A Beautiful Day Can Turn To Old Memories

     Let me start by saying that it is a beautiful day today. That always makes me feel great when I wake up in the morning and you can almost hear that it is going to be a wonderful day. There is yard work to be done and I love working in the yard. I have been know to hunt things to do to stay busy outside. This is one of those days. I planned to get up this morning, have some breakfast and start cleaning the leaves away from the house. There is house work to do too but it can always be done when it's dreary or raining outside. The reality set in. Doctors appointment at 1:15. Now most people wouldn't see that as a big problem but I do. Once I get into a big project I want to spend the whole day on it. Not stop an hour early to get a shower and get dressed to go to the store or go to the doctor. I thought seriously of calling my whole day a bust. Now I'm down to the indoor dreary chores. I can't even do the really dirty things you do when you start Spring cleaning because again that would require getting into something heavy duty and having to quit. I'm going to make the bed, get Kelcy to get up early and start picking up the upstairs while I wash a few dishes and sweep, maybe run the vacuum cleaner. Then I can be like June Cleaver and take off my little thin half apron, pat my hair in the mirror, run upstairs for a little lipstick and out the door we go.
     That brings up another question. Did anyone ever believe she was just going upstairs for a little lipstick? Really? You know Junie had to go potty before she left the house. There is not a female alive that has not been trained by their mother to go potty before leaving the house. I still remember mother saying as we were going out the door, "Did you use the bathroom?" I never really understood this until I became a mother. I mean why did my mother automatically assume I had to go to the bathroom between leaving the house and a quick trip to the store and back? This is the woman that would send me out the door in the morning, tell me if I needed water to get it from the hose pipe. (That's right the hose pipe I am from the South) This woman that would not see me for hours while I rode my bicycle, played next door with the chickens and helped plant seeds in the neighbors garden, asking if I needed to go to the bathroom for a little 10 minute trip to the store. Where on earth's little green acres did she think I went the rest of the day? When I think back on it, kids back when I was little must have either been really dehydrated or had bladders the size of a gallon jug! I don't remember having to go pee half a dozen times in my childhood during the summer. Now school was different anytime things got boring everybody had to go pee, even though they lined us up like cattle ever time we drank a sip of water or ate lunch, and it was mandatory you at least went inside the bathroom even if you didn't use it. But when you got bored and raised your hand to go the first words out of the teachers mouth was always, "You didn't go when the whole class was carried before did you?" I wish I had thought about it then, I should have just told her my theory. That when it's summer time your bladder expands due to the fact you are having fun or you don't go because you are just dehydrated and in the winter time the cold makes it shrink so you have to go more often. But I guess then I would have had to pee anyway because I usually get that reaction when someone threatens to beat my behind like I am certain she would have done for my smart mouth. Either way it never really mattered. I got to go to the bathroom and she would stare as I walked out like she could read my mind.
     Then there was the day in 6th grade when my teacher decided to prove a point about bathroom breaks. Let me stop here and say that names have been changed to protect the innocent, or pitiful depending on how you look at it. Those of you who went to school with me will remember this story. I still think it may be part of the reason the school was later condemned and a new school built miles away. Back when I was in Elementary school they believed in saving and combining all the vegetables from the previous week and making the worst vegetable soup ever made in the history of mankind. The only thing to look forward to was the dessert or the peanut butter sandwiches made out of that commodity peanut butter. Yum Yum. Well on this particular Friday dessert was stewed plums. Yep there are very few people at a young age that has a taste for stewed plums but Donald was an exception to this rule. Now Donald was a little taller and looked a little older than the rest of the 6th grade kids. You know it's that awkward age when everyone starts taking growth spurts, so he had a little trouble fitting in. This day of all days is when Donald decided to make his mark on the 6th grade by taking a dare. We were all a part of it not just the 6th grade but everyone in the lunchroom that day. We didn't know the affect that stewed plums had on the bodys' digestive system so we dared him to set a record for the most stewed plums ever eaten at one sitting. Back then we had a little over an hour for lunch so this gave Donald plenty of time for the word to spread and everyone to pass their bowl of plums to Donald. There were 4 plums in each bowl and he ate 26 bowls of plums, plus drank the juice. In case your math is bad that would add up to 104 plums. We all applauded him and thought he had really done a great thing and no one would ever be able to match a record like that much less beat it. We all lined up went to the cattle line for the bathroom and returned to class. A short time later while we were doing our work quietly at our desk there was a really strange sound. It was sort of a low moan. Everyone looked around but no one said anything. Then there was a louder moan and a groan from Donald. The teacher was no in a good mood that day and was trying to prove a point she just said, "whoever is making that noise stop right now and do your work." Then there was a much louder groan and Donald raised his hand and asked to go to the restroom. The teachers reply was we had only been back to class for a few minutes and he would have to wait. Of course by then we all knew something was wrong with Donald's stomach, so being the curious 6th graders we were, we hid behind our books and looked over the top to watch Donald. His face had started to turn a light red and beads of sweat were starting to break out. One more time Donald raised his hand and asked to go to the bathroom and again the teacher told him to wait, he told her he really needed to go and she again said no. If she had only looked at Donald she could tell there was a real need for him to leave the classroom his face had now started to turn a bluish color and the sounds from his stomach were getting louder. Several of us at this point tried to get her to let him leave the room afraid that we would be treated to whatever was going on inside Donald landing on us. At that very moment Donald cut one loose to this day I swear not only did the paint start to peel from the wall but I think the chalkboard started to melt! The teacher started swearing and opening doors and windows and asking who in the world had such bad manners. Donald had finally reached the explosive point. No longer caring what the teacher said or done to him later he was going to the restroom. Which by the way it would help to know was at the other end of the building and down the stairs. Yep quite a trip if you really had to go. Obviously Donald did, because he started going the minute he stood up and left a trail to follow all the way down the hall and stairs to a stall in the bathroom that they closed for a week. The smell was even more foul that the original that he had let loose. Teachers were coming out of classrooms and opening windows throughout the school and all it was doing was stirring it up and making it worse. Of course at this point we thought we were all going to get into deep trouble for giving him all those plums at lunch so no one said anything. The teacher was very concerned about Donald because she had never seen or smelled anything quite like this so she sent our only male teacher, Mr. Roby to check on him.
     The janitor came through with that kitty litter stuff and started to try to soak up, (yuck) what he could before beginning to clean and the teachers stood in the hallway wondering what could have been wrong with Donald, I mean would it turn out to be a virus that put us all out of school and behind on our work? Back then there wasn't a teachers aide that helped grade papers if a student or students got behind that meant the teacher was behind on her grades too.
     Mr. Roby that went after Donald came back up the stairs with him and asked the office lady to call his mother to pick him up he would have to go home. Donald had a cold wet cloth on his head. (Never understood that either. No matter what hurts put a cold cloth on your head.) Now they had been gone a good long time and everyone thought when they saw Donald come back upstairs still alive that this would be the end of things. But halfway up the hall Donald turned around with a loud horn like noise from the sitting area of his body and back down the stairs he went. All the teachers of course gathered together out of earshot of those of us wondering what was going to happen and discussed what Mr. Roby had found out from Donald. We did hear the usual questions like had he been sick when he came to school, had he been running a fever, was anyone else in the house sick? Mr. Roby was the best teacher at the school but showed very little emotion so you never knew what he was thinking. He started talking to the other teachers and all of a sudden one of the teachers grabbed her chest jumped back from the crowd and yelled, "What? You have got to be kidding!" Mr. Roby then began to laugh as he described what Donald told him. None of the female teachers could believe that we didn't know what we were doing and it was just a cruel prank.
     Donald went home as soon as his mother got there and heard the story. She actually found it funny and said at least he learned a valuable lesson. I wish our teachers would have taken it the same way she did. We listened to the longest lecture and we were made to sit and smell that awful smell for the rest of the day. When it came time to go outside for time on the playground, (yes playground ain't that better than the gym?) we had to stay inside and write get well notes to poor Donald who according to the teacher we almost killed that day.
     Donald came back Monday morning smiling but not quite knowing what anyone would say about Friday's events. We all picked on him a little but he knew it was all in good fun and would laugh with us and we never carried to far for fear of hurting his feelings. When the school served stewed plums after that they only put 3 in a dish and a strict no sharing allowed was issued. We still would ask Donald if he wanted us to sneak him a few.
     Donald and all of us formed a special friendship that year that has lasted until today. I saw him a few years ago and he smiled gave me a hug and said, "don't worry you can squeeze tight I haven't eaten any plums today." We laughed caught up and went on our own way. We have a mutual friend that stays in touch with everyone we ever met in school I don't know how she does it. I can't remember what I looked like much less some of the people I met in 1st grade but she does. She keeps me up with all the going on in every ones life. Think I'll call today and scrape the housework and find out if she has heard from Donald lately.
     I wish our kids could get along with each other like we did back then and have the friendships that last through time even if you don't see each other everyday.

