dual personalities

It is chilly here in flyover country and there was snow on Friday! Daughter #1 drove home buffeted by a wintery wind in time to accompany Carla and me to a 90th birthday party for a church friend–oh boy! Then the three of us went to dinner afterwards and Carla regaled us with the saga of getting rid of a 20 lb. raccoon that had died behind her closet wall. And you thought you had a bad week.

After estate sale-ing on Saturday I dropped daughter #1 off at her football game watch party (Monon Bell) and I caught up on some housework. The wee babes came over that night for tacos and ran us ragged. I cannot imagine anymore how calm and placid it must be with just one toddler!

They love our old-school toys.

Clearly Lottie understands what a rotary phone is for.

Those antennae are endlessly fascinating.

They can now sing Row, Row, Row Your Boat complete with hand movements, although they do have trouble with the “merrily, merrily, merrily” part. Life is but a dream.

After they left, we managed to watch Murder on the Orient Express (1974) without passing out.

I was glad to see that our church made (sort of) a big deal out of Veterans Day for a change. We had two uniformed veterans and an active Air Corpsman participating in the service. We sang the Battle Hymn of the Republic. The rector talked about the 100th anniversary of the armistice in his sermon and announced that the three memorial plaques, which had been taken down several years ago during a renovation, had been re-hung last week. I was glad to hear it, since I had just been thinking it was time to nag him about it again.

Two young men from Grace Church died in the Argonne Forest and one died of wounds suffered there a month later in the U.S. Eight men from Grace died in WWII.  I was very happy to see the plaques back in a prominent place where they belong. Lest we forget.

After church daughter #1 headed back to mid-MO and the OM and I went to see our friend Eleanor in the matinee (i.e. senior citizen show) of the Kirkwood Theatre Guild production of Lord Arthur Savile’s Crime, a “delightful satire” which promised to “keep us laughing.” Guess what? Well, I didn’t fall asleep.

I have a Big Week coming up with 2 big events, multiple meetings, and Marilynne Robinson is visiting my flyover university. Yikes. Take a deep breath. Have a good one.

*Battle Hymn of the Republic