off to the ranch

My three littlest cousins are in town, tow-headed girls from Tacoma who stand in a line like stacking dolls at 10, 9, and 6. I haven't seen them in two years, and they've grown considerably in that time. The youngest doesn't remember anyone, after two years away, but she's become fairly outgoing in that time, so it wasn't a hard task to reintroduce myself. They're cute, thoughtful little girls, and I'd like to spend as much time with them as possible while they're in town, so I'm a bit ambivalent about going off to the ranch today.

As I was writing, the little neighbor girl came in to get her daily prize from my mom. She just turned five, and she's perpetually shy; to talk to her, you'd think we'd never met. I've been hoping to see her when I came to town the last couple of times, because she's a sweet little kid, too, but she hasn't been around, so I haven't seen her for close to a year. I keep wondering what would happen if we introduced her to my little cousins.

We're headed to the ranch in a while; it's a two-hour drive, so we'll get there in the mid-afternoon and spend the night, then come back to Corpus in the morning. I'm taking my digital camera, as well as my film camera, full of black and white film that I'd like to develop if I can ever find another darkroom class to take.

The best part of being at the ranch is having a grove full of oranges to pick and eat all day long. Then late in the evening, we'll barbecue ribs for my mom, chicken for me, and vegetables yet to be determined for C. Eating in south Texas is always a complicated proposition.

Hopefully, we'll have the ranch to ourselves; it's not as much fun when there are lots of people there. We'll do some work in the garden and feed the cows, and I'll take a lot of pictures.

I'll tell you all about it tomorrow.