A Little Artesia Time

Friday, February 11 – Saturday, February 19, 2011

Friday, February 11


Happy 88th Birthday to Edith Marie Little Borsberry in Mineola, Texas!!!

Miracle of miracles…we actually slept in this morning! After a good night’s rest, we were up and about, got the Vibe loaded, had a wonderful buffet breakfast, and then hit the road toward Lubbock.

We stopped in Wichita Falls to get gas, take a “personal” break, and look at some arrangements in the floral shop at United Supermarket. Our reason for taking the “northern” route from Mineola to Artesia was so we could stop at Resthaven Cemetery to see Jimmy Clint and Henrys’ new grave marker and leave some flowers. Barbara couldn’t find exactly what she wanted, but she did find a pretty glass vase with an artificial red rose in it. She asked if she could just purchase the rose, but the saleslady said it came as a combination and that’s how they had to sell it. So, we made the purchase, hopped back in the car, and continued our drive to Lubbock, arriving at the cemetery around 1:30 or so (after getting more than a little lost in some of Lubbock’s infamous traffic construction.

We went to the gravesite and Barbara placed the vase next to the marker vase and we took several pictures. When we were finished with the pictures, we realized that we needed to go ahead and take the rose out of the vase, since glass containers aren’t allowed. That’s when we found out how much of a set the florist in Wichita Falls had sold us…the stem of the rose was set in about an inch and a half of acrylic cement in the bottom of the vase…there was NO way of removing that flower. The only thing Barbara could do was tell Jimmy and Henry she was sorry, but she was going to take the flower with us.

From Lubbock we drove to Brownfield and stopped at one of our favorite Sonic drive-ins for something to munch on. It was mid-afternoon and we hadn’t had anything to eat, but we didn’t want to get too much, because we had made arrangements to eat with Jean, Jerry, Nancy, and Becky this evening in Artesia and wanted to have our appetites in good shape.

We made the last half hour of the drive to Artesia staring into the brilliant setting sun, something we don’t see in East Texas…good thing I had my sunglasses with me.

We arrived at Jean’s house to find Jean and Becky waiting for us. We unloaded the Vibe and then sat down to visit until Jerry and Nancy arrived from work. After a few minutes of visiting and catching up with each other, we all crawled into Jean’s car and went back to town for a wonderful Chinese buffet at Kwan Den Restaurant, one of our favorite places to eat and enjoy the companionship of wonderful friends.

When we finished eating we returned to Jean’s house and broke out the electronic version of Catch Phrase that we had bought for the family. For the next hour or so we so we played the game and laughed our silly heads off as we tried to think of suitable clues to name the phrases that popped up on the screen. Since none of us really knew the rules, we also had to take a few breaks to make sure we were doing the right thing, but whatever we were doing, we sure had a lot of fun!

Saturday, February 12

Today we celebrate the birthday of Abraham Lincoln, 16th President of the United States!


And, we also welcome to the world Miss Ava Corinne Little, born today to Mike and Kelly Little of Midlothian, Virginia. Ava weighed in at 7 pounds and 1 ounce and is 20 inches long (and, in case you haven’t guessed it, we are PROUD grandparents)!!!!

The reason for our trip to Artesia is that a week or so ago, Jean was diagnosed with lung cancer. Because Barbara’s and my family has ties with the Terpening family that go back well over 50 years, and Jean’s property is what we called home for the first three years of our retirement, we felt that we needed to go back for a visit before we got into some travel plans that we have coming up in the not-to-distant future.

We started this morning by sitting and visiting with Jean over coffee and breakfast…just catching up on all that has happened to the three of us since we last saw her in November. As we were talking, Barbara and I got almost simultaneous text messages from Mike saying that Kelly had begun contractions (a week early) and he had taken her to the hospital. When they got there and checked Kelly, the nurse said that she was a “keeper,” meaning that she wasn’t going back home today. Mike promised to keep us informed of any breaking developments.

