Banana Skins
5:05 p.m. - 2004-05-27


This is the week of the floor mat. On Sunday I fell in the Safeway because the mat in front of the apparently leaky ice machine was wet, and slid over when I walked across it. It went sideways, and I went down. The nearby store manager helped me up and delayed my exit by making me fill out "incident" report forms. In retrospect, maybe I shouldn't have joked around, "You'll be hearing from my lawyer!" There was even a friendly witness fellow, a former Safeway employee, who used the time that the manager was gone getting the forms to encourage me to wring Safeway like a wet sponge for damage money. My brother remarked last night that the store probably has the whole thing on video tape, not a comforting thought. I can imagine the management staff sitting up in the office and yukking it up over my undignified tumble.

There is also the same kind of floor mat just inside the back door of my office building, and it has taken to scooting forward from the pressure of many feet. In the morning, it laps up against the door jamb on the inside and sticks up about 6 inches. Naturally I am not looking down when I pull open the heavy door and step in at 7:00 am so I trip on it. Then I have to straighten out the huge heavy mat so no one else kills themselves. So far I have tripped twice. I reported the hazard but nothing has happened to remedy it.

Went to see Jason last night, and he told us that two big dogs attacked him as he went walking the other morning. One nipped his hand and the other chomped his leg, bruising it very badly but not tearing his jeans at all. He scared them off, and he said as how he might go to the doctor. Joel was appalled at how his leg looked, though Jason was not alarmed at all, and everyone tried to talk him into immediate medical attention. Jane told him that if he starts foaming at the mouth not to come barking to us. After we laughed at this, he said that he might go see the doc next week. How long is the incubation for rabies anyway? The dogs had collars and he wasn't really punctured so I guess it is all right. I called him today and he says he is much better.

I see that the novels of Georgette Heyer, one of my old favorites, have been reissued in paperback. I decided to splurg since they are disappearing from the library shelves, so I bought all that the bookstore had. Now I have 11 of her books. I am sure I will read them over and over in future years.

Jellie told me that she went on a field trip yesterday to Q-Zar and her class played lazer tag. This seems like a very odd field trip for a Christian school, to play mock war. She brought over a little pop-up toy she got there, a plastic disk that you press down, and it pops up with an annoying popping sound. She did it over and over and over until I told her to watch out or it may meet the same fate as her ribbon dancing stick that "disappeared" into my sewing room for 7 years.

January called Jason last night and had some family news to give us. She saw my cousin Casey on the news on Monday. He is now a captain in the sheriff's department and was the one in charge during the investigation of a newsworthy local murder 10 years ago, so the news station was interviewing the main characters in the unsolved murder on the 10-year anniversary. She also told us that his brother, Timmy, is going to be a father in September. Then we both complained about not being invited to Timmy's wedding or the fancy wedding of his brother Kelly, who only invited the parental units and not the six cousins. January and I decided to hold a grudge, just for the fun of it. We both agree that it is better in the long run to have a less spiffy wedding that costs less and invite all your family. If your wedding costs so much that you have to slash half your relatives off the guest list, it is not "A Good Thing!" as Martha would say. But now that I think about it, it is not the guy who plans the wedding, they just go along with it, so I guess we must blame their wives. Hard to expect a baby present when you weren't invited to the wedding. I think I am beginning to enjoy this grudge thing too much.