Thursday Things

At the library my grandkids
received spy disquises as one of the summer reading program prizes ... mustaches and sunglasses.  Taylor loves the mustache and has worn hers off and on for days. 
     My granddaughter is talking more and more.  Today I was washing her dishes, sippy cups and little forks, etc and she brought me her tea set dishes and said "wash this."  Well, okey dokey.  This week her favorite word is "mine."  She loves to share food, wants to feed us bites all the time.  Today she tried to feed my daughter a potato chip and when my daughter said "no thank you" Taylor said "pleeeease?"  We had never heard her say please before. 
    The wind has been blowing fiercely.  My grandson, in the red shirt, is almost twelve.  We were having pizza for supper and I have to have a fountain coke with pizza so we went to the closest convenience store for a coke.  My grandson sat his 32 oz drink (obviously WE don't live in New York City) ... anyway, het sat his drink down on the counter right in front of me and it sat there a second before it just tumbled off the counter.   The convenience store people were super nice, my grandson was super embarrassed and I was super sticky.  He fixed another drink and we came home.  I just have regular "trailer house" steps ... not the best situation but it is what I have.  The wind was blowing like crazy and actually blew the screen door back, hitting my grandson and between the door and the wind he went flying off the top step.  I mean really, blew him off, right on his bottom about 4 feet away from the steps. Last year the wind caught the door and ripped the chain and the door return thingy off the door and I haven't replaced it because it would just get ripped off again.  The wind catches that door daily.  At 11 yrs old getting blown off the porch is embarrassing (to him). Oh. And he was holding his 32 oz drink which hit the ground, the styrofoam cup burst and he was again super embarrassed, super sticky and his pride bruised.  He and I drove back to the convenience store.  Right before we headed out for the cokes & pizza he had taken my dogs' crate outside to wash for me.  The bottom tray is pretty hefty metal.  It WAS totally flat when he washed it but the strong wind hit it while it was drying and now it looks like this ....  

When the wind was not blowing my daughter and I took my granddaughter to a park ... she loves to swing.

         For lunch I made my favorite sandwich ....  a lot of crispy Oscar Meyer already cooked bacon that you zap in the microwave for 30 seconds crumbled into a bowl with grated cheddar cheese and mixed with Miracle Whip until you make a spread and put on really fresh, soft white bread.  Yum! I finished a book, Cast On, Kill Off by Maggie Sefton that I really enjoyed, even though I figured out "who did it" right off the bat and I hate that.  We had a wonderfully cool day today -- in the 80's so I got outside and pulled some weeds but the entire weekend is going to be 98 to 100.  Ugh ...
            I have a friend I met 50 years ago. I went to an elementary school that was mostly hispanic. I was always the only white girl in my class until Debbie came to my school. We became best friends. She had a stroke last week. I went to the hospital to see her today. Not a happy time.

Please Don't

Please don't text and drive, talk on your cell and drive, drink and drive, eat and drive, put on make-up and drive, turn around and talk to the kids in the back seat while you continue to drive .... well the list could go on and on and on.  Yesterday in my town a husband & father of young children was riding a bicycle out on a street just outside of town with a group of people training for a triathlon when he was struck by a car and killed.  This was a long stretch of paved 2-lane out in the country, not a high traffic street. The 20 year old driver was allegedly texting and driving, drifting across his lane, and the next, to accidentally strike the man on the other side of the street.  Same thing happened to another man in January.  Same thing happened to a woman last year.  I feel horrible for this man's family, his co-worker and friends who were riding with him and watched him die, and for the young man who hit him.  That 20 year old will have a long time to not be able to forget the sight of that man as he hit his car windshield and flew over the car. The sight and sounds of getting out of his car and witnessing the man die with his friends around him as they waited for an ambulance. My college student son loves to ride his bicycle to work, shopping, to visit his friends, all over -- for the exercise, for the joy of riding, to save gas money.  He has lights, wears a helmet, etc but still I worry every day knowing that he is riding around town.  As we know too well a helmet doesn't always save you when a car hits you.  I don't want anyone I know to be killed while riding a bike.  I don't want anyone I know to be the one not giving their total attention to driving and do the killing.  I am just as guilty as anyone.  Anyone who drives is just as guilty.  A friend of mine lost her life when she glanced down to change a CD and ending up rolling her car. Let's all just decide when we put the key in the ignition that we will do anything we need to do before we turn the key, and once we turn the key let's all decide to give driving our full attention.  Please.