After we had finished talking about this latest development and the talk turned more toward subjects of interest for Barbara and Jean, I excused myself and went outside to see what needed to be done about the pecan harvest.

Jean has 15 large pecan trees on her land and for the last several years, we’ve been involved in the harvest in one way or another. We weren’t here for this year’s work, normally done in the late fall and early winter, and Jean hasn’t found anyone to come do the work, so I thought we’d help out by at least getting things started. I went to the barn, got a rake, and started working the section of property directly behind the kitchen and dining room area. The work isn’t difficult, but it’s very dirty. About the only way to gather the pecans is to rake up piles of whatever is in the yard and then sit down beside the piles and sort through the grass, leaves, weeds, and hulls to pick out the pecans and toss them into large buckets.

Barbara did a lot of raking and I sat down and did the sorting, but both of us took turns using the little pecan catcher when we got tired of sitting. Things were going pretty good and then Nancy showed up on her four-wheeler and offered to take Barbara for a ride. It didn’t take long for Barbara to consider whether raking pecans or four-wheeling was more fun. At least they gave me time to take this picture before they took off on their riding adventure.

I stayed with the harvest and managed to get a pretty good start on a bucketful of pecans, but then the wind got up and we decided we’d all had enough of the outdoor activities. I decided to go back in the house, get cleaned up, and go on a shopping expedition with Jean and Barbara; after all, we’d been in town for nearly 20 hours and hadn’t made it to Walmart yet!

While we were busy doing our activities, we got another call from Mike; Kelly had delivered Ava Corrine and everyone was doing well. We reminded Mike that we now had photo capabilities on our new cell phones and he immediately set about taking pictures to share with us. Actually, the picture on the right is proud papa holding his newborn daughter. The picture on the left was taken later and shows a little more of our new granddaughter; she has to be a natural-born Baptist…look at that bowed head and the praying hands!
When we got back to the house, Jean started working on a salad as our contribution to a big family dinner at Jerry and Nancy’s house this evening. I was going to bake bread, but didn’t have the ingredients and there wasn’t time to go back to the store and get the bread baked before time for dinner, so I just served up good intentions for this meal.

This evening we went over to Jerry and Nancy’s house and joined them, Becky, Susie, and Susie’s friend Rhonda for a wonderful meal of roast with all the trimmings. We all gathered around the formal dining table and had a wonderful time with multiple conversations passing around the table almost as frequently as we passed the serving dishes.

When the meal was over and the table was cleared, we all gathered around the table once more for a rousing game of Catch Phrase. With eight of us at the table, we had four members on each team. One would think that with that many team members, it would be much easier to come up with the phrase, but it didn’t quite work that way. We shared many a laugh over the clues that were given and how they could possibly be linked to the sought-after phrase. Luckily, we’re all friends and the humor was all good-natured. A good time was had by all until we had to say goodbye to Susie and Rhonda when they had to return to Hobbs and then Jean, Barbara, and I returned to Jean’s house for the night.

Sunday, February 13

We had planned to go to First Baptist Church this morning, but found out that instead of Brother Rick preaching, Landry Jones, a graduate of Artesia High School and now the starting quarterback at Oklahoma University, would be the guest speaker. We decided instead to spend the time with Jean, visiting and taking care of some chores.

The three of us had breakfast and then while Jean and Barbara shared “girl talk,” I went outside to do some more pecan gathering for a few hours. I got a large area raked and sorted and in a couple of hours Barbara came out and helped load the trash into Little Red for a trip to the trash pile/critter sanctuary. We did take a little time out to get some pictures of ourselves doing the work we loved to do when we were living on Jean’s property before we moved to Mineola and Mother’s house.

Barbara and I made a Walmart run to buy supplies for baking bread this afternoon (Nancy brought her bread maker over for us to “try out,” and then returned to the house to laze away the afternoon and evening watching basketball games on TV and playing catch-up with our email.

