SunRiver St. George June 12-19, 2011

TOTAL IMMERSION

 

I sit in front of a numbered signed copy of the

Arnold Friberg painting of

The Long Trail West

Reading

Trail of Hope

The story of the Mormon Trail

By William W. Slaughter and Michael Landon

The book Brooke & Family gave Dad for his 77th birthday.

 

Vacation Home

 

Seems good to get to St. George

Away from all the pressures of home

  The phone ringing;

  People dropping by

  Church service.

Oh wait!

We have none of that at home either.

Well, getting away from

  House cleaning

  Yard work

  Fixing meals.

Oh wait!

We have all of that here too.

  So what’s the point?

  Something

  Unidentifiable

  Change?

  Perhaps.

 

“I’m having a good time, Mom,” Ed chants.

“Problem is, I miss the cats.”

 

HUMORLESS

In our talented nephew’s full-length movie Thor at the Bus Stop, there is a scene where this little girl at the bus stop looks up at Thor and says, “My, you’re tall.  Do you play basketball?”

Jerry, our nephew, is not only the playwright, director, and producer but he played Thor.  He and all his brothers are around 6’6” tall.  Not a one of them played basketball seriously even though their grandpa was a coach.

“Do you play basketball?” the little girl asked Thor.  Zap!  That’s the joke. (You’d have to see it.)

So I’m swimming laps during lap swimming in the SunRiver outdoor pool.  Fifteen minutes before class starts, the water aerobics people start invading the pool.  I stop my laps and move over to a little alcove with a ledge to do my stretching in the shallow water.  A man gets in and walks around the ledge.  I’m standing on the bottom looking up at him, “My, you’re tall,” I say.  It was funny to me; it wasn’t a bit funny to him.  “I’m standing on the ledge,” he says solemnly.

I should have asked him if he played basketball.  Maybe he would have got it.

 

SLEEPING WITH A MOOSE

SWIMMING WITH A MOUSE

Ed claims he enjoyed sleeping with a moose

a few years ago when we went

on an overnight backpacking trip

and camped smack in the middle

of a moose grazing pasture close to their water hole.

Ed slept with a moose;

I swam with a mouse.

Nan-na-nan-na-nana.

As I step in the SunRiver pool early morning

EEEEEEK

A little mouse is frantically swimming around the steps.

The attendant happens to be outside.

He has earphones on and doesn’t hear my frantic calls.

I walk to the other end and tap him on the shoulder.

He slowly walks over to get the net

And fishes the little mouse out.

EEEEEEEK!

Do I want to swim in water where a mouse peed?

 

I start the day by swimming with a mouse;

a roadrunner scurries behind the bushes.

By the pool, I glimpse

A bumble bee buzzing in a bloom.

 A lizard darts in front of me as I round the building.

I didn’t see but I hear a hoot owl;.

I think he might have followed us home

To Fruit Heights.

I sometimes hear him here.

 Riding my bike back,

A cute little bunny rabbit poses on the side of the road.

I enjoy breakfast watching a hummingbird

Suck nectar from a blossom

Just outside our nook window.

Can the day get any better?

 

HEAVEN

Early evening.

I’m the only one in the swimming pool

Not a soul on the patio either.

Is this heaven?

Usually it is packed and noisy; frantic.

I guess the wind scared everyone off.

Eventually a man saunters out in his swimsuit

Carrying his lounging paraphernalia

He glances down at me in the pool

“I don’t know if there’s room

for you out here or not,” I tease.

“MOVE OVER,” he growls.

We laugh.

He never gets in the pool;

Lounging behind the waterfall

I don’t see him again.

This is heaven.

 

HOME AGAIN, HOME AGAIN

When I pass by Dick Bell on my trike ride,

he calls out, “Hi, Jeanette.”

A little later, when Ed passes by,

he calls, “I’m not in the mood.”

“That’s my line,” Ed shouts back.

When Ed reaches me,

he says, “I love this Ward, Mom.”

Well, no wonder, they know all his jokes.