Probably one of the warmest Octobers in a while, or maybe I just can't remember one year to the next. But this month was full of adventures, new experiences, and crazy stories like any other. So let's get to it...
I notice every day that I am getting older, and feel it every day as well. So trying something different this month and letting the curls run wild. I can't remember the last time I cut my hair, and just watching to see what happens. One wednesday night at church, I noticed one curl that was long and hanging down into my eyebrow. So I brushed my hair to the side, and then noticed that the hair was instead growing from my eyebrow into my hair. There are not many eyebrows left, but I did complete a bit of a trim of those crazy brows. The nose hairs are another story.
Mom has spent a lot of time up in Cullman this month, with Nanny's scary fall, ER visit, and Hospital stay. We are glad she is feeling much better by the time of my writing at the first of November, but this was quite a scare for October. But somehow everytime Magan returned home, she always had to come down 31, and had to pass Top Hat BBQ, yet Ruby and I learned one night that she never really "passed" Top Hat. Mom texted us that she was on her way home, and Ruby and I went to sit on the stairs at about the time we thought she would arrive, so we could wave to our missed mom. Ruby and I decided to check Life 360 to see how close she was, and found out that she had stopped to eat at Top Hat. So the pictures of me and Ruby with sad faces are what we sent Magan. After one visit, Magan brought home some BBQ to eat the next day. She went to bed, and when Davis and Belle came home, they saw the top hat and got excited. Split it up and that devoured it. When I saw what had happened, I quickly told them of their imminent death due to this severely miscalculated choice. We came up a plan, with me to take all the blame, and tell Magan that It was I that told them they could have it. I told Belle and Davis where the life insurance policies where, and how to get ahold of our agent should I not make it thru the day. And sure enough, the next morning, with all the kids at school, Magan decided that she would eat that Top Hat for breakfast. I played my role to protect my children, and tho there were circumstances, and I did suffer, our children lived to see another sunrise. Belle and Davis were both texting me the next day saying "Mom is very mad...she has sent us angry texts...", but I told them I had it covered, and maybe one day they will remember that their dad saved their life one October day in 2024. Also Magan typically does not read these, so let's just keep this on me, she still does not know of our plans...I don't want anything happening to Davis or Belle one day long into the future.
Magan left me one night some instructions for dinner, while she was up in Cullman, and this is where I realized that some of my hearing loss may have also transferred into reading comprehension loss. As all I read in the message was to make some hamburgers with the meat in the fridge. Apparently there was also words that said that the other half of the meat would be used with another meal. I thought she meant all the meat, so when Davis came home, he grilled all the 5 lbs of meat that I had made into hamburger patties. He was grilling for awhile, but I will say that while all 20 of those burgers were not eaten that night by me, Davis and Ruby...not a one was wasted.
Small group met at our home, and the Bojangles casserole made its second appearance. It is a special recipe that is probably one of the best casseroles out there...I got to play golf at Greystone Country Club for the American Association of Blacks in Energy (AABE) tournament, thinking the whole time that this white boy from Cullman has grown a bit in his life...Noel came to our house to spend the night and go to the trunk or treat, at one point that actually sat side by side to study at the kitchen table...Trick or Treating was the usual with a meal at the Rawls house, then some house calls around that neighborhood...Davis was inducted into the National Technical Honor Society, and afterwords went out to eat with Rowan and mom, and they both kept laughing in the Breal picture where they caught Rowan in mid-bite. Rowan is a good friend of Davis' and may end up being a roomate...Ruby and her friends dressed up together as parts of a smore, Ruby was the chocolate...and our work asked if anyone wanted to go to the McWane center and teach kids about electricity and Nuclear Power, YES PLEASE. I loved my "volunteer hours" here, quickly adding some magic into the snap circuit boards, and will never forget the cackles of three little girls learning about electricity, but with silly conductors appearing from their ears.
And the wreck...So as a Dad, my heart beats faster almost every time Sam or Davis calls. This is the call that I always think will happen, but we have been very fortunate not to have. On this day, during a meeting with three levels of my managers, Magan sends text that Sam has been in a wreck. I have to quickly leave this meeting and try and help talk to Sam, where my worries were 1. Are you OK 2. Is your computer OK (haha, don't know why, but that was 2) then 3. How is the car? And quickly learned that it was totaled, then started calling granddad that has much more experience (including me mostly), then alfa agent, and finally coordinating with Magan. She was able to come down and pick him up. At home that night, I just told him I would talk to him in the morning. And looking back, I don't think there was any anger, as again, this is almost expected for young kids on crazy roads. It terrifies me on many roads, and I have driven for a long time. I think in hindsight, my thoughts instead turn to how can we get by now. But Sam took my van back to school, and I am sharing with Magan for the time being. Granddad had a car he just told me about like days before this happened, so all may work out fine. And I have found that while I had almost gotten over that fear of the kids on the roads, it is now completely returned in force...checking on Davis and Sam and Magan like a stalker on Life 360. Maybe it will go away, but I don't think it will be soon. The next day in talking with Sam, I knew I could not beat him up any more than he had already beaten himself up about this happening. I just made sure he had learned some lessons, and planned to do better in the future. In the meantime, I sit here writing a blog, while Sam is driving back from Cullman on a dark and slightly wet night...He just passed Mt. Olive on his way back to Tuscaloosa. I got worried as writing, so I had to run check.
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