One Foot in the Fast Lane, One in the Slow

The little toy camera caught only one tiny bit of Logan’s day. The boy was proud to show John, Amy, and me how fast he could run. That was life in the fast lane.

John still seems to be in tune with small children, but I’m having to dust off my skills. I was never a quick thinker, and I’m trying to get up to speed to outwit Logan. Believe me, his brain runs faster than his legs.

When my alarm sounded, I lay in bed for a few minutes checking messages on the phone. Our special guest woke a half hour before his getting up time, which I interpret as his having had plenty of sleep. He danced very quietly to my bedside, and I spoke to him to let him know I was aware of his presence. John directed him to dress for school. Logan responded that he didn’t have any clean clothes.

“Yes, you do,” said John, “Your dad brought them over yesterday. They are on the counter in the bathroom.”

I was closest, so I went to the door to find Logan sitting on the floor, clutching his orange shirt from the day before. It must have been his favorite shirt. He insisted it was clean in a voice that said he was teasing. I countered that he wore it the day before, having photos to prove it. He laid it on the floor, and I picked it up to look at it. I left him to get dressed, pointing out the clean shirt and shorts. Some of my old parenting skills surfaced, so I carried the orange shirt with me. I always had a hard time trying to stay ahead of my own children. After many years, I found that using humor or being wordless got the quickest and most compliant results. There was no way I was going to turn around and find the contested shirt back on the body. Can you imagine two old people wrestling a five-year-old to the ground and getting the shirt off his back? My bet would be on the boy.

All was quiet for a few moments as I went back to my computer. Of course, my mind was not quick enough. I was holding the orange shirt in my hand, and I squeezed it hard as I heard very quiet little feet coming up behind me. Quick as lightning, Logan’s hand was on it as he teased that he had found it. John came in and tickled Logan. As he picked him up and flipped him, I stood up. While Logan’s eyes were upside down, I shoved the shirt under the duvet. I wish you could have seen the bewildered look that flashed across his face. He KNEW the shirt was in my hand, only it wasn’t there. He looked around the vicinity and figured he had been tricked. In two minutes he was racing out of the bathroom, properly dressed up to the top button on his shirt.

An orange shirt is the icon of life in the slow lane. I don’t think quickly, and I don’t move quickly, but once in a while experience will ensure that I win. As I walked out of the bedroom, I had a thought of losing. What if I forgot I put the shirt in the bed and got tangled in it that night?

I didn’t forget, not while writing about the experience.

A Day with Logan

The first day keeping our favorite five-year-old neighbor began at bedtime. It feels like we entered the ancient way of counting days from sundown to sundown. This day seemed to begin when we picked up Logan from school. We were impressed with the very safe and efficient system for parent pickup after the buses left. All children were inside the building while cars were moving. Aides worked the line of cars, taking down the name of the student being picked up. Only that group was allowed out of the building, then the process began again for the next set of cars.

Logan is allowed only half an hour of TV at home. We tried to keep him busy doing various things so that we wouldn’t have to enforce that rule. I find the boy amazing. He can manage things I can’t, like doing two things at once. He talked to his dad on the phone while playing a computer game at John’s desk.

041816 Logan talks to Papa while gaming.JPG

His athletic ability always surprises me. I was talking to John in the kitchen, and he said, “Turn around and see where Logan is.” With no booster he had soundlessly hoisted himself onto the counter and was playing with the salt pig.

041816 Hopped on counter by himself.JPG

One of these days Logan is going to find a way to ride my exercise bike. It’s a real stretch right now. He also played with our glider, which thankfully did not go on the roof or get hung in a tree. He and John also kicked a soccer ball around for 15 minutes. John had his exercise!

041816 Bicycle is a stretch.JPG

Neighbor Joyce came in sight as we finished dinner on the porch. Logan asked to be excused so that he could talk to her. She found a tiny blue bird’s egg which she gave him to take to school. Bath time was next. Logan opted to take a shower rather than a bath in our huge tub. The shower was more his size. The day ended with his reading two homework books to John. If he got up during the night, we were not aware of it.

041816 Homework reading.JPG

John put his head under the blanket the next morning to wake Logan. The boy snuggles into the covers for a minute and then explodes into action.

