Saturday, January 05, 2008

This, That & Other Things

Friday night was family night initiated by my granddaughter Megan. I’m so proud of my little Meg, going to college and still finding time to spend with her mother and her grandparents as well. Megan is still young…18 to be exact, but she thinks she’s so grown up, sometimes, and other times I sense that she still wants to be treated like a little girl. She has her own apartment near her college campus in a neighboring town about 14 miles from here, so I didn’t expect her to stay out too late. Meg and her mom Sharon dropped in first, soon followed by Tori & my youngest daughter Suzanne. We ordered pizza and then the five of us played a card game while Jimmy watched some TV. In a couple of hours Megan & Sharon had to leave…I think she planned an evening out with a girl friend while we were playing cards because Meg’s phone beeped a couple of times, followed by a short conversation on the phone, then things got a little hurried…not openly hurried, but I could tell that Meg had made plans for later. You know teenagers…they always have to be on the move, doing something with their friends. But that’s fine just as long as she doesn’t forget about me and her grandpa Jimmy.

After Megan & Sharon left the rest of us continued to play cards. We coaxed Jimmy into joining us and then at just those precise times when he had to leave the game to put his cat out or to let the cat back in we would slip out the important “Skip” or “Wild” cards and pass them under the table to each other. Of course he lost the game by an exorbitant amount of points and never knew what hit him. My turn was just ahead of his, so they passed me all, the “Skip” your turn cards and for as long as the skip cards lasted he never even got a turn. He just smiled and accepted his fate, hehehe. As we did our dirty deeds we couldn’t keep straight faces and laughed uncontrollably and told Jimmy that someone must have slipped something into the pizza to make us laugh so much. He never suspected a thing and when they went home at around 12:15 a.m. I confessed to Jimmy that we had slipped cards to each other. He usually wins and I have to say that he was a pretty good loser and didn’t suspect a thing. I probably shouldn’t have said anything because now we won’t be able to fool him again…He’ll be watching us VERY CLOSELY.

Well that was Friday and Saturday morning (today) Jimmy had to get up early and go help with the building of the barn. I didn’t go. I stayed home and leisurely drank my coffee, watched a little news and did some needed chores around the house. I had planned on going over to Suzanne’s but then decided that I would only worry watching Jimmy work on the barn. I just knew that he would take chances that he didn’t need to take. Today they were going to put the trusses in place, just the four of them. Two boys, a man and grandpa Jimmy. The boys I knew were young and strong…Matt is 20 and his friend is 18. Matt’s dad…well what can I say about him??? I guess he’s strong enough but he tries to be the boss and I guess he has the right to because it’s a barn he’s building for Matt & Tori and their two horses. His friend David jokingly remarked that he was building a $4000 barn for $200 horses and laughed. Well getting back to their strengths…I know Jimmy is wire-y and strong, but he’s 71 and there’s nothing he won’t attempt to do if he thinks he’s able to do it. I knew beforehand that the trusses were 38 feet long and pre-made using 2 x 6” lumber and very heavy. We had discussed getting a crane to lift them into place and Ray said, “No.” He also said no to getting more manpower and I suggested that we use a helicopter and of course that was ruled out as well. As it turned out, two other fellas showed up for an hour or so, but then left. Suzanne & Tori helped too, I can’t leave them out or they’d never forgive me. Tori was kept busy running around and handing all the men whatever they needed and repositioning the long ladders as they moved their way across the barn. She’ll probably need some physical therapy herself once she gets back to work on Monday. Hehehe.

Although today was warmer than it had been, there were still patches of snow on the ground and the wind was a little cool, or maybe I should say cold. Suzanne went into the house to warm up and gave me a call around 2:30 p.m. She told me that Jimmy had been standing on a board, a rail on top of the barn all day working except for the short time they took for lunch. The boys worked from the top of ladders, Ray stood on top of a ladder perched on top of a horse trailer and Jimmy worked the top most position while walking on a rail/board to secure the trusses. Suzanne said that he had out-worked everyone and he seemed to be the only one who knew exactly what he was doing. She was also very surprised to see that he could scale up to the top of the barn without the use of a ladder and I told her that if only I’d just follow him around, that I’d lose my extra pounds…that’s all it would take because he’s seldom still for very long. The men hoisted up about 33 trusses and secured them in place and I was sure that Jimmy would konk-out the minute he got home, but he didn’t. He’s so much tougher than he looks. Matt & his friend also worked very hard and Matt deserves a lot of credit for just hanging in there.

I mentioned patches of snow on the ground, but I failed to mention that on New Years Day it snowed for the first time here this year. Well of course it would be the first time this year and maybe I should rephrase that and say that it snowed for the first time this winter. It wasn’t much…just an inch or two, but it was very pretty and also very slippery on the first night. It was so slippery & wet that the snow immediately turned to ice as it was squished on the road. There were so many accidents that they were forced to close down some of our city streets and the interstate highway until they could clear out all the accidents. Suzanne, Tori, Jimmy & I took our chances and slid on over to one of our local diners to eat and to listen to the horror stories of traveling motorists who had witnessed accidents and had decided that it was time to stop for the night. Getting to the diner was easy…leaving was another story.

It’s getting late and tomorrow is another day. I hear the sounds of Jimmy sleeping finally so I’d better say goodnight. Tomorrow will probably be another busy day and I'm planning on making a big pot of chili for Sunday dinner.

I knew I forgot something...the crackers!!! Whoever is coming over, please bring crackers.

1 comment:

Kerri said...

Sounds like an ambitious project. Jimmy has amazing energy and stamina! You did the right thing staying home. I couldn't have watched either. I hope none of the men hurt their backs!
Friday night sounds like great fun. Next time you'll have to have a 'be kind to Jimmy' night...lol. I think he's probably got you all figured out :)
We've had some ice up here lately too. I prefer snow, don't you? It's less dangerous mostly.