Quick Note

I went out on this frigid, freezing, windy, deceptively sunshiney day to take park pictures.  The poor box elder trees are dying.  I know it's true because they are hollow from stem to stern. They are very pretty trees, so it is a shame, but some are harboring wildlife!  More than bees like the tree up by my house, I mean. See if you can spot the critter!

The guys have rebuilt the picnic shelters and tables by the pond and they have done a super job. Could I just point out the ice on the pond?

Do you see what I mean about deceptive weather?  It looks positively springish.  When I came back to work from lunch, I thought it was pretty mild, and maybe I would leave my coat in the office for the photo op.  I wavered, and decided to err on the side of warm because you just never know.  


We drove up on the lawn and almost all the way to the pond.  I thought that was a little silly.  It wasn't THAT far to walk over to the picnic shelters, then over to the trees and stumps.  


I bailed out of the truck, inhaled once, and my nose hairs froze.  A delicate little breeze turned my eyeballs into ice cycles, and my lips refused to close.  It took me ten minutes to make my fingers work the zipper to close my coat!  




I took my pictures and tried to walk casually back to the truck so I wouldn't look like  a complete woosy chic, but boy, was it hard.  We got in the truck, that was gloriously warm, and headed back for the office.  The soothing sound of Salsa was about half pleasant.  


Salsa?  The song finished, and sure enough,  he was listening to a Mexican station.  I didn't complain, because it sounded really nice, but I did have to ask.

He said, "It's nice music, they never play the same song twice, and they don't have freaky announcers.  Beats anything else that's on these days."


I think he was right.  Hasta la vista.
 

For Betty

Before I knew you, you were a proud member of a fun loving family.  Leona, Fern, Dad, and Mom were a bunch of goofy buggers who laughed regularly.  Rumor has it that it came down through the Stokes side, but I remember a pretty funny time or two with the Fronks as well.

 

When it's getting to be spring and a baby is outside in her hot rod stroller, a sexy chapeau, and the sun is shining, how could she not be happy?  Can't you just hear a little shriek come out with the giggle?

 

Now put the same little girl in the same park in the same sunshine some year or so later.  Now the little dickens can run, and look at her go!  I think I see the same little shriek giggle face as she tears across the grass.

 

 OK, so it ain't all roses.  Sometimes you stumble, or just plain get too tired to be the life of the party.  Sometimes you have to sit in the grass and recuperate. A smile is all the stronger after you relax those muscles with a pout.

 

Then comes the time when she emerges as a fashionista, the Divine Miss B.  How could a hot chick with a revealing sun suit, sexy sunglasses, and shoes to die for not smile in the sunshine?  Is it the sunshine or the attitude and smile that are the common factor here? 

 

Eventually the happy baby becomes a feisty little stinker with a mind of her own and a frisky attitude.  One can see the little darling is as full of shit as a Christmas goose!

 

Fast forward several years, and take my word for it, you still got it, Baby!  During the years betwixt and between, we still had some crazy times and we've laughed ourselves silly, blown beer/Kalookie out of our noses more than once.

We're just resting our cheeks now, getting ready for the next hoot. There will still be times when our drinks and noses are in mortal peril, and we will tip over sideways in our chairs, since we're too old to tip over on the floor like we used to.  We can teach the young whippersnappers a thing or two about how to enjoy the world and all its splendors.  Then we can race to see if any of us can make it to the bathroom in time.