Nostalgic Nod to a Funny Fellow

When I started my blog, the title Of Books and Boys was perfect. It reflected the two primary loves in my life. Perhaps I need a new handle or even a new blog. After all, the cute little stories of the past have given way to much more difficult tales in the present, and teen boys don't really want to be the subject of my ramblings. Still, despite the bad early writing (often dashed off between midnight and 2 a.m.), I'm glad I captured those warm fuzzies in days gone by. I mean, my middle son was such a funny little fellow! He was a parrot who often spouted random things. Here are a few zingers from his younger days:

"Don't just dream of beautiful skin; make it real!" (from a Proactiv commercial, I realized a few days later)

Walked up to his dad and said: "Do you care to see my butt?" (Perhaps from my constant admonishment, "Nobody cares to see your butt!")

When I refused to buy him something in the store: whining, glare, and then a hostile "You, MOM YOU!"

When I complained how long the dishes were taking to wash: "Why don't you sing the Spiderman song? It will make your work go faster."

While at Buffalo Wild Wings watching the big-screens: "Look! Look! There are holograms!" to which I responded, "You're only six; how do you know about holograms?" With a duh look - "From Scooby Doo." I pursued further, "So, what is a hologram then?" He looked at me and lowered his head, saying, "I'm not going to spill ALL my secrets in a public place."

After desperately looking for a lost toy, he cried out, "Mom, I found it! And there, standing in the moonlight, was THIS!" When I asked what prompted those words, he shook his head and replied, "Mom, it's from the weiner dog book, remember? 'And there, standing in the moonlight, were a couple of ornery cats.'" (from Dav Pilkey's The Hallo-Weiner)

Let's just say I'm needing a nostalgic look back as we plod forward these days.

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Side-line up-date:

My oldest son, Bryce, lives in Houston, Texas. On Sunday night, February 14th, both his power and water were shut off. Thankfully, he managed to stay warm enough in layers, saved the food in the fridge by placing it on the balcony, and flushed toilets using water from the apartment's pool. His power came back on February 16th and his water was restored on February 18th. He called last night. Today will be his first day off in ten days after working ten hour days in attempts to get his workplace plant back up and running. He said they had little advance warning that the power was going to be shut off, so they didn't perform any of the normal preparations for such an event. It is an absolute mess (broken pipelines, sewage, etc.) and so many of the chemical plants in Houston are facing similar dilemmas. - Bigger boys, bigger problems.

On the home front:

I didn't notice anything as we drove to the ranch yesterday morning, but on the drive home discovered two house frames have gone up on the field next to us. Oh, how discouraging! It is happening so quickly. Our little oasis in the country turning into chock-a-block homes just across from our front meadow.