Monday, March 15, 2010

Babies and Bats


All right. Do you see that picture above? That is Owen, my grandson. But for some reason he looks so much like his daddy in that picture I can hardly believe it. Lily has a handsome husband. One who looks a bit like Elvis (not the rooster) and who can dance like Michael Jackson, which is saying a lot for a white man with Italian heritage.
I just can't wait to see who Owen grows up to be. And when I say "grow up," I am basically talking about a year from now when he's walking like a Homo-sapiens. Or maybe tomorrow. He's growing so damn fast that I can't keep track of it all.

I dropped by Owen's (I mean Lily and Jason's) house this afternoon after I'd been to the library because you know I hadn't seen the boy since Saturday and I can't let him go two whole days without seeing his Crazy Chicken Grandma because he might forget me. I knew that Waylon would be there too and I was looking forward to seeing him because I may not be his Crazy Chicken Grandma but I am his Crazy Aunt Chicken Grandma, although Billy and Shayla call me his Grandma Mary.
Oh my Lord! After almost twenty years without babies I am now surrounded by them and let me just say I could not be happier.
Unlike Waylon who started wailing the moment I walked in the house. Now normally I do not have this effect on babies and I am not going to blame Waylon's crying on my presence. I think he is cutting teeth. He sounded as if he was in pain to me. I gave him a bottle and he would suck and suck and then stop and just cry his little heart out. It broke my heart, it broke Lily and Jason's heart, and it upset Owen. He is not used to his BFF crying. They usually have a great fun time together, studying each other and wondering at the fact that oh my god! there is another baby on earth!
So when I left, Lily was pushing Waylon in a stroller down the street, trying to calm him, and Jason was pushing Owen in a stroller down the street and Crazy Chicken Grandma ran ahead to snap that picture of Owen which makes him look like the Sultan of East Tallahassee or something. Doesn't it?

He's all, "Yeah, I'm cool. I'm lounging. Got the 'rents pushing me down the street.Wish this other baby would stop crying."

And then I came home and got Mr. Moon's snack bag and coffee drink ready for his trip down to Orlando for the auto auction and after he left, I went out into the garden and started weeding. Well, I weeded for about an hour or so and then I decided to plant some peas, which I did. Peas need a fence to climb up and I now have four sides of fence which is just excellent and I planted a fence row of English peas and a fence row of Sugar Snap peas. I felt very good about that, too.

I was still feeling good about it when I was sitting on the porch a few moments ago, answering comments when something started flapping around the porch. Since I'd seen a sweet little wren or sparrow or one of those tiny birds earlier this morning on the porch with a bit of chicken-butt-down in its mouth for nest building, I was not concerned. I did open up the porch door so the poor confused bird could get out but I sat back down to the computer and then, and then, and THEN, it flapped by me again and I realized, ah shit, it's another bat.

I did not freak out. No. I did not. I went and got the camera and when it thudded back onto the screen, I took its picture.

This is not a baby bat. This is a full-grown bat. They do look soft, don't they? Still, I am not going to touch it if I can help it. In fact, I hope it's found its way outside by now.

And then Mr. Moon called and I told him about the bat and he told me that last night before he came to bed he put one outside himself. But then I told him I'd planted the peas and he got very quiet and I could tell he was upset. Mr. Moon does not like peas. And he is so proud of his garden fence and how straight and true it is, as am I, and beside the fact that he does not like peas, he knows that the rows I plant are not straight and true and I think the idea that I planted something without stretching a string, something which he does not even like, was more than he could bear. I suggested that he do all the planning and all the planting and I'll just weed the fucking garden but he said that's not what he wants but I know it is. As I have pointed out before, he is a farmer gardener and I am a hippie gardener and well, the twain does meet but there are issues.

But we told each other that we love each other and hopefully the bat is gone and hell, if Mr. Moon hates the peas, he can take them out. Whatever. Green Giant makes some nice frozen peas and I can eat them when he's out of town.

And there you go. I had two pictures I wanted to post- one of my grandson and one of a bat and I have done that and written about both of them and now I'm going to go eat my supper of leftovers and then I'm going to bed because I've had about all the excitement one woman can have in Lloyd, Florida on a Monday night.

I am not kidding you.

Love...Ms. Moon

21 comments:

  1. "I'm going to bed because I've had about all the excitement one woman can have in Lloyd, Florida on a Monday night."

    I've read about people laffin till they spit tea on the keyboard, but for the first time, I can say the same. I mean, I've had a computer for 15 years and have laffed plenty, but this is the first time tea went up my nose and all over the screen. Is there a club for that?

    Hang tough, lady!

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  2. We went to the zoo yesterday and the kids were fascinated by the bats. I couldn't stand to look at them for a second. They terrified me as as a child.

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  3. That is the cutest little bat ever!

    We'll be happy to help you eat those peas by the by... no worries there.
    xoxo

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  4. i admit bats make me want to throw up. they really skeeve me.

    owen, on the other hand, is one super handsome baby.

