And I do appreciate you bein' 'round . . .

Well, the lost albums have all been found. Here are just three from the famous collection of mine that had been lost for several years. The story behind the "big find" was a true miracle! The cousins were visiting one day and we were at lunch discussing the Christmas list of their Mom, my sis. So I asked . . .would she like any music? And the cousins said yes! So I asked, what kind? "Well, she likes lots of stuff . . . Beatles . . " WAIT! Sister didn't own any Beatle records that I knew of so I pressed further . ."Your Mom has Beatle records?" Yes," they said, "there is a bunch of them on a shelf downstairs in our basement." Well, that is all I needed to hear! My mind raced back to the fall of 1995, when we were preparing for a major construction project at our house and almost every area was to be invaded by construction crews. I didn't want to bring my records (most of which were purchased in the 70's) to the storage facility, it would be too cold for them! So I brought them to Sister's house for safe keeping. And safe they were! Even through one major move. Uncle P was just loading and unloading boxes and my record box was included. He didn't know when he was opening boxes whose records those were! And so, with great anticipation and excitement (much like Ralphie from the Christmas story as he dreamt about his Red Rider Rifle), I waited! On Christmas Day, before dinner and after presents, Sister and the whole family and I crept downstairs into their basement and there they were - just like I had remembered . . . but a few were missing - The Red & Blue Albums and the Love Songs collection. "Oh dear! Where could they be?". Well, Sister came to the rescue again - the three missing records were on her desk, near her turntable. She had recently been listening to them! So I came home from our dinner together, warm from the holiday and thrilled that my babies were back home safe!