Seen and Heard . . .

. . . And Other Stuff

Getting from there to here can sometime be frustrating when orange barrels spring up suddenly at intersections that were clear just a bit earlier when going from here to there.

Went to the pharmacy yesterday morning, waited a half hour for the prescription the pharmacist said would be ready in five minutes, then headed back home.

The exit from the parking lot was closed. Went to another exit. Also closed.

Followed a garbage truck through a back alley and reached a road, turned left and headed home. That didn't work. Orange barrels took over and I had to go seven blocks before finding a lane to take me toward home.

Success at last but another little hitch - this a funny one.

Suddenly a squirrel started across the street from my right. I stopped. Right behind the squirrel, coming at a fast pace, a black cat! Exciting. And now the climax. Streaking after the cat, a humongous black dog!

The chased and the chasees disappeared behind a house. Never did see the outcome. But it removed my thoughts of the orange barrel frustrations.

The other night Lady B and I went to bed early and were just about dozing off when an unusual event came about - a party!

NO, NOT THAT KIND!

Out in California, number one son sat down with some friends, inadvertently sitting on his cell phone. How no one knows but his cell phone suddenly rang Lady B's cell phone. in Hobbs, New Mexico. It was 10:14 p. m. New Mexico time, an unusual time for a call from that son.

I answered and heard my son's voice but got no communication from him. I heard his wife's voice and then numerous other voices. It sounded like a high-pitched and excited conversation, as if it could have been EMS people and maybe police shouting in an emergency situation. I was worried.

I at once was imagining there was a problem and I attempted to have someone hear me but there was no answer, just confusing background conversation.

I listened some more and then heard another voice laughing, a lady;s voice I recognized and then realized my son and his wife were at a party at a friend's house and deduced for myself what had happened.

The next day son number one verfified that was probably what had happened, a chance call from his butt.

Late in July Lady B's extended family held its bi-annual reunion in the Guadalupe Mountains of New Mexico and all attending, including this blogger, had a fine time.

The reunion was, however. not without its startling or amusing happenings. First was a nighttime excursion on a trail with Pinky, our pink little Chihuahua, who faltered when she and I heard another camper yell "Stop, don't come any further, I'm trapped by a rattler."

I summoned a few other male campers from a dorm, left the dog there, and headed to help. One of the braver guys killed the rattlesnake with a huge rock.

The same night one of the reunion members had to fend off three bats in his room. Next morning a mule deer attempted to crash the morning breakfast at the camp mess hall.

And finally in broad daylight, a skunk wandered around a vehicle a few feet away from me and then non-nonchalantly over my shoes on its way to nearby woods. Having experienced a sudden skunk appearance in the past, just freezing in place avoided any unpleasantness.

Lady B and I had two visitors yesterday afternoon. As is our daily custom, we make copies of the newspaper crossroad puzzles so we could each work it at the same time and, expecting our friends, this time we'd made four so we could all do the puzzle (take note Chris.)

We all got to work on them after dinner . As happened with Chris earlier this year, we had taken on a challenge. As we pencilled and erased our way through the puzzles, the other two sat back and watched.

We glanced at them and noted they weren't doing anything, looking, I thought, a little smug. Both had BALL POINT INK pens laying on the table, beside COMPLETED puzzles, just like Chris back in January! Lady B has a sister smart like that, too.

We may forget our crossword puzzle custom in the future whenever we have company in the house.

A friend of mine was recently discussing how his children had grown and gone their ways. Both a girl and a boy had gone through colleges and obtained their master's degrees.

Their second son had balked at college however, this friend said, and "just got into the plumbing trade."

He added "if it wasn't for him. me and the wife and the other two would be starving."

On a very hot (104*) day last week as I headed down home I saw a car with its hood up at the roadside beside a series of sprinklers soaking down newly- planted grass on the health walkway.

The registration plate was different and four little kids were outside under the spraying water!

I saw as I pulled up to a stop for possible assistance , that the car was from Pennsylvania and the vehicle had a car dealer symbol on the rear reading "Simpson Chevrolet, Morrisvile, Pa."

The driver approached and I asked if he needed help. He explained his air-conditioning unit had quit, the kids were very hot, he spotted the sprinklers and stopped to let the kids enjoy the spraying water.

As I directed him to a garage where he could get new freon , he explained the family was on vacation to Utah, coming from "a little town on the Delaware River."

"That must be Morrisville, like it says on the back of your car," I said and he replied, "No, it's Levittown."

So we had a brief conversation, me telling him I used to live and work there and he relating he and the family had moved there a year earlier from Cape Cod in Massachusetts

Sometimes it's a small world.

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