July 23, 2008

I'm really enjoying IM-ing back and forth with Tori. We've decided, parents permitting, we're going to go shopping on Saturday. Now, that said, here's the problem. Read on.

Today was a great day. The weather was cool. I sat down at the pool for about an hour and still didn't get hot enough to get wet. The porch warmed up to only 72 all day! And tonight it's supposed to get really cold -- down to 57 (how do they know it will hit 57 instead of 56 or 55 or 58?)

I digress. So I knew I had to go to the bank, the drugstore, Kroger's (my shopper was a cleaner this week), and library. First stop, leave off the Rx at Walgreen's. So far, so good. Next stop, the bank. Got into the bank, no problem, but on the way out, it hit me. My knee popped out, which I popped back in, but that meant high-level pain for a while, which meant no Kroger's. You see where I'm going? So I went back to Walgreen's and picked up our meds, then I went to Taco Bell (I meant to go to Arby's but went in the wrong driveway) and ordered a taco salad and two chili boritos (for the freezer). Guess what? They neglected to put the boritos in my bag, and I was in no mood to go back and fight for those boritos, so I called them and will get either my money back or my boritos when next I am out and about. I never made it to the library.

Now I'm in the process of psyching myself up for a road trip with Toria on Saturday. Poor thing is bored out of her gourd. The only girl, no one to play with, except the baby, which, I realize gets old after a while. There's just so much play kitchen you can play without saying, this is it, kid, let's do something else. Been there, done that.

That was the problem with my babies. I loved my babies. I loved the way they looked, the way they toddled, the way the smelled (when they were clean), the way they cuddled. But playing with them was a chore. I was just not a baby-playing person. I could stuff just so many shapes into that Tupperware ball before, YIKES, time to move on. Back then, we had play pens, and fortunately my children were trained to stay in the PP and play when I had had enough mommy play time!

Do they even make play pens any more? I think someone decided they were an instrument of torture for children and they were banned.

I saw something today, and I think it was wonderful that someone was actually using it. A grandmother (who lives near us) had her 2-year-old, unruly, wanting to run away grandson with her. She had him on a leash -- a very short one, but a leash, none-the-less. It was part of a back-pack, or she had jury-rigged a backpack so that it became a leash.

I had an actual harness that had a clip on the back with a leash that I could let out or draw in. Yes, just like a dog leash, but it was made to fit 1-3 year old children. They used to sell them. But, I suppose some do-gooder decided that, too, was torturn for a youngster, and they are no longer available.

So, I've gone from shopping to child care in this epistle. Hope you got the picture of what my day has been like.

One more thing. I now have Alan hooked on Louis L'Amour. I recently purchased the 17 books in the Sackett series, and I started with the first one, which has information in it that goes along with a book Alan just finished (a history book), and so he wanted to read what the "story" I was reading had to say about this fellow he was reading about in the history book. He hasn't put the book down.

I'm on the second book in the series, and I must say, my concentration is poor and I've only read two or three pages at a time. I've been on this book for four days now. Not my usual style. I usually read one book a day. So, I have to finish in a hurry because Alan will be wanting the second book in the series.

Next summer -- Please God let it happen -- we want to go to Mesa Verde in Colorado where a lot of the "Sackett saga" took place. Last time we went west of the Mississippi was not a good trip. Come to think of it, not many of our west-of-the-Mississippi trips have been good. Arkansas is west of the Mississippi.

Well, TTFN, folks. I'd appreciate prayer for my shopping expedition with Toria on Saturday!