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Archive for September, 2013

Grimm Carcasses

Posted in Musings and Epiphanies, tagged , , , , on September 29, 2013| Leave a Comment »

I saw Tiger the other day.  As Rex and I rounded the corner of the shed, heading toward Rex’s poopy spot, Tiger jumped up from where his lifeless body had rested till we brought him to the farm to bury him.  His orange body flew toward our neighbor’s house and I even called out his name.  I swore Rex saw him too as he pulled my arm out of the socket (again) in his efforts to chase Tiger.  I realized it was not Tiger since we had buried him almost a week ago, but it was a vivid image.  I realized Rex had probably spotted a squirrel and, as usual, could not figure out where the darn critter had gone.  Rex apparently still needs to learn to look up the tree trunk and not just sniff around the bottom of it.

So Tiger has been on my mind.  This is the firs time in my four decades that a pet has been killed by a car.  My sons didn’t even finish their first decades before it had happened.  I suppose they’ll be wiser for it.

Then last night I swore I saw Tiger’s lifeless little body on the side of the street again.

It wasn’t there this morning, in the sunlight.  Shocking.

It wasn’t Tiger but some other animal done in by the road.  The boys found the carcass this afternoon.  They went looking for it because this morning Rex and I happened upon the two turkey vultures dining on it for breakfast.  I think the buzzards dragged it across the street to the grassy side of the road to have a more private dining experience.  Rex and I gave them a wide berth this morning and I mentioned it to the boys so they would avoid that part of the yard this morning before church.

This guaranteed that when we got home from the university this afternoon that they headed straight to that spot once they had finished their outdoor chores.  The turkey vultures (some call them buzzards) were gone.  The carcass was not.  My sons gave me a great moment in my tale of mothering.  I was able to call out proudly to them to stop looking at the carcass and come finish their homework.  A proud moment indeed.

Thinking of the turkey vultures made me thing of Bugs Bunny and the vulture/buzzard episode.  This made me look up turkey vulture and discovered that the old world and new world vultures are not that closely related.  There were some fancy biological terms that were more than my brain could handle at the moment, but still I now understand the difference in appearance.  I was more familiar with the old world than the new world.

This made me wonder how well the turkey vultures get along with the wild turkeys that live in our town.  And do they bother the lonely swan at the 7-11?  And finally it made me truly thankful that we found Tiger first and not the vultures.

And that is why I didn’t finish grading papers tonight.

 

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El Tigre

Posted in Musings and Epiphanies, tagged , on September 18, 2013| Leave a Comment »

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El Tigre, the elusive dining room table meerkat, is extinct. 
He’s hunting bunnies up above now. 
We will miss you, Tiger.

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September 11, 2013

Posted in Musings and Epiphanies, tagged , on September 11, 2013| Leave a Comment »

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I asked my sons what they knew about 9/11.  Older son wanted to appear very knowledgeable and didn’t seem to want to talk about it except to show that he knows, he knows.  Younger son knew quite a bit about the plane that went down in Pennsylvania but seemed very curious about the Twin Towers.  We looked at a picture taken by an astronaut that day.  Then we watched news clips of the planes hitting the World Trade Center buildings and the Pentagon.  He may only be eight, but he got the significance of what he was seeing.  His eyes welled up with tears.  He quietly asked how many people died that day.  He asked how that number compared with all the people in the world.  He said in a quiet voice, “Terrorists did that, didn’t they?”

I don’t want to scare my kids with more information than they can handle, but I also want them to be aware.  I don’t want them to have a cavalier attitude about today or any of the holidays or remembrance days that are important to our country’s history.  They need to learn and understand now so they carry it with them and teach their own children one day.

The images still haunt me.  I didn’t show them the people jumping from the buildings.  I still dream of that and don’t know what to do with it.  Each year though I layer in a little bit more.  Younger son was trying to fit it into his mind that the Twin Towers were built when I was a little girl, that I had been in them several times, that they were destroyed decades later, and that he will never see them in person, but only in pictures and videos.  He pondered becoming an architect and rebuilding the Twin Towers so we could go up to the top together.

We ended our time reflecting on this day by looking at pictures of the new buildings and the memorial.  I know he can’t yet fathom the size of these buildings.  I still can’t.  I still can’t go to the site.  I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to go back there again.

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Another First Day of School

Posted in Musings and Epiphanies, tagged , , , , on September 5, 2013| 3 Comments »

I know the funny memes go around the internet this time of year.  Pictures of happy parents driving away from the school, or lounging with a drink, celebrating the first day of school.  I always feel happy that my sons are healthy, happy, and here to return to school too.  But a part of my heart cries along with the tears that drop from my eyes because it marks another milestone in their lives and another big step toward independence.  It means they are growing up a little bit more and little bit more away from us.

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I know that older son will face more challenges this year as he yearns for his classmates to realize that he has done some growing up and isn’t exactly the same young man.  That he doesn’t want to be the “talker”.  He is who he is and he is embracing that.  Since preschool he has corrected teachers (politely) when they asked or said something inaccurate and he did it again this morning as one of the teachers asked if he went on any archeological digs this summer.  “Well, technically, it’s a paleontological dig, but no, not this summer.”  He is comfortable with himself and that is what I will carry in my heart today as I think of him walking around the school as a fifth grader.

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My third grader had to go it alone to the classroom this morning and this was not the plan.  He debated it all evening and finally decided to have me walk him to his classroom to explain his brain and stomach ache to the teacher.  To help with his TS, he has a foam brain (from my work-no one could try to say it isn’t younger son’s brain unless his parent happens to work with me) and one of his stomach aches.  It’s a little stuffed representation of what causes a stomach ache.  These two objects will be safely tucked into his desk and if the tics start acting up, he can release some energy by squeezing them.  The tics were in full force last night and the night before.  My little one is nervous about being back at school.

But the new rules prevented me from walking with him.  Luckily, I had written a note in his homework notebook to his teacher about the brain and the stomach ache, so she shouldn’t give him any trouble.  But we didn’t get to do the Kissing Hand.  He was already in the school and I wasn’t allowed in.  I suppose that is more for me now than it is for him, but still it’s the first time he’s gone into school without doing the Kissing Hand.  IMG_7369

Older son was still waiting outside and he did the Kissing Hand with his mom, risking torture if seen, because he realized I really needed it.  He saw I was crying and told me it would be okay.  He’s a good egg, if you ask me.

A fifth grader, wiser, gentler, and more compassionate than most would know.  A third grader facing a huge challenge that seems daunting, but armed with a brain and a stomach ache.  Yes, I am happy they are back at school.  Not because it’s “easier” for me, but because they are two strong, smart, little men.

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