End of an Era

Next August, for the first time in 12 years, there will be no Sparrow at the High School.

Bun graduated in 2010
Obi in 2013
Jon in 2016
And Oli-Chan last night.

My kids are all out of high school. It's been a long 28 years since I started Project Parent.
Now, it moves into the Advisory phase instead of the Active phase.

Project Grandparent has begun.

Jonner, Oli, Gabriel, Megan and Obi, with my grandson, Hunter Blackowl. He's Kiowa. His mom is Caddo. His little brother (Chris' son) is due in early November.

Hunter isn't sure about grandparents. He looked at Obi, looked at Jonner, announced "Sparrow!"--which is what he calls Obi--and glomped Jonner. He has been Uncle Jon's bestest buddy all weekend. He dapped Gabriel.
Me? I got a goodbye wave and felt accomplished. He's sweet, smart, opinionated, and very very patient with the grownups. He was also very tired when we said goodbye, and was probably asleep before they got to the hotel.

We're going down to see them for Thanksgiving, since Mama will be in no shape to drive 9 hours. My dad and I figure we'll manage the meal and all for her.

I have a grandson! And he's a doll. Can't wait to meet his mama and little brother at Thanksgiving.

Planning presents

I was thinking today of a Fisher-Price tape player Bun had when she was a toddler. She loved listening to the Cats soundtrack. When GrandBabyTBA arrives in November, we're going down for Thanksgiving (about 2 weeks later). There should be presents for Mom&Dad (nursing shawl, baby sling, several diaper packages), presents for the baby (hooded towels, special blanket) and presents for Hunter: bath toy and music. (Christmas gifts will also be delivered at this time to be tucked back for the holiday) I checked. there are childrens MP3 players.... Hunter may get a full player, with songs his aunties and uncle and Parrow loved, songs his grandparents loved and other fun stuff. What would YOU put on a playlist for a 4-5 year old? I'm thinking Cats Soundtrack A fair bunch of Disney Folk music: On top of Old Smokey Polly Wolly Doodle Erie Canal Clementine Puff the Magic Dragon Bicycle Built for Two Home on the Range John Jacob Jingelheimer Schmidt. Froggie went a courting I've been working on the Railroad Shenandoah oh Susannah. Old Dan Tucker Big Rock Candy mountain Wabash Cannonball The Muffin Man
A Daisy A Day Oldies:
Yellow Submarine This land is your land
Kokomo Stairway to Heaven Secret Agent Man Run run away On the Road Again
Daydream Believer
Silver Wings
Not Fade Away Kentucky Rain Bohemian Rhapsody Wichita Lineman
Little Old Lady from Pasadena
White Rabbit
500 Miles
Kid Music: Lollipop Tree Que sera sera Knick Knack Paddywhack Ballad of Davy Crockett Big Bag John. You can't roller skate in a buffalo herd Musical Theatre
Do Re mi My Favorite Things Edelweiss Rainbow connection The Unicorn Song Happiness Good Morning (Singing in the Rain) Shy (Once Upon a Mattress) Any Dream Will Do All good Gifts Candy man Seventy Six Trombones Gary Indiana I won't grow up Razzle Dazzle
They call the wind Mariah Camelot
Good morning Starshine Age of Aquarius Footloose
Corner of the sky
Beautiful Land
I am the Pirate King
Silly Songs Snoopy vs the Red Baron Hot Rod Lincoln Monster Mash Hello muddah, Hello Faddah Eat it Old time Rock and Roll Auld Lang Syne Dancing in the Street Ghostbusters Purple people Eater Etc. oak and ash and thorn
Firebird's child
Rabbit's Song'
Graveyard picnic
Shiver my timbers
Taking suggestion before I start in on my music collection

The Black Passenger

I am depressed.
As in clinically.
And I have a shiny new Zoloft prescription for it. I started taking it Thursday night.

I didn't expect it to work nearly this quickly.

What a difference having the good slime makes.
I no longer feel as if I'm wearing lead long johns. Every move is not a struggle through molasses.
I wake up, as in actually feel awake, instead of the somnambulism of the past few weeks.
I don't get drowsy during the day.

Most of all, I don't hurt nearly as much. (that could be restarting the Meloxicam)
I walked through Kroger yesterday, something I haven't done since November.

I'm not chewing my cuticles either. I bit off a couple hangnails, but didn't continue worrying my skin until I bled. This is huge progress.

The Black Passenger has disembarked, hopefully for a little while.

April Fool in my house

Pregnancy jokes are a family tradition in the Sparrow clan. Except that they are almost never jokes.

Today, I got two texts, from Obi and Oli (oldest son, youngest daughter) both reading "Congratulations, Grandma." I expected, but never got one from oldest daughter Bun. (she forgot)

Turns out, not a joke. And there are ultrasounds to prove it.

Obi-Wan Chrisobi has a girlfriend, and she is due Nov 9. Isha (Lucia) is a c-store manager and has a son who will be 4 in about a week.

I knew they were serious when Obi took her to meet his grandpa.

They aren't getting married, because it will foul up the insurance and Chris' disability.
But they are together and serious, and will get married when their finances are better.


So, the next generation arrives in November, a Scorpio to start things off.

I'm excited and a little scared and a lot worried.

A most difficult week

I worked Sunday and left work dragging. Still had to grocery shop and plan and do laundry and all the second shift stuff.

Monday I was off. And it was glorious. I kind of goofed around most of it, taking things easy.

Tuesday was NOT a good day.
When the bubblegum machine hits the jackpot in your rearview at 430 AM, you know it's bad. The cop realized his error when he saw the middle aged white schoolbus driver. Who actually lived on the street he had tailed me from.
This was a nuisance stop, a driving while black bust if possible. But he was of an age all he saw was Mama going to work behind the wheel. I got a warning for my license plate light being out.

The weather has been in my joints and I got stuck in my recliner. I think I need to elevate it about 4 inches. After 5 attempts, the guys brought me over a dining chair. I levered myself into that and stood, creakily, from there.

Then the toilet needed plunging but i lacked the strength to manage. Jon finished it up and I went to bed in tears, terrified but feeling this frail at 51.

Wednesday, money we had been waiting for arrived, so that was good, but stressful. Many bills were paid and the monthly budget hole was eliminated. And I noticed a pimple on the inside of my right forearm. It didn't pop, but put out hard stuff. I left it alone after it was empty.

Thursday sucked.
I had an accident with the schoolbus. Barely brushed the corner of my neighbor and knocked my mirror off-kilter.
And there was a safety meeting.
I was over-emotional and felt like crying all evening. My wife was making Mood Soup, a vile concoction that is the best thing in the world for PMS. So I went home with Gabriel for a bowl of it.
And promptly fell up the steps of the veranda.
The neighborhood got an earful about them being cold and wet and hard and cold and hard and ow and wet. With a lot of "fuck" interspersed.
The soup wasn't even ready.

I went home, laid our my clothes and took Vincent (my stuffed panda with a unicorn horn and wings) to bed.

Friday,
The pimple had swollen and gone pus-filled and had a saucer sized red raised area around it. Spider bite. I spent 20 minutes trying to get an appointment with my doctor who couldn't see me for 2 weeks. After work I went to Urgent Care. I'm on powerful antibiotics. I called off work today.

I also didn't get home until 11 PM, having spent 16 hours in Collierville

It's been a week.
But we've got plenty of food instead of an empty pantry, and our bills are paid until the middle of next month. I'm not unhappy, just a bit uncomfortable.

Tumblr thinks this is porn

Tumblr has new policies and I got flagged. A lot.

This one just amuses me.

Screencaps from the Smallville episode Talisman Season 3. Okay, I’m obsessive. 

That first is a very provocative setup, looked at from a Kink PoV. Hands clasped behind his back. This is a common waiting position. it is strong and contemplative body language. It is a mark of confidence. It’s also a comfortable way to wait. But juxtapose that with the only color in that part of the scene, the red ropes. Behind the back is also the position for handcuffs. it is a display position for bondage.

And that scene goes right into a conversation where EVERYTHING sounds like a triple entendre. It has a very coded feeling to it, probably given the actor’s age, and is almost a dance of seduction. The way he lingers over certain words, including the lengthy pause before “special” makes the average viewer want a shower.

 

 I also love the shot of Clark (who has nearly bled to death the night before) sleeping between his parents. And the red blanket and Martha’s blue one and Jonathan’s white shirt. Color is such an important part of this show.

The scenes at the Kwache burial grounds are one of the few times we see Lionel in strong natural lighting. He is a creature of the indoors, the office, the mansion. Even at Lex’s funeral, he it was an overcast day. The picture on the last row make me wibble. The way he fingers the leather on his wrists. This is surely not meant to be quite so suggestive, implying he is one of these men who hold so much control by day that he finds relief on rare occasion by giving it all up. 

And this is me being gratuitous. because Hot.

Too much analysis of 10 year old TV viewed as coded porn.




Anyway, Tumblr has me reviewing a bunch of old posts, everything from Halloween shots to a sexy muse photodump. This one just needed to be saved for the commentary.

Cooking thoughts from Sunday Night

I'm trying the Stew in a Freezer Bag thing, in hopes of reducing our frozen pizza consumption and increasing our vegetable intake. Also not having to outwit my menfolk to get fed. If it can be thawed overnight, thrown in the crock-pot and cooked all day, it is more likely to be made than anything complicated.

And as always when I hit the onion, (which is now, my poor keyboard will smell of onions for a while) I quoted Steven Brust: "I'm a Jhereg. We sell onions."

I went and looked it up. It's from Yendi and is kind of the capper to an extended metaphor about life being like an onion, and how some of the different castes react to finding a bad spot in an onion (or their life)

All I can find online is this:
“When I say that life is like an onion, I mean this: if you don't do anything with it, it goes rotten. So far, that's no different from other vegetables. But when an onion goes bad, it can either do it from the inside, or the outside. So sometimes you see one that looks good, but the core is rotten. Other times, you can see a bad spot on it, but if you cut that out, the rest is fine. Tastes sharp, but that's what you paid for, isn't it?” --Yendi

There's more about how one group will never notice it going bad and another will throw out the whole barrel over a single spot. The final bit is "I'm a Jhereg. We sell onions." Which is true and funny, both because they are merchants, but also thieves and assassins. (the book circles back to the metaphor for the end scene as I recall)

And now I know what I'm reading after Sara M. Harvey's Music City and Diane Duane's Young Wizards. Because as much as I quote Vlad, it's been a couple decades since I visited with him.