A week ago I posted that we were heading down to mom and dads. Good times as usual. Here’s the run down, and the typical visit.
Sat. Morning woke up, hit the patio with pops, a pitcher of coffee, and half a pack of smokes to watch the sun rise over the lake, and swap stories. His are generally along the lines of how great his retirement is, some bushes he needs to get the landscaper to move so he can perfect his view from the patio (an endless quest), or the fresh tomato’s he got from the farmers market while he was killing time away from the house so mom could have her friends over for the weekly bridge tournament. I’m really not sure which my mom likes more, bridge, or getting my dad out of the house for a few hours each week. My dads been retired for 2 or 3 years now, I don’t think I’ve seen him since without him telling me “ya know, this retirement shit is really pretty cool, I can’t wait till you get to experience this. “me either”, I’ll tell him. My stories are usually centered around how busy I am with work, all the bills I have to pay, and what the kids are up to. He remembers it all too well, and quietly grins and listens. Sometimes he’ll give me a couple tips, but generally not. I think he gets a kick out of watching me grow up, and find my own way, there was a time in my youth when I think he doubted I ever would. We usually get a couple of hours to talk before the house starts to come alive, and join us on the patio.
I’m not sure if it’s all women or just the ones in my life, but they’re all about planning. All I know is what was just a casual conversation now turns to more of an agenda meeting along the lines of who’s going shopping, when, and what’s on sale. When are we eating lunch, what are we having, where’s the rest of the family, has any called them, etc.. Mom rolls breakfast out on a cart to the patio. She bought a new table cloth for the patio table, “I’m going to sew a hem in it, I just haven’t yet, sorry about that” she says. “uhm…..well, I guess I’ll eat on it anyway” I tell her. She has to get the food laid out just right on the cart before anyone can make a plate. Breakfast taco’s in whole wheat tortillas, bacon, sausage, biscuits, strawberries, grapes, and some kind of orange juice slushy she always makes with maraschino cherry’s.
Soon after the grub, and with a growing agenda my dad and I usually make scarce. He takes his lab to go get a cake donut every morning like clockwork. I decided to head out for some fishing. I like the back corner of the lake cause the bass seem to like to hang there. “Get a life jacket” mom says, I roll my eyes grab my coffee cup and copenhagen (must have when fishing)
It’s been a while since I’ve been fishing so it wasn’t long till backlashed the hell out of my dads curado and had to put the reel down and pick up the camera.
turtles like to hang on these logs. Lately seems the turtles have taken over. There’s not as many fish as there were.
Clouds rolled in momentarily so I went back to the house to fix the reel and see what the agenda had brought.
As mentioned in the previous post, I live on the other side of town. Generally when I come down, my sisters who live a couple minutes from mom and dad in either direction, grab their families and meet us there. By the time I got back to the house they were ready for volleyball.
Me, my daughter, and my niece vs. my lil sis, my bro in law, and my nephew. My parents have a strange pool with sand on the bottom. It looks like it needs to be cleaned, but that’s just the sand.
My lil sister wasn’t pleased with my score keeping.
Dad tried to officiate without getting up from his chair
lil sis still not pleased
Mom decides to handle it
All in all it was a bad weekend for count sports. UT lost to OU, My highschool football team lost to our bitter rivals (sohos school), and my volleyball team lost in a close 5 game set. I took it out on my daughter, dunking her until she promised not to serve the ball into the net ever again.
My 15 year old niece quietly made her way to the other side of the pool away from the dunking.
Just to be clear on this, That’s not a bald spot, it’s a strange reflection.
Then it was back to the lake, to slay bass.
Good times, heading back down there now. Have a great weekend.
