A Three Act Play

Just when I think I've about got a handle on understanding my eccentric oldest son, I get to experience a new high. Imagine a parking meter post, without the parking meter. In other words, a pipe sticking out of the sidewalk where a parking meter used to be, about 3 inches in diameter. As you will note, the pipe has no end cap. This post is located in downtown Wichita near a busy street corner. And so, the story begins.

Characters: Mom, Bruce, Rebekah, Joshua, Daniel

Setting: Downtown Wichita, 12:30 pm, corner of Waco and Douglas

Occasion: Three adult children, grateful for their father's influence, guidance and fun times over the years, decide to take him out for lunch along with their mother and give him the Father's Day gifts they have purchased.

ACT 1

Scene 1

Mom: Here we are kids. This is where your dad would like to eat lunch.

(Parks the car along Waco, heading north.) Let's wait on the corner for him as he will be walking from work.

Kids: Swell!

Mom: Here comes father!

Kids: Father! (Hugs all around.)

Scene 2

Rebekah: Here you are dad. Presents new portable CD player.

Joshua: Here you are dad. Presents new coffee cup.

Daniel: I already gave you my gift ON the day. (A pair of khaki shorts.)

Bruce: Thank you! I'm so grateful for such wonderful children!

Scene 3

Mom: Joshua, why don't you take the gifts and put them in the trunk of the car. Here are the keys.

Joshua: Okay. (Walks to trunk, opens it, puts gifts in trunk. Closes trunk.)

ACT 2

Scene 1

Mom: Joshua, what are you doing? Let's go eat! (Pointing to the Broadview Hotel across the street.)

Joshua: Um, I have a problem. (Looking in parking meter pipe, laughing.)

Mom: What is it? (walking over to Joshua)

Joshua: I, um...(points in pipe).

Mom: Aaauuggghhh!

Scene 2

Mom surveys pipe. Keys are down in the pipe about 8 inches from the top of the pipe. Joshua is attempting to stick his hand down the pipe to retrieve the keys.

Mom: (Too dumbfounded to use any words to express thoughts.)

Daniel: HA HA!! Let me take a picture!

Rebekah: What have you DONE, you dork!

Bruce: Well, we gotta think of SOMETHING...

Scene 3

The family walks to the restaurant. Joshua is made to understand during the walk that he must figure something out to retrieve mom's keys. While waiting to be seated, Joshua asks the desk clerk for a wire coat hanger, and is informed that they only have wooden hangers in their hotel.

Joshua: Hmm. I guess I could walk back to the house and get a hanger.

Mom: I guess you could.

Dad: I'm hungry! It smells like chicken in here!

ACT 3

Scene 1

Joshua arrives about 30 minutes later with a wire hanger.

Dad: I'm going to watch this.

Daniel: I'm going to watch this.

Mom: I'm too nervous to watch.

Rebekah: I'll stay with you.

Scene 2

After several minutes, the men come back in the dining room triumphantly exalting over the successful fishing expedition.

Joshua: Look! (Waves keys at mom)

Mom: Great.

Joshua: We also fished around in the pipe for other stuff...(tosses a single key for some sort of briefcase on the table.)

Mom. Great.

THE END

Of wet carpets and city life

I'm sitting out here on my screened in porch, hoping that in this 90% humidity, my carpets I just had cleaned this morning will dry. We've been farkeling with carpet cleaning since Tuesday, when the guy started the job by spraying everything with "pre-treatment", then went out to start the steam machine, and it wouldn't stay running. Long story short, he finally came back this morning and finished the job, so since Tuesday morning, we've had things picked up and stacked waiting for the cleaning, now, we're still not put back together because it will be a YEAR before the carpet is finally dry. But it looks much better. I paid extra for "Scotchguard", but as I was writing the check out to the man, I wondered how I would know if he actually did "Scotchguard" as he said he would.

Rain, rain, and more rain. The yard is, in the next couple of days, going to get way out of control as I haven't been able to mow. Basements which never had problems with water seepage are flooding. Everything is damp, moist, and mildewy. Farmers are not able to get the wheat harvest underway. Even if they could get in the fields to cut the wheat, the grain would have too much moisture to be acceptable. What we need is, and I hate to say this, but it's true - we need about a week of 100 degree sunny weather. The farmers would love it, as would my wet carpeting.

