We Are Getting A New Arrival!!

Estimated reading time: 5 minutes

Mary keeps saying, “EVERY DAY is wife day!”

Estimated reading time: 5 minutes

We worked in the office until 9:00 am, then started preparing to receive Miss Colleen.    Our daughter is a grandmother, making us great-grandparents.

While Mary took her shower and got ready for the airport run, I fertilized and de-weeded the roses, then watered them using the Hydrawise system (i.e., I control all watering from my iPhone).

Thank you, Hydrawise, for making my life easier!

As I was working, I kept remembering my grandmother, who was moving into an assisted living facility, and we had visited her many years ago (she would have been 141 years old this year).

We wanted to make sure she was being well cared for, so we had dinner with her at the facility.  We said goodbye and planned to visit again the next day! 

The next morning, the nurses bathed her, fed her a tasty breakfast, and set her in a chair at a window overlooking a lovely flower garden.

She seemed okay, but after a while, she slowly started to tilt sideways in her chair.  Two attentive nurses immediately rushed up to catch her and straighten her up.

Again, she seemed okay, but after a while, she slowly started to tilt over to her other side.  The nurses rushed back and once more brought her back upright.

This “tilt & adjust” activity apparently went on all morning.  Later that day, we went to revisit her to see how Grandma was adjusting to her new home.

“So, Gramm, how is it here?  Are they treating you all right?”

“It’s pretty nice,” she replied.  “Except they won’t let me fart.”

As I walked in the patio door to get ready to go to the airport, I noticed that, in the middle of winter, we have strawberries in our rotary pots.  Several of the “pots” on the rotary were filled with strawberries, and I assume it was the unfettered view of the sun and the warmth of the patio that allowed these puppies to grow.

At 11:20 am, we launched in The Silver Fox for John Wayne Airport because Colleen was scheduled to land at 11:45—meaning we had precisely 25 minutes to feel confident, then immediately panic.

Halfway there, I noticed we were low on fuel.  Not “maybe we should stop soon” low—more like “the dashboard is starting to clear its throat” low.  But the timing was chef’s kiss: we cruised past the arrival gates like we totally meant to, dipped out onto McArthur Blvd, and found a Standard station.

A quick splash of dinosaur juice later, the Silver Fox was topped off and feeling young again.  We headed back to the airport—only half a mile away—and, like magic (or airport sorcery), Colleen appeared right on cue.

We will be seeing a lot of Joe and Colleen in the next week!

We picked up Colleen, then we were off to Benjie’s for brunch.  We all had half-pastrami sandwiches and either a cup of soup or a salad.  Colleen and I could NOT resist ourselves and went for the rootbeer float.

After arriving home, Mary was, if my magic, transported to the La-Z-Boy to rest her back.  At the same time, Colleen and I walked the garden and ended up sitting on the far patio listening to Johnny Cash and catching up on the latest family gossip!

It was beginning to get cool, so we went inside.  Colleen headed to her room to unpack, and that was the last we saw of her.  We are sure she was pooped out after spending the day flying and getting up at o’dark-thirty to drive to Boston.

Mary and I watched TV together, except when I went outside to catch the Turning Point Halftime Show.  4.5 million others, and I watched the show on YouTube, and it was very good, certainly better than listening to the screeching of the roasted bunny screaming in Spanish to the music made by eight cats in a large trash can.

We crashed after finishing off The American President and then watching four episodes of “Suits”.

As I turned off the TV, I looked over at Sleeping Beauty!