A Swim and a Soiree…

Dad had all the grandkids today. I drove over to his house to see them and to meet and greet. They are all growing leaps and bounds. Lilly is as tall as I am now at the tender age of 14. They were amazed at my knowledge of current video games to be a crusty 46 year old fellow.

“How you ever played Morrowind Online?” my nephew asked me.

“Yes, and I was playing Skyrim, its predecessor, this morning,” I replied.

“Cool!” he said excitedly.

They were soon all gathered around my niece's IPad Pro to watch a video of someone playing a video game.

“What would I do without Wi-Fi?” my father said quietly to me and he clasped his hands as if in prayer.

They soon left to go swimming in Pine Mountain, Georgia and I headed home. The last I looked their heads were all buried in their phones.

Charlie was the bringer of the fried chicken Sunday supper tonight.

“I’ve never seen KFC so quiet,” Charlie told me looking amazed. “Usually, it is a madhouse. I thought it was closed at first.”

Charlie didn’t stay long. Just long enough to get Maggie all excited and rambunctious. Maggie sure does love her Charlie and I do, too.

The Little Munchkins and Youngsters Are Here...

Maggie's Bad Hair Day

"Now, Maggie here, she barks in French and English," my father told the grandchildren when they were over here shortly ago."She's also the Duchess of Mauritania and Maratouse."

Maggie was laying on her plush mat belly down in the den licking her paws. She was looking and acting totally nonchalant. She certainly didn't realize her importance at that moment.

"How can you tell the difference when she is barking in French and barking in English?" my nephew, Grant, asked his Grandpa.

"You have to listen closely, but you will hear it soon enough," my father replied.

All the grand-kids squealed and spoke with joy and wonderment.

My father was running late tonight after picking up the grand-kids in Auburn which is about 30 minutes away. He pleasantly told me he had the day off from work tomorrow and was giving my brother and sister a break. He has to take them to school in the morning if he can get them all up and going with their bellies full of hot breakfast.

"Good luck!" I told him with a warm smile.

"Your injection is in the morning," my father then said urgently and shortly before they were gone.

He had pulled me to the side.

"I am leaving this medicine with you and I trust you to go get it."

"I will bring you the next appointment card on my way home," I told Papa John. "I hope that will assuage your worries."

Nana, Papa, and the Grand Kids...

Kroger: the Continuing Saga and a Quest for Sustenance...

http://www.ar15.com/

My father was running rather late tonight. I almost started to call him out of worry. He arrived just short of 10pm. Maggie and I both grew excited when my father's car pulled to the curb. Maggie's greetings never grow old. It is contagions as well and I can get in the greeting spirit of things myself.

"I've got the grand kids spending the night and that is why I am so late," my father told me. "I hesitated to leave them alone with your mother as she can be aloof about such matters."

"Would you do me a big favor tonight?" I sheepishly asked my father trying not to wince in the process.

We were sitting on the couch going through the motions of the medication ritual. Earlier in the week we only spent $52 dollars because Kroger was out of almost everything I needed.

"What do you need?" my father kindly asked. "I was just thinking I needed to go get you a fast food meal tonight. I bet you are hungry. You should've got some of those Marie Calender's meals."

My father is transfixed on Marie Calendar's frozen meals.

"Can we run to Kroger to buy me some more food like a few gallons of whole milk?" I asked. "And I only additionally want some Vienna sausages for sandwiches and an Edward's lemon meringue pie."

My father was supposed to get me these items Wednesday night but forgot. I didn't press the issue because my father had to work a whole helluva lot this week. I waited until I thought was the right time to ask.

"Come on," my father replied chirpily and enthusiastically. "Let's feed and water Maggie and I want to get the grand kids some of that Promised Land chocolate milk you got all of us hooked on."

Andrew: The Original Bottomless Pit Since 1972...

The dough dad uses in his chicken and dumplings is biscuit dough!

Well, the medication ritual is over for another evening. Maggie was in fine form and put on a great show of affection for my father tonight. She is finally just about healed from all her various ailments.

"She's just like a puppy!" my father exclaimed marveling at the way she was acting. .

"It does my heart so very good," I replied as my father scratched Maggie's back and Maggie wiggled in ecstasy. "I have diligently doctored on her for two weeks now."

Maggie's had a steady dose of antibiotics for her ear and eye infections and Neosporin with a pain killer for her skin yeast infection flare ups. There is just one little spot on her chest and it has a hard time healing because she scratches it so. It looks red and inflamed.

Dad had warned me earlier during the day not to eat too much meatloaf as he was cooking supper as well. The grandkids are over and they hadn't eaten since McDonald's at noon. Dad cooked one of his signature dishes chicken and dumplings.

"The kids just love it," dad told me tonight as we sat on my couch.

"I love it, too!" I told my father with great anticipation.

As usual, it is either feast or famine around here.

Image Credit:  http://www.dishmaps.com/southern-chicken-and-dumplings/28248