Well, you know, it quit raining and I had a nice day. Lily texted me this morning to see if I needed to go to Costco which is code, of course, for her needing to go to Costco and I couldn't think of anything I'm much rather do than go shopping with her and the boys.
And make no mistake, I am NOT being sarcastic here. We always have fine adventures at the Costco although both boys were a bit grumpy today. We all seem to have a little upper respiratory thing going on, a little cough, a little bit of an attitude. Owen refused to go in what he calls the coldy room so he hung out and spoke to nice old ladies who stopped to chat with him. I was proud of him and of course I had my eye on him the entire time.
The main best thing about Costco is the sampling, right? So we walked around, Owen asking me, "Are you hungry?" and me saying, "No but that doesn't mean I won't eat." We had some halfway decent tamales which reminded me of the Christmases I made tamales for our dinner and I asked Lily if I should do that again and she was pretty darn agreeable to the idea. Maybe I will if I am indeed here, celebrating the season I hate to celebrate more than any other.
Gibson had some yogurt and ate it all by himself with a spork. It was a mess but he had a good time.
That was after his mama wiped him down. He's sort of cute, isn't he?
Owen wanted to hide from his mother but of course that required me to accompany him and so I did. Why not? We mostly hid by shopping the aisles where the olives and prunes are although at one point he did crawl up on a pallet of canned goods which was pretty good hiding in my opinion.
We all met up and went through check-out and Lily bought Owen a piece of pizza and he dropped his root beer which exploded but a very nice man named Ric was there so fast to clean up that he must have grabbed the paper towels before the plastic bottle hit the floor. Owen felt bad but we assured him that accidents do happen and it's true. Lily and I ate some turkey roll-ups we'd bought and we all sort of shared the pizza and it was a delicious lunch. Owen let me have some of his root beer and I told him about how when I was a little girl we used to go to the Royal Castle in Vero Beach where I would always have little hamburgers and a root beer and how that root beer had reminded me of that. He said it reminded him of that too. I didn't tell him about how they had those little counter-top juke boxes at the Royal Castle and how my mother would give me nickels and I'd play the Beatles and I knew this was something important, those new songs by those four boys with long hair I'd seen on the Ed Sullivan show on a Sunday night, laying there on the cool Terrazzo floor and how electric the air suddenly seemed when they played those first chords and it was amazing and if someone had told me right that second that this was the beginning of everything in the world and in my life changing, I think I would have believed it. My mother asked, "Now which one is supposed to be the cute one?"and although I was nine and she was thirty-seven, I did not have to ask.
Paul. The cute one. Eternally.
But I didn't tell Owen that story today. Maybe someday. He'll never be able to understand how it was. I barely do myself.
Anyway, I came home and took a nap and when I woke up I decided to go out and do a little weeding, expose myself to a little malaria. I cannot begin to tell you how bad the mosquitoes are right now. It's ridiculous and they love Gibson more than any other human on the planet and he has been miserable this summer, constantly scratching his bites. But I sprayed down with the repellant and got the zinnias weeded and come on, sweeties! You can do it! Give me some of your color, your reds, your yellows, your fuchsias, your greens, your whites. Your happy crayon colors. Hell, at least half the reason I have a garden is for the zinnias. I have hope. They're doing better than the cucumbers by far and maybe by the end of the month they'll be bursting forth.
So that's been my day and it's been a good one. Time to heat up the leftovers and see what's on the TV. So far there have been no bats and I am so fucking grateful for that I can't even begin to tell you since Bat Daddy is up in Georgia. We did block off the fireplace in the library and I think maybe that's had something to do with it.
I don't know. I don't know much. I just know that it doesn't take a whole lot to make me feel contented and also, that I am so glad that I was born at such a time as to grow up with the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, Jimi Hendrix, Joni Mitchell, The Band, The Doors, Eric Clapton, and all of the people who saved my silly ass and gave me hope and kept me going. Who led me to believe that that the insanity I grew up in was not the only reality. As I have said before, I may be here now because of them.
Here's the Beatles' first appearance on the Ed Sullivan show. Ed Fucking Sullivan. Oh my god. I think he may actually have been aroused sexually by Topo Gigio
but he did bring us this.
And then, incredibly, this.
Where he made them change the lyrics from "Let's Spend The Night Together" to "Let's Spend Some Time Together." Watch for Mick's eye roll.
In the space of a few months we went from I Want To Hold Your Hand to I'll satisfy your every need. And believe me, I'll not be trying to explain the appeal of THAT to my grandson.
Night, y'all.
Love...Ms. Moon
That's some beautiful homegrown food.
ReplyDeleteNaps, grandchildren---what a pleasant day.
I remember Topo Gigio - my parents watched Ed Sullivan every Saturday night. Boring except for the Beatles. Owen is a beautiful boy no matter the length of his hair but I love his long hair - a lot. And Gibson's hair color is gorgeous and his sweet little smile hip gets me every time. And of course I am glad to hear the bats are not bothering you. My party wasn't so bad. I think I have social anxiety or am just sort of content to be with myself and the same people over and over again. I might be boring. I am not a big party person. I have to force myself. Sweet Jo
ReplyDeleteIt was an amazing time for music, I agree. It was all a bit before my time, but I reached back and grabbed ahold of it because the music of my own era -- ABBA, Donna Summer, Billy Idol - didn't quite measure up. (Not that I don't love the occasional ABBA or Donna Summer song.)
ReplyDeleteI'm glad to have been around for so much good music. Ed Sullivan was just plain weird. And Lawrence Welk--can't believe my parents liked him. But families did sit around and watch things together. Now everything is so scattered.
ReplyDeleteI was three or four years old when my mom came upstairs in our rented townhouse in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, to get me out of bed to see The Beatles on Ed Sullivan for the first time.
ReplyDeleteAnd I was so, so disappointed to find they were just a boy band, and not real beetles!