041916 Logan wakes up.JPG

In a trice he was ready for school, having found his clothes and put them on.

041916 Ready for school.JPG

I got out of the car to chat with Marla, walking her dog near the bus stop. Logan met the dog while pretending to be warm. For the record, his jacket was in his backpack, but in 41 degree weather, he said he didn’t need it.

041916 Logan meets Albert.JPG

I got the picture I wanted of the little boy approaching the huge yellow bus.

041916 Logan at the bus.JPG

A Night with Logan

It was planned ahead that neighbor Logan (5) would spend the night with us before his mom had knee surgery. I was in his house when his parents told him to take a bath and get pajamas on. Having done his part to get ready, he wanted to bounce across the street immediately. He took time to hug his mother goodbye and was out the door as soon as I stood up. Amy was there, too, and she did the nicest thing. She asked if she could borrow a crock pot. As they handed it to her, she said, “I’ll have a meal in the pot ready for you when you come home from the hospital.”

Logan stood at the end of his front walk, waiting for the signal to cross the street. Amy and I told him to go on, because John was inside ready for that force of energy to burst in. Old man and little boy were already doing things together as we ambled across the street.

Before we could play very much, it was Logan’s bedtime. We had promised he could sleep in the upper bunk. He raced down the hall, climbed the ladder, took a look at the bed, and came back down. He’d rather sleep on the lower level.

041716 Logan changes his mind about the top bunk.JPG

John tucked the boy in. He didn’t want to pray himself, so John had a shortened version of his own childhood prayer, ending with prayers for Shawn.

041716 Logan prays with John.JPG

We went down the hall to John’s office — far enough to give Logan space and close enough that he could hear our voices droning on as we discussed a new cell phone plan for John. In due time, all of us were bedded down.

Early the next morning, as Shawn was heading to the hospital, she and I texted. I reassured her that we hadn’t heard a peep out of Logan all night. I have to amend that to say I didn’t hear her son. John reported that he heard something at 2:30 in the morning and found Logan snuggled with a lap robe, watching TV. Back to bed he went. Around 4:30 John felt someone nearby and woke. Same routine – back to bed. We get up during the night anyway, so having a real reason to get up was no big deal. At 7 we went in to wake Logan. He was sound asleep in the upper bunk, so at some point after 4:30 he switched beds. I grabbed a quick shot of John on the ladder for the wake up call.

041816 Waking Logan.JPG

When it was almost time to go for the school bus, we couldn’t find Logan’s jacket. It was about 48 degrees outside at the time. John and Logan crossed the street and discovered the jacket inside the backpack. I remembered his parents told him to pack one, but I didn’t realize it was with his school things instead of his clothes bag. Abbie, the little white dog, took advantage of the open door and went out for a quick bathroom break. That gave me time to take a photo of the fellows waiting for her to get back inside.

041816 Fetching a jacket that was in the backpack.JPG — The dog is next to the white pot on the left.

I intended to get a shot of the boy going to the bus, but I forgot that one. I feel sure his world returned to normal as soon as he crossed the street to the waiting bus. Before I finished writing this, Bob used Shawn’s phone to let us know she was out of surgery and that it went well.

Amy Cracks Me Up

Neighbor Amy had already read the post about my denying her and John their major milkshake moments. I didn’t know that when I walked over to her house. She invited me to sit outside for a while as she took a break from working in the house. The afternoon was quite warm, so I filled two cups with ice, picked up two cans of soda, and put them in a plastic bag. As I walked down her lawn, Amy stepped onto the porch.

Seeing the bag, she called out, “Are you bringing me my milkshake?”

Miss-Shaken Again!

I had to apologize a few weeks ago when John offered to take Amy and me to get a milkshake. We had walked through the gardens at Biltmore, and he knew Amy always had a chocolate shake every time she went there. I knew Amy more recently said she was on a diet, so I quickly spoke up and said we should not indulge ourselves. I was wrong. At the time, Amy said her conscience had spoken. Not being a quick thinker, I didn’t get the real meaning of that until the next day. Wet blanket Anne had indeed spoken the truth, but I began to suspect a shake was what the two of them earnestly desired. If only I had had second thoughts immediately! When asked pointblank, Amy admitted she would have snapped up that offer.

