Let the games begin...

Is is just me, or was Friday night's Olympic Opening Ceremony an absolute bore?

The British have such a rich history...... literature, music, The Royal Family, Kings and Queens and castles and villages........ and that show was the best they could come up with?  Not to mention the idea about the Queen jumping out of a plane.  Now you know that stunt had to be planned way in advance, being that the dummy or the person who actually made the jump was wearing the exact outfit that the Queen was wearing that night.  And did she really approve that nonsense? 

Give us all a royal blessed break.  I usually don't watch the opening and closing ceremonies of the Olympic games.  Both are sort of like the Academy Awards--- you think you should watch so you don't miss anything exciting or really important...... but after you sit in front of the TV for a while, you realize that your life is passing you by and you're staring at this little screen filled with people who have no impact whatsoever on your life...... and all of those minutes are gone, gone, gone..... and nothing really exciting or really important has happened.

But I watched...... because I thought the Queen would give an inspiring speech before the Games........ and I thought that Paul McCartney would knock the socks off the world-wide audience.  Well, Elizabeth spoke exactly one sentence....... and Sir Paul sang one song, never connecting with the audience at all.... he just sang "Hey Jude" for the umpteenth-thousandth time.

The best part of that show was watching the athletes from all the countries parade into the arena.... you could see their pride and accomplishment all over their smiling faces....... and some were trying to hold back tears of joy.  And, wonder of wonders, I didn't see any of the athletes talking on cell phones..... they were taking pictures as they walked, but you could see that they were enjoying the moment.

The moment I enjoyed the most was when we turned off the television..... I think this year's Opening Ceremony has cured me from all others that may follow.  My apologies to England......  I love your history, I love the Royals, I love your traditions.... but whoever wrote, directed and produced that mostly dark and definitely dreary program should be forever locked in The Tower.

Is it Sunday again?

This Sunday-day seems exactly like last week's Sunday.  My husband's ankle is still propped up on pillows.... the bed has been bedspread-less for two weeks now.... the haunted air-conditioning system is still up in the attic space.... the third floor is still just a third floor and not yet a library.

The amethyst and chartreuse colors that bloomed on my husband's ankle last week have faded a little bit..... now his ankle looks more like lavender and honey, with just a touch of sage around the edges. (All of that sounds so much nicer than purple, yellow, and green, don't you think?)   

The haunted air-conditioner is still up in the attic, working along with Gomer's (the a/c guy) 'loaner unit' out in the yard.  The second floor is very cool and comfortable, but that loaner system is just that--- a loaner, reconditioned to work for a short while until the new system can be installed.  Between Gomer's overly-busy summer work schedule, and my husband's pulled calf muscle that has displaced all decision-making, I'm hoping the loaner-thing is as strong as an ox.

We haven't heard from the carpenters who were working up on the third floor. (I refuse to call it a library until I can start carrying my books up there.)  My husband had called the workmen to let them know we had decided to put carpeting up there instead of the wood flooring..... we asked them to come back and finish the trim work on the window seats so the carpeting could be installed.  No response from them, and we didn't try again because that's when the haunted air-conditioner started to give us problems (Gomer swears that unit is inhabited by a poltergeist).  Better to get the new air-conditioning system installed up there in the attic space first, before the carpenters finish up the trim work and the window seats.  And before new carpeting was installed.  It sounded like a good plan at the time.   I have a feeling that by the time the new a/c system is installed, and by the time we get the carpenters back here, we will need to be turning on the heat, not the air-conditioning.

Read this way.....

My husband is still limping around on his leg.... that pulled calf muscle is still calling the shots on what he can or cannot do.  For the last four or five days, his ankle has turned a brilliant shade of amethyst with a dusting of chartreuse. Quite pretty, but still quite painful.

With the onset of cabin-fever haunting my husband during this muscle crisis, I thought it would be the perfect time for him to read two of my favorite books. Both of them are by Texas author Joe Coomer--- "Dream House" (Coomer's memoir about building a new-but-vintage-style home on a big piece of property with a pond on it)..... and "Sailing In a Spoonful of Water"  (the author's memoir about restoring a very old wooden boat that he now sails from Texas to Maine, where he and his wife spend their summers).

