“Now,
Tell Me How You Are Really.”
All three of the sons who live far away got home at
least once this year, leading to a whirlwind of rearranged schedules and
special events. Yet sometime in each visit, Tracy will draw her boy aside,
checking up on emotional states, love lifes, and goals for the coming year. Because she’s the mother, that’s her job. The
sons answer reasonably. Because that’s
their job. Some of them understand the
rules of this exchange better than others, frankly.
Waiting
For The Clouds To Part
When Chris was home over his 26th
birthday, he asked for skydiving. Fine
idea, jumping out of a perfectly good airplane to plummet thousands of feet,
but the weather started getting away from him: too cloudy to jump. It’s not
like the lad has a lot of flexibility to come back from Norway when the weather
clears in a few days. The clouds parted
just enough on the last possible day.
The text that he had landed safely came as a relief.
“Hey!
Unto you a child is born!” yelled Gladys
The older granddaughter, Emily has crested into
territory of family traditions: going to The Nutcracker with Nana, or the
Currier Museum with Pops, and finally being old enough to be a Tomte at
Luciafest. This year Tracy is reading The
Best Christmas Pageant Ever to her during Advent (she will likely cry this
year, too), while the rest of us play characters. Sarah is starting to get on
board, clutching her own binoculars that she keeps here in order to watch birds
with Nana. However, Sarah uses them backwards, while Emily glowers resentfully
that the younger sister has something she doesn’t, so there are still a few
bugs in the system.
Everyone
Loves Kyle
Did we say that last year? It’s true. He is coming down the home stretch
of senior year. He has a tight group of friends, who encouraged him to play
soccer and run track even though those aren’t his sports. No matter, he is quickly at the center.
Lacrosse, where he has put in a fair bit of effort these last two years, should
be more fun this spring than any of his winter or tournament teams. And then,
according to recent plans, on to the Army Reserves, and training for the
military police, and college with an eye to law enforcement. Even his new
haircut is a little more high and tight. Life changes quickly, and there have
been sudden leaps of growing up, rather than gradual increments, over the last
twelvemonth.
A
W.P. Kinsella Evening
Minor league baseball plus unusual atmospheric
conditions just naturally evoke Kinsella’s books, which David and Ben have been
sharing for years. We went down to see
the Pawsox while he was back in August, hoping to see this Xander Bogaerts
phenom. Unfortunately, the phenom had
been called up to the Red Sox exactly one day earlier. Still, the drive was easy, the seats good,
the restaurant close, and the sky turned an unearthly magenta over the left
field fence. What could be better?
Well, perhaps the trip to Fenway with Jonathan and
Kyle, paid for by John-Adrian, was better.
There were more of us – that’s fun. David struck up a conversation with
another old guy while the younger three took pictures of each other and the
more ridiculous nearby fans – we call them Pink Hats here.
“I Would Like To Publicly Thank My Dad For
Benching Philip Rivers”
David, Ben, Jonathan, Heidi, John-Adrian, and
semi-son Ryan Letares are in a fantasy football league. Ben and Ryan are usual
powerhouses, but JA has made it into the finals this year. Talking smack, too.
Jonathan and David are already revamping their strategy for next year.
“We’ve
Picked Out Some Of The Music For Tomorrow.”
Said by the betrothed couple to David, the evening
before the wedding. I think of myself as a flexible person, and had blithely
said I could adjust to whatever they wanted, after agreeing to become a Justice
of the Peace in order to perform the ceremony. Hmm. Harder than I thought.
Still, Morgan Leap and Ryan Letares did get married. The surroundings were lovely, though October
chilly. Ben and JA both made an extra trip home to be there. What could be better?
“It’s
okay to leave now.”
This year included a lot of running down to see Dad
in South Shore Hospital. While we almost lost him this past spring, he’s still
soldiering on. One Sunday we got a call that his assisted living home had sent
him to the ER for chest pains. So instead of going to church she hightailed it
down to the hospital. There was Dad with good color, talking coherently and
waiting to be admitted. They wanted to do observations overnight before sending
him back. So we watched the football game together until he dismissed Tracy with
the above quote.
2 comments:
I enjoyed reading this.
I enjoyed reading this.
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