Monday, May 01, 2006
Ratta-tat-tat the Sounds of Summer are Back!!!
(Rayna gathering flowers for her wedding. She worries daily about when she will be getting married and whom she will be marrying. She was devastated to learn that she couldn't marry her brother. In fact, that stirred up a whole episode of anxiety over WHO she could marry. She only relinquished that burden of worry once her mother promised that she would be happy to choose a husband for Rayna. I think we should get that in WRITING before she grows up and changes her mind!!! Darcy, meanwhile, still insists SHE is never going to get married...she is just going to build a house that connects to our house and fill her house up with dogs and cats!)
This morning I heard for the first time since late last fall, the familiar sound of summer...the ratta-tat-tatting of our tanniger upon the dining room window. Just as I was falling into nastalgia over the return of our tannigers, I heard from the northwest corner of our home the familiar sound of the woodpecker pecking away at our house. I hadn't heard our woodpecker since winter came, either!
Doug had blue-iced toaster streudels for breakfast this morning. While he was eating his breakfast, Rayna was playing outside. She came dashing in all a-glow over a skinny little earth-worm she had found.
Of course, she wanted to keep it for a pet. Her meanie mom made her take it back outside. Having to set her worm free, brought her mind back to the last pet she had been denied by her mother--the wild turkey that wandered through our yard. Once more she began lamenting the loss of her "pet bird". I tried to explain to her that wild birds of any kind do not make good pets. She insisted, "He would let me pet him if I pet him GENTLE!" No, I told her. He would still be terrified of her. She shook her head and argued, "No. If I said, 'Hello'....!" Well, of course! Why hadn't I thought of that? You just have to INTRODUCE yourself to wild animals and then they won't have a bit of fear of you!
Doug's first grade class had a pajama party not too long ago. Everyone got to wear their pajamas to school. Doug was delighted to wear his pajamas because they look just like Mr. Incredible's orange and black superhero suit. The first grade pajama party is a tradition at his school. I was glad he was able to wear Mr. Incredible pajamas...it made up for the fact that he missed getting to go to school the last day before Halloween when everyone got to wear their costumes part of the day. (I caught him sneaking one of his costumes to school a few weeks after the missed Halloween opportunity...I found it in his backpack when he got off the bus that evening. I wonder if he WORE it any that day? I was afraid to investigate any further!)
"Built-in-Obsolescence"...that must be the new catchphrase of our highschool curriculum these days. I hear teenagers/very-young-adults smuggling flourishing that term in their conversations with us 'elderly' everywhere from the McDonald's drive through to CompUSA. They utter is as though it will be something that a person my age will have absolutely no idea what it means and will therefore marvel at their intellectual prowess! I hear it so much that it must be inherent to the basic high school curriculum these days...even as all the technological gadgets are the norm now...things that didn't even EXIST when I was in school! Then there were the two young boys I saw a few days ago...they couldn't have been more than ten years old...they biked up to the ATM at our bank and proceded to put a debit card in and make a withdrawal and then one of them whipped out his cell phone to make a call! The world has certainly changed in the last thirty years!!!
(Sharing secrets...)
(Rayna musing upon all the pets she DOESN'T have that she could have had...a pet wild turkey that obviously wanted to be hers as he CAME right up to her front door(!)and the worm that looked so lonely as he burrowed back down into the mud this morning--rejected as a pet simply because Rayna's mom failed to recognize his shining personality and deeply embedded desire to spend the rest of his life in Rayna's palm...being affectionately stretched and rolled.) ¶ 5/01/2006 02:03:00 PM
(Rayna gathering flowers for her wedding. She worries daily about when she will be getting married and whom she will be marrying. She was devastated to learn that she couldn't marry her brother. In fact, that stirred up a whole episode of anxiety over WHO she could marry. She only relinquished that burden of worry once her mother promised that she would be happy to choose a husband for Rayna. I think we should get that in WRITING before she grows up and changes her mind!!! Darcy, meanwhile, still insists SHE is never going to get married...she is just going to build a house that connects to our house and fill her house up with dogs and cats!)
This morning I heard for the first time since late last fall, the familiar sound of summer...the ratta-tat-tatting of our tanniger upon the dining room window. Just as I was falling into nastalgia over the return of our tannigers, I heard from the northwest corner of our home the familiar sound of the woodpecker pecking away at our house. I hadn't heard our woodpecker since winter came, either!
Doug had blue-iced toaster streudels for breakfast this morning. While he was eating his breakfast, Rayna was playing outside. She came dashing in all a-glow over a skinny little earth-worm she had found.
Of course, she wanted to keep it for a pet. Her meanie mom made her take it back outside. Having to set her worm free, brought her mind back to the last pet she had been denied by her mother--the wild turkey that wandered through our yard. Once more she began lamenting the loss of her "pet bird". I tried to explain to her that wild birds of any kind do not make good pets. She insisted, "He would let me pet him if I pet him GENTLE!" No, I told her. He would still be terrified of her. She shook her head and argued, "No. If I said, 'Hello'....!" Well, of course! Why hadn't I thought of that? You just have to INTRODUCE yourself to wild animals and then they won't have a bit of fear of you!
Doug's first grade class had a pajama party not too long ago. Everyone got to wear their pajamas to school. Doug was delighted to wear his pajamas because they look just like Mr. Incredible's orange and black superhero suit. The first grade pajama party is a tradition at his school. I was glad he was able to wear Mr. Incredible pajamas...it made up for the fact that he missed getting to go to school the last day before Halloween when everyone got to wear their costumes part of the day. (I caught him sneaking one of his costumes to school a few weeks after the missed Halloween opportunity...I found it in his backpack when he got off the bus that evening. I wonder if he WORE it any that day? I was afraid to investigate any further!)
"Built-in-Obsolescence"...that must be the new catchphrase of our highschool curriculum these days. I hear teenagers/very-young-adults smuggling flourishing that term in their conversations with us 'elderly' everywhere from the McDonald's drive through to CompUSA. They utter is as though it will be something that a person my age will have absolutely no idea what it means and will therefore marvel at their intellectual prowess! I hear it so much that it must be inherent to the basic high school curriculum these days...even as all the technological gadgets are the norm now...things that didn't even EXIST when I was in school! Then there were the two young boys I saw a few days ago...they couldn't have been more than ten years old...they biked up to the ATM at our bank and proceded to put a debit card in and make a withdrawal and then one of them whipped out his cell phone to make a call! The world has certainly changed in the last thirty years!!!
(Sharing secrets...)
(Rayna musing upon all the pets she DOESN'T have that she could have had...a pet wild turkey that obviously wanted to be hers as he CAME right up to her front door(!)and the worm that looked so lonely as he burrowed back down into the mud this morning--rejected as a pet simply because Rayna's mom failed to recognize his shining personality and deeply embedded desire to spend the rest of his life in Rayna's palm...being affectionately stretched and rolled.) ¶ 5/01/2006 02:03:00 PM
