short stories part whatever

What Goes Around Comes Around

My daughter and son-in-law dropped by on their way home Tuesday evening to pick up the peaches I bought for her. Guess who's moving back in, they asked. Their son, my grandson Mikey, and pregnant girlfriend, Audra, can't afford their apartment and so are 'temporarily' moving back in with the parents out here. Yeah, I remember another young couple with a nine month old and pregnant with twins who asked to move back home, I told her. At least we had our own house, she says. (For those unaware, we had our house and the house next door that I used for studio space at the time. They eventually bought the house from us and with that money we bought the house out here.)

Those Are Not Clothes

I looked at Marc the other day and he was dressed in ragged shorts with the torn hem hanging down and a ragged t-shirt with holes in it and then I looked down and my own thin t-shirt had holes in it though my shorts were in good condition but only because I had to retire the shorts I would have been wearing that should have been thrown away but were put in a 'maybe I can mend them' pile instead. In our defense I can say that there was a possibility of work that day. Those are not clothes, our daughter said when she saw him. He pointed to me. Those are not clothes either, she says. Clearly it's time to retire the lowest tier.

The Long Walk

I finally let Minnie lead me down the next street parallel to ours. We have various long walks. The long walk includes the short walk which is to the other end of our long street and back and in the sun at this time of year which in high summer is usually plenty for her. Sometimes the long walk includes the next street over to the end and back also in the sun or to the second street over and back in the shade. Today though there was a big cloud in the sky when we walked so I relented when she turned to go down the next street over.

An Afternoon At The Beach – part 1

Sunday morning I got a text from my daughter Sarah...want to go to the beach with us for a couple of hours? Us being her, grandgirl Jade, and grandgirl-in-law Audra. Hottest part of the day in August, (not my favorite time) but it's probably been a couple of years since I've been to the beach, so yeah. We got there around 2 PM, set out the chairs, slathered on sunscreen. It wasn't as bad as I feared, there was a nice breeze but not too windy, lots of people out enjoying the day. On the way home we stopped at Buddy's Seafood Market and I got a pound of fresh caught shrimp which we had for dinner. I like to get my seafood from Buddy's as he's the catcher. I'd have got a flounder too but they weren't back with those yet, would be another hour but we'd be long gone by then.

Daughter Sarah, grandgirl Jade, grandgirl-in-law Audra, and soon to enter the world great grandgirl Paisley.

An Afternoon At The Beach – part 2

At one point a group of adults walked by carrying signs on stakes and we were curious what that was all about. Directly they came back with fewer signs on stakes and they pounded one in the sand in front of us and one of the men came over to explain. His daughter was going to get a proposal from her boyfriend and would we take pictures or video of her and him as they walked by and they would give us contact information to send it to. Sure, we said, what do they look like (she has long dark hair and he's wearing a ball cap which I thought described at least half the people on the beach). The signs were part of the set up and the sign in front of us said 'home is anywhere I am with you' I wondered if the last sign said Burma Shave. He walked back and then a woman walked over to give us the contact info and she was on the phone with her son (we gathered) giving him instructions...park the car, walk to the beach, turn left. She was throwing f bombs all over the place, oh, my kind of woman, I piped up, she did not like the girl's dad. First time I met the guy, have only been around him for an hour and he's a fucking asshole (there was more along these lines). So we kept an eye out and directly a couple that looked like it must be them walked by and it didn't look like she was even looking at the signs much less reading them. Never even paused. But, yes it was them, the father came and retrieved all the signs (have you seen the cost of lumber he says) and yes, she said 'yes'.

An Afternoon At The Beach – part 3

We were highly amused at the large group next to us trying to erect a volleyball net in the wet sand exposed by low tide (and the tide had turned and was coming back in). First they tried plunging the poles in the sand, then they brought out ropes for guy wires, then they tried pounding in the 4 inch in diameter flat on the bottom poles while standing on a bucket. Then they tried shortening the net by rolling up one end, then they moved it away from the water a little bit (I guess they noticed the tide was coming in) and tried pounding the poles into the drier sand. When that didn't work the big guy pushed the small guy out of the way and tried to the same effect. They finally gave up and rolled the net up. They might have been successful if the poles were pointed at the bottom. A short time later they started packing up and since it was 5 PM, we did too as Jade had to drive back to San Antonio that night.