Apologia For a Lost Day

Busy day yesterday.

My father and I brought home a lawn tractor that we bought for a swan song! One of his former prospects needed to sell a variety of equipment before he could sell his late father's home. We picked up a backpack leaf-blower, an edger, a weed-wacker, something I can't remember and the lawn tractor (with bag and seeder attachment!) for $450. Well, we rented a truck from Home Depot to get the tractor home. That meant we had to drive the tractor up a precarious ramp onto the cargo bay.

Well, let me tell you: driving it down the ramp was the scariest moment of my Father's life. I guided him from behind as he backed it down. The spinning blades of the cutter collided with the lip of the truck's bay. Sparks flew everywhere. To make matters worse, the tractor stuck on that lip for precious seconds. And the wheels looked like they might slide off the tracks of the split-track ramp that accompanied the truck. My father shook the tractor with his whole body, and finally, it moved over the lip and onto the tracks. A few heart-attack inducing seconds later, the tractor at last rested on my driveway!

My parents, the Blushing Bride, Frankie and I visited my brother later that eveningat his supervised apartment, Venture's Kathy Lukens Living Center. It was time for the annual Christmas party. That meant bad hors de'vours masquerading as dinner, plastic sacks filled with wrapped gifts that would be torn to shred like legs of beef tossed to starving pit-bulls, and other assorted amusements. Later, when we visited my brother's actual apartment to see his Christmas Tree and decorations, Frankie would knock down his row of miniature Santa Clauses. All in a day's work.

It's good to be back!