I am blessed to have really strong girlfriends. That’s a good thing, because I’m too young to sit in a dark corner in a heap of spent Kleenex. Strong women figure things out. Sure, we may be down a little at times, but we just adjust our course and keep going. Strong women are great traveling partners. My strong women gals consist of those that know the workings of jet engines, patch up sick children, build neighborhoods one house at a time, and hold broken hearts in their arms. They make people feel better with a new hair style. They come together to learn about God and each other. Strong women with amazing lives.
Miss Firecracker is one such gal. And, she’s my best friend. We met at a dinner for our husband’s service organization. Just two strangers on the arms of their handsome guys. We were lucky enough to sit at HER table. Once WE started talking, we’ve never found a subject we couldn’t mow down in short order. We don’t need to agree on everything (and we don’t, sometimes), because we respect one another. So, we talk about all the things we do agree on and leave the rest in a heap in the corner. All the while, laughing until our sides hurt, or helping each other to get through the tears.
I moved to my little wide spot in the desert on Miss Firecracker’s recommendation. She had lived in the two towns VST and I were considering. When Miss Firecracker lives somewhere, she doesn’t just hang out in her back yard or stay inside with her blinds closed. She explores a place and knows things. She showed me the mustang on the mountain just outside our town. An old mining scar, hundreds of people drive by it each day never noticing. To Miss Firecracker and I, it’s THE mustang. I think of her every time I’m driving to the Walmart to the East.
Without missing a beat, she told me all the wonderful things about my new town. To the outsider, this place is a dismal, sandblasted truck stop town. But to those in the know, it’s the best place in the world. My town is a chameleon that blends into the desert so well, many miss seeing it for all the wonderful things it is. I moved here and discovered she had been right on all accounts.
Miss Firecracker taught me about shortcuts and the best places to hang out. Tee Pee Bar and Grill used to be open long into the night. Now, it’s only open until 2 PM. Well, heck, Miss Firecracker moved away and there was just no reason to go on. Oh, the wonderful meals we shared as we held things together, two being stronger than one. She stayed until she couldn’t any longer. And then, she moved away.
Miss Firecracker is the only woman I know with the guts to buy the biggest, blackest, shiniest SUV on the lot, keep it for 9 months and then trade it in on a sleek, sexy race car. She is the only person I know that decides to travel to Florida to have afternoon wine with friends, making reservations to jet off for her getaway. She is always on the fly, never losing her sparkle while leaving a trail of smiles wherever she goes. She has laughed away age and pain. I am quite sure she doesn’t own a rocking chair of any kind. Not her style.
There are some women in the world that are born heart friends. Through our travels, if we run into one or two of them in a lifetime, we should consider ourselves lucky. If they happen to be strong women, we are truly blessed. Miss Firecracker and I are true heart friends of the very best and strongest kind.
Recently, she lost her true best friend, Chewie. He was her guide through very dark days when her sweet guy, Bailey’s and Cream, passed away. Bailey’s and Cream was the other reason I chose my dusty little town on the wide spot in the road. He was one of a kind. Brilliant, debonair, crusty, hard as nails with a heart as soft as a marshmallow. He was intimidating in his knowledge of everything industrial, electrical, and engineered. Truly brilliant. I was looking forward to getting to know him better, but Covid took it’s grip on any chance for BBQ’s making visits of any kind impossible.
Bailey’s and Cream passed away 4 months after VST. He rests in the Northern Nevada Veteran’s Cemetery. When life gets too confusing, I visit by his niche at the columbarium and think about what he would advise. Before I’d finished unpacking, four friends became two strong women holding back tears over dinner at the Tee Pee Bar and Grill. Two hearts have supported each other through thick and thin. I hope we’ve seen the thinnest for awhile.
Well, Miss Firecracker’s life is now thick with things to do. Boxes to unpack and sort. Treasured belongings to cry over and new things to assemble. Her brand new, shiny, gorgeous luxury car sits in the driveway of her beautiful new home with her very own door that locks. For a year, she has been living out of a suitcase. I hope the explosion of her belongings into her new space brings a sigh of relief.
You are home, Sistah!!! Enjoy every peaceful moment in your new space. Make it all you. We have another thing in common now. We own “She-Sheds” that just happen to be our very own homes. Congratulations!!!! You earned it!!!!! Now, ENJOY!!!! Cheers!!!
More tomorrow.