Spring means different things to everyone

     Today looks like it is going to be a beautiful day. If all the allergies would clear up I would love to be outside working in the yard and getting all the Winter mess out of here. Instead I will be taking the car to get a face lift at the body shop from hail damage we got in Florence during the tornadoes, and buying some groceries. Can't forget that Kelcy made me promise Chinese food for lunch.
     But beginning today I can really start some projects I have been putting off for a long time. I can get the living room ready for a new coat of paint. I have a new comforter and curtains to hang in the bedroom. Checking on getting a used stove installed that will be bigger than the one I have now. I want to get my hair done in a color I have never had before but think I will really like. If not maybe I have the guts to pull it off like I really don't care when people stare at it. I want to get the pool and deck sold and moved out of here and maybe get at least a couple of trees cut down and a built up garden area built. I know I'll have to wait a little while for the veggies to get put in but can't wait to start on that either. In the meantime I'm going to start Spring cleaning on the house and get the stale air out and the fresh air in. This usually means a trip to the doctor in a few weeks for shots and antibiotics and some time for me to stop hacking my head off. I have no idea why doing the things I love to do in the Spring tries to kill me. Maybe if I say enough prayers this year God will show the germs another place to light instead on me and my family. Not asking for forever just one Spring.
I think I got in this mood when I went for a walk with Alyssa Saturday before we left. We just walked and talked and looked at all the pretty houses and the birds on the streets up there aren't scared of you. We were standing in touching distance of a blue bird and it just chirped and hopped around. Easter is in a couple of weeks and that is when I usually start looking forward to the prettiest weather. I know it has snowed here as late as April but I am holding out hope that doesn't happen again for a long, long time. But I have to admit the weather has been strange this year.
     I wish I could learn how to post a picture on here so you could see just how pretty it is outside. But then again with all the brown leaves and dead looking limbs, maybe I'm just seeing the potential it has right under the surface waiting to bust out and show everyone else. And that's ok too I hope me and mother nature have some of the same ideas. I know I have been seeing her work in a different way lately. Excuse me but I think I just added one more thing to my to do list.