Monday, September 16, 2002 - Lost Glasses, Muddy Job Sites, & Pre-bridal Pictures

 To the friend to whom we sent flyswatters, etc.:         

          Please return the flyswatters; we are in dire need of them.  West Nile Virus is taking its toll across Nebraska, from east to west.  So much for these Cornhuskers sturdy!  Their old boots are stout only in aroma, it seems.

Blue jays are curling up their toenails and croaking right on our front lawns.  The jays are less jayish, and the crows are less cawish than ever before.  Horses are going to Nag Heaven (or maybe it’s ‘Nagless’ Heaven).  Over 1,000 horses have contracted West Nile virus, and the vets say that four in every ten horses that get it die.  About two dozen humans have caught the disease, two of whom have expired.  We must swat more mosquitoes, now!

Last Monday, Hannah came visiting with Aaron--and he was riding a little John Deere tractor that runs on batteries and goes when he pushes a button on the steering wheel.  In fact, it goes so abruptly that, every time he pushes the button and the tractor takes off, his head flies back from the momentum.

“He was quite amazed, the first time it happened!” laughed Hannah.

Bubbles can be poured into a receptacle on the tractor, and then when the vehicle goes, bubbles come billowing out of the smoke stack.  The ‘dip stick’ is a bubble wand.  Hannah got the tractor at a garage sale for $30; she’d been drooling over it in a catalog--and the original price was something like $179, I think.

This week, Larry, Teddy and several friends helped Keith re-shingle his hail-damaged roof.  The house is done now, and all that is left to do is the roof of the garage.

It was raining Tuesday morning when the menfolk went to work.  It had been raining all night, and Larry and Joseph wondered if they’d be able to work that day.  But it wasn’t long before the rain stopped, and it turned into a lovely day.  I spent it sewing Lydia’s dress for Teddy and Amy’s wedding, and washing clothes, finishing just before everyone took showers in the evening and threw their dirty clothes down the clothes chute, making it look as though I’d hardly done a speck of laundry for days.

The first order of business--sewing business, that is--was to take apart the back section of three-tiered skirt I’d already put together, shorten each piece, and put it back together again.  When I finally had it right, I attached it to the skirt front, then sewed skirt to top and put in the zipper.  Voilá!  All done.  And it fit, into the bargain.

I started on Hester’s dress, knowing I should shorten the tiers before sewing everything together, rather than after.  Easier that way, ’tis.

Right when it was time for the children to go back to school after lunch, Caleb was cleaning his glasses, and once again, they came apart.  They’ve been bent badly enough and often enough that the screw was all stripped out, and I couldn’t get it to tighten up.

“Just put your old ones on,” I told him all in a rush.

He scurried off to get them, and slid them on.  Then, squinting and holding his head, he said, “Ooooo!  These make my eyes and head hurt!”

Those old ones were stronger, because his eyes have improved.  But when first he got the new ones, he complained that he couldn’t see as well.  Evidently he has since adjusted.  So that wouldn’t do.

We rushed off to Wal-Mart to have a bigger screw put in his glasses.  He got back to school only four minutes late.  Luckily, we got the man at the eyeglass center instead of that ignorant lady (or maybe she’s just blind), who not only can’t tell when someone’s glasses are crooked, but also argues with me when I tell her they are.

“Really!” she says disdainfully, staring at the child, obviously thinking that I’m really too dumb for words.

“Yes, it’s really noticeable,” I tell her, staring at her, and she fixes them the way I want, just to get me to quit staring at her, I suppose.

But the man is fast and good at it, and doesn’t need to be told when glasses are whoppyjaw; he knows.

We had lasagna, peas, and just-out-of-the-oven bread for supper that evening, followed by crisp Fuji apples, which can’t be beat, in my estimation.  You ought to see how fast a hot loaf of bread can disappear around here.  Joseph, who sometimes  doesn’t eat enough to suit me, came home from work half starved half to death and proceeded to eat half a loaf or more.  Something on that order, anyway.

I started a couple more loaves rising, and then we drove out to Christine’s to take Daniel a birthday present.  He just turned seven.

The gift was a nerf football with rocket-like flared sides.  The children played with it on the front lawn for a few minutes, and I talked to Christine.  The sunset was gorgeous, with lavenders and blues and scarlets and magentas, gradually deepening to purples, indigoes, and burgundies.  But mosquitoes were swarming around little Joshua, and there is always the threat of West Nile Virus, especially since what's'ername hasn't sent me those flyswatters yet, so we said goodbye.

Early Wednesday morning, the sunrise was ablaze and even more spectacular than the previous night’s sunset had been, and I thought I would grab my camera and rush off to the river to take some pictures...but before I could get back to the Suburban, it all faded out.  Rats!  If I’d known it was going to look like that, I’d have been out somewhere lying wait for it!