Jean said she’d buy supper for the bunch if Barbara and I would go to town to get it. We thought that sounded like a pretty good deal, so we drove the Vibe into town and went to KFC for a bucket of chicken. We wanted an extra large order of wings, but they were out…can you imagine that…kind of like Dairy Queen being out of ice cream, but that has also happened to us. So, we ordered what we could order and then returned to the house for another enjoyable time of family conversation, picking on Becky, and eating.

When Jerry, Nancy, and Becky left (they all had to go to work tomorrow morning), Barbara and Jean sat at the dining room table and talked while I retired to the living room to hammer out journal entries. “Casual” is definitely a key word in this writer’s vocabulary.

Monday, February 14

Happy Valentine's Day!!!

Jean planned to go to work this morning, so we decided to drive to Roswell to take care of some business and visit Carol (Barbara’s older sister), and Jerry and Jane (my brother and sister-in-law).

Our first stop was at a locksmith/key shop where I had three keys made for the motorcycle. Years ago, while we were still working at Liberal, I somehow lost one of the keys to the Voyager while at the high school. We’ve gotten by with only the one remaining key since then, but have had some close calls with nearly losing it. When we found out from the Kawasaki dealer in Roswell that they farmed out their key-copying to a local shop, we decided we’d better get that taken care of. Now we each have a motorcycle key on our car key rings, one on the motorcycle key set, and the master locked up in a safe place (just hope that if we have to, we’ll remember where that safe place is).

The next stop was Happy Jack’s Used Bookstore and Bead Shop on the Ruidoso highway. Happy Jack’s is one of our all-time favorite bookstores, a place where we can spend hours browsing through all the stacks and selecting a new batch of books to take home. We even brought enough books to trade in that we ended up with store credit in addition to the books we wanted…not a bad deal at all!

We then drove downtown to Target to browse the aisles before heading off to lunch. Mike and Kelly had given Barbara a Target gift card for Christmas, but we don’t have a Target store anywhere close to us in Mineola, so this was the first chance to use it. Barbara found a shirt to purchase and we found a few other odds and ends that we just couldn’t live without.

With the shopping behind us, it was time to cross Main Street and meet Carol at Golden Corral. Carol is a senior volunteer with the Roswell schools and was able to get away for a lunch break today. We didn’t have a lot of time together, but did enjoy getting caught up with each other’s families and having a great lunch together.

When Carol returned to work, we drove to Jerry and Jane’s house to get caught up on the latest news from them. While we were there, we gave them their copy of Mother’s 88th Birthday disc. Since they had a DVD player handy, we popped the disc in and watched the 25-minute presentation, with Barbara explaining some of the pictures and the choices of music to Jane while Jerry and I swapped comments about the photos of ourselves “way back when.”

Our visits ended and goodbye’s said, we headed back to Artesia, stopping first at Sonic to get Barbara a tall cold Diet Coke (extra ice, please).

We got home just after Jean and spent the rest of the evening visiting and talking about Jean’s upcoming procedures for fighting the cancer the doctors had found.

Tuesday, February 15

When Jean went to work this morning, we decided to grab the camera and drive around town to take pictures of some of the changes that have occurred over the past few years.

One of the largest projects currently underway is the multi-million dollar law enforcement complex between Jean’s property and town. Located on the north side of U.S. Highway 82 west, the new facility will house the Artesia Police Department, Artesia Fire Department, offices of the Eddy County Sheriff’s Department, the New Mexico State Police, the Artesia jail, and courtroom facilities. Inmates will no longer be transported between the jail and a separate courthouse; instead, they will leave the jail, and be escorted through a tunnel into the adjoining courtroom facility. Completion of the complex is scheduled in a few months, but the project is far enough along that the pictures we took indicate its size. Interestingly enough, the old county road that once ran past the property and connected to the highway is now named “Paddy Wagon Way.” We guess someone on the planning board had a sense of humor.

