Monday, May 21, 2001 - Moos & Meows, Mice & Mallards

Our house is not very far from the Sales Pavilion, where there are almost always lots of cattle, and plenty of horses with which to round up the dogies.

Last Sunday night as I was walking home from church with Victoria, her small nose began twitching quite on the order of Peter Rabbit’s, and she said, “Pewww!  It smells like cows out here!”  She barely got that out of her mouth when we heard a low-pitched bawl: MooooooOOOOooooo.

“And it sounds like cows out here!” she finished.  

         Tuesday I got a few rolls of pictures back from Wal-Mart and put them into albums.  I am nearly done with Volume 102, the new album Dorcas gave me for Mother’s Day.  

         I am still in the process of cleaning the basement, which includes washing a lot of stored clothes and stuffed toys that I want to give to the Salvation Army.  There are also clothes Hester and Lydia have been needing, and quite a supply for Aaron, too.  But while I am busy cleaning away downstairs, guess what’s happening upstairs?

         I brought some things up to Victoria’s room--and every time I step into it, it seems it is in worse shape than the time before.  

        “This room looks awful,” I complained, rather bent out of shape.  

         Victoria nodded.  “Everything is all scattered up,” she agreed congenially.  

         One afternoon I was downstairs sorting and scrubbing, sweeping and scouring…and then I reached for a box on a shelf…and…guess what I found, guess what I found!  I found my silver tea set.  Yes, the silver tea set we hunted and searched for when Keith and Esther got married, and again when Bobby and Hannah got married, so that they could use it on the bridal table at church.  Well, here it is.  

        “Oh, neat!” said Dorcas.  “I need to get married now!”  She gazed out the window with a pensive expression.  “Let’s see,” she contemplated, “whom shall I marry?”  

         Wednesday evening Dorcas made banana muffins for Caleb’s class picnic the next day, and I put cream cheese frosting on them.  They smelled scrumptious…so I slathered one with cream cheese icing (three inches deep for me, thank you) (and besides, nobody was looking) and gobbled it down.

         Thursday, while Caleb’s class went to Pawnee Park for lunch, Hester and Lydia’s class went on a field trip to a local manufacturing company called Camco.  Their teacher’s son works there, and the children always enjoy touring the facility.  Camco makes the insides of car seats.  A squadron of robots does a good deal of the work, including welding pieces and parts together.

 

         It was a nice day…  so Victoria and I went for a bike/carriage/cart/whateveritis ride.  About the time we got home, the children returned from their picnics and field trips.  Caleb came home from the park even more sunburnt than Hester and Lydia did last week, when they had their picnic, I think.  

          The children’s stories sounded like such fun, we packed up our supper and went to eat supper at the park.
 

        

I was watching a mallard drake swimming across the pond, wondering if he would come close enough that I could get a good picture of him…when all of a sudden I saw them: a mallard hen with maybe eight ducklings, waddling grandly across the little hill, heading for the pond. 

You should’ve seen my camera flying out of my case and getting a bigger lens snapped onto it.  By the time the flash was attached, I think the poor thing’s mirror had gotten itself plumb destabilized. 

Now, on the side of the pond where we were, there are no large trees; but on the other side, there are several big Douglas firs.  The perfect place to hide, and sneak up on the ducks!  I was off and running. 

I took a wide swath around the pond and then headed back toward it, keeping the trees between Mrs. Duck & Company and me. 

Closer... closer... closer...  I stopped running and tiptoed. 

  

And I got ’em.  I got at least half a roll of good pictures, I think, I hope.  I even managed to get the drake in a couple of them.  I was using my 80-300mm zoom lens, set on 300mm most of the time.  I wish it had not have been so nearly dusk out, so I could have used my 600mm lens…but it was too dark for that. 

It was my sister Lura Kay’s birthday, so the children took some gifts to her--and came home with two kinds of cake:  chocolate bundt, made by my niece Katie; and rhubarb, made by another friend.  We are not big cake lovers…but the chocolate was okay, especially after I put a large dollop of cream cheese frosting on it.  The rhubarb…well…  

Caleb said quietly to Victoria, “I don’t care much for rebar cake.”  He took another bite and wrinkled his nose.  “Especially this one.”

