Incongruity

I must be hopelessly old-fashioned.

There I was, in the midst of 5:00 traffic after work today, stopped at a traffic light. As is my habit, I checked the rearview mirror in my car. In the car behind me was a woman who looked to be around 65 years old. To me, she looked like a stereotypical grandmother with her all-white hair. Then I did a double-take, because Grandma was talking on a cell phone, in traffic, in a scenario you would expect to see from a twenty-something.

Now, I have a cell phone myself, and have been known to answer it while driving. Cell phones are not inherently evil things that destroy a person's soul. Somehow, though, this little vignette left me feeling a little sad. It just didn't feel right that Grandma should be out there "climbing the corporate ladder" as it were, fighting rush hour traffic and hurrying home to warm up her frozen dinner in the microwave like the rest of us working girls. I want to think of all Grandmas everywhere puttering around the kitchen, taking fresh cookies out of the oven when the grandkids burst in from school, or snuggling with a toddler in a rocking chair. You know, doing Grandma stuff!

Then I had to laugh at myself. Because I was right there in the same traffic, headed home to microwave my dinner after a long day at the office, and I'm a grandmother too.

Seagulls & Baseball

I promised to tell you about the seagulls in Corpus Christi, so here goes...

We had dinner at Joe's Crab Shack, out on the water of the Gulf of Mexico, choosing to be seated outside. Seagulls were in constant attendance, watching carefully for handouts or theft opportunities. The waitress said they can be quite bold, sneaking up behind her and stealing food from plates about to be served. The gulls lined up on the railing, and they seemed to have a pecking order. One stakes out a spot and defends it against encroachers. These birds really make a lot of noise, too, but I found them attractive and endearing, probably because I'm not around them enough to find them irritating.

The Crab Shack has these wonderful corn biscuits, which looked like they'd be something the gulls would like, but there were signs everywhere saying "Don't feed the seagulls." So we didn't. But we did smuggle out some corn biscuits for later. :D

Once we got back out to the parking lot, I figured the gulls were fair game, but there weren't any around. It seems they were all behind the restaurant, begging for food from the diners there. I saw one fly far overhead so I tossed a bit of biscuit up in the air and the gull managed to swoop down to catch it. The next thing I knew, there were hundreds of seagulls surrounding me, scolding me and urging me to feed them. It was like a scene straight out of Alfred Hitchcock's "The Birds."

It took me less than a minute to realize that the way things were going, the odds were in favor of me getting hit by a birdie dirty bomb, so I started tossing the biscuit bits away from me. It didn't take long to exhaust my biscuit supply and the birds wandered back to the restaurant to resume their vigil over the diners.

This week, of course, it's back to the salt mines; holidays can't last forever. Back to parking in front of my computer and drawing designer public water systems. Work has it's good points, however. One of the engineers came up with tickets to the baseball game Thursday night. They were good tickets, too. Front row, along the first base line. The evening was pleasantly cool and it was $1 beer night, which is a good thing, if you like beer. Why can't they have $1 margarita night?

Tulsa has a nice baseball stadium. The grass is like carpet, lush and green, just about as perfect grass as I've ever seen. The seating is on aluminum risers, which the kids have discovered, makes a satisfying racket when stomped with both feet, or when rolling a ball down the steps, or when running. Baseball attracts kids like biscuits attract seagulls, and there were plenty of them.

At one point, we couldn't see the game because of all the children huddled in front of us, leaning over the wall, harassing the players, begging for a ball or autograph. It made me wonder if there was a sign in the players' dugout that says "Do not feed the kids."

Gossip

Last weekend, I went on a little trip to the coast with some friends
who were participating in a bowling tournament. I love the ocean,
and so we made it a point to spend some time at the beach. Maybe
later I'll write about the 'Seagull Incident'.

During the tournament, those of us who weren't bowling sat in the
stands behind the bowlers. Mostly, it was wives.

One of the wives (M) commented to me about (P), one of the other wives, who was choosing not to sit with the rest of us, wondering about her reasons.

I told M I'd heard P had trouble with her knees, and perhaps didn't want to climb further up the steps. M responded with, "I think she's a lot older than Dave (P's husband)." What this had to do with P's bad knees, I have no idea.

I smiled and said "Appearances can be deceiving." At the time, I felt that P and Dave looked about the same age. I couldn't help wondering if M was really asking about my situation with my late husband.

I suppose it took the fun out of gossipping for M, but she was treading on thin ice with me. My grandmother was eight years older than my grandfather, and they were married more than 50 years before she died. My late husband was younger than me by six years. It turns out, P is older than her husband by 10 years. That doesn't translate to "a whole lot" in my book. And neither do I find it to be juicy gossip.

If their ages were reversed, with Dave being 10 years older than his wife, no one would even take notice. In fact, it's almost expected for men to be older than their wives. I think we need to reverse this trend. I'd like to see more women with younger men. Women live longer, so why not? Age is only a number, and if both parties are mature adults, I see no reason not to.

Thunder and Lightning and Hail, Oh My!

Oklahoma has been dry. Very dry. My lawn has suffered for it. Lake levels (read, water supply) are way down, and farm ponds are drying up. The fire danger has been so high we are not allowed to grill outside. People in these parts have been driven to extremes in their attempts to encourage rain. I myself was almost desperate enough to wash my car, or, even better, to leave the sunroof open on the car overnight!

Fortunately, I didn’t have to. A coworker washed his car, sacrificing for the greater good.

Last night was sort of exciting, for those of us who appreciate a good storm. It came in two bands, the first being only a prelude to the real thing. By the time the big one hit, I was safe at home. In my neighborhood, there was lots of wind, thunder, hail, and lightning. Not far from my neighborhood, they reported golf-ball sized hail and a tornado or two.

The most important thing, though, is that it RAINED. It was a good, heavy, soaking deluge. I had begun to wonder if we were destined for Dust Bowl, Round 2.