I have alerted my household that if anyone needs my help with something they can’t do for themselves, I will help them as part of the process of teaching them how to do it for themselves. In all other matters though . . .
Until further notice, I’m on strike, so even if you won’t excuse me, I’m off to play games, watch videos, and otherwise do absolutely nothing that I don’t want to do.
(Another paraphrased encounter with L’s Mother.)
“Since you said you were going to wait until your foot was better to move the trampoline, I was going to move it for you,” she told me this morning. “Then I realized if I could move it, you could move it, and you probably meant you were waiting to move it until you could use it again.”
She was right too.
(The following is paraphrased, but still an accurate representation of what I took away from the event.)
“You were wonderful last night,” L’s Mother told me with a loving smile early Saturday morning.
Now it’s not that I’ve never heard that sentiment before, but this time it confused me. “All we did last night was sleep,” I reminded her.
“Yeah . . .” she sighed with contentment.
While L’s Mother and I generally consult with each other on household decisions, if she tells you “I don’t think so,” do yourself a favor and do not then ask if “her husband” is around.
Lala visited us recently.
When it came time for her to leave yesterday, the heavens raged at her departure.
Today the heavens weep still.
The heavens here are really dramatic.
Did you know that when you injure yourself, a little countdown starts toward the inevitable time that a family member forgets about said injury and then accidentally inflicts a shocking amount of pain on you?
Sunday’s Plan (Before the start of school):
Be sure to get the house ready later this week before Mom’s visit.
Thursday’s Plan (After days of literal back to school headaches):
Unlock the door when she knocks.
L. (Age 7): Sometimes I lose my mind and don’t know what I’m saying.
Me (Age “Old enough to know better, but young enough to go for the joke anyway to see if his mother is listening.”): You get that from your mother!
L’s Mother (Age “Ageless”): Did you just say he gets that from me? I was going to say that!
Yesterday I learned that when she was 13 my mother “borrowed” her Dad’s car and drove it around the block.
All her arguments about my behavior as a child are now invalid.
Some time back I mentioned my grandmother and her fears. What I didn’t mention specifically then was that I saw her fears eat her alive sometimes because she was imaginative enough to see possibilities, but not grounded enough to see probabilities.
That’s why the ability to make that distinction is so important to me.
Like my grandmother, I don’t like being in front of windows, particularly when it’s dark outside and I’m backlit, because I feel like I’m just making the shot a little too easy to make. But unlike my grandmother, I can recognize that feeling as an imaginative possibility, not a probability that a shot is actually about to be fired.
With that said, I once had a great-uncle who was shot (non-fatally) on his porch because some kids with no concept of ricochet were shooting at turtles about a mile away, so . . . you know . . .