Once again, it was raining Thursday morning; but it cleared up soon.  No such luck Friday morning; it went on raining all morning, till job sites were so muddy neither Larry nor Joseph could work.  Larry spent the morning selling a flatbed trailer and buying a set of good used tires and wheels for his pickup--$100 for all four, and they’ll last long enough to be well worth it.

I finished Hester’s dress that morning, suffering severe anxiety pangs over whether or not it would fit -- until she came home for lunch and I had her try it on.

It fit.

It fit perfectly, with a few millimeters to grow on.

I breathed a sigh a relief and took both dresses to Martha that afternoon so she can put chiffon and taffeta decorations of some sort on the shoulders.  She showed me one of the bouquets for the bridesmaids; they are dusty rose silk flowers, mostly roses, with all sorts of interesting little flowers and doodads added to the mix, very pretty.  They will set off the navy dresses dramatically.

That night, Teddy went off for his date, then stopped back after a while to see if Caleb wanted to come along and play with Kyle while Teddy and Amy cleaned the duplex.  Caleb did.

Teddy gathered together all sorts of cleaning supplies, along with my extendable duster and an armful of towels and rags.  (It just occurred to me, I have no idea if all that stuff came back home again, and if it did, is it lurking down in the hamper, industriously mildewing everything that comes in contact with it?!)

[Excuse me a moment while I go see...  If it is, I shall put it all into Teddy’s pillowcase.]

Teddy and Amy got their prebridal pictures back; they turned out very good.

When Larry came home from work Saturday afternoon, we went to Norfolk to take my old camera, a Minolta SPxi, to Camera Concepts to get it fixed.  Perhaps you remember, it quit working just a couple of weeks before Keith’s wedding, putting me into a first-class panic of unparalleled proportions until Larry bought me a new camera to take its place.  Before leaving town, we stopped at Menards.  Teddy drove his pickup there...and then Larry and Teddy picked out a lawn mower.  Larry left Teddy with a blank check, and off we went.  Teddy would take the lawn mower back home and mow the lawn with it; it’s been needing it for three weeks, I think, ever since he decided to ‘fix’ Larry’s old lawn mower.  He fixed it all right; he removed the engine entirely and replaced it with a decrepit one of his own that didn’t hold a prayer of ever running again in this lifetime.

At Camera Concepts, as a man filled out the papers for sending in my camera, which would cost an initial $10 just to get the estimate, Larry suddenly spotted a used camera exactly like it (except for the dating back, which I never use) in the used camera display case.  Its price tag read, ‘$199.99’.

The man got it out for us, and told us he’d allow us $60.00 for my camera.  That was after aiming it around the room here and there, seeing that it focused perfectly, clicking the shutter a dozen times, and doubtless thinking I was nuts for believing anything was wrong with it in the slightest, which is what Larry acts like, too, after not having used the old camera for a while.  He gets to thinking it’s just fine and dandy, buys a $10 battery for it, loads it with film, happily goes around taking pictures, then is properly amazed when they all come back dark, no matter what lens, what flash, what lighting, what speed, what aperture he used.

“Maybe it was your lens,” said the man.

“I’ve tried several different lenses,” I informed him, “and the same thing happens; and, besides, they work fine on my other camera.”

He smiled at me.  “Well, the customer is always right!” he said cheerfully, but I think he probably thought ‘the customer is always stupid’, instead.

We decided to trade.  After all, it is almost a sure bet, without knowing anything about anything, that the last person to own that camera didn’t use it half as much as I used mine.  I wrote out a check for half the amount and told him we’d come back and get it the next week.

He looked at my check.  “Tell you what,” he offered, “I’ll throw in the $60.00 Minolta 50mm AF lens free if you’ll pay the total right now.”

“Done,” I said, voiding the first check and making out another for the total.

Then he gave us a camera case and a roll of film, too...probably feeling serious guilt pangs about allowing me only $60 for a perfectly wonderful camera with nothing at all wrong with it.  Ha!  Wait till he discovers something is wrong with it...something waaaay down deep inside, requiring all the king’s horses and all the king’s men to pull it apart and extract the malfunctioning gizmo, and then costing a king’s ransom to replace the refractory contrivance.  Haha!

I would have liked to buy one of their nifty tripods, too...  Of course, the one I wanted, one that had a long arm that extended out in order to take close-ups of things on the ground and such like, along with a swiveling ball head, cost $289.  Yipe!  Guess I’ll brace my camera on a sandbag for close-up shots down low.

We then stopped at Wal-Mart to look for an AC adapter for my camcorder.  Mind you, Larry can tell what he’s looking at when he stands in front of a rack with a gazillion types of adapters sporting ten kajillion different types of connectors, and he can pick out just the one he wants, and it works.  There should be a law prohibiting men from acting smug when they do such things, there really should.

Joseph spotted a huge sub sandwich for only $5, Larry got a big jug of orange juice, and we headed to Ta-Ha-Zouka Park to eat and then go walking on the new trail.  We’ve never been on it before; someday I want to return with our bikes.  It’s 20 miles long, I think.  (The trail; not the bike.)  We did bring Victoria’s bike, and she promptly made good use of it.