Another relatively recent project was the construction of a new Hotel Artesia. When I was growing up in Artesia, the hotel was located on the east side of East First Street, next to the railroad station. The hotel has been closed for a number of years, and the new facility was built across First Street from the old structure. The new building is much more modern in design and reflects the progressive nature of new construction in the city.

Located outside the hotel in a traffic circle at the intersection of East Second Street and Texas Avenue is one of several large sculptures that the Artesia Main Street organization has commissioned over the past several years, all of which reflect the founding of the city as a center of ranching and oil and gas interests.

It was such a pretty day that we were also able to get some clear shots of part of the refinery complex on the east side of First Street. With minimal traffic in the way, we were able to get pictures of some of the refinery structures and flares against a clear blue New Mexico sky.

When we were finished with our photo sessions, we went to Guy Chevrolet to ask if they could help us locate a 2010 Vibe. Our 2005 Vibe has nearly 140,000 miles on it, but also has cost almost nothing for maintenance and repairs.

Since GMC dropped the Pontiac Division and Vibes are no longer being built, we have talked about locating a 2010 model (the last model built) to replace out current car. Unfortunately, the salesman we talked to had exactly the same attitude as the salesman we recently talked to in Mineola…he wanted to sell us what was on the lot, not what we wanted. He, like the man in Mineola, said that if we wanted another Vibe, we’d just need to drive to a large city and see what we could find, but he wasn’t going to help us find it.

We weren’t particularly surprised by the answer we got, since it was the same one we received before, but we were disappointed that we probably weren’t going to get another Vibe…there was no way we would have the time to search the Dallas/Fort Worth or Albuquerque areas in hopes of locating a new 2010 Vibe still on a dealer’s lot.

Barbara had asked earlier if we wanted to drive by Mother’s old house while we were in town, just to take a look at how it and the neighborhood were faring. I initially said I didn’t think we wanted to do that, but since it was such a pretty day and it wouldn’t be that far out of our way, I said let’s run by there, look at it, and maybe take a picture.

On the way down First Street, we passed Tate-Brown, the local Dodge, Chrysler, Jeep dealership. Barbara suggested that we turn around and walk through their lot just to see what they might have. I was very skeptical, since all I could see was high-dollar pickups and Jeeps, but I decided to humor Barbara. After all, we weren’t in a hurry and it was a nice day to be out.

We saw a couple of SUVs that we liked, but which were larger than what we needed or wanted. Before I realized it, I was standing in the lot asking questions of a salesman who came out to see if he could help us. I explained what we were looking for (something akin to the Vibe), and he said he didn’t think they had anything like that.

A couple of minutes later I heard Barbara calling my name. When I finally located her, she was sitting in a dark colored car on the back of the lot. She said that she kind of liked it and that it even had a sunroof (one of our requirements). Another salesman, Bill, came out and started talking to us. Then, another man came out and showed us some of the features and apologized that all the cars were dirty (they had been through a recent rain shower that was followed by a sandstorm…typical Pecos Valley weather). One thing led to another and the next thing we knew, we were going on a test drive of a 2011 Dodge Caliber Mainstreet.

Without using high pressure techniques, Bill and Perry (Perry Troublefield…I was a couple of years behind his father and uncle all through my school years in Artesia) convinced us to fill out some preliminary paperwork…just in case.

We finally got away from the dealership, drove out to Mother’s old house and took some pictures (and decided that Mother had sold at just the right time), and then drove back to Jean’s house for lunch. We told Jean about what we were looking at and then I called the Dodge dealership in Mineola to see if they had something comparable. We don’t know if it says anything about the dealerships or the communities they serve, but the Mineola dealership had only the high-dollar and fully tricked out models of the Caliber (and none with a sunroof). With that information at hand, we drove back down to Tate-Brown, did some more talking, struck a deal that we thought was fair for the Vibe as a trade-in, and finished filling out some paperwork.

