Hands of time

It was in the Starbucks on Highway 6 and Memorial in Houston where Tony discovered the chocolate-filled advent calendar shaped like a tree sort of a thing, and he just knew we had to get one for my little sister.

So we get back to El Cerrito and he buys one for her, and then he's getting ready to mail it to my sister in Davis, and he puts it in a box that looks like your microwave oven came in it, and then he wedges two shoeboxes inside the box to pad the chocolate-filled advent calendar.

But that's Tony. You give him a Hummel figurine or a music box, and he'll pack it like it's a load of nitroglycerine that you're going to drive across the Andes in a 20-year-old Chevy S-10.

So it's Thanksgiving Weekend, and I said to Tony, "Look, it's almost Advent, and you probably still want to wrap another couple layers of bailing wire and duct tape around that box before you feel comfortable shipping it. What you say we drive up to Davis and give it to Jessica in person.

So we did.

And I gave her some of my famous orange granola too.

And a priceless family heirloom that we happened to have sitting on the floor in front of the fireplace.

If you are related to me and would like a priceless family heirloom of your own, there's plenty more where that came from. I think I still have six or seven of Grandma Rita's Nativity sets in the garage. First come, first served.

Kurt "big daddy" True
2 december 2006