Grampa

Grampa came to visit last summer & set up camp in my guest room. It was endearing to see him set Gramma's picture on the nightstand, next to his pocket change. His little idiosyncracies are so charming. It was a joy to have him there...in the beginning.

Every morning, (5:59 AM TO BE EXACT!)you could hear Grampa shuffle down the hall to the bathroom & start blowing the 'bowl bugle'. Several minutes later, I could hear him retrieving his teeth from the jar & knew his next stop would be the kitchen.

Grampa liked to "take his breakfast", as he put it, on my sun porch. There, he could enjoy his cornflakes while watching the wildlife just outside the window. He seemed to derive great pleasure from watching the birds frollick in the birdbath (looked to me like they were trying to drown each other!). Grampa would get so engrossed in the "goings on" outside the window, that the bowl of cornflakes was forgotten...which suited my cat, KiKi, just fine! She shared breakfast with Grampa every morning of his visit & probably had gained a couple of pounds by the time summer was over.

Grampa would finally return his attention to the bowl of, now SOGGY, cornflakes and with no clue that KiKi had drank all the milk from the bowl, he would loudly proclaim his amazement that the cornflakes had "soaked up that much milk!" (well, can't eat soggy cornflakes, so into the garbage disposal they went!) The local supermarket probably thinks that Cornflakes are a "seasonal food" at our house. Grampa's visits are the ONLY time we buy them...and we bought a LOT of 'em that summer!

After breakfast, Grampa headed for the rocker on the porch. He'd sit there for hours, just watching the traffic pass by out on the highway. His second day there caused our dog, Diogi (that's pronounced "D" "O" "G") a great deal of distress. One of Diogi's squeaky toys had lodged under the runner on the rocker. With each 'rock', the toy would squeak & Diogi would howl, but was never quite fast enough to retrieve the toy. Grampa, sans his hearing aids, was oblivious to the noise & commotion. MY NERVES, ON THE OTHER HAND, HAD HAD JUST ABOUT ENOUGH!

I didn't have the heart to interrupt Grampa's "quiet" interlude on the porch, so I reset all the clocks 2 hours ahead, just to convince Grampa it was time for his nap! It worked. Grampa headed upstairs to the guest room; Diogi was finally able to retrieve his squeaky toy (which I promptly placed on top of the refrigerator!); and KiKi reclaimed "her" rocking chair!

Summer came to a close....peace in my household has been restored. Grampa is already talking about NEXT year's visit possibly being a little longer..."maybe stay right thru Christmas" he says.

I truly love Grampa, but I'm doing my best to convince him how very badly my sister wants him to visit HER next year!!