Tumbled Words

especially if your son and daughter-in-law are can do type people. Our apartment is horribly muggy because the A/C just can’t get enough moisture out. Our son is always trying to talk us into agreeing to stay a year instead of 6 months.

So, the other day, I said, “Get us a dehumidifier and we will stay a year.” Tonight they called to take us to dinner, and brought us a surprise, an early Christmas present:

a HUGE dehumidifier. In fact it may be too big for this little apartment. It probably could dehumidify this whole apartment building, guess they meant business!

And yes, he is definitely related to me, because he reminded me of my promise to stay a year if he bought us a dehumidifier — and his wife backed him up, both claiming (with large grins) they had recorded the conversation — not that they had, and I will, of course, deny it… but it was a fun moment.

And yes, we may just manage to like Florida for a while — 6 months worth anyway. Maybe I can renegotiate for a small house and a pool for the other 6 months.

and a hurry home so I can study, according to Leon. We had overslept, already after 7:30. “Here’s your juice, I’ll buy you Starbucks or Einstein Bagels on the way back home.” (I can handle that!)

We got our hour walk on the beach, but weather was so perfect, we walked along the road for another 20 minutes. While heading for the bagel shop near our apartment, our son called, “Dad, I need your “consulting”, not labor, get over here.” OK, it wasn’t quite that terse. Bagels and coffee downed, we headed over.

Leon solved the issue with the project to add gravel for his future boat to be parked, and in spite of his fire ant allergy, since none were seen (MEN!) we all four started pulling up grass, etc.. and shoveling. It was a cool day, so I was able to do quite a bit — in between our son saying, “Mom, give me that shovel. Go take a break,” repeatedly.

We headed out for a long leisurely, though late, lunch, his treat. So what if it was 2:30 p.m. before we finished and not one question answered or section studied by Leon. It had been a perfect morning, the beach followed by bagels, followed by 4 adults working in harmony, getting the job done; well, almost done, we did leave them some more work.

But my personal favorite moment: As we were leaving the restaurant our son admitted out loud, unprompted, that he had totally underestimated my abilities to do the physical labor… I was tossing that pea gravel with that shovel, oh yeah!

(But, I won’t tell y’all that Leon and I came home, only to fall asleep in front of our respective computers, give in and take a 2 hour nap… but don’t tell our son I got that tired… And who knows if I will be able to walk tomorrow.)

To those commenting on Leon’s exam, etc. He will most likely take it early next week. He has learned a lot already, and we are actually having fun doing the practice exam out loud, both of us answering… and as I was typing this, I had to get up and find something for Leon real quick, no big deal, except when I sat back down, I knocked over a TALL cup of tea…. and yes, it went into the good keyboard of my iMAC - and the only way to get the plastic backing off is with one of those little tools I have forgotten the name of — and he didn’t bring his tools to Florida — AND — even if we had a dishwasher, unlike PC keyboards, Mac keyboards have electronics in them (like USB, etc) — so you can’t do that… My keyboard arrived Tuesday lunch time, I maybe destroyed it Thursday breakfast time. Smart… Hopefully more went under it than in it… It is now, upside down… kind of like my tea.

So, I think with a little studying (OK, a lot of studying) I could get my license — but why? Do we need that much money? OR would it just be an excuse NOT to cook?