summer

Summer Vacation, Day 59: Driven Batty!

/ J. Thorp / 1 Comment

Jodi doesn’t like bats much. I, on the other hand, find them fascinating (and totally appreciate their insectivorous appetites).

Some folks freak out when our little neighborhood bats flit about at sundown, but tonight, I found them strangely meditative. A couple of things had gone wrong – not big things, just particular things that really shouldn’t have happened, and that I specifically issued instructions to avoid – and I was at the end of my leash, growling, barking, snapping and slobbering.

I knew I wasn’t in the right frame of mind to deal with the young’ns, so Jodi took over and I stepped out on the deck. I could hear the cicadas and frogs in the grass, and strange sonic clicks in the air all around. I sat very still. Generally after a few moments, the bats are darting here and there overhead, and you can only catch quick glimpses of them against the darkening sky.

Tonight, however, I saw just one, flying almost casually in a light, looping pattern along a more-or-less straight line, so I could track him until he disappeared past the neighbor’s old oak tree. His path seemed to write in cursive a pointed question to me: Sooooo?

The loopy little devil was right. It wasn’t that big a deal …

Summer Vacation, Day 58: Emma at Work

/ J. Thorp / 1 Comment

Today was Rose’s day at work with Dad. Sure sign of a great day pending: I start the car just as Israel Kamakawiwo’ole’s “Over the Rainbow/Wonderful World” medley comes on the radio. Nice.

She spent the day making multicolored paper snowflakes and drawings for the women in my office. We had lunch at Annie’s Parlor in Dinkytown with our good friend Haircut Cate. Emma loves Annie’s fries and chocolate-mint malts, with chunks of the fancy brown and green chocolate mints your sometimes find on your pillow in hotels – so good!

Throughout the day, Emma out-SlugBugged me two to one – she had six to my three before she finally fell asleep on the way home. All in all, a lovely day with our girl …

Summer Vacation, Day 57: Ball and Crosspins

/ J. Thorp / Leave a comment

After I reported on Gabe’s day at the office and described his artwork, he read the report and informed me that the second picture wasn’t the pins being knocked down.

“I put the ball instead of a skull, and then used two pins instead of bones,” he explained.

Asked where he got such an idea, he thought a moment, then said, “Probably bowling. I’ve bowled before!”

Judge the result for yourself. Looks to me like the makings of one bad bowler tattoo …

Summer Vacation, Day 56: Go Yankees!

/ J. Thorp / 4 Comments

I know that the above subject line will make some people’s blood boil. To them, I say, “Tough!”

I purchased four tickets to a Yankees-White Sox game in mid-September – part of a week-long final home-stand in The House That Ruth Built. Brendan, Gabe and I (and one other person TBD) are going to the Bronx to see the old stadium before it closes and falls. Plus NYC, the Statue of Liberty via the Staten Island Ferry, maybe. Everything we can do cheaply. Suggestions? Woohoo!

A couple days later, the Yale football plays its opener at the Yale Bowl against Georgetown. Might hit that, too – and the Peabody Museum of Natural History and Yorkside. Oh, this is gonna be fun!

It’s also gonna be a lot of driving. Even figuring diesel at $5 a gallon and only 40 mpg (I average 46 or so), it’s still way cheaper to take the Golf than fly or Amtrak it. Could check the bus, I guess …

Summer Vacation, Day 55: Gabe at Work

/ J. Thorp / 6 Comments

Brought Gabe to work with me today, and thought I’d share a few of the highlights and authentic Gabeisms:

1. This being the U’s off-season, lots of rental properties around campus have “For Rent” signs posted – in windows, on the doors, on the lawn. We passed one such property and Gabe said, “That’s the second tree for rent I’ve seen today!” He laughed and laughed, then explained that the “For Rent” sign was stuck to the tree, but it was for the house …

2. In a colleague’s office, given full freedom of a white board, he drew three bowling pins and a bowling ball dropping from the sky – black outlines, red stripes on the pins. In order to use every color white board marker available, he signed the picture by: Gabe!

3. In a meeting immediately following the drawing, he sat quietly and recreated the drawing in his notebook. Then he drew another, with the ball actually striking the pins. Each of these he labeled “ARIGNL” — then made smaller version of each on a single sheet of paper, labeling those “COPY” and inviting me to hang them in my office.

4. In the same meeting, as people were filing in, he tapped me on the shoulder and asked, “How many boys will be in this meeting?” I replied, “Just us, I think.” (Most of my coworkers are women, and he seemed to be getting nervous – they all kept talking to him and trying to give him stuff …)

5. I was sitting at my desk watching the boy at the computer I set up for him, and got the warm, fuzzy, proud-papa feeling. “Gabe,” I said, “I think I’ll keep ya.”

“Fine by me,” he said.