Saturday morning started at 6:30, with me in the kitchen listening to Hank Williams and making 20 pounds of chili.
Those two things happen often at my house, but Saturday was different because I had quite a few things to do during the day and the chili had to be ready by 6 p.m.
Along about 9 a.m., the chili was finished except for several hours of simmering, so I headed out to Tom Willoughby’s for a haircut, a stop by the bank and another stop to buy crackers and Fritos to have later with the chili.
Then it was back home for several loads of laundry and a few more chores.
Finally, it was time to take the chili to Wesley United Methodist Church, where a few friends and family would be gathered.
There would be some country music and, of course, the chili. And there would be Kindra in a wedding dress.
When my late wife, Dianna, died in 2014, I assumed and accepted that a phase of my life had ended forever.
We’d had 32 years, three kids and lots of memories.
I wasn’t sure how the rest of my life would go, but I didn’t expect to share it with someone.
I also didn’t expect a young woman who describes herself as “quirky” to enter my life, either.
Turns out, love doesn’t follow a pattern.
We make an unusual couple, Kindra and I, but a really good one.
She laughs at all my jokes and has displayed a remarkable tolerance for hillbilly music.
X-rays have confirmed that neither of us have a single traditional bone, which is how we came to have a wedding with a Little Jimmy Dickens love song instead of the Wedding March and a pot of chili instead of frou-frou fingerfood for a post-wedding reception.
And that’s why her de facto bachelorette party included her wearing a tiara to a PBR bull-riding event in Oklahoma City.
Me, I spent Friday night doing what I do - taking pictures at a high school ball game. So, now we’re married, the license is back at the
So, now we’re married, the license is back at the courthouse and my future looks dramatically different than it used to.
And I can’t help feeling that I won the lottery and that life is really, truly good.