Joseph and Caleb played with Joseph’s football, a rather expensive one that is nearly new.  Joseph kicked it over the shelter where Larry and I were still eating.  Caleb, on the other side, caught it (he fell down in the attempt, but he did catch it).  He threw it back to Joseph, who kicked it over the shelter again.  That is, he tried to.

Now, there are all sorts of dips and nooks and crannies in the geometrical roof, and--you guessed it--the ball got stuck up there.  Small children and teenagers have a remarkable lack of foresight.

Well, Larry boosted Caleb up onto the roof so he could retrieve the football--and he came up with not only the football, but also a nice soccer ball and a sandal.  We left the sandal in the shelter in case a one-legged de-sandalized person came along needing just such a slipslop, and kept the soccer ball.  Finders, keepers, you know.  Unless you don’t want it, you know.

We put what was left of the sub sandwich back into the Suburban (I tell you, it was gigantic) and walked down the trail, Larry and I taking lots of pictures with both cameras and the camcorder.  The sun was low in the sky, making the light along the Elkhorn River perfect for pictures, and the trail was lined with wildflowers of all habit and hue.

I had learned, in reading a page of instructions on the camcorder (I do that, every time the Comet Pons-Winnecke’s ellipse takes it past Callisto, one of Jupiter’s satellites), that it can be used as a macro!--to take close-ups of tiny things!!  I’ve tried to do that by zooming in, but too much zoom, and little objects get blurry.  So I thought I just couldn’t; too bad, so sad.  But I was doing it all wrong!  One must use the wide-angle focus, taking it all the way out, and then place the lens up close.  It will focus on things as close as 3/8” from the lens, imagine that.  I got some pretty pictures of the tiny little yellow flowers that are in bloom on all the cockleburs.  Up close, they look like miniature orchids.

And...I got a picture of Larry riding Victoria’s bike, insulting him when he later saw that I’d zoomed in on the squished back tire.  tee hee

Hannah was here with Aaron when we got home; she’d bought some very old books at a garage sale, including that cute little book of real bunnies dressed in doll clothes and doing all sorts of amazing things.  I had that book, along with one about puppies, when I was little, and it was one of my most loved books.  (Or, as Victoria says, “My best book.”)

The whole family came for dinner yesterday, and it turned out a scrumptious dinner, indeed:  baked chicken breasts (skinless, boneless), mashed potatoes (the more butter, the better), gravy, dressing, peas, salad, mixed fruit in strawberry yogurt, and macadamia nut cookies.

Hannah told us that when they are visiting at the Wrights’ house, if Aaron accomplishes something, whether monumental or insignificant, his Grandma Wright often says, “Good boy!”  So Aaron says it, too, at home, to himself, in exactly the same tone of voice, anytime something he is trying to do turns out right.

The other day, he kept slamming the lid of his toy box, which doesn’t need to be slammed, since it closes nicely; and indeed it might ruin it if it is slammed.

Ker-BLAMMO!!! said the toy box lid.

“Aaron!” called Hannah, “Don’t slam that lid!”

All was quiet for a few minutes...and then...ker-BLOOOOEY!!! went the lid again.

“Aaron!” said Bobby, and proceeded to give him a lecture, all about obeying, not ruining things, and being careful with his nice toy box.

Shortly thereafter, they heard him trot back to his room, lift the lid of the toy box, shut it carefully, and then say, “Good boy!”

I took my film to Wal-Mart and had it done at the one-hour lab, even though it costs more, because I wanted to know if the SPxi we got takes good pictures or not.  We have a 30-day warranty on it; we can return it if we aren’t satisfied.  Victoria and I went to get the pictures after I came home from Mama’s house last night.

As it turns out, the newer XTsi (the one I’ve been using for the last three years) took better pictures than the SPxi.  Hmmmm...  So much for me saying that the SPxi was the better camera.  But I didn’t give it a real, honest-to-goodness, scientific test:  I didn’t take the same pictures with different cameras--using the same lenses each time.  Sooo...it is possible the lenses made a difference, too.  I must find that out, next.

As we headed for the checkout stand, we passed the freezers; and, before I knew what had happened, two boxes of Tin Roof Sundae ice cream leapt out and landed in my cart.  There wasn’t anything I could do about it; I had to buy them.

Teddy has purchased a couple of Colorado maps, and he and Amy have been poring over them, planning their honeymoon.  They hope to go to the Royal Gorge...Black Canyon of the Gunnison...Pikes Peak, etc.  I hope the weather cooperates.  Why do my boys want to get married either in the spring or the fall, and then head straight into the mountains right when there’s a distinct possibility of snow or ice storms?!

Well, on the other hand, we hope to go on an excursion to the mountains right after Christmas, too...  And I do hope it snows.  I just don’t want my children driving in it, you see.

That’s my job, isn’t it?