Month: August 2011

Teacher Girl and her Prince Charming were feeling the need to share the love, and so they adopted a puppy.  Butters is her name, and she is about the cutest dog in the land.  They’ve all been learning to get along, but with both of them at work all day, Butters needed some company and that’s how she ended up with me the other day.

Whoa.  Whoa.  Whoa.

Henry and I spend our days as pretty laid back roomies.  We walk in the morning and then he sleeps for the rest of the day.  I putter, I do some laundry, do some stuff for the next Prairie Girls sale, do the checkbook, freak out about money, do some writing.

Butters is of a different mindset.  From the second she walked in the door, she was looking for excitement.  WHAT ARE WE GONNA DO, HUH?  GO FOR A WALK?   I’M GONNA EAT THE CAT FOOD.  I’M GONNA EAT HENRY’S FOOD.  YOU DON’T MIND IF I PEE IN THE HOUSE, DO YOU?   LET’S GO FOR A WALK.  HEY, I CAN HELP YOU FOLD THE TOWELS.  YOU HAVE TO GO TO THE BATHROOM?  DON’T MIND ME WHILE I COME WITH YOU.   I’M GONNA WALK AROUND WITH THIS PENCIL IN MY MOUTH.  WE BETTER GO PICK UP MALLIE BEE.   YOU LOOK LIKE YOU NEED MY HELP DRIVING.  CAN WE GO FOR A WALK?  HUH?  CAN WE?   LET’S MAKE SOME DINNER.  SOUNDS LIKE THERE’S TROUBLE OUT BACK.  I’LL BARK AT NOTHING TIL YOU YELL AT ME.  I KNOW SOMETHING WE COULD DO.  WE COULD GO FOR A WALK. 

A few hours of that and I sat on the couch and fell asleep.  Thankfully, Butters did the same.  A whopping ten minutes later and she was up and at ’em again.  I took her to my neighbor’s house who also has a dog with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder and they ran for an hour straight in the backyard.  This will wear her ass out.   No sirree, she still had some deposits left in the energy bank, but, thankfully Teacher Girl arrived on the scene.

I can’t say I’ll never have her over again because her cuteness more than makes up for her ADHD.  Henry, on the other hand, had enough of this little piss ant bugging him and wouldn’t so much as acknowledge her for the most part.  But, oh that Butters, she doesn’t tolerate being ignored and got up in his business until Henry showed her who runs this house.  And what a surprise, the little Butterball didn’t take the hint.

For the last year, I’ve picked up Mallie Bee on the same street.  Every day, 2:45.   Usually around one of these signs posted on the street.  I’ve got the company of other parents, as well, and a new mom asked me if it was o.k. to pick up there considering the signs.  Sure thing, I said, nobody cares.  Nobody cared until a couple of days later when the Popo pulled up next to me and said…..

Ma’am you can’t park here.  Oh, I can’t?

Do you see the signs?  I do, Officer, but I’m not parking. 

Ma’am, you’ll have to move, we’re trying to prevent cars from getting stacked up.  You mean all five of them.

You can park one block over, but not here.  And the difference would be? 

The difference would be that there aren’t any no parking signs there like the one right in front of you.   Duly noted, Deputy Fife.

Eight no parking signs on a residential side street kicking everybody out where a current or former president does not live.  Overkill, City Council, overkill.  I told the Beester we’ll give it a couple of weeks and lay low and then I’ll go back to picking her up in the usual spot.  The Popo may have the stinkin’ badges, but I’ve got my stinkin’ rights and pay my stinkin’ taxes.  Just like the Tea Party, I’m going to start a movement and parking rules are just the tip of the iceberg.  

The Big Daddy and I have rarely taken the kids and gone on vacation.  We have squirreled our money away to make sure they can go to college, and that has meant that the fun, expensive stuff doesn’t happen very often.  In fact, it happens about every five years.  But, oh my, when we do go we appreciate every second of it.  This trip was just about perfect – a wedding, our Lake Michigan, perfect weather, sweet little beach town, some boating, some cocktails, good grilling and great roomies.  The pics…………..

Chicks in good clothes and nice shoes.

Big Daddy & The Captain looking like badasses in their vintage hats.

BD telling the table that everything he does makes it on the blog.  Yep.

The cousins table.  They had the fever.  Dance fever.

Teacher Girl & Prince Charming – they’re next @ “I do.”

Menfolk making breakfast.

Rough water, riptides, crazy people in the water.

I can ride a bike.  I did ride a bike.  I loved riding the bike.

Crashing waves……cool, real cool.

I loved this house.  I stalked this house….on my bike.

Little Dancer becomes Little Mermaid

The Boy Child in action.

You know you’re on vacation when there’s a lighthouse.

Every day, same seats.

The Captain, Tennille & The Big Daddy

Lotto win + beach rental = maybe next year.

The starting shortstop for the Chicago Cubs, Starlin Castro, was benched this week for not paying attention.  While he was supposed to be watching the infield and the ball in play, he was looking at the sky, standing with his glove off and eating sunflower seeds.

Is this guy ADD, the press wanted to know.  Nah, he’s just a Cubs player.  The Cubs haven’t won the World Series since 1902 and are currently in 5th place.  They almost always end the year in 5th place.  If they manage to get any higher, it’s kind of a big deal and labeled a pretty good season.

If you are a Cubs fan, you understand losing.  Watching a major league baseball player staring off into space reminds us of ourselves while we’re at work, and it’s why we’ve been known to call in sick and head to the ballpark to see how the pros do it.

“Losing is like a disease, as contagious as the bubonic plague.”

My dad worked for the Edison Company in Chicago for more than 40 years.  He was in charge of safety for the company.  When a guy climbed a poll to restore electricity, my dad was the one who made sure he was trained and knowledgeable in the work he was doing so that he didn’t electrocute himself.  Early in his career, he had to make a house call to a young wife to deliver the news that her husband had died on the job, and that’s the kind of thing that stays with you always. 

We have wicked storms here in Kansas.  Everything you have ever read about them is true, and because of that, it’s not unusual to lose our electricity.  One time it was out for seven days, another time five.  We’ve always toughed it out and managed to get along, but when those power trucks start rumbling into the neighborhood, you want to kiss the ground they roll in on.

Because of a lifetime of my dad’s stories, I’ve never taken them for granted or the people behind the scenes who worry about them until they return to the station.  They are old-fashioned cowboys in these modern times we live in, working long and hard doing dangerous work storm after storm.  And, yes, they do save the day.

We had a doozy of a storm here the other day.  I slept through the entire thing, which is highly unusual.  To sleep, that is.  When we woke up late the following morning, we discovered the power had gone out during the night which was why the alarm never went off.  I made a coffee run while The Big Daddy was in the shower and although our street was fine, all around us trees were down.

Two days later, BD and I took the long way home from church and did a tour of the area.  Oh geez,  it was crazy how much damage there was and the randomness of it.  One side of the street would be fine and the other side looked like somebody took a wrecking ball to every tree.

We couldn’t believe we slept while this was going on, but that’s how we roll lately.  Maybe in our youth we might have been storm chasers, going out to see nature do its ass kicking, but age and wisdom have caught up with us. 

Now we’re damage gawkers and that means we’ve officially crossed over to the other side.  The old people side.