Wednesday, March 17

HAPPY ST. PATRICK'S DAY!

Had trouble going to sleep last night, thanks to the cup of coffee I enjoyed at Friend's house yesterday afternoon, so 6:30 rolled around pretty quickly. Dragged out, anyway, and readied myself to go to water aerobics.

Fifteen of us showed up for the session this morning. Our leader and one other lady wore green bowler hats, necklaces, and earrings in honor of the day. The rest of us had to fudge a little...some had a little green in patterns of their swimwear, but the only thing I could come up with was the glowing green face of my wristwatch.

Back home, though, I sported a green turtleneck shirt, which no one saw but Mother and Hubbie, since I didn't leave the house today.

Mother came over after I was ready for the day, and we made a double batch of tomato soup. I plan to have the soup with bean sandwiches for supper tomorrow night.

As we were doing this, Hubbie came in carrying his favorite male cat...this cat has made a habit of coming indoors and sitting for hours on Hubbie's lap. Today, the cat was injured. He was obviously hit by a car and his left jaw was broken. Hubbie took him to the vet, who is keeping him for a few days to see if he can fix him surgically. I hope he can. It'll be sad for Hubbie if he can't. This is a very nice cat.

After lunch, Mother and gathered stuff to make greeting cards. I made a screen door birthday card for a friend, whose birthday is March 23. This is the friend who fell and broke her neck. I made the card in cheerful yellows and decorated it with flowers and butterflies. I hope it'll lift her spirits. Mother made Easter cards.

Then we went to Mother's house, so I could take a picture of her new kitchen curtains...she wanted the snapshot to include in a thank you note to Son and Daughter-in-Law, to show her appreciation for the gift card they gave her, which she used to purchase the curtains.

After that, I spent a while talking to Granddaughter on the cell phone. I always enjoy hearing her stories about the little ones...my great-grandchildren. In talking about the Sponge Bob Square Pants balloon that Great-Granddaughter gave to Mother for her birthday, we got on the subject of kids' cartoon shows on TV.

That launched me into stories about remembering when TVs first came out (I was a young girl), and how we were so fascinated by them that we even eagerly stared at the target-design test pattern that came on prior to telecasts. In those days, TV air time was very limited...only a few hours in the evenings, opened by a test pattern, and accompanied with patriotic music at the close of broadcasting a few hours later.

TV reception was through "rabbit ears," placed atop the TV and maneuvered this way and that to catch the signal. Sometimes, we found that wadding aluminum foil on the ears helped make reception sharper. Holding onto the ears also seemed to improve reception, but no one wanted to stand by the TV all evening holding onto the ears.

Later, we replaced the rabbit ears with roof mounted antennas. These often required that some brave family member climb on the roof from time to time to adjust the antenna until a clear picture appeared on the TV (this was usually Dad's job, with Mother yelling out the door when the picture was right).

All this is to lead up to the earliest cartoon I remember watching on our black and white TV, which was, "Cecil the Seasick Sea Serpent." This was (we were told) a large green sea serpent, whose loyal buddy was Beany, a little boy....a concept no more far-fetched than the current Barney the Purple Dinosaur.

For supper tonight, we had boiled chicken, with rice and gravy, and English peas. I had intended to finish the meal with chocolate "coins"...one for each of us, in celebration of St. Patrick's Day. The coins were given to me by the arts council director at our meeting last week. But I learned that Hubbie had scarfed all three sometime or other, without telling me. I was a tad annoyed.

Mother went home after that, and Hubbie and I watched the movie, "Air Bud: Golden Retriever," a 1998 G-rated Disney film, featuring Gregory Harrison, Tm Conway, and Dick Martin. Buddy the golden retriever learns to play football and foils a gang of thieves looking for talented animals to start their own zoo. This is a sequel to the original 1997 Air Bud movie. It's family fare.

The second movie we saw was, "Eye See You," a 2002 R-rated film starring Sylvester Stallone, Tom Berenger, Kris Kristopherson, and others. The girlfriend of Stallone's character (Malloy) is murdered by a serial killer targeting cops. Malloy then falls to the depths of drink and despair, before being taken to a remote rehab facility, where other cops are also being treated. Soon, people begin mysteriously dying.