The Date!

Oh T-Shirt--your comment on yesterday's post is so true!!!  Plus, no new neighbors to spy on and take photos.

My new persona:

Confab taking place on the porch.

I could be new sidewalk going in

or their deck.

Later today it was revealed that the new parking pad

and sidewalk are under construction

I suppose Tami's yard, and my view, have to be worse before it becomes better?

Found, they removed the junk pile to re-stain the front porch.

I was out front and Tami saw me.  YIKES!!  She came stomping over waving her arms in great agitation.

"I'm going to write to that d*** Behr company and tell them their stain is for s***.  I just did it two years ago and it wore right through and peeled off!"

"Did you wash ..................."

"I don't want a new can of their s***, I want money for my time and work!"

"Didyouwashdowntheporchfirst?"
<gotta say it real quick before she goes on another tangent>

"Nope.  Just swept it."

"Well, it looks nice............................"

"Yeah--their s*** stinks!  Ron and I been working hard."

"Where are you going to put all your stuff>"

"We have a storage unit--I guess maybe...put it in there?"
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So this crazy woman--didn't wash or prepare the porch for the stain and wonders why it peeled.  This crazy woman has a rented storage unit, plus a storage shed in back of her house and yet--she never thought to put her "stuff" in either place?
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Saturday, on Face Book, I asked the question of why young women and girls think they have to "pose"when they get their pictures taken.  
I see little girls posing like this.
To me it looks "affected", or like they have "attitude" or--I don't know what.  Do they think they look like celebrities?

The ever popular, let me pose by Grand Dad's casket

because I am so sexy!

I got no answers from any young girls, so I Googled it and this is the new (last 3 years) craze.  The ones at the top are called, Chicken Wing, the bottom two photos, Tea Pot.

So being mean and witchy, I decided to spoof and put my own, The Unknown Poser photos on Face Book.  Pearl came down and took the pix--we had so much fun.

I guess young women think they look cute with those poses--personally, I think they look like sluts!!

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Okay--enough of that.  Now to THE DATE!!!

A "friend" I haven't seen for 22 years, personal messaged me on FB and wanted to know if he could take me out for lunch on Sunday.  After much consideration and knowing we couldn't talk and catch-up in a restaurant, I told him I'd run up to Subway and we could eat here.

Well, he arrived with a very large present for me-----

We talked as fast as we could--talking over each other and reminiscing about the old days.  I had a blast!!!

After he left, I posted on FB, that I had just had the best "date" in 2 1/2 years.  I purposefully put quotes around the word date, so my friends would know it wasn't a REAL date, but the comments came pouring in about, "YAY JUDE!"  "It's about time you had some fun."--Stuff like that.

He had taken a "selfie" of us, so I posted that figuring people would pick up on the fact that he is much younger than I am.

Dar came over about 15 minutes later.

"There was a truck parked outside for four and a half hours!  Who was that?"

"Oh, I had an old friend stop for lunch and a visit."

"Oh?"

"Yeah--he's just a kid I've known forever."

"Oh--becoming a Cougar?"

It then occurred to me that people were mis-understanding the whole thing.  I explained and she left and I jumped back on FB.  Now he is leaving comments about "Had a great date with a wonderful woman.  Catching up on lost times."  More comments underneath his from friends that I know, but of course he doesn't--wanting to know who he is, where he's from--stuff like that.

I private messaged him that my friends were thinking we had a REAL date and I hope he's not embarrassed by it all.  He loved it and continued to play along.

So, this morning I spent an inordinate amount of time, trying to explain on FB that:

This is a neighborhood boy, who was in Karen's grade, played softball for my Dad and worked on our farm, baling hay to make muscles for football season.  I still think some thought, we just had our first date.  OH MY!!!

So back on FB and writing a very long post to explain how.  He was in the class of 1979--my favorite class of kids ever.  I was their Room Mother, chaperoned their dances, went on the zoo field trip with them, they built their homecoming floats out in our barn, he and others used to love to TP my trees out in front, how I put up flood lights and one night, just as they were too throw the TP up in the trees, I turned on the light and scared them half to death--how a couple of the tallest boys had soaped my high front windows--on and on.

Then he commented, "You couldn't be a Cougar, you have too much class.  You are more like a Lioness."

and I commented under his comment, "Yes, a Momma Lioness to all you baby cubs in the class of 1979."

More of the kids from that class, who are also friends of mine on FB--after all, they are Karen's friends also, started reminiscing and it all seemed to work out okay.

I was fretting for awhile, hoping he wasn't embarrassed.  I didn't want to post, "Hey--he's only 53!" because I think he looks older than that and I didn't want one of my FB friends to say, "He looks older" and him see it and embarrass him.

He came down to just visit--like younger's from your past are prone to do--when  you are really old and near death and they want one last conversation before you kick off.  He had been to visit my Daddy three weeks before Daddy died.

The one nice thing that came out of all of this--he told me that my Daddy was the best coach he ever had because "Charlie was always fair.  He said what he meant, and he meant what he said.  He told us if we missed practice and it wasn't because of a death in the family, we wouldn't play the next game.  We had a fantastic pitcher--kids had a big head.  He missed practice and you Dad benched him--the night we were going for the County championship.  I don't think any of us ever forgot that and what it meant to keep a commitment and our word."

I didn't tell him what a mean father my Daddy was.  My Daddy loved everyone of those kids he coached--for 25 years.  They all have told me what a great man he was, and I wouldn't want to denigrate their feelings toward him.

It was a really nice afternoon.  He is a Microbiologist at Dow Chemical in Midland, Michigan.  He does the testing of chemicals used in farming on rabbits and mice to see if it is harmful.  If it turns out to be harmful to their fetus--it might also be harmful to human fetuses.  He reports and Dow than won't manufacture that chemical. He also works with a group reviewing ways to prevent pollution.  He is a tree hugger!  He also leads a group for young people with drug and alcohol addiction and helps unwed mothers finds ways to get help through the government Welfare system, coaches a softball team for (mostly) black children with absent father's and most recently, helped a young, pregnant woman, who was living with a black drug dealer, get away from the guy, get a job and an apartment of her own and bought her a used car.  Sat with her while she was in labor and posted photos on FB of him holding the new baby.

When I asked him why he spent so much time helping other people, he said, "You know we were poor."

I nodded.

"My Dad never worked a day in his life.  We grew up on the government dole.  I have done some bad things in my life...my life pendulum has swung over to the side.  I want to do something that will bring that pendulum back to the center, before I die"

"You must be a Democrat....or a Liberal?"

"Nope.  I'm a Conservative Independent usually voting Republican."

"Wow," I said.

Ya know," he said.  "Liberals think that Conservatives don't care about the environment or helping poor people or doing anything in the sense of that word. They think we are racists, rich people who want to hang onto all our money and not pay any taxes."

Silence for a moment, as I waited for him to continue.

Then he smiled, shook his head and said,  "My favorite Reagan quote, 'It's not that Liberals are ignorant.  It's just that they know so much that isn't so.' " 

He was just an average kid when I knew him, but I think, he is very full of wisdom now.

1979 Year Book Picture