He had a point.

One evening Larry vacuumed off a couple of high shelves for me, and then I painted the shelves on the south half of the ‘shelf room’.  In order to paint the top shelf, I have to stand on the edge of the second shelf, hang onto the rim of the top shelf with one hand, and dangle there like a spider monkey while I paint with the other hand.  I kept my tail wrapped around a branch, just in case.

When I finished, I came upstairs to wash the brush...happened to look in the mirror, and discovered that I’d painted the tip of my nose and one curl on top of my head.  

“Reckon I’ll make a unique fashion statement at the graduation ceremonies tomorrow evening?” I asked Lydia.  “Does Wite-Out remove white paint?”

The rest of the night was spent as profitably as the first part:  I chased the horrid yellow neighbor cat down the alley, shot Kitty off the hood of the Suburban with a water gun (although there was more air than water in it) (which was okay, since she was behaving with more felinity than malice), started a load of small tennis shoes and size three-month baby boy clothes in the washer (all for a Very Good Purpose, mind you), and ate a banana muffin with more cream cheese frosting than muffin, which is the right way for a banana muffin to be. 

I washed it down with diet Dr. Pepper, which, as you may know, removes the calories from any food eaten in the preceding 30 minutes. 

And then it was bedtime--but I accidentally stuck my nose into a couple more boxes downstairs and discovered I just couldn’t keep from sorting and washing the things I found therein.  

         Friday Bobby and Hannah went to Dr. Luckey; Baby Aaron is gaining weight!  He weighs 10 lbs. 14 oz, meaning he has gained more than a pound a week during the last two weeks.  His cheeks and hands are plumper, and he seems more contented.  Hannah is quite relieved.  

         He throws up now and then…and I don’t mean “spits” up.  Most of my babies did that; it’s rather distressing, but they seem to thrive in spite of themselves, poor little things.  It’s particularly trying when the baby has just had a bath and is all nice and clean, has had his bottle and is starting to fall asleep--when out of the blue, ker-BLOOSH!!!  Up comes everything, and baby is once more wide awake, hungry again, and all messed up and in need of another bath.  

        Baby Aaron seems to be laboring under the opinion that babies need sleep only rarely; and when babies don’t sleep, neither do mothers.  And, as usual when she doesn’t get enough sleep, Hannah’s been having troubles with asthma.  And then, to make matters worse, Wednesday she got the flu.  I got her some jello and Gatorade.  She was better by the next day, but she is still wheezing.

        School was dismissed at 12:00 Friday; the younger three children are all done--Summer Vacation has begun!  Joseph still has one more week to go.  Our Wednesday evening church service was moved to Friday, when we had the graduation ceremony and a reception after the service. 

       The young people played their horns and violins, and some of the children sang.

       There was a reception in the church basement afterwards.  We sat at a table with John and Bethany, Bobby’s parents.  Perhaps I have told you, Bethany is our Biology and Science teacher.

It is always enjoyable visiting with them.  They are downright funny.  One of the girls who was waiting tables came round with a pitcher of punch and asked Bethany if she wanted some. 

“No!” exclaimed John, just as Bethany said, “Yes, please.” 

“Don’t give her any!” said John, “It makes her hyper!  She’ll be too wild to control.” 

Bethany reminded me of the time I brought some hideous perfume called ‘Green Apple’ to school--and we went from locker to locker dousing the boys’ coats with it.  Whewwweeeeee!  Did those boys ever smell.  John, I think, has not yet forgiven me for that.

Later that night, I chased the yellow cat away again.  He is going to really hurt our poor little Socks someday; Friday night he had the audacity to come right up to our front porch and attack him.  I went bombing out the door with more racket than finesse, and the yellow cat fled across the street toward Mama’s house.  I jumped off the porch and went after him, passing Socks at the bottom of the walk shaking his head as if he’d been hurt. 

