Pancakes

Carolyn's youngest son has been visiting this week.  He came in last Monday and will be with us until Monday next week.  I'm enjoying his company even more than Carolyn, but he's working me to death.

So far we've replaced the gizmo's that shoot a beam of light across the bottom of the garage door.  Ya know, the whiz-bang black box filled with small people who watch to make sure it no one gets hurt when it closes?  Must be a ton of them inside the thing.  I've tried these things at all hours of the day and night and can assure you one of the miniature minions is always on duty.  It's impossible to close it on your foot with any force at all. 

We've mowed and raked the lawns, brought boulders home to drop into the flowerbeds and trimmed the jungle I've managed to produce with copious amounts of fertilizer around the whole place.  He's trying hard to talk me into tossing all the bags and jugs of plant go-go stuff in the garbage.  Says it'll make life a lot easier for me.  I tell him I'm enjoying having the green grass and blooming flowers everywhere.  It's been a long time since I've been able to use so much water.

In fact, we're having home grown Broccoli with our evening meal tonight.  I grew it myself from seeds in a package I bought way too soon for this area.  My gardening skills need to be changed somewhat to deal with the climate here, but just you wait.  Next years gonna be a bumper crop. 

That phrase, "bumper crop" has always intrigued me so one day I researched it.  "Bumper" in this context means "unusually large."  I used to think it had something to do with automobiles, but never could quite make the connection.  I'm used to that happening.

If we get around to it today, we're gonna fix the sliding screen door so we can enjoy a cool evening breeze with our Broccoli.  New doors seldom fit the old frames even though all the paperwork and instructions say they will.  I think it's because all the new screens are made in China, and those guys use a different length for the standard inch.  Their inch is slightly smaller than ours and they do it so all of them can be six feet tall.  The whole country over there is filled with people of smallish stature, and to overcome the natural inferiority being small causes most males, they came up with the brilliant idea of redefining the "inch".

It's OK, we do the same thing right here in America.  Just last night Michelle Bachmann said "Submit" means "respect."  I'm pretty used to using the word differently so I looked it up.  Here's what I found.

SUBMIT:

verb (used with object)

1.

to give over or yield to the power or authority of another (often used reflexively).

2.

to subject to some kind of treatment or influence.

3.

to present for the approval, consideration, or decision of another or others: to submit a plan; to submit an application.

4.

to state or urge with deference; suggest or propose (usually followed by a clause): I submit that full proof should be required.

verb (used without object)

5.

to yield oneself to the power or authority of another: to submit to a conqueror.

6.

to allow oneself to be subjected to some kind of treatment: to submit to chemotherapy.

7.

to defer to another's judgment, opinion, decision, etc.: I submit to your superior judgment.

"Course if you happen to be an alien from some other planet, you might claim it means "respect"  Maybe that's what's going on.  She's from Vulcan. Hope she's here legally - I'd hate to see our president deported because of immigration issues.

Anyway, Eric fixed us pancakes this morning and we sat outside to eat them.  Pancakes, bacon, enough butter to clog the arteries of six fully grown men, and the whole mess covered in real Canadian Maple Syrup.  Some days life is so good a guy can forget about the rest of the world for awhile.