Over the last month the trees have been changing from that tired, dark green they have at the end of summer to begin revealing their true fall colors. Everywhere I look I see yellows, oranges, and reds become the more dominant color of the landscape. This will all reach a peak during the coming week. Hopefully I won’t run off the road trying to take it all in.
OUR LADY INDIAN. Last week Jenna decided to try out for the middle school girls basketball team. She made it! We’re so proud. We don’t know the game schedule yet, but she’ll be practicing five days a week (except for game days). The boys will play Upward Basketball again, so it looks like our lives are going to revolve around the round ball from now through the end of February.
FALL DECOR. Of course, this is also the time of year when the color white can bee seen decorating a few select trees. This comes in the form of long streamers of toilet paper. Several of the trees in our year are part of this club as we were rolled last night. Whoever did it was really quiet. We were watching National Treasure 2 while it was going on. They even slipped up on the front porch and decorated the swing and we didn’t even know.
Now I’ve rolled enough houses back in my day that I have no room to get all bent out of shape over this (it was an eight roll job), but the boys weren’t quite sure how to take all the toilet paper in our trees the next morning. They kept asking me if it was illegal, and I suppose it is, but they kept insisting that we do something about it. I finally asked what they would do if we could ever figure out who did it. Nate decided they should pay each of us a dollar.
ROLLING GONE SOUR. As I mentioned above, I’ve rolled my share of yards. I’ve been caught by an angry homeowner once, but never the police. On one adventure the kids were home alone when we came to roll their yard. They got so caught up in the fun they contributed toilet paper to our cause (go figure). Another time I was home and watched some guys rolling my yard from the window. When they left I gathered up all their toilet paper and returned the favor.
Another time some cousins and I decided we would roll Kenny and Lori. Somehow they figured out we were coming so they hid out in the pasture beside their house and waited. I think they were about to give up when we came, but when we got there we were greeted with water from two hoses.
The time I remember most was when we decided to roll David and Lynn Henry (Kenny was in on this one). We loaded his trees, and just as we were finishing up David came outside and caught us. Rather than get mad he invited us in. What we didn’t know was that he had arranged for someone to come and clean up all the toilet paper from his yard and put it all on Kenny’s yard while we were inside. This plan worked and we were shocked when we finally came out, however, it came at a cost. While we were in David’s house we went everywhere rearranging knickknacks, swapping pictures, hiding kitchen utensils. It seems like there were things they didn’t find until they moved about a year later.
PICKING CORN. When the Cotters were here we went over to Mom and Aunt Mar’s house for supper one evening. The cornfield behind their house had been harvested by this time and all the kids had a lot of fun walking over the field picking up ears of corn the combine had missed. Alex even took a bag of corn with him to feed the squirrels the next time he went camping with the Boy Scouts.
Our kids have continued the fun all last week. Usually when I come to pick them up after work they are watching TV, but all last week they were sitting on the patio shelling the kernels of corn from the cobs they had picked up. By Wednesday they had filled two, one gallon ice cream buckets which Mom and Aunt Mar gave to a neighbor to feed his chickens. I assume the fun will continue until the Pinsons plow the field.
GIGGLE BOX. When I hug Ben he usually likes to wrap his feet around my legs. This results in him sliding down to my feet -- sort of like going down a fire pole. This is not ideal when you are wearing sweatpants as I was the other night. The words, “Stop! My pants are coming down,” were barely out of my mouth when I discovered my pants were at my ankles. Ben started laughing so hard I thought he was going to hyperventilate. This went on for quite a while. Every time the laughter would die down he would reenact the scene and get tickled all over again. I guess we’re all the butt of someone’s joke at one time or another. (I got him back with a cup of cold water in the shower later.)
Joe
