That's what the Japanese Maple looked like this afternoon against the blue, blue sky. It's been an absolutely glorious day although we got a light freeze last night. I am not sure that Owen will want to go duck hunting at five in the morning again in that sort of cold. Glen lent him all sorts of warm hunting outfittery including thermal underwear and boots with warm socks, but he was still freezing when he got back here, even after breakfast.
And yes, Owen can fit into his grandfather's clothes and his size 16 boots. The boots are a little big but with a pair of wooly socks, they were fine. It was a significant moment last night when Glen brought the boots out and said to our grandson, "Let's see if you can fill your grandfather's shoes."
This is not something I ever even considered hearing from that tall guy who asked me to dance in a Tallahassee (sort of) dive bar the night after Thanksgiving in 1983.
I loved having Owen here. He will talk to me about Big Important Things. Gibson does too. Both boys sit in the kitchen and talk to me while I'm cooking and it feels like such an honor that they do this. I'm not fooling myself- I know there are plenty of things they would never talk to me about but I have told them that they can come to me with anything and they have both said, "I know."
We had our pork chop supper with Owen, which is what he asked for. And while we ate he talked to both of us about more Big Important Things. I was surprised when he brought up the subject of the seizures he had as a young child but he didn't seem at all inhibited about the subject. He well remembers the trips to Jacksonville to a pediatric hospital there where we took him for diagnosis and treatment. I went with the family on almost every trip over there and he remembers that, too. That was such a hard time for all of us. We were so scared. So afraid. But here we are and just as they said might happen, it appears he has outgrown the seizures. He hasn't had one in years and has been off the medication for a long time. He even said that he thought having the epilepsy did something to his brain that made him do better in school. I have no idea if he's right or not but he certainly is doing amazingly well in his classes. Anyone ever heard of that?
He went to bed soon after supper and I said to him, "I don't guess you'd want me to read you The Little Red Hen, would you?"
"No. I'm good," he said.
And yes. He is.
Today has truly been a day of not much and I have enjoyed it so. I made myself a delicious breakfast and finished up the ambrosia "salad" that Hank made for our Thanksgiving breakfast for lunch. Oh gosh, but it was good. I covered up the porch plants and my old mango tree and brought a few of my most tender and favorite plants inside.
I got the most recently baked fruit cakes all wrapped in rummy cheesecloth and aluminum foil. I did a tiny, tiny bit of laundry. I started watching a movie that I'd never even heard of and which I described to Glen as a movie he would hate while I worked on the patching of a pair of his overalls that I started quite awhile back.
I am fully immersed in the movie which is "His Three Daughters" and I cannot understand why it didn't get more press. Or have I just missed it?