Wonderful books..... so much so that I'm tempted to find the author's house-by-the-pond up near Fort Worth.  I have this picture in my mind of ringing his doorbell with all of his books in my arms, asking him to sign all of them while I tell him how many times I've read his memoirs and his novels.... in the background, his dog is bringing me his chew-toy, his wife is pouring tall glasses of iced tea, and my husband is asking Joe Coomer about the strength of the dam surrounding his pond.

But...... back to those two books.  I took my copies of "Dream House" and "Sailing....." and brought them upstairs to my husband.  He was sitting up in bed with his ankle packed in ice and he was reading a book on the Dalai Lama.  (Nothing wrong with the Dalai Lama, but honestly... there is more to life than being enlightened. Well, maybe not.... but there's certainly more to read.)

I showed my husband the covers of the books...... the three-story Victorian house on one, the vintage wooden sailboat on the other.  Surely, those covers would tempt him into reading something besides you-know-what.  I held "Dream House" in one hand,  "Sailing...." in the other hand.  My husband looked from one to the other...... I gave him a short synopsis of both books, highly recommending that he get his mind off of his ankle and the Dalai Lama for a while.  My husband looked interested.... he told me to leave them on the floor by his side of the bed.

On the floor? I don't leave my books on the floor.  I will put them on your night-table.

I did just that, and turned to go back downstairs.  On the floor?  I turned around and went back into the bedroom....... I took two bookmarks out of my night-table drawer and put one into each of those books.

I've given you two bookmarks....... don't fold the corners of the pages.  And remember not to fold back the spines of the books too much.  And don't read them in the bathroom.  And don't use the books as coasters.

My husband looked at me.  "Do I have to return them in two weeks, Miss Librarian?"

You know how fussy I am with my favorite books.  And it should take you less than two weeks to read both of those books.

"Name me two books in this house that are not your favorites."   Very funny.

I'm keeping an eye on those Joe Coomer books.  If we ever do drive up to Fort Worth, I wouldn't want the author to see an iced-tea stained bookcover or a spine that has been bent beyond repair, or a memoir that smells like Ben-Gay.  As for my husband, he's still reading his books on the Dalai Lama. For the time being, Joe Coomer is safe.

Friday the 13th.

I am not superstitious about this date, but I always take notice. It makes me smile, and I have to wonder if there are still people on this planet who fear this particular calendar date as if their life is going to collapse. "The sky is falling... the sky is falling...."   To all the Chicken Littles of the world--- relax..... if you get out of bed and put both feet on the floor, it's a good day, no matter what the date is.

Speaking of both feet..... my husband has one leg elevated these days. He pulled a muscle in his calf after spraying a wasp's nest with that canned stuff that makes you "spray and run."  He ran too fast, or didn't run the correct way.... the result was a swollen calf and a black & blue ankle. Ouch.  Advil, bandages, ice packs... that's been the treatment for about a week now.  Plus a slice of bread pudding from the Funky Art Cafe.  Delicious desserts heal all things.

We're still waiting on the air-conditioning repairman, the one who sounds like Gomer Pyle.  We're waiting for him to give us more information on the system he wants to install here for the second and third floors of this big old house..... and he's waiting on my husband's decision.  The latter cannot happen before the former, even though Gomer thinks we should just 'pick one and get it done.'  (Easy for him to say--- he's not the one writing out the check.)  And this is the same a/c guy who told us that our old a/c system up in the attic was haunted by a poltergeist.  I kid you not.

The Library up on the third floor.... that has been put on hold for the time being.  We don't want the carpenters to come back and finish the trim up there until Gomer installs the new system. No sense in putting up the little access doors to the attic space and then have them unhinged so the a/c crew can get in and out of there.  Once again, it's that former and latter progression.  It pains me to watch the HGTV decorating programs where a crew comes in at 7:00 in the morning and leaves at 9:00 in the evening and their make-over is complete.  (The magic of television editing, I'm sure now.)

We have had some rain........ good pouring-down no-nonsense rain.  The pond is filling up again......... there are puddles in the driveway, and most of the dry cracks in the fields have closed up and the grass seems downright soggy. Amazing what a good rain can do.  It can also leave flooding, which happened in some of the Houston areas.... and of course they showed those neighborhoods on the news this morning.  With every heavy rain, you can bet the ranch that the TV news programs will show those same flooded streets.  What I would like to see (and what would really be news) is a report on how those particular streets were fixed, how the drainage was improved......... so the same streets wouldn't flood each and every time.  Has that ever occurred to The Powers That Be in the city of Houston?