Fast forward to the day John and I were out all day buying and selling cars. After neighbor Bob got our Jeep started, John cleaned out all the pockets and compartments. I wiped off the residue of cardinal from the mirrors and doors. We drove to South Carolina to Carmax. The folks there appraised the Jeep while prepping the used Honda Odyssey we’d picked out the day Gerhard came to visit. I was hungry when we began, so you can imagine how high the hunger thermometer was when we drove away hours later. We stopped at the first interesting sign we saw for Joe’s Crab Shack. John ordered sensibly. If your imagination is in good form, you’ll know my conscience had already fainted from hunger. I had the works –shrimp, hushpuppies, and fries.

As we drove on toward Asheville, John asked, “Would you like to stop for a milkshake? We couldn’t find a Sonic yesterday for their special, so we could detour and get one today.”

I readily agreed. However, by the time we got there, my shrimp seemed to have assumed the proportions of a pod of whales. I could not have swallowed another thing and said so. I think John grumbled under his breath. An apology was forthcoming from me. Surely I urged him to indulge himself, although I can’t pull a quote to prove it. We drove on. I shifted in my seat, trying to give the whales more room to swim. Hours later John said something about feeling like Amy, gypped out of a shake.

Good grief! I had been miss-shaken not once, but twice! Now I owe them both, big time. Does anyone know of a place to get supersized gallon shakes?

Below is a photo of John and our wonderful college kid salesman, Deven. Carmax makes the most of a sale, dolling up the car with a huge yellow ribbon. The official photograph of us is still in Deven’s cell phone.

041617 John salesman Deven with the Honda.JPG

Extreme Birthday

We drove to South Carolina to celebrate the birthday of John’s sister Chris. This was a zero 041516 Happy Birthday Chris.JPG birthday for her, but don’t try to set her age by a photograph. She looks 20 years younger than she is.

The extreme part of the celebration was not her milestone. It was the division of the day into thirds. We drove five hours to get there, visited for five, and took five to drive home. John loves these driving exploits and walked briskly into our house at the end of the day. If there had been a video, you would think his walk was normal, and mine was in slow motion. Neither brains nor feet were anywhere near the vicinity of swift.

We had a wonderful time with them and their daughter Barbara. John and Steve conspired to make our visit a surprise, and Barbara joined them in the deception. The SC contingent had a birthday outing that morning to go to a lighthouse. It was canceled because of 8-foot swells, so the conspirators found excuses to stop at various places on the way home. I think they were at the house only half an hour before we arrived. We ate lunch at a lovely Japanese restaurant, enjoyed a chocolate birthday cake at the house, and then we left.

041516 Chris JC BE Steve.JPG — Chris, John, Barbara, and Steve

041516 Chris birthday cake.JPG — Chocolate!

041516 John Anne Chris Steve.JPG — John, Anne, Chris, and Steve

There were lots of laughs at old and new family tales. The most dramatic story was Barbara’s concerning her dog. The dog and two others they were keeping for a short while went out in the dark before going to bed. The animals were uneasy, so Barbara used a powerful flashlight to search the yard. Under a tree beside the swimming pool was a bobcat. He leaped over the fence like a superhero and disappeared into the darkness.

Would I do this whirlwind trip again? For them yes, but not more than once per person.

Have you ever been involved in an extreme celebration?

Bilt More or Less and Thomas Wolfe

We were tourists in Asheville, starting with the gardens at Biltmore. Gerhard opted to skip the house tour, because he could go to any number of palaces in Germany. We drove directly to the gardens. I was surprised that the tulips were still blooming. The pink tulips were gone, replaced with white and yellow ones.

041316 Biltmore tulip walk.JPG

041316 Biltmore Gerhard John.JPG

We also went to the boarding house where Thomas Wolfe spent his young years. His mother owned and ran it. I was sorry I couldn’t remember having read anything he wrote, but the tour guide told anecdotes that gave us an outline of his history. His first novel included stories of people who lived in the boarding house, some of whose names he had changed. People resented him so much that he left town. Years later he returned and found he had no time to write because people kept interrupting him. I used to think I’d like to be well-known, but I’ve changed my mind. I suspect there is no such thing as a little notoriety.

