Possession Poor
While Old Mr. Fuzzy left on his trip last weekend, my son has graciously come to keep me out of trouble for those two days. Now, at one time that mid twenty something young man was a partner in crime with his mom, but sadly, he's kind of grown up. This came across to me a few years ago when his Dad was preparing to go on a mission trip. I inadvertently told my son I was thinking of having my Adorable Cousin come out during those two weeks and we would rip the living room carpet out. My Adorable Cousin and I have been forever partners in crime. She, being three years older than I began our career earlier, but I being a real fast learner was on the ticket right away.
As I said, I inadvertently let that canary fly too early, and almost sent him into fits. First off, he is a truck driver and was driving over the road at the time. (He couldn't get to me.) Second, I have health problems that slow me down and if I'm not careful they can put me out of commission real fast. Third I may be a real fast learner in some areas, but only when it comes to getting into things I shouldn't be into. Fourth, historically my Adorable Cousin and I are an—interesting pair. Some people mutter (rather loudly at times) names like Lucy and Ethel and the word 'trouble'. I'm looking innocent right here—I don't have a clue what they are talking (or shouting) about.
"Mom, you have too much clutter," he says as we're trying to move part of my quilting frame off the bed.
"You could just sleep on half of the bed," I say hopefully.
"You just have too much clutter. I'm not sleeping on half of the bed." He narrowly misses wiping out the ceiling light.
"Be careful, would ya? Here, I'll get the rest of this stuff...whoa! Watch that light..."
I'd be lying if I said I don't miss some of those days and our slapping at one another. He and I have never really worked well together, but we did have fun at times. I taught him pretty much every thing he ever wanted to know about gardening. Like the time I got six packages of tomato seeds and it had been an off year for germination, so while some packages were supposed to have 25 seeds and some packages 50 seeds, the company had extra seeds in the packages to make up for poor germination.
I figured that since the germination was off I'd better start all of the seeds to make sure there were enough. Enough there were. Everyone of those puppies grew. There were at least six varieties and at least 50 seeds per package, but...
I dutifully began showing my little five year old how we space tomatoes so far apart, and the rows so far apart. I had a large area, but after a several rows, I explain we are going to have to start a new tactic. We are trying our new tactic, but I can see this isn't working either. I've probably got ten/maybe fifteen long rows and haven't made a dent.
Okay, I go to plan C or around there. "Well," I tell my young son, "I don't usually do this, and I don't encourage anyone else to do it, but I'm going to make a long trench (about 150 feet long) and we're going to put all the rest of the tomatoes in that trench and plant them."
We did have enough tomatoes that year, and both my son and I learned several valuable lessons. I will not enumerate them, and I won't say that I haven't relearned some of the lessons more than once. Like they say, I learn something new everyday...sometimes it's the same thing I learned yesterday, but...
"We're gonna have to get rid of some of this junk, Mom."
"Yeah, I know, but we got the bed cleaned off for tonight. Just put that chair over there so you can get in and out of the bed, and the room..."
