We have been in Arizona since the end of April and in our house since May 11th. We knew from the get-go(I have been dying to use that term since I heard it a few days ago), that there would be several things that we would need to change about us that would help us “fit in” here. As we began to visit some of the churches to see where we would begin making us feel at home, we quickly realized that Randy would need to get rid of his suits that he wore to church in Dallas. In fact, there were a couple of times where we would walk into a church (First Baptist Dallas being one of them) and they mistook Randy for the visiting preacher. It was then and there that I told him he needed to get rid of his Pentecostal hair cut and cut back on the hair gel. But when we got here, he noticed that really all he had to have was nice Hawaiian shirts, a pair of nice tan shorts and some open toed sandals. So off to the Goodwill went the suits, pretty much knowing that all he would have to keep was one for him to be buried in. Those were his words, not mine. But after the conversation this morning on the way home from shopping, that might be sooner than he expected. Another difference was that after trying to continue to style my Dallas big hair and big earrings, I have given up. Gone is the big hair, replaced by short spiky golden locks, which took the place of the red. The sun was fading the red so much that I was looking like Carrot Top. I was told by my daughter that wearing big earrings, just screamed “look at me, I am really old and dress very old fashioned”. So gone are the big hoops and in came the small dainty little pearls. I think I look like I’m 80 and look like June Cleaver now.
Also, we discovered, just like in Texas, to get to really know folks, you had to have a pet, preferably a dog to walk so the neighbors would talk to you. The cuter the dog, the friendlier the neighbors. So Oliver became our “business card” that we would use to get people’s attention. To take this pet thing a step further, we have noticed that LOTS of people out here, love their bumper stickers which let you know they are animal people. There are stickers which have the number of stick people on their windshield as the number in their family plus Rover at the end of the line, letting you know they have a dog.
Then there are bumper stickers which tell you how many cats people have, or announce that they are cat people with a line drawn through the word, “dog”. Some say, Red Rover, Red Rover, Let Any Dog Come Over to My House! Or this one we saw last week, Dogs Welcome, People Keep Out!
On our way home today from shopping, Randy declared that maybe we needed to come up with our own bumper sticker, as we weren’t meeting people as quickly as we would like. (This is why he might be needing that burial suit sooner than later). After all, it is just to hot to go walking with Oliver and with Randy still being the One Armed Bandit (hallelujah we see the shoulder surgeon tomorrow), we have not been able to participate in many of the activities which would allow us to meet our new neighbors. As we drove, we began to talk about different suggestions which might be cute to have on our back car bumper which would let people know that we were now “pet lovers” We debated on several, such as: Love Us, Love our Pet, or We Love Our Pet & Our Grandkids, In that Order, but Randy finally decided that he knew what it would be…
“You Can Have My Wife, But Touch the Dog and You Die”!
It will be interesting to see who gets Oliver in the divorce settlement! Am having his one suit cleaned, as you never know when he might need it!