The rest of the afternoon is a blur, but we sat and waited and read lots of pages in out books. At nearly 6:00 p.m., the deal was sealed. As we transferred our “stuff” from the Vibe to the Caliber, we thought that we should have had our ever-present camera with us to record this auspicious occasion; then I realized that our new cell phones could also take pictures, so Barbara got hers out and took a couple of shots as I moved from the old to the new.

Bill and Perry filled the new car with gas, handed over the keys, and we drove away in our new investment. Buying a new car was the last thing on our minds when we got up this morning, but at the end of the day our faithful Vibe, with 138,832 miles on it, was now the property of Tate-Brown and we were the proud owners of an American-made, Blackberry Pearl colored, Dodge Caliber with only 15 miles showing on the odometer (not to mention a 5-year payment plan…sure hope we don’t get fired from retirement!).

Wednesday, February 16

Jerry was able to get away from work today to take Jean to a doctor appointment in Hobbs to learn about her upcoming radiation treatments. Since they were going that direction, we decided we take part of the day and drive the Caliber on its maiden run up to Ruidoso to look at the mountains. It’s been a long time…well over a year and a half…since we went to Ruidoso. Nothing much has changed, but the sight of snow on the mountainsides and the cool, crisp mountain air felt fresh and invigorating. On the way out of Roswell we stopped at a rest area to shoot some of the scenery and (of course) the new car.


We spent an hour or so at the Apache Travel Center and then drove up to the Inn of the Mountain Gods. The road to the inn has several places where one can see magnificent vistas; unfortunately, there are very few places to pull over and take pictures. We did manage to get a picture of Old Baldy standing proudly behind the inn and golf course, but even that view was not the best available, just the most accessible.

We enjoyed our outing, but had to end it all too soon and head back down the mountain so we could be back at Jean’s house before dark. Our days of driving in the dark as a matter of course have ended as our eye sight and reactions have diminished, even if ever so slightly.

Tonight we just shared a lazy night with Jean as we swapped stories about our activities of the day.

Thursday, February 17

Happy Birthday to brother Ernie Little in Harrison, Arkansas!!!!


We got up fairly early this morning and began sorting and packing our things for the trip back to Mineola. Jean was going to Hobbs to meet up with Susie and then on to Lubbock to have a chemo port implanted tomorrow morning. Jerry is unable to get away from the funeral home, so we planned to finish up our business in Artesia, drive to Lubbock tonight, and be at the surgical center tomorrow morning with Jean and Susie.

We did get to see one of our favorite people, Lydia, when she came to do some housecleaning for Jean this morning before we left. Lydia is a very sweet lady who also cleaned Mother’s house in Artesia when Mother was still living by herself. Lydia also makes some of the most mouth-watering tamales we have ever eaten; and, if you choose to sample her “hot” tamales, be assured that they are truly hot, even by my standards, which are fairly high.

We finally said our goodbyes to Jean and Lydia and drove back to Tate-Brown to await the delivery and installation of a tow package for the new car. We always wanted one for the Vibe, but because of the engine size and type of transmission, Pontiac wouldn’t approve any after-market tow packages. The new car is rated for towing up to 1,500 pounds, perfect for pulling either the motorcycle cargo trailer or our utility trailer that we purchased several years ago for hauling the motorcycle.

We ordered the tow package Tuesday when we bought the car and were more or less promised delivery and installation today. Before going to the dealership, I called to see if the equipment was going to come in and they told me that UPS records indicated it should be there by the normal delivery time of 11:00 – 11:30. We got to the dealership at 11:00 and waited, and waited, and waited. Finally, at nearly 1:30, the UPS truck arrived. Our package was on it, thank goodness, and Perry and the shop crew assured us that they would begin the installation immediately.

