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Friday, August 11, 2006
Kat Receives Big Rock for Big Birthday!
My husband, Jay, got me a big rock for my up-and-coming 50th birthday. When I say big, I mean really big. So big, he had to rent a BobCat bulldozer to haul the thing to my house. You see, he actually brought me a whole trailer load of big rocks from his grandmother’s homestead to place by our front drive as you pull in to our house. Now I know you were thinking I thought she meant a diamond but in all honesty, these rocks mean much, much more.
I was a geology/art major in college. A member of the Geology Club at Emporia State University in Kansas I was really into rocks. I had a license tag that stated “I LOVE ROCKS!� and have always been fascinated since a kid with rocks and other found objects in nature. Now you know I am not just obsessed with books, I am a well-rounded obsessive/compulsive person.
My two daughter’s middle names are Amethyst and Alexandrite. My husband on our honeymoon bought me some quartz crystals in Arkansas, later a sterling silver and quartz crystal bracelet. Somehow, I never got the big ring. Having a store bought diamond was never important to me, but we have been digging for raw diamonds in Arkansas.
On our first anniversary, as we were careening down the highway I screamed, “Stop, stop! I have to have that rock.� My husband reluctantly hit the brakes, pulled over, climbed the hill, rolled this massive rock slab down the hill, tilted it up to the tailgate of his truck, and macho, macho man, lifted that rock into the bed of his truck. We looked like low riders all the way back to Texas. Now that is true love to me my friends. When a man does something for you that goes against his better judgment and does it for you anyway, you know that he loves you. Let me clarify that statement by saying of course, nothing that would be considering breaking the law in case any of you get any ideas, ha ha.
When Jay entered the house last Monday and asked, “Okay, Kathy, where do you want your rocks.� I, as pleased as punch, walked out the door, down the drive to point and instruct the placement of the behemoth boulders.
Once when on a trip home to visit family in Kansas my Daddy, Jay and I went for a drive out in the Flint Hills of Kansas. As we drove by Eureka Lake, I told them the spillway had some amazing sedimentary rocks just full of fossils. We pulled in and stopped for a look/see. We walked down the dirt road to the spillway before the dam and it was as dry as a bone. As I looked over the vast amounts of shale slabs that amounted to the dried up creek bed Jay looked up at me and said, “Oh no, I know exactly what you are thinking. There is no way Kathy we can get one of those rock slabs up that hill into your dads S.U.V.�
I did not say a word. I just put on my pouty face and pointed. My daddy went, “What are you talking about? Rocks! Surely, you don’t mean�. He stopped mid-sentence as he watched Jay walk over to one of the slabs, tilt the massive rock up on its side, and proceed to roll it rather clumsily up the hill. My daddy jumped in to join him. I bounded up the hill to unlock the Mountaineer and get the back ready for the huge rock slab. It would just fit if I could just move some of the tools to the middle seat. That rock is now the coffee table in my great room of our house. I look at it every morning as I drink my first cup of coffee. As I read in my favorite burgundy winged back chair I glance up now and then to admire this grand work of nature.
Everybody in the world knows that I am obsessive/compulsive about books, but rocks? They are all over my house plus bird nests, interesting sticks, and jars of sand. I even have one of the weathered boards of my grandparent’s home place hanging on my wall and a burned out brick from the house in the window box above my kitchen sink. An old bottle of dirt from “Outhome� as we call it sits on my table to remind me of where I come from in case I ever get too big for my britches.
My big dream is to climb Ayer’s Rock in Australia. I ogled a real moon rock once at the Louisiana State Fair. The only problem with collecting rocks is it has taken its toll on my husbands back. He totes the rocks and books.
So the next time you want to know what love is, think of my nontraditional rock. For me there is nothing more sexy and endearing than a man lugging my books and hauling rocks. Looks like my 50th birthday is going to a grand one. The way I figure it, 50 to go and as long as my husband’s back holds out the next plan of action is a water feature by our front deck. Anybody know where we can get some really cool, big rocks?
Tiara wearing, Book, and Rock sharing,
Kathy L. Patrick
