Musings
an Online Journal of Sorts

By Alyce Wilson

One of the funniest things Dad, an osteopath, has ever received from a drug company

I slept in Sunday morning as much as I could on the soft mattress in the guest room at my Dad's place before my back started to bother me and I had to get up. My dad was just heading off to church. He was really excited because he didn't have to do rounds after church like he normally does. I never did find out why. This meant he'd be home a couple hours earlier than usual.

This meant if I wanted to get any design work done for Wild Violet I'd better get cracking. I used The Gryphon's lap top, since he had the right software for page design.

While I worked, a really dreadful movie came on TV, Payback starring Mel Gibson. When The Gryphon emerged after taking a shower, I called to him, "Bad movie. Save me."

I could have changed the channel myself, but my dad has this bewildering array of remotes, each of which has about 100 buttons on it. Since The Gryphon knows how they work, I figured it would be easier to have him do it. He switched it to Ghostbusters 2, for which I was immediately grateful.

When Dad got back from church at about 12:30, he, The Gryphon and I walked downtown to Subway for lunch. Dad, who normally doesn't eat lunch, even broke down and got a salad. By the time we walked back to his place, there was still about an hour before Mom was supposed to call. She actually had to work that day and would be done around 2:30.

So Dad and I took my dog, Una, for a walk around town. She always enjoys that when we visit him. We have a regular routine, and she knows every turn. Dad likes this walk, too.

Just when we were heading back, we got a cell phone call from Mom, wanting to know where we were. I told her we were just getting back from a dog walk. She said she'd be heading home soon and we should make arrangements. Basically, the plan was to go to the local Ben Franklin's, where we could get both material for placemats she was going to make me as a birthday present, at my request, and where The Gryphon and I could buy her art supplies, which were a combined Christmas and birthday gift. It was a birthday gift from both of us, as well as a Christmas gift from The Gryphon.

It took Mom awhile to get to Dad's place, so I took a nap on the couch. Ten minutes seemed to do it; after that, I wasn't tired any more.

When she arrived, The Gryphon and I drove with her to Ben Franklin's. I'd already told Dad I wanted to go alone with her because she doesn't get to spend as much alone time with me as he does. The fact that The Gryphon was along didn't bother her, she said. She just liked to be able to spend some time with me, mother and daughter.

We had several things to check out at the store. First, she wanted to look into getting a frame for a painting she'd done. It turned out that it was a non-standard size, so she'd have to buy a frame and then have a custom mat done to fit it. She decided to come back with it another time, since we didn't have it in the car.

Then we walked back to the corner where the material is kept, from which The Gryphon and I picked some quilted material for our placemats. She'd given us a set for Christmas that I love, and I wanted to get a set that matched our colors better.

Finally, we checked out the art supplies. The Gryphon and I told her the amount we wanted to spend on her, and she was supposed to pick what she wanted. This was much more difficult than I could have imagined. I don't know if it's because she was faced with so many choices or because she looked at the price tags of the brushes and the paints and had second thoughts, even though we'd told her how much we'd spend.

Still, after going up and down the aisle for awhile and thinking about it, she picked out three new brushes, three tubes of watercolor paint, some paper and maybe a couple other supplies, which came to just below the amount we'd promised.

When we got back to Dad's, she said she ought to get going, so she gave us both hugs and promised to keep me updated on the cat situation.

Upstairs, we talked to Dad about what to do for dinner. We decided to go to the Italian place I love. I even found something on the menu that wasn't ridiculously bad for me: a seafood and pasta dish in a garlic sauce. This time, of course, we skipped the dessert.

By the time we returned from the restaurant, it was time to pack up the car and head home. We packed all the luggage and presents, and Una, of course, and hugged Dad good-bye.

It's funny; during the week I don't drive much at all, but I make up for it with these long weekend trips. I'm still probably spending almost as much on gas as anyone.

As we were filling up to head back, I saw the junior high assistant principle at a neighboring pump. He waved and called out a greeting, and I told him I was in town for the harvest festival. He said his daughter had just done the same thing.

Driving home was easy; we didn't hit too much traffic. Back home, we both had a little energy left, so we watched a couple episodes of Buffy before getting some sleep on a nice, firm mattress.

Copyright 2005 by Alyce Wilson

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