The Happy Piddler

Here's to a schedule of piddling. First day of vacation was spent at the outlet mall in San Marcos, with stops at Hobby Lobby and Half-Price Books along the way. I was able to replace the pair of pants that had somehow gotten tangled in the hinge of the bathroom hamper (I still have no idea how that happened, because it was virtually impossible to get them free from the wretched thing without using scissors), add a few new items to my wardrobe, buy office Christmas gifts and enjoy a beautiful day driving through rural Texas.

Second day of vacation was given over to prowling the area antique stores. My excuse was the need to buy a friend's Christmas gift, but I don't really need an excuse to go antiquing. I started in Elgin, where I found some cool Texas history books to add to my personal reference library.


Today I was inspired to paw through stacks of vintage sheet music, where I found some nice golden oldies.

The last piece I must admit was purchased because of the name of the composer. This is a familiar hymn, found in every Baptist hymnal under a slightly different name, but I thought it might be nice to frame this for display. I don't yet know that my McAfee line connects with his, but I've always considered Cleland an adopted member of the family.

After a couple of hours in Elgin, I drove leisurely toward Smithville by way of McDade and Paige and cut through the countryside on FM 2104 which takes you close to Grassyville, where my McAfee great-great grandfather once lived. When I got to Smithville, I indulged in the Chile Rellano plate at La Cabana (um, um good) and then headed downtown to explore their antique shops, because I still had not found the gift I was seeking.

I found lost ancestors to rescue. (By the way, someone finally claimed one of my Rescued Ancestors. A great-grandson surfaced to take possession of a lovely wedding photo.)

And I found more great vintage music. I now have Just Because, You Are My Sunshine, Mom and Dad's Waltz, a couple of Jimmie Rodgers pieces and a special piece written to celebrate 150 years of Austin music. Cool stuff.

I finally found the gift of pottery I was hunting and found two pieces of the same pottery to add to my own collection. I definitely did not need additional pottery coming on board, but I liked them. No apologies.

I even took a swing out to the big cemetery in Smithville on a Find a Grave mission. I really didn't think I would be lucky enough to find the grave that someone had requested be photographed, but my usual luck in this pursuit held and I drove right to it.

Speaking of luck, things are popping in the genealogy category these days. I hired a professional researcher in Kentucky to do some checking for me on my Hodge line and she's found some goodies already. We are filing requests with the Kentucky archives to get copies of several lawsuit case files involving my great-great and great-great-great grandfathers. The first two requests in have netted us responses from the archives requesting additional copy funds because the files are so big. I'm salivating.

Finally, the dollhouse arrived yesterday. Lots of pieces, but looks like a cinch to assemble when I have a stretch of a few hours to devote to it.

Vacation is fun.

LSW