True to their word, the service crew got on the job as soon as the tow package was out of the box and three hours later it was installed on the car and we were ready to go. We said goodbye and thank you to everyone who had helped us through the process (they really were a great group to work with) and headed east through Lovington, New Mexico, and Plains, Texas, until we arrived in Brownfield, Texas, well after dark, where we decided to take our chances on a Best Western motel and call it a day.

Friday, February 18

After a great night’s sleep and a good breakfast at the motel, we made the 40-minute trip to Lubbock in time to go see Cathey and Jaycie for a few minutes and then take Jaycie to get some breakfast at Chick-Fil-A before driving her to her school. We were still early, so we made a side trip to a convenience store so Jaycie could buy a fresh package of gum and then went back to the school and waited until it was time for her to go in and start her school day.

We then drove across town to the Covenant Hospital complex where Jean would undergo her procedure. We got there at the same time as Jean and Susie and went inside to visit until they called for Jean.

When they finally came and got Jean, Susie went in with her and we said we’d just stay in the waiting room. Then, Susie said it would be at least another hour or so before they began the procedure, so we left and went out to run a couple of errands, chief among which was a trip to the Sprint Store to get a “holster” for my new cell phone. It seems that the keys and buttons on our new phones are very sensitive and every time I put the phone in my pocket, I manage to inadvertently call someone. The first store we went to didn’t have pouches to fit our phones, but we finally found what we needed at the store on 82nd and Slide Road.

With that bit of business taken care of, we returned to the surgical center in time for Jean to begin her procedure. Susie came out and sat with us until they were done and then we all trooped back to see Jean (no matter that the sign said only 2 visitors at a time in the room…the nurse was very nice and very helpful).

Just as a side note, when the doctor came out to the waiting room to tell us that the procedure had gone well and that Jean was doing just fine, both Barbara’s and Susie’s eyes lit up and I could almost hear angelic music ringing throughout the room. It seems that I was the only one paying attention to what the doctor was saying…Barbara and Susie were sizing him up and when he turned and left, they voted unanimously that he was “really hot.” Susie was very disappointed when the doctor said that she’d get a call in the next few days to come back for a follow-up visit, but that it really wouldn’t be necessary…just a standard thing they tell their patients in case they think something is wrong. After meeting the doctor, Susie was ready to drive from Hobbs to Lubbock five times a week!

When Jean was finally released, we all drove out to Cracker Barrel for lunch (Jean’s first time ever at a Cracker Barrel), where we talked and ate for the next hour or so before saying goodbye and going our separate directions. Susie was taking Jean back to Artesia and we were going to drive U.S. 82 East as far as we could before stopping.

Our day ended at Gainesville where every motel was booked because of a huge concert nearby. We finally got lucky and got the last available room at the Hampton Inn near the outlet mall north of town. It seems that room had been sold, but there was a cancellation just before we arrived.

Saturday, February 19

Tired from all our travels, we took our time getting around, spending a lazy morning before leaving Gainesville and returning to Mineola around 2:00. We went to the post office to pick up a week’s worth of mail and then went to the house where we unloaded the car, unpacked our luggage and put things away, loaded and started the washing machine, and began life where we left off ten days ago.

Mother and Sophie got along famously and Mother looked bright-eyed and fresh after all of Sophie’s care. We are so blessed and grateful that God provided someone like Sophie to look after Mother in our absences.

During the week we received pictures of extended family great-nephews.  On the 12th we have a picture of Daniel Duke, son of Zeke and Amanda and grandson of Jerry and Nancy Terpening.  Daniel (jersey #24) is now playing basketball and we got this shot from his mother.

On the 14th we received this special Valentine's Day picture featuring Henry Yehl, son of Warren and Barbara Yehl and grandson of James and Susie (Terpening) Francis...thanks to those who shared.

"What do we live for, if it is not to make life less difficult for each other?" - George Eliot

Back home in Mineola,

Jim/Dad/Gramps & Barbara/Mom/Grams