Weekends always fly away so fast, like a flock of small whistling birds.
Friday we visited JJ & Tebone in a home they were watching while the owners were away on vacation. It was a geodesic dome, and I had never been inside one before. Interesting but lots of funny angles. Tebone made pizza. We played with the snorty little pug dogs who looked like goblins. Their fur was soft and they sounded terrible.
During the meal, JJ told about receiving a call earlier in the day from one of Tebone’s ex-girls -- not a “girlfriend” but she was in love with him sort of thing – and she had news about an old mutual friend. JJ answered the phone and after recognizing the voice, said, “Well hello Barb, this is JJ.”
Barb said, “I know who the hell this is. Get me Tebone.”
Understandably, JJ was upset by the exchange.
All I have to say is yes, Barb knows exactly who the hell JJ is; JJ is the one who got the man.
We watched Latcho Drom with them; it's a movie about Gypsies and it's sort of documentary, sort of musical, all of it interesting and humbling and there are very few people I would watch it with, but JJ & Tebone are both thoughtful and musicians, and I believe they enjoyed the true beauty of the film. We had a good time, got home late.
Saturday, S & I cleaned. We started at nine o’clock, right after breakfast, and we cleaned for hours. I could eat off the kitchen floor (which S mopped twice), it’s that clean. I love a clean house. I love sitting on a lawn chair in the sunshine, knowing the laundry is done and the beds are changed and dinner is in the oven. We stayed home Saturday night and had a nice quiet evening snuggled on the couch looking at a book that has eradicated any desire S ever had to go to Australia: Poisonous Creatures of Australia, written in scientific terms by some professor who gives very extensive descriptions of how the poisons react with blood and tissue. It’s fascinating in a very morbid way. Jumping inch-long ants with stingers like wasps; the most poisonous snakes in the world, most of which are in the cobra family, including the tiger snake, which likes to lounge on people’s lawns. Not to mention all the big nasty spiders, and jellyfish, and rock fish and… we learned a lot about neurotoxins.
Sunday we forgot about the time change and got up super early, ate breakfast and got dressed. Friends Oily and RB asked us to accompany them to church; the four of us usually stick with our Bible study and we’re all admittedly anti-organized religion, but they wanted to do some singing and praying so we said sure.
Like I said, we forgot about the time change.
So when they showed up at what we thought was 11:45, we had already shrugged out of our Sunday best. Silly us.
Church was unlike I’d ever attended, namely because, at the church chosen by Oily, we were four out of the ten white folk. I must say never in my life have I felt so welcome and comfortable, nor as involved in the prayer or singing. Hands were clapped, tambourines were shaken, feet were stomped and everybody sang the gospel, which means “good word,” and it was lifted to the air with rich sweet voices.
The sermon was a simple message, and then there was a guest speaker, one of the congregation, who kept snuffling snot in a most unappealing manner, but he did alright. And although I didn’t take any clear message or revelation about God from the sermon, the doctrine seemed sound, and I never once was bored. It was a good experience and a delight to hear so many joyful songs.
After church, Oily took us to a Chinese all-you-can-eat buffet restaurant, which I usually avoid but it’s a new restaurant, and very clean. I tried some of everything… it might be more appropriate to say I gorged myself on all tasty savory hot and sour and sweet and soy available. We sat at a window booth and giggled about the big man coming for lunch dressed in sweat pants. With suspenders. And when we left I wished I had on sweat pants with suspenders.
We went back home and enjoyed the glorious sunshine by taking dogs for a walk around the block. Sunday was a happy lazy day. S talked about garlic and planting cover crops and trees, and about tearing down our raised garden beds to have a row garden next spring. He’s reading all about mulching, and it suits his temperament. I think half of it is he wants to buy bales of straw and spread it out so we can roll around in it in the crisp autumn air but I didn’t accuse him of ulterior motives. Straw mulch does keep boots from getting muddy, which is a good thing, and it suppresses weeds such as dandelions, which is also a good thing. I don’t care what he does with the garden so long as I have fresh fruit and veggies to eat.
Dinnertime came and went and we were still digesting our Chinese buffet lunch. But since my girl R was coming, we made pasta salad with marinated chanterelle mushrooms, olives, red bell pepper, and tomatoes. S stirred some magical ingredient into it and made it delicious. When I ask him what spices he uses he just lifts his eyebrows way up and opens his eyes all big and innocent and shrugs.
R arrived before 8. One thing about R and S; when we’re all in a mood, the giggling does commence. We get each other going and it is impossible to stop. She told about performing the night before, during which she said she felt great, and suddenly was horrified that she had made the face her mom calls her rat-fink look, where she smiles all toothy and wrinkles up her nose. She said she wonders what else she does that she doesn’t notice while she’s up there dancing.
Everything was funny.
S told about how, last summer when my folks visited, my Dad followed him around the yard as S watered plants, standing very close like Dad does, pondering something and being quiet like he is, and then he taps a sprinkler pipe with his shoe and says, “Yep, good old galvanized pipe.”
Hilarious. Maybe you had to be there but I almost peed my pants laughing so hard. And
I mentioned how I had once read that laughing is better than putting a paper bag over your head, and I meant “in case you’re hyperventilating” but was unable to finish my statement for the uproarious laughter from both S & R. It became a proverb.
Then we started dancing. Dancing while laughing while S noodled on the fiddle and taking long-exposure photos of us swirling and spinning and the dog on his bed in the corner sighing and wishing the monkeys would go to bed already.
After a midnight snack of pomegranate, kiwis, apple and Dubliner cheese R hit the road and S & I hit the hay, goodnight my love, another sweet weekend, and I pray as I drift off to sleep for the safety and happiness of loved ones, and that it rains soon in Southern California.
