The Lake House

Okay, so I watched it. I love Sandra Bullock, and I like Keanu Reeves. I love romantic chick flicks, and it was on HBO free.... so I taped it, I watched it, and .... I won't ruin it for anyone. I will add, though... If you are confused at the end, look it up in Wikipedia. DON'T do that before you watch it though because it tells what happens. It's no Chocolat, but it was a nice June movie.

Today would have been my grandfather's birthday. Way over 100 years old if he were still there waiting for me at the end of his driveway with that wonderful old gray tractor. It had a running bar on the back, so I could hop on it, hold on to the back of his seat for dear life, and take off with him on miraculous adventures. Shady Peanut Lane always welcomed us... a little spot in the meadow beside an old concrete bridge left there before a change in highways. There, I'd sit on the sides feeling quite daring (although the water wasn't deep, the bridge quite low). Soda crackers and cheese, crumbling in the red beaded purse, wrapped in waxed paper... Makes me thirsty to think about it. Sometimes a thermos of ice water, usually not. We picked some blackberries if we could stand the chiggers, loading our buckets with thorn stolen jewels. Our blackberries weren't ever very large, but they were sweet. I liked to pick mulberries from two huge trees bowed down with with huge fruit. Nobody in our family ate mulberries, but what easy picking! Paw-paw taught me to make a grass flute, to count the seconds between lightning and thunder, and to walk gently with animals.
Once he overheard men hired to haul our hay calling him "the old man." It crushed his little soul, and he never felt young again. I know the feeling some days... Kind of like when my seventh graders told the science teacher they wanted to be like me when they got to be senior citizens... I had a holy cow! I told them they didn't need those books any more and no, there wasn't going to be a movie. They had all flunked the class, I announced wickedly. Finally a bright little lass asked how old I am, and when I responded, "Only 52!" I could see bewilderment on their faces... Hadn't they SAID I was old??? To them 35 is ancient.... anything more, and it's time for silver hair and rocking chairs.
I spent today working on my laundry (Mt. Washmore, as Flylady says) and putting out patriotic items... Puttery delights. Bought the 5-5-5 Domino pizza special for a treat for my son and friends... Didn't want to mess up the kitchen I'd been cleaning all day...
Created a centerpiece of geraniums and moss, Uncle Sam vintage look cutout, flags, and what nots. It's on my kitchen table, along with Lady Liberty and a blueberry check candle.

Happy birthday, Paw-paw! I love you forever and a day.