Possumblog

How'd that work out?

Well, I'll tell you! I got home and Reba and the kids still weren't there yet, which usually means that she got stuck at work. Sure enough, I walk into the kitchen and the phone's ringing. "Hey--I got stuck at work. Can you go get the kids? I already called Mom to let her know."

Off to pick up the kids, wait forever for them to get their butts in gear and get their junk together, then a stop at the grocery store to pick up some lasagna for supper, then home, then answer fifty-leven-jillion questions about stuff while trying to get lasagna put into the oven, Reba finally gets home, I smooch on her a bit, go upstairs to change into my Volvo-cleaning clothes, and in a stroke of extreme luck, one of the girls in Reba's class called to ask her about something, so while she was otherwise occupied with the telephone, I pantomimed that I was going to be outside playing on the driveway and snuck out.

Only to be discovered by the children, who wanted to know if they could ride Catherine's scooter in the driveway while I played with my toy. ::sigh:: This always means I can't REALLY devote as much slavish attention to an inanimate object for having to watch out for them to make sure they don't get hit by one of the interminable number of slacker kids with loud thumping bass tubes rattling the neighborhood as they go screaming down the street at 50 miles an hour. (I am going to install my own speed bumps pretty soon.) Anyway, the younger three came out with helmets and scooter and the inexplicable addition of the red wagon and began zipping dangerously close to all the cars in the driveway, and the street.

But, never one to let such things put too much of a kink in my plans, nor the fact that I was nearly two hours later getting started than I had planned, I set in to work with a giant bottle of Simple Green and some old cloths. Door jambs now look like those of a brand new car. Amazing how much goo builds up in twenty years. Reglued the little retainer onto the back window that holds the center brakelight frame, cleaned the trunk gutters and even cleaned some more gunk from under the hood. Used nearly a half a bottle of concentrated, undiluted solution and a pile of old diapers and towels. At some point in there, Reba came out and talked to me about stuff, although I am at a loss to remember what is was now. I hope it wasn't too important.

Finished up with a trip around the interior with the cleaner, then a vigorous swiping with the stuff to make the rubber shiny. That dashboard is still hurting my eyes, though. All those cracks, in an otherwise like-new interior. I might have to move that to the top of the money-wasting priority list.

Came in at 8:00 for lasagna, found out that I had completely missed American Idol, and had a very good meal interrupted by leventy-seven-gazillion questions about other things of great importance to the children, such as, "why do ticks suck blood?"

Clean up the dishes, send them off to bathe, get off my Volvo-cleaning clothes, and take a few minutes to sit and relax with some fine literature.

Posted by Terry Oglesby at May 18, 2005 08:50 AM