The longest holiday.

Christmas time hooliganism began on Friday, 21 Dec. at Victory St. where we met with our friends for a toast and a cheers before we started our trip to Ft. Smith to visit my dad and my Viet family.  

As we are wont to do, everyone started taking a swig of something or other (Ancient Age) with a (pickle) back.  Despite my expression below, it is not bad, but, it's not advisable to mix with wine.  

Photo by Blair

Photo by Blair

Sorry, Rett.

The next morning, a little worse for wear, KHMD, ATM + I started toward Ft. Smith.  We arrived at Dad's around lunch time.  

Me + KMHD:

Forever a toxic bachelor:

For Dad's Xmas gift, ATM + I prepared him a feast of spiral cut, honeybaked ham, mashed potatoes, dressing, peas, yeast rolls, and buttermilk pie.  There was Chex Mix for snacking and homemade cinnamon rolls for breakfast, too.  (It was a lot of work, so I'm laying it all out here.)  After lunch, we went to his friend's pawn shop, so he could deliver them some coffee and we could meet two sweet goldens and a little pig.  I've always wanted a pet pig!  But, I've changed my mind, because it turns out that they are some snappy little jerks.  None of them would sit still for a decent photo.  From here, we went to this really great antique shop where I scored the best present to myself.  

Pristine condition and with a key:

We went back to Dad's, snacked, watched an endless piece of garbage movie, and then headed over to my Aunt's where she made us a heaping, delicious pile of noodles + vegetables.   We hung out with our cousins and eventually went to bed.  ATM + I slept in a young gent's room:

The next morning, we went back to Dad's for brunch.  



Dad smokes in his house and it's just awful.  It will make you physically ill if you sit inside too long.  Directly after brunch, we excused ourselves and drove into Oklahoma and around town.  We eventually ended up at the Riverfront Park to soak in some rays and enjoy the fresh air.  Oklahoma never looked so pretty.  We wanted to stay, but had to get back to visitin'.



The last time we wandered down here, the police were dragging the river for a body. 






At one point, this fella wandered down to river's edge, hopped on this thing, and paddled off, NBD:


It was so lovely outside that once back at dad's, we did a whole lot of back stoop loitering.  My Dad happened to have four frisbees in the garage, so we made a makeshift disc golf course which was so. much. fun.  We three marveled that we had 'a good time' at dad's for once.

Hole 1, Par 3:


Hole 2, Par 3 (clothesline raises difficulty):

The house that Dad lives in is the one that KMHD + I grew up in.  He's modified it so much that it hardly resembles the same place and my attachment is minimal.  The only place that remains untouched is the garage.  Even has the same smell.  So many adventures started there.

Right before we took off:

We said our au revoirs to Dad and went to my aunt's to have a meal of bahn xeo before we rushed home to (N) Little Rock before the inclement weather arrived.

I'm envious of my aunt's outdoor cooking set up.  She's so badass:

Christmas Day. We get back to North Little Rock and settle in for some winter weather.  Honestly, we thought it'd be a little snow.  We had plans to meet up with KMHD + Everett for supper.  NOPE.  The ice came first and then the 6-7" of snow.  



 We made homemade Xmas pizza, still thinking all is well and good:




Shortly thereafter, the lights go out.  In a race against sundown, I run around the house getting ready for a night w/o heat or electricity.  I got out all of the candles -- all of them -- and set them up evenly throughout the house.  Went to the car and charged my phone a bit.  I got a hot shower in.  The warmth of the house faded and we started piling on layers of clothes.  We got out the transistor radio and the Trivial Pursuit.  No worries.

  

But, things got out of hand pretty quickly.  You could hear limbs snapping left and right and transformers blowing up.  At one point, I was sitting on the couch, with Andrew on my right on the chair.  We heard a very loud cracking directly overhead.  We both, with a quickness, bolted away from that area of the house right as we heard a crash and something striking the earth with a deep thud just outside the window.  We grabbed a flashlight and ran outside.  A very large limb grazed the house, but nothing was damaged.  The worst part was that my car was blocked in, but we were very lucky.  I attribute our luck to our having had our Negligent Neighbor's trees cut back in May.  My terror turned to fury when Negligent Neighbor came outside and asked "Is that my tree or yours?"  I had to go inside and let ATM deal with her.

Because we were safe and  there was no apparent damage to the house or car, I put this mess in the back of my mind.  There was nothing we could do about it.  As the evening progressed, I knew this would be a more than one night ordeal.  So, we just got as comfortable as we could and listened to the radio.  This DJ was taking calls from any yokel that was out driving, giving the conditions of the road.  But then this one lady, with a shaky voice, was all "I'm actually calling because of the emotional toll of this day..." and proceeded to have a meltdown on air. It was a situation where you couldn't help but wonder if she would hurt herself or others.  The DJ didn't handle the situation very well.  He seemed...cold.  I had to turn it off.  So, we sat and listened to limbs falling and more transformers blowing out.  I eventually went to the bedroom to start making a nest when I heard ATM say, "I'm going outside to go talk to this firefighter."

The NLR fire department was going door to door, hand-delivering a photocopied note from the mayor.  I believe they were making rounds, too, to see if there were any elderly people or young ones in need of assistance.





It wasn't long before we crawled into our sleeping bags and tried to get some sleep.

Morning:




In the car, charging my phone:


I don't know if the camellias will make it:






ATM walked the neighborhood to survey the damage and talk to neighbors while I made snow day gyoza:


Thanks to social media, I was able to secure a fella with a chainsaw to cut away at the limb and clear our driveway.  If we'd left it up to Negligent Neighbor, there's no telling when it'd be cleared away.




I had to grind coffee beans by mortar & pestle:


We had to go one more night without proper heat and electricity.  We sealed off half the house and huddled on the 'warm' side.  But, hey, with just the little gas heater in the bathroom and the candles, we managed to get the temperature to around 60 degrees on a 19 degree night.  



Hanging out in the bathroom.  At this point, we were both a little sick and tired of the situaish.


The next morning, 27 December, I heard the hum of electricity and it jolted me out of slumber.  Luckily, I didn't have to report to work.  Desperate to get out of the house, I called Blair to meet me for lunch.  After that, we stopped by her place.  I got a flat along the way.  Even though we handled it, it made me very very tired.  



I had high hopes that the next several days would be much better.