THAT'S WHAT I'M TALKIN' 'BOUT!!!

Hi y'all! I am going to be Absent WithOut Leave for a couple of days. The Mrs.' Momma (The Mrs.-in-law) called me yesterday morning with some bad news. Well, I'm not sure whether it's bad or not, but she told me it was.

The Mrs.' Aunt Dean had passed away unexpectedly in Holdenville, Oklahoma. Interestingly, The Mrs. and I watched "The Grapes Of Wrath" (starring the great Hank Fonda) a few nights ago, and I was inspired to write a blog post about the Okies that I know. I make fun of Okies, but it's all in fun. I had never met one of those critters until I started dating The Mrs. back in high school.

The Mrs.-in-law grew up on a farm on the plains of Oklahoma (Wetumka...yea, it's a real town) with eight siblings. The older ones lived through the dust bowl...well, I'll get around to doing that post (I can't do it justice right now)...but suffice it to say that I love, and appreciate her Okie family as much as I do mine.

So, I'm headed to Oklahoma for the funeral of Aunt Dean. Man, she was a mess! (If you're not from the south, that means that she was fun to be around, always had funny stories to tell, and was often as crazy as a betsy-bug). We saw her and Uncle Grant about 3 months ago when they came to visit The Mrs.-in-law. They had spent most of the Summer putting up about a million quarts of vegetables from their huge garden, and most of the Fall on Lake Eufala fishing, camping, and hosting their grandchildren and great grandchildren on the weekends in their camper.

I asked The Mrs.-in-law how Aunt Dean had died. "In her sleep, in bed with Uncle Grant...they figure a massive heart attack."

That's what I'm talkin' 'bout! Lord, let me leave this veil of tears like that...please! (Not in bed with Uncle Grant...I love him, but...well, you know what I mean...)

I'll see y'all about Wednesday...gotta go mess with a bunch of Okies...