Possumblog

And another weekend.

Friday--got home and ran outside to cut the grass before it started raining. Grass above ankle high. Made two passes on the side of the house, went to dump the grass catcher, mower started getting bogged down in a pile of pine straw before finally chuffing to a stop. Emptied bag, tried to recrank the mower. Nothing.

For the next thirty minutes tried desperately to get the mower cranked again. No dice.

::sigh::

Gave up.

Later had to go back to in-laws' house to pick up the three littler kids who'd wanted to stay and watch some sort of Disney dreck on cable. Arranged to borrow father-in-law's mower should the need arise.

Saturday morning, more threat of rain. Go out and get mower, cranks right up. HOORAY! Begin running back and forth like a madman trying to cut grass. Get side of house done, go to empty bag. Can't get it cranked, again.

Go inside, call father-in-law, beg for lawnmower. He brings his over in a little while, and boy, is it FAST. Manage to finish front and back just in time to beat the rain.

Take mower back, stop off at carwash place and finally get carpet cleaned. Boy goes with me and points out every single cheap doodad for sale in the waiting area.

Back to home, where I find out that a certain oldest child of mine has wheedled Mom about wanting to go to the Galleria to spend the gift certificate she'd gotten for volunteering at the hospital. No getting out of this one, I'm afraid.

And thus started the clean-up ritual, because I knew if we didn't get them all scrubbed and their hair washed before we left, we'd be too tired to do it when we got home. Wound up not leaving the house until 5:30.

Parked, went in, and left Reba and the two older girls in Belk's, while I did duty with Boy and Cat. First stop, the video game store. Stood around as they played with everything and watched people. A clot of nearly naked teen girls. An older guy with his wife playing NCAA Football. (Tennessee versus Miami--from what I could tell, both teams were getting beat.) Several yutes in do-rags and gigantic baggy basketball jerseys. A large longhaired guy. A lanky slack-faced goober with a neck tattoo and a girlfriend who looked like a model. The video game store truly is a melting pot of society.

Boy found a game he wanted--Cars. He really likes Mater, for some reason. He went to pay for it, the cashier rang it up--"Give him you money, Buddy." He'd brought along his birthday money. I thought. "Mom has it."

::sigh::

Told the clerk to hold on a minute, we went back to Belk's and found the girls, got the cash, and returned. Waited. Waited. Cat went back to playing with a Nintendo DS. Waited. Reba came by and said they were decamping to go to Parisian. I said okay. And noticed they didn't have anything. FINALLY got the game paid for, and once again we were on our way.

CAROUSEL! Boy was much too mature to want to be seen on the carousel, so Catherine and I clambered aboard for a quick ride. She has always loved carousels--her wild side seems to crave that swirly feeling. Soon enough, back off and we gathered up Boy for the next stop.

Seems Mom had promised Catherine a trip to Build-A-Bear Workshop, where large amounts of cash are converted into a small stuffed animal that is indistiguishable from any other stuffed animal except for the fact that you got to see someone ram a metal tube into its guts and give it a big shot of polyester fibers. We decided to go by there and let Cat shop a bit before meeting back up with Mom and girls for supper. It was at this time that Boy decided HE wanted an animal of some sort, too.

I don't know why.

In some ways, it's nice to still have my little boy around, but in other ways, you wonder to yourself if twelve isn't just a bit too old to be quite so enamored of a stuffed animal. Especially when he wouldn't DARE get on the carousel.

Anyway, I err on the expensive side. At least it's HIS money. "Are you SURE you want to spend the rest of your birthday money on a stuffed animal?"

Oh, you betcha.

After they scoped out the available animal options, we went back to the food court to wait on the other half of the family, and upon their arrival, we began the delicate process of deciding what to eat. EVERYTHING! Because to order from one place would simply be too easy, that's why.

But first, a table. Or tables. Found three square ones set together, except one of them had goop on it. Rice, I think. Luckily, there was a girl nearby cleaning up. I walked over as she swept under an adjacent table.

"Miss?"

She kept on sweeping. There was a cloth and a bottle of spray stuff on the table, so I know she was cleaning tables, too. Maybe she just couldn't hear me.

"Miss?"

I was directly in her field of vision. I was standing on one side of the table she was sweeping under. "EXCUSE ME, MISS."

She just kept right on ignoring me in the most blatant possible way imaginable.

I looked over to the small table to my left. At it sat an ancient old fellow who looked just like Burt Mustin. Who? Oh, you know him--this guy, seen here playing the part of Jud Crowley along with Howard "Floyd" McNear:

Looked like him right down to the fedora. I glanced at him with a bemused look and he just sort of smiled and shook his head. I started just to grab the bottle of cleaner and the towel, but thought better of it. Went and got some napkins and wiped off the table leavings, and then we set about to go hunt and gather.

Catherine and I got gyros, Boy got shrimp teriyaki, Ashley got sesame chicken, Reba got chicken teriyaki, and Rebecca, after everyone else had just about gotten through eating, decided she wanted something from Taco Bell.

Which was absolutely the filthiest, slowest place in the entire place. What a dump.

After eating our fill, it was time to go on to the bear place. Catherine picked out a puppy, and Jonathan settled on a monkey. Voice box, little stuffed heart, blow in the filling, pull the strings tight--as the girl who was running the machine alternately coughed and sneezed all over herself and wiped her nose with her hand and left a big wad of ooze on her sleeve. Ick.

Then for the clothes, which apparently was too much for Oldest--jealous, it seems, that stuffed animals were getting clothes while she was being sorely neglected. She and Reba went on to go see if they could find anything for her, while I stayed to finish up the bedecking and the paying. Panties, shoes, skirt and top for Catherine's puppy--now named Moonlight, and boxers, jams, shirt, and shoes for Jonathan's monkey--now named Monkey Boy.

Vast outlay of cash.

::sigh::

On back to the tables at the food court to wait. 9 o'clock, and the maintenance guys descend en masse to clean the place up. Amazing amount of litter, considering the fact that they had such a studious and conscientious girl working in the same area earlier with her little broom and bottle of cleaning solution.

Ashley and Reba finally showed up, with nothing to show for their efforts, which had put Oldest in an even nastier disposition, if such was possible. Home, and to bed.

Sunday, rain.

Got ready for church, which yesterday was one long uninterrupted thing. On fifth Sundays we have a potluck, and then have our evening worship right afterwards. Which means a LOT of very sleepy people. And after that, I had another meeting, so by the time we left, we'd been at the building for six straight hours. Which is kind of a long time.

Home, finish up the laundry, listen to it rain some more, during one dry spell Catherine went outside to play with the kitten, who decided to run to the neighbor's yard and explore their dog, which in a change from usual practice was not in its pen, and thus began to bark and chase said kitten, causing it to run up a tree, causing said Catherine to attempt to get kitten down from tree, causing kitten to go nuts and start flailing away at child, inflicting a variety of wounds upon her upper torso and limbs. One day, she's gonna learn to stay away from his claws when he's upset.

All in all, just another one of your run-of-the-mill weekends.

Now then, I have dumb ol' work to do.

Posted by Terry Oglesby at July 31, 2006 09:05 AM