Gone Fishin'

I am at one of my Happy Places....... fishing with my dad!

I love walking into my parents' house because it just smells clean and looks very pretty. My mom has excellent taste in decor and it looks different this time because she has been painting.   There are always naughty snacks around, yummy dinners, and fresh, clean sheets.   It's really good to see them as it has been a while.  We are social distancing in the house, yes, and nobody has been out running around like an idiot for the past 9  weeks, so we're safe here.

As we visit, none of us  guarantees that we know what day of the week it is, but we definitely know what time it is as there are a hundred and nine clocks here and even if I don't have my glasses on, I can just look up at these clocks with the diameter of almost 3 feet and figure it out just fine.   There are many bells and whistles going off with everyone's text alerts and phone ring tones chiming, squawking, buzzing, etc.  I can't figure out if I am in some sort of fairy land or hell.  Depends if I have a migraine or not.   We have to speak loudly to the Giant (my dad)  who lives here if we expect any kind of coherent answer.  There is no hen that lays golden eggs, but the mother hen makes a mean scrambled eggs and sausage for breakfast!  There are no magic beans to throw out the window that grow into a gargantuan stalk, but the chipmunks dig up only the yellow flowers every night so my mom has to plant them again!  There is also a raccoon that steals the hummingbird feeder if my dad forgets to bring it in overnight.  This place is hilarious!   Amazing birds visit every day.  Redheaded Woodpeckers, Downy Woodpeckers, Orioles, Cardinals, Blue Jays, and today a Scarlet Tanager! My father is a birder and he taught our daughter from the age of 2 to be one as well. She is a photographer and a birder and she is now a college student once again.  We are thrilled and so proud of her and how far she has come since battling a serious illness  that stole way too many years of her young life.  We celebrate victories big and small here in our home.  We share them with those closest to us who know the struggle is real and love us anyway.

During this visit, my mom does have to remind my dad of some things such as the technique of coughing into his elbow.  He doesn't like that she bosses him, so he teased and said she was mean.  I eyed the big old cheeseboard with a handle on it that my mom uses as the base of a centerpiece for the large dining table and it is obvious to me as it sounds to you that it looks like a giant paddle.  I picked it up.  It's quite thick and  heavy and I  swung it gently toward my mom's rear end  as my dad was looking on.  He replied, "It aint big enough for the job."   We all died laughing.

When the fish aren't biting, we nap, read, and visit.  My mom had to walk down to their sweet hippie neighbor's house to get some paperwork from him.  My dad said she wasn't fooling anyone and he knew she was going down there to smoke pot with their friend.  Laughing! 

Both of my parents were thrilled to hear that the trees and/or Rose of Sharon sticks that we planted in my yard last fall finally look like something other than snowman arms.  I texted my mom last week and said that my snowman arms finally have little  green leaves on them!  I sent a snowman emoji and a leaves emoji to her.  She replied with about 15 emojis representing some kind of celebration  at the good news and then she included this:   And  "insert middle finger emoji" to all the doubters and Christopher, too!  HAHAHAHA    So there is the update I promised you all last year on the tree planting and the stranger who almost talked my mom into taking him to the big city.  He tried a repeat performance a month or so ago when he showed up in our backyard again and I heard him yelling at his caregivers trying to corral him back in to their car. 

And now, guess where I am headed..........