A Porch Presentation

With daytime temperatures in the seventies, there are flowers blooming again.  At the end of November, violets, azalea, and even spirea are blooming along side the nandina berries.  It is the nature of winter in Alabama.

There are children out playing in the neighborhood again, as well.  Even Tex, his shadow long absent from our doorstep because of a late-summer banning by his grandfather from our neighborhood (I believe the charge was insubordination) has been back, knocking for Flavor Ice and attention.

I've just finished giving an impromptu presentation to Tex and the McCall boys on paleontology and archaeology in Alabama, complete with artifacts, pictures and demonstrations.  There were histrionics and lots of “How much will you sell that to me for?”

A Pirate's Life

"Eric's parents are coming for a visit this weekend," is what I told Memphis and Jace after I had finished up reading a Greek myth to them.  Jace eyed me suspiciously.

"Have you met them?" he asked.

"Yes.  Several times." I answered.

"What are their names?" Memphis queried.

"Are they any fun?" Jace interjected before I could answer Memphis' question.  He was still looking skeptically at me, as if we, by allowing Eric's parents to come and visit, were about to introduce an adult criminal element into our neighborhood that would completely suck the fun right out of a perfectly good weekend.

"Their names are Lauri & George, and yes, they are fun.  They like to hike and sail.  They have a sail boat that they take out for days at a time.  They sleep on the boat."

Mouths dropped open at this last statement.

Then...
Jace:  "Have you and Eric ever gone sailing with them?"

Me:  "We have, yes."

Memphis:  "Who drove the boat?"

Me:  "Sometimes George, sometimes Lauri, sometimes Eric...and George and Lauri would tell us to do things with the sails while we were sailing, so...we were like a pirate crew working together."

They probably now have visions of Eric's parents looking like Anne Bonny and Captain Jack Sparrow...

The Witches of South 10th Street

I walked outside this morning to water plants and saw these on our porch.  They are fake fingernails.  Children's fake fingernails.  The kind that I used to put on as a child when dressing up as a witch.  I think these belong to two good little witches who happened to stop by The Bungalow last night to beg for Flavor Ice and a story.  They got their Flavor Ice and I offered the tale of Pegasus, Medusa or the Minotaur.  They chose the Minotaur, and sat wide-eyed together on the chaise lounge, listening to the story, until a mother's call lured one of them away...