It rained this morning when I was delivering Meals on Wheels, and I hate when that happens.  It was intermittent, so I pulled out an umbrella rather than getting out my foul weather gear.  It's not easy delivering six meals to a house while trying to hold an umbrella over yourself and the food.  I made it, though, and I only got a little wet.

ED

We have a good friend who is a wildlife biologist with the State of Florida, and his charity is a group called Camo Dreams.  Their goal is to take disabled kids hunting, and they do that a few times a year.  Here's a picture from one of the hunts.

I'm not a hunter, but I can just imagine that a disabled kid growing up in a hunting family would be utterly thrilled to go on a hunt and kill a deer.

Saturday night, the Camo Dream organization, had a wild game dinner.  I stopped at the place on the way home from church, and I got plates for Beth and me.  Of the things they had, I ate some quail and some venison sausage, and it was all delicious.  I've had wild boar before, and I skipped it Saturday night.  You can access the Camo Dreams website by clicking here.  Happy hunting.

ED

As I've said so many times on here, I love delivering Meals on Wheels.  I usually spend a few minutes visiting with my clients, and for many of them that's the highlight of their day.

Today I trained a new volunteer, and that was a real eye-opener to me.  Our last stop was a couple who are in their ninties.  I think I bragged to them on our wedding anniversary that we've been married 36 years.  I think they told me they've been married for, like, 60 years or more.  I've got something to aspire to.

The lady, who is no bigger than a minute, recently lost both of her legs to diabetes, and she's in a wheelchair, of course.  On Monday of this week I had some pictures of Liza to show her.  She gushed over how cute Liza is, but she insisted I show them to him, too.  He reacted to those pictures exactly how I knew a guy would react to pictures of another guy's grandchild.  He was extremely polite about those pictures, but, you know... 

The two of them are usually on the front porch when I come, and she's usually working a jigsaw puzzle.  I asked her about that today, and she said she had one going out there but it was covered up with plastic against the rain.  Then she told us about loving to knit and crochet.  She took us all over the house to show us her work.  She had crocheted bedspreads, pillow cases, lamp shades, and I don't know what all.  That stuff was beautiful, but I had never noticed it before in all the times I've cooled off in that house in the summer and warmed up in that house in the winter.  She told me that her former employer sponsored a free ride to college for their youngest daughter. 

I've met at least two of their children who were there looking after them, and those "kids" (probably in their sixties, like me) are smart, articulate, and very productive people.  I've met a couple of their great-grandsons (teenagers), too, and they seemed to be very uncomfortable in their great-grandparents' home.  The great-grandparents live in what's basically a shack.  It's a neat and clean shack, but it's basically a shack.  I'm sure those boys live in middle-class homes.  But those great-grandparents are the very salt of the earth .  William Faulkner listed his characters at the end of The Sound and the Fury and said what became of them.  For Dilsey, the African American maid, he said, "They will endure."  Not she will endure.  They will endure.  That African American couple we delivered meals to today have endured, and they will continue to endure.  And they have marched their family from a shack (which they own) to the middle class.

I LOVE Meals on Wheels.

ED

When I was in grammar school and high school, my mother cooked a hot breakfast for my sister and me every day.  We had a whole variety of stuff, but some days we had banana toast.   That was absolutely one of my favorite dishes as a kid, and I made some tonight.  I'm eating it now, and it's actually better than I remember it being.  Here's the recipe:

Two slices of white bread

Some pats of butter to more or less cover the bread.  More or less.  It'll melt into the bread.

Slices of half a banana, cut pretty thin.

Lots of sugar.

A heavy sprinkling of cinnamon.

Cook under the broiler for about 5 minutes.

Eat some fabulous banana toast.  I just ate some as my snack before bed, and it was really, really good.  I used to make that for my kids for breakfast, and it takes almost no time to make.  And this is the kind of dish that'll stick with you--or your kids--all morning long.

ED

Sunday was my daughter, Catherine's, birthday.  She turned 32.  I remembered her birthday, and Beth and I called her to wish her a Happy Birthday, but I forgot to blog about it.

Cat, Mike, and Liza celebrated Cat's birthday by having a little two-night "staycation" in a condo on the beach.  They didn't want to leave their business or their daughter, so they rented a condo for two nights.  I'm sure they had friends in to celebrate the birthday, but that really a pretty cool way to do things.  As I understand it, they actually bartered the condo rent with their friends who own the place, and that's pretty cool, too.  They have an amazingly wide circle of friends, and they're having a great time.  All the friends--oldsters, youngsters, kids, and four generations of family--will come together for Liza's fourth birthday party in our back yard on October 18th.  I can't wait.

ED

I went to Walgreens this afternoon to get my flu shots.  The Council on Aging is going to give them free to board members, Meals on Wheels volunteers, and staff members so we won't be in the business of spreading flu to the old people whose homes we visit on a regular basis.  I heard that Walgreens was giving them now, though, so I thought I'd take advantage of that.