We didn't walk this morning, because of the rain..... plus we also had some thunder this morning, to make sure we were paying attention.  Pre-dawn cell-phone texting went something like this:
Are we walking this a.m.?
Are you kidding?
Not me.
Not me either.                                                                                                                                            
(All of that is gramatically correct, except for the punctuation marks. There is no question mark key on my cell phone. Future generations, after years of research, will come to the conclusion that texting in the early 21st century completely destroyed the English language.)

A Miss C visit.

Our special Miss C was here with us for a couple of days.... she drove up from Galveston, where she lives near the college there.  When C walks in the door, the house changes.... you can feel the electric charge in the air here.  And not because C is noisy or loud..... but just because she is so filled with happy energy...... it's contagious.  Her sense of joy just makes you smile.

We spent the day yesterday doing errands in town..... little things like the bank and the post office, a repair at the jewelry store, some time at my space in the antique shop, a trip to the thrift store.  We had lunch at one of the cafes in town and just talked and talked and talked...... never at a loss for words, never an impossible moment.                                                                                                  

At one of the shops, I found a leather bracelet trimmed in silver and studded with Texas stars.... it had C's name all over it.  I told her to close her eyes and I put it on her wrist....... she loved it, I bought it for her.  At another shop, C found a handpainted pottery dish that says "Friends make the world go round."  She bought it for me and surprised me with the little gift bag when we got to the back of the store.  When we got home, we signed our names on the sides of the pottery with a bright pink marker.... we drew little pink hearts, C dated it and wrote "To my best friend... I love you." 

As I've said....... this child makes you just smile.  And she's not really a child anymore..... she's 21 now, and getting ready to graduate from college this coming December.  She's a half-term ahead of her friends because she's been taking so many classes during the summer breaks.  Now she has so many options and opportunities ahead of her, with lots of decisions to make.  Somewhat overwhelming, but very much exciting for her.  There was a lot to talk about during this visit.

Miss C left this morning....... the house is still whispering with the happiness she left behind........ enough to last till her next visit.

"There's a ghost in your attic."

That's what the air-conditioning repair guy told us..... "There's a ghost up there.... a poltergeist...... something weird is going on up there and that's why your upstairs air-conditioning isn't doing what it's supposed to do."

Our air-conditioning repairman sounds like Gomer Pyle, from the old Andy Griffith show.  And today, actually, we heard that Andy Griffith passed away at his home in North Carolina. But that's another story.

For now, 'Gomer' has repaired the upstairs unit to the point where it will give us cool air until he can get back here and install the new a/c system for the second and third floors of this big old house.  Ghost or no ghost, Gomer told us that he can hardly wait to get that old unit out from under the eaves of the attic. "And just when is that going to be?" I asked him......... He told me "Right after the 4th, plum near right after the 4th."

Knowing Gomer the way we do...... "right after the 4th" can mean either the 4th of July, or the 4th of November.  His air-conditioning company is a small one, and it's about the only one in town that has more than two people working full-time.  I wanted to ask the man why he doesn't hire more people during his busier summer months, but honestly, I didn't want to get into yet another discussion that could involve a conversation that could last another 40 minutes without getting to the gist of the matter.

Getting back to Andy Griffith...... I used to watch that show when I was a kid....... Opie with the fishing pole, his dad with the sheriff's job, and Aunt Bea cooking in the kitchen.  All the kids I knew wanted to live in Mayberry..... no traffic, freshly painted houses,  safe streets, apple pies cooling on windowsills, and a real Main Street with cute little stores.

And where do I live now?  In a small town with a Main Street filled with cute little mom-and-pop stores, safe streets, ponds on properties just begging for a kid with a fishing pole.  Apple pies may not be cooling on windowsills because the flies and the barn swallows would be all over them, but it's as close to Mayberry as I think I will see in this lifetime.

And if there's any doubt about that, I can always call up the air-conditioning guy and ask 'Gomer' to tell me again about that ghost up in our attic who's making the cooling system "go all haywire and backwards from this way till Sunday morning."