Moving On
3:33 p.m. - 2002-08-17


So today I was going to print out copies of my daughter's first letters from college to take over my dad's house so he could read them. I then heard the ominous gurgling sound of water in the pipes in the kitchen - a sound that means only one thing, a clogged or semi-clogged main drain line. So I called the drain company and then called my dad to tell him I could not come over. Lo and behold, he told me that he was unavailable for visiting because he was going to up and drive to Sacramento to buy some sought-after fishing lures. This was great news since he would not be moping around the house but would be out doing something forward moving as it were.

However, he showed up at my house just as the CoCo Man was getting to work on the drains. They greeted each other like old acquaintances since it turns out that this same drain man was at my dad's house last week fixing HIS drains. Then my dad told us that he had headed out to Sacramento but the worst traffic jam of the year had occurred near Benicia so he had to turn around and come home. He sat on the couch and read the college letters and we laughed a lot. He brought us up to date on the aunts' visit and their gossip, or rather, interesting information about various relatives and former relatives, such as which former uncles (speedily divorced out of the family) became convicted child molesters or suicides or druggies - you know, the usual family chit chat.

We are going to have my older brother's birthday party next Friday night. My dad is going to make mondo amounts of pot roast, which he can do in his several crockpots. I thought that pot roast in a tortilla with massive amounts of guacamole would be tasty so I am elected to make the guac. This is a fun thing to do now that I have my new mortar and pestle, just like the Naked Chef. I like this Asian version of a mortar and pestle better than a molcajete, because I remember how my mother's molcajete eventually wore out and put little particles of volcanic rock into the salsa.

Now that the CoCo Man is gone, and by the way, he walked through the house on the way to the garage and said, "Boy, you guys have a lot of stuff!" which I took as insulting, but accurate, I am gearing up to get back to my sewing. After that, dinner and Japanese shows!