Sunday, August 19, 2007
Interlude w/5 Women
It's 3:00 on a semi-fine Sunday afternoon and Bookworm and I are back to being a two-person household. Granddaughter Rachel, who has been with us for the past six weeks, has sallied off to get herself established back up at Ferndale ... where it is her plan to be a starving musician, maybe working part-time in the school system, maybe giving lessons in the percussive arts. It will be a shock to our systems to be suddenly deprived of her presence, her help, her humor, and her occasional cooking. And she painted most of the inside of our house while she was here ... and carried out the garbage ... and made sure the house was properly locked up at night. In her first week here, she slipped seamlessly into the currents of our life and became an operating, embedded family member. It was kind of amazing -- really.
Daughter Erin and granddaughters Michal and Jessica arrived here late Thursday morning and stayed until Saturday morning. So, with Bookworm and Rachel included, I was seriously interluding with five women ... wife, daughter and three granddaughters. Such is the fate of Man (man) ... if he plays his cards right.
The door to our laundry room met a sad end. Too many coats of paint - and the last coat appeared to be 'sliding' down the door to form stacks of paint wrinkles. Last weekend, Angela and Charlie came by and hung a new door on the room. And yesterday, Rachel unmounted it and hauled it out to the back yard where she comandeered her sister Michal's help in applying a few coats of stain. In the photo above, I accidentally caught them in a flicker of syncronized staining.
I held up pretty good (in my opinion). Friday night I even managed to play two games of pinochle, partnered once with Rachel and once with Michal and won both games. Michal was bragging me up, saying "Grandpa always wins, no matter who he plays with. No one seemed to notice that I bid and made only one hand all evening and for the rest of it, rode my granddaughter's shirttails to victory. Earlier in the day we had played a couple games of Apples 'n Apples out on the deck. Grandpa did not win at that.
It does seem like I arise each morning with a specific allotment of energy and when that is used up, no matter what time of day, I crash rather quickly. Bookworm has learned to read the signs of when that is beginning to happen. And takes care of me.
# posted by Clear Creek Girl : 2:57 PM
