Yes, we are coming to you live from Oklahoma this week! Previously, we've made several plans for this pilgrimage, but all our previous plans were foiled by my mother's various bouts with various illnesses. I refrain to comment on that because I respect my elders, love my mother, and despise being in a bad mood.
The trip up was pretty eventful. South of Dallas, we encountered a tornado. I am not speculating. I am dead serious. We saw the wall cloud with a rotating tail descend and touch the ground. It crossed I-45 just as we did. I haven't ever felt wind like that. It came complete with marble sized hail and we had to take shelter with all the other cars under a woven nest of overpasses until it passed.
Feeling very relieved, we eventually got back on the road only to find that the air conditioning system had gone out. Burnt out would be the verdict later. As it was in the high 80's and we couldn't roll down the windows (they are electric and that mechanism failed as well) we were driving in a toaster oven. I haven't been that hot and sweaty in years. We used water and baby wipes to cool down, but I thought mom was going to have a heat stroke. Squib wasn't far behind, but at least he would drink the water. He slipped off to sleep and I wiped him down every so often to keep him cool. Buddy and I are a lot more conditioned to the heat because of all the outdoor work and activities we do...good thing, too. Needless to say, here we are on vacation and our car is in the shop.
Being stuck here isn't all bad, though. My uncle has about ten acres that are his plus we're free to wander on neighboring land until we hit the fences on the north, east, and west sides. There are three ponds absolutely stuffed to the gills with fish, an elaborate jungle gym, and more wildlife that you could possibly imagine. This morning, Squib and I hiked down to the large pond. Squib found a giant turtle--almost stepped right on it. He got a little freaked when I picked it up to look at and showed it to him. He's, uh, skeptical. Yeah, that's it...skeptical. About everything. (Read: TERRIFIED)
He's even skeptical about the new locale. Skittish would be a better term, maybe. Seriously freaked out at times, too. How a child like that came from a family like this I will never know. But somewhere in that vivid imagination there is no sense of adventure or exploration. He seems to keep it all within some very rigid and known boundaries. Definitely inside the box. Granted, it's his box, but he is firmly entrenched within it.
Beanstalk, however, doesn't even seem to find even a broken femur limiting. He's the head pirate, the first conquistador, test pilot, sub driver, and director of a symphony orchestra. Squib's opposite in every way. But it's like their bodies were switched. Granted, Beanstalk's temperament came in handy especially in the early years when we lived at Texas Childrens' but really, the adventurer should have the rugged body and the timid box-dweller maybe should have been the one with fragile bones. Obviously why I am not God.
Point taken.
Scat
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