“Poor little kitty!” I said as I flew past, and he answered “Meep!” in a pathetic tone, and sat up tall to watch the show.

Kitty unexpectedly came charging from the north side of Mama’s house, snarling and growling and yeowling horribly, running flank speed emergency right at the yellow cat, which of course put her on a path convergent with mine as I dashed after the beast.  Suddenly realizing that not only she was chasing that cat, she whirled around, hunkered down low, and hissed horribly at me. 

“It’s okay, Kitty; it’s just me,” I said as I went tearing past, and she straightened back up, put her plume of a tail high in the air, and sashayed home to see Socks, whom she has come to be quite fond of. 

I raced on after the yellow cat, who, after meeting up with Kitty, had taken a veering route between the church and Mama’s house.  When he got across the alley and hid somewhere around the neighbors’ garages, I stopped and came home again.  Ooooo…  What I wouldn’t have given for that big water blaster, loaded and primed! Why won't people fix their tomcats??!

Saturday, after filling the Suburban with all sorts of things to take to the Salvation Army, all of us but Teddy and Joseph crammed in and went for a ride.  We first headed for the Salvation Army to unload our unwanted paraphernalia--clothes, stuffed toys, walkers, strollers, and high chairs.  A quick stop at Wal-Mart to drop off Dorcas’ film, and then we were off to Ox-Bow Pioneer Memorial Park. 

This is a small drive-through park just this side of Bellwood where there are a couple of covered wagons, yokes of oxen, pioneers, Indians, and wolves--all carved from wood.  They are arranged around a picturesque pond in a small valley, all planted right in the middle of the cornfields.  Ducks, geese, colorful chickens, and guineas wandered around a nearby farm, and Caleb and Victoria laughed when they got an eye-level view of the ducks going bottoms-up, giving us a clear shot of their fast-paddling, bright orange feet.  

A steady rain was coming down, dimpling the ponds, and I wished for a rain jacket for both my camera and myself, so that I could properly take photos in the falling rain.

That evening, the children were watching a video of WWII.  An army jeep and trailer sailed wildly over a big hump, tires clearing the ground by a good three feet.  

“Wow!” I exclaimed, turning around just in time to see the vehicle flying through the air.  “What are they doing??!!” 

Joseph replied nonchalantly, “Oh, they had places to go, and people to see.” 

Tonight Victoria was watching Dorcas crochet a thick potholder.  Her crochet hook flew in and out of the loops of yarn, and Victoria asked, “Do you have to do that as fast as you can?”

We’ve been reading about the plagues God sent the Egyptians when Pharaoh wouldn’t let the people go.  Those plagues were justly sent upon them for their cruelty to the Israelites.  Furthermore, the Lord plagued them with the very things they worshipped.  The Nile, for example, the river of Egypt, was their idol--and so were frogs and flies, and a whole lot of other things, besides. 

As it was with them, so God often justly takes that very thing which we idolize from us, or makes it unsavory to us.  The Egyptians had stained the river with the blood of the Hebrews’ children, and God made that river all blood.

Just so, it is sin that turns our ‘waters’ into blood.

I have now downloaded a Bible Library with six different Bible versions, Matthew Henry’s commentary on the entire Bible, Morris’ Book Synopsis, Strong’s Concordance, and Easton’s Bible Dictionary (along with several other dictionaries, including Greek and Hebrew [how will I read those?]) onto my computer.  There are theological dictionaries, other commentaries, study Bibles and reference Bibles on the disk, but they are ‘locked’, and I would have to call an 800 number and pay $39.95 for them to ‘unlock’ all that data so I could use it.  The original disk cost $10.  They’ve figured out a nice little racket for themselves, haven’t they?  Do you suppose a crowbar would work just as well?  And shouldn’t I use it on the creator of the disk, rather than the disk itself?

Time to go to the bank…and I’m quite sure I heard a carton of chocolate milk over at UnSmart Foods calling me.  So I’d better go see what it wants.