neighbors

Regis had to leave the house at 4:30 this morning to get to Rochester for a metabolism test at 7 a.m. I like to get up early but in the post-Ambien days, that is ungodly. I stayed in bed until 6:30 but I'm not sure I slept. I did a few chores (a weak attempt at sweeping the floor), took a short nap, and spent the rest of the day outside. I pulled a few weeds, made a couple swipes with the watering utensil, and sat in the lawn chair breathing deeply.

This is my baby, Tiffany, with our grand-daughter Ella. Tiffany just called to tell me that her pregnancy was confirmed by a doctor tonight and her baby is due in February. In true Tiffany fashion, her next statement was, "Oh my God, my car just died. I'll call you back!" Nothing without drama. We're very happy for her and for Eric. She'll have a beautiful baby and she'll be a wonderful mama.

There was a fat baby robin on the back step this morning when I went to the door to let Kramer out. Uh oh. Baby robin's parents were on the garage roof carting worms to the little bugger in rapid fashion. He just sat there pooping big blobs of purple stuff and holding his mouth open wide. Peter asked what kind of parents would drop their baby into the domain of Kramer who will eat any small thing moving. I think with birds it's sort of random and accidental where the babies get dropped. On second thought maybe not unlike humans.

We have a party to go to Friday night and I signed up to bring an appetizer. We take our cooking very seriously so have thought about what would be easy to tote, easy to serve, not messy to eat, and not some pedestrian dish like onion dip and bag-o-chips. We had a great party for Regis' 56th birthday party with all our kids last week and every last morsel of edible food was consumed. I think there were two wieners left after two big racks of ribs, two dozen chicken legs, and massive amounts of cowboy beans.

One of my sweet neighbors stopped over last night with a little apron I had given her daughter, Ivy, when she was a little girl. She thought maybe Ella would like to wear it. While we caught up on news: pregnancies, engagements, deaths, new jobs...I thought how sad it is that we live right next door and we know so little. How does it happen that these big events in our lives happen and the people we live across the street from don't know? It's pitiful. We think about the world being such a lonely distant place and here's a good example of how we don't pay enough attention to the people closest to us. I'm going to have a neighborhood party next weekend, right under the birch tree, with a cooler full of lemonade and a crockpot full of something, and maybe a pie. We don't have a fancy patio and there might be weeds in the garden but it doesn't matter. I'll even try to forget about the lawn mowing and the barking dogs.