I filled out two hellacious forms and turned them in.  I asked how long it would be, and they told me a half hour.  I had a couple of errands to run, so I told them I'd be back. 

To get the forms, I had to stand in line.  To turn in the forms, I had to stand in line.  To let them know I was back, I had to stand in line.  The lines weren't long, but they were so slow.  That place was incredibly busy.

Surprisingly, once I told them I was back, they called me up, lickety split, to pay.  The girl told me it was $24.00 and change.

"Is that for both shots?" I asked.

"It's for the flu shot," she said.

"I know, but is it for both flu shots?" I asked.

"There are two of you?  Who's the other person?" she asked.

"No.  I want the two flu shots.  The seasonal flu shot and the Swine Flu shot," I said.

"We just have flu shots," she said.

"You don't have swine flu shots?" I asked.

"No," she said.

"When will you have Swine Flu shots?" I asked.

"Not until late next month," she said.

Late next month I can get both shots for free.  I told her never mind.

There is national confusion about flu shots.  At one time, I thought I would need two shots against Swine Flu.  Now, it seems, I only need one against that and one against seasonal flu.  The ads imply you can get them all right now, but you can't.  I have never had the flu that I know of, but I've always gotten my flu shot.  Do you really need a flu shot every year if you've never gotten the flu?  Do you really need a tetanus shot every ten years if you've never heard of anybody getting tetanus?  I don't know, but I know I wasted two hours this afternoon trying to get immunized.

ED

I had breakfast this morning with a friend and former student who was in my senior AP English class 16 years ago.  We hadn't seen each other since then, but we connected online.  He was in town for a family reunion this weekend, and I really appreciated the fact that he took the time to catch up with me in person.  I said something to the effect that he was an only child, and he laughed.

"What?" I asked.

"I have five brothers and five sisters," he said.

Whoa!  I always thought he was an only child.  He's 34, and the next sibling is 43.  He went on to explain that it was two blended families, and each of his parents had five children from previous marriages.  He said he was basically raised as an only child.  A five-child family is rare enough, but 11 kids in this day and age?!  Part of what we talked about was where we had travelled, and he's been all over the world and all over the United States.  He's a successful advertizing executive, and he owns two houses.  He's done well for himself.  Oh, and he's African American and gay.  He's done very well.  Ironic much?

ED

One of my friends who's a regular reader mentioned to me the other day that I haven't posted any pictures of my granddaughter, Liza, in a while.  I don't want to make this The Liza Blog, so I've purposely held back.  Today I got some great pictures of her, though, from a friend (and former student), Nicki T.  So I'm sharing them tonight, and here they are.

That's a mighty energetic little girl.  I think she must have been dancing or something.  Long-time readers will remember when she was an infant and didn't have any hair for over a year.  Now she's got plenty of hair, and she loves to wear it like it is in the pictures.  She'll be four on October 15th.

ED

Our daughter and son-in-law live in Atlanta, and they've gotten four inches of water in their basement.  That's not really living space for them, but they have a ton of stuff stored down there.  They tried to rent or buy a pump to get the water out, but there are no more of those available for sale in Atlanta.  Sean's dad is overnighting them one, so it should get there tomorrow.  This reminds me too much of Katrina and of what the people of New Orleans went through four years ago.  The cause isn't the same, but flood waters are flood waters.

In other news...

I woke up this morning at 7:30, as I do most mornings.  I got up, went to the bathroom, and plopped down in my chair in front of my computer to check my overnight email.  I opened one file, and I was suddenly overwhelmed by sleepiness.  I got back in bed and slept until I woke up at 10:27.  I heard Beth get up at 8:00 o'clock, but I didn't really wake up then.  I had to deliver Meals on Wheels today, and I usually leave the house at 10:10 to do that.  My initial reaction was panic.  Then I called the Senior Center to tell them I was running late.  I told the head Meals lady what had happened, and she laughed.  "Get yourself a cup of coffee, take your time, and come in when you can," she said.

I took her at her word, and I was an hour late this morning.  A couple of my Meals clients commented that I was later than usual, and one man said it must be really rough out there.  It wasn't rough.  It was a bright, sunshiny day.  I was just late.

I overslept a couple of times when I was teaching, but never by this much.  I've always had mixed feelings about doing that.  On the one hand, I've felt wonderful for getting the extra sleep.  On the other hand, I felt awful for being late.  I guess I just have to live with my human failings.

ED

Nothing ironic, or iconic, happened to me today.  I just went about living my ignorant little life.  Maybe I should watch the news on TV more.

Actually, it's somewhat ironic to me that Atlanta is partially under water from the rain.  My daughter and son-in-law live there, and Atlanta has been in terrible drought conditions for a long time.  Now they have more water than they can handle.  It actually reminds me of another Southern city: New Orleans after Katrina in 2005.  I don't think this thing in Atlanta is nearly as bad as the flood in New Orleans was, but it seems my family is destined to be in places that flood.

ED