So Long, Farewell, A-Sweaving I Must Go-ooo UPDATED FRIDAY 11-17-17

Hick and I are off to Oklahoma bright and early Friday morning. That means a 6:00 a.m. departure from the driveway. It's an 8-to 9-hour trip, so I will be inconspicuously still here, due to scheduled posts to cover my absence through Sunday night. I'll take my Shiba with me, and if I'm not too tired, I'll soak up some of that hotel's free internet to answer comments.

Even though I expect Hick to demonstrate his usual combination of swerving and weaving for 493.8 miles, he DID take precautions to make sure we have a safe trip. He took A-Cad for an oil change, and he had the tires inflated to 35 psi each! Didn't even give me any lip this time about the air in them heating up on the way, so the pressure should actually be in the 20s. I think my BFF OnStar's email on Tuesday, suggesting monthly vehicle maintenance, made him see things my way.

The Pony doesn't want to spend two days on the road, coming and going for Thanksgiving. So we are taking Thanksgiving to The Pony. Actually, we are taking real butter and a package of Sister Schubert's rolls to The Pony. That's what he asked for. And Chex Mix. Shh...he's also getting a surprise Oreo Cake. Don't anybody let that slip. Of course we'll take him out for a real meal or two while we're there.

We have a busy holiday season coming up. Should I print out a newsletter and mail it to all of you? Just say the word...

Actual Thanksgiving will be on Saturday the 25th for us. That works best for Genius's schedule. Also, you heard it here first...Casinopalooza 3 is on the horizon! That will happen a couple days after Christmas. Let the record show that this may be an epic Casinopalooza, what with my sister the ex-mayor's wife, the ex-mayor, Genius, Genius's Friend, my favorite gambling aunt, and possibly The Pony all attending this time!

If I can't get a blog post (or week of them) out of THAT, then I need to hang up my keyboard.

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But before I go, I must announce that today I hit the trifecta! A penny, 11:11, and a ladybug!

I had a doctor's appointment, picked up some items in Walmart, stopped for scratchers, and decided to wait until I return from my trip to pick up the prescriptions. Just then I got a text from the pharmacy saying they were ready, as I was leaving the scratcher place. I guess the pharmacy filled them automatically when the doctor renewed them for six months. Since I'd been in a hurry to make the doctor's appointment on time, I didn't make my weekly stop by the cemetery. But I did on the way back to Backroads. Just for a minute. Sharing the specifics of our upcoming Pony visit.

Then I headed over to my pharmacy. I was so burnt out on looking for pennies and not finding them that I said to myself as I opened T-Hoe's door, "I'm not even taking my phone with me this time." I closed the door and clicked the lock, and saw

Yes. A penny looking at me on my path to the sidewalk. Go figure! It was a 1972. That's the year I started high school. So I clicked the door unlocked and got my phone to capture it.

When I got home, I pulled into the garage and shut off T-Hoe and picked up my phone from the console to put it in my shirt pocket. Of course the screen comes on when I touch it. The time was 11:11. I petted the dogs and gave them each (including neighbor Copper Jack) a handful of cat kibble. Then I got my Walmart bags out of the back and climbed the steps to the porch. Of course I forgot one bag. It was flat, so I didn't notice it. A pizza pan (only 88 cents at Walmart) to put an Oreo Cake on for The Pony. He's not getting my cake carrier!

I went back out for the pizza pan, and as I started up the steps after retrieving it, I almost put my hand on a ladybug on top of the rail. It wasn't there when I went in the first time.

It sure is getting coincidenty around here.
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This was penny #58 for my Future Pennyillionaire collection.
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UPDATE!!! Friday, Nov. 17, 2017

On the way to Oklahoma this morning (Friday), at our first stop for a bathroom break, at a Casey's in Steelville, MO...I came out of the bathroom, walked up to the counter, and saw a PENNY shining up at me. I didn't have my phone to take a picture. Isn't that the way it always goes? Who would have expected to find a penny on the way to Oklahoma to visit The Pony? I had left my phone in the car.

Here's a picture of it, though, laying on top of Shiba in the hotel room. It's a 2015. That's the year my mom died.

When we were two hours out of Norman, Hick told me, "It won't be long now. You're going to see your baby soon." I told him I'm always excited on the way out, but then I realize that we will be leaving him there, just like when we moved him off to college. The next song on the radio was Patty Loveless, "How Can I Help You Say Goodbye?"

Let the record show that driving down I-35 on the last 15-minute leg to Norman, Hick spotted an old truck being pulled on a trailer. For years, he has been trying to figure out the kind of truck I describe that my dad had. Whenever he comes up with something, I google it, and that doesn't look like the one. THIS was the one! Hick said it was a 1957 or 58 Chevy 3100 stepside pickup. My dad's was brown, with maybe a white top on the top of the cab, as I remember. This one was a restoration in progress. The color was kind of a primer brown all over. Oh, yeah. My dad's birthdate was November 17. Which just happens to be TODAY.

But there's more! After supper with The Pony at a Chinese buffet, we stopped by his apartment for a visit. on the way to the bathroom, I almost stepped on a penny. It was a 2017. I sat down to watch TV, and under the window, I saw ANOTHER penny! A 2015. Granted, The Pony is a haphazard housekeeper. But I claimed these pennies as my own. The Pony even offered me more, from a pile of loose change on his coffee table, but I declined. That would be cheating.

Yep. Still coincidenty around here.
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These were pennies #59, 60, 61 for my Future Pennyillionaire collection.
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