Anyone who knows me knows that I don’t think that we should have to designate a special day just to honor our mothers. You know that I feel that we should be doing that every day. However, its hard to keep the spark up on something like that if you do it every day. So, today, I want to say, “Happy Mother’s Day” to my mom, Barbara June Thompson and to my mother in-law Bonnie Jean Rodday. As well, I wish a happy Mother’s day to my wife, Angela Frances Thompson, who has strangely stuck with me for over 13 years. To all the mothers out there, who may or may not feel appreciated, I extend good wishes to you as well. Its a wonderful think to care for and raise your children, and I think that the burden (or joy) falls on our mothers the most. So, if you have no other recourse, as the house is full of noisy kids, sneak into your bathroom, turn on the fan and lock the door. Park yourself on the flush (you don’t have to use it) with a book and take at least 10 minutes to yourself. You deserve more, but that’s at least a good start.
So, Caleb is home from school today, due to the storm that’s been blanketing the eastern seaboard. Its a biggie after all. When I got up at 6am, there was no snow, but that’s changed. So, now the school kids get Thursday to Monday off. Lucky.
This morning, I took Caleb to school. The ice was still all over the sidewalk, yet again showing how much our city council thinks of pedestrians. It was a balmy -1o°C outand the wind was nearly non-existant (or, so I thought). We had a nice walk together, joking about stupid stuff and taking turns sliding on the plentiful patches of ice on the sidewalk. I’m blessed in that both of my kids can be total goofballs at times.
Once we got to the playground, I parted ways with Caleb and turned back to go home for my 10 minute break before going down to the bus stop. I put my ear buds in and listened to Christina Aguilera’s Back To Basics and hoofed it home.
I got back and grabbed my lunch, after squeezing Abby while she watched Curious George. I took off for the bus stop, ensuring that I waved to Abby vigorously, as she was watching and waving out the window. I got down to the bus stop and waited.
Now, there’s something that I haven’t mentioned, which is key. On our way to the school, Caleb and I noticed that there was quite a line of traffic, a sure sign of a fender-bender on the bridge. All southbound traffic will stop when there’s a slight accident on the bridge, which happens a few times a week,a s nobody realizes that they’re DRIVING A 3000LB KILLING MACHINE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! On the way back, I noticed that the cars were still backed up (this goes for well over a mile, for sure). Even after I went down to the bus stop, the cars were not movong. Hence, my bus was going to be late.
The late bus was not a concern to me, as it stops at the mall down town for about 15-20 minutes before my transfer is destined to leave. I wait. And, I wait. The traffic is stillnot moving, so I make the decision to walk across the bridge and go to the mall. I decided this too late. To top it off, the wind was ripping across the bridge and it was super cold! As I approached the scene of the accident, I see that its over and the fire department is cleaning the last of the bits. The cars are moving now. I get across the bridge to see my bus sail by. Of course, there are no busses waiting for me, as they were all late and only did a token stop at the mall, so as to get back on schedule. So, I ended up taking a cab up the hill to work. That took fromt he little grocery money I had left.
Thanks to a couple of idiots who were too busy doing anything but drive, I had to spend money I couldn’t afford to spend. I froze my face, and I got more exercise than I had planned.
To everyone who drives in my town, this is a message from all the people who have to get to work late or make alternate plans (and that, I bet, numbers in the 1000’s) . PLEASE PAY ATTENTION WHENYOU DRIVE IN TRAFFIC! The next time that you get carried away on your cellphone or do your makeup or just drift off to your radio, you might KILL someone. Can you live with that? PAY ATTENTION!
I was thinking this morning (actually yesterday morning) about some of the cute things that kids mispronounce. I recall my mother telling me that I used to call the delicious orange drink made from powder “Makey Juicy”, because I always wanted her to make more. That powder was Co-op orange crystals, not Tang, cos it was cheaper. This would have been for about the first two years of my life (I’ll take her word for it).
My brother called chicken “Chickey” until about about the age of four. My sister had a couple, actually, which were quite cute. Although she denies it, she mispronounced “Milk” as “Mloke” when she was young and called motorcycles “Bike-l-cycles”. How adorable is that?
I don’t know what made me take this little path down memory lane, but it was fun.
What about you? What words or phrases did you come up with as a youngster.
I’ve been quite a bit depressed lately, as its the Christmas season, AKA the “gift giving season”, when children all over the country (and a few other contries…) have want for new toys, etc. I wasn’t looking forward to the bare tree in the living room without anything under it. I’m super broke this year and the gift giving was going to be pretty lean.
Or, so I thought. There were a few angels at work (really, at my place of work), who pulled a fast (but good) one on me. When I came across the river at lunch time (1:45-2:45 - yuck) to get Caleb from school, a few little helpers brought a few things to my desk, er a few large boxes, that is. They were filled with gifts for the kids, provided with what I can only describe as love.
Nancy, Lesley, Shannon, Barb, Lona, and whoever else was involved, I want to thank you for getting together to support a friend. you are truly angels. Merry Christmas to you.
I found this in the mailbox yesterday when I got home at lunch time. It was a card from Abby.
Abby: “Daddy, I want you to hold my hand.”
Daddy: “Is that because you love me?”
Abby: “Yes.”
Abby: “(pull)I wish that the whole world would hold hands and DANCE!(/pull)”
I got this in the mailbox last night. It was from Caleb. Click the thumbnail to see more detail (same goes for the one Abby did).
He went the extra mile and designed an envelope for it:
What do you say when you receive that kind of expression from your kids?
Today, the frost was quite apparent. On the walk to Caleb’s school, the kids had a lot of fun making foot prints in the frosted grass. They got quite a kick out of it, in fact. Abby especially liked the idea, which is fine with me. If Mother Nature can provide the entertainment, then all is good.
Something else about frost is that it loves to collect in a thick, tough coating on the glass of your vehicle. Now, some folks warm their cars up in the morning to clean off the frostiness. Others diligently scrape. There are those who just don’t do either. These are the ones who, if there’s even a small scraping in their front view, they take off, expecting not to hit anything. These people are risking their lives and those all around them merely because they are too lazy to take a moment and scrape. Perhaps they didn’t have a dollar to get a scraper at the dollar store. Folks, winter’s approaching. Where are your scrapers?
On the walk back, we witnessed this very thing. This was not the day this guy was getting to work early for sure! He stopped dead on the busiest street on the north side to scrape a tiny hole on the inside of the windshield about 3 inches long. Then, he carried on, with no view out the side windows, the back, or the front, to speak of. His bad luck? The car immediately behind him was a police patrol car! Whoops! Sorry about your delay. Sorry about your fine! Not really! You could have taken 90 seconds and scraped enough off your window to be safe and you didn’t. You suck, dood.
Oh, and have a nice day! Don’t forget to stop at the dollar store!
