Things my mother told me

-"Never let a man up in your bedroom."

-"Don't pull at a loose thread."

-"Watch the scissor tips when you cut, so you'll cut straight."

-"What's the big deal about bagels, they're just bread."

-"I don't like Chinese food."

-"So take your shirt off - you don't have any boobs yet (when I complained of the Maryland heat as a fledgling adolescent)."

-"Wow, you're easy (when we picked out my prom dress in about 5 minutes)."

-"You kind of hit the inside of the tennis ball (to serve it up the middle)."

-"Why did you have a comb in your pocket?" (after I almost died in a sledding accident)

-"You were as good a player as Suzette Guffey. Bob Pass said so." (Suzette went onto a college tennis scholarship at UVA and dated the quarterback. She was beautiful and tall and slim. A gorgeous Steffi Graf).

-"I knew you could get down." (after I screamed for what seemed like an hour in a neighbor's willow tree - in need of some attention)

-"Men get re-married because they want someone to cook and clean for them." (when a friend's widowed father announced his pending nuptials)

Things other people said

- "Sometimes an apple is just an apple." (uttered by her co-workers when a friend was probably overanalyzing a situation)

-"Guess someone got killed here too." (as we waited at a LONG traffic light at URI. This was after explaining to Daniel that a woman had been killed at a light in Wakefield - hence it's extra long crossing times)

-"These college students are such a pain . . . "(Daniel said this at the same traffic light).

-"Mom I'm just a kid." (When I was sorting thru all the crap in his room wondering where it all came from).

Hurricane Patsy

Hurricane Earl may have fizzled out but

Hurricane Patsy sure blew into town.

She's almost 80 and my mother's visit made me realize she knows what she wants. She wants ESPN 2. She wants a more comfortable bed - if you look closely you can see the piece of foam that we borrowed sticking out from under the sheets. She wants corn. She wants lobster and swordfish. You get the idea. She wants what she wants and a lot of things are not good enough.

Overall we had a pleasant visit but overall I think it is more relaxing to visit her on her turf where she has everything she wants the way she wants.

One thing I noticed about her and it's probably true of most older people - they continue with their lifetime habits. In her case, she likes to eat healthy (at least most of the time). Now it had me wondering if I was theoretically closer to death, wouldn't I just eat/do whatever I wanted? Or is it simply too hard to undo a lifetime habit? Think about it - old age could really be a return to adolescent abandon. Could be just as fun with a few more aches and pains.

After waiting out a lightening storm one work day, I proceeded to survey the neighborhood in need of a new water system. At one house, I encountered a live-body - he turned out to the owner's plumber. In the course of chit-chat about the dramatic lightning storm (which I could see flashing right outside my car window), he explained to me he doesn't care. He has a sailboat with an aluminum mast and goes out in all kinds of weather - lightning or not. "When it's your time, it's your time."

It has been my habit not to risk my life in lightening storms and I don't know if that will change when I'm 80. So I guess I can understand my mother limiting her food intake or at least her intake of unhealthy items.

Unrelated thoughts

• As I worried about Daniel getting dropped off by a friend's mom and as I worried about Michael getting back on time to babysit (I called him several times at the library) - There was a possibility I hadn't considered. In my worry that Michael would be late, Michael would forget, or there would be some other complication - the possibility I hadn't considered was that I WOULD LOCK HIM/THEM OUT! And the secret key under the back deck had not been returned to its proper place. Meanwhile I was 1.5 hours away and instructed the boys to try to get in a window. Creatively, they pried off the screen with a spatula.
• It took me the longest time to realize that baby carrots are, well, not baby carrots at all but carrots shot through some kind of lathe device that cuts them down to sizes and shapes consumers like.
• While shopping at our local boutique market (it's more expensive but alot more pleasant), I realized there is a down side. "Paper or plastic?" "Do you want your meat in plastic?" "Do you want your milk in the bag or separate?" There were a few more questions I can't remember and I know the help was trying to be nice but what the fuck? Excuse me. But I don't need/want all these choices and thinking while I am paying for my groceries.
• Latest Daniel quotes: "Maine should be a one horse town." This came out of nowhere while driving through rural Maine. "I don't want to be in the major leagues." This was uttered after soccer practice where unbeknownst to us he was playing with the under 10 team when he isn't even 7 yet. Whoops! Who typed in the wrong year for his birth on the damn electronic sign up?