I Already Got Him Elected
Monday, July 11, 2005
(Installment I)
Sunday afternoon was spent with OLeif, Joe, and Rose at youth group while everyone else went to visit Grandma Snicketts. They watched Hurricane Dennis’ terror over Pensacola, Florida, and Mobile, Alabama. There was also satellite feed of the devastation in Cuba. Meanwhile, Dad hung one of Grandma’s pictures – a great ship on the high seas.
“Well, I was mean to people this week,” Grandma said, as Francis and Linnea played at army men and Lincoln logs on the carpet.
“Well, good for you, Grandma,” Mom chuckled.
They all laughed. It was such a Grandma thing to say – blunt and to the point.
Apparently, her cleaning lady had been negligent about informing her when she was coming, which caused Grandma to waste an hour in preparation for her arrival. And then the Republican party called, asking for another donation. Grandma hung up on them!
“Well, I already got him elected,” Grandma said.
They always liked looking at Grandma’s closet door upon first coming in. With Grandma’s enormous pig collection and paintings, George Bush and Laura Bush took center stage. Every time a picture arrived in the mail as a thank you from the Republican party, she tacked it up with the others. There was even a postcard of former Senior President Bush’s summer home in Maine, which they brought back for her when they visited Kennebunkport the previous summer.
But Dad suddenly started guffawing as the ladies were discussing jigsaw puzzles.
“What?” Grandma asked him.
“Well, it’s just funny,” Dad chuckled. “You have your ‘Pig Collector’ sign hanging right above all your President Bush pictures.”
They all laughed. Meanwhile, Grandma was quite pleased with her pin from Carrie – the lovely iris-colored Austrian crystal flowers which Carrie had found back in May. It was Grandma’s favorite color.
Then they all met at Cracker Barrel for a nice Sunday dinner. And there were stories as usual. Dad was trying to get Carrie to quit her job at Columns and work for him, doing research. Carrie was not wild about the idea, wishing to still see her friends at work. Besides, there was always the excitement of finding ants crawling on the cheese, watching the bathroom overflow as the wedding party had just arrived, the Mexicans sniffing the lettuce leaves and sighing as though they were in a Sierra Mist commercial. As though lettuce even had a smell… these were the latest happenstances from Carrie’s end.
And the evening ended with two “I Love Lucy” episodes, with Carrie in her pajamas curled up on the couch with a cat bundled up in three blankets, and Rose in the recliner with another one. Joe took the last and sprawled out on the floor with a pillow.
As the sun set red beyond the grove of trees, Collette sighed. How many wonderful memories she had of those wonderful lazy summer afternoons and evenings at home… with many more to come.
(Installment II)
The day began with the clouds of the late hurricane from the Gulf. Collette rather wondered how long it would be before the storms came, if they actually made it all the way to the Midwest. It was exciting – the thought of storms. Although in this case, the billions of dollars in damage that came with it, was not so exciting. Collette hoped that everyone had kept safe that Sunday when the hurricane finally hit the U.S. Already Fidel Castro was angry that several Cubans were lost in the storm. Suddenly, he had become the humanitarian, Grandma Snicketts had said, most surprised.
And poor Eve was stranded in Dallas at that moment. She was supposed to be in Pensacola, Florida, touring the college. However, as the hurricane had just struck land only the afternoon before, Collette wondered why the tour had still been on schedule to continue. However, the green light was up, and Mr. English dropped her off at the airport Monday morning. And now, at that moment, Mrs. English had just finished setting up a hotel for her for that Monday night, as apparently they weren’t allowing flights into the area. Then she would continue her journey. Eve had already been nervous about just taking a plane by herself!
Meanwhile, Joe was outside mowing the lawn with Dad’s big old earphones and bright blue gloves. He managed to keep himself busy with trimming the grass around the sidewalk and vacuuming up everything, while stomping on all the spiders which hurried forth from the lawn vacuum bag (which likely hadn’t been opened in years). After all, with nine days of rain scheduled in the forecast, the lawn had to be taken care of before a jungle grew, even though there had been a substantial drought for a period of time.
And it was not long before Tennessee Coca-Cola dropped by for another work-out session. So Collette worked on the Chinese and the laundry while Carrie studied for her emergency response management quiz. Rose was off baby-sitting at the church property and then to 5-Day Clubs in Alton. And Mom was running around getting her everywhere with Francis and Linnea who had their new session of swimming lessons. Busy day…