Old Timer

This just goes to prove you don't have to be a fourth grader to use a computer. I write books and poetry (like who doesn't?) and think this will be fun.

We live between two schools, the High School to the south and the grade school to the north, which makes watching our sidewalk more fun than the TV during the day. What with mature walkers holding hands, joggers trotting by, (often with the loose legs of their shorts flopping on their hips-not too attractive) folks walking their dogs, little kids picking the neighbor's flowers to take home to mommy, and many Latino parents speaking soft Spanish as the walk their little ones to and from school, no day is boring on our street.

Our neighbors next door are an interesting couple. He has a hobby of buying vehicles of all kinds and reselling them, so what with their own passenger car and motorhome, there are seldom less than 6 driveable or rideable vehicles on their little corner lot. Nothing rusty or on blocks, though. They sell and are replaced constantly. When my husband complains, I remind him that they could sell their home to a family of 6 or 7 kids, so be happy. On the other side, We have a very nice Chinese couple from Taiwan. He is a student at the college, and she stays home with two little ones. It's fun in summer when they have barbeques for friends on their back deck. You can hear the adults laughing and talking in Chinese, while below, the kids run and play and shout at each other in English.

When we were young, there were 32 kids on our street, and on rainy days, it seemed as if most of them were in our house. Now that our girls have grown and gone, the street is more quiet and our house could be lonely if I let it. However, we have 7 grown grandchildren and now, 7 great grandchildren, and a Catholic daughter whose three girls have yet to marry, so we have great hopes for more greats.

We had an unusual Christmas last year. My husband, bless him, has Alzheimer's and can't travel, and none of our families could come home for one reason or another, so we planned a little Christmas for ourselves, with our tree in the family room and our presents opened in front of the gas fireplace. Then we had a nice breakfast and read the paper, with our cat purring on the back of my chair. I had cooked, so we would have left overs, but we planned to go out to a good restaurant for lunch to treat ourselves. About 10:30 the front door opened and it was our nice Latino cleaning lady, vacuum in hand. She comes every other Tuesday, and it was her day, so here she was, with her smiling husband to help her. It was an icy cold day with a wind chill to make your bones brittle and your toes rattle like ice cubes, but looking out to their car in the driveway, I saw four little dark heads bobbing in the back seat. I was in shock, and grateful I didn't have a house full of company, so I sent the husbqand out quickly to bring those liitle boys in while I found stuffed toys from my stash, an extra box of chocolates (sugarless but good), turned on the TV to the cartoon channel, and opened the toy cupboard, which has a rich mixture of color books and crayons, cars, dolls and games. Then we went to an early lunch, leaving her money on the table. I had wished for children under our tree and I got my answer. Truly, God has a sense of humor.

Life here, is good, with all our difficulties. I wonder how much of her wages go for haircuts or if she has learned to cut their hair herself? I'd maybe ask, but she doesn't speak English yet. (She understands, though.) Her boys translate for us. We get along fine, and she cleans the way I used to when I was young. The world is full of wonderful people, and I seem to be surrounded by many of them.