Friday we visited JJ & Tebone in a home they were watching while the owners were away on vacation. It was a geodesic dome, and I had never been inside one before. Interesting but lots of funny angles. Tebone made pizza. We played with the snorty little pug dogs who looked like goblins. Their fur was soft and they sounded terrible.
During the meal, JJ told about receiving a call earlier in the day from one of Tebone’s ex-girls -- not a “girlfriend” but she was in love with him sort of thing – and she had news about an old mutual friend. JJ answered the phone and after recognizing the voice, said, “Well hello Barb, this is JJ.”
Barb said, “I know who the hell this is. Get me Tebone.”
Understandably, JJ was upset by the exchange.
All I have to say is yes, Barb knows exactly who the hell JJ is; JJ is the one who got the man.
We watched Latcho Drom with them; it's a movie about Gypsies and it's sort of documentary, sort of musical, all of it interesting and humbling and there are very few people I would watch it with, but JJ & Tebone are both thoughtful and musicians, and I believe they enjoyed the true beauty of the film. We had a good time, got home late.
Saturday, S & I cleaned. We started at nine o’clock, right after breakfast, and we cleaned for hours. I could eat off the kitchen floor (which S mopped twice), it’s that clean. I love a clean house. I love sitting on a lawn chair in the sunshine, knowing the laundry is done and the beds are changed and dinner is in the oven. We stayed home Saturday night and had a nice quiet evening snuggled on the couch looking at a book that has eradicated any desire S ever had to go to Australia: Poisonous Creatures of Australia, written in scientific terms by some professor who gives very extensive descriptions of how the poisons react with blood and tissue. It’s fascinating in a very morbid way. Jumping inch-long ants with stingers like wasps; the most poisonous snakes in the world, most of which are in the cobra family, including the tiger snake, which likes to lounge on people’s lawns. Not to mention all the big nasty spiders, and jellyfish, and rock fish and… we learned a lot about neurotoxins.
Sunday we forgot about the time change and got up super early, ate breakfast and got dressed. Friends Oily and RB asked us to accompany them to church; the four of us usually stick with our Bible study and we’re all admittedly anti-organized religion, but they wanted to do some singing and praying so we said sure.
Like I said, we forgot about the time change.
So when they showed up at what we thought was 11:45, we had already shrugged out of our Sunday best. Silly us.
Church was unlike I’d ever attended, namely because, at the church chosen by Oily, we were four out of the ten white folk. I must say never in my life have I felt so welcome and comfortable, nor as involved in the prayer or singing. Hands were clapped, tambourines were shaken, feet were stomped and everybody sang the gospel, which means “good word,” and it was lifted to the air with rich sweet voices.
The sermon was a simple message, and then there was a guest speaker, one of the congregation, who kept snuffling snot in a most unappealing manner, but he did alright. And although I didn’t take any clear message or revelation about God from the sermon, the doctrine seemed sound, and I never once was bored. It was a good experience and a delight to hear so many joyful songs.
After church, Oily took us to a Chinese all-you-can-eat buffet restaurant, which I usually avoid but it’s a new restaurant, and very clean. I tried some of everything… it might be more appropriate to say I gorged myself on all tasty savory hot and sour and sweet and soy available. We sat at a window booth and giggled about the big man coming for lunch dressed in sweat pants. With suspenders. And when we left I wished I had on sweat pants with suspenders.
We went back home and enjoyed the glorious sunshine by taking dogs for a walk around the block. Sunday was a happy lazy day. S talked about garlic and planting cover crops and trees, and about tearing down our raised garden beds to have a row garden next spring. He’s reading all about mulching, and it suits his temperament. I think half of it is he wants to buy bales of straw and spread it out so we can roll around in it in the crisp autumn air but I didn’t accuse him of ulterior motives. Straw mulch does keep boots from getting muddy, which is a good thing, and it suppresses weeds such as dandelions, which is also a good thing. I don’t care what he does with the garden so long as I have fresh fruit and veggies to eat.
Dinnertime came and went and we were still digesting our Chinese buffet lunch. But since my girl R was coming, we made pasta salad with marinated chanterelle mushrooms, olives, red bell pepper, and tomatoes. S stirred some magical ingredient into it and made it delicious. When I ask him what spices he uses he just lifts his eyebrows way up and opens his eyes all big and innocent and shrugs.
R arrived before 8. One thing about R and S; when we’re all in a mood, the giggling does commence. We get each other going and it is impossible to stop. She told about performing the night before, during which she said she felt great, and suddenly was horrified that she had made the face her mom calls her rat-fink look, where she smiles all toothy and wrinkles up her nose. She said she wonders what else she does that she doesn’t notice while she’s up there dancing.
Everything was funny.
S told about how, last summer when my folks visited, my Dad followed him around the yard as S watered plants, standing very close like Dad does, pondering something and being quiet like he is, and then he taps a sprinkler pipe with his shoe and says, “Yep, good old galvanized pipe.”
Hilarious. Maybe you had to be there but I almost peed my pants laughing so hard. And
I mentioned how I had once read that laughing is better than putting a paper bag over your head, and I meant “in case you’re hyperventilating” but was unable to finish my statement for the uproarious laughter from both S & R. It became a proverb.
Then we started dancing. Dancing while laughing while S noodled on the fiddle and taking long-exposure photos of us swirling and spinning and the dog on his bed in the corner sighing and wishing the monkeys would go to bed already.
After a midnight snack of pomegranate, kiwis, apple and Dubliner cheese R hit the road and S & I hit the hay, goodnight my love, another sweet weekend, and I pray as I drift off to sleep for the safety and happiness of loved ones, and that it rains soon in Southern California.
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