Egret

I was standing by the lake watching this egret who seemed quite unfazed by the fact that I was stalking it while it was stalking something in the water in front of him. Some small sound attracted my attention to a man standing next to me with an English Setter  in full pointing mode. "He's a bird dog", the man said to me unnecessarily. Just then the egret flew off and the English Setter took off after with his person in tow. "I hope you know how to swim" I said to the man unnecessarily.

We got to Acre for our Sunday coffee after Santa Claus had ascended his big chair , so things were considerably calmer than they were last week. The small patio in front faces the same direction as our front porch, and, like it, feels good in the sunshine for about fifteen minutes. Then we start removing layers of clothing until we are down to a tee shirt. When that becomes too warm, we reluctantly head home.

I have resurrected a knitting project which I abandoned several months when knitting a wool sweater was not appealing. It took a day or so but I have even figured out where I left off and how to do a 'short row'. What I had forgotten was that the wool has to be made into balls from diabolically twisted skeins. It took me an hour and a lot of muttering bad words to convert one skein to a ball. Note to self: take the wool to the the yarn shop which has a ball winder. I will watch with great attention to see if the rather antique looking contraption can figure out the cunningly twisted, yet innocent looking skein.

Today is Will's birthday. Twenty years ago I was with Dana and Jim when he was born in Chicago, Illinois, and got pulled over by the police as I was trying to find my way home from the hospital in the wee small hours afterward. I couldn't figure out how to roll down the window and the cop leapt back from the car shouting, "don't open that door...." As he watched me fumbling with an unfamiliar car to open the window he said, "it's an old fashioned crank...just turn it".
He apparently satisfied himself that I was neither drunk nor a serial killer and accepted my story about having just become a grandmother for the first time. Since I was clearly thrilled, exhilarated, and lost, he even escorted me to the expressway and made sure I was pointed in the right direction.  I got home just fine even though I did have to run the toll booth without paying because I didn't have any change...

Happy birthday, Will. My sense of direction is as bad as it ever was but you have grown into a fine young man who is willing to drive his grandmother around after dark, and play golf with your grandfather at oh-dark-thirty.