoon we had to drop Tom off where Mike stayed - his friend, Kermit's house.  And yes, Kermit has heard every frog joke known to man, woman and beast.

Mike and Tom drove back to St Louis on Thursday and Tom was back in Washington and back to work on Friday.

Come back to visit us soon, Tom!  We miss you!

Have the BEST day ever!

~ Dorothy