Ordinary Life

Friday night and we are out to eat, two widows proper and me, widowed by the death of a girlish dream. Our waitress leads us to a four top, one empty chair for the phantoms we bring. We three share genes and a bloodline, but have different ideas about dressing a biscuit. My aunt asks for apple butter, my cousin requests honey from a bear and I opt for maple's syrup. The phantoms are silent. No one asks what they would have liked. My aunt, alone the longest and of a quiet nature,  is content to share our company. My cousin, twice widowed yet too young to retire, is - unbeknownst to our waitress - a former five star general in the order of Cracker Barrels. I feel the need to create content, to lift countenances; we are not begged by little voices to please, pretty please , play checkers. The phantoms clear their throats and I push the peg game meant for one in front of their empty chair. "I wonder if they have blueberry muffins tonight?" my cousin asks aloud "Oooh, mmm...

We're no Tiger Tomato   but we do love pancake art.  We made one whole box  of pancake batter, added food color in small batches and funneled  into our "pancake crayons". Then we played with our food. 

    I let my full weight fall against Burger King's heavy glass door and pushed against it. By nature a fairly passive person, I knew the door would absorb my unusually forceful shove with no loss of dignity. I even imagined it welcomed me a little. Better doors than people. (or...doors are better than people?)    We were en route to the bedside of a very sick relative and I knew we may not make it in time to say good bye.    Over the course of the morning, I had morphed into a tiny black rain cloud, prone to outbursts like thunder claps and sudden showers that washed away any semblance of "strength".     Once inside the ladies room,  I wiped away what streaked mascara could be budged and sighed a prayer of "please".    I wasn't praying for extra time. I wasn't praying to get there. I was praying for peace and that all would be well with my uncle...soul wise...you know..." It is well...it is well...with my soul ." And I wa...

There's just something special about Walt Disney's Experimental Prototype Community Of Tomorrow. It is my favorite park for several reasons, and it seems to me one of the most fitting monuments to the man behind Mickey Mouse. At its inception, Walt said of EPCOT:  "EPCOT will be an experimental prototype community of tomorrow that will take its cue from the new ideas and new technologies that are now emerging from the creative centers of American industry. It will be a community of tomorrow that will never be completed, but will always be introducing and testing and demonstrating new materials and systems. And EPCOT will always be a showcase to the world for the ingenuity and imagination of American free enterprise." Ingenuity. Imagination. America.  I think that's all of it in a nutshell.  Walking through the park makes me nostalgic. Not only for past visits and childhood adventures, but also for the strong broth of a certain philosophy, spooned to me steadily f...

Backroads Sunset

Tonight,  I saw an unanticipated result of our current administration's influence on today's youth. Chandler was describing an efficiency report for Fort Stewart that he had accidentally  "over-seen" while we were in Savannah recently. His grandfather, an engineering contractor for McLean, had some reports lying on a desk, in a closed binder in the same room the boys were bunking. Total happenstance report reading,  really. What Chan was impressed by was the efficiency of the Army as detailed in the report.He was describing how the report listed amount of wattage used per army barrack. And that's when I spotted it.  He said " Army Buh-Rocks " Bunk houses by this name would be the current President of the United States. (And I'm pretty sure he didn't serve...)  We often tease ChanMan about his creative pronunciation skills, and it is a homonym, so, I won't devote any more of this post to something that may embarrass him. However, it is an ide...