The Two-State, Three-Generation Sunday Morning Hoo Ha*

Our table, without, as it happens, us.
The Saturday Morning Breakfast Club goes to Sandpiper for breakfast, and then I go to A & P and shop for the week and the Care-A-Van picks me up and takes me home with my groceries and I put them away. This week, it was the second sunny day in a row** and so as soon as I'd put away the things that needed to be refrigerated and the Hooligan bait, I left the rest of it, grabbed my current book,*** hied myself outdoors****, sat on the bench in the pocket park across the street, and spent two hours reading and watching eagles and ravens. An innocent enough start, one would think. Well, in my family, one would be wrong.

It seems that, as I was quietly reading and enjoying my first opportunity to sit in the sunshine in weeks and weeks, my mother called. A couple of times. When I came in, the answering machine was blinking but she had only left one message and it said she would call me back. By 8 p.m. Alaska time, I knew that it was 9 p.m. California time and she was going to bed so she wouldn't be calling on Saturday. Figured she would call Sunday.

Saturday night I had trouble falling asleep. Once I did, at about 3:30, I slept like a child. But, of course, I slept in. At 10:30 Mama called but I didn't wake up. So then, being Mama, she got worried and called Richard, who called at about 10:34. I still didn't wake up, but the phone must have made some impression on me because I pulled myself out of the best dream***** I've had in a lo-o-o-o-ong time and got up.

I was getting dressed when I heard Richard's voice on the staircase, "Mom? Are you up there?"
"Yes, I'm up here in my underwear."
"Grandma's been trying to get you for two days and she's panicking." He called from his stationary spot on the staircase," And you didn't answer when I called, either."
"Had a hard night. I was sleeping in."
"Well, call Grandma and tell her you aren't laying on the floor with a broken hip unable to get to the phone," and out he went.

So, I called my mother. I figure Richard must have called her from his cell phone because by the time I got to the phone and called she was calm. After Richard had called her to tell her I hadn't answered his call either, she had called him right back to suggest that he come over and see if I was okay, and he had told her that he already had his jacket on and was on his way out the door at that very moment. Into, he didn't tell her, a rain storm.* (again) On foot, since he doesn't have a car and doesn't drive, at any rate.

Sunday night, I called Julie for our regular chat and she told me that while she, Ted, and Maya were out to breakfast, Richard had called and left a message on her voice mail asking if she had talked to me lately. When they returned, since their voice mail doesn't have a blinking light and she wasn't expecting a call, she knew nothing of it until Richard called to reassure her that I was ok. She told him that although she hadn't turned on her computer yet, she knew I'd posted here the day before, so I'd been ok then.

Mama suggested to me that I should call Richard everyday and check in so everyone would know I'm alright, because as she said, "You have lovely cats, dear, and they are very smart I'm sure, but they refuse to answer the phone and reassure your mother." I'm not going to do that; had we been going by that system already, when Mama called Richard he wouldn't have had a call Sunday yet and would have had to go out in the rain in any case.

So, Julie and I have worked a deal. I will post here every single day, which I mostly do, and if I don't have anything else to say it can be YouTube or a picture or a cartoon, and the whole family can know I was alive that morning.

* And isn't it wonderful to know you're loved?
** A rare and wonderful occurence this year.
*** Imperial Times in the Emerald City.
**** In Alaska, outside means out of state.
***** And one day I'm going to figure out who that man in my very best dreams is and go hunt him down!

Click on pictures to enlarge.