Putting the "Wheeee!" in Weekend
I will not be at work tomorrow, and seriously doubt I will be posting, as I will be at home with the kids. My mother-in-law (who has been riding herd over them this summer) is having some doctoring done to her, and so I get to take off a day and start the weekend early.

Reba took off yesterday (due to Grandmama's doctor visitry), and managed to have a pretty good day of it, getting Ashley to the junior high for band camp and Jonathan to the elementary school for some tiny genius testing and to Cedar Street Garden Shop for buying yet more greenery, then dropping off the plants and making the return trip to get the kids. After that, she got them all outside to run around screaming while she put out the plants, and then she cleaned out the garage a bit while the glass repair guys came out to replace the windshield of her van.

The guys did a great job, by the way, and managed to actually install the windshield correctly, as opposed to the fine folks at the Glass Doctor, who left more gaps than the Nixon tapes in the sealant and managed to make a ride in the van sound like flying in a plane with the cargo door open. I guess I should be glad it didn't leak water like a sieve. Glass Doctor, eh? I wonder if there's such a thing as glazing malpractice?

In any event, the guys who came out worked hard and now there is no wind noise, and no giant crack in the middle of the glass and no wads of worthless goo stuck around the perimeter of the window. She said they were very nice (a two-man crew of an older fellow and a young guy home for the summer from the University of South Alabama) and the kids managed to make several trips around the house to check on their progress, especially Catherine. Anything breakable, and she's whirring around it like a June bug on a string.

Today, we're both back at work, but tomorrow only Reba will be at work, and I get to do the running around--take Oldest One to band camp (every day, 9-10, one week left) then later pick her up and head downtown to pick up our paychecks, run to the bank, then back home for what promises to be a wild weekend of raging domesticity. And horses.

Saturday we have Equine Exploitation Lesson Two, in which it is promised that the older three will be allowed to enter the pasture, pick out their own pony, capture it, haul it back to the barn, saddle it, drag it to the paddock, mount up and ride it. I'm sure noooooothing will go wrong in that little scenario. There is supposed to be other wild stuff happening this weekend too, but dang if I can remember all that is scheduled.

I do know that Sunday is Father's Day. I never really go overboard dropping hints and stuff about desired gifts, despite my ramblings in here. I always get asked what I want, and my answer is always, “Please just let Daddy sleep on Saturday morning and wake up naturally, to the gentle sounds of sweetly chirping birds.” This year I’m going to ask for a Porsche Boxster, an accurized M1-A from Springfield Armory, a 5 bedroom house on Dauphin Island, a restored PT boat, and an IWC Portugieser Cal. 5000. I can guarantee I will come closer to that treasure trove than actually awakening Saturday morning to anything other than the sounds of Jonathan recreating all the moves of the Jackie Chan cartoon, Ashley and Rebecca killing each other, and Fire Plug breathing in my face.

But, that’s really what being Dad is all about, anyway. All that other junk would not be near as much fun to write about as the Lollipop Guild. (Not to say that if any of you want to spread a little of that jack my way that I would turn it down!)

You know, I don’t ever mention my dad very much. I still have my mean ol’ mom kickin’ around, but my dad has been gone now for close to18 years. I just hope when I’m gone my kids miss me as much as I miss him. He was always great fun around kids and it hurts not to have him around to admire my bunch. About a year ago, I started putting together a small amount of stuff over on my companion website on GeoCities (which predates this blog by a couple of years.) One of the things that I remember most about my dad was his time in service, and the pages I have started assembling are about his tour in the Navy during World War II. I still have a lot of stuff to scan in, and am about half done with it. I haven’t posted anything in about a year, but if you would like, you can click here and go read a bit about him.

He was a good man. If you have a good man in your life, go tell him you love him. Don’t wait till Sunday, do it now. And let him sleep in Saturday.

See y’all Monday.
posted by Terry at 3:11:00 PM