the best things in life

Sorry, haven't posted in a while loverlies....here ya go

Today was Memorial Day, so my dad and mum had odd schedules....ok, wait, my dad had an odd schedule; my mum, working at a university, has had an odd schedule since school let out...there...clarified. She usually leaves for exercise and the office around 0730 each morning, after coming upstairs and giving her invalid eldest daughter a check up and hug. She runs a few miles, than goes into the office (no joke on the running....she ran something like 6 miles Friday, the strange woman)...all the animals must be taken care of, all her paperwork done, and whatever strange meeting the university has planned, attended, and than she comes home....usually after sending her lab "bitches" off to do their daily deeds (she has a few, and boy, are they strange) so a typical work day during the summer for mum is about 0800 to about 1430-1500... ok, there is the explaning for the story I'm about to tell...

So mum gets home about 1400 today, and wonders around the house...I, of course, have passed out upstairs under the throes of the non-exsistance of tonsils...I wake up when I hear her come home, she talks to me for a bit, and back to sleep I go... I wake up about 1600 to hear her practicing banjo on the porch (no shit, my mum plays banjo, and is quite good at it...if you have never heard a decently played banjo, I weep for you....it is very nice)...now she has been toodling around the house for a couple hours, and sounds a bit restless...well...restless for my mum, she's one of those relentlessly "zen" people....so it doesnt surprise me to come outside on the porch and see her gazing off into space, listening intently....then I hear it..my dad is home...early, of course, b/c it is Memorial Day and construction people love their holidays, and it rained which is always bad for a landscaper...like a flash the banjo is put up, mum pounces on my father and insists they go to the garden...one can tell that she has been waiting all afternoon like a large curly haired golden retriever for him to come home with the new gardening supplies...it was bewildering...

Now my father is very set in his routinues....everyday he comes home from work, covered in dirt and smelling like a freshly mown lawn...I used to love the way he smelled at the end of each summer day...like lawnmowers, heat, freshly cut grass and Old Spice deoderant..to this day, its one of my favorite smells... the minute his foot hits the door after a long day at work (he leaves the house around 0600 and usually doesn't get home until 1800) there is a beer in his hand...not just any beer mind you, good beer....in a chilled glass that has sat all day in the freezer just for this occation...and the beer has been in the fridge...all day...now he may not have anouther one for a couple of hours, but first thing when he comes home, out comes that beer....he sits down at the kitchen table, he takes off his hat, and he drinks his beer....once this is done, he goes off to do dad-at-home things...but only after that beer...

Well my mother, having waited all afternoon for my dad to get home with the bales of hay and the huge tank of water for watering our massive garden, it having not rained here in a hot minute, (word to the wise...watering a garden by hand and hanging out wet laundry are the two fail-safe methods for making it rain...just trust me on that..its called irony) can hardly wait for my dad to finish that beer...she putters around the kitchen (we're having chicken and dumplings for dinner, to celebrate my cautious gumming of semi-solid foods)...than goes out on the porch..all the while practically bouncing around my dad...he grumps and drinks his beer...I finally turn to my dad, and tell him in a whisper (mum has keen hearing..all moms do) "she's been waiting all afternoon for you to get home with that stuff, get out there!" he looks at me...( i have to repeat it, dad has horrible hearing) finishes his beer and gets up...this signal my mum to ask him about 500 questions about how they are going to go take care of the garden, and causes him to grump some more...but you can tell they both love it

It took over 20 years for my parents to get to this point...they may not have had the best of marriages, in fact at times it was downright bad...but now they have what the both wanted...their best friend...my da has always worshiped the ground my mother walks on...and she has always, always loved that grumpy burly little german man...an odder marriage is hard to find...and I adore them togather....sure me and my da have been fighting like cats and dogs since I could talk, but I don't know what I would do if he were to go....and if my mother died...I think my father would be very close behind....he'd just give up...he already spends each day in near constant pain (he's had a hard life...I can't count the number of times my mother has stiched him up...) but today, I saw something that nearly made me tear up...I want what my parents have...the easy, loving, exasperated, and bewidered marriage they have...to this day, my mum still cuts my dad's hair in the mirror where he can't reach it (never the beard, that's his deal) and my dad still buys her yellow roses on every occation...it makes me wish I went home more...