As I'm sitting here, listening to the birds in the trees, I'm thinking that living here isn't so bad, then I become aware of all the other city noises crowding in around me. I am within about 6 city blocks of one of the busiest thoroughfares in this city, and there's always, 24 hours a day, the nondiscript sounds of thousands of cars a day from this road which wafts onto my peaceful porch. Then you've got helicopters circling, airplanes both commercial and military as McConnell is south and east of here, and if that isn't enough, there's a train crossing just 2 blocks away. For many years we had a fire station within what looks to me like a football field's distance away. You can almost always hear sirens, and let's not forget car radios as people drive by with their windows down. Do you ever get tired of noise? I do. If God's willing, and works it out, someday I hope to leave the cacophony of the city. I'll invite you to come out to my place. We'll sit on the porch and drink coffee, and take in the sounds of life away from Wichita. That'll be a welcome change.

Calling for volunteers

The mind is a terrible thing to waste. So they say. At the conclusion of this, my second week off work, I am getting caught up on journal readings and getting ready to do some research in the stacks at WSU. Another goal is to give the Stanford-Binet V at least 4 times this summer. (To that end, I need some SB-V guinea pigs. If you're interested, I need about 2 hours of your time, and, you will receive a small gift prize for participating.) For those of you school psychs reading this blog, what do you think of the SB-V, besides the obvious (cumbersome, complicated, many manipulatives to keep track of, etc.) I'd like to learn to give it so that it can be an option in some evaluations (there is no "standard battery"), but am also anxious to see what the DAS-II is going to be like. I have reservations about using the Wechsler in certain instances, so am needing to become more skilled with other instruments.

Here's a question for you, my readers, no matter who you are: What are you enjoying about your life right now? Or are you?

Weekly activities

The quest to document summer activities continues-when I go back and re-read this, I want to see how I spent my time and why it went by so fast.

This week I've sprayed weeds, am cleaning up flower beds, bought some flowers, and am clearing brush in the corner of the backyard. I need to do some trimming, and pile some things up to go to the dump. You might be interested in knowing that I have an old-fashioned clothesline in my backyard and I've got my sheets hanging out to dry! In this wind, it'll take about 5 minutes.

Let's see, yesterday I went to Harper with my brother to look over his property situation there - sad news all the way around. Let's just say that the world would be a better place if people actually did what they promised they would do.

I have a doctor's appointment this afternoon to discuss why I'm not feeling well a lot of the time-he's thinking it's a reaction to the cholesterol med. I'm hoping we can find a good solution to that problem.

The neighbor to the north of my house told me today that she noticed the license tag was missing from my husband's car on Sunday when she walked back from church. Great. Today's Wednesday. I called him at work, he went out to look, and sure enough, the tag is gone. So now it's off to Auto Zone where my son works to get some anti-theft lock screws, and to the tag place to get a replacement. This is the second tag we've had stolen in the last several months. And you wonder why I hate living in this neighborhood...

And that's about it. Oh, and Happy Birthday to my little brother who turns 47 today - he probably doesn't read this blog, but I'm so appreciative of him and his family. He's a great dad, a nice brother most of the time (!), intelligent, and works hard. Oh, and did I mention that he's pretty funny? He makes me laugh - (tee hee!)

Already Friday?

In my quest to note what I have done while on summer break, I will again bore you with trivial trivialities. This is actually just for me, so that I can look back and see that I really didn't while away the hours doing nothing.

Yesterday I had a bone density scan and an appointment with the doc to go over test results, which, I will write about on my other blog. Lunch with a friend followed that, then home for a little bit (long enough to read the paper), then off with my daughter to my little home town to collect the flowers from the cemetery that we placed there on Monday. Home, and to bed fairly early as for some reason, I was tired.

And, on my busy agenda today, I'm planning on a major shopping spree at the grocery store (haven't been major grocery shopping for weeks), a walk in the park, and working on assorted projects here at home (i.e., laundry, getting summer clothes out and winter clothes put away, etc.)

Just so you know, I'm not sitting around drinking a mai tai while a pool boy named Enrique fans me with a large palm leaf. (Although...hmm.)