Dinner with the Demings - Caladium Poem - Hammock Talk

Just got home after a huge meal, a Ground turkey meat melange with sweet potatoes, and a cabbage slaw, with a tiny Reese bar for dessert, Max's favorite.

We all played outside in the back yard.

I offered Miss Ruth's Garden Tour, which Grace and Dad attended, while Max played in the sandbox.

I pointed out red roses and their sweet smell and a huge flowering tree that looked sorta like a white lilac but is probly not.

Take a pic of it, I asked Dan, and put it on FB.

A woman on FB just identified my SOW THISTLE in my front garden.

     We took turns lying in the backyard hammock strung between two pine trees.

As I lay there I saw SAP sticking out of the side.

Dan said a bunch of things fall onto the hammock which he keeps folded up.

Squirrels eat the pine cones - they're way high up - and the teeth of the cones drop down. When they finish eating the cone, they drop it down and it looks like an eaten corn cob.

Bird poop is also there. It's all over his back yard and basically everywhere.

Check your sidewalks, your car, and your hastas.

 
As we lay on the hammock we played marvelous who-am-I games. Grace suggested them.

"What is my favorite color?" she asked.

Dad, Max and I guessed, all incorrectly.

The answer is Light Blue.

Grace said she wants to learn to play the violin. She likes the sound.

I told the story of little Sarah learning to play the viola and her smashing it to smithereens.

Dan called her on his iPhone and she explained what really happened.

She said she had a really bad temper and she and Dan were probly fighting.

I myself just had a temper tantrum.

        Mom wanted me to call her. She asked where her pink tablecloth was.

With your permish, I said, "I gave it to a friend."

She said she would never part with it. She also gave me the matching pink napkins.

Sez I, "I'm gonna hang up now" and did.

Am cooling off now.

***
Scott and I went to The Depot today and bought veggies for our garden.

He planted them quickly, while I was tending to a huge flower pot in the front yard.

We now have three cherry tomatoes, one eggplant, and one cucumber.

Saw a Caladium at the Depot and knew I must have it.

A CALADIUM

(in memory of Mike)

That man had a mind
wide as West Texas
where he grew up.

Knowledge was his
thang: the clouds,
the red soil, how far
from the street
should the convenience
store go, in his job
as City Planner.

And what did he know
about caladiums? Flowers that
grew wild in India and
are also known as
elephant ears.

You can bet he did his
homework before he mailed
the bulbs to his 8-year-old
Sarah for a birthday gift.

And they grew for her, never
faltering, waving to her as
the leaves flopped over, thin
as paper in all the books
she's written and plans to
write.

You'd be proud of her, Dad,
if only you and your southern
twang and that whip-smart
brain of yours were still alive.

***
My sugar was very high when I got home, so I strapped on my sneakers and walked around the block.

It was hard, maybe b/c it's the close of day.

You don't check it right away, but when I did it was normal.

***
So, my fine furried fans, how will you spend the rest of the evening?

I may go out and star gaze!!!  BTW, when I was trying to identify the color of the pine cone tree, I said, Lemme take out my telescope and have a look.

I looked thru a circle I made with my thumb and finger.

Dan, I agree with you, I said. The bark does look brown.


      As we lay in the hammock, we continued our Who Am I quiz. One of my questions about myself was, What is my greatest fear?

Dan guessed Dying.

Wrong, I said. It's getting into a car crash.

Scott and I were watching the great film noir Out of the Past on TCM with the great Bob Mitchum and Jane Greer.

They both end their lives by dying in a car crash.

Mitchum's son was one of the commentators on the film. His dad, he said, was just a regular guy, and his kids had no idea he was a big star.

Years later, SNL had them do a skit called "Out of Gas" about the gas station owned by Mitchum in the film.

It was hilarious. The two of them looked terribly old! I'll see if I can find it for ya. Unavailable.

What I really wanted to say in this early morning addenda is that I was talking about Mike, my late husband.

Max, who's 4, asked, "Was he a bad man?"

When we talked to Sarah, we talked about Mike's real name: Millard.

Sarah assumed it was the common nickname for Millard.

She met a guy named Millard and asked him, Can I call you Mike?

My name is Millard, he said gruffly, why would you wanna call me Mike?