One set leaves, another arrives.
7:53 a.m.
After breakfast yesterday Hubby whomped a1cides� lily-white butt at tennis, so I asked Meg if she would like to go for a walk so we could enjoy the warm fall air and the coloured trees. Just as we were leaving the house, I noticed some very sharp shards of glass at the end of our newly paved driveway, so I kicked them up against the curb, and we proceeded to perambulate. We strolled over to the campus where I showed her the chapel, really the gem of the university, and we sat and talked about things spiritual while we took our ease. Then she got the great idea that we drive home, since Hubby had left the Volvo on campus overnight, having ended up travelling with our guests after they arrived in their car. So we did that, and as I was parking it in the driveway behind their car, I noticed that their front, passenger-side tire was extremely flat. My thought was that they were afflicted by the broken glass I found at the end of the driveway, or that they picked up something between the restaurant and the house the night before. Just then, luckily, Hubby and a1cides arrived home, drenched with tennis sweat, and Hubby flexed his manly muscles and exchanged their pancake-flat tire for the mini-spare in the trunk, and after a Spartan lunch of black bean soup, bread and cheese, they were on their merry way.
That was about 1:15 p.m. I had to leave ten minutes later to pick my brother and his family up from the bus station. Thankfully, Meg had stripped the bed and brought up the towels, but I had to do a quick cleaning job on the bathroom sink and put on a load of laundry, and instructed Hubby to put sheets on the bed downstairs, including an extra pillow for my sister-in-law. Their bus was a little late due to construction on the autoroute, and they loaded their massive amount of luggage (they�re only staying three nights) into the trunk of the Subaru and I took them home.
Shortly afterwards, as we were all sitting around the kitchen table drinking tea, coffee and snacking on crackers and cheese, my mom phoned to make sure that they had arrived safely. She and I had quite a lively conversation in another room, and she told me that my sister-in-law and the wife of one of my brother�s friends, at whose house they had dined the night before, kept giving her advice on how she should call this agency and get that service so that she wouldn�t have to do certain things for herself. As I have made abundantly clear in the past, my mother is an extremely independent woman and is still capable in many areas. She admits that her eyesight is going to hell in a handbasket and that when she goes shopping, she would really like a companion who has good eyes and can read labels for her. She doesn�t want someone to take her shopping, just to read the labels. These two younger women just don�t understand why she is so stubborn and won�t heed their advice and ask for help.
Anyway, after the phone call, Hubby set up his DX7 in the living room and got out the electric guitar, and he, Buddy Boy, my brother, and even Little Princess on violin were jamming and having a wonderful time. My sister-in-law and I were in the kitchen, chatting about this and that, and she brought up the business about my mother being so stubborn. She thinks that the older woman should really have someone there all the time who can do things for her. I told SIL that my mother is stubborn, and wants to do things for herself while she still can. If her independence were to be taken away from her, she would probably shrivel up and die very quickly. Of course, SIL probably now thinks that I am stubborn too, but I know that my mother will not ask for help until she bloody well really needs it. The discussion caused a bit of a hard feeling to linger in the air, but by suppertime it was gone.
For supper I made pasta al cav0lfiore from M00sewood, which was delicious, and we watched Sch00l of R0ck, which was hilarious even the second time around, and then I made up the pull-out couch for my nephew to sleep on, and we all went to bed.
It has dawned bright and sunny, and from the attic I can hear church bells pealing, calling the faithful to prayer. Now I must go and memorize vocabulary and noun endings.
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