Confusion—and a new phone
I really miss the days of the littles.
Why is nothing ever simple? Christianfound time today to go get me a new phone. Of course, he ran into troublebecause he wasn’t listed on my account, but they finally agreed to deal withhim since he had the password and all. Next, the old phone had no value.Meantime, my computer reminded me that Rosa was coming to cut my hair at two o’clock.I hadn’t heard from her in the weeks since we made that appointment, so Ireached for my phone to call and confirm. Oops! No phone. Rosa meantime was textingto tell me she’d be late. So Christian was trying to read her text, email me,and get it all straightened out. He emailed me that she was coming, but whenshe hadn’t gotten here by two-thirty I decided she’d run into trouble of somekind and wasn’t coming. I was ready for a nap. Rosa meantime was texting thatthe gate was closed, and Christian was emailing to tell me to open the gate—it wasalready open, and I never did figure out what that was about.
Long story short: tonight Ihave a new haircut and a new phone. I’m not sure if Christian has linked thehearing aids to the hone or not—that was the whole point of this. And some appshaven’t downloaded yet, though I suspect they are apps that we recentlyeliminated. I had a whole lot of junk on there I never use.
Next confusion: Subie and Philarrived for happy hour earlier than I thought they were coming, so I was scramblingto get out appetizers. And Sophie decided if there was company, it must be timefor her supper—and began to bark incessantly. Phil has recently developed areal sensitivity to her barking, so I was trying to quiet her, fix the food,serve the appetizers, and hang on to my own sanity. Yes, she is spoiled. Jordanwalked into the middle of all that and began to talk about multitasking. Iconsidered smacking her.
We have discovered a new bitof Sophie magic. She is bad about barking when there is company. It’s partly toget attention, but she also wants treats. I maintain she has learned that if shebarks, she gets a treat to quiet her—I attribute this partly to Jordan whothreatens to leave if the barking continues, a threat Phil now echoes. Imaintain I can’t keep giving her treats. Ever since her diagnosis of diabetes, Sophieis ravenous all the time and that’s not her fault, not anything to scold herfor—Jean tells me it’s that infinitesimal bit of prednisone she takes daily. Byaccident one night recently, I discovered that when she’s in a barking spell,if I put her leash on her, she settles down and is fairly docile. So I did thattonight, and she spent a bit of time curled up on the sofa next to Subie.Meanwhile, Phil’s seeing-eye dog wanted to stay in the yard, wouldn’t come in.Jordan’s theory was that he was on a work break. Christian tried to entice himin and said the dog looked at him like, “I don’t have to mind you.” When Philcalled him, he came right in.
In other news around thecottage, Jacob has been playing in a golf tournament this week. Monday, his teetime was early which was a blessing, but today it was eleven o’clock whichwould put him on the course in the hottest part of the day. His whole teamwithdrew from the tournament. Good for them! I know the tournament was probablyscheduled long before this unbearable heat was on the horizon, but one wondersthat the entire thing wasn’t cancelled Monday.
I read tonight that a coolfront will arrive Friday evening. It didn’t say how cool but indicatedtemperatures would be close to normal. That sounds like a relief to me. Andperfect timing. The whole family is arriving Friday, and there will be fifteenof us for dinner on the patio at Joe T.’s. Pray any possible thunderstorms holdoff. I am as one would expect greatly excited about having all of us together—wewill be missing Maddie, the oldest grandchild, who couldn’t get off work becauseshe had just taken time off to go to Italy for a wedding. I can understand herpriorities but am really sorry she won’t be with us. It will still be aglorious occasion.
The grands are all big now,with the youngest at sixteen and the oldest, twenty-three. I do miss the dayswhen we had all those littles around us, as the picture above testifies. Itpopped up on my computer this morning, and I remember distinctly it was amid-summer get-together when the Burtons lived on Mesa Drive and had a lovely,kid-friendly backyard—must have been about 2008. When the grands were littleand I lived in the main house, I could sleep everyone here (except the Burtonswho had their own house nearby), what with the cottage, which was then a guestapartment, the playroom in the back of the house, and a proper guest room. Nowthey will scatter to motels and getting them back together in the morning willbe like herding cats. But we will have a wonderful weekend.
Oops. I just looked up thatcool front—Saturday the temperature will be in the high nineties and then backup over a hundred. One relatively hot day, as compared to blisteringly hot, isnot much relief. Stay cool folks and drink that water.
