We went to visit my parents on Saturday. Daddy's birthday is this week - he'll be 90 years old. He looks great! He's in wonderful spirits, and he is totally compos mentis.
Earlier in the week, one of my sibs called Mom to see how she was doing. Turns out Mom was shampooing the carpet - don't all 87-year-old women shampoo carpets all the time? Maybe I'll do it too, when I'm 87.
At any rate, she told my sib that she was having a hard time cleaning the carpet around my Dad, cuz he wouldn't move.
The she said, "He passed, you know."
After a shocked silence, my sib said, "Daddy's dead?
And Mom said, "No. He took his driving test today and he passed."
My sib was so relieved that much laughter ensued. Then the story was told while the rest of us were there, and we laughed and laughed...
Mosaicking: I told you before how marvelous my mother is at making mosaics. They are TRULY something to marvel over, as you can see here.
The back story on this particular mosaic is that my brother finally finished his recreation room, and C.M. Coolidge's paintings of dogs playing poker seemed to fit the poker/pool hall theme.
When my sister-in-law asked Mom to do it, Mom was astonished. She appreciated the faith in her talent, but didn't think she could possibly do it justice.
So she sat around and thought about it...
and reasoned it out...
and figured out how to do it.
Then she did it.
That's what my Mom does. First she figures something out...and then she does it.
Me, I like to slapdash my way into something. What, think first? Are you kidding? I want to ignore the instructions, not acknowledge any difficulty, and just do it. If I have to think of any of those things, it will become a burden, and I won't be able to do it at all, at all. And I want to do it. So I ignore any obSTACKles in my path, and do what I want to do.
Relatively competently.
And with aplomb.
We forgot to sing that one, which is odd since it's one of the few we probably DO know most of the lyrics to. Ah, well. Not as young as we once were. The old brain cells are popping away like crazy. Wonder if we'll be compos mentis when we're 90? or totally non.
They just don't make 'em like they used to.
"'em" being us.
mj
ps the worms are doing quite well! And I was right - my neighbor was totally freaked by the idea of worms in the house. She came to accept it - but I don't think she'll ever want to see them.
*Me & Bobby McGee - words & music by Kris Kristofferson
Earlier in the week, one of my sibs called Mom to see how she was doing. Turns out Mom was shampooing the carpet - don't all 87-year-old women shampoo carpets all the time? Maybe I'll do it too, when I'm 87.
At any rate, she told my sib that she was having a hard time cleaning the carpet around my Dad, cuz he wouldn't move.
The she said, "He passed, you know."
After a shocked silence, my sib said, "Daddy's dead?
And Mom said, "No. He took his driving test today and he passed."
My sib was so relieved that much laughter ensued. Then the story was told while the rest of us were there, and we laughed and laughed...
...all except Daddy, who didn't find it as amusing as the rest of us did.
~~~
 |
| Based on painting by C. M. Coolidge |
The back story on this particular mosaic is that my brother finally finished his recreation room, and C.M. Coolidge's paintings of dogs playing poker seemed to fit the poker/pool hall theme.
When my sister-in-law asked Mom to do it, Mom was astonished. She appreciated the faith in her talent, but didn't think she could possibly do it justice.
So she sat around and thought about it...
and reasoned it out...
and figured out how to do it.
Then she did it.
That's what my Mom does. First she figures something out...and then she does it.
Me, I like to slapdash my way into something. What, think first? Are you kidding? I want to ignore the instructions, not acknowledge any difficulty, and just do it. If I have to think of any of those things, it will become a burden, and I won't be able to do it at all, at all. And I want to do it. So I ignore any obSTACKles in my path, and do what I want to do.
Relatively competently.
And with aplomb.
~~~
After lunch, we kids went to my brother's house to hang out and drink wine. We had an excellent time - he played his guitar and we sang the few lyrics we could agree on of songs we sort of knew."Busted flat in Baton Rouge,
waiting for a train..." *
We forgot to sing that one, which is odd since it's one of the few we probably DO know most of the lyrics to. Ah, well. Not as young as we once were. The old brain cells are popping away like crazy. Wonder if we'll be compos mentis when we're 90? or totally non.
They just don't make 'em like they used to.
"'em" being us.
mj
ps the worms are doing quite well! And I was right - my neighbor was totally freaked by the idea of worms in the house. She came to accept it - but I don't think she'll ever want to see them.
*Me & Bobby McGee - words & music by Kris Kristofferson
No comments:
Post a Comment