041316 Thomas Wolfe boarding house Gerhard John.JPG

Party for the End of Easter

On our street, we don’t need an excuse to party. I said our dinner was to celebrate the end of Easter, only because we had split pea soup made with stock from the Easter ham. I wanted Gerhard to meet our neighbors, and I felt Shawn and Bob would enjoy him. We missed Amy, who was out of town. As it turned out, we also celebrated the birth of Shawn and Bob’s second grandchild. The baby boy was born in Turkey that morning, mother and baby doing well.

Gerhard brought a gift for Logan from Germany, a toy book wagon. There were four horses pulling the covered wagon, and two barrels were visible on the outside. Gerhard explained that long ago books were shipped in barrels. Who knew? I wish I’d taken a photo of it.

041216 Logan's gift from Gerhard.JPG

People often find things they have in common if they have a chance to talk. I was surprised that one link was a relationship with Amish people. Gerhard taught in State College PA for over 24 years. Early on he found it easy to converse with the Amish, because he was used to reading German from the 17^th and 18^th centuries. This was the basis for their language today. He has lectured about the group and has photos to go with it.

Shawn and Bob interacted with the Amish in Ohio. They struck up a conversation with a man and were invited to his home! He took them for a carriage ride, and two handsome boys gave their daughter a ride on a pony. They wrote to each other from time to time, as Shawn and Bob moved to Florida and then North Carolina. One day the man called, saying he was passing through, and could he stop by to visit. When he was about three hours away, he called again. He had a bus load of people, maybe 15 to 20, and could he bring them, as well.

Shawn said, “I called people in the church, and they baked cakes and desserts to serve the group.”

Bob added that the people were very personable — laughing, joking, and poking fun at each other. Most Americans see only the staid and sober side the Amish show the outside world.

People know I’m going to take their photo unless I forget. I made them pose at the table, but everyone said Logan should be in it. We pulled him away from playing games on John’s computer, and he dutifully smiled for the camera. We were sorry the evening had to end. Nevertheless, we packed in a lot of conversation. As you might guess, we think we have the best neighbors and friends in the world.

041216 Bob Shawn Gerhard JC Logan.JPG — Bob, Shawn, Gerhard, John, and Logan

A Day in the Mountains

One of my favorite things to do is ride on the Blue Ridge Parkway with guests. We have nice views from our house, but it’s more spectacular to be cruising along, face to face with the mountains. Although we hopped out at several overlooks, I didn’t get any good photos. We did stop at my favorite waterfall for a photo op.

041116 John Gerhard my waterfall.JPG — John and Gerhard at my favorite waterfall

We had lunch at Pisgah Inn where there were things to look at inside and out. The waitress deboned rainbow trout at the table, as advertised on the menu. Our eyes were glued on her hands as she wielded the sharp knife, deftly opening the fish and extracting the bones. When I asked, she said everyone there does it, and she likes the task. The view overlooking the mountains never fails to bring pleasure.

041116 Gerhard at Pisgah Inn.JPG 041116 Looking Glass Falls

We went through the visitor’s center at the Cradle of Forestry and walked a little way on one of the trails. Going a few miles further, we got out to see Looking Glass falls. What a contrast from summertime when you can’t get near it! For a few minutes, we were the only ones there.

On the way home, we bought a bag of apples so that Gerhard could feed the horses in the neighbor’s pasture. This is becoming a feature of a stay at our house. Neighbor Bob heard that the young people who own the animals are going to be riding them soon.

Home Grown Funnies

I’ve been quoting neighbors with comments that made me laugh. John and I can make our own funny things.

We were getting ready to walk and didn’t know whether Gerhard would go with us. We knew he had been up earlier. I remembered we’d said we would walk at 7, so I asked what time it was. As John turned to look, I saw the clock behind him at 6:53.

John said, “It’s seven of seven.”

That’s not what I heard. I clearly heard, “Seven enough.”

Seven enough seemed to say we could go without fear of leaving Gerhard behind. I stopped to write this, so it was several minutes after seven when we actually left.