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  5. I'm with Maggie May -- I find bats repulsive, just slightly less so than New York City rats. But, Owen is a doll and I like that he has some Italian blood in him.

    Happy sleeping, Ms. Moon.

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  6. That Owen looks like he is ready to tell us just what he thinks about this world so far.

    Those little bats are eating bugs, and that is the good part of them. I just try not to look too closely at their pug ugly little faces.

    Enough excitement, indeed! x0 N2

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  7. Ms Moon...I love your words of wisdom, your beautiful porches (fenced, unfenced, and front), Owen, your chickens and Elvis, and your honest, thought-filled views on life! You are a treasure, one I love to fill myself with each and every day. Thank you for being you!

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  8. Sorry, I'm going to come down on the bat's side - he's so very CUTE! And I'm a bit bat-centric at the moment. Here in Canberra one of the local parks, one right in the middle of this very, very planned city, a thousand bats have made a particular tree home. At night when they take off and fill the sky: well, it looks like Gotham City. And it's brilliant! (Apparently it's all because we're stuffing up their habitat down on the coast through logging the old forests. Bastards.)

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  9. Cute bat!

    How can anyone not like peas?? The mind boggles. Even my children, who won't eat them cooked, would stand shelling them in the garden for as long as they were allowed. Magic. Don't let MrM deny Owen that!

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  10. cute bat! cute baby!

    i once worked with a guy who'd invented this machine thing that could pick up bat noises we cant hear and produce audible sound so he could find out if they were around...it was very cool in the middle of night, with a fine mist net trapping and tagging bats. they are very soft. but often have flea things. so not great house visitors, unless you give them a bath. interesting image.

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  11. Yay for peas! They are one of the only things in the world Babes doesn't like either. Which I don't understand. But I still cook with them and he eats them. (They are full of fibre, don't you know.)

    I hope he comes around to your point of view and doesn't take them out.

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  12. oh. i am married to "that" string pulling gardener too!
    and i am still laughing..
    frozen peas indeed.
    xoxoxo,
    rebecca

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  13. I hate peas. I'm like stupid George Bush was with broccolli. I AM 43 YEARS OLD, AND I AM NOT EATING THOSE MOTHERFUCKERS EVER AGAIN.

    Actually, just the smell of peas cooking makes me want to throw the fuck up.

    Do you sense my ire, Mary Moon? Can you tell I am "on the grump" this morning?

    Well, I am. Fuck it.

    But I still love you, and if you planted the goddamn peas, I'm sure they are perfect and I might even eat one tinylittle pea.

    Love you.

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  14. Hey Sweet Pea, Peas are beautiful and good for you, but I have found in my life that if you don't like peas, man you DON'T like peas one teeny tiny bit. Passionate pea people either way.

    Very impressed with the bat photo. Dang girl.

    I am starting my day with the dull edge of inefficiency already. Off I go!

    Love you, love to all,

    Lizzie

    xo xo

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  15. I love fresh or frozen peas, but NOT canned ones; they make me gag. And I love bats, actually, I think they are the most fascinating creatures and in our old house its one redeeming feature (besides the clothesline) was that bats liked to roost under the eaves in the summer. It made me happy. And I love the picture of Owen, of course. Here, another family member is pregnant, so that makes two, and I am so sad and envious that I don't even want to be around them....but I still love to look at your Owen.

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  16. Laynie- Oh my!

    Angie M- They sort of terrify me NOW.

    Ms. Fleur- I'll keep that in mind.

    Maggie May- I know. There's something just weird about them. Flying mammals? Really? In theory I love them but close up I am, yes, skeeved.

    Elizabeth- See above.

    N2- Owen is very verbal. He just doesn't speak English yet.

    Nigel- See? I think that's very cool but I do not want bats in my house.

    Jo- Well, this argument would go better next spring when Owen will be actually old enough to eat fresh peas and to possibly shell them himself.

    Screamish- No. I am not bathing bats.

    Mwa- First we have to see if they come up.

    Rebecca- Sigh.

    Ms. Bastard- I love you.

    DTG- Yes. Mmmmm.

    L&L- I am still on the dull edge of inefficiency and it is almost five p.m. Where did the damn day go?

    Kori- There will probably never be a dearth of Owen pictures here.

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  17. If you see one more bat, I'm sorry, but I'm afraid you're going to have to move.
    I know that I'm not going to be able to look at too many more bat pictures. You'll need to start posting warnings: WARNING - This post contains a bat picture.
    Ironic, eh? Bats at the Church of the BatShit Crazy, who'd 'a imagined that!

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  18. I do love fresh peas and I am the only family member in our group who does...so if I was to plant peas they all would look at me and think I have gone out of my mind..oh well... fresh peas yum...in a salad, pasta, with mint and butter...yummmm.

    As for the bat..he needs to be out with the others and not next to me....or you!

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  19. Holy moly, I'm behind here.

    We had a bat in our above ground swimming pool once when I was a kid. My dad used it as pun fodder for weeks. For example, "Oh, he was just doing the bat-stroke." Wokka, wokka, wokka.

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