What a night....forgot it was Lori and Al's Anne furs hairy, (17th) and I get there and Lori walks down
the stairs just looking radiant. They're going out to dinner, just the two of them....which is rather rare. They
normally go out with friends or her sisters. Anyway, she's looking just lovely. I just adore this kid
(whoops, lady.) Pretty as a picture (in fact, I insisted on taking a few. Went into their newly re-landscaped
back yard and took a bunch of shots.)
Kids were in a great mood and we decided to take the dog (Rosie, the 100 lb huskie/Shepherd) for a walk.
After gathering up the Arbiter girls, we set out for the woods. Now, everytime we walk over to the woods, we pass a
house with a statue of a deer in the front yard, right? and I do a lil bit on how it froze in that position and how it was
frightened to death and how the glacier caught it and whatnot. So tonight, the typical patter about it's really alive
but someone coated it with caramel so it can't move etc etc etc, and the kids are having a good time. So ten minutes
later, we're walking along the path in the woods and I see another metal deer in someone's yard off to the right, so
I'm going on about how this deer is related to the other one and 'gee, maybe we should drag this one over to where the other
one is so they're not lonely, and Luke says...".....uh, Grampa, why is that deer's tail wagging?"
Well, certainly, wouldn't ya know it?? A real deer...and he's standing there (the same
damned pose, I swear to God) and staring at us. So we watch him watching us watching him for ten minutes and he takes
off running. And of course, Rosie is going nuts....she is yanking on Erica's arm like she wanted venison for supper,
and poor Erica is trying to calm her down.
So after another 20 minutes of running thru the woods and the brambles, we come out into someone's
back yard. None of us have any idea where we are, but we kept the creek on our left, so we know where we're headed.
Erica is telling me a story about how the female Black Widow Spider kills her mates and her and I are doing a bit of a riff
on it. "They kill up to 25 mates per day, Grampa" and I'm asking her if they make the males take a number or what? and
sure must save on divorce lawyers and Luke is going "Boy, if I'm one of those boy spiders, I'd say, "no thanks, lady."
Anyway, everyone is laughing and having a good time, right??
Kelsey, the 13 year old Arbiter girl, has ahold of Rosie at this point and suddenly a rabbit runs out from
a flower patch and heads for the creek, with Rosie a cat's whisker behind and Kelsey hanging on for dear life.
I'm thinking "dig in your heels, Kels, or we'll never see you again." Under the swing set, over the sand box and Kelsey
is just flying, just barely on her feet, when suddenly the rabbit takes a left turn and disappears into the brush. Well,
Rosie has the scent at this point, so in she goes with Kelsey in hot pursuit. BANG...Kelsey hits
the ground and slides into the brush behind the rabbit and the dog. I mean...... gone. Dog gone and Kelsey gone.
Into the waist high crap sliding on her butt and down the hill she goes. Now it's getting
serious, so everyone runs to see if she still has a hold on the leash, and more importanty, if she's OK.
You must understand, this dog L O V E S to run...and once she's free, nobody sees her for days. Oh, she'll walk down
the street occasionally looking for a little attention, but the minute she sees someone she knows, zoom, off she goes again.
It's just a big game to her and everybody knows it. (I discovered last fall that the key is just leave the back door
open and she strolls in when she gets hungry or thirsty.) But in the meantime, she's scared every kid in the neighborhood
out of two or three years of growth.
So, we run up to the spot where Kelsey was last seen and there she is, halfway down the hill
toward the creek, still hanging on the leash and laughing her head off. (Thank God......I wouldn't want to explain to
her folks how I had broken their daughters arm or clavicle or whatever) and Rosie is insisting that "if you just let me go,
we'll have hafenstuffer or heffenstoffer or whatever that German dish is....the one with the rabbit in it.) Kels was
alright and none the worse for wear, other than a lot of mud and grass stains all over her shorts (her sisters accused her
of having an accident, if you know what I mean.) We laughed all the way home, but it could have gone the other
way. Thank God they're all good Christian kids...He was watching out for them.
Then we all went home and had ice cream. God, I love those kids.
Phil
(Oh yeah.....hasenfeffer.)
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