Today is Middle Son’s birthday. I have a post planned, but the pictures are in limbo between the scanner and my computer—who knows the ways and means of keystrokes and household network quirks. We will be going over to see him on Saturday (and playing mail carrier). He even arranged his work schedule to accomodate our arrival! We will take him out to supper and fill his grocery cart as a gift.
Even on the last day of Spring Break, Husband and I went to breakfast up the street at McD’s. There is a man there, I’d say probably every morning, with a very dog-earred Bible. He is a nice guy, not pushy or sermonizing, this just happens to be the quiet place where he has landed. I see him around town, at the historic theatre with his wife, at the coffee shop.
This morning he had a younger man and a toddler as his guests. The staff of McD’s were oohing and ahhing over the little girl. Like I said, he’s a Regular.
Husband looked at the profiles, with the sun of the window as a backdrop, and commented that they are definitely related, they have the same chin. Then I remembered one evening last summer at Open Mic when they were bragging about the grand-daughter who came up from St. Louis.
The little girl was smiling at me and forgetting her pancakes. What a cutie! And the child has the same blue color eyes as the older gentleman.
I had to go over and ask, and yes, that is the very one. They couldn’t believe I would remember such a little baby, all these months.
It reminded me of last year at the Mennonite Relief Sale. I was looking at stuff in the crafts booth and a baby’s face came within my range of vision. I smiled and said “Hi, E~~” without even thinking. The shoulder holding the baby did quite a dip, away from me. I realized that it was a man’s shoulder, and a bit taller than usual. Sure enough, I knew the baby, but she was being held by a fellow I figured immediately was her grandpa. He was Very Suspicious of this weird woman until the mother came around the table and made explanations about daycare teacher and how unusual to see someone she knows in such a crowd.
After breakfast, I had to take my donations for the Sale over to the church. Besides the baby afghan, I baked two loaves of banana nut bread. I ran out of energy and was low on flour before I got to the oatmeal cookies.
There will be a next time, I’m sure.
There were people there at 4:30 am to be baking shoo-fly pies in the kitchen of the building. Another group had done 70 rhubarb pies last evening. The way I understand that one is that someone grows the rhubarb in her garden all last Spring and Summer, brings it inside and prepares and measures just the correct amount into bags for the freezer, where they stay until needed.
She then makes arrangements for workers to meet and do the pie crusts and the rest of ingredients and packaging and labeling. For Seventy pies.
There are so many other baked goods and handcrafts. Vans full of carefully labeled boxes driving with caution across town.
Mennonite Relief Sale
I don’t usually go over for shopping until Saturday morning. After all these weeks of prep, the day itself seems like a bit of afterthought. Almost feels like the Christmas season.
When I got home, I found Husband doing yard work. The weather was fine for it, so I changed my shoes and got out the rake and wheelbarrow. So many sticks and branches to be carried to the curb. He even climbed up onto the roof and cleared debris from the gutters.
The bluebells are about 2 inches high, and the violets are just peeking green when we raked the mess away.
The piles at the corner are so tall I am thinking that cars might have a hard time watching for traffic.
The neighbor who worries about real estate appearance stopped his truck just as I was dumping the last of it. He asked if I hire out for a paycheck.
“Hell NO, one property is enough to care about”.
I’m going to take a MOTRIN and a short walk. Sitting here is getting my muscles all stiff. They are not usually working so hard in one day.
~~love and Huggs, Diane
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