Thursday, June 30, 2005

Sleepless (?) Summer Storms

After a very miserable spring (wet, cold) summer has roared in with soaring temperatures and high humidity. The nights have been hot and sticky lately. Perfect conditions for thunder-boomers. I awoke last night to the sound of thunder (how far off, I sat and wondered). The thunder grumbled and rumbled from far away from the sound of it; the storm never did get right on top of us. The lightning flashes were fairly frequent and at one point  the skies opened up and you could really hear the rain pounding against the house and the road.

Beside me, the Boy slept on.  I only had the vaguest recollection of him coming into the room.

In the morning he slept through the alarm. I turned it off, got up, shaved and showered. Coming out of the shower, there was that sleepy little face beaming up at me. He sat on the toilet to have a happy pee and I started to towel off.

Boy: Daddy, did you hear the thunderstorm last night?

Me (surprised, I thought he'd slept through it): Yes. Did you hear the thunderstorm?

Boy: No.

Me (baffled): Then how did you know there was a thunderstorm?

Boy: I saw it on the Weather Network.

He's his mother's son all right.

Saturday, June 25, 2005

Who's Who.

Once upon a time...

... there were two little girls from Newfoundland. These little girls were sisters. In fact, they were (as they say in Newfoundland) a twin. Their favourite movie was a Disney venture called "The Parent Trap", oddly enough a movie about a twin, Hallie and Annie. Their parents had seperated shortly after the birth of the twin and now they lived apart, one with Mom, one with Dad, one in England, one in the good ol' U.S. of A. Neither of the twins knew of her sister. So through the magic of Hollywood, they meet at summer camp, switch places, and the parents get back together for happily ever after. As my high school English teacher used to say, "Glass slippers everywhere."

The real life twin from Newfoundland come to visit their cousin in Nova Scotia and pretty soon, The Parent Trap is playing at a Boy's house six or seven times a day as the three of them watch.

You may or may not know that as an eleven year old, Lindsay Lohan won raves for her performances as both sisters in the Disney movie. 

In an unrelated story, the Boy is a day away from finishing his first year of school. Since the penultimate day of school is actually a day off (Marking Day ... capital M, capital D, why hasn't Hallmark cashed in on this one too?), he and his after-school mates are going on an organized trip to watch Herbie: Fully Loaded.

I had asked him about the movie previously, and now, driving with me and his mom to visit my parents, the Boy was recounting his movie-going experience to his mother.

Boy: Did you know that the racing girl was in Parent Trap?

Mamma: Was she.

Boy: Yeah! She was either Hallie or Annie, one of her.

Saturday, June 04, 2005

Lost & Found

Saturday and the weather is beautiful. We all go for a walk on the Salt Marsh Trail. In amongst the trees, the sun beats down on us, exiting the trees and walking through what used to be a salt water harbour, the wind cools and picks mischievously at your headgear. At least a dozen people were out in the shallows digging in the muck for fresh clams.

By the time I was out to start the BBQ for supper, it had started raining. It rained hard. One of the cheeseburgers dropped onto the deck. In the rain, my jaw clenches and my teeth grind together. The remaining burgers are saved, cooked and brought inside. Only the tray of grilled vegetables remains. In the process of trying to get the dangerous-hot tray from the BBQ to the kitchen door, the tray of grilled vegetables tips and the whole lot is spilled to the ground.

I lost it. An angry, impulsive kick sends the nearby deck chair up and over the deck railing where it smashes into the lilac bush below. I clench my fists in frustration and wisely but belatedly remove myself from the family setting, going inside and upstairs to calm down. It was a less than admirable display of self-control. In about ten minutes I'm okay to come downstairs and have my supper like a civilized person.

Come the Boy's bedtime, all is well. Recalling the maxim that "It may be that your sole purpose in life is simply to serve as a bad example", I set out to apologize to the Boy and let him know that Daddy acted badly.

Me: Daddy lost his temper today. Did you see that?

Boy: Your temper?

Me: Yes. I lost my temper. That means I got angry. Daddy's sorry about that.

Boy: That's okay.

Me: Thank you, sweetheart.

Boy: Did you find your temper?