Bye-bye Birdie, Hello Car

When I found out Birdie would be gone for a week, I told her she could go before I knew where she was going or with whom she'd be traveling. That wasn't important. What really matters is that with Birdie gone, we return to being a three-car, three-person household. I am too old and slow to beat the girls racing for car keys. And I have pitiful excuses for needing a car. Daisy drives to summer school; Birdie drives to work; and Big Guy drives to escape a house full of loud women and louder cats. Thank you Birdie for flitting to Arkansas. For one blissful week, I am not walking; I am not waiting for rides; I am not catching the bus. Should one week turn into two, chances are, that will be o.k.

People Of

The Devil In The Details

I called the tow company
  to find the car.
  No, it hadn't been towed.
Maybe it was stolen?
Thank goodness I waited
  to call the police.
Turns out, the car was where
  I told Birdie to leave it. 
The car was parked
  in the Jimmy John's
    parking lot.
But not at the Jimmy John's
  I knew existed. 
My hair turns gray
  and my heart flutters,
even when Birdie does
  exactly what she is supposed to.

What Daisy Wrote

Dairy Queen Birthday Girl

My guess was that Dairy Queen is older than Mom. I can't envision her agreeing to be born without the certainty of a small cone of Dairy Queen vanilla ice cream ordered up. Turns out, I was wrong. According to my source for everything Wikipedia, Dairy Queen is younger than Mom by a couple of years. Nonprofitable years, I'm sure. To celebrate Mom's 75th birthday, she and I road-tripped through Georgia. We kicked off things with her birthday party at Aunt Atlanta's digs. It was the biggest party Mom ever had and that was without dancing on the table. We stopped to visit Sis at the lake. Right on cue, her extended clan ooh'd, ahh'd and begged her to bake a Red Velvet Cake, obviously they don't know about my cake baking history. And we tracked down Bro to run our figurative white gloves over his multi-million dollar construction project. We swung by houses we used to live in, picked up some free pecans and argued over how low the gas gauge could fall. I won as the car never ran out of gas. One of us bought a peculiar bird house and tried a grits martini. Mom doesn't drink. One of us also ordered Wendy's French fries before noon and sprung for the cute key fob that allows for a free mini Frosty with purchase throughout the summer.  And every day was Dairy Queen Day.  I would order a chocolate-dipped vanilla ice cream cone; Mom would order a thoroughly modern Blizzard. She carefully made each bite of her treat last. I frantically tried to drive and gobble my ice cream before it melted. I have a lot left to learn from Mom, like when to drive and when not to. 

Royal For A Reason

Big Guy nixed the book-and-chair fishing plan. In its place, he handed me a fishing rod. He had one, too. In twenty minutes, he caught three fish. I was busy, also. I lost three fishing lures, tangled my line around the reel twice and caught a weed on the bank. On the drive home, the tip of the newest fishing rod inexplicably got crunched in the minivan's automatic window.  The best news: My fishing license is valid until February 2012.

Royal We

We are fishing this weekend. Big Guy will pull together the fishing gear, whatever that is. I will think about which hat to wear. Big Guy will figure out where we are fishing. I will find a level spot for my chair. And, I'll determine which book to read first. Big Guy will bait the hooks, cast out the rods and hand one to me. I'll try to juggle the rod and book without dropping either. Although, if one has to fall, it won't be the book. Big Guy will tell me when something might be nibbling. I'll tell him if I need another cold drink. Somehow we will muddle our way through. If we are successful, and Big Guy follows through with whatever nasty stuff is done to fish after they're caught, then he will cook the fish and we will eat. I hope Big Guy knows he gets to wash the dishes. That's where we fishing together stops. I'll need time to finish my book or start another one.