Patience And Owls And A Darling Girl

 Ralph the Roomba was doing a bang-up job of vacuuming the entire house yesterday. That thing vacuumed for hours and then he'd take himself to his charger, rest there for awhile, and then start back up again! Just like he's supposed to do but does not always, in fact, do. I have no idea why this is. I just help him when he gets stuck or when something inappropriate gets caught in his bin like the little silver fork I found there once. But Maggie decided that Ralph would be perfect for giving Ratty the thrilling experience of taking a ride on a robot down the hallway. As you can see, Ratty was very thrilled indeed! And Ralph did not care at all. 

We had a great time with our girl grand. She got sleepy before supper but she managed to stay awake for her fish and corn and cucumbers and CHEESY NOODLES! She ate everything. And then, of course, she had a purple cow. 

She wanted a bath and so Boppy got the water in the big old clawfoot going and then he cleaned up the kitchen while I cleaned up the child. She loves that bathtub. It's so big she can go underwater and open her eyes which she demonstrated to me. Then she actually wanted her hair washed so I did that and she loves the shower attachment on the faucet to rinse with. At that point she realized that she had not played yet with the ducks and octopuses and other plastic water creatures that live beside the tub so she did that for a few minutes but then she told me she was very tired and so out of the tub she came, got dried off and put on her pajamas, got cozy in bed, and I read her a story from a princess book that she brought for that purpose. We also FaceTimed her mama and her brothers which gave her a lot of happiness. She didn't need to see them, she just wanted to. 

And oh yes- she was in my bed. She'll probably still be sleeping with me when she's fourteen. 

She fell asleep and after I got my shower and read for awhile beside her, I turned out the light and we both slept just fine except for waking up once in the night when we both had to pee and I have to admit that I was cranky and I apologized to her this morning about that. For one moment I felt like I had been inhabited by my mother as I was saying something like, "No. I am not going to turn on the light!" Or perhaps it was, "No, I am not going to go get a soft blanket." Or, possibly, "No, I do not wash my hands after I pee in the night." 
Something about the way I was holding my body and the way the words were coming out of my mouth, directed at that sweet baby, made me feel a little possessed and a great deal ashamed. 
When I apologized this morning she said, "That's all right."

Bless her. 

And then she slept until almost ten this morning! We both woke up about 7:30 and we both went back to sleep. I had some most interesting dreams in which almost-flying AND Keith Richards AND the ocean were involved, and got up at 8:30 but she continued to slumber like a curly haired little princess who was under a spell. She WAS tired. 

So we had pancakes and bacon and eggs. And then she wanted to play cards and Boppy joined us as we sat at the table on the porch and played two rousing games of Go Fish. 

I must have taken this picture at a contemplative moment because there really was a great deal of excitement and laughing involved. 

When it was getting time to go, she helped me make our bed and I asked her if she thought the dolls would like to come out and sit on the bed today to get some sun. She said that yes, she thought they would. Zippy joined them. 

We greeted each doll by name and with kisses and Maggie arranged them to her liking. Instead of calling Dorothy Anne creepy the way everyone else does, she just looked at her wonky face and said, "What happened here?" I explained that Dorothy Anne is very, very old- older than ME! and she accepted that with aplomb. I love that picture because when I took it, Maggie was telling me about how Emily had gotten up in the middle of the night and got in bed with her and that she had told Emily that she must go back to her own bed. 

"Really?" I said. "I didn't know that Emily could even walk!" 
"Oh yes," she said. 
And who am I to doubt? There is something just so incredibly precious about being allowed back into that child world of wonder occasionally. A gift. I do not take it for granted. 

I took her home on my way to town to shop and there was so much fun going on there that I almost did not want to leave. Chloe and Pepper, the two black doggies, were putting on a show for me (or at least that's what Lauren, their mommy, said) prancing about and leaping in the kitchen together. A friend of theirs was over with her daughter and the boys gave me hugs and overall, it was just a very jolly situation. 

But I knew I had to get my shopping done and so I left but got stuck behind a Waste Management garbage truck. The road that Lily and Lauren and the kids live on is quite skinny and there are parts that are impossible to pass a large truck on. But I was listening to my latest audio download and did not mind at all. 
Here's what I'm listening to. 

It is a luscious book, a gorgeous book. I read Verghese's Cutting Stone 

years ago and it too, was one of those books that remind you of what fiction can and should be. 

So. Having to wait behind a garbage truck was not a problem for me. 

Publix and Costco went fine. I got to see the Beautiful Brenda who told me about her most recent trip to the coast and showed me the tan line her watch had made. It was a funny day of shopping in that although neither Publix nor Costco seemed unusually crowded, the aisles in both stores kept getting jammed up, usually by people who were standing and staring at the the choices, unaware that someone was waiting for them to allow passage. I can't criticize this behavior. I do it myself all the time. But it happened over and over again. 

One guy in Costco and I finally laughed when it happened in our vicinity twice. And everyone was patient about it, waiting silently until the person blocking the aisle had made their choice and moved on. 

We've just had a very nice and delicious rain and it is cooler and smells of a fine funk, made up of dirt and leaves and the letting go of heat demons. We needed it. We've had an owl in our backyard the past week or so and it is calling now. I know it's an owl because I've seen it and so has Mr. Moon. I am not sure what sort of owl it is. It doesn't call like our regular Barred Owls do but makes a whistle that almost sounds as if it is being breathed in rather than breathed out. I just listened to a bunch of different owl calls and none of them matched what I'm hearing and my glimpses of it have been in coming-darkness. It is big. Now that I do not have chickens to worry about, I can enjoy the presence of owls and hawks whereas before I mostly saw them as threats to my darlings. 
I guess that's one good thing about not having chickens, right?

And so it goes. Another full day and I am tired. The rain has stopped and although it is cooler, it is also sticky with humidity. Literally- my skin feels sticky. It's all right. Good for the trees and the tomatoes and the field peas and my old sun-spotted, wrinkled skin as well. 

Maybe. 

Love...Ms. Moon