River Bound

On Sunday, the fam headed up to Little River Canyon National Preserve.  We packed a lunch and hoped to put our feet in the water for awhile.  The photo below is from the trail headed to the falls.  It also serves as a great illustration.  See, you can snap what you think is just a lovely photo…and get, well…a surprise!

Check out what Jon discovered while trying to zoom in on a certain area of the photo.

Surprise!

Yup, this classy dude was in that picture.  Talk about your Where’s Waldo!  Luckily when fully zoomed out, you can’t see him.  Nice undies.

We pointlessly told the children several times that we were NOT going to be swimming. It was a stickyourfeetinthecoolwater day.  Definitely NO swimming.

I GUESS we can go ahead and take off their shirts.  (You know, so they don’t get all wet from dipping our feet in.)

See?  Do what mom does.

And Dad.

What the???  Hey now!

YOUNG MAN! DON’T YOU EVEN THINK ABOUT IT!

Well, at least I stuck to the rules.

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A Space Oddity.

I thought I was a HUGE sci fi fan, until the other night.  There was a double feature on Dish showing 2001: A Space Odyssey and then 2010.  I realized that I hadn’t seen 2001 in many, many years, so why not make a little memory and watch it with my teenage sci fi doppelgänger?  About 30 minutes into the monkeys, I began to hit the info button.  Was this the right movie?  Maybe DISH accidentally played  “A Quest for Fire.”  No.  I had the right movie.  I just did not remember that much monkey stuff in the film.  Clearly, I was confusing it with all the parody scenes I had seen in other films.  Jacob became irritated and asked if the whole movie was about angry gorillas.  I assured him that it not only would get better, it. would. get. awesome.

Hmmm.  My husband joined us shortly, enticed by the extremely loud music and uber soft dialogue.  We took turns diving for the stereo, turning it down when the score began to blast.  Periodically, I would catch them staring at me in total confusion.  Again, I told them to be patient.  About the time the second monolith appeared, the natives were pretty restless.  They quieted when HAL 9000 came into the picture.   This section of the film was the only part I truly remembered sitting through.  Just as the movie got interesting it launched into some sort of epic acid trip that ended with a poorly decorated hell, Purgatory, alien jail cell sequence.  Jacobs eyebrows had slowly climbed up his forehead and were now in his hairline.  He muttered, “What the heck?” several times.  Then it ended with the baby in the amniotic sac staring at me.  Condemning me for all that is wrong with the world.

Jacob and I talked about the movie, both totally confused about what we had just seen.  I told him that George Lucas and all the greats looked to this movie for sci fi movie inspiration.  He said “So what, this is the Latin of science fiction?”  Perfect.

Ho-hum

The last few days have been blah.  Where did you go sunshine, my love?  Outside is a dreary,weary reminder of what we left behind.  Rain, rain, rain.  Thankfully, the wind has not whipped up and storms have stayed away.

After attending Sunday services, we hurried home so I could clean everything.  Mother in law and her husband arrived with homemade spaghetti, and garlic bread carried in a laundry basket.  I chopped up a head of lettuce, and set forth a rainbow of salad dressings to choose from.  Nothing fancy, just some bleu cheese, italian, and balsamic with olive oil.  Chatter bounced around the table as we ate our fill of carbohydrate rich fare.

Jon’s mom and I agreed that a meal is never complete without a little somethin’ sweet.  I grabbed the keys and the brooding 16 year old, we headed out the door to track said sweet thang down.  I thought that cheesecake would go quite well with Italian type food.  Bummer, they were all frozen.  I really did not want to bake either.  Prompted by my inner lazy gal, I headed over to the meager bakery section at Foodland.  Two selections looked promising.  Boston Cream, and  Sock It To Me cake.  Perfect.

I grabbed some cotton balls, heavy cream, and castor oil.  (unrelated items-not for dessert use)  Jacob spent about twelve dollars of his birthday money on Mike N Ike’s.

Both coming and going to the store, we ended up smack in the middle of funeral processions. In this part of the south ( i don’t know what happens in the other parts) you STOP for a funeral procession.  Pull over and stop.  And you turn your lights on.  The humble line of cars is led by a squad car, lights flashing.  Do not DARE try to keep going as the hearse and all the family members go by.  You will be followed and given a little bit of southern love. (read-chewed out).

Every time this goes on I have the same conversation with Jacob.

“I hate this!!!”

“Why?”

“It’s stupid, why do we have to stop because of a funeral??”

“Jacob, it’s a sign of respect.”

“They’re dead, they don’t care.”

“Well, the grieving family does.  Besides, it’s the last ride you get, might as well make it a good one.”

“Nobody does this anywhere else.”

“Maybe they should.”

“I still think its dumb.  When I’m driving there is no way I am going to stop”

“That’s because you are young and young people are impatient and selfish.”

After the cars began to move again, we turned onto our street and quietly ate Mike N Ike’s.

“I like the green and yellow ones that taste like the smell of Pledge